Naylor Community
Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 Timothy
4:7b-9
1
Timothy 4:7b Train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some
value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the
present life and the life to come. 9 This is a trustworthy saying that deserves
full acceptance.
-- Happy Quitter’s Day! -- I know
it’s Ground Hog Day today, but we are also celebrating another annual holiday
-- Quitter’s Day
-- depends on the source, but
Quitter’s Day can be anytime from January 14th through January 31st -- it marks
the day when most of us have given up on the new year’s resolutions that we
made at the beginning of the year
-- we started the year with such high
hopes and ambitions -- we were brimming with optimism and dedicated to making a
change in this new year -- and we’re not alone -- statistics show that many
gyms see an increase in members of up to 50 percent in the first few weeks of
the year as people move forward with the number one resolution of all Americans
-- to lose weight
-- but by the time Quitter’s Day rolls
around, those gyms that were so crowded in early January now stand empty -- and
our pantries that were purged of junk food are now stuffed with chips and
cookies -- and that scale that we vowed to conquer just mocks us each time we
stand on it
-- and I am the perfect example of what I
am talking about -- I can say that I made a goal this year to eat better and
start exercising again and to lose some of the weight that has creeped up on me
since Covid -- I joined a group online called “Fat Pastors,” and with their
support in this effort, I can say that after four weeks of diet and exercise, I
have not lost a single pound -- in fact, I have actually gone in the wrong
direction and have gained weight since my baseline on January 1st
-- the fact is that making lasting changes
in our lives takes more than just dreaming about it -- it takes more than just
giving lip-service to a goal -- making lasting changes in our lives takes willpower,
discipline, self-control, and hard work -- that’s why the odds that you’ve kept
your New Year’s resolutions fall to under 40% by this time of the year
-- God knows this about us -- and He knew
how hard it would be for us to change into the mature Christians He called us
to -- that’s one reason He sent His Holy Spirit to live within us -- to give us
the ability to now make lasting spiritual changes in our lives -- but there is
a point where we have to give in to the Spirit -- where we have to commit to moving
in the direction that He is leading -- so that we can truly make changes in who
we are and how we live
-- this morning, we are continuing in our
sermon series on the trustworthy or faithful sayings of Paul -- as you
remember, there are five of these trustworthy sayings that we find in the three
pastoral epistles -- the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, the two
young pastors that he mentored and led as they began their ministries in the
churches that Paul established
-- in week 1, we considered Paul’s
statement that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- the
cornerstone and foundation of our faith as Christians
-- last week, we discussed Paul’s
statement that whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task -- and we
looked at the characteristics and qualities of spiritual leaders
-- this morning, we are considering Paul’s
statement from here in 1 Timothy 4, where he counsels Timothy to train himself
to be godly, because godliness has value for all things
-- so, with that introduction, let’s see
what we can learn about growing in grace and training ourselves to be godly, as
Paul promotes here in these verses
II. Scripture Lesson (1 Timothy 4:7b-9)
-- look back at the second part of 1
Timothy 4:7
1
Timothy 4:7b Train yourself to be godly.
-- as any doctor will tell you,
before you start any training or exercise program, the first thing you should
do is to take an honest evaluation of where you are
-- I was reading the other day that
Spirit Airlines had filed for bankruptcy -- the company had not been managed
well -- its finances were not in good shape -- so, it had no choice but to file
for bankruptcy
-- and when I heard on the radio
that Spirit Airlines was filing for bankruptcy, it sparked a thought in me --
what about our spirits? -- what about our spiritual lives? -- are they doing
well, or are our spiritual lives bankrupt, too?
-- before we can do anything --
before we can start growing in grace and growing in godliness -- we have to
know where we are in our spiritual lives
-- first, we have to answer the
foundational question -- are we saved? -- do we have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ? -- have we ever made the decision in our lives to repent of
our sins and to put our faith and trust in Jesus and ask Him to forgive us of
our sins and give us eternal life?
-- You would think this would be a
no-brainer for church people -- but in my time as a pastor and as statistics
show, the vast majority of most people who come to a church on Sunday morning
-- even faithful members of a church -- may not be truly born-again Christians
-- they have a head knowledge of
Jesus -- they believe He existed -- they believe in the cross and the
resurrection -- but they haven’t put their faith and trust in Him -- they
haven’t taken that first step -- that critical step -- where we surrender to
the call of the Holy Spirit and put all our hope and trust and faith in Jesus’
atoning death and resurrection
-- so, test yourself -- check
yourself -- and make sure you have done that before you try to do anything else
we talk about today
-- and once you have done that, you
need to examine yourself to make sure you are in a growing relationship with
Christ or not -- if you look back at your life over the last month or year, can
you see a difference? -- are you giving into temptation and sin less than you
used to? -- are you seeking the Lord more than you used to? -- do you have a
desire to be with God more today than you did in the past?
-- we need to make sure we are in a
right relationship with God before we can train ourselves to be godly -- to be
holy as God is holy
-- looking at this verse, the other
major thing that stands out to us is the word, “train” -- to train yourself means
you are taking on a deliberate process or method to accomplish the goal before
you -- it means that you know where you want to go and you begin with a plan to
meet that goal -- taking small incremental steps to continually improve
yourself until you meet your goals
-- you may not be able to tell by
looking at me now, but a few years ago, I really got serious about health and
fitness -- and I learned that there is a big difference between going to the
gym and training at the gym
-- people who go to the gym don’t
have a plan -- they just do one exercise one day -- and maybe do something else
different the next time -- but there’s no consistency -- there’s no plan to
improve
-- and I learned that if you were
going to make any difference in your health or fitness levels, you had to have
a plan -- for instance, I wanted to be able to hike up mountains carrying a
heavy pack without getting tired -- so, I researched the exercises that would
do that and found out I needed to strengthen my legs, my back, and my stamina
-- and then, knowing that, I began doing barbell squats and step-ups with
weights and walking on the treadmill at elevation
-- I started slow and with small weights,
and each week, I would try to improve on what I had done before -- I would try
to add a few pounds of weights to the bar or more elevation or speed to the
treadmill -- I had a definite training plan, and I saw results -- that is what
most people are missing with their resolutions, whether we are talking about
health and fitness or spiritual resolutions
-- if we are going to become godly,
as God wants, then we have to train ourselves to do so -- we have to have a
plan and implement that plan
-- so, once we have examined
ourselves and we’re sure we are saved and we know where we are in our
relationship with God, then we can begin laying out a plan to grow in godliness
through the help of the Holy Spirit
-- when we are talking about growing
in godliness -- training ourselves to be godly -- there are a few foundational practices
that we need to be doing -- we call these the “means of grace” because these
are the means that God has ordained that we experience His presence and His
grace as we practice these spiritual acts in our lives
-- and this is nothing new -- you’ve
heard these before -- you know these -- the question is “are you doing them?”
-- and are doing them in such a consistent way that you can see a change in
your life from practicing them?
-- so, what are the means of grace --
what are the spiritual actions that we need to be practicing in our lives?
-- very simply: hearing and meditating on
God’s word, prayer, and participation in the sacraments
-- to train ourselves in godliness, the very
first thing we should do is spend time in God’s word
-- as Jerry Bridges points out in his
book, “The Pursuit of Holiness,” “every Christian who makes progress in
holiness is a person who has disciplined his life so that he spends regular
time in the Bible -- there simply is no other way”
-- this means that we spend time in God’s
word by hearing the Bible taught by pastors and teachers -- Jeremiah 3:15 says,
“Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will lead you with
knowledge and understanding”
-- and while I would encourage you to
first keep on attending church so you can hear the Bible taught and interpreted
in a corporate setting -- where you can worship with other Christians and learn
through them and from them -- there are also other ways to hear God’s word
-- we live a miraculous time when we have
more access to good Bible teaching than any other generation has ever known -- there
are so many good sound Bible teachers on TV, the radio, on podcasts and on the
internet -- and they are so easy for us to tune into
-- I start every morning by listening to a
pastor on the radio that I trust, and I grow by hearing the word of God taught
to me every morning -- and you need to do the same -- whether that’s by
listening to someone on the radio or TV or some other format
-- if you want suggestions, just let me
know and I’ll be happy to point you to some teachers and preachers that I trust
and that I believe are sound biblical teachers
-- next, we need to read and the study the
Bible on our own -- we need to spend time alone with God, reading His word,
listening for His voice, and letting the Holy Spirit interpret and speak to us
through the passages we read
-- in Deuteronomy 17:19, we read that the
scriptures are to be with us and we are to read it all the days of our lives so
that we might learn to revere the Lord our God and follow carefully all the
words of the law and God’s decrees
-- hearing God’s word is good, but there
is no real substitute for reading God’s word and studying it on your own
-- the key to studying God’s word on your
own is to find a Bible that you can read and understand without a problem -- the
King James Version is a good translation, but it can be difficult for most of
us because it is written at a higher level and uses words that we no longer use
or understand in our day
-- it’s better for us to find a
translation in modern English that we can read and understand than it is to use
a particular Bible because that’s what someone told us we should be using
-- if you can’t understand the Bible you
have, find one that you can understand -- and, once again, I would be happy to
make recommendations on a translation that might be good for you
-- the next means of grace is prayer
-- and we all need to be praying to God daily
-- these don’t have to be formal
prayers -- they don’t have to be prayers that sound like the Bible -- they just
need to be conversations with God from the heart
-- remember that Christianity is
about relationship, not religion -- and to be in a relationship means that you
are communicating with the other person -- that is true with God, too
-- we need to be speaking to God --
pouring out our heart to God -- praising Him with our words and with our lives
-- and then listening for His response
-- we grow in grace and train
ourselves to become godly when we spend time with God in prayer
-- and, finally, participation in
the sacraments -- in the church, we recognize two sacraments -- baptism and
Holy Communion -- in these sacraments, we experience a sacred moment with God
-- we experience His presence and His grace
-- these are important because these
are the ways that God renews and revives His church and brings us together as
one body and one people under Him
-- so, how do we use the means of
grace to train ourselves to be godly? -- like I said, there is a difference
between just showing up and training -- and the instruction from God here in
this verse is that we need to train ourselves
-- examine yourself to see where God
is leading you to change or grow -- ask Him in your prayer time with Him to
show you the areas where you need to concentrate on -- this might be focusing
on getting rid of a temptation or sin that is a stronghold in your life -- or
it might be focusing on spending more time studying His word or coming to
church -- and then develop a plan to grow in that area
-- for instance, let’s say that God
is calling you to grow in evangelism -- in speaking to others about Him and
your relationship you have with Him
-- if that is the case, you might
develop a plan where you study the relevant passages in Scripture about
evangelism or people who were known as evangelists -- and as you study them,
you pray to God and ask Him to work in you and through you in these areas
-- maybe you search out Bible
studies focused on evangelism or find books on evangelism to study -- and then
you can research messages from good preachers and Bible teachers and listen to
their sermons and Bible studies online
-- to train yourself in godliness in
this area means that you are taking deliberate steps to improve yourself in
this area -- and that you are disciplined to implement and to put into practice
what you learn
-- that is what is implied in this
command to train ourselves in godliness
-- a really good example of what
training in godliness looks like is William Booth, the founder of the Salvation
Army -- when he was 20 years old, he examined himself -- saw what areas he
needed to work on in his life -- and sat down and wrote out a list of
resolutions and made a training plan to grow in godliness -- he wrote: “I will:
(1) rise every morning sufficiently early
and have a few minutes, not less than five, in private prayer;
(2) avoid all the babbling and idle
talking in which I have lately so sinfully indulged;
(3) endeavour to conduct myself as a
humble, meek, and zealous follower of the bleeding Lamb, and by serious
conversation and warning endeavour to lead [others] to think of their immortal
souls;
(4) read no less than four chapters in
God's word every day;
(5) strive to live closer to God, and to
seek after holiness of heart, and leave providential events with God;
(6) read this over every day or at least
twice a week. God help me, enable me to cultivate a spirit of self-denial and
to yield myself a prisoner of love to the Redeemer of the world.
-- this is what it looks like to
train yourself in godliness
-- verse 8
1
Timothy 4:8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for
all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 9
This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.
-- it’s all well and good to train
ourselves physically -- to spend time trying to improve our physical selves --
there is always value in this -- but, as Paul points out, there is greater
value in training ourselves in godliness, because training ourselves in
spiritual matters has eternal implications -- Godliness has value for all
things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come
-- it reminds me of the quote from
the movie Gladiator, where Maximus says, “What happens in life echoes in
eternity”
-- the training that we do
spiritually echoes in eternity and prepares us for our eternal life with God --
the more we train ourselves in godliness and the more we grow in grace, the
more we will enjoy our relationship with Jesus and with God’s people
-- if we are to be the people who
God has called us to be -- if we are to be holy as He is holy -- then we must
take this command to train ourselves in godliness seriously and apply it in our
lives today
III. Closing
-- let’s wrap this up
-- for well over a century, the athletes
in Great Britain struggled with cycling and competing in world cycling events
-- since 1908, British riders had won just a single Olympic gold medal
--Their performance was so bad that a top bicycle
manufacturer in Europe refused to sell bikes to the British Olympic team
because they were afraid that it would hurt their sales if other professionals watched
the English losing races while using their equipment
-- everyone knew there was a problem --
everyone knew that there needed to be a change -- but no one knew what to do
-- things began to change when the team
hired Dave Brailsford as their coach -- Brailsford began by looking at what the
team was doing and what they were not doing -- and he searched for ways they
could begin improving in everything they did -- he told them to not focus on
making big changes at first, but to focus on tiny margins of improvement every
single day
-- He said, “You break down everything
that goes into riding a bike. Then you improve it by one percent and you will
get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
-- Brailsford and his team made small
adjustments in hundreds of different areas. They redesigned the bike seats for
more comfort. They rubbed alcohol on the tires for a better grip. The coach had
the riders switch to lighter and more aerodynamic indoor racing suits.
-- As these one percent improvements
accumulated, the results came faster than anyone could have imagined. In just
five years, the British Cycling team dominated the cycling events at the 2008
Olympic Games in Beijing -- They won an astounding 60 percent of the gold
medals available -- and four years later, at the London Olympic Games, the team
set nine Olympic records and seven world records.1
-- as Quitter’s Day teaches, it takes more
than good intentions to make a difference in our lives -- it takes a plan -- it
takes a process -- it takes discipline -- it takes training
-- and as we seek to begin to train
ourselves in godliness, we need to have a plan to move forward by making small
but consistent adjustments in our spiritual lives -- don’t try to become a
perfect Christian in one day, but just try to do better today than you did
yesterday
-- and, over time, these small incremental
changes will transform our lives and help us become who God wants us to be
-- the key is to commit to the Lord -- to
trust in Him and His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us and empower us to
change our lives -- and when we do that -- when we commit to training ourselves
in godliness -- then we will grow more and more like Jesus in our spiritual
lives
-- so, as we close, let me encourage you
to spend some time today examining yourself and where you are with God -- see
what areas of your spiritual life that God is asking you to change and to
improve -- and then come up with a plan to do so -- so that we can become who
God is calling us to become
-- and don’t give up -- but have faith
that even if you can’t see results right away, the Lord will bring to pass the
changes He wants to make in our lives
-- let us pray
1
Modified from James Clear, Atomic Habits, (Avery, 2018), Pages 13-16
