NOURISHED UP

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1TIMOTHY 4:6

Lesson Prepared by: krisha of Solomon Wisdom FB page

 October 7, 2018

MEMORY VERSE

If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

INTRODUCTION:

When I was in my childhood until teenage life, our relatives always teased me “payatot, patpatin and many more” because of my body built. This caused me to have low self-esteem. They also told my mom “has she been eating or not?” Another situation is my sister, Carol,

her teacher told her she was a malnourished child and needed to eat nutritious food. Most of us are aware of our health and body. We are more concern about how to feed our bodies to be strong.

How about our spiritual situation? Are we aware of spiritual malnutrition? We need to be nourished up like what Paul had mentioned to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:6 which says, “If thou put in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou has attained.” In commentary nourished up means in Greek: it’s present, not past which means “continually being nourished in.” This makes me think why it’s not past because it ends in -ed and I notice on how the sentence was used; it’s a passive voice that uses past participle. This means that the doer of the action is not only the person talking to but also to someone (possible to all of us). Therefore we all need to be nourished up.

Timothy was reminded and needed to continue being nourished up which he dwelled first from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2Timothy 1:5). In 2 Timothy 3:14, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures, which can make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”

LESSON POINTS:

   1)  READ AND TREASURE GOD’S WORD IN YOUR HEART (PS 119:11)

-       A condition afflicts some of the members of the church are the condition of spiritual malnutrition; this is the weakness resulting from an adequate supply of spiritual food. This condition happened in in the church of Corinth who suffered from spiritual illness.

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.”

Have you thought of examples wherein you can see these verses in some situations in the church? Remember one time wherein a member of the church was offended about tithes. She was hurt by a sermon wherein the CBT members were reminded by God’s Word about our ministry in giving. She informed some members in America that caused a bad connotation on how the church has been managed here. We see that this member was easily offended; what is your opinion on this situation? Can we say she always wanted milk as her spiritual food and not meat? Another situation: a member always remember what happened a decade ago and keep on blaming the church on what happened to him. Could we say he is not ready for meat? Bible says, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” After 10 years or more in spiritual life could others expect that we ought to be teachers? Base on the Bible, YES!

-       We know that the best weapon to fight evil and resist temptation is the word of God like

-      what happened to Jesus in the wilderness when he was tempted by Satan. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Nourished up means you read and treasure God’s Word in our hearts.

    2)  YOU HAVE THE DESIRE FOR SPIRITUAL FOOD (MATTHEW 5:6)

-        Have you felt an instance wherein you are excited to attend worship service and hear God’s Word? But time and years go by and the appetite is not there. I remember my personal situation wherein I prayed to the Lord to give me an appetite for eating. That time I had 22 inches size of waistline; I was very thin. I don’t have a good appetite. This situation made everyone around me got worried especially, my parents. I lived away from my family at that time. They saw me very sickly. How about our spiritual life? If we don’t have the appetite, we’re sick. If you are that kind of person wherein you want to stay at the back and want to mingle with friends during worship service, we can say that the desire of hearing God’s word and be filled is not there, am I correct? If this happens to you, you should be aware that you are spiritually ill. Bible says Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” If that is your desire you will be filled. For now, let God searches our hearts.

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   3)  YOU DO SPIRITUAL EXERCISE TO GROW STRONG (1 TIMOTHY 4:8-10, HEBREWS 5:12-14)

-       Bible says, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable in all things…” We know how important in our health our physical exercise. What will happen to us if we always sit and do nothing? Our nerves don’t work well; blood clots will appear and may cause our death. Again, the Bible said that bodily exercise is good, but the best is exercising godliness and profitable in all things. Whatever we learn and hear from the word of God, God the Holy Spirit urges us to exercise what we have learned and heard because faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17).

-       Most of us would agree that it’s hard to exercise and be healthy. It’s hard to get up and exercise and if we are offered a scrumptious dinner then it’s hard to refuse. Our problem is discipline. Another member told me “it’s easy to get angry than be calm,” Is this right? And when you think you’re right, it’s hard to say sorry. These emotional feelings are part of our life but we need to exercise our spiritual nature and what it says in the Bible. Bible says in Proverbs 15:1, “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” and in Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. In Matthew 5:23-24, ²³ Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;²⁴ Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. These verses don’t say anything about which of the two people got the biggest mistakes but it just says “be reconciled.” Exercising God’s word in our lives is hard that’s why we need God to rule in our hearts.

    4)  YOU HAVE THE SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT (HEBREWS 5:14)

-       Do we have that highest discernment of knowing what is good and evil?  Some of us may say yes but let’s try to discern the following situations:

a)    Beware of subjectivity – relating to the way a person experiences things in his or her own mind, based on feelings or opinions rather than facts. We should be aware of what you think is good, for example, a teacher or preacher always says what is based on their experiences rather than verses from the Bible. A teacher and preacher should teach from the Word and then give examples from experiences and not experiences first before God’s Word. In other words, don’t base your spiritual view from experiences but from God’s Word. Example: a woman’s view about attending – it’s okay to only attend worship service that’s what she has been used to do since she was a teenager. It’s better to attend once every month rather than never. What do you think? Another thing posted on facebook in the Tagalog language, “Mas maganda ang hindi palasimba pero hindi tsismosa kesa sa palasimba pero tsismosa naman.” One more, “Mas maganda ang palamura at may ginagawa kesa hindi palamura pero walang ginagawa.” You may think these are just simple things but remember discernment is not discerning what is good and bad but discerning what is good and almost good.” Your view reflects who you are. If you’re a Christian, then reflect on who you are.

b)    Beware what appeals to pride - a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people. If someone gets offended because of you and you would say, “It’s his/her fault I won’t go to him or her for reconciliation. He or She should take the action first.” Or “I am a teacher, preacher, pastor, lawyer, or businessman I should not do this” Is this the right view in resolving conflicts? Is this the right view in serving God?

c)    Beware of Sensation – a particular feeling or effect that your body experiences. Don’t base your view and decisions base on feelings because our feelings are not fixed. Base them from the Word of God and ask God for wisdom.

We are commanded to “hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). But, unless we have true discernment, how can we determine what is “evil” and what is “good”? To maintain the purity of the gospel, the church must distinguish truth from heresy. Wisdom also demands that we properly discriminate between what is “best” and what is merely “good.”

Discernment has many collateral benefits. “My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shall thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.” (Proverbs 3:21-24).

Just as Solomon sought discernment and wisdom (Proverbs 1:2; 1 King 3:9-12) to explore the handiwork of God (Ecclesiastes 1:13) and seek the meaning of life (Ecclesiastes 12:13), so should believers seek “the wisdom that comes from heaven” (James 3:17). We must study the Scriptures which are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).………………………………………………………………………….

May our prayer be “I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes” (Psalm 119:125).

CONCLUSION:

-      I remember our experience wherein a member of a church was acted like she was experiencing evil possession. Christians know that a believer can’t be possessed but can be oppressed because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. To continue the story, all Christians surrounded her were emotional and praying hard. That time I can’t explain to myself why I felt nothing at that time. I thought I was the only felt that way but few of us felt the same way. We just kept silent and prayed for discernment and we didn’t want to cut the emotional situation they had; they were really touched by the situation. Few of us who felt the same way didn’t have the chance to talk about it. Until one time in a bible study gathering; we had the chance and shared our thoughts and feelings. We discerned that the scene was not something evil possession but just wanted to get people’s attention. We didn’t’ have the proof that’s why we just kept quiet until it happened again but this time the scene was really confusing, and it caused the others to react the same as ours. Time went by and the person who was thought was possessed was a diagnosis of having abnormalities in her behavior and there were family problems that needed to resolve. We can see in our lesson today that we need to be nourished up so we can determine what’s good and evil.

-       One time after church when we arrived from the church, we notice our plant beside the door almost died; the stem bent down. I said to Carol in Tagalog, “Sayang naman patay na ang kaisa-isa nating halaman pero subukan mong diligan baka mabuhay.” To my surprise, after my sister watered the plant and in a few minutes, it stands again and looks healthy. This gives me a reflection and to think about our spiritual health, we really need to be nourished up.  Nourished up not just today or this month; let’s continually being nourished in.