Four things our church needs to do 2007 - #2 Nurture
2 Timothy 3:10-17
By James Galbraith
First Baptist Church, Port Alberni.
May 13, 2007
Text
2Ti 3:10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Review
We have begun a series of message in which I will be presenting you with four vital functions to any church’s ministry.
These vital functions are worship, nurture, fellowship and outreach.
Last week we focused on worship, which is the direct praise and affirmation of the God who loves us.
Simply put, it is us loving God back with our voices, bodies and actions. Prayer is an essential element in all our worship, because it is in prayer that we communicate directly with God.
Worship is so much more than the songs we sing,
it is the heart in which we sing and dance and prayer and create.
When we worship God, we are telling him we love him because he first loved us. The words are secondary to the spirit in which they are given.
We’re going to take a look at the second vital function of a church today, which I call nurture, but before I do I just want to explain something about these four vital functions.
Many of the activities we engage in as a church fit under more than just one of the four vital functions.
There is considerable and desirable overlap within these vital functions. One can be worshipping God while in fellowship with other Christians and one can be nurtured during an outreach project.
This overlap is natural and healthy, for none of the functions are meant to stand alone. Of course, one of the four can be a primary focus for a given period of time but not to the neglect of the others.
The overall goal is to build a church which enjoys and implements a balance of all four functions.
Take, for example, this worship service.
There are elements of worship in our prayer and singing,
elements of nurture with preaching, children’s story and Sunday School,
elements of fellowship with our coming together to do this,
and hopefully, elements of outreach in our desire to bring what we learn here to those who really need to hear about God’s love.
Now let’s take a look at what the second vital function, nurture, is all about.
Nurture
NURTURE is the teaching and edification of God’s children.
There are many different aspects to nurturing, so many that I can’t really give them full treatment in one sermon, but here’s an essential list:
Nurture includes preaching from the pulpit, teaching in smaller group settings and the encouragement of personal study.
When we gather together to hear the word of God taught, we are participating in a form of nurture. We are as a group affirming what is important to us, and presenting our beliefs in a public setting.
When we come together in smaller groups to take a closer look at a specific passage, and discuss it in detail, we are taking part in a more intimate form of nurture, in which we dialogue and debate our way to mutual understanding.
And when we open the word of God for ourselves, or enjoy a book or video series on important Christian teachings, we are in essence “self-nurturing”.
Nurture also includes training in Christian ministry leadership development and the discipleship process.
When we build up leaders, and train them to do the work we call them to do, we are nurturing them so that they may in turn nurture us. It is very easy for leaders to become dried up and burnt out, so a church needs to persistently nurture it’s leaders.
Discipleship, in brief, is the deliberate and thorough training of Christians in the important beliefs and doctrines of the faith. It is also includes mentoring new believers in prayer and Christian service, so that they to may become mature, fruit bearing Christians.
It also includes spiritual gift discovery and equipping the believer to be a ministering member of the congregation.
It is a fundamental teaching of our faith that we are each given a spiritual gift with which we can serve God and build his church.
1Co 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
Part of nurturing is making sure Christians know what these gifts are,
and are able to put them to use for God in doing his work.
A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me if visitation and care and prayer were included in nurturing. I have not included them here, because I see those activities as part of a deeper understanding of fellowship, which we will be looking at in two weeks.
Nurture boils down to those activities which train and equip Christians to better serve their Saviour.
And our passage today shows us where that training and equipping finds it’s source material:
The B-I-B-L-E
Remember that old Sunday School song, The B-I-B-L-E?
The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes, that’s the book for me,
I stand alone on the word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E!!
The BIBLE is the primary sourcebook from which nurture comes and it is the standard and authority by which ANY other source is to be held accountable.
It’s content, principles, commandments and story are all essential subjects for nurture.
There are a number of other sources from which nurture may be derived such as education, psychology, life skills. etc., but these sources must be kept in proper relationship with the Word of God.
The passage we read this morning has those all important two verses in it:
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
“God – breathed” - inspired by God, directed by God, given by God
He revealed himself, his will and his story to the writers, who took his revelation and passed it on to us in their words, style and language.
This is also what gives Bible it’s authority – it literally is God’s word to us, it is binding.
Teaching
- simply learning who God is, what he has done and will do,
what he wants from us, what we can expect from him
Psalm 78:1-4
- O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
3 what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
Rebuking
- disciplining those who have wilfully done wrong
Matthew 23:25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Correcting
- fixing error, re-teaching those who have learned something wrong so that they know the truth
Matthew 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Training
- preparing God’s children to do more than read and talk, but to actually get out and get something done
1 Timothy 4:7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
“man of God” just normal linguistics of the day- refers to both genders, of course.
“thoroughly equipped” – Bible is sufficient for training
- it doesn’t teach verbatim our response to 10,001 different scenarios,
- it’s not a computer programmers ultimate handbook
It teaches us how to live out God’s love and will when those scenarios come upon us.
When we feel we can’t handle pressure,
Matt. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
When we feel alone or afraid,
Ps. 27:1 - The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
When we’re building a new home,
Psalm 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.
When we’re tempted to do wrong,
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
When we lose someone we love,
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
- there are so many more, we learn them as we read them and share them with others
“for every good work” – God tells us in his word that he has great things in store for those who trust in him and serve him,
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We don’t do these things to impress God, we do them to serve him and build his church, his people
We do them for each other as believers to support and encourage each other, and we do the for those who are not believers to show them the love of God in a tangible way.
IN all the ways I’ve just described,
the Bible really is God’s textbook given to nurture his children.
To wrap this up today
When the church deliberately nurtures it’s members,
it is building a people who understand
the importance of the word of God and how it applies to our lives.
We teach not just content for memorization, but the meaning behind the words and the calling for all of us to take heed and live out the word of God.
A nurtured people are taught and ready to teach in words and deeds.
They open the word together in small and large groups and on their own.
They invest in their leaders and their newcomers and everyone in-between.
They use the gifts they are given by God to do his good work.
And they do all this rooted deep in the Word of God, for it is truly:
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
