Timothy’s Gift

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4 for our time of study and God's word this morning. for those of you that may be visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 14, and my goal today is to cover verses 14 and, 15. Let me start off with a question, and I want you guys to feel free, just be bold and raise your hand if you feel like you can, say this, but how many of you would say to me this morning, Pastor Milton, I am a gifted person.

Raise your hand. OK. Very few hands have gone up, which is what I expected, and those whose hands went up, you should be applauded. that is the right answer.

That was an enthusiastic applause there. But the truth is, and this is what I want us to talk about, this morning, is that if you have believed in Jesus, if you have put your trust in Him as your Lord and Savior, guaranteed, you are a wonderfully gifted person, by God in a variety of ways. in fact, just in scripture, just very quickly, by way of introduction, if, if someone came to you and said, tell me, tell me your greatest spiritual gift, you would say, Jesus, In 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 15, Paul says, thanks be unto God for His unspeakably awesome gift, and no doubt he's referring there to Jesus.

In Romans 6:23.

Paul says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. So you have the gift of Jesus Christ, the gift of eternal life. that will never end. There's also in Scripture, what's called people gifts.

God has peopled your life with certain individuals that are considered as gifts from Jesus, to you. In Ephesians chapter 4, we learned that, Christ has given to the saints, apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and evangelists are included in that number, and so they are your gifts as well. If someone said, Well, tell me more, tell me some other gifts that you have, you would say, Well, I have the apostle Paul and James and Peter and the apostle. So John and their writings, which are wonderful and helpful gifts to me.

I also have pastors and elders and teachers in my life, and they are gifts from God to me. So all of us in this room that have put our trust in Jesus, we are exceptionally wonderfully gifted individuals. There's another category of giftedness though that we're going to focus our attention on today. And that is the category that we normally think of when we think of somebody being gifted, and that is the category of abilities that God gives to us that we can use to bless and to help others and to serve the common good.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit, but to each one is given. A manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. What we learned there is that every single Christian without any exception is given a gift from the Spirit of God that is designed to serve the common good. There's a couple of definitions of spiritual gifts that I really like.

Let me read these to you. Dr. Kelly says this. He says a spiritual gift is a special endowment of the spirit, enabling the recipient to carry out some function in the community.

That's why that any new believer should feel And urgency to get involved in a local community of believers knowing that God has gifted him in some special way that eventually will come out that is designed to operate and to bless the community of brothers and sisters. I like MacArthur's definition of a spiritual gift. He says it is a God-designed blend of capabilities which acts as a channel through which the Spirit of God ministers to others, especially others. In the church body, all of you, I may not even know you or know your name, but if Jesus and you're a child of God, I know that you are wonderfully gifted even in this particular way.

God has given to you special abilities that are designed to serve the Christian community of which you are a part. What's that category of giftedness that we're going to be focusing on this morning if you want to give a title to our study of verses 14 and 15. It would be Timothy's gift. Timothy's gift, and the gift that Paul is referring to that Timothy possessed is a gift that had reference to some ability that had been supernaturally endowed upon Timothy by God.

God had given him a gift, and Paul wants to talk about Timothy's giftedness in verses 14 and 15. And what we're essentially going to do is we're going to make 7 observations in verses 14 and 15 about Timothy's spiritual gift, not just so we can get to know Timothy better and we can walk away and say, Man, I really, I really feel like I know Timothy better. No, the goal of making these observations is to learn things about. Ourselves and about our giftedness because all of these 7 observations about Timothy's giftedness could be made about your giftedness and my giftedness as well, and understanding these observations will help us immensely in understanding and excelling in our own spiritual gifting.

Let me read the text beginning in verse 13. Paul says, until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, which means preaching and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery or the board of elders, the ruling board of elders. Verse 15, take pains with these things, be absorbed in them.

So that your progress will be evident to all. Alright, let's get right into it. 7 observations about Timothy's giftedness that will help us to see our own giftedness and learn some important lessons here. Observation number 1, just by looking at these verses, we can observe 1 that Timothy's gift was placed in him by God.

Timothy's gift was something that was given to him, and it was placed in him by God. There's actually some commentators that, that believe that the gift that Paul's referring to is the office that Timothy is holding. But that's hard to square with the passage because Paul speaks of this gift as being inside of Timothy. Look at verse 14.

Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, or in you. God has given Timothy a gift. It is located inside of him. And then look what he says, which was bestowed on you, or literally given to you.

Timothy, you've got a gift inside of you. And it is something that was given to you. Timothy did not generate this. Giftedness on his own.

He didn't just wake up and decide, I'm going to be gifted in such and such an area. No, this was something that God gave to him. It was given to him, not generated by him. And look how it came to him through it was bestowed on you or given to you through a prophetic utterance.

Now we'll learn in a few minutes what that prophetic utterance is. Let's at least establish the fact. That a prophetic utterance is someone speaking on behalf of God. So God is involved in this equation.

He's revealing Himself and the fact that Timothy's being gifted at this very moment, and he's speaking that revelation of the fact that he's giving Timothy this giftedness, and he's speaking that through someone who is prophesying. You put that together and it's an easy thing to observe that Timothy's gift was placed in him. By God. We see this even more clearly in 2 Timothy 1:6, where Paul speaking of this gift, says to Timothy, Kindle afresh the gift of God that is in you.

Kindle afresh this gift inside of you. It is a gift of God, meaning it has come from God, who has deposited this gift inside of you. It's important for us to know that Timothy's gift came from God and to know that our spiritual gifts come from God, because number one, it keeps us humble. We know that we haven't generated that gift by ourselves, but it was given to us by God.

And also, We know who to thank, right? We know who to thank for the gifts that we have inside of us that enables us to serve other people. And when our brothers and sisters use their gifts to serve and to bless us, we know what the source of that gifting is, and that is God. We know who to thank, even for the blessings of the gifting that.

Comes our way through our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We can express our appreciation to our brothers for the way their gifting has blessed us, but ultimately our thanks goes to God because we know that it has come from Him. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 12:11. When he says, but one and the same Spirit works, all these things distributing to each one individually, just as he wills, all spiritual gifts come from God.

And it is various, from person to person. He gives them to every individual believer and to God, all the glory is to go. So that's the first observation we can make about Timothy's giftedness. A second observation we can make about his gift is that Timothy's gift was a grace.

Timothy's gift was, is spoken of here in this passage as a grace. You may not see this in the English text, but it is there. Look what it says verse 14, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you. And the word that is translated gift is the Greek word charismatos, from which we get our English word.

Charisma or charismatic. So Timothy in the truest sense of the term, was charismatic in the sense that he had been given by God a charismatos. Now, the beautiful thing about this particular choice of words on the part of Paul to describe Timothy's gift is the fact that it, the root word here is charis. And that wordcharus in the New Testament occurs throughout, and it means grace.

All right, so in other words, it is a grace. Don't neglect the spiritual grace that is inside of you, Timothy. And so therefore, a charismatos, think about it, a grace that is given is something that is not only undeserved, but it's ill deserved. We've actually earned the opposite of what we are being given.

And so a charismatos. is a gift that is given to us that we don't deserve. And in fact, we have earned the opposite. Romans 6:23.

What does that say? The wages of sin is death. All of us have sinned, and what we've earned is death. God has withheld that eternal death from us.

Paul goes on to say, but the charisma of God is eternal life. He's very intentional. In his choice of words that eternal life is a charisma from God, it's something we have not earned, and in fact it is the opposite of what we have earned. We've earned death, but instead we get life.

And so Paul, in choosing this word charismatos, is basically speaking of this ability that's been given to Timothy as a gracious gift that God has given to Timothy that Timothy does not deserve. Paul does this to the Corinthians, does he not? In fact, I am I think Paul intentionally uses this word. The Corinthians were boastful.

They were proud of how, of their abilities that they had, and Paul's thinking, what is the right word to use to describe these abilities that would humble the Corinthians and help them to see these abilities in their proper light? Paul's like, I know. I will call them a chari matas. I will call them undeserved gifts.

That's basically what the word means, undeserved gifts. And Paul's like, yes, to the Corinthians, I, I noticed that you guys have undeserved gifts. I've noticed that that's the label that he gives them. And I want to go a little further in our mind because a charismatas is not only a gift or an ability given to us that we don't deserve, but it is a gift that God has given to us that we exercise for the benefit of the undeserving also.

See, God gives to us abilities, whatever your gifts and abilities are, you look inside yourself and you see these gifts, and all of them are labeled grace. Meaning undeserved blessing, undeserved blessing, and you're looking at all these gifts inside of you, all of them say, on the label, undeserved blessing. Would you not take your cue from that? Would you look at all these undeserved blessings that are inside of you and say, OK, I know what I'll do with these.

I'll look around for the deserving. And I'll exercise these gifts for the benefit of the deserving. No, if they're called charismatas, if they're called graces, undeserved blessings, you don't deserve to have them. But also it provides direction for you in terms of who you lavish them on and exercise them on behalf of.

It means that you turn around and you start looking for undeserving people that you can exercise those gifts for the benefit of. God gives us abilities to serve others and we ask God, what should we call this? He says, call them charismatas, call them undeserved favors, and let that humble you. You don't deserve these gifts, and let it provide direction for you.

You go use these gifts in the community of faith, and you bless the undeserving with them. actually, a truly biblical self-esteem when it comes to giftedness is, is a way of thinking wherein we look at whatever gifts God's given to us and we say, I don't deserve this. Some people are uncomfortable with that. But you look at the gifts God's given you, and you acknowledge I don't deserve them, but God's given them to me, and I'm going to take them.

That's a biblically healthy concept of oneself and one's giftedness. We see this displayed by the apostle Paul. He says, I am the least of the apostles. I'm not even fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.

But by Grace or by the gifting of God, I am what I am, and His gifting or His grace toward me did not prove vain. But I labored even more than all of the other apostles. Yet not I, but the gifting of God with me. Paul's like, I don't deserve to be an apostle.

I don't deserve this, but I am an apostle, and I'm going to be the apostle that God has made me to be by his act of grace. Timothy's gift is spoken of here. It's depicted as an undeserved favor from God. There's a third observation that we can make about Timothy's gift and hence about our own gifts that God gives to us, and you're going to need to really track with me here, OK?

here's the third observation. Timothy's gift was given after he agreed to serve in a role beyond his present gifting at the moment. OK. Timothy's gift was actually imparted to him on the other side of after he had agreed to serve in a ministry role that at that moment in time was beyond his present level of gifting.

And let me show this to you. We see here in verse 14 that the elders laid their hands on him. Obviously at the beginning of Timothy serving in whatever role this was, and we don't know when this happened, it may have been when Paul picked him up in Lystra and said, I want you to travel with me and the minister alongside of me. It may have actually been when Timothy was in Ephesus as Paul was about to leave and Timothy was assuming the role he was assuming as essentially the pastor over the Ephesian congregations.

We don't know exactly when this happened. But we do know that elders don't lay their hands on people who say they don't want to do something, right? Timothy could not have been saying, Man, I am not going to do this. I am not going to do this.

And the elders are like, Come here, boy, we're going to put our hands on you, we'll change your mind. Or Timothy would not have been saying, I'm just not sure. Can I have a couple weeks to think about it? I'm going back and forth.

The elders wouldn't lay their hands on a guy like that. What clearly happened, and no one disagrees with this, Timothy would have been, through the community of faith, counseled, and God working in his heart would have directed him to step up to the plate into a ministry role that was beyond his present level of gifting, he would have said, I'll do it. I will do this. And then after having agreed to do it, they have this ceremony, where the elders lay their hands on Timothy, and they're praying for him.

And in that ceremony, the gifting Timothy needed for that ministry role was passed to him at that time. But it was given to him on the other side of it was given to him after he had already agreed to serve in a role beyond his gifting at the moment. Does that make sense? Am I, am I stretching this here?

You can be honest if I am. No? OK. Here's the point that I want to make.

so many times what we tend to do is we draw a circle around our present perception of our giftedness. And if opportunities come to us outside of that perception of our present area of giftedness and extent of giftedness, we say no to those things, because they're oh, I'm not gifted for that. And maybe on a scale of 1 to 10 our gifting level in an area is a 3, and here comes an opportunity that in our minds requires gifting on the level of an 8, and we're like, well, I'm not there, so I'm going to say no to that.

And so, so it's just easy for us to stay comfortably inside of our comfort zone.

And my message to you is, if that's what you do and you never allow yourself to step out of that and step up to the plate and embrace ministry opportunities that are actually beyond your present level of giftedness, you're going to rob yourself of moments like Timothy experiences right now. God is the God who delights. You read through the scripture. He's the God who is always calling his people out of their comfort zone, beyond what they think they're capable of doing, right?

I was just reading with one of my sons in school. This past week of the feeding of the 5000 and I love what happens. The disciples are coming to Jesus saying, man, there's a lot of people here, they're hungry, they're famished, you need to send them home. And what did Jesus say?

He said, you feed them. You feed them. He just gave them that command and left them to start thinking through logistics on their own, like, well, wait a minute, there's how many people and what do we have? We've got these few loaves and fish and that's ridiculous.

I'll never feed everybody here. Jesus is commanding them to do something way beyond. What they felt like they had the provision for, and he let them wrestle with that. And eventually they come to him and say, Well this is all we have, but what is this compared to this multitude?

Jesus says that that's perfect, and he blessed it. And then they took the little they had. And they began to feed the 5000 and had baskets left over of provision, and I am sure the disciples learned from that experience that, what, when Jesus tells us to do something, even if at the moment we don't think we have what it takes to do it, we're going to trust that Jesus will take care of the provision for that, and we'll be able to do what He commands us to do. When God came to Moses in the burning bush and said, I want you to go back to Egypt that you fled from 40 years ago, and I want you to get in Pharaoh's face and tell the king of Egypt to let my people go, and I want you to lead the million plus of my people out of Egypt and into the wilderness and ultimately to the promised land.

What did Moses say? Was his response, what, Lord, that is exactly inside of my comfort zone. I think I'll do that. No, he was like, I can't do that.

I can't talk right. I can't. And he began to speak of his disqualifications, and God was like, Listen, I'm going to be with you. God clearly was calling Moses beyond what Moses felt that at that moment he was gifted for, and God had to say, Listen, I will give you the words to speak in the moment where you need them.

I'll be there. When God calls Jeremiah into prophetic ministry, Jeremiah was like, I'm just a kid. I'm just a youth. I can't do this.

Over and over again, God calls His people outside of their comfort zone to tasks and to opportunities that are beyond what they in that moment think they're capable of. And that's exactly what Timothy did. And Timothy looked at this opportunity. He looked at his present level of giftedness, and he's like, what, I really believe this is what God wants me to do.

It's what everyone else around me is saying, what the apostle Paul is saying. And so, what, I'm going to agree to do this even though right now I don't have the exact level of gifting for it. And God, I'm going to trust you to be faithful and to provide for me what I need. To be able to do this, and what a blessing it would have been for Timothy to step out with fear and trembling and say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this.

And here they are in a prayer meeting and the elder's hands are on Timothy, and all of a sudden this prophet begins to speak and says, right now, Timothy, God is gifting you. And Timothy hears that it's like, Lord, you are so faithful. You're so faithful. The lesson for us Is this That whatever your gifts are, you will discover them and the extent of them outside your comfort zone.

And as a church, if we want to be mightily used of God, we need to declare war on our comfort zone and start living outside of it. There are gifts that some of you have that you don't even know about. There's gifts that God wants to give you that, that he hasn't been able to give you because you won't get out of your comfort zone where he is and plans to give those things to you. If I'm going to share personally, I know what this is like because I've done this.

There have been opportunities to minister that have freaked me out, and I've just said no. And in fact I've been pastoring here for 17.5 years, and for the 1st 13 years of my ministry, I could count on one hand the amount of opportunities that I have taken to speak outside of Cornerstone. they've been few and far between. I, I'm nervous speaking to you guys, but there's a level of comfort here because I know we're family.

I can mess up on a given Sunday, and I know you'll be back next Sunday. We're going to love each other. Everything's fine because we're family. I don't have that, feeling when I'm thinking about speaking to people that I don't even know and who don't know me.

And so in the past when I've been asked to speak outside of Cornerstone. I've typically said for years I've said, well, I'm not going to do that until I'm 40. And I said that because I didn't think I would ever turn 40. I really mean that.

That was like so far away it's like I'll never turn 40, so I'll just say this forever and that'll be my excuse. There was some good thinking there because I realized I'm not even mature enough to be thinking about that. Let me just learn and let me grow here amongst this flock and then maybe after I'm 40 I'll feel like I have something to say to people outside of Cornerstone. But lo and behold, I turned 40 and I started getting phone calls from these people that I said, oh, I'm not going to do this until I turn 40.

And, and there have been times where they're like, hey, we'd like for you to do this, and almost every fiber of my being is saying, say no, say no, say no, and I hear myself saying, yes, I'll do this and But what I found is though that is way out of my comfort zone over the last few years of doing that, it's like I'm learning, I'm learning things I would have never learned otherwise. I'm being cast upon the Lord in ways that I I would not if I didn't seize those opportunities, and I'm finding actually that I'm growing and developing in my giftedness in that area little by little, but that those lessons learned, those experiences of dependence upon God, any growth that there may have been in giftedness, all of those things are happening simply because I was willing on those occasions to step outside of my comfort zone.

And to embrace an opportunity that came my way, but that's exactly what Timothy is doing. And I'm telling you guys that if God calls you out of your comfort zone, he's going to be faithful.

He will be faithful to provide for you the enabling that you need. To do what he has called you to do. Well, there's a 4th observation that we can make regarding Timothy's gift in these two verses, and that is that Timothy's gift was given, discovered, and affirmed in the context of community. Timothy's gift was given, discovered, and affirmed in the context of community.

This is not a story of Timothy just waking up one day saying, what, I am gifted. I'm a gifted guy in such and such areas of ministry. And so I'm going to go announcing that now to everyone else. Hey, listen, God, God has told me, He's given me this gift, and I believe I'm gifted in this area.

And Timothy did not arrive at those conclusions about his giftedness and isolation. You ever met someone who has? I've met people who have arrived at a conclusion about their giftedness and isolation, disregarding input from anyone else. They believe they're gifted in a particular area and no one around them agrees with them.

That's sad. That sad We see Timothy though. We see his gift being given, discovered, and affirmed in the context of community. Look at this.

Paul says, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance. So the gift didn't come from the prophetic utterance. It came through almost like that utterance was a channel through which the gift traveled from God into Timothy. And whatever that prophetic utterance was, it was a brother in the Lord who was there during this ceremony, who spoke a message from God.

That's what an utterance is a prophetic utterance, a message from God spoken through a person. Whatever he said was specific to Timothy and what God had called Timothy to do by way of ministry. And this person prophesying was saying to Timothy, God right now is giving to you the giftedness you need to do what you have agreed in obedience to God to do. And so this is not Timothy arriving at a conclusion of his giftedness by himself in his own private devotions.

This is, this is Timothy hearing a brother. God is speaking through a brother and telling Timothy about a gift that is now inside of him. Also happening at this moment was there was a body of elders. that were laying their hands On Timothy.

He says, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance, accompanied by the laying on of hands by the Presbytery or the elders. So the, the community was not just this prophet, but, but the elders are gathered there, they're reaching out, they're touching Timothy and then laying their hands on him. At the very least, they're affirming Timothy for the role. They're saying, we agree.

That this is the guy to serve in this ministry. We support him and affirm him in this role, and these elders are no doubt also praying for him, for God's blessing and for God's enabling. To me that's a beautiful picture. In fact, the image that I have is in this gathering.

Timothy has said, Yes, I'll do this, and no doubt with fear and trembling. And he's like, Man, God's going to have to really come through for me. And so the elders, they may be looking at him too, saying this guy really needs God to come through for him in a powerful way. But based on his character and his heart, we believe that this is the man for this role of ministry.

So they're praying for him. They're like, God, we, we love this man. We appreciate this man. We believe that you have led us and you have led him to serve in this role of ministry.

And so we are asking Lord, that you would in a powerful way and do him with power from on high, capacitate him, gift him with all that he needs to succeed in this ministry. And then as they're praying that suddenly someone in the room begins to speak. And says, oh Timothy, God right now says to you that he has heard the prayer that is being prayed by you and by these elders, and he has given you the gift. that you need to serve in this role.

that you have agreed to. You see how the community is involved here. And even now, there's community happening right now at this moment as Paul is writing to Timothy. Here's Paul.

Who's writing a letter to Timothy saying, Timothy, you got a gift. You have a gift inside of you. This gift has been confirmed by God. Remember that prophet and what he said during your ceremony as you were being appointed to this role.

This gift has also been confirmed by the elders who were there present. So Paul, even now as he speaks to Timothy, is Affirming Timothy and reminding him of his giftedness. You go back to Acts 16 when Timothy was first, this may very well have been when the ceremony took place. How did Timothy even start traveling with Paul?

In Acts 16, when Paul was in Lystra, it says Timothy was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium, and Paul was wanting this man to go with him. Man, people knew Timothy. They spoke highly of him. Paul.

Set his eyes on Timothy and got to know him and he's like, I want this guy to go with me, and he got that idea in his head and believed it was of the Lord and things unfolded in a way that God ended up going with Timothy and it may have been at that point before Timothy left with Paul that the elders That were responsible for Timothy laid their hands on him, and they prayed for him, and God gifted Timothy. Perhaps it happened at that point. We don't know when. It could have happened when Timothy got to Ephesus here and Paul left him and said, Timothy, I'm leaving you in charge of the church in Ephesus.

But, however it happened, and whenever it happened, we see Timothy's gift being given, discovered, and affirmed in the context. Of community. If you want to know what your spiritual gifts are, if you want to grow in your giftedness, Then I would challenge you to live your life in community with brothers and sisters in a local church, a church that has elders and deacons and brothers and sisters. Live your life being ministered to in a local church and just serving in whatever ways seem to be open and available areas that you might have a burden to serve, a passion for serving in, or maybe someone comes to you and says, Hey, we've got a ministry opportunity here and I've been praying about this and I think maybe you're the person to serve in this particular area.

I'm not saying automatically agree with anyone that says that, but take it seriously. Maybe God is speaking. through that person and providing some direction, get counsel from other people in terms of areas where you can get involved in ministry. What you will find is as you do that, you will begin to discover where your gifts are in the context of community.

Then you'll start getting feedback from people. People will tell you, man, you've, you've got a gift. You're really gifted when it comes to mercy. You have the gift of leadership.

We see this on display. You have the gift of giving, you have the gift of teaching. And as you're getting that feedback, that provides more direction. Sometimes that feedback may be corrective.

Maybe that feedback would be affirming, but you will discover your gifts. In the context of community, just one point real quick. A lot of times we think about spiritual gifts in the sense that on the, on the day you became converted, God gave you all the spiritual gifts you're going to get. This particular passage indicates that that's not always true.

God does gift everyone on their spiritual birthday, but that doesn't mean that God cannot at a later point bestow a special gift of enabling on somebody because they're about to enter into a particular role. For example, I knew the Lord when I was 19, but I didn't have the gift of parenting, didn't have any children, didn't really need the gift. But when God began to give me children, when he gives to all of us children, God begins to provide a special enabling, a grace for us to be able to be the parents that God has called us to be.

And so there are times where God, as we enter into certain seasons of our life or seize upon a ministry opportunity where God in His grace and in community with others might bestow upon us a special enabling in order to do something.

There may be a particular opportunity, just a one time opportunity that opens up where someone comes to you and says, man, I feel like I'm lost spiritually, tell me how to be saved. And you might say, well, I'm sorry, that's not my gift. I have to find someone who's gifted in evangelism. No, just does God call you to do that?

Yes, just step out and trust the fact that whatever enabling and gifting you need would be there in that moment. So our gifting is a dynamic thing that might fluctuate in seasons of life and depending on opportunities of ministry that we are stepping into. But let's live in community with one another and experience this wonderful dynamic of gifts being given, discovered, and affirmed. In the context of community tied to that is a 5th observation that we can make about Timothy's gift here, and that is that apparently Timothy needed to be encouraged with a reminder that he was gifted.

Apparently, Timothy needed to be encouraged with the reminder that he was, in fact, gifted. Paul says, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was given to you. Timothy, you've got a gift. Verse 13, until I come, give attention to reading and to preaching and teaching.

And Timothy, let me remind you, you've got a gift. Various commentators speculate over the challenges that Timothy was facing that caused him to be discouraged to where he needed this reminder, and we don't have time to belabor this, but no doubt there were difficult things Timothy had to do in his ministry by way of confronting people. Paul begins the letter by saying, I left you behind in Ephesus so that you would confront and charge people to stop listening to fables and Endless genealogies.

No doubt he had to deal with false teachers and they were an intimidating lot.

Maybe he felt they were more intellectually brilliant than he was. We know from verse 12 that Timothy was getting a little bit of disrespect, at least from some in the Ephesian Church, who would have perhaps been used to having Paul as their pastor. And so Timothy's looking out into the faces of congregants that, that used to have Paul as their pastor, and he's looking in the faces of fellow elders that used to have Paul as the elder that was leading them, and they're looking at Timothy just with not the respect that they should have and perhaps Timothy was beginning to disrespect himself because of his youthfulness.

He was frequently sick.

We learned this later. In chapter 5 verse 23. Timothy may have been thinking of Paul's greater giftedness. Sometimes we may be gifted in an area, but when we look at other people that are even more gifted, we then think, I guess they're gifted and I'm not.

No, you don't have to be the most gifted person in an area to be genuinely gifted of God. God provides different levels of giftedness and even Paul's imminent return. Could have caused Timothy to say, what, there's some tough things here, but Paul's coming back anytime. And so I'll, Paul's better at this than I am.

I'll let him take care of this when he gets back. And that's why Paul, look again at verse 13, says, until I come. Give attention to reading and preaching and teaching. Timothy, I am, I'm coming back, but until I do, you have got to be the man for this job.

You've got to be doing these things. And let me remind you, Timothy, you have a gift. You have a gift. the lesson I learned from Paul doing this is that we, we all need to do a better job of Expressing our thoughts about the giftedness of our brothers and sisters.

You may say, I, I don't even know what my gifts are. That's actually not your failure necessarily, that's probably our failure, the failure of your brothers and sisters. Because if we were a community where we all did a better job of man, if anyone blesses me in any way, I'm going to express appreciation. If I see any sign of giftedness in somebody, I'm going to tell them, man, you seem to have a gift in this area, and it blesses me.

And when you brought that meal over and just took a few minutes to pray for me, I felt, I felt like you were there with me inside my circle of pain and I think God has given you a gift in that area, at least in that moment, and you're expressing appreciation and you're celebrating what you see in them and what a blessing that was for you. When, when you hear someone in the church being talked about behind their back and what's being said is good. Then take that information and go to the person that's being talked about and say, this is what I'm hearing about you.

You've been a real blessing to so and so.

I think you have a gift. God's really using you in some great way. Listen, I think if all of us just did a better job of celebrating the giftedness and the good in each other, after a while, there shouldn't be anyone in our church who's like, I don't really know what my gifts are. I don't know anything about myself.

That's a genuine special blessing. to anybody else. Will you guys do this with me? Just let's all do better at, at expressing and celebrating this.

And, and Paul, man, he's so good at this and all his epistles celebrating the good and those that he's writing to, even if they had faults that he's going to correct later. And here he is talking to Timothy, who was hesitant, maybe reluctant and, and letting his giftedness die out and certain Duties and responsibilities he's allowing himself to be intimidated away from and Paul's like, Timothy, you've got a gift, man. Remember the prophet and what that prophet said in that ceremony, how the elders' hands were on you.

Timothy, you've got a gift and it's from God.

Don't neglect this gift. We hastening on, there's a 6th observation that we can make about Timothy's gift, and that is that Timothy was to be studiously engaged in the ministries God had called him to and gifted him for. Yes, God had gifted Timothy. But that didn't mean Timothy could just roll out of bed on a Sunday morning and get up in front of the congregation and Ephesus and just open his mouth and wonderful wisdom come out, right?

Now, listen, there's genuine giftedness from God. But even where God has genuinely gifted you, God calls for very hard, painstaking work. You've heard of the curse of the gifted, right? Someone who is really gifted maybe intellectually, academically, or athletically, and because they're so gifted they don't, they don't work hard, they just coast, and what ends up happening, what ends up happening is people who are less gifted than they are end up passing them up eventually because they've worked harder.

What God wants is for us to realize that he's gifted us. And then with that giftedness, combine that with hard work, by the grace of God. If I could drop it down. A notch, just think of Tiger Woods, for example, from his earliest days, it was noticed he had a natural golf swing, perhaps the most naturally gifted golfer.

and golfing history. And yet did he coast on that giftedness? No, he is exceptionally gifted, and yet probably there's no one who works harder. At his game than Tiger Woods does.

And when you take giftedness and combine that with hard, diligent, painstaking work, you've got a powerful combination. And so Paul is saying, Timothy, you've got a gift. You've got a special gift from God. Therefore, verse 15, take pains with these things.

The idea is be obsessed with these things, be deliberate, be intentional, premeditate. Think about these. Things he then says literally be in them, get into these things that God has called you to and has gifted you for. Timothy, I want you to live a life where even in these areas where God has gifted you, where you're working hard, studiously engaged.

In these areas of ministry where God has gifted you. And where God has called you to. We need to work hard at these areas where God has gifted us, and that leads to the 7th and final observation that we can make about Timothy's gift, and that is that Timothy was expected to make further progress in his giftedness. See, when God gives us spiritual gifts, those gifts don't come to us in their fully matured state, right?

We can learn that basically from this, that He doesn't give us those gifts in a fully matured state. If God gives you the gift of teaching, that doesn't mean that you're like a perfect, most excellent teacher right away. But no, it's going to take hard work and it's a process and But as you work hard at this gift that God has given to you, you grow in your giftedness. You make progress in your ministry and in your giftedness, and you become better and your gift becomes more and more mature in the matrix of ministry and study and working hard and thinking about.

Your giftedness and the ministries where you can exercise them. Look what he says in verse 15. Take pains with these things, get into them so that your progress will be evident to all. Timothy, you're gifted.

If you do the work I'm telling you to do, just get out there and start engaging in these things that God has called you to, you're preaching and you're teaching. I'm telling you that your giftedness is going to mature. God's going to make you even better at what you're doing. Not only will you make progress, but that progress will be evident to everybody, evident.

To all Just in wrapping things up here, I'm operating as I speak to you today on the conviction that we are a gifted church. We have born again believers that are a part of the Cornerstone family, and because of that, the Spirit of God, we believe has given to every single person in the Cornerstone family spiritual gifts. But unfortunately we don't know what all those gifts are. I may not know what all the gifts are that God has already put inside of me, and there may be ways I've got to step outside of my comfort zone even more to discover those.

And God may have his hands full of gifts he's wanting to give. To you that you don't have right now, but God's sitting right outside your comfort zone waiting for you to come out there and receive these gifts that he wants to give you so that you can become even more useful to Him. And so I really want us as a church to just declare war on our comfort zone and just say, God, listen, I, I want to live in community with my brothers and sisters and, and, and as you speak to me through them and provide direction for my life.

Through your spirit within me, I want to seize opportunities to minister, even stepping outside of my comfort zone, and I'm going to work hard at these things, and I'm going to trust, Lord, that You will grow me and progress me in my giftedness and make me ever more useful.

And imagine that every member of Cornerstone begins to do that. 300, 400 people, imagine the impact of that as we're all diligent and working hard and embracing our giftedness in this way. One final thought. You may say, I don't know what area I'm gifted in.

Here's one way to find out areas that I know you're gifted in. Look at every command in scripture that God speaks to you with, and whatever he tells you to do, you can automatically assume you're gifted enough to do what He commands you to do. Embodied in every command. That God gives to us as Christians is the gifting to do that.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that? I love what Peter does during the storm on the Sea of Galilee. He sees Jesus walking on the water, and he says, Jesus, command me to come.

That's it. That's all he needed. Just tell me to come. Peter didn't say, Lord, command me to come.

Give me a promise that you're going to sustain me and explain the physics of how this is going to happen. He didn't need that. All he needed was a command, Lord, I'm wanting to do this. I need you to tell me to come.

And Jesus said, come. And Peter immediately assumed that he had the gift of water walking. Seriously, he just stumbled out of the boat, walking towards Jesus, because if Jesus tells me to do something implied in that is all the gifted this I need to be able to obey what he tells me to do. And so start reading even the commands of scripture in that way.

God says, Hey, forgive those that wrong you. Whoa, I must be gifted when it comes to forgiveness. Love one another, man. I must be gifted with the ability to love my brothers and sisters and admonish one another.

Whoa, I must be gifted when it comes to admonishing my brothers and. Sisters and just begin doing all the one another's that you find in Scripture. And as you do that and flesh that out, you're going to find special areas of passion and giftedness, and you're going to get feedback from the spiritual leaders in your life and your brothers and sisters that will provide further direction for you. And I just, I think great things lie in store for our church as we all seek to live in this way.

Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. There's comment cards in your bulletin.

Fill those out if you want to do so. And prayer requests, praise items, put those on the back. We'll pray for those in our staff meeting on Tuesday and Put them on our church family prayer sheet if you like. I want, I want us all to dream a little bit, and I want us to think big, and I want us to just come to God and And ask for these very things we've been talking about.

I'd like to lead us in doing that. God We are a gifted church, full of gifted people, and we are, I, I'm sure all of us are more gifted than we even know, more gifted than we know, Lord. And to the degree that we don't understand the gifts you have given and the gifts you want to give, Is perhaps we've been too fearful, too timid. To comfortable inside of our comfort zones.

Help us to be bold. I'm amazed. Timothy seems to have been the timid sword, and yet this timid young man was like, if this is what God calls me to do, I'm going to do it. I'm going to trust that the enabling to do this is going to be there, and you were faithful.

And so may that be our experience, Lord, and may we be celebrators of the giftedness we see in others to where there's no brother, there's no sister in this church that that is wondering if there's anything about them that is special or some unique blessing that they render through whatever giftedness they have. May, may we just large and small celebrate the good and the giftedness that we see in one another. We thank you for the opportunity to, to give up our offerings to you, Lord.

With these funds, we, we also give to you our hearts.

We ask that you multiply the funds that are given like you did the loaves and the fishes, do much with what we give for the glory of Jesus. Who is the unspeakable gift. that we celebrate. And surrender our lives to.

It is to You, Jesus, that we surrender ourselves. And all God's people said, Amen.