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The Power of Our Teaching

As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on. 1 TIMOTHY 1:3-7 CSB

We can be learning a version of Christianity that lacks Christ

…remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. 1 TIMOTHY 1:3b-4 CSB

They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on. 1 TIMOTHY 1:7 CSB

Many of us can learn just enough to make us spiritually dangerous with people rather than spiritually safe.

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. JOHN 5:39-40 NIV

While it’s true that you may have found Jesus in your generational tradition, it’s not true that Jesus is only to be found in that tradition.

The goal of our learning is that we become people of love

The aim of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 1 TIMOTHY 1:5 CSB

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 CORINTHIANS 13:2 NIV

How can our learning and teaching transform us into people of love?

Prayerful meditation turns my learning about God into an experience of God

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. EPHESIANS 3:17b-19 NIV

Pray through our church’s vision of authenticity:

My Notes

Personal Reflection Guide

Take a few minutes to slow down, offering any of the day’s burdens to God. When you are ready, invite him into this time, asking him to help you to be real with yourself and him during this time. As you reflect on your own journey, how satisfied have you been with filling your mind with biblical knowledge over and above experiencing God? To what degree has this affected your ability to reflect God’s love to others? Ask God to help you examine your life to discern how much of his love is reflected through you to your family, church, and work. What feelings surface? What do they reveal? Finally, imagine what being more loving would look like for you. What steps can you take this week to experience God more, and therefore experience more of his loving character? Thank God for this time together, writing your experiences in the space below and sharing with your group if you feel comfortable.

Discussion Questions

  1. PERSONAL REFLECTION: Begin group time by completing the Personal Reflection Guide, (link found on the top of sermon notes). Use this time to process your own experience of God versus your knowledge of God. (Tip: playing some soft background music is helpful here!)
  2. SELF: To what extent is the information available to you actually making your life better? To what extent is it making your life worse?
  3. SELF: Is your content intake (Bible learning, news reading, who you follow on social media) leading you to become a person of love? What needs to be added or removed from your intake to help move you toward an increasingly loving attitude toward others?
  4. GOD: Do you believe that God truly wants you, or just the person you feel like you’re supposed to be?
  5. OTHERS: The way we experience God will influence the way we engage with people. The way we think that God views or treats us will be the way that we view or treat others. How have you seen this to be true in your life or others?
  6. TAKE ACTION: What could our group look like if we all set aside some time to practice prayerful meditation on scripture this week? If someone in the group has experience with this, share what that experience is like for you, offering any tips for those in the group who haven’t practiced this yet.