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Amen. And amen. And amen. I wanna say a couple of words more about Lynn Northup, who is in that video. Jay, put that at the end of the thing. For all of you watching online, you can know who I'm talking about. Lynn is not here right now. Her mother passed away this week. She's watching right now in Savannah. And so, Lynn, we love you so much. Lynn was. She ran the volunteer team at Beach Church that was looking for a youth pastor back in 2003. And she hired me. Amen. Her and Ryan Sweat, who works for us, and Courtney, who works for us. And so if you don't like me, you can take it up with them. But it was because of Lynn Northrup and her husband Martin. They are the ones along with. Under Pastor Jerry's leadership, for sure. They brought me here and Gretchen here, and we are forever grateful. And Lynn and Martin, I mean, we were young. This is back in 2003, long time ago. We just survived Y2K. Remember that? That was fake. And. And they were like our adoptive parents, man. They were like surrogate grandparents to my kids when we started having kids. My daughter's gonna kill me for this, but it's okay. The little, like, blankie thing that she still sleeps with now, Lynn Northrup gave to her when she was born. Okay. And a part of the reason I bring that up, one, is I just say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you've seen in these testimony videos. The reason that we've shown you the videos that we've shown you is, is because what we're trying to show you here is that the church is a family. This is more than just an organization. This is not just nonprofit. That's not what this is, man. This thing is the family of God. And this week we're going to talk about something that I wouldn't just think up to talk about. This is why we go verse by verse through the Bible, by the way, because when you teach verse by verse through the Bible, then it forces you to deal with things that you wouldn't think. We're gonna talk about how to take care of widows. That is not on the top 100 list of things to talk about or how to grow a church. Let's talk about widows. That's not it. But it's very important to God, and it's very important to the church because it's a part of the church family. And so we are in the. Feels like the millionth week. What week is it? The eighth week of this study on first Timothy. But I don't know about you. Every time we study a book of the Bible, it never gets old to me. How about you? Doesn't it seem like God meets us right where we are every single time? That his word is so fresh, it's so real, it's so alive? And so if you'll remember, just a little bit of a recap. Cause it's been. I know that you've memorized all seven weeks and you could just look back through your journal and remember. I know you write down everything we say up here. I know. You see Paul meets Timothy in this place called Leicester Lystra. Timothy's without a dad. So Paul basically raises up young Timothy in manhood and in ministry. That's pretty cool. Lays his hands on him, commissions him to be the pastor of the church of Ephesus. Looks at Timothy in the eyeballs and he says this. God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self control. And then he cuts him loose after training him up for about 15 years to be this pastor. And now he's gonna write him a letter, this pastoral epistle of instruction as the pastor of this church. And though he's writing this letter to the pastor of this church, because it's the word of God, it's written to Timothy, but we have a lot to learn from it also. And he reminds him at the very beginning, chapter one, he's like, hey, let's keep first things first here. Whatever you do, don't swerve from what is most important. And what is most important is the gospel. Then he says, now, while we're talking about most important things, prayer is right up there with it. Then he begins to help Timothy make sure that the church is organized rightly. Why? Because this is a family. And God creates structure and God creates order. And chaos is not from God. And so he's like, just like your family has an order. There's a dad and there's a mom and there's kids and there's extended family. Then the church is organized rightly with pastors and elders and deacons. And then he gives us a warning about what church isn't. He says, don't get caught up in all kinds of silly myths and sideways energy. Don't go chasing after these kind of things. But the church is the family of God. And the church should stir your affections for Christ. So kill those things that are trying to kill your relationship with Jesus and lean into those things that grow your affections for Jesus. And now he is going to shift to a very specific thing that is going on 2,000 years ago in the church at Ephesus. Now here's a little background. When Paul deals with this, it's because there is a specific issue. I don't know anybody ever realize this. Churches used to have issues like 2,000 years ago. And Paul's gonna address these things. And what we'll never be able to get our mind around what it would be like to be in a first century church. Because you can't even begin to understand the cultural shift and lived experiences of the new believers that were now going to this brand new thing called the church the way you can't. Because if everybody in the church is a new believer, do you realize that every single person is a relatively new follower of Jesus Christ? And everything that Jesus taught was completely countercultural to the life that you have lived all of your life. If you were a Roman citizen, which many people of the church at Ephesus were, if you were a Roman citizen, not only were you used to, but you were taught to use one another. That's what you were taught. See the Temple of Artemis, it was in the middle of Ephesus. It was what ran the socioeconomic construct of the entire city. And they put the mess in Artemis. That's what they did. They used people. There were prostitutes there. Whoever had the most money, had the most power. This is what they were used to. If you were a Roman citizen, then what you believe deep in your heart is might made right. Now, your sophomore year of college, they talked to you about Pax Romana, Peace in Rome. That's scubulon, that's what that is. Unless you were the Caesar. Yeah, it was going real good for you. Because what they would do is every territory they could take over by might and by power, they took them over. And with the oppressive thumb of the power of Rome, they kept you down. And as long as you shut up and don't make problems for anybody, then you could have relative peace. Does that sound like peace to you? Nah, man. It was all about power. It was all about authority. And even if you grew up as a Hebrew, if you grew up as an Israelite, then the temple system of that day became a place ruled by hierarchy and rules and religious power and class ranking and taking advantage of the weak. Don't you remember how ticked Jesus got when he went in and he turned over the tables in the temple? Because the religious elite were taking advantage of the poor. That's what they were doing that if you look at the way the temple ran. There were certain people, and only men can come in here. And women, you can't come in here. And only Jewish men can go this far. But if you're not a Jewish man, you can't go this far. And if you're a kid, you better stay out there. But if you're old enough, you can come in here. And so it's hierarchy after hierarchy after hierarchy. And then the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to invade this world, this Roman and Hebrew world. And Jesus has the audacity to say that God so loved the world, not just the older, educated Jewish men and families can come along with them, but for God so loved the world. And then the Apostle Paul has the audacity to write, let alone by the Holy Spirit, and say some things like, in Christ, there is neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, slave nor free. He says the church is gonna be different than everything else you have ever experienced. Pastor Britt talked about this a few weeks ago. The Christian church is the only place in any religion in the world where no matter what you are, male, female, no matter your race, no matter your socioeconomic background, we all do this Jesus following thing shoulder to shoulder, side by side together. Amen. There is freedom in Christ. And you know what happens with freedom? Little abuse of freedom. I mean, oftentimes what happened is when the pendulum is way over here, like an oppressive hierarchy, and then you let that thing go, the pendulum sings way over here. And so, like these young guys in the church and hang in here for this, women who were not allowed to ever talk ever now have freedom of voice in the church. And they're like, oh, I got a couple things to say. Got it. Just imagine now we're not talking about today. No, no, no. It's all. We're nailing it today. Just back then. So there's this newfound freedom, and with that comes this abuse of freedom over correction or freedom that leads to chaos. And God is not a God of chaos. And so Paul is going to reestablish some ground rules and orders for the household of God. Don't you have rules in your household? Great. And when you're the mom and dad, you get to make up your rules for your house, or our heavenly Father has just some kind of ground rules for the household of God so that we can do all of this together. Now, while this letter was written to a particular people at a particular time, and. And most of what we are going to talk about here is descriptive, not prescriptive. Like he's actually going to give an age limit on what widows you should help. Do you think we need to apply that from then to the. No, no, no, no, no. You gotta understand this is descriptive. And then you look for the gospel truth in there to apply to today. Okay? That's what we're gonna do. So the truth of these words still give us guidance today. So if you got your Bibles, 1 Timothy, chapter 5. This ought to be fun. My favorite part I'm really not looking forward to. There's multiple times in here I gotta tell women what to do, so pray for me. Okay? Husbands, you know what I'm talking about. Here we go. Instructions for the church for Timothy and for us. I almost only preached this half of the first verse. Ready? Five, one. Do not rebuke an older man. Amen. If you're 50 and younger, would you please raise your hand as high as you can if you're 50 and younger. All right, keep them up. Let me look around. Ready? Shut up. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. I'm 51. Now. There's a lot here, a part of what's happening. Again, okay, Again. You couldn't do anything in the temple until you were 40, okay? You couldn't do anything in the temple as a grown man until you're 40. Now you got these young men, all right, like Timothy himself, and they've got this freedom in Christ and they've given this responsibility in the kingdom of God. And yet what they're doing is they're exercising their freedom in a way that is disrespectful to the elders in their church. And also Paul is telling Timothy. Cause he's told him multiple times. He tells them, encourage these people. Encourage, by the way, in Greek means to spur. We think encourage means, oh, your hair looks great. That's not what it means. It means to spur on into activity. That's what it means. Paul multiple times tells Timothy, hey man, when you're preaching, charge people. Like yell at them. And then he's like, but when you're talking to old guys, you gotta relax a little bit. Seriously, don't rebuke them. You see these young bucks, they'd never had a voice in the synagogue and now they've got freedom in the church and they're letting everybody have it. This reminds me of those adorable emails I get from you 20 year olds that just found Calvin's Institute. You didn't read them, but you saw a three minute YouTube video on it. Want to tell me how to do church? That's adorable, buddy. That's adorable. By the way, just so you know, I have older men in my life called elders. That one of the very first things that I did when another older man in my life, Pastor Jerry Sweatt, said, I think you should plant a church. The first thing I did was gather some older wise men around me and deputize them as elders to protect me from me. And listen, they're not yes men. I wish you could go to a couple. I wish they'd say yes a few times. Nah, man, they love me. They're for me. I can't even. They do so much for me and my family, but they are not beholden to me. They have no problem telling me no. They have no problem putting me in my place. And it is so easy to receive because I've deputized those men in my life to do so. And by the way, you don't have to be a pastor of a church to have a group of men or women, depending on who you are in your life, to play this kind of role in your life. And so Paul is telling Timothy, hey, listen, man, when you teach with older men, you do that with respect. With respect. He says, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him. Do you know what the word encourage? I mean, just look at the etymology of the word in English. It just means in, like, what we are supposed to do when we talk to one another, especially when somebody's a little bit nervous or afraid or they're believing the lies and the whispers of the enemy. We're supposed to take some words and create some courage right there and then put it in somebody. I want to change the way we talk to each other in our whole country. In the tongue is the power of life and death. And there's so many churches that have been killed by the word spoken, not from the outside, but by the inside. Listen, the church has always done pretty good with outside persecution. I don't know of a church that's been taken out from the outside. The list is long of churches that have been taken out from the inside. Like, when you speak words, man, do you cut down or do you build up? Do you know how hard it. It takes so much more energy to build up than to tear down. This is why everybody on social media. Not everybody, all the people I don't like, make a living off of just tearing down and not building up. I mean, of course, you can speak words of constructive criticism, but I hope and pray your words of encouragement are like 10x to what the words of criticism are. And order matters. By the way, parents, if the first words out of your mouth are, you oughta, then the next 10 compliments are gonna be really hard to hear. I want listen, in an age of criticism and cynicism, what if we were known as a place of encouragement and speaking life? Let's be a place not of criticism and cynicism, but honor. My Bible says, outdo one another with honor. Now, not everything that you think or feel needs to be expressed. Seriously, man, I don't care what you're eating either. Quit taking pictures of it and showing it to me. I don't care. I don't care. Just because you feel a thing doesn't mean you need to say a thing. You're like, yeah, but it's true. So Ephesians 4:29 says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, only that which is helpful for the needs of the hearer and the edification of the church. Let us be people of encouragement and on the other side of it. But unspoken honor or encouragement is useless. If you feel honor or respect towards somebody or you get that little nudge that you ought to say something to encourage somebody and you don't do it, you're being disobedient to the nudge of the spirit of God in your life. I don't want to be the kind of person that says, spirit, lead me. And then he tries to. And I go, I ain't gonna do that. He ain't gonna lead you anymore. The spirit of God will never waste his time. So we need to speak these things to one another. And please quit starting a compliment by saying, I don't want to give you a big head. I don't want you to think too highly of yourself. I can't find one place in the Bible where one human is supposed to keep another person humble. We have an accuser of the brethren. Humility is between you and Jesus. My job is to encourage one another as long as it is today, man. Let us be a place of encouragement. That's what he's saying. He says, don't rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would. Check this out. A father. In Timothy, when you're preaching to people, you talk to younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters. What do you notice here? This thing's a family. We're in this thing together, y'. All. This thing is a family. He says, you talk to older men as you would a father, younger Men as brothers. Notice this. Older women as mothers. This is a one off in the church. You don't have to have babies to be a mama if you're a woman. If you're a grown woman, by the way, a woman is an adult female, period. Just jot that down. A lot of people are asking what that is. That's what that is. A woman is an adult human female. Okay? All right. So if you're one of those, whether you have babies or not in the church, you're a mama. Why? Because this thing is a family. And we all need each other to help each other raise all those little things over there in our kids ministry. Think about this. Eve was given the name Eve, which means mother of all living things. And when she was given that name, you know how many babies she had? Zero. So listen, man, I know infertility is one of the worst things that ever happened in this broken world when sin entered the world and held open hurt and pain and darkness. But listen to me. In the church, every single adult female, we need you, and we need you to be mamas. And so he's saying, listen, we're supposed to be family with one another. And so you talk to older men as dads, fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women and sisters in all purity. Now, there's two things here. One, Paul is instructing Timothy and he's gonna say, hey, look here, young Tim, you're going to minister to people different. You're gonna minister to men and women differently because you're going to make sure purity is at the forefront when you're ministering to girls in and around your age group. And there's a bunch of people now, historically post, like 1960, this is called, in my world, the Billy Graham rule. I submit to this wholeheartedly. In other words, I don't do any meetings or ministry or any of that alone with a woman. And there's some people, they're like, well, that's not fair. Jimmy cracks corn and I don't care. You can have fair, man. You know who loves that rule? My wife. And everybody that's got a wife that works on our staff, they love that rule. And you'll go, well, that's not normal. You can have normal. Normal is broke, medicated, depressed and divorced. All right, you can have that. I want Gretchen and Jesus. That's what I want. So that's what I'm gonna do. Okay, so this is what he's talking about here. So the number one illustration of God's people In the New Testament is family, not army, not workforce. It's family, brothers and sisters, and we're supposed to take care of one another. When JP Was three and a half, we had Reagan. We brought her home, you know, and as he. The first thing I began to tell him, he was this big. I was like, hey buddy, you know what your number one job is? He go, what's that, daddy? Go protect Reagan. That's it. He was 4, 5, 6, 7. I'd look at him go, hey dude, what's your number one job? He'd go, protect Reagan. Then she got to middle school and he's in high school, and they went to the same school and was like, hey dog, what's your number one job? He's like, protect Reagan. Part of the reason I was doing that is because now he's had this long term girlfriend named Hannah. He loves her dearly, they've been together for a long time. And because here's what I told him, he got a little bit older. I'm like, look here, dude, every girl you ever come eyeball to eyeball is somebody's Reagan. And you have been put on this planet to protect her. You understand? We are supposed to be like that together as a family. So now when you are a family, do you have the right to have family meetings to point out problems? Yes, of course you do. Sometimes you gotta get together and be like, hey, listen, it ain't going good. We gotta tighten some things up here. Family, well, you gotta do that in the church family too. So is it right for you to let me and the staff know in 1122 when we're not living up to our ideals? Of course it is. In all purity, like, if you've got an issue, the first thing you gotta ask yourself, is this really a personal issue or are you actually trying to make this family of God be all that she can be? And if you're honest about that, that'll answer whether you should tell somebody. Like, is it that you just didn't get what you want? Are you actually looking out for the church? I can't take credit for this. I saw this Instagram post and I liked the title of it and so I just stole it. I love this so much. Somebody on there I'm not going to give credit to because I don't know who they are. Sid, do you see the church as a hotel or a home? You say out your amen, but think about that for a second. Think about how you walk into a hotel. Do you walk into church like you Walk into a hotel, or do you walk into the house of the family of God? I mean, do you come to just receive goods and services, or do you come to offer worship and help in service? It's very different things. Do you come criticizing, well, that bed wasn't the way I like it. Or do you come caring for people? Do you show up to church committed for the long haul, or do you just stay until you're done with it and then move on to the next one? Listen, man, if this is, like, your sixth church in the last six months and you want to come tell me in the lobby what's wrong with everybody else's church, you're in the wrong place. I hate to break it to it, but it ain't the church. The common denominator is you. And we'll welcome you here. Okay, we'll welcome you, but you better suck it up, buttercup, and just be a part of the family. Are you here for the long haul? Do you just show up when it's convenient, or are you committed? How about this? Are you heavily invested in the future, or are you just covering your night stay? Have you ever heavily invested in your hotel room? Mm. Mm. This is one of my favorites. Do you expect others to clean up your mess? Dude, how many towels do you use in a hotel? I'm a towel. I mean, if I tried to use that many towels, Gretchen would murder me in my house. You understand what I'm saying, dude? I'm like, I'm gonna do a towel over here and this and that green thing. I don't believe it. So I'm like, nope, I ain't doing nothing green. I want you to clean me up every hour. Come in here and freshen this puppy up. Okay? I'm gonna eat all your chocolates. I'm gonna throw towels everywhere. I'm telling you why? Cause I fully expect somebody to come in behind me and clean up my mess. That's what I expect. Is that what you expect from your church, or are you there to help clean up the mess? And guess what? The mess is you. When we show up to church, we don't show up going, somebody needs to clean this up. You go, I am the mess, and I need help. And then when God cleans you up, then you get on the cleanup crew, and he's gonna use some of your lived experiences to help some other people that have some of the same messes that you've been through to help walk in with Jesus, man. When you walk into church, do you just smile and nod as you walk into the folks at the door, or have you made significant investments in the people here? Some of you treat the people at church like you treat the attendant at the hotel room. Sup? And then later be like that church isn't friendly. Do you pray for your hotel stay? Now some of you people are a little extra spiritual. I know who you are, you know, and you like anoint the door, you know, room 228, you know, and God forbid you stay in room 1122, you're gonna send me a picture. It's the Lord. Is it? I don't know that I've ever gone and just prayed for the staff of the hotel. But are you praying for your church home? You see, this is the context in which Paul is talking about this thing is a family. Now our local expression, it's a big old dysfunctional family. And if you're like, why do you say dysfunctional? Just look down your row. Okay, now with that context, he's going to give specific examples. He says, honor widows who are truly widows. This is going to be so offensive. What does this mean? There are some people that aren't truly widows in the church. You read this and be like, you mean there are people classifying themselves as people that need help, that aren't actually in need, but they're trying to work the system. What? Uh huh. It was happening then, it was happening now. But if a widow, and here's the qualifications, but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents. For this is pleasing in the sight of God. Boy, let's get Paul crucified these days on Instagram, he's like, hey widows, if you got some kids, have your kids take care of you. Don't bother me with it. Let me tell you what this means in the 21st century for me and you. Take care of your mama and daddy, take care of your parents, man. They are not a burden. It is the fifth commandment to honor and respect your father and mother. They're the reason that we're here. They are not an inconvenience. They are the reason that we are here. And listen, I'm not anti. Every family is in a different situation. And for sure there are times when caring for your parents gets beyond your own capacity, depending on the situation. And you need some outside professional help. Praise God. Just don't ever forget them. Don't ever give up on them. I mean, one of the reasons that in the 1010 life we started the senior adult ministry. We got the varsity version and the JV version is. Because around here at 11:22, we ain't gonna give up on our seniors, man, listen, if you're a senior, I will walk over a young family to get to meet some other gray heads. You understand what I mean? You grandparents and great grandparents, we love you. We're for you. Thank you for leaning into the Great Commission and helping us be the church. And I want to give a special shout out to our 11 different assisted living facilities and nursing homes that worship with us every single week. We love you and you are a part of the family and you are not forgotten. We love you and we're standing on your faithfulness and your shoulders. All right, back to widows, verse 5. Boy, this is thin ice. Ready? She who is truly a widow. That means there's some people that, according to Paul, and they're like, you ain't a true widow in regards to the church. This is crazy, isn't it? She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplication and prayers night and day again. Here's what would happen. He's going to talk about this in a second. There were certain people. He's actually going to have an age qualification in a minute. I'll tell you what that is in a little while. And he's saying, hey, listen, if you're a godly woman, then what you're gonna do, and you don't have any family to take care of you, your church is your family, and we're gonna take care of you, and you're gonna help take care of the church, and we're gonna create this new relationship together, and we're going to be family together. Listen, if you are a widow or a widower here, man, we love you. I can't imagine. I prayed with this lady a couple weeks ago when Pastor Adam was preaching. Every couple times a year, I try to bounce around different campuses and just. Man, just hug and high five people at all of our campuses. It's just one house, right? And I met this lady who had just lost her husband, been married 53 years. And for those of you that have lost a spouse, it's like having a part of your body amputated. I mean, my Bible says the two become one. And so we love you. We want to walk with you. We actually want to know who you are, no matter how old you are or what the circumstances are. You have a respond card in front of you. Would you just Let us know that you're a widow. As I'm praying through this week, I've talked to all the campus pastors. There's some things throughout the year that we are going to want to do for you, but we just got to know who you are. Now, as I was thinking and praying about this man, I mean, it got me all messed up. I've been all emotional lately. I don't know what's wrong with me. Getting old, man. Putting the men in menopause or something's wrong. Traveling too much, something. And we also have to fill out all this, you know, like all this wheels and all this kind of junk. You know, what happens when you die. I gotta be very careful how I say this. I want me and Gretchen to live a long time. Okay? For sure. No doubt. And that age keeps changing. Cause what I used to think was old doesn't seem as old anymore. Like, I used to think 90 was a thousand. Have you met Dr. Paul? He ain't old. I mean, he's old, but the man's going. I mean, he just got back from another missionary. He texted me the other day, I don't know where he is. He'll be at one of the services. He texts me. He's like, hey, we're gonna get some land in Malawi. Cause I wanna build another medical clinic. I was like, did you say Malawi? Most people your age who were doctors get land in Maui and don't do anything. You want to go to Malawi and do medical clinics, Right? That's probably why he ain't old, you understand? Because he never quit. Anyway, so as I'm thinking all this, I want me and Gretchen to obviously have a long, long, long life. And I want to outlive her for one reason. I want every day of her life to live under my provision and protection period. I want to be able to take care of her every day of her life from the moment she said yes to me until the moment she goes to be with the Lord. So when. So the widows and widowers, man, when you lose that, I'm telling you, oh, the hurt, the hurt, the hurt. And you should run to your church family, and your church family is here to help. And then Paul says in verse six, but you're like, paul, I don't think I'd put a but there right now, man. Yeah, just put a period and say, cool, but there was a group of people that were trying to take advantage of the church. Or there was a group of people that were not doing right by their own family. And Then they were. They expect the church to fill in where their family was being negligent. And Paul's a dude, man. He says, but she who is self indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. Like, dang, Paul, he's gonna call it like you see it. He's gonna pull no punches. He'll explain it in a little while. And then he says this. This is a powerful verse. He says, if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So in this context, it means, take care of your mama, take care of your grandma. That's what it means. Don't expect the church to do for you what you ought to be doing for you. That's what it means. But I think this also applies to us, generally speaking. And since this is the year that we're supposed to stand firm and act like men. Men. Tune in real quick. You are not allowed to be lazy. You are not allowed to advocate the responsibility to your family. Because if you do not provide for your household, you have denied the faith and is worse. You are worse than an unbeliever. I don't care how many worship nights you come to think about this, an unbeliever goes to hell. Apparently there's a basement. There's something worse. And you got fish stickers on your car, but your car's parked at the house. Cause you don't work. There's a real problem. It's a great responsibility to be called, to be a man, to provide and to protect. To be the prophet, the priest and the servant king. And by the way, wives and children, nothing will honor dad and the husband like a little bit of gratitude with your words. Like speaking words that bring life. So for all of us, when's the last time you said thank you? Hey, grown adult people like me, this would be a great time to get out your phone if your parents are living, regardless of how old they are, and throw a thank you. Thanks for all that you have done for me. And you're like, yeah, but you don't know my dad. I get it, man. I get it. Listen, respect is earned. Honor is given. You can honor people who were your parents. I know none of our parents are perfect. Do you realize I know you think you're a great person. Your children are my kids. My kids. Let's talk about my kids. My kids are gonna be in counseling blaming all their crap on Me too. I get it, man. But your parents are trying to do the best they could with what they have. Saying thank you helps men. Are you providing for your family? And I've had some men, especially older men, be like, well, you know what? I provide food and shelter. Possums do that for their children. Do you understand? That's a part of it, but it doesn't stop there. How about provide life with your words? How about pray over your people? How about pray for them? How about lead with love? How about lead with time with the people you love? How about this? When you walk in the room, does peace walk in with you? And if it's not, it's your responsibility to provide that kind of atmosphere for your family. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. And now Paul is going to get very specific about how to take care of widows. Says this in verse nine, Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age. In Hebrew, you were old when you were 60. Do you know how old you have to be now to be old? Ain't no way. I don't know. I don't know. I think you get to play from the senior T's at 55. That sounds young. I've already. They send me AARP cards me now. As soon as they start giving discounts to Christians in Arms and Kuyu, I'll sign up. But until then, I'm offended, okay? I don't know what old is in Hebrew. It was 60. In other words, today I don't know. 80 is the new 60. I don't know what it is, but it says, let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband. That literally means that she was faithful to her husband. Because Paul in Corinthians and later here is going to say, if you're widowed and get married again, praise God for that. So it doesn't mean that you've only been married once. It means that you have been a faithful wife. Anne, having a reputation for good works, if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work, but refused to enroll younger women. For when their passion draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies saying what they should not. This was like real housewife widows of Ephesus. That's what was going on there. Here's what he's saying. Okay, don't get all caught up too much. Paul is saying there's got to be some kind of standard that the church sets to help filter through who is a true widow, who are they going to help, and who's trying to take care of the system. And what would happen here is the ones that they deemed true widows, people that actually didn't have anybody to take care of them and were good godly women, they would enter into an agreement where these folks would serve the church as they were taken care of and served. And what they were saying to the younger ones is this. There were so many younger women apparently in Ephesus that their highest priority was not Jesus. Their highest priority was some man. And they left the church and left the faith because they married some man and they ran off and followed him. That's what they're saying. And so this was particular to the church of Ephesus. The question at the church of 1122 is, so how do we help people in need? Not just widows, but anybody in need. How do we help people in need? Our primary strategy, There's a couple, but there's. Our primary strategy is honestly, we're not necessarily experts in meeting people's needs. And so what we have decided to do is we partner with a whole bunch of organizations that are experts in meeting specific needs. And because of our generosity as a church, then what we do is we help support these organizations. As you know, this last year we finished up a two year discipleship journey called the 1010 Life. And it was about church life. We're going to keep making disciples and make disciples and make disciples. It was about eternal life that we were going to plant churches and send missionaries and launch campuses everywhere we can. And then the last part was about abundant life, that we were going to fight for life from womb to tomb and everybody in between. And so because of your generosity, our goal in that whole thing, our primary goal is every single person involved in the church would give sacrificially, would bring their first and best to the Lord as an act of worship. And our secondary goal is that we were believing God for $110 million over two years to accomplish all the things we thought he was going to accomplish through us. And way to go. What ended up coming in was just over $133 million you were north of the goal. About $23 million. Praise God for that. And because of nothing like spattering applause for 23 million extra. Don't tell my church plan friends. Don't worry about it. No, that's. And I know it's weird. What do you do? Clap for you. Be like, we are. We are the best, aren't we? Okay, I get it. But because of your generosity, because of our bringing first and best to the Lord, here are some organizations that we helped help people. And it's a bunch of them. The 1010 project that helps pastors not lose their mind. All Nation Soccer. Angelwood Anglican Diocese of New England. We're helping Anglicans. Good Lord, they need help. Amen. Vinci Arise. Together. Better together. Biddy and Bose, Boys and Girls Club. Charis House. Clay County Rescue Mission. Coach's Honor Fellowship, Adventures Fellowship of Christian Athletes. First Coast Women's Services. 2,672 babies were saved because of your generosity. Guardian Community. Hadassah's Hope, Heartfelt Ministry, Hersong Leadership Network, LifeWork Leadership, Living Waters, Lone Warrior, Nathaniel's Hope, Night to Shine, One More Child. Operation New Hope Project Savior Outdoors Recovery, RX Rethreaded Safe harbor, cmark, the Sin Network, Shane's Crib, Discipleship and Recovery Center. Skylark Clinic sponsored by Grace St. Gerard Campus. The Bacelli Foundation. By the way, he's going to turn the Jags around. Pray for him. He goes here anyway. The Will King Foundation. The Tim Tebow Foundation. The Wurfel Foundation. That's two gators in a row. We're a movement for all people. Trinity Rescue Mission, True Life Care, Villages of Hope. And those are just the local ones. Globally, we help support 6, 8 ministries, convoy of Hope Crew, East West Ministries International. Equipping Leaders, International Frontiers, InterVarsity Launch International Loved One Manus, the FAE Mission of Hope, Modern Day Missions, ECOA Refuge, Overland Missions, Paulist Group, Pioneers Resourcing, Christian Educational International, Reliant Rise Church, Seeds of Hope, Root for Life Mission Corporation, Waves of Hope and Compassion International. All of that. Praise God for all of that. Why? Because, I mean, that's what we do. That's what we're supposed to do. Now, two kind of off topic things. I mean, Paul does it. This is not my fault. Very controversial things Paul deals with in the last two sentences that you're going to either love or hate. So verse 14, here's what he says. I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their household and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan, if you're a younger woman, look at me in the face, okay? And if you're like, what is younger? Just you decide for yourself. Paul says I would have younger widows. This applies to younger women. Marry, bear children, manage your household, and give the adversary no occasion for slander, for some have already strayed. All right, I'm on thin ice. You ready for this, ladies? I mean, what do I know? But you have been sold a bill of goods by this world. This world is lying to you. The most important thing in your life will never be your career. Ever, ever, ever. And all the sociological evidence is keeping up with it. And you have been sold a bill of goods and don't believe it. The most important thing in your life, first and foremost, is gonna be your relationship with Jesus. And then whatever time you have left over, that you're going to give to your family, your husband and your children. And if you're not married, your church family, and then whatever you have left over for that is going to go to your career. I'm telling you, man, because God has a purpose and a plan for you. And listen, you're not a trad woman. If you want to get married and make babies, you're just called a Christian. You're just an image bearer of the most High King. Now, can and should a woman have a career, 100%, if the Lord calls you to that. It's very biblical. Lydia was knocking it down. Phoebe was a boss. The Proverbs 31 woman, she got enough cash in the bank to throw it into the family account. Okay, that's not what we're talking about. But their first and their best went to Jesus, and then they were called to their family, and then there was a career. And husbands is actually the same thing for you, too. Jesus gets our first. Our family is what we are called to. And then we give ourselves to our career. So if you find that offensive, pray about it. Secondly, Paul says, if any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her take care for them. Let the church not be burdened so that it may care for those who are truly widows. People would be appalled to hear that these days. And I want to spell it like appalled, because this is what Paul said. All right? If this gets taken, this is probably going to. I'm probably going to be on some hit list now, but I don't care. Ready? This is going to blow your mind. The primary role of the church is not to help people. That's what Paul says. Man, if y' all could take care of these widows, the church could be about what the church is supposed to be about. The Paul is not. The church is not primarily. The church is primarily here to bring glory to God through the great commission of making disciples, that make disciples, that make disciples. Now, do we help people? Of course we help people as a product of being a disciple of Jesus Christ because Jesus helped us. And if you pay attention, churches that take their eye off the gospel and they prioritize the needs of people over the Bible and glorifying God end up being able to do neither because Jesus will remove his lampstand where he is not high and lifted up. Let me tell you how this breaks down. When we started this church, some of you were here, okay, we raised. We actually raised $5 million. We needed $4 million to build out the Walmart. So we gave a million back to beach, saying, thank you, thank you, thank you for letting us grow up here, right? And there were people that write articles in the paper. They'd be like $4 million. What are they thinking? Do you know what you could do with $4 million? You could give it away one time. We could have given it away one time and not done a church. I think I'd go to prison because we raised money to build a church, but whatever, okay, so you know what we did, though? We invested it in creating a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And now if you just took Compassion International alone, we sponsor 21,000 kids. I did the math. That's $12 million every single year that we invest to rescue children from poverty in Jesus name. But we don't exist to rescue children from poverty. What we exist for is the glory of God through the Great Commission. And of course, saved people become a part of the rescue team and feed and care for and love the widow and the orphan and do everything we can. And as evidence that we are the church, that is not the primary function of the church. I hope that makes sense. See Acts, chapter six. There were some Grecian widows that weren't getting fed. And the preachers were like, we ain't got time to go feed them. We gotta preach and pray. And so they equipped some people. They called out some people. We call them deacons. Deacon doesn't mean power broken, you broker, you Southern Baptist. It means dirty foot washer. And then those dirty foot washers went and fed the people while the preachers preached and prayed. And guess what happened? And the church grew and grew and grew day by day. So here are your action steps, okay? Try to Be really practical. Are you in need? If the answer is yes, then I would say, then my next question is, are you in a disciple group? Cause I told you. I told you if you didn't get in a disciple group, I said, one day you're gonna come to me and you'll be like, I need help. And I'm gonna say, are you in a disciple group? And you. And you're gonna go, nah, I didn't do that. I'm like, ah, what are you doing? It is the primary front line of how this big old. There'll be 25,000 people sitting in seats and 50,000 people watching online live this weekend. It's crazy, right? It's a big old organization. And what you need to do is shrink that thing down to about eight or 10 people sitting around in circles, caring for each other and praying for each other. That is the first line of care. Are you in a disciple group? Okay. And if you wait till you need one, it's like a retirement account. It's too late. You need to get in it right now. And still we're not gonna see Paul's meaner. Paul would be like, well, you're out. We're gonna be a little bit nicer. If you're in need, you fill out a respond card or you text the word CARE to 441122. We have 688 CARE team members ready to walk with you. It's our largest volunteer team by far. Okay. If you see somebody with a blue badge, they care, and they've actually been trained to help walk with you. It's one of my greatest concerns about our church. Years ago, I hired Chris Gerard, who now runs our senior adult ministry. And the reason I put him in charge of that is you put your best people in charge of the most important stuff. Chris Gerard is the best man. He was the campus pastor here for a long time. I'm just. Everything he does is good. He's the best, all right. And I don't give him very many compliments. I don't know where he is. I hope he's not listening. So. And I was convicted. I was praying for him. I was praying for him and his family, and he was part of the church, but we weren't paying him. He was just volunteering to do stuff. I'm like, lord, what am I gonna do with that dude? And I'm telling you, the Lord said, chaplain. And I was like, what? Churches don't have chaplains? So I called him, I said, figure out how to be a Chaplain, I'm still not promising you a job, but go figure it out. So he came back. He's like, all right, I'm credentialed. And that's why we hired him. The reason we hired him is because I wanted to make sure every single person that considered 1122 to be their church, if they needed help, we had people equipped to help. And guess what? I can't do it. I don't even get to hang out with the people that live with me and share my last name as much as I think I ought to. I can't be everywhere all the time. But we have 688 care people ready to come help you. So if you need help, utext word care to 441122. I also, if your marriage is a mess, we have marriage mentors for you. We're also piloting a group with grief share. So if you're going through it, man, we want to be here to walk with you. So if you're in need, you do that. Now, this part is probably more important. So what are you doing to help people in need? I've been telling you, don't you show up critical to a church that you're not willing to do something about it. That's not a caring church. Who are you caring for? Here's some ways that you can help serve the needs of this family. Give, Give. And I get it. You're like, why would you give? We're 23 million over right now. Listen, man, we don't sit on anything. We got four campuses under construction. We're going and going and going. Hell is hot. Forever's a long time. There's a bunch of lost people. We got a lot to do. All right, so. But listen, when you bring your first and best, all we're going to do is make disciples and plant churches and love and care for one another as our family expands and expands and expands. One of the best things you can do to care for people is bring your first and best here at the church of 1122. I gave you the big list of all the things. Or sign up to serve. If you go to our website, there's a place that says serve. And if you click on it, there's three categories. Serve our church, serve our community, Serve the world. Do one of those things. Do one of those things. You want to be a part of the solution of the pain that people have gone through. And listen to me. Especially if you've been through it, man. If you're clean and sober and you were addicted, you should be one of the first ones to sign up and serve. If you've been through the trauma of a divorce, whether it was your fault or his fault or her fault, you should be one of the first ones to say, you know what? God can use the pain that I have been through to help somebody else find the peace that can only be found in Christ. Oftentimes. And you're like, I don't know what to say. It's not even that. Sometimes what somebody needs that has lost a child, what somebody needs that's got a diagnosis of cancer, what somebody needs that is in a financial struggle, they just need hope. The Bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick. And the reason they don't have hope is they can't formulate in their mind even a picture of what God's future might look like. And then you come walking in the door and they go, God did it in them. And here's what's crazy about a sovereign God. I don't have time to go through it, but I wish I could go through the life of Joseph from the Old Testament. He went through trial after trial after trial. Some of them were his own fault. He was beaten up, he was battered, he was sold into slavery. He was human trafficked. He was accused of rape. When he wasn't, he didn't. He was innocent. He was falsely in prison. He was forgotten about in prison. And yet God used all of those terrible circumstances in Joseph's life to put him a place of ministry one day. And one day he's standing in front of his brothers, the very guys that got him into this mess, and they all thought he was going to kill him. And he had the faith to say this, am I not in the place of God? What you intended for evil, God intended for good. No matter what pain you have walked through, God wants to use it for his glory and the help of other people. And so I need you to help me take care of the family. So serve. Give, give, give, give till it hurts. Because hurting people need it. To the glory of God and serve. Glorify God by giving your time and your experience and your effort to say, all right, God, here I am. Send me. And then another thing you could do, like right now, do. One of the greatest ways you can serve people in need is in prayer. I think some of the best ministry that happens at the church of 1122, and there's all kind of ministry that happens internationally and weekend services and disciple groups. I think some of the best ministry, like supernatural Ministry like God, the spirit of God, ministering a peace that transcends all understanding kind of ministry at the church of Living 1122 is at the close of our services, some of you right now are in need. And what you really need is some brother or sister to come alongside you and to pray with you. Some of you know somebody two seats over and you know that they are in need. And one of the greatest things that you can do is pray. You pay no attention to the secular world that says, we need more than your thoughts. Are you kidding? Our prayers are the foundation for God to move in ways that just physical action would never be enough. So every single week we close, right? We sing and we bring and we pray. And so when you walked in here today, did you walk in like this thing's a hotel, you're gonna receive goods and services, or did you walk in like this was your home? Cause you know if you had a brother and sister in need, you would put your arm around them and you, you would pray for them. So would you please stand? I'm going to pray for you. And then we're going to respond. Our good and gracious heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you that you have brought us into this family, Lord, specifically to the widows and the widowers in here. Lord, I thank you that you have a special place in your heart. Lord, I pray the people peace of God that transcends all understanding in their life. God, I pray that you would guard their hearts and guard their minds. And God, I pray that maybe you would open them up just a little bit to receive the love of the brothers and the sisters and the church family that you have surrounded them with. And God, I pray that you would give us the church eyes to see people in need and we would run to it just like. Like you ran to us. And God, other people in need right now. Lord, I thank you that when we are in need, we can run to you. We don't have to get our act together and then show up all polished up. God, we come to you just as we are knowing that you are near to the brokenhearted, knowing that you can do things in our hearts and our lives that nothing on the outside can do. And God, I thank you that we don't have to do this alone. That you have called us into not just a family, but your eternal family. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. So church we're going to bring. It's one of the greatest ways you could serve this community and the globe unto the glory of God. Is that you could bring sacrificially saying, all right, God, it's just a little, little bit. It's just, it's just a couple of fishes and loaves. But I know that you can do miracles with this. And we're going to sing, we're going to lift our voices together as one church and a whole bunch of locations and people worshiping with us all over the world. We're going to imagine this. It's like one big family prayer. We're all praying the same words at the same time and we going to pray. So either you go grab somebody and say, I'm going to pray for you, or if you need prayer, just grab somebody. If you, you don't know anybody, just grab some random person. I believe God is going to providentially help you grab the right person and you come down here and you pray together. Let's bring, let's sing, let's pray, let's respond. The reality is everything already belongs to God. And when we give financially, we're acknowledging that we trust him. If you just watch this and feel led. To make a donation, text the word donate to 4411222 or visit coe22.com. Donate your generosity is not only an act of worship, but an investment so all people can discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.