ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS OMNIPRESENT
God is present everywhere at all times.
Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good.
Praise and Adore the God who is Omnipresent
God has been present everywhere for all of time. God has always been there. Praise him because he is always present everywhere. He will be with you all day today.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for Christian Challenge. Ask God to minister to students tonight through the worship, through the teaching, and through the fellowship time. Pray that students who don’t know Christ would turn to him. Pray that students would be strengthened in the faith.
SCRIPTURE READING:
1 Timothy 5 – The Message
The Family of Faith
5 1-2 Don’t be harsh or impatient with an older man. Talk to him as you would your own father, and to the younger men as your brothers. Reverently honor an older woman as you would your mother, and the younger women as sisters.
3-8 Take care of widows who are destitute. If a widow has family members to take care of her, let them learn that religion begins at their own doorstep and that they should pay back with gratitude some of what they have received. This pleases God immensely. You can tell a legitimate widow by the way she has put all her hope in God, praying to him constantly for the needs of others as well as her own. But a widow who exploits people’s emotions and pocketbooks—well, there’s nothing to her. Tell these things to the people so that they will do the right thing in their extended family. Anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That’s worse than refusing to believe in the first place.
9-10 Sign some widows up for the special ministry of offering assistance. They will in turn receive support from the church. They must be over sixty, married only once, and have a reputation for helping out with children, strangers, tired Christians, the hurt and troubled.
11-15 Don’t put young widows on this list. No sooner will they get on than they’ll want to get off, obsessed with wanting to get a husband rather than serving Christ in this way. By breaking their word, they’re liable to go from bad to worse, frittering away their days on empty talk, gossip, and trivialities. No, I’d rather the young widows go ahead and get married in the first place, have children, manage their homes, and not give critics any foothold for finding fault. Some of them have already left and gone after Satan.
16 Any Christian woman who has widows in her family is responsible for them. They shouldn’t be dumped on the church. The church has its hands full already with widows who need help.
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17-18 Give a bonus to leaders who do a good job, especially the ones who work hard at preaching and teaching. Scripture tells us, “Don’t muzzle a working ox” and “A worker deserves his pay.”
19 Don’t listen to a complaint against a leader that isn’t backed up by two or three responsible witnesses.
20 If anyone falls into sin, call that person on the carpet. Those who are inclined that way will know right off they can’t get by with it.
21-23 God and Jesus and angels all back me up in these instructions. Carry them out without favoritism, without taking sides. Don’t appoint people to church leadership positions too hastily. If a person is involved in some serious sins, you don’t want to become an unwitting accomplice. In any event, keep a close check on yourself. And don’t worry too much about what the critics will say. Go ahead and drink a little wine, for instance; it’s good for your digestion, good medicine for what ails you.
24-25 The sins of some people are blatant and march them right into court. The sins of others don’t show up until much later. The same with good deeds. Some you see right off, but none are hidden forever.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
At first glance this seems strangely out of place. Why did Paul put this here? Perhaps he just thought of it and wanted to make sure to include it. Maybe he was just thinking of Timothy as he wrote and Tim’s continual battle with illness came to his mind. Maybe Paul could imagine how what he was saying might agitate Timothy’s stomach illness. Maybe Tim was a worrier and his stress helped exaggerate his physical woes. A couple of side lessons can be learned here. First, taking care of your physical body within the boundaries of faithfulness is important. We are not to focus our attention and affection on the mere physical. We are also not to disregard the physical. We must maintain a balance. Another lesson to be learned here is that when our responsibilities seem overwhelming it can overload our capacity to deal with the stress. Paul is laying a lot of challenging responsibility on Timothy, but all of this is necessary. Timothy simply must be up to the task, but if he feels he is not he must remember what is required of him… Faithfulness. Lean in, step up, be responsible…get it done. Now remember, you are only required to be faithful, nothing more, nothing less. Keep that balance as best you can.