READ This week we continue our study of First Timothy. Timothy was a young pastor in the church at Ephesus. Paul wrote this letter to Timothy to tell him how he should lead the church. Paul was the missionary who had planted the church at Ephesus and preached there for three years (Acts 20:31). In 1 Timothy 1, we read Paul's reflection on his life before Jesus, his salvation, and what Jesus had saved him from. Read 1 Timothy 1:12-‐17. First, Paul points to the grace of Christ. In verses 12-‐15, Paul acknowledges that before Christ saved him he was an incredibly wicked man. In fact, he was not simply wicked, but an enemy against God and God's people. He calls himself a blasphemer and a persecutor, yet God rescued him from this condition. Read Acts 9:1-‐22. This is the story of Paul before he knows Jesus and how God saves him. Look for some of the characteristics that Paul identifies in himself in 1 Timothy 1. Paul says that Jesus came into the world to save sinners and identifies himself as one of the worst. He goes on in verse 16 to say that one of the reasons God saved him was to show that God has incredible patience with sinners. God could have killed Paul for his sins. Paul was actively trying to destroy the people of God before God saved him, yet God was patient. He had a plan to rescue Paul from his own evil heart, even when Paul didn't want to be rescued. Read Romans 5:6-‐11. Here Paul makes some very similar statements regarding how God saves us. He makes clear that not only did God save him when he was an enemy against God, but that we are all enemies against God until He saves us. We are unable to come to God unless God rescues us. This is the gospel, or good news, of God. Though we are all born as enemies against God, God shows His perfect love and patience towards us by not punishing us as we deserve. Jesus has chosen to take our punishment upon Himself, the perfect Son of God in our place. If we turn from our sin and trust in Christ, He will take out our evil rebellious heart and give us a new heart that loves Him and chooses to obey Him! This is the amazing patience and grace of God that Paul is talking about! Questions: Can you say with Paul that once you were an enemy of God but now you are His servant? Do you remember what your life was like before Jesus saved you? If you can't, consider carefully whether God has rescued you yet or not. Talk together about the great patience of God. What is God being patient about? What does He have the right to do instead of being patient? Paul wasn't wanting to find Jesus, Jesus came to him. Let someone who has been rescued by Jesus share with everyone how it happened and what it was like. Spend some time in prayer together repenting of any rebellion against God. Beg God to make you a servant of His instead of an enemy. Close your time talking together about how you can make this gospel known as a family. The world is full of people who are enemies of God. Some of them may be friends or family of yours. Plan a time together to share the gospel with someone you know and spend a few minutes praying that God would give them a new heart. Bottom Line: God has shown His patience and love towards us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
PRAY This week we are praying as a faith family to see where God will use Brook Hills’ members to serve on a short-‐term team in different contexts around the world in 2012.
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We were created to impact all nations for the glory of Christ. The testimony of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is that we were created to enjoy God’s grace in relationship to Him, so that we may extend His glory to the ends of the earth. Matthew 28:19 commands and commissions us to “go and make disciples of all nations…” Our goal is to be a faith family of world-‐impacting disciples who are partnering with our brothers and sisters here and around the world to produce ever-‐multiplying churches all around our city, this country, and to the ends of the earth. Our strategy is to send out short-‐term teams to serve the local church and to expose our faith family to other contexts, allowing God to use those experiences to prompt people to plant their lives and establish churches in mid and long-‐term experiences.
By God’s grace He has given Brook Hills incredible partners to come alongside and strengthen the local church around the world. The Global Disciple-‐Making team has put together a list of 47 Short-‐Term teams that will serve with these partners sharing the gospel and making disciples wherever they are. These trips are diverse and offer many options for the members of Brook Hills. Some are in areas like the villages of Indonesia where the gospel has never been heard. Some teams will go to places like Ecuador where the gospel is present but the church needs workers to help make disciple-‐makers through teaching and training. Some teams are family-‐friendly so children and students can serve with their parents and be exposed to the world. Some are even teams that will serve the nations in our very backyard in places like Atlanta and New York City. We want to be a faith family where all members are serving and leading trips up to 2 weeks each year. Please pray this week for God to show you how he would like to use you in 2012 and follow through in obedience by inquiring and registering for one of the short-‐term trips available on the website at brookhills.org/go.
SING The song Come Thou Fount was written by an 18th century pastor, Robert Robinson. The song acknowledges God as the giver of all good gifts – the greatest of these being salvation. Robinson recognized the pursuit of God just as Romans 5:8 says, "while we were still sinners Christ died for us". As we sing, we can rejoice that Christ's pursuit of His children is everlasting. Although our hearts may wander, as the writer confesses, Christ is faithful to seal our hearts for eternity to come.
MEMORIZE 1 Timothy 1:15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
SUGGESTIONS These suggestions were created by the age-‐group ministry leaders as a way to help parents better communicate the biblical truths discussed in the Family Worship Guide. These suggestions are intended to help parents facilitate God-‐centered discussions with their children. Parents should prayerfully use these suggestions, and any other means necessary, to help their children discover the truths of God’s word and worship Him together.
Preschool
• Before you begin: Grab your Bible and a pair of eyeglasses. • Read 1 Timothy 1:15 with your preschooler. • After reading the scripture, pick up the eyeglasses and your preschooler if they know what these are? Yes, they are
eyeglasses. They help me see you and see everything clearly. If I take them off, everything would be blurry. • Explain to your child that God sees everything and He doesn’t need eyeglasses. God sees what is in our hearts and
nothing is hidden from God. When we make bad choices and sin, God knows and we are not following God’s plan for our lives. God wants us to trust in Him and to follow His plan for our lives. He wants us to turn away from sin and turn toward Him by obeying His Word. It’s not always easy to obey, but God will give us the power to obey Him if we ask for His help!
• God loves us, but He hates sin. In fact, He loves us so much that He sent His only son Jesus to save us from our sins. He sent Jesus from heaven to Earth to save His people. He wants all of us to know Jesus and how He was sent to save us,
• Conclude by re-‐reading this week’s verse, 1 Timothy 1:15. Pray with your preschooler and thank God that He sent His son Jesus and that He forgives us of our sin.
Children • Materials needed: Index cards or paper with the following written on them:
o Always be in a good mood o Never do anything wrong again o Have perfect table manners o Have an amazing talent o Make straight A's o Become a famous person
• Put cards face down. Parent tells child(ren) that he or she plans to love and take care of them if they will just do a few things. Parent says the child(ren) must do all the things the cards say to do.
• Each child picks one of the cards and reads it aloud until all are read. • Ask the child how he or she feels about accomplishing all these requirements. (Answers might be "too hard", "can't do it",
"that’s impossible".) • Explain that while all of these might be good things, being able to achieve them all would be impossible. Waiting for
someone to achieve them all would take a lifetime. If a parent only loved and cared for a child after the child achieved these things, would they have really been a parent?
• Being a parent starts when a child is born and cannot do anything independently. The baby has dirty diapers and cries when he or she wants food at first. But the parent loves the baby and patiently cares for him or her. Later the baby stops having dirty diapers and crying and learns how to be a helping member of the family. He or she may grow up and do many of the achievements on the cards, but not because they were required to receive the parent's love and care.
• God loves us just as if we were babies. As sinners, we have dirty hearts, instead of diapers, and whine or complain when we are not happy or getting what we want. God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us to show His love. When we trust in Jesus as Savior, God cleanses our hearts and patiently teaches us how to live and grow to glorify Him.
Students • Begin by reading 1 Timothy 1:15-‐16. • In our lives we are constantly getting things that we deserve or not getting things we don’t deserve. Christ’s love for Paul
and all of His people reflect a different kind of system. This is a system characterized by grace and mercy. • As a family, discuss some moments when another family member showed grace, mercy, or justice. • Parents, as a frame of reference here are simple, working definitions of each. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy
is not getting what you deserve. And grace is getting what you absolutely don't deserve. • Remind your family that God is patient, loving, merciful, gracious, and just for a reason. Yes, those are the desires of His
heart and the very things that make up His being, but He also gives us these things so that we might lift high His name and make much of His glory.
• Have you ever thought, “Why in the world would God want to use me, or can He even use me with all the bad things I’ve done?” We’ve probably all thought that at some point. However, 1 Timothy 1:16 communicates that God not only wants to use us but Christ displays His perfect patience in our sinful yet useable life.
• Are there any requirements for being used by God? • Discuss what might be the basis of why we think we are unusable by God. • Close in prayer, asking the Lord to open your eyes to His constant grace and mercy that is ever present. Ask Him to guide
you as you attempt to show those same characteristics to others around you.
