Entrusted "A Call to Action"

1 Timothy 6:11-21
Call to action These things show our faith Action, Reaction and Protection
Vrs 11-14 Action
• Flee “these things” trusting in false teaching and following them which leads to sin

• Peruse – Christian virtues. Read them in verse 11
Dr. Vernon Grounds says “Godliness is when others look at the quality of my life, and begin to think about God”

• Fight – Vrs 12 Living your faith will come against some resistance in which you will need to fight against.
-Your family and friends will not understand you
-You will have to make decisions at work that are not that popular
-You will not agree with others on certain issues

• Take Hold 12b-13 –Live the gospel “Take hold of eternal life” live like a citizen of heaven This is difficult when we live here on earth with and among other people.

Augustine wrote The City of God after It was written soon after Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410. This event left Romans in a deep state of shock, and many saw it as punishment for abandoning their traditional Roman religion. It was in this atmosphere that Augustine set out to console Christians, writing that, even if the earthly rule of the empire was imperiled, it was the City of God that would ultimately triumph — Augustine's eyes were fixed on Heaven. (Wikipedia “The City of God)

Augustine states about living among non-believing.

“Many of them are so ungrateful to the Redeemer…they forget that they cannot even utter a single word”[without Him].

For us this means we need to “take hold” and try even harder to live out the Gospel because the people around us will not.
So as citizens of the City of God we need to speak the “Good Confession” which is that Jesus is the Truth. Pilate asked Jesus if He was the King and Jesus said yes.

• Vrs 14a Keep Commandment “unstained” – watch your testimony our call is to be a good representative of the Jesus

Thomas Brooks the Puritan writer says “Know that it is not the knowing, nor the talking, nor the reading man-but the doing man, that at last will be found the happiest”

When our Orthodoxy(What we believe) leads to Orthopraxy(What we do) we find ourselves happy.

Vrs 14b The fullness of our Joy will only come when Jesus comes

Vrs 15-16 A confession (what we believe) I think this is strategically placed to remind us that our actions should always be rooted in the GOSPEL
Sometimes Christians get caught up in doing good and being people who take action and forget that the Gospel needs to be the center of that good work…it should not be cause driven Christianity (help the poor, get clean water, do this program etc)

“Has seen” all His fullness, we would die. Ex 33:18-20

15b -16 I can ACT on the things a God like this says

Reaction
Vrs 17-19 A charge for the “haves” (what we believe should effect what we do with what we have)
If you have wealth…your reaction to Jesus with that wealth.
• don’t flaunt it. (haughty) if you are just buying things to impress others (Pimp my ride, cribs are saying…look I have so much money)
• don’t trust it. (Many people think money can bring security and happiness)
Comedian and writer Spike Milligan once said “All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy”
• realize where it came from. (Its from God and good)
• do good with it.
• be generous with it.
Vrs 19 If your reaction to what you have is in line with what Jesus teaches us then there are benefits…-storing up treasure for the next life and –truly having full life

Protection
Vrs 20-21
• Guard the deposit “ENTRUSTED”. As Christian we need to guard against false teaching, wrong direction or “vision” that is based on personal gain or ego boosting.
• Profess- when we declare openly Biblical teaching we are actually protecting the hearers. We see the false teachers profess their beliefs and it cause people to swerve from the faith.

“Grace be with you” All of Paul’s 13 letters end with this phrase and as

John Piper says “Paul believes that God’s grace is being mediated to the readers by the words, the truth of each letter”.

Without the grace of God we cannot ACT, REACT, or PROTECT

The Grace is Him allowing you, empowering you and entrusting you to do His work and His grace is enough.