Good morning, Saints. Boy, it is summer time. It is hot and humid. Holy cow, where does humidity come in from?
It is just wild and rain, rain, rain. But it's summer time. So what does summer time mean around Grace Meeting Fellowship? It means time for the Bible.
Every summer we do a book of the Bible. Why is that important? Because we need to know the Word of God. This summer we're going to do first Timothy, next summer we're going to do second Timothy.
So here's my challenge to you to add to your daily reading list the Book of First Timothy. On Monday, chapter 1, Tuesday 2, Wednesday 3, down the line. And by the time we're done with this, you should know the first book of First Timothy very, very well. Thank you for the six of you who said amen.
Hold on a second. You're laughing about that. We're going to get to that for a second because this series is not just something that we do in our church. You say, well, okay, I'm coming to Grace.
It's summer time we're going to do a book of the Bible. Now listen, we are a Bible believing church. If you don't know the Bible, you can't be a Bible believing church. You can't be a Bible practicing individual.
You can't be a Bible preaching preacher if you don't read the Bible. Don't leave the Bible. And you really can't call yourself a Christian if you don't read your Bible. We got quite all of a sudden.
Church, here's the deal. As I prepared for this, I thought I'm going to start in First Timothy and I think it's where I'm going to start. The Holy Spirit said no, start in Hosea 4-6. Hosea 4-6 is why we do what we do in the summer series.
And let's read this together. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. I love the Amplified. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge of my law where I reveal my will.
Because you, the priestly nation, have rejected knowledge. I will also reject you from being my priest. Since you've forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. That sounds like a lot of things we're dealing with in the world today.
The church has been chugging and chugging and chugging along, but the church has forgotten the word of God. Or not just forgotten the word of God. We've gotten so lax and dasical with the word of God that we forget what the word of God says. God reveals His will in the word of God.
I'm just not sure what to do. It's here in the word of God. If we don't read it, we don't get a hold of it, then we're destroyed. You're destroyed.
Well, our God is a loving God. He is a loving God. But He also says this is the way things work. And so many Christians say, well pastor, I hear that.
That's Old Testament. He set the pattern up and the pattern continues to go forward. But so many folks sit here and go, okay, I got this. Listen, church, when God's people are destroyed, it's because God doesn't love us.
It's because anything else, or He doesn't love us, it's simply this. How I say it is saying is people of God are not completely ignorant. Oh, that's a big one. Why is that a big one?
Because very simply it's this. There's a lot of church folks who say, I know parts of the Bible. I know different pieces of the Bible. I haven't studied the Bible very much, but I just know just enough.
I've been in church for x number of years. Listen, I just have a passion I've heard this. Oh, Michael, I've been in church for so many years. Yeah, and so on Sunday mornings, you don't bring your Bible with you.
I don't even bring my Bible with me or take notes. I got a great memory. Let me ask your wife a simple question. When she sends you to H.E.B.
How many times do you call her and say, now what was that again you needed? Can you ascend to me a picture of the label? Can you get on your H.E.B. and tell me what aisle that's on?
Can you guys know what that I'm talking about? Oh pastor Michael, we have screens. We have a screen. So why should I bring my Bible to church with me?
One of my favorite one, oh pastor Michael, I have my cell phone with me. That's true. And your friends are texting you while you're in church. You're scrolling Facebook and Instagram.
And you got all this and her pieces. This is why we do what we do. So if you want a subtitle for first Timothy verse chapter one is this, defending the faith. Defending the faith.
Because Paul is telling Timothy to defend the faith. To get a hold of the faith and to defend what we believe in. Church, that's what I want to do is I want to defend the faith in first Timothy of chapter one. Every simply Paul's letter to Timothy was written somewhere between 62 and 64 AD.
Does that make a difference on timeframes? Oh, it makes a big difference on timeframes. It makes a big difference on the history of these things. I could go into a professor mode and start talking history and talking about timelines and you would go, I just want to give you some highlights in that.
And we're going to take the scriptures apart and very simply destroy some things that you think, I thought I believed this. I thought I knew this. Let's let's start here in verse Timothy one one. Paul, an apostle of Christ used by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.
To Timothy my true son of the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Now if you have your Bibles with you, listen I'm going to encourage you to highlight underlined the circle things that you need to pop out at you as you read but also as we go through this. Because here in verse one it's very important you understand something Paul is describing himself. Now Stephen Pitts and I went to a funeral one time we went to another church and we just introduced ourselves as Michael Lemas and Stephen Pitts.
Well we got around some other people and go, oh I'm pastor so and so. Oh I'm a bishop of so and so. We just kind of went great. Thank you we were pastors but we didn't have to introduce ourselves as pastors.
Because shepherds don't use them as shepherds they shepherds. They don't need to tell people what they do. So why is Paul telling people what why is Paul telling Timothy and this whole congregation. Why is he telling this because very simply this is not just a letter to Timothy this is letter to the Ephesian church.
And Paul is saying listen you understand what my authority is what my credentials are. I'm an apostle not in my authority by the authority of Christ Jesus commanded by God. I'm only here today Paul is telling Timothy because God called me to this. And again when you read first Timothy we understand why Paul is telling Timothy things and why it's important.
Because he's an apostle number one commanded by God but if you know Paul's background. AKA Saul. Oh if he was Saul he was a mess. But now he's the apostle Paul he's a different man.
He wanted to encourage Timothy but he also wanted to be read to the Ephesian church. And those of us who've read our Bibles understand why he wants to read to the Ephesian church. Because what Paul happens here is this Paul gets out of prison. Yes I said prison.
Paul was in prison. Oh well hold on a second Paul is in prison that is called by a super ministry. Okay so Paul was in prison he gets out of prison he comes to Ephesus and his worst thoughts come to pass. Paul was not necessarily a prophet but he prophesied this very fact.
Acts 20 29 through 30. I know that after I leave savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. Paul said this in Acts and God sees it happen here in 1 Timothy saying God I told you it was going to happen.
Savage wolves are going to come among you and teach nonsense. And why did they get pulled away? Because they didn't know the word of God. How is it that somebody can get pulled away from the things of God because they don't know the word of God.
It's easy to convince somebody of all kinds of nonsense. I can put on the screen Proverbs 32 verse 7. There is no Proverbs 32. There is no verse 7.
It's me going oh what's that going to be? See what I mean? This is what Paul said in Timothy. Savage wolves can come among you but if you don't know the word of God you're in trouble.
People can half quote, partial quote, misquote, distort quote, all this stuff. And what drives me crazy is TikTok, sorry for all you TikTok people. If you use it for good I'm okay with that. But I listen to people send me clips and things and things on TikTok and I'm going on biblical, unbiblical, unbiblical, unbiblical.
How much do they listen to that? Everybody's got to podcast these days. No background, no fruit of their life but they got to podcast. And they're talking away on the podcast and if you're going man this is a great real I'm going, dude all I do is turn my Bible open and say right here in this verse and that destroys that entire podcast.
Listen sir, I'm talking about defending the faith this morning. I'm talking about this and defending our faith but not just defending our faith but knowing what the word of God says. Knowing why it's said, knowing why it's done there. Because Paul says hey guys, false teachers are coming among you and Paul deal with them personally.
But Paul left Timothy there to say, Timothy you've got to carry this out. God's called me over to Macedonia. And you're here, you're a young man. You've got to do what I've called you to do.
You've got to do what Father God's called you to do. Well I'm only 16 years old. You're a young man of faith. Paul is telling Timothy you're young but you can defend your faith.
So if you're a young person here this morning don't give me the excuse. I'm young. Very simply walk in the word of God and say I can defend the faith that God gave me because I know the word of God. I had one of those father conversations yesterday with Aubrey.
We're driving and she's calling me. She says, Dan, I want to talk to you about something. I think, well this is interesting. We're in Washington DC.
My first thought I hate to tell you this is my first thing in my brain was, oh there's a young man. That's the first thing in my brain. She said, she puts honor account on Dad called me. I think, well interesting, okay.
And something in this is not normal. This is not on a Saturday when no one's around. I think, oh my gosh. She said, no Dad.
I'm just struggling with something. I said, okay, well you're struggling with it. I know what you would tell me. She said, well really it's not what you would tell me.
You would tell me what the Bible says. I said, you're right. You and Mom have taught us how to put the guardrails up. You and Mom have taught us the word of God.
I know the word of God. I know what you're going to say here. Because my advice in my counsel is never of Michael's thoughts in counsel. It's always the word of God.
Oh come on church. Paul is telling Timothy, use the word of God. Good parents in Grace Community Fellowship, good Christian parents, use the word of God. Not to beat people up, but to bring life to our children, to our children, to our grandchildren.
Well in my day, this is what I used to do. Well in the word of God it says this, your day and the word of God may conflict. And I'm going to encourage you to stand on the word of God. Come on.
So Paul tells him to be bold. Well Paul himself was bold. Did you notice right there in verse 1? What's in verse 1?
It's crazy. Right there in verse 1 he says, our Savior. Well why does that make a big deal about our Savior? Well if you don't know the time and you don't know what's going on, that word Savior was used for the Roman emperor Nero.
You would only call Nero Savior. And Paul says, listen Timothy, here's the deal. Everybody's forced to call Nero Savior, but here's the real deal. The Savior is Jesus Christ, our God.
Paul is saying, Nero up yours. Oh that's strong from the pulpit. The apostle Paul is saying it here. Paul is saying it here.
He's saying, Nero forget you. When the world, when the government, when things are saying, listen, listen, do these things in the wrong demonic way, the church says, forget you. We're going to do what the word of God says. But if we don't know what the word of God says, how do we do it?
Come on bold Christians. Well Pastor, I'm just not sure. Listen, come sit down with me. Let's have conversation.
Let's get a whole description. And let's walk through things so you can defend your faith. Douglas and I were having lunch on Thursday and I'll be honest with you. Half of what Douglas said, I have no idea what he said.
Because I was so aggravated. I was so aggravated by a simple thought was this. That was two Jehovah Witnesses sitting two tables away from me trying to indoctrinate somebody I know. And aggravated by me, I almost want to walk over there and I can't be that rude.
That rude. I can't be that rude. That rude. I can be rude.
I can be disrespectful. I know. I want to walk over there and say, you dogs. You rude a viper.
Listen, that's the stuff that's got to stir inside of us with the truth. And as I'm watching this thing, I'm seeing the person that I know is beginning to ask them questions. You can see he's inquisitive. I'm going to go into the real battle here.
One person who's interested, they're feeding him a bunch of nonsense. So it's not going to be any good in the moment. But if I see him around town, which I will, he's a little straight over from me. I'll see him pretty soon.
Say, what in the world are you doing? How hard is to say that? What in the world are you doing? Why is it sometimes we're afraid to confront people who we know are living in un-biblical lives?
With a simple question, what in the world are you doing, Tom? You know better than that. You know what the word of God says? Defending the faith.
Oh boy, man. Verse one. And we're not going through all of verses this morning. Don't get nervous.
I was going to break it all down. No, I'm not. Verse two. Listen, in the book of Acts, it tells us in Acts 16, one of three is on the board.
I give it to you for reference. Acts 16, one of three, it tells us that Timothy came from life through the province in Galatia. And very simply, his father was Greek and his mother was Jewish. Could you imagine growing up in that home?
Which way do I get pulled? Well, what always happens, dad's listening to me, what always happens, it seems, mama and grandma got ahold of him. Mama and grandma got ahold of him and they taught him the scriptures. They got ahold of him.
And you think, oh, it sounds like Paul got ahold of mom and grandma. It's just like, here it is. It's just a wonderful thing. When you stop and think about moms, grandmas, moms, grandmas, come on.
Hey, listen, you beat the tar out of us when we were acting up. Who? You beat the tar out of us when we were at the dinner table. But where's the mama's and grandma's now beating the tar out of the kids who are living on biblical?
It's just the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Years ago, and I say, well, years ago, how many years ago, 30, 40 years ago when I was a young guy, and 19 years old, and going, you're here to say, man, I love my grandma. My grandma pranked me in. Mama, she pranked me in.
Come on, grandma, come on, mama spray them in. Come on. And what's so important here is this, mamas and grandmas and daddy's now. Come on, dad, come on, grandpas.
Well, this church is a different animal. In most churches, it'd be a bunch of women. I'd be preaching too. And people can tell you different churches we go to and do different foreign nations.
There's a lot of women in those churches. But not here. It's time for men to be men. It's time for the men of God to step up, be the men of God, and begin to take back their communities.
Take back what God's given us. That's the calling on this church that God's called this church to do. Amen? Oh, I'm glad I'm excited about that.
And listen, and in the same verse, it says very simply, it says, grace, peace, and mercy. It's the only time that you see these words together, grace, peace, and mercy in a greeting there for Timothy and for Titus. Guess what pastors need? These are called pastoral letters.
Grace, peace, and mercy. And Paul is telling Timothy to you, Timothy, you, Titus, grace, peace, and mercy. I'm not asking for your mercy. Paul is telling you to give your pastors grace, peace, and mercy.
Amen? John traps us this, not only grace and peace as to others, when we pray for ministers, we must be more than ordinarily earnest for them with God. These three are joined together, only in the epistles of Timothy and Titus. Very simply, those are tied together.
And very simply, God is saying to him, hey, buddy, you're going to need all the mercy you can get. Why is that? He's a young guy. And I told this to Andrew Andrew a few years ago, when he came on and told him, he said, what would your biggest piece of advice to me would be?
I said, in your first year, he said, yeah, I said, make all the mistakes you can make. He said, what? Because again, young guys, I was one at one time. I don't make any mistakes.
I'm going to do everything possible not to make a mistake. Make all the mistakes you can make the first year, Andrew. Why is that? Because people have all kind of mercy the first year.
Because year two, mercy disappears. And then when Sam came on, I said, Sam, here's my piece of advice for you the first year. Make as many mistakes as you can make and say, oh, I'm not going to make any mistakes. And he made mistakes like all of us have.
Very simply. And he's kind of like, oh, they're a fight not to do that. I said, well, you've got to learn now because in year two, here it comes. So Douglas comes on Sam.
And Douglas says, any advice that, oh, yeah, make as many mistakes as you can the first year? Okay, I got it. A few weeks ago, he preached. He said, what do you think?
I said, that's your worst message. What? That's the base. And he's going to grow from there.
He's going to develop from there. And I said, here's what's going to be funny. The congregation's going to tell you what a phenomenal job you did. They're going to encourage the daylights at you for your first message.
And the second message, if it's just as good, they'll encourage you. But if it's not, then it's just going to, the mercy drops. I think Paul knew he was talking about. Amen?
Let's keep going forward. Verse 3 through 11. Boy, I hope you're having fun with this so far. Listen, I want you to break some things apart, but I also want you to learn how to defend the faith, but also learn how to use this properly.
Here we go. Verse 3. As I urge you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer. Or to vote themselves to myths and inletinologies, such things from a controversial speculation rather than advancing God's work, which is by faith.
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and good conscience and sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about, or what they are so confidently affirmed. We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
Praise God. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous, but for the lawbreaker and the rebels. Pause, stop. That's a big one.
That's a huge one. And here's the big question that's even bigger than that statement is this. How do you see yourself? Because there are Christians who still sit in the chair and say, I'm a sinner.
I haven't been a sinner since 1992. Amen. I was made righteous by the blood of Jesus on June 23rd, 1992. I'm righteous in God.
Am I perfect? Am I holy? No. But when I mess up 1 John 1 9 says, if I confess to my sins, God is faithful and just forgive me of all unrighteousness, and I'll make clean right again.
So if you're one of those Christians who believes this nonsense, well, I'm a sinner saved by grace, then that's your problem right there. And the law affects you. Because you see yourself as a sinner. You were righteous, holy, redeemed.
When I got up here, I said, good morning saints, and I was kind of like, ooh, saints, I'm not a saint. Yes, you are. Because you're righteous in God. And if you're not going to live that way, then guess what?
You better live according to the law and you better be perfect according to the law because you're in trouble. We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is not made for the righteous, but for lawbreakers and rebels. The ungodly and sinful.
The unholy and irreligious. For those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traitors, and liars, and purgers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine. That confirms in the Gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God which he entrusted to me. Timothy defend the faith.
Timothy break through to those people who don't understand that they are made righteous through the blood of Jesus. Those people who want to play the game of the law, then make them live according to the law. That's big. And his job was to what?
Make sure they had a correct doctrine. Many of you have come to discovery days and we ask you to read the doctrine. We say, oh yeah, we read it. I got it.
And I say, any questions? Never goes, no questions. You have no questions about the doctrine of the church. And some of us who have been here for 30 plus years ago, I'm hacking around with the doctrine is.
Let me encourage you. Go watch your discovery days book. Read through the doctrine of what we believe. What you say you believe.
Because if you say you believe it, then you can't call yourself a sinner saved by grace. You've got to call yourself righteous in God. Come on church. Edmond Burke said this.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Paul took Timothy to do something. Make sure that people don't teach the wrong doctrine. Concern yourselves with others and make sure they're telling people their truth.
Not to teach false doctrines. Not to devote yourselves to endless genealogies. Listen, I think witchcraft is alive in the church. You mean art church?
I hope not. But I think witchcraft is alive in the church. Let me just go ahead and go down a cultural deal here. Asians, one of the biggest things is this.
Don't touch a kid's head. That's where his glory is at. Well, mexians say awful. If I look at that baby, don't touch it.
I'm going to get sick. Same witchcraft. Same demonic nonsense. I'm going to roll an egg on you, crack it.
Sickness is going to the egg. All kinds of nonsense. My grandmother told me this. Would your grandmother tell you biblical?
I know she prayed for you. You loved her. Listen, there's some things I think we as Christians, just kind of, well it's family tradition. We bring it into the family.
We got quiet all of a sudden. Paul left the Ephesians church and knew this thing was going to happen. He knew what was going to happen. He knew what was going to happen.
Their doctrine is so, so important. Listen to me, church, doctrine is so important. You've got to know what your doctrine is. It's so important.
The culture we live in today, doctrine is not important. Doctrine doesn't mean anything. I've talked to Christians and I want to pull my hair out. A little bit I have left.
Makes me go crazy. They're almost sexual. It's none of my business. It's just a little sin.
Oh, Pastor Michael, I'm just going to avoid that. I think it's the question for today. I think it's the question for us in John 1838. What is the truth?
In our culture says whatever it means to you. Whatever it means to you. And the older generation had one standard of truth and the next generation had another standard of truth and the young people have another standard of truth and the next generation could have another standard of truth before there is no truth. Your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth.
My friend Leonard Ravenhill says this. I would rather stand with God and be judged by the world than stand with the world and be judged by God. Well, the culture saying this. Well, culture can say that.
The Bible says this and I'm going to go with the Bible. Well, Pastor Michael, that's just so outdated. That's so old fashioned. I've been talking about that on social media years ago.
I just want to laugh. You know, this church still believes that stuff? Yes! We still believe the Bible because it's still the word of God.
I mean, it's just amazing. And I would rather stand by me judged by God than to stand with the world. Oh, come on. Sound doctrine is important in church.
We've got to get this. We've got to understand what we believe. So I'm going to go back to verses 9 and 10. Because I think it's one of the things that's on the verge of our culture that I think is right here and we've got to defend the faith.
I think verses 9 and 10, I think there are things right here that we've got to put in place and make sure that we Christian understand what the word of God says. Okay? First word underline, there's word murders. Right?
Is it wrong for somebody to kill somebody? Absolutely. Is it bad for somebody to kill somebody, shoot somebody, shoot somebody, shoot somebody, absolutely. It doesn't make a difference.
But listen to me. I don't care if they're 30, 35, 15, 16, 17, or if they're three months in the womb. Murder is murder. Abortion and murder.
If you disagree with that, then you disagree with the word of God. Number one, let's do with that issue. And let me go ahead and throw it in there anyway so I'm already here. If you're a Democrat, you disagree with the word of God.
Well what do you mean, Pastor Michael? I'm a Democrat. The Democratic platform agrees that abortion is okay. If you've never read the doctrine, if you've never read the platform, say well I'm a born and bred Democrat my whole life, go read the platform, go read the doctrine and understand they're okay with murder.
Are you talking about Republican, not about right and wrong. What about Republican, not about right or wrong? Oh yeah, I mean don't get me excited. I know people who call me a bigot in race is all kinds of nonsense.
I don't care. Call me whatever you want to call me. Amen. Oh you're legalistic.
No the word of God is clear. Murderers. For the sexually immoral. Oh this is a good one.
Oh my God. Pastor Michael won't let me join the church. Why not? Well because I'm not married but I'm living with my partner.
Hello. I'm not going to disagree with the word of God. I disagree with you. I don't disagree with the word of God but I'm going to stand on the word of God and I'm going to be judged by God rather than culture.
And that's what we at church, just rap through the word of God. Come on. Well we went down that road, it's going down that road. Homosexuality.
Praise and homosexuality. The exact same thing. Romans 1, God tells us what this means. God tells us what this is.
Now listen to me church, I'm going to say to my boss right here in the middle of all this to say this. Listen, if you've been a part of this say, man I was a young girl or I was a young man and my girlfriend had an abortion. If it happened, repent. God's blood will cover you.
You can move forward from that. Amen. Amen. Well we were sexually immoral but we got married.
Praise God. Get married and move forward in God's blessing. It's like everything keeps falling apart. I wonder why.
They're not living in God's blessing. Well at one point I struggled with homosexuality. I was involved in homosexuality. God can deliver you.
God can set you free. Listen, you get a hold on to that because I'm going to get to a point where you should be with so much people. If any of these, if you had an abortion, murder, a few sexually immoral homosexuality are the next one. It's a slave trader, right?
I went and I thought, you know what that is? That's human trafficking. I told you it's human trafficking. They went and kidnapped people and they human trafficked them.
And they sold them. That's modern day America. Cartels have given up drugs and not forgiven in human smothered because money is a whole lot better. Or next one, liars and purgers.
I know this is what this is. This is blue but I'm going to say it's green all day long. And when you argue with me, I'm still going to tell you it's green. I'm going to argue, listen, those are all parts of it.
All of this went, heck I'm good. I'm not a murderer. I wasn't sexually immoral. I didn't practice homosexuality.
I'm not a human trafficker. Oh I don't want lying. Hello, here we are. Come on church.
Isn't that good? But here's the best part. The next verse is, verses 12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength that he considered me.
Who's me? This is Paul. He's considered me trustworthy. Appointing me to his service even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.
I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly. Along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I've shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners. Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example of those who would believe in him receive eternal life now to the king eternal immortal invisible the only God be honor and glory forever and ever.
Amen. I was a sinner. You were a sinner. Maybe right now you're a sinner.
Oh no. Oh, oh, oh. I did the over to you. Here's a card.
There's a card. I'm not a sinner. Hold on. Maybe right now you're living in sin.
But you can be set free. Well Pastor Mike, we don't understand. I did all these things. So what?
If you will confess your sin, get right with God. Everything can change. Everything can change. Spurgeon says this and you'll love this.
After Paul was saved, he became a foremost saint. The Lord did not allot him a second-class place in the church. Well, Pastor Michael, I did this and I imagine you can never see myself doing anything in the church. Then you mess with what I just read the scripture and you're not hearing what Charles Spurgeon is saying here.
He had been the leading sinner, but his Lord did not. Therefore say, I save you, but I shall always remember your wickedness to your disadvantage. Not so. I am faithful, putting him into the ministry and to the apostleship so that he was not a wit behind the very chief of the apostles.
Brother there is no reason why if you have gone very far in sin, you should not go equally far in uselessness. Oh, Pastor Michael, I was a sinner. Paul and I were buddies. We were running buddies.
We hug arms. I'm not sure if Paul was in front of me or I was in front of Paul, but I was a sinner. I was at a sinner with a capital S sinner. I was a 42 font sinner.
I was a 72 font sinner. My S was a big S. I had the S on my shirt. They wasn't Superman.
It was super sinner. Well, then guess what, brother? You should be a super saint now. Oh, I did all these horrible things.
Then you should be a trans person. Listen, I know some of you are like me or maybe you're not like me. Maybe I'm the only hard-hitting one in here. And I rest up like first Timothy and I go, Paul, I got you.
But Paul, I gotta give you some more of that, Paul. Second Corinthians 5 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. Well, I was a super sinner. You have what you're new in Christ. So stop talking about that sin all the time.
What I'm amazed at how many people who got delivered from God, all they talk about is the sin they used to do rather than the grace, mercy, and peace that God's given them, just delivered them. Boy, it's just amazing how that works. What a pastor. I don't know.
My past mistakes. What mistakes? What mistakes are you talking about? What am I past, Pastor Michael?
Listen, Tom, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, you know, when I was a young man. Tom, I'm sorry, I love you, bro. We're not young anymore.
When I was a young man, when you were a young man, you were sinful. But you gave your life to Christ and now you're righteous. So why don't you walk like a righteous person? Why don't you talk about righteous things?
Why don't you live a righteous life that people go, wow, where in the world did you come from? Well, I have classmates every time they see me, they're going, you're a pastor now? Yeah, I'm a pastor now. Like a real church?
Yeah, like a real church. You can come anytime you're in town. You can listen online. Michael, but we know you.
And we know your family's background. I said, yeah, you know all that nonsense. But I'm a new creation in Christ. And I think somebody needs to hear that this morning.
You're a new creation in Christ. I need to defend the faith of God and tell you you're a new creation in Christ. Oh, Pastor Michael, I'm not into that new King James stuff. Okay, let's go to the Amplified.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that is grafted in, joined to him by faith in him as Savior. He is a new creature, reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit. The old things, the previous moral and spiritual condition have passed away. Behold, new things have come because spiritual awakening brings a new life.
Yeah, thank you, Jesus. You said, thank you, Jesus. I once once once once, so were you. And guys delivered us.
Listen, so many churches are so afraid to do the word sin. They're actually just fearful of say sin or sin or tell people they're sinners. That list I just went through, most people went, oh my God, I would never talk about murderers or sexually immoral. I know people in my church who are living together.
I know people in my church who are having abortion. I know people, Pastor Michael, you're crazy. Yeah, you're right. I am.
I'm crazy about the word of God. And I'm not afraid to call a sinner a sinner. Why is that? Because I'm judgmental, no, because of this.
I call a sinner a sinner because I'm not going to be set free from sin so that they can move forward out of sin so God's blessing can be upon their life, upon who they are, and be who God called them to be. Paul said, I'm the worst sinner of all sinners. Oh, come on. But church, let me tell you something.
Do you know why he called himself the worst sinner of all sinners? He tells us. He tells us in scripture why he called himself the worst sinner of all sinners. And some of you are like, well, he didn't do what I did.
He didn't do this. He didn't do that. Paul said what he called himself the worst sinner of all sinners is actually found in Acts 2611. Again, I'm teaching you the Bible.
First Timothy, chapter 1, I'm teaching you Bible truths. Here's the worst sin that Paul saw himself do. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished. And I tried to force them to bless them, bless them.
I was so obsessed with persisting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. Paul was a sinner like the rest of us. But his sin was this, when he was persecuting the church, he was looking for Mary McLean's and basically tired her up and say, Mary, the only way you get set free from this is death or deny your faith. Which one do you want, sister?
And some of those people denied their faith. And the other said, I ain't doing it. And they died. But Paul went after person, after person, after person, after person, after person, after person.
And I get them to lose their faith, to renounce their faith. I don't know many of us in this room who've done that. I don't know many people in this room who've done those things. They say, man, that's awful.
Yeah, that's awful. And that's why he can sit himself at the worst sinner of all sinners. Because he was trying to get Christians to walk away from Christ. Oh, pastor.
I thought I was bad. You may be bad in the world. But Paul was trying to get Christians to walk away from the truth. Oh, we're not playing a measuring stick here, but I'm telling you what you're reading.
So when you read this and go, he was the worst sinner of worst sinners. What could he have done that? This is what he did that you didn't do probably. Doesn't make it better, doesn't make it worse, but you got to understand what you're reading when you read it.
When he calls himself the worst, the worst sinner. He was somebody who was a part of the church trying to get people to leave the church. He was a Jewish seller. Come on, church.
So here's what I want to close with this morning. They say, man, we learned a lot about first Timothy this morning. I hope you learned a lot. I didn't even cover everything.
And I know some of you are like, oh, pastor, I want you to get to the end. The last verse is when he kicks the people out of the church. When he says he turned him over to Satan. Listen, when he says he turned him over to Satan, this is what he typically did.
He removed him from the church. That's all he did. He didn't say Satan come get him. He didn't say devil, they're yours.
Very simply they were unrepinnant, unteachable. And so simply removed him, disfellowshipped him out of the church so that the world would take him as their own. And they quickly realized that that's a bad place to live out there. That's all that's happened then.
Simple, easy explanation for that. But here's how I want to close this morning. Okay? And I want to speak to everyone in this room.
Have you forgiven yourself? God's already forgiven you. God's already forgiven you. But maybe you need to ask him this morning for forgiveness or forgive yourself.
Now listen, I'm not going to expose anybody. I don't want to expose anything publicly from the pulpit. But maybe you've committed murder. Maybe you've had an abortion.
You can be forgiven. You can be forgiven. Or maybe you lived in sexual morality and never really dealt with that. Or maybe you're living in sexual morality right now and you need to get free from that.
Or maybe you're practicing homosexuality or struggling with homosexuality. You can get free and forgiven from that. Well, Pastor Michael, I drove somebody from South Texas to Louisiana, human trafficking. You can be forgiven for that.
I've lied. I know that I lied and I continue to lie. You can be forgiven for that. So this morning's here's what I want to do.
I'll show you a better hit.