Sermon – “Caring for Those Who Have No One Else”

Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity. 3 Honor widows who are really widows. 4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God. 5 Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. 6 But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. 7 And these things command, that they may be blameless. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 9 Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man, 10 well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. 11 But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, 12 having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith. 13 And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. 14 Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. 15 For some have already turned aside after Satan. 16 If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows.

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

36 Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; 37 and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. 38 And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Amen God is good and all the time a man God is always faithful. You know Rizana changes the praise and worship songs every month they new songs get to speak to you in a new way you know the first song speaking about being broken you know we’ve all been broken one way or another. And God is always faithful he can fix our broken us he can mend that is broken be it physical or be it spiritual God can fix what is broken in us He wants to be or he wants to care for us and help us help our brokenness he can make us whole this morning my message out titled caring for those who have no one else so. Take this moment brief moment think about that caring for those that have no one else so when I so if I ask you Who is that one that has no one else what do you think of what comes to your mind the caring for those people that have no one else that no one else to care for them nothing. Anybody think of orphans homeless widows orphans widows diseases many times take care they were friends in a widow’s. Caring for the ones that have no one else First Timothy five verses one through sixteen. My focus the focus of this passage is caring for the widows I said were friends but orphans to have no one else no one to care for them actually support preparedness and going I think and think of the orphan that little child the little baby that someone abandons just you know you’ve heard the stories leave them on the doorstep open and someone will find them you think how could they do that but they’re thinking well they’re open it they’ll find a better home than what they could provide OK almost a scripture lesson here first seventy five one through sixteen. Do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as a father younger men as brothers older women as mothers younger women and sisters with all purity on are widows who are really widows but if any widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents for this is good and acceptable before God Now she who is really a widow and left alone trusting God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day but she who lives and plays or is dead while she lives and these things command that they may be blameless but if any one doth does not provide for his own and especially for those of his own of his household he has denied the faith and is worse than a nonbeliever do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number and not a mess she has been the wife of one man well reported for good works if she has brought up children if she has large strangers if she has washed the Saints feet if she has reason relieved the afflicted. If she has diligently followed every good work but refused the younger widows for when they have grown begun to grow wanton against Christ they desire to marry having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith and besides they learn to be idle wandering about from house to house and not only audible but also gossips and busy bodies saying things which they ought not therefore ideas are that the younger widows marry bear children manage the house give no opportunity for that to the adversary to speak reproachfully for some have already turned aside after Satan if any believing man or woman has widows let them relieve them and do not let the church be burdened that it may relieve those who are really widows they got at his blessing so they hear it in the reading of His Holy Word let us pray Heavenly Father we do thank you and praise you for your word we thank you for the instruction that your word gives Lord and how the church should function and operate and how we as your people as your children should treat others especially those that are in need and father may your word be proclaimed this morning May your spirit be among us may your name be looked at High may you be glorified may we learn and receive what you have forced order that penetrate into our hearts and May you receive the honor in Jesus’ name amen before I get into what I was going to start with first in a think about that part they learn to be idle those widows that have no one up to the younger widows they learn to be out of they go from house to house they get they become gossips and busy bodies and say things they shouldn’t say but you know many learn to be idle I don’t this is not good I don’t miss peer It is just not good is good for us not to be busy bodies but to bid to be busy to to be. Helping others or to be working or to be doing things God did not create us just to be to lay around and be eyes and to be idle and to do nothing whenever God created Adam and Eve and put him in a garden he gave them something to do didn’t it they were to tend to the garden and I mean he even they even helped with creation a they named all the animals so they had many things to do I don’t miss leads to. Giving the adversary an opportunity is what I don’t as leads to that’s very straight forward so we need to learn to keep ourselves busy keep our minds busy to meditate on the word to help others now get into this fifth chapter this fifth chapter of Timothy just Connick carries on with the same thing that has been through the entire book of Timothy Timothy thus far yeah. There’s one more chapter after this work on my way through there but the entire book thus far has been instruction for the church instruction for how the church as a whole church leaders the first chapter Timothy gave us instruction to not allow lawlessness within the church Chapter two instructed us that we should pray for all men and it kind of like especially for those who are in authority and it did not encourage us to pray for just the godly men who were in there were date. To pray for all men for kings and all who are in authority so even the wicked ones and I’m not say I’m backing up a little bit it didn’t tell us to pray that God would send fire down from heaven to destroy them we’re to pray for their souls so we are to pray for all men chapter three instructed to church on qualifications for bishops and deacons chapter four encourage us to watch out for deceiving spears which would enter into the church in the latter days so chapter five again continues the proper way that the church should handle taking care of widows or those that are in need you know we can have been having a discussion in this church what do we do how should we help and should we have guidelines we should have guidelines because Paul hears instructed Timothy on some guidelines we should we should have some guidelines into you know how much we should give and who should we give to an this and that So that’s what Paul’s given he’s a struction is for the church to make sure they. You know allow others to do what they should do in the church to do what they should do the true widows should be taken care of by the church if they have no one else to take care for care of them before I get into the part about the widows I really believe that the first two verses in this. Passage the part that I read in this chapter I believe that the first two verses actually go with the last part of Chapter four at that Qana does they don’t go with the part about the widows. The end of chapter four Paul was advising Timothy to let no one despise his youth to Timothy was a young pastor he was a young man so Paul’s encouraging him at the end of chapter four Let no one despise your views you are worthy you’re a good leader you know I think you imagine a young pastor and his twenty’s fresh out of seminary getting put into a church that has people of all ages you know you might have a twenty something pastor trying to pastor of a man or woman has been in the church for sixty seventy years you know they might be eighty’s and early seventy’s ninety’s that have so much wisdom and knowledge and you got this young man trying to Pastor him imagine that that could be kind of awkward you know but it happens and so you’ve got to have proper instruction and how to do it so here at the beginning of chapter five and here’s why I say it goes there because now he’s addressing it to Timothy to not rebuke or reprove the older man but it to exhort that elder or that older man in your congregation as a father. Here you know I’m not saying I’m the older man I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m in a way dry only fifty seven so I mean what I’m up on a limb to right. But yeah. But he’s encouraging the young pastors to be respectful to be respectful to the older people if it’s the old man older men not the old man the older men exhort them as fathers the older women as mothers be respectful to one another and you know whether it is within the church whether it’s within your neighborhood whether it is at work or wherever were ever it is I think this is good advice to be respectful. To be respectful specified to those that are older I think that’s good advice for life. And I think that something that a lot of our society is missing that respect we should be respectful of others and I know that it can be difficult to relate to the older generations. I’m talking from the role of young people to the older people it’s hard to relate sometimes because they grew up in different circumstances very different circumstances but you know the. Older people in our community or in our churches they have a lot of wisdom and understanding to share with the younger people are you listening younger people the older people have a lot of wisdom and to share that you can learn from you know I’ve heard a lotta one maybe not a lot but I’ve heard some older people say I’ve seen a thing or two in my time. If you ever heard anybody an elderly person say that I’ve seen a thing or two in my time where there’s great truth in that little saying you know I remember I used to go and sit down with Karen State granddad which we called him pap that Molly again and he would share stories with me of the Great Depression which he lived through share stories of the war he was in a Korean War and just stories of things that he had experienced in his life they have so much wisdom so much experience to share with the younger generations and often times when a share this wisdom and understanding that they have it might be to help encourage you to not make the same mistakes that they made. But the problem is we seem to want to make our own mistakes right we don’t want to learn from them but they do have a lot of wisdom to share. And we can learn from their mistakes and not make the same things. That. The great evangelist George Whitefield was relating the difficulties of the gospel ministry to some friends one evening he said that he was weary of the burdens and was glad that is work would soon be over and that he would be part of this earthly scene to be with Christ the others admitted having similar feelings all except for one man a Mr Tenet noting this Whitefield tapped him on the knee and said Well Brother Tenet You are the oldest among us do you not rejoice to think that your time is near at hand and you will be called home the old it the old man answered bluntly that he had no wish about it when pressed for something more definite He added I have nothing to do with death. Mr Tenet said My business is to live as long as I can and as well as I can and serve my Savior as faithful as I can until he thinks it’s time to call me home Whitefield accepted the word as a gentle rebuke from the Lord and it helped him to go on with his work calmly and patiently knows I’ve reviewed this and I’m thinking that might be the most important words and some tired passage or sitar message. My business so our business is to live as long as we can as well as we can and serve our Savior as faithfully as we can. Are they not good words. We’re not to be concerned with the death we’re to be concerned with the life that we have and to live it for him. How illyria Howley it to live it for him. I don’t know what day I’ll be called home but that’s not my worry that’s his. That’s what he say and live for may live for me today and tomorrow and every day that I give you a man second Timothy four to says preach the Word be ready in season and out of season convince rebuke exhort with all longsuffering in teaching. So there may come a time when a younger man might have to. Rebuke an older gentleman but it should again be done with gentleness with kindness with tenderness with respect as though it’s your father or your mother. So now we’ll get to the. The main part caring for the widow in a church family you know one of the nice thing about doing a little series like I’ve been going through First Timothy it Mike it causes major causes one to preach about something they may not have preached on otherwise so Paul says to honor widows who are really widows and you might say well widows a widow right I mean if a woman’s husband dies she’s a widow so widow is a widow. That’s pretty straightforward but Paul does go into a little bit of detail doesn’t it first the widow whom the church should take responsibility for that’s the that’s the difference here yes a widow is a widow but Paul was speaking about the widow that the church is to take responsibility for. First off they must be at least sixty years of age sixty years old. We know a lot of younger widows but the ones at the church are to take responsibility for should be at least sixty why because those younger widows will grow wanton I mean that means that they will long for a man they will want to find themselves a new husband and that’s the way it should be they should want to find a new husband because God created us to. Relationship with one another he created us to have companions to be by our side someone to go out to dinner with someone to share our lives with. God didn’t want to be alone that’s why I created aved maydays so that Adam would have a helper a suitable helper so Paul’s advice for the younger widow to remarry. It’s possible they might need just a little bit of help or encouraging from the church where they always need encouragement but they might do a little help but they are encouraged to remarry. So then he says those widows that have children and grandchildren. Who supposed to take care of those widows. The children and grandchildren. They are to take care of their mothers or their grandmothers who are widowed that’s called Show and piety at home piety as it use here means to show devotion a believer is not only to show devotion to God. But are also to show devotion toward their parents or their grandparents the ones who took care of them the provided them with provided for them when they were younger one commentator says that there is no way possible that a child could repay their parents for all the care that they provided for them while they were growing up while they were younger there’s no way possible with this think about it children your parents changed your diaper when you was a baby they fed you when you couldn’t feed yourself they guided you they provided clothing for you they took care of you for eighteen years old finally they. You know time to go. But your parents provided for you. So it’s cording to this word is your duty to take care of them to provide for them when they can’t take care of themselves now that’s if it is possible that you could take you know have the means to take care of your parents were your grandparents that is what your to do. You know I think of. A relative of mine. A cousin cousin that took my grandmother in. And took care of her she had a job but she is I mean she was there for other than the time she was at. At work she was there taking care of my grandmother for was it five years I think five years she gave up five years of her life because of her devotion to my grandmother to her grandmother. She was fulfilling this passage. Taking care of the widow. Many years ago I was listening to focus on the family. And it was way back when Dr Dobson was still doing the daily bread cast and he said there was back then I’m not sure how many years it’s been that in China. They didn’t have nursing homes the law all required that the children set money aside that they would have means to take care of their elderly elderly parents or grandparents. Many times there were. Several generations living under one roof because they took care. Of the already they took care of their parents. While I think things have changed a little bit in China. Because thirty years ago there were no nursing homes but today there’s roughly two hundred sixty six thousand beds nursing homes and beds not two hundred sixty six thousand nursing homes but beds but when you think of the population of China. That’s nothing. So it is still encouraged and still the law in China to take care of your parents and grandparents. China is not the only place where honoring your father and mother is law all. The Lyall piety is a law in China in India France and Ukraine in Singapore adult children who do not give their parents an allowance can face up to six months in jail. So save for your parents or you’re going to jail. Take care of your parents take care of those who can’t take care of themselves Paul says that a true widow in need is not only is not one who lives in pleasure but one who’s devoted to God and continues in supplications in prayers night and day there is a great example found in Luke Chapter two verses thirty six through thirty eight. Says now there was one anna a prophetess the daughter of a new all of the tribe of Asher she was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity and this woman was a widow of about eighty four years who did not depart from the temple but serve God with fastings and prayers night and day and coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all who look for redemption in Jerusalem. You know in the Old Testament times and even in the early church. When women found themselves widowed they were often left without any means at all to support themselves they would either had have to rely on family if they had any if they didn’t have any they might have to resort to begging in the streets. To be able to even have food to eat they were doomed to poverty oftentimes they would even lose the land that their husbands may have had there were no governmental programs to take care of the aging there was no Social Security there was no life insurance policies to collect there were no retirement funds to draw from from so they actually had nothing so that’s why Paul says we should take care of the church to take care of those. It Today we are so blessed in the United States to have the Social Security system to take care of those that are in need and you know I know that we could. Might sit around a lot of times and speak bad of some of the different programs and how they were abused you look at welfare and so secure it’s so many things but you know what we are blessed to have them because there are a lot of people that are truly in need not just talking about widows but a lot of people that face a lot of circumstances that we haven’t been so unfortunate to have to face whether it be they’ve lost her job or whatever but they find themselves in a bad place so I think that we should not be so quick to judge all those people that are on welfare or judge all those people who are doing this or that but say thank you that we do have these means to help those in need that need help the most we shouldn’t judge one program because of the abuse of a few. I did a little research and you know those Room welfare you know a lot of people really condemn say well there are so many people abusing it but the percentage of people abusing is very small when you look at the number of people that they are helping so thank the Lord we do have these programs but also the church should be helping where it could help and should help and ought to be helping. Taking care of those who are truly in need is pleasing to God Romans twelve ten through sixteen says be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love and honor giving preference to one another not lagging in diligence fervent in the spirit serving the Lord rejoicing in hope patient tribulation continuing steadfastly in prayer distributing to the needs of the saints. Distributing to those distributed to the Saints given to hospitality bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse rejoice with those or rejoice and weep with those who we be of the same mind toward one another do not let your mind do not set your mind on high things but associate with the humble Do not be wise in your own opinion now I found this little story about a very generous man so I want to share with you. It’s titled The kindness of Jonas Hanway. Was there ever a more generous man or a more vigorous champion of the downtrodden than Jonas Hanway children children were the focus of his philanthropy and eighteenth century Britain they were often mistreated particularly when they were poor homeless so generous Hanway became a governor of founding hospital he sought to remedy remedy the abuse of Chimney Sweep apprentices and founding the Marine society he helped to clothe poor children and prepare them for secure military careers and yet with disadvantage young people only began Jonas hand ways benevolence he agitated for four and more numerous reforms in the public work houses he was among the founder of Magdalene hospital the purpose of which was to care for and rehabilitate repentant process prostitutes he was active in the misery of Dona hospital with sought to retreat sought to treat very old and is very old diseases among the poor in the talk here he campaigned for more humane treatment of prisoners and toward the public spiritual welfare he became a strong advocate for the status min of Sunday schools it would be impossible to enumerate all the good causes promoted by Jonas Hanway and yet he was a despised man. Everywhere the generous hand way went the Risen followed his appearance on the street never failed to create a sensation man elbowed each other uttering their contempt aloud women exchanged distain for glances young ruffians jeered and threatened him coachman race their vehicles near him. I’m hoping to frighten him or at least splatter him with gutter mud. For the citizens of London the very people whose lives he had so tiresomely labored to improve hated Jonas Hanway. For the last thirty years of his life he was treated contemptuously regarded as an F A meant f a minute not because he was but because of a habit he acquired during his travels to the Far East I haven’t what you were a peon society deemed unacceptable for Gentleman surely before Jonas and Hanway died the people of London forgave him and by the time by that time many men had actually begun to imitate his f a minute I can’t say that word. The feminine custom as a matter of fact there’s a monument in Westminster Abbey to Jonas Hanway presumably because of his extraordinary philanthropy. And yet you always remember him as a man he risked his otherwise wonderful reputation by promoting a Far East tradition that centered around a strange looking however utilitarian invention for you see Jenna’s Hanway the friend of the poor the defender of the defendants each and every day risk the abuse and derision of his fellow man by carrying with him through the streets of London a devilish looking device known as an umbrella. Paul Harvey. Shared that. Because he carried a number Ella they thought him not very manly I had to look up the definition of that word they thought him not very manly because he carried a number of a man who gave his all to try to help those who could not help themselves to help the destitute he tried to help the workers in the abuse of workers. He did all he could do to help others but yet they hated him all because. Of something he carried in his hand all because they judged him outwardly. And did not judges heart what a lesson for us don’t judge by the outward appearance but look at the heart. But most importantly let us look in the mirror and examine our own hearts examine our own hearts do we care for the downtrodden do we care for the widows and the orphans or all those that can’t take care of themselves brothers and sisters we are the church we are the church and we are God’s hands and feet. Let’s be faithful. Be faithful to listen to what God is calling you to do that us as a church be faithful and listen to what God is calling us to do to help where we can to do what we can to make a difference in people’s lives. We may have to feed dead hungry belly before we can tell me about Jesus right.