Grounding pt. 1

Pray and Read the Scriptures. Why? Pray, not for a meditative grounding exercise. Pray because of the one we are praying to. Pray to God because He is our Shepherd. He hears us. He is really the only one who knows how to still the anxieties of our hearts. To give us grace in the midst of difficult living. https://content.screencast.com/users/jkdorman/folders/2020/media/eecf393b-6588-4bfa-ac82-0046ce8e656b/202000705_Matt_Ryniker_Grounding.Part.1.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: RSS The big idea Many people were confiding that they felt disoriented, anxious, even crazy. Matt’s answer from 1 Timothy: our grounding is the living God, who has revealed himself in Christ, not a God we intuit from our feelings or reason our way to. So pray – not as a calming exercise but because he hears and can direct us – and read the Scriptures, because they bear witness to him. Key takeaways Christ himself gives leaders to the church to bring it to maturity, so that we are not tossed about by every wind of teaching. We can know what God is like because he revealed himself and came in the flesh, not because we figured him out. Paul’s charge to Timothy aims at “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Guarding true teaching serves that love. Truth is not for “mic drop” wins on the internet. God wants all people to come to the knowledge of the truth, as Christ invited Paul. Our hope is not a set of better arguments. “We have our hope set on the living God.” Emotion and rationale are two sides of one coin – both come from us. We need God as he really is. You are not Jesus Christ, and you do not have to solve all the world’s problems. His yoke is easy. ▶ 0:52:55 Matt opened with 2020’s latest headline, or meme: China was reportedly considering sending ducks to Pakistan to fight a locust plague. “Release the Kraken.” In a year this strange, he said, we would believe anything – or nothing. Which led to his subject. “Am I going crazy?” ▶ 0:54:05 More than ever, people had been telling him privately that they felt crazy, anxious, depressed, disoriented, confused, worn out by stress. Many had said, “I don’t recognize the world anymore.” And with restrictions possibly tightening again, Matt had been asking what to say pastorally to people who had felt disoriented for months. ▶ 0:55:17 His Pentecost sermon had been a first attempt: Christ’s leadership is present and real, not distant. The following week he planned to turn to 1 John – we know God because he revealed himself and came in the flesh, not because we reasoned or intuited our way to him, “a good recipe for creating God in our own image.” “Who knows what God is like? God does. And who’s able to explain what God is like? God.” There is a reality to be grounded in. Not tossed by the waves ▶ 0:57:33 He admitted he still checks Twitter now and then, which drew a wince from the room, and it reminded him of Paul: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:14–15 ▶ 0:58:46 How do we get from being tossed around to maturity? A few verses earlier, Paul says Christ himself gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4:11–13). It is Christ’s own leadership, and its direction is toward knowing the Son of God. Pray, and read the Scriptures ▶ 1:00:31 So Matt’s encouragement to his disoriented friends was simple: pray, and read Scripture. But not for the obvious reasons. Pray not as a meditative grounding exercise in a quiet room, but because of the one you are praying to. He hears us; he is our Shepherd and “the only one who knows how to still the anxieties of our hearts.” And read Scripture not to “own” people online with a mic-drop verse, but because the Scriptures witness to Christ, who is our orientation. It is tempting for everyone, Christians included, to intuit what God must be like from how we feel. The Bible shows what he is really like. Guarding the stewardship ▶ 1:02:49 Then Matt read threads through 1 Timothy, chapter by chapter, encouraging everyone to read it whole and notice what Paul opens and closes with. “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:3–5 ▶ 1:04:23 The focus, Matt said, is not memorizing facts but the stewardship God has given us by faith. Those who swerved from love, a pure heart and a good conscience wandered “into vain discussion” (1 Timothy 1:6–7). So wandering from love and wandering from good teaching go together, and guarding doctrine is about preserving that love. Paul calls himself the foremost of sinners, shown mercy as an example (1 Timothy 1:15–16), and charges Timothy to hold “faith and a good conscience,” since by rejecting this some “have made shipwreck of their faith” (1 Timothy 1:18–20). The knowledge of the truth ▶ 1:07:20 “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” 1 Timothy 2:1–6 Again, “not a mic-drop truth-bomb thing.” When Christ met Paul, who was persecuting the church, he did not just win the argument; he invited Paul to come and serve him. One God, one mediator, a ransom for all – “these aren’t just parts of a logical argument. These are facts about God,” the one who is our peace and our reorientation. (On the chapter’s difficult words about women, Matt offered to send anyone the essay he wrote on it.) ▶ 1:09:41 Chapter 3 describes what church leaders should be – above reproach, rooted in truth – and why it matters: the message they steward points to him, and false messages lead people away from truth and love. Protecting leaders, including refusing unconfirmed rumors about them, protects the message. Great is the mystery ▶ 1:10:39 “If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:15–16 This crescendo of praise is the point of guarding the teaching. “Our hope is not that we have logically consistent syllogisms,” Matt said, or one more competing ideology that happens to be better. Our hope is in the living God, who wants to reveal himself through the message he gave us. Train yourself for godliness ▶ 1:12:33 Some will depart from the faith through “teachings of demons,” forbidding marriage and foods that God created good (1 Timothy 4:1–5). Teachings shape behavior, and bad ones can lead people out of the faith. The remedy is to be “trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine.” “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” 1 Timothy 4:7–10 ▶ 1:14:49 That, Matt said, is his pastoral response in one line: our hope is set on him. Prayer may be calming for scientific reasons too – “maybe that’s doubly good” – but we approach the throne because God is there, the only one strong enough to shoulder the world’s burdens and wise enough to direct our steps. And Scripture, because it is not a solid hope to rest on a God you feel or reason your way to. Our feelings and our logic are “two sides of the same coin – they’re both coming from you.” He has low trust in our feeble minds to intuit what God is like. “There’s real substance to our faith: the person of Christ.” ▶ 1:17:14 Paul tells young Timothy to set an example, devote himself to Scripture and teaching, and “keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” (1 Timothy 4:11–16). Belief, conduct and being rooted in truth and love all go together. So when Matt feels disoriented, he wants to go to God as he really is, not a tiki version of Jesus, like a golden calf presented as “the gods who brought you out of Egypt.” Approaching him in a debased way is idolatry. Not a craving for controversy ▶ 1:18:55 Paul then softens: treat older men as fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters (1 Timothy 5:1–2) – “that’s hard to do in a tweet.” And he warns about idleness that drifts into gossip. ▶ 1:19:34 Whoever teaches a different doctrine “has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction” (1 Timothy 6:3–5). That does not mean never disagree – Paul has been urging Timothy to disagree the whole letter – or never read the news; that is between you, God and your spouse. Much of our stress comes from real problems in the real world, and the answer is not to hide in the Bible. The question is how to reorient so we engage as Christ leads us. ▶ 1:21:49 “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils,” and some “pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:10). The love of money, not money: it is wrong to slander the rich, and just as possible to lust after wealth while poor. And those pangs show that the world’s yoke is far heavier than Christ’s. Jesus can seem intense, but he said his yoke is easy. “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.” 1 Timothy 6:11–12 “Serving Christ is freedom. Serving the world and serving self is bondage.” Paul’s last word returns to his first: “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you,” avoiding what is falsely called knowledge, by which some have swerved from the faith (1 Timothy 6:20–21). Bad ideas really can wreck your faith. Your orientation is on him ▶ 1:24:56 So, to anyone depressed, anxious or disoriented: pray, because he hears you and knows where you should go next. Some feel the world’s problems so deeply they try to solve them all. “You are not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ,” and he can direct your steps and give you things to do. Serving him may still be hard, “but you want his yoke, not your own.” And reexamine the Scriptures, because knowing him as he really is, not as you feel he may be, is freeing. Start in Genesis, the Gospels or the Psalms. ▶ 1:26:14 Matt keeps what he calls his “notebook of contention”: verses that, if quizzed, he would have said were not true. He then checks a commentary or asks someone, and often finds he was reading it wrong, or that his thoughts about God were off – and it is freeing to dislodge them. ▶ 1:27:12 Don’t stop engaging the world. But let your orientation be on him: “our guide, our Redeemer, our comforter, our Father, our friend, our rescuer, our Savior, our teacher.” As Jesus told the Jewish leaders, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). We read them not because reading gives life, but because they point to the one we desperately need. Matt prayed that God would help the church come to him as he really is, reorient itself to his person, and give peace to all who were severely troubled in their minds. Scripture in this message Ephesians 4:14–15 (NIV) Ephesians 4:11–13 (NIV) 1 Timothy 1:3–5 1 Timothy 1:6–7 1 Timothy 1:15–16 1 Timothy 1:18–20 1 Timothy 2:1–6 1 Timothy 3:15–16 1 Timothy 4:1–5 1 Timothy 4:7–10 1 Timothy 4:11–16 1 Timothy 5:1–2 1 Timothy 6:3–5 1 Timothy 6:10 1 Timothy 6:11–12 1 Timothy 6:20–21 John 5:39–40 For your Hope Group When in this past season have you felt most disoriented, and what did you reach for to feel grounded? Matt said our feelings and our reasoning are two sides of one coin. How do you see that in the way people – including you – picture God? Paul ties sound teaching to “love from a pure heart.” How have you seen truth used to win arguments rather than to love? What would change in your prayer life if you prayed less as a calming exercise and more because God hears and directs? What verse belongs in your own “notebook of contention,” and how will you go about wrestling with it this week? About the speaker Matt Ryniker is Hope Chapel’s senior pastor — his own description of the job — and reports to the church’s governing board, who he cheerfully calls his boss. He and his wife Mandy have been held up from Hope’s own pulpit as an example to the congregation. He spent a stretch of his working life as a public school teacher, and he still teaches the parent dedication classes where families commit to raising their children to follow Jesus — a theme that runs straight into this message. The post Grounding pt. 1 appeared first on Hope Chapel.