In Isaiah 9, it was revealed to these downtrodden and defeated people how incredible their future was, and if they had Faith in God and His promises, even this time of darkness would be filled with hope. For... Faith In Our Heavenly Father Results In A Life of Hope.

Following last week’s study, God had a message for Isaiah regarding the unavoidable Assyrian invasion. This time, it wasn’t a message to be given to King Ahaz but was for Isaiah, his disciples, and the remaining people of Judah. This message was and is abundantly clear: Fearing God and believing His Word is the only way to salvation.

Ahaz, the king of Judah, was in serious trouble. The kingdom of Judah had been invaded by Rezin (king of Syria) and Pekah (king of Israel). The remaining citizens of Judah were huddled in Jerusalem, looking out over the devastation of their entire land, awaiting the final blow, shaking “as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” This was the setting for our study today.

In order to accurately understand the message of Isaiah chapter one, we need to understand the essence of idolatry or spiritism. The essence of idolatry is manipulation. Those who "worship" these spirits seek to manipulate the spirits to give them what they want. One means of manipulation is appeasement. Another means of manipulation is trickery. The idol worshipper is able to manipulate the spirits because the spirits are themselves driven by their desires.

The book of Isaiah is a unique type of literature. We say its genre is prophetic; genre refers, in this case, to various types of literature that have certain characteristics. For instance, American poetry is a literary genre characterized by rhythm and rhyme. Historical narrative is a literary genre that gives factual retellings of real events.

We hold to the correspondence theory of truth that says: truth is when an idea, belief, or statement matches (or corresponds with) the way the world actually is (reality). The pronouns he/him and she/her have been used for millennia to articulate the way the world really is—specifically, that sex and gender are binary by their very nature. There are men and there are women, there are males (XY chromosomal pair) and there are females (XX chromosomal pair). And this is by design, God’s design for humanity.

Pronouns, him, her, he, and she, seem like little things. But they have become big things. Some of us may be facing this issue in our workplace, amongst our neighbors and within our families. All we’re being asked to do is change one word. What’s the big deal? Some Christians encourage the church to practice “pronoun hospitality” and use the preferred pronouns of a person who identifies as transgender. They believe it’s an act of kindness that engenders relationship and avoids unnecessary distress in a transgender person’s mental health. But it’s not that simple.

The Armor of God

We are engaged in a cultural and spiritual conflict about truth; not simply what is true, but more fundamentally what is the nature of truth itself. For the sake of completeness, you need to be aware that there have been three dominant theories of truth put forth by philosophers.  First, there is the pragmatic theory of truth: truth is what works. Second, there is the coherence theory of truth: truth is logical consistency (coherence) among a set of beliefs an individual holds. Finally, there is the correspondence theory of truth: truth is when an idea, belief, or statement matches (or corresponds with) the way the world actually is (reality).

In our passage this morning we discover that if it hadn’t been for Jesus, the Apostle Paul would have given up. Here is the main idea of these verses - Weakened by desertion, loneliness, and imprisonment, Paul was tempted to give up, but Jesus stood by him and strengthened him to proclaim the Gospel at his first defense.

The Bible teaches us to live our lives now in light of our final accountability before Jesus. In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, Paul alerted Timothy to the fact that a growing percentage of people in the Ephesian Church would reject Timothy’s teaching. Be that as it may, Paul charged Timothy to persist in preaching the Word because every human being is going to be judged by Jesus.

Apostasy, turning away from the truth of God’s Word, was going to increase in the Ephesian church. That meant Timothy and his teaching would be welcomed in some house churches, but not in others. Some house churches rallied around “their” teacher because he or she told them what they wanted to hear.

The year 67 A.D., the year the Apostle Paul was re-arrested, also brought a crisis of leadership in the Church. Because of Rome’s persecution many first-generation Bible teachers, trained by Paul, abandoned the faith. It fell to Timothy to train replacements. The main subject of this letter is found in 2 Timothy 2:2. How was Timothy to train the next generation of Bible teachers? This is the subject of 2 Timothy 3:10-17.

When Paul wrote of the "last days", he was referring to the time period between the resurrection of Jesus and his imminent return in glory as King. For Paul and the other Apostles, there was an expectation that Jesus could return at any point, but until he did, the situation in the world, including within the churches, would grow steadily more difficult, oppressive, and godless.

In our study today, Paul gives Timothy instructions so that the leaders in the church will be holy, useful, and ready to serve the Lord.

In our previous study of 2 Timothy 2:1-13, we discovered that the Roman persecution against Christianity created a shortage of trained Bible teachers because of the many who abandoned the Faith. Paul assigned Timothy the task of training up a new cadre of Bible teachers (2 Timothy 2:2). In 2 Timothy 2:14-19 Paul emphasized to Timothy the need to train his students to avoid the practices of false teachers, and to work hard to teach God’s Word correctly.

By the time the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to Timothy in 67 A.D., persecution had broken out against Christians instigated by Nero’s lie that Christians had set fire to the city of Rome. Paul, abandoned and lonely, wrote his beloved partner from a Roman dungeon where he awaited what he assumed would be the trial that would lead to his execution.

Paul was lonely, having been abandoned by many on account of the persecution. Only Dr. Luke and a man named Onesiphorus were with Paul in Rome. Paul recognized death was near. He longed to see Timothy and asked him to come to Rome. In this, his final letter, Paul sought to fortify and inspire Timothy to persevere in faith and service in the midst of persecution.

Paul was encouraging Timothy and reminding him of some of the most important truths for Timothy to make the foundation of his life, both as a man of God, and a shepherd of God’s church. Paul reminds Timothy, and would teach us, that the eternal and rewarding way to live is not up to our imagination and desires, but is instituted and directed by God.

Elder Commissioning of Nick Lowther and Eric Benson The purpose of this commissioning service is to emphasize the spiritual importance of Eldership. Eldership is the sacred privilege and responsibility to lead the church family to love God, to love others and to make disciples of Jesus at home and abroad. By the laying on of hands, the Elders convey upon Eric and Nick the spiritual authority to lead, provide, protect and love the Grace Church family to accomplish its mission.

Youth Sunday / Why Praise God? Sometimes, as Christians we can narrow down the gospel to just one or two things that happen to us the moment we put our faith in Him. Usually, we tell others, "Jesus died on the cross for my sins so I can go to heaven when I die." While that is a part of the gospel, it is only two of the many blessings that God has given us in Christ. Paul, the author of the Ephesians understood that there are so many blessings that we have in Christ and made sure his readers know what those blessings are.

Money. We all have to deal with money. It's a dangerous thing. In our study today we’re going to learn the Christian way to earn money and the Christian way to relate to money.

In chapter five, the Apostle Paul instructs Timothy in three ways love is to be lived out practically in the life of the church starting with Timothy himself.

Easter Sunday 2023 - "Easter, What’s the Big Deal?"

In our study this morning the Apostle Paul acknowledges that some Christians will be deceived and will abandon the faith. His instructions in 1 Timothy 4 teach us how to respond to this problem. The main idea of 1 Timothy 4 is this: Believers are best protected from deception and apostasy when their church leaders stay focused on teaching and modeling the Scriptures.

As we look at our passage today, we will see that Paul directly contrasts the Christian church in Ephesus with the temple of Artemis. He wants his brothers and sisters to know just how important the revealed truths about Jesus are, as well as the important role they play in establishing and sharing that truth with the world. He used the backdrop of the magnificent temple of Artemis as he wrote of the true glory of the family of God and the importance of that family to each other and the world. His main point?

There are only two official positions in the New Testament, the office of elder and the office of deacon. In our last study, we looked at the role of the elder, and in this study, we will see how important the role of the deacon is as they take care of the physical needs of the local church, and how it complements the role of the elders.

As we have seen so far in our study of Paul’s letter to Timothy, there were a number of serious issues in their local churches that needed addressing. There was false teaching, arguments, useless debates, a lack of love for one another, misunderstanding of the gospel,  lack of prayer, men being angry toward one another, and women using the gathering as a chance to show off their attire rather than show their good works, women teaching and exercising authority over the men, and men failing in their God-given leadership role within the church, and maybe worst of all, there were current elders there who were proving to be wolves amidst the flock!

Some people would say I'm about to do something really dumb today in teaching 1 Timothy 2. But here at Grace, we believe every word in the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word for us today. So buckle up and please open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 2 through which  the Holy Spirit teaches us that: In our church family gatherings, we should pray both generally, and then, more specifically for the spread of the Gospel and we should serve according to our God-ordained roles as men and women.

Timothy had a tough assignment charged as he was by the Apostle Paul to stop the false teachers and to restore biblical teaching in the Ephesian church. In our passage this week, Paul encourages Timothy to be grateful he has been appointed to serve and to serve with confidence knowing he’s been equipped to accomplish his ministry.