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Guide: Truth + Relationship + Spirit Be a Guide

1 Timothy 1:12-17; Titus 2:1-8 Dr. Matt Cassidy --- January 28, 2018

When I was a freshman in high school, I was accidentally put into a senior debate class.

Now I tried to get out of it, but they couldn’t arrange the schedule. So, in other words, I was

forced to be there the entire year. And I don’t know if you know about the debate team people,

but they’re different than me, and they’re different than freshmen. And they use big words and

they talk real fast and I didn’t know what to do in there. The most they would let me do is carry

their notecards to these state tournaments, and only the cards that didn’t have any notes on them.

So, I was just carrying blank sheets of paper around. That was all I could be trusted with.

And if that weren’t bad enough, okay, to be in this class where I was way over my head

because of the scheduling, it forced me to go to senior lunch as a freshman. Now this is true.

There were 3,627 people in my high school. I was the single smallest male of all of them. That’s

a true story. I was the smallest person there. And so, for me to live in this cellblock with all of

these people --- they were all big people --- and for me to go to lunch every day, I felt like I was

a little puppy thrown into a cage full of hungry lions. It was a frightful thing and you could see

that I was scared. It was obvious to everyone because I was crying all the time.

But in that senior debate class there was a girl and her name was Cindy Cunningham.

And she was a senior and she was one of the dance team officers and she was attractive and she

was different. And on the second day of class she said, “Hey, why don’t you come over here and

sit with me?” And so, I did. And she said, “I’m going to give you a nickname. I’m going to call

you ‘Kid’ because you’re just like a little kid. Can I call you ‘Kid’?” And I said, “Uh-huh.”

And the first month of school there were a few times --- I’m not sure how many --- there

were seven times --- she asked me to come join her at her table at lunch with nothing but senior

girls that apparently were like beauty pageant contestants. And I was a happy puppy at that table.

Cindy Cunningham, before she graduated her senior year, she wanted to make sure that I’d be in

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a good place and so she insisted that her special little club --- she was in a social club --- and she

put her hand around me on interview day and she said, “This is ‘Kid’ and I want him to be part

of this group.” Cindy walked me through my freshman year. Cindy Cunningham changed my

life. And here’s how she did it. That first week of school when everybody else is looking around

trying to connect with old friends they haven’t seen all summer, Cindy Cunningham was doing

that. But she was also looking around for scared freshmen, and she found one. And she changed

him.

Did you know right now there are freshmen all around you and they’re looking for

someone to guide them through the next season of life? God has placed them before the

beginning of time to be in your life and they’re hoping and they’re looking for some guide to

help them live the Christian life right now, on your street, in your office, on the row of this

church that you’re attending. Don’t look for the senior … look for the freshman, and change a

life.

Here at Grace what do we say all the time? I’m just a pastor, but you’re the … yeah,

you’re the ministers. You’re the guides. You’re the one that makes disciples. You’re the one that

is supposed to become like Christ in all of life, and while you do that you bring someone with

you. Why? Because you were designed by God to do that. You were predestined to enjoy the

good works of Jesus Christ that He arranged ahead of time. You were ordered by Jesus. “All

authority has been given on heaven and earth to me. Go and make disciples.” Be a guide.

And so those are some reasons why, so why not? Why don’t people do this? Why aren’t

we all involved in searching out freshmen and guiding them? Here’s why, I think. A lot of

people have problems. They say, Do you know me? The only thing I’m effective at is making

mistakes. I’m not good for very much. I’m not qualified and I’m inadequate. Some of you might

kind of relate to this poster.

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You probably believe you make mistakes. It could be that your purpose in life is only to serve as

a warning to others. That’s all I’m good for. You want me to guide?

Now if that’s true, if you can relate to that, let me tell you, today, you should see the

passage we’re going to look at. Because Paul would say to you, Yeah, I understand what it’s like

to feel that way. Paul is an apostle and he’s going to write two men that he guided, Timothy and

Titus, and these are his two most intimate letters. He calls them “son”, he loves these men, and

he wants them to know that they can be guides too. And in the context of this feeling of being

sinful and vile and inadequate, Paul, the apostle, in one of the last books that he writes, he says

this. He says, “I am the worst of all sinners. I am the vilest of all people.” And if you feel that

too, you could actually be on the right path. But you might be stuck on that right path. The path,

if you can envision this for our time together, the path is not like a sidewalk; it’s like

cobblestones. And you’ve got to jump, and there’s three of them. The problem with a lot of

people, the reason why they’re not involved in guiding and discipling and caring for other

people, is they’re stuck on this first one. And in the context of this letter that Paul’s writing ---

he's writing his friends at the end of his career when he’s most like Christ in all of life --- he

says, “I am the greatest of all sinners.”

And here’s why he comes to that conclusion. Because if you become like Christ in all of

life, the closer you become to His image, the greater you’re going to feel the weight of your

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sinfulness, the greater you’ll feel the depth of your rebellion against God. It happens. Saints have

the most tender consciences. So, Paul’s saying, Yeah, maybe you’re on the right path, but there

are three steps to this path.

The first one is “I’m the worst.” The second step is “I’m the best.” And the third step is

“Praise God.” You’ve got to do all three.

The first one is “I’m the worst.” Look at this passage.

He says this in 1 Timothy 1:15: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.”

Everybody knows this, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the

foremost.”

First let’s look at the verb tense: “I am.” Not “I was” --- “I am.” “I am the foremost

sinner.” Other translations say “I am the worst of all sinners.” One says, “I am first among

sinners.” Someone says, “I am chief among sinners.” And here’s why. Because as you become

more like Christ in all of life, you’re going to feel the weight of your sin, the distance between

where you are and where you need to go.

We talked in previous weeks that to become a disciple, to become like Christ in all of

life, you need three things. You need Truth and Relationship and Spirit. And two out of three of

those things are bringing this. The Spirit of God is bringing this truth, that you are the worst of

all sinners, that you’re going to feel the weight as you become more like Christ, that you’re

going to feel like the worst of all sinners. Let me give you some examples of that. It’s a common

experience among those that are becoming like Christ.

John Bunyan, the man who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress --- besides the Bible, it’s the best-

selling spiritual Christian book ever written. When John Bunyan wrote his autobiography he

Step One: “I’m the Worst”

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.

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entitled it this: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. John Bunyan says, “I know a lot of

people and I know a lot of sinners; I’m first. I’m the chief of all sinners.” And the reason John

Bunyan came to this conclusion is simple. Because as he was becoming more like Christ in all of

life, God’s Spirit was revealing to him this truth, that the gap was father than he originally

thought. And the weight of sin was heavier than he had imagined.

What happens as you become more like Christ --- it’s not so much what you do, it’s who

you are that you start realizing is the problem. The depth of this thing is not conduct, it’s heart

attitude.

Let me give you another example of how this happens. St. Augustine --- your lawn is

named after this man --- St. Augustine [AW-gus-teen] --- if you weren’t in the south, you’d call

him St. Augustine [aw-GUS-tin], a fourth-century theologian, he kind of poured the foundation

for a lot of our theology. He wrote an autobiography. Guess what he called it? He called it

Confessions. And in this autobiography, which was believed to be one of the best

autobiographies written, he says this about growing up. He’s a mature believer now, he’s

becoming like Christ in all of life. He reflects back on one of his earliest guilt glitches and pains

when he and a couple of his buddies jumped the fence and went into someone else’s apple

orchard, climbed some trees, stole the apples. And now in retrospect --- he didn’t think it was

that big a deal, back in the day --- but now he’s thinking back as he’s become more like Christ,

and he realizes it wasn’t what he did that showed his evil; it was why he did it.

And here’s what he says: “When I willed to commit the theft of the apples, I did so not

because I was driven to it by any need. I stole a thing of which I had plenty of my own, and of

much better quality.” Oh, I’ve got apples at home that are better and there are more of them. So

why did he steal them? He says this: “No. I did it because it was forbidden. I did it because I

loved the sin itself. He realized that he, Augustine, was the worst of all sinners, not because of

what he did but because of who he was. He realized that he couldn’t care less about those apples

until his mother said, “Don’t go in that orchard.” And then his soul cried out in its vileness, No

one tells me what I can and cannot do. I want what I want when I want it. I want to be God, I

want to be sovereign of my life, let’s go get some apples.

You know what he did with the apples? He gave them to some pigs on the way home. It

wasn’t about the apples. It was about him saying, I’ll do what I want.

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It’s not the actions. When you become more like Christ in all of life, you’re going to be

exposed because the Spirit of God is going to bring this truth to you that it’s not what you do, it’s

who you are. It’s not the actions, it’s the soulless condition. And that’s why, I think, that’s one of

the reasons Chesterton said, “Christianity hasn’t been tried and found wanting; it has been found

difficult and therefore not tried.”

This is the dark part of the gospel, that you are worse than you ever imagined if you

understand it, if you’re listening to God’s Spirit, He’s going to be communicating this to you.

You’re the worst of all sinners.

So, if you find yourself at the point of feeling the weight of all that, maybe that’s a good

thing. Maybe you’re actually on the right path. You’re on the first stone. You’re joining --- it’s a

pretty crowded stone --- John Bunyan’s there and St. Augustine’s there and St. Paul is there, the

apostle Paul is there. So, what’s interesting about his journey here is that it doesn’t end there; it

begins there.

And the next cobblestone is not that “I’m the worst,” but that “I’m the best.” Look what

he does. I’ll review in verse 15 and then we’ll jump to verse 16.

“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, the chief. But I received mercy for this reason,

that in me, as the foremost of all sinners, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an

example, or a pattern, for those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.”

Step Two: “I’m the Best”

1 Timothy 1:15-16 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. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.

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Paul’s saying, Look, I’m the worst of all sinners so that I can be the best of all examples.

And the word there is “example” or “pattern” or “prototype.” Paul is saying, I could be the

prototype for everyone for people to look at my life, I’m the worst. But he doesn’t say that. He

doesn’t say “pattern.” He doesn’t say “prototype.” He adds a prefix to that. The word is “hypo-“

--- or actually we would say “hyper-“ --- and so when the prefix “hyper-“ is added to something,

it changes.

People have said this about me, that I’m a very active person. Other people have said to

me that I’m a hyperactive person. A doctor has said that, several teachers have said that, two

principals have said that and one policeman. All of them have said, You’re not active, Matt ---

you’re hyperactive. That’s a different word altogether when you add “hyper-“ to that.

So, Paul is saying, Oh, no, no, no --- I’m not just an example, I’m a hyper-example. I’m

the super-prototype. God saved me, the worst, to show the world that if I can do it, if I can be in,

then anyone can. Paul’s saying, Look, God took the ultimate sinner to become the ultimate saint.

He took the greatest enemy to become the most faithful soldier. Paul’s saying, Look, if you look

at my life and have doubts about whether or not you could be a guide, you should understand

that between my worst and my best, because of what Christ has done in my life, everyone else

can fit in there somewhere. That’s what he’s saying: I’m a hyper-, I’m a great, I’m the best

example out there. That’s what he’s saying. That’s the gospel truth right there, that you are a lot

worse off --- this is Martin Luther --- you are a lot worse off than you could ever imagine until

you pursue Christ more. He’s going to expose this to you, but you’re a lot better off than you

could have ever hoped for. That’s what he’s saying here.

Now how does this happen? How does a person come to the place of realization --- that’s

the Spirit of God and His truth --- that I am the worst of all sinners. I am the chief amongst the

vile. And then I find myself on the next step saying, I’m the best of all examples. What

happened?

1 Timothy 1:14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

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Verse 14 happened. “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with faith

and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Grace transforms --- there it is again. Grace transforms. It’s

only mercy that can change the soul, the essence of the soul. And so what Paul is saying here is

that Grace was poured on me. Oh, wait, no, he does not say that grace was poured on him --- it

says “hyper-poured.” That’s why it says abundantly. They have to figure out a way how to make

sense out of that. He puts the prefix “hyper-“on there again, drawing our attention to this idea

that He hyper-poured, over-poured, grace. And also, in that, faith, and also, in that, love. That’s

how you become a hyper-example. You get hyper-poured upon. Other translations say, “more

than abundant” --- I love this one. This was a scholar. This guy was a smart person and he said

the word means “superabundance.” That’s making up words. You get a certain degree of

intelligence and say, I’m going to make up a word --- “superabundance.” That’s all he could say

--- superabundance. That’s what happened to Paul.

And so, if you find yourself on this first cobblestone wringing your hands and wondering,

Is there anything that I’m excellent at outside of sinning itself? Is there anything that I can do

besides break stuff? Then you have to jump to this next cobblestone. And how do you do that?

It’s this vision --- see it. It’s this vision of over-pouring, excessively, abundantly pouring.

I’ve got some props over here. [Walks to a table with empty pitchers and glasses and

proceeds to mimic pouring water to overflowing in the glasses throughout the next paragraph.] I

don’t do props. But I’m doing props today. Because I want you to see how do you live with the

guilt glitches in your life. When you’re driving down and not thinking that you were the greatest

sinner, but you are the greatest sinner. Let’s picture, this, shall we? This is your soul. Look at all

the sin that it can contain --- eat cake for breakfast --- that represents you, right? That can hold a

lot. I’m going to not put this up here. I’m going to use this, because it exaggerates the point. This

is all you can contain. This is all you can hold. And what does the passage say? That here we are

in our vile, chief-of-all-sinners and God’s Spirit says, I’m going to put a little grace on there …

no, I don’t want it to spill. Is that what the passage said? It doesn’t, does it? It says

superabundant overflow. And so, it’s like this. Can you see it without … I don’t want to spill

water up here so I … it doesn’t say just grace, does it? It says faith. Still overflowing. Do I need

to be covered in water for you to picture this in your mind? Please, I don’t want to do that, okay?

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And then it says is that all you have? No, I’ve got some love. Love, too. Superabundant

overflow. You might be the worst sinner ever. There are three pitchers of superabundant

overflow that get you to this next place where you are a hyper-example.

How does Paul live with his guilt glitches? How does Paul live with the things, not that

he’s just done in his memory, but this fullness of understanding of who he is. Because as you

become more like Christ in all of life, it gets deeper and darker; it’s the nature of sainthood. How

do you live with that? He reads the Bible, friends, and he believes it. He wrote the words and

now he’s re-reading them. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are

now at peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He’s envisioning this overflow of grace

and love and faith. That’s how it happens.

So, if you believe and you find yourself feeling as though you are a wicked person, a

horrible person, this idea that you are the worst of all sinners, and you hold your head down and

you’re sheepish about your faith and you say to yourself, What can I do or bring to this cause or

this conversation? Then you don’t know the gospel. That’s not the gospel. You might be on the

right path but you’re on the wrong rock. You’ve got to move to the next one to understand.

You’ve got to understand that, yes, you’re the worst of all sinners, but you received hyper-grace

and hyper-love and hyper-faith so that you could be a hyper-example to all those around. That’s

the power of the gospel. It’s not dwelling on you, it’s dwelling on what Christ has done for you.

That’s how you qualify to be a guide.

Three steps, not two --- we’re not done yet. Paul says, You’ve got to understand that

you’re the worst, and then you’ll figure out you’re the best, and then praise God. After verse 16

do you know what comes next? Anyone want to guess? Yeah, verse 17.

Now before we read verse 17, and I’m just going to cue it up a little bit here because it’s

very strange. It comes out of the cold blue. You don’t know what’s going on here. Is he going to

help with his argument at all? No, he’s not. Is he going to add storyline to the narrative? No. Is

he going to help us better understand what he’s communicated in step one and step two,

remember, rock one and rock two? Nope. Absolutely not. What’s happening here is he’s having

Step Three: “Praise God!”

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this explosive outburst of praising God. Because he’s realized he is the worst of all sinners and

he’s been made the best of all examples, and so he can’t shut up about praising God.

Look at verse 17. I’ll read verse 16 first so I can set it up. “But I received mercy for this

reason, that in me, the foremost of all sinners, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as

an example, as a super-example, for those who believe in Him and have eternal life.” Verse 17,

boom! “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever

and ever.” And everybody said, “Amen.”

It’s three steps because you can’t stop from doing the third step. You can sit and wallow

all you want on this first cobblestone, but when you get to this second one you’re going to jump

to the third and praise God.

Our marriage mentors here at our church are all lay people --- they’re ministers, not

pastors --- and many of them, they have this three-step process. They had the worst marriage you

ever heard of, I’m telling you, it’s so bad. And they’ll tell you that story. And then they

submitted to the will of God, they responded to His Spirit bringing truth, and they received

hyper-grace and then hyper-faith and then hyper-love so that they could become a hyper-

example of what God can do in a life. And so, when people sit down, whether it’s in ReEngage

or premarital counseling or whatever it might be, they say, “We had the worst of all marriages.

We are the best of examples. And every marriage that’s in between there, praise Jesus.” They

just keep going on about the glory of God. They find themselves saying, “Oh, to the King of

ages! Immortal, invisible, to the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” They say

that.

God is ready to use any one of us. It’s not about your sinfulness, it’s what He’s done in

your life.

1 Timothy 1:16-17 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those were to believe in Him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

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We’ve been going to camp for over thirty years here at Grace Covenant Church, taking

the youth to camp. And we’re going to do it again this year. We spend more money on that

ministry event than any other. We spend more time, thousands of hours, getting ready for that

one week of camp. It’s worth it. That’s why we do it year after year. At camp for the last thirty

years there’s this one time where the youth pastor will sit down with students separately by age,

not as the big group. And it’s sometimes the most impactful hour of the entire week. And I think

it’s because the message can be sharper. It’s targeted to a specific person or age group at a

specific time in life. And here’s what the juniors and seniors have heard for almost thirty years.

“Hey, remember when you were a freshman and you came to school and you were kind of scared

and you saw a junior or a senior walk down the hall and you said, ‘Look at them … they’re big

and they’re confident and they’re awesome and they have a driver’s license and they get to eat

lunch off campus … junior and seniors … just look at them.’ The hallways part --- here they

come.” Remember that feeling? Yeah. Here’s what we tell the juniors and seniors: “You’re that

junior and senior now. I know, you haven’t had a single class of being a senior. I’m telling you

now in July that when the classes start in August, you’ll walk on that campus like you’re a

senior. Because the freshmen and sophomores look at you that way. You have power. You have

this status. And so many of you guys are going to waste it if you wait to feel that, and you won’t

feel it until September, and you’ll miss these critical months. You are the junior and senior.

Know this truth and use that truth to be a guide. Guide … lead … serve the underclassmen. Be a

super, hyper-example of what God can do in a person’s life if they turn it over to Him. You are

designed to do this, you are predestined to do good works in Jesus Christ, as a junior and senior.”

The message to the juniors and seniors every summer for that one hour is this: open your eyes.

There are freshmen everywhere.

Hey, Grace … you’re the seniors. Open your eyes. There are people longing for someone

your age with your life experience, your world, to come into their world and guide them. And

you know what it’s like to feel as though, to know as though you are the worst of all sinners.

Come on, upperclassmen --- don’t leave them there. Tell them about the next stepping stone. Tell

them about the hyper-overflow of grace and faith and love and watch them explode with praise

towards God.

All the ministries at Grace --- our whole church is built around a model of mentoring. I

want you to stop thinking about being mentored for a second. I want you to think about being the

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junior and senior. They are in this church, they are on your street, they’re at your office. Open

your eyes. There are freshmen everywhere. Be the guide.

[Prayer]

Lord, we lift up this command that You gave us, that all authority was given to You on

heaven and on earth, and You said, “Go make disciples.” You also said that we were your

workmanship, we were created in Christ Jesus for good works that You prepared way before the

beginning of time, that we could walk in them and show other people the way. Lord, I’d ask that

You would open our eyes to the possibility and the potential of being an upperclassman in the

life of someone that You’ve given us to guide. Would You do that maybe now, this week, so that

we might learn together how we could be better at the things that You desire us to be. That we

might be this super hyper-example, and people would see that and give glory to You. We pray

this in great expectation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.