Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM - 2 Timothy 4:1-11 - "Preach the Word" - Pastor Ryan Nichols

Well, good morning. It's good to see everybody. I'm glad you're here. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with me, we'll pray. We'll get started.

Father, we come before you this morning. We just thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord, to be in your house this morning. To be able to lift praise to you, to be able to take in your word this morning, God. I'd much rather be here, Lord God, to be in your presence than to be a thousand other places, Lord God. So, Lord, we ask your blessing upon this time. Bless your word as it goes out. In Jesus' name, amen.

Enter into your presence this morning for what you've done for us, Lord God. Nobody else, nobody else could have done what you've done. Nobody else could have taken our rightful place on that cross. Just you, in doing so, Lord, you overcame death. You overcame sin. You overcame the power of hell and the grave, Lord God. And in doing so, you gave us new life.

Nobody else could have done that. You've done what you've done, so we give you praise and we give you thanks. Would you guys go ahead and stand with me for the last one?

And so now, Lord, as Pastor Ryan comes, pray that your Holy Spirit would just overflow him, Lord God. Lord, I ask for a fresh, mighty outpouring of your Holy Spirit this morning. Lord, do something awesome in this place. Do something awesome in our lives. Do something awesome in mine. We love you, Lord, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Amen. If you could begin the process of locating your seat, grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Some things to take note of in your bulletin. On the left-hand side, as far as events for next week, there are two things that are canceled. There will be no Wednesday night services of any sort, either in here or with the kids, with Thanksgiving coming. And then, of course, there's no women's study on Thursday this week.

So make sure you take note of those things. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, there's a lot of things that are going to be going on right now with a lot of things going on. So let's kind of work our way through here. So first of all, this is one last-minute effort for directory photos. So Lauren is going to be set up down where you checked your kids in.

And if she knows that you haven't had your photo taken for the directory, she will come after you. That's all I'm telling you right now. She will come after you. And so you can go see her, get your photo taken real quick, and those will start getting distributed. About three weeks. So those will start getting distributed in about three weeks. So Agape Fruits tonight has their Thanksgiving dinner.

So take note of that. If you want to join them, you can. Also, there's a community-wide Thanksgiving service that the Ministerial Alliance puts on. That is this coming Tuesday at 630 over at the First United Methodist Church. Ladies, there is the conference coming up the first Saturday in December, December the 6th. So take note of that. You don't have to sign up.

You can just show up. But I would encourage you to do so. And when my mom made the announcement a couple of weeks ago, she failed to tell you that she is speaking at this conference as well. So she does a very good job. So if you're interested in that, check that out. The Arc City Live Nativity. I think this was announced last week. But they do kind of a cool thing out of Bible Christian Church.

And they bring a lot of the other churches in on it. And they actually set up like scenes of the Christmas story with actual people. So if you want to be involved in that, I think our scene is pretty special. It's pretty small this year. There's a sign-up sheet out in the lobby. And so take note of that and get joined in with that. There are still a couple of spots available for the Dallas Operation Christmas Child trip.

So if you are interested in this, I can't see what you're doing back there. Okay, three spots. I'm sorry. Lights and stuff. And I'm not getting younger. So there's three spots available for that. Also, you all knocked it out of the park, right? So our goal was $300. And we packed 550 boxes. And we packed 517. So, yeah, that's pretty amazing. I'm really blessed by that.

That's a lot of kids that are going to hear the gospel. So good job. Although, you know, we've made next year's bar pretty high. So just throwing that out there. Also, ladies. Oh, wait. Yes, here you are. Yes, come up and join us for this. Ladies' breakfast coming up. Sandra's going to tell you a little bit about it. Good morning. The ladies have been. Once a month, the ladies meet for breakfast.

There's a little devotion. We had met. It's been going on a long time. But it's changed locations a couple times. Well, thankfully, prayerfully, it's here now. And it's the second Saturday each month. And in December, we thought we'd do something a little bit special. We might do, like, a gift exchange. Do something for the younger group. Because some of the moms have been bringing their daughters.

Which has been a huge blessing. And so, there's sign-up sheets for both if you're going to attend. And then, also, if you want to help with it. If you're filling lead or giftings or just whatever. If you just want to for, you know, helping set up, decoration, bringing food or whatever. There's sign-up sheets in the back. I won't be here. But I will be here.

But I just wanted to make sure that it is announced. And it really is a, it's been a real joyous time. A good fellowship. And I mentioned it at first service. It, you know, I believe the women are the heartbeat of any fellowship. And it's a chance if you want to get plugged in and meet new people. We pray with each other. We, it's just a good, a good time of fellowship.

So, if you want to start getting plugged in or whatever, come. But let's do it. Like I said, December, we're going to try and do something a little bit different. And, you know, have presence is what we should do. So, thank you. If you have any questions, me or Anita or, we'll start there. And then, we'll go. We'll go from there. Thanks. Thank you. All right.

Very good. Okay. Those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 100. Psalm 100. We'll be using the New American Sync. Psalm 100. That's the standard for this part. If you don't have a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 100, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the

reading of God's Word. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along, Pastor Allen, and the even verses. Psalm 100, a psalm for thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God. It is He who has made us. And not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. Bless His name. And read verse 5 with me. For the Lord is good, His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations. And so, Father, we do give thanks to You for who You are and for how great You are to us. And Lord, as we move into a week that is supposed to focus us in on that, Lord, would You give

us hearts that are thankful. Lord, would You bring to mind all of the wonderful gifts that You've given to us, all of the blessings that we have in our lives because of how good You are. And so, Father, be with us as we spend time in Your Word now, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 4, 2 Timothy,

chapter 4. Well, it's good to be back this week. Had a great time last weekend at Fall FCA Conference. Got to hang out with about 350 teenagers and about 50 college kids. It was a lot of fun. But more importantly, God did a lot of great work in the lives of some kids. I shared it with First Service too, but there were 15 kids that came to know Jesus as their

Savior this last weekend, which is pretty cool. And yeah, yeah, praise God. It was amazing to see, amazing what God's able to do. But now we're back in action here. And so, as we looked at the letter of 2 Timothy, we entitled it. Final Words from a Faithful Servant. And Paul has been laying out kind of his final instructions for Timothy because he knows his time is drawing near and he's been telling him several different things.

He told him to guard the treasure. He told him to be strong. He told him to be diligent. He told him to understand the times. And now today, we come to the next lesson in chapter 4. And the next lesson in chapter 4 is preach the Word. Preach the Word. So we pick up in verse 1 of chapter 4, and it says this. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living

and the dead by His appearing in His kingdom, preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves the Word. They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will

turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. So Paul gives this exhortation to Timothy to preach the Word. And as he does so, he's going to tell him three things. Number one, he's going to give him a solemn charge. Number two, he's going to give him his instructions. And then number three, he's going to give him the why. So let's start with this solemn charge.

In verse 1, it says this. He says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. That word that he uses there, to solemnly charge, is a strong legal term. It literally carries with it the idea of one who is being called upon to testify under oath. And so as Paul says this, he says, I am testifying under oath that what I'm telling you is really important.

I solemnly charge you. And these are the witnesses that he calls into account to say, I am solemnly charging you of these things. He says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and in the presence of Christ. And interestingly enough, the verbiage there in the Greek, indicates that Jesus is on the same plane as the Father. So we see the deity of Christ introduced again there.

But also what I want to point out to you is he brings up the importance of what he's about to tell Timothy. He solemnly charges him and says, this is such an important thing that I'm calling into account as witness that the command that I give you is incredibly important. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead. In other words, he's the one who will take.

All of your works into account. He is the one that you will have to stand before. He is the one you'll have to answer to. He is the one who will hold all of your works in account to see whether or not you lived by faith or whether or not you live by obedience. He is the one who is coming again by his appearance and by his arrival. Now, Paul spends an incredible amount of time building up to what he's about to tell Timothy,

which should indicate something to you. It should indicate to you that what he's about to tell Timothy, the instruction that he's about to give him is incredibly important. Why does Paul spend this much time building up to this statement? Why does he take the amount of time and effort to show how important this is? Why does he build it up like this? Because the preaching of the word of God is truly one of the most powerful things

that God has given to us as the church. Now, it's interesting because Paul also refers to it as foolishness. In other places in scripture, he refers to it as the foolishness of the preaching of the word of God. You know why? Because God uses the foolish things of the world. To confound the wise. God could have done anything that he wanted to to spread his word.

God could have written it in the sky. God could have just made us all to understand it. God could speak it forth from the mountaintops by himself. God could write it with the trees, right? God could do anything he wanted to, but he chose that the way that the word of God would be spread would be through the preaching of the word. I don't always know why he did it.

Sometimes I wish he would have chosen an easier way. It'd make my job a lot easier. But the fact of the matter is, this is how God has chosen. He chose to do things and the preaching of the word is powerful. Because the preaching of the word is able to take the lost and make them found. The preaching of the word is able to take the blind and make them see. The preaching of the word is able to take the deaf and make them hear.

It's able to take the dead and make them alive. It is truly able to give new life to people. How does it work? It's a mysterious thing. But somehow, the power of God working through the word of God using a foolish preacher is able to bring forth the power of God. Bring forth the power of the word to the people of God. And I wish I could explain it, but I can't.

This is one of the things I talked to some college kids about this last weekend. I had to give a little charge to a group of huddle leaders to say, hey, go out there and get them this weekend, right? Because all these college kids get put in charge of all these teenagers. And I shared with them a little story. I said, there's this wonderful story in the New Testament of the feeding of the 5,000.

And in the story of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus is ministering to thousands and thousands of people. And it's getting close to dinner time. And his disciples come to him and they say, Jesus, you should send everybody home because it's really late and they need to go get themselves something to eat. And Jesus says, you feed them. You give them something to eat.

And they're like, Jesus, we don't really have enough to feed all these people. He goes, well, what do you have in your hand right now? And so we got five loaves and two little fish, right? And I'm not talking a loaf of bread. These are like little rolls, right? Like I got five sweet Hawaiian rolls and a can of tuna, right? That's what I've got in my hands right now.

And they're like, and what's that amongst so many? And I reminded all of these kids the same thing I remind myself of all the time and the same thing I'm going to remind you of right now. And that's that what is insufficient in the hands of a disciple is more than enough in the hands of Jesus. And I told them, I said, what you have to offer these kids will never be enough, but that's what qualifies you to be able to minister.

So one of the amazing things about being a preacher of the Word of God is the first thing that you have to realize if you're going to be a preacher of the Word of God is you do not have enough. I don't have enough wisdom. I don't have enough intelligence. I don't have enough power in my speech. I don't have enough persuasion in my speech. I don't have what it takes to give out the Word of God to you

and make it effective to your soul. All I have is some words on a page and some things that I can say and in the hands of me that will never be enough. That's why it's called the foolishness of the preaching of the Word of God. But when you take what is not enough in the hands of Ryan, and you put it in the hands of the Lord, you're going to get what you need.

into the hands of jesus as i give you what god has given to me and then he takes and administers it to your soul it is life-giving and it is powerful that's why he says i solemnly charge you in the presence of god and of christ who is going to judge the living and the dead by his appearance and his coming and he comes to the instruction he says preach the word preach the word the word preach means to herald literally he says herald the word herald the word as an official messenger now when we think of the word preach you think of exactly what i'm doing right now somebody standing in a pulpit usually up on a platform in front of a group of people preaching

the word but that's probably not the first thought that would have gone through timothy's mind at this point in time because remember timothy is living in the first century a.d timothy is living in the roman empire and they knew what it meant to preach because the mindset of the of timothy's time frame was this a preacher was a spokesman of the emperor who proclaimed the message which the emperor gave him to announce that's what it meant to preach the word at that point in time and so so timothy would have known he would have heard that and heard someone who proclaims the message of the emperor well what needed to be true of proclaiming the message of the emperor it better be accurate it better be authentic and it better be an obedience it better be

done the way that the emperor has had had said it otherwise they have no problem ending your life and so when he tells him to preach the word he realizes that that is a solemn charge that he has given him there's a heavy responsibility that he's given him because timothy's responsibility was not to proclaim the message of caesar timothy's responsibility was to proclaim the message of the one who created caesar the actual king the actual emperor and so he tells him preach the word now i want to point out to you the second part of that it's not just preach but it's to preach the word of god and this is important because there's a lot of people out there preaching there's not a lot of people out there

preaching the word there's a lot of people out there heralding a message but it's not the message of the king there's a lot of people out there proclaiming some sort of truth but it's not the truth of the word of god and that's where we as believers have to be separate from everyone else that's around us we have to preach what the word has to say listen i wish sometimes that i did not have to preach to you what it says in the bible i wish i could just come to you with a happy message all the time a message of love and sunshine and bubbles occasionally pretty clowns right i wish i could i wish i could just preach to you a happy message all the time you know as well as i do that i've come to places in the last

few weeks in scripture where i've said i wish i could just take a my black highlighter and go through all that so they don't have to read it anymore i wish you could redact all of that from scripture because that's going to make me very unpopular and might even make some of you angry with me but i have to preach the word because i realize something i've been given a message from the emperor i've been given a message from the king and i'm less concerned with whether or not i make you angry and i'm more concerned with whether or not i make him angry i'm less concerned with whether or not you appreciate the message and i'm more concerned with whether or not he appreciates the message because my job is not to be faithful

to your standards my job is to be faithful to his standards and you have the same job and that's what timothy was told to do he was told you need to preach the word Because it is the preaching of the word of God that will change the lives of people. There's been two amazing events in the early history of our nation. They were actually called the First and Second Great Awakenings. Do you know what was done in the First and Second Great Awakenings?

They preached the word. And all of the seminaries that were supposed to be the ones who were proclaiming the truth of the word of God, they had gotten away from the purity of the word of God. And it took some bold men who stood up and said, you know what, that's not actually what the Bible says. We should actually get back to what the word of God has to say and start preaching what it has to say.

And they saw results that were unheard of. When, oh, who was the guy that preached sinners in the hands of an angry God? When Jonathan Edwards preached sinners in the hands of an angry God, he couldn't finish his message. Because as he preached the word, people were running forward to repent of their sins. Why? Why? Because he preached. The word with the solemn charge that God had given to him.

And God used the foolishness of a man who, by the way, refused to use voice inflection. He read it off of a paper. He used the foolishness of a man preaching the truth of the word of God and used it in such a powerful way that it sparked an awakening in the United States of America. I'm a part of the Calvary movement. God used an old 40-something-year-old bald guy,

and I'm not talking about myself, I'm talking about Chuck Smith, because he was my age when Calvary Chapel really hit its stride. In the 70s, God used a 40-something-year-old bald man who talked slower than any human being I can imagine, and he used the foolishness of the preaching of the word of God to bring an entire generation to Jesus. That's why Paul said, Timothy, preach the word. Well, you know me, I'm not content to just take that message and go, okay, now go out and preach the word.

No, I want to know what that looks like. I want to know how it works. And so I asked myself two questions. I said to myself, I said, self, how do we preach the word? And then I said to myself, I said, self, what does that look like? And I said to myself, I'm really glad you asked. So these are the way I answer these two questions. How do we preach the word?

Three things. Number one, if you're going to preach the word, you have to do it accurately. If you're going to preach the word, you have to do it accurately. You had better make sure you know the message. You better make sure you know the message. I had a guy. I asked this to my college group last week. I had a wonderful friend of mine come and share his testimony last Sunday evening at my college group.

And he asked them all, do you know the message of the gospel? And I thought, that's a fantastic question. We talk a lot about the message of the gospel. But do you know the message of the gospel? Can you articulate the message of the gospel? Because I'm here to tell you right now, people are going to be watching your life. We're going to talk about that in just a minute.

Okay. And eventually, they're going to ask some questions. And you need to be able to accurately articulate what the word of God has to say. You need to be able to accurately proclaim it. And listen, Jesus comes in and takes care of a whole lot of our messes when it comes to that sort of thing. But you should have a background knowledge of what God's word has to say.

That's why you understanding scripture is so important. There's a wonderful text in the book of Acts. And it's on one of Paul's missionary journeys. And there was a city that he went to called Berea. And the testimony of the Berean church. And the Bereans were more fair-minded than the others. Because they searched the scriptures daily to make sure that these things were so.

Now listen, it is incumbent upon me as a pastor. It is incumbent upon me as a preacher that I accurately handle the word of God. Paul spent a lot of time talking about this. Look back, if you will, at chapter 2, verse 15. He tells Timothy, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed.

Accurately handling the word of truth. Jump down to chapter 3, verse 16. He says, All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work. The accurate handling of the word of God is absolutely the job of the preacher. But it is not just the job of the preacher.

You see, this is the problem in the 21st century church. we've relegated the job of accurate preaching to the preacher forgetting that part of the job of accurately preaching the word of god is the accurate understanding of the word of god from his people see you all's job is to make sure that you know that what i'm saying is true you know what plunged us into the dark ages they took the word of god out of the hands of the people of god and they said the priest will tell us what we need to know and they couldn't read it anymore and pretty soon somebody said we should print the bible in a language everyone can understand they burned that guy at the stake and then another guy came along and said we should print

the bible in a language we can understand and finally they printed the bible in a language that they could understand and somebody said that doesn't line up with what the priest is saying at all no wonder we've been living in the dark ages because that's not what the bible says but the people relegated the job to the priesthood instead of taking it for themselves and brothers and sisters i don't want you to do that to me that's way too much pressure on me you need to know what god's word has to say so that you can handle it accurately because if you're going to preach the word and you should and you need to do it accurately number two if you're going to preach the word you need to do it boldly you need to do

it boldly what has happened to the church today why have we stopped being bold why have we started being cowardice in the way that we handle everything why are we so scared that somebody's not going to believe our message why are we so scared that somebody's going to be mad in our message why are we so scared that we're going to offend somebody listen i'm not saying you should make it your job to offend somebody. I'm saying you should make it your job to declare the gospel. And when you do, there's a good chance it's going to offend somebody. You do it in love because you want to see them changed. But when did we stop being bold? We stopped being bold when we started

caring more about numbers than we did about people. When we started caring more about building a church than we did about building lives. When we started caring more about making a name for ourselves instead of making disciples. When we started becoming more like the world and less like Jesus. And I am tired of the fact that the church has stopped being bold. Why have we stopped

asking the hard questions? Why are we scared of the hard questions? We have the answers. They're right here in the Word. The world is the one that's going to have to answer some very hard questions like, what are you going to do with Jesus? So why have we stopped being bold? There's a wonderful story again in the book of Acts. It's with the disciples. And the disciples had been preaching

the Word of God. I think this is somewhere around Acts chapter 3 or 4, somewhere in that general range. The disciples had been preaching the Word of God. And they didn't like that they were preaching the Word. So they hauled them all in. And they beat the snot out of them. And they said, don't preach the Word of God anymore. And they said, listen, whether or not we obey you or God is kind of up

to us. We're probably going to choose God. But we're really thankful that we get to suffer for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so they went back to the upper room with the other disciples. And they got together and they prayed. You know what they prayed for? Lord, would you help our message to be less offensive so that they really understand our hearts behind it. And that they'll know, Lord,

that what we really mean is love. And that what we really mean is kindness. Lord, help them to be less offended by what we say. That's not what they said. What did they pray? They prayed, Lord, Lord, would you help us not to get in trouble for preaching the gospel anymore? No, that's not what they said. What did they pray? Lord, would you give us boldness to go forth and preach your Word?

And you know what happened when they prayed for boldness? The Holy Spirit shook the room that they were sitting in. And they were all filled with the Spirit. And they went out and boldly proclaimed the gospel. When did we stop? Shaking the room. Why are we not praying for boldness? You have the answer to life. You have the one thing that everybody needs. Stop being scared of it. Stop being scared to

boldly proclaim it. If you're going to preach the Word, you got to do it accurately. You got to do it boldly. Number three, you got to do it authentically. You got to do it authentically. People need to know the real you. They need to know the work that the gospel has really done in you. You know what the greatest proof of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is? It's your changed

life. It's the fact that you were dead and now you're alive. That you were lost and now you're found. That you were blind and now you can see. That's the power of the gospel. Because it's your changed life. This is not something you read in a book. This is not something you learned in a theology class. This is what Jesus wrote on your heart. Because he changed who you are. And you've

got to live in front of people authentically. That means that they need to know the good, the bad, and the ugly about you. And they need to be able to see that about you. Listen, not only because of how Jesus brought you to faith, but how he's still working in you through faith. That you are still not perfect, but you are still growing in your walk. And you can admit your mistakes and you can reach out for

help because you know of what Jesus is able to do in your life. Do you know what got robbed from us at the garden? What happened? I want you to think about this. When Adam and Eve sinned, what was the first thing that they did? Just think. They covered them. Right? What was the second thing that they did? They hid. You know what that means? You know what sin created in us? Sin created in us shame that makes us want to cover ourselves and hide. In

other words, we lost all of our transparency and we lost all of our authenticity with sin. And now the default of every single one of us is to hide the bad and show the good. And we don't want anybody to know that we have any problems. We don't want anybody to know that we have any struggles. We don't want anybody to know that we have any issues. And because of that, we've stopped

living authentically in front of people. And so no one knows that the gospel has changed you from being a wretched sinner to a righteous, saved person because you won't ever admit that you ever had any problems in your life. And you won't admit that he's still working on those problems in your life. I'm here to tell you right now, if you live transparently with the people in front of you, if you live authentically with the people in front of you, they're going to go, what's going on with you? How did Jesus get you from that to that? I'm really glad you asked.

Let me tell you what Jesus did in my life. And now all of a sudden there is an authenticity and there's a transparency that's created and they're going to come talk to you about things because you are not the perfect person that they can't achieve the standard of. You're the real person who has a real answer. I spoke this last weekend at the conference. I spoke Sunday morning and I just

shared a lot of things that Jesus has done in my life. And I can't share the things that Jesus has done in my life without talking about the last six months of life. And I can't share the things that Jesus has done in my life. And so I shared about that. And of course, as I shared about that, I got emotional about that. I know that comes as a shock to all of you, but I did. I got a little

emotional about it. And it was a very vulnerable moment for me because I didn't know all these kids, right? This is a new moment for me. And so afterwards, kids are coming up to me to talk to me about different things. And several of them came up and put their arm around me and said, Pastor Ryan, I'm praying for you. And I thought, well, I'm supposed to be the one ministering to

you. Why are you ministering to me? And in that moment, I was like, I'm going to be the one ministering to you. And in that moment, Jesus said, because you were transparent. And that's what they needed. It's okay for people to know that you're not okay. It's okay for people to know that your life isn't okay. I got a text this morning. I'm in the Kansas Calvary Pastors

text group. And I got a text from one of the pastors this morning on the group text. And it said, or he texted two or three of us and said, hey, praying for you guys this morning. I don't know why, but you're really on my heart. And I had to text back. And this is, again, a moment of transparency on my part in front of you. And I said, thanks. I'm having a pretty rough week. And that was a really hard thing to type out and hit send.

You know why? Because we still struggle with transparency. It's still really hard to be authentic in front of people. But I'm here to tell you right now, authenticity breaks down walls better than your knowledge ever can. And so if you're going to preach the word, and you should, number one, it needs to be accurate. Number two, it needs to be bold. And number three, it needs to be authentic. But the second question is, what does that look like?

What does it look like to be a preacher of the word of God? I bet you were just asking yourself that question, weren't you? I'm really glad you asked, because I'm going to tell you. This is what it looks like to preach the word of God. Again, three things. There's three areas where we preach the word. Number one, there is formal preaching of the word of God. That's what

I'm doing right now. There is the formal preaching of the word of God. And there's a really good chance that most of you sitting in this room will never be in a position where you formally preach the word, where you are at a pulpit, on a stage, preaching the word of God to people. Or maybe there is. Maybe there will be that moment. I have seen two different instances in the past two months where I have seen untrained preachers

get up in front of a group of their peers and they preach the gospel. The first one was at Fields of Faith when I saw four young people stand up and in front of a group of over 1,200 of their peers preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was formal preaching as they gave their testimony. I watched the same thing happen this last weekend as I saw three young people get up in front of a group of 400 people to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I saw four young people

at the same time. That's what I know you're thinking. I'm not bringing this up, but if you're going to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, what are you going to do? You're going to come into a group of four young people and say, look, I want to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you're going to bring that up to the people around you and you're going to have an opportunity to 211 00

00 wail about this the next day. But actually, you're doing this one thing over and over and over and over and over and over again and then it's not me preaching it. It's me preaching it. But the way I want you to do it is, I want you to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can't just preach the word of God all the time. You want to preach it and represent it. You're going to be preaching it. You're

where you take advantage of every opportunity to give out the truth to the people that are around you. This happens in conversations. This happens in small group discussions. This happens as you open up your heart and life to somebody else and you allow them to see what's in you so that you can then speak into their life. I actually heard a beautiful, beautiful way

that you can informally preach the gospel this last weekend. Kind of rocked my world. I had to deal with it for just a minute. But this one young man got up Sunday morning wonderful kid, I had several really good conversations with him, college kid, goes to K-State. I'm not holding that against him. But anyway, stands up in front of this group of people and he says, I didn't come to Jesus like most of you did.

I wasn't in a church. I wasn't around a bunch of believers. I came to Jesus by watching gospel TikToks. And I was like, bro. He goes, listen, it gets a lot of bad rap. He said, but I was scrolling through TikTok one day and one of them was preaching the gospel and something about it just made me want to stop, so I clicked on it. And I watched this guy preach the gospel.

And he goes, you know how algorithms work? Pretty soon everything that pops up on my feed through TikTok is nothing but the gospel. He said, one day I just thought, I want what they've got. He said, so I surrendered my heart to Jesus and I went and found a church. You can't make this stuff up. And you know how, I'm not always a huge fan of people being on that sort of thing.

But my gosh, if that's going to bring you to Jesus, God can use anything. That's the informal preaching. That's the informal preaching of the word of God. I know another young lady that does the exact same thing. She goes on and makes the gospel TikToks. And I love that. That's the informal preaching of the word of God. God can use any means possible of you relationally

with people, of you in small groups with people, of you ministering to the people that are around you. That's called the informal preaching of the word of God. And if you're going to do it, you've got to be accurate. You've got to be bold. You've got to be authentic. Number three, the third way that we preach. So there's the formal preaching, what I'm doing.

The informal preaching, what everybody can do. And then number three, there is godly living, godly living. Brothers and sisters, you may not know this, but once you wear the title of Christian, you preach a message every single day. Rarely will you use words to do it. Sometimes that message is beautiful. It's the message of a life that is changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Listen, sometimes that message isn't beautiful because it's a message of hypocrisy. Where you have claimed Jesus with your life, but you have denied him in every other part of your life. But know this, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you will preach a message. And that message will speak louder through the life that you live than it will through the words that you speak.

It will speak louder through what they see in your life than it will through anything else that you preach. And that godly living has got to be authentic in front of people. It doesn't have to be perfect. You're going to make a mistake. You're going to let something out of your mouth that you shouldn't let out of your mouth. You're going to have a bad attitude at some point in time.

But then it's incumbent upon you to go back and say, that wasn't gospel living and I'm sorry. That I just brought shame to the gospel of Jesus Christ and I truly apologize for that. Listen, I've had to do that. I've had to do that with my kids. I've had to do that with coworkers. I've had to do that. And it's really hard to do. But that will speak volumes to the people that are around you

because that's authentic gospel living. And that's what you have to do. That's what preaching the gospel looks like. And so he says, preach the word. The second thing he says is to be ready. Middle of verse two. He says, be ready in season and out of season. That word ready is a very interesting word. That word ready means to stand by, to be at hand, or to be present.

To stand by. To be at hand or to be present. I don't know why, but those last two words really stuck out to me. Because to me, that's what readiness looks like. It looks like being present. It looks like being present in conversations. It looks like being present in situations. It looks like being present in the life of people and being present in the world that's around us.

You know what we fail to be right now? We fail to be present. Because usually we're lost in a world that has nothing to do with the people that are around us. And this is my... My way of saying, maybe don't always be on your phone. I've shared this with you before, but I go out and run and I'm a people watcher. And I especially watch the people that are driving at me in cars.

That's one of my favorite types of people watching to do because it really protects my life a lot. And I wave at everybody, partly because I'm a friendly guy, partly because I want them to not hit me with their car. And so, and I'm always amazed at the people that I will see. And sometimes I can see in windshields and sometimes I can't. So if you ever wave at me and I didn't,

I can wave back or I'm like, just know there's something on your windshield and I can't see in there very well, or I don't like you. It's one or the other. But anyway, just know that... Just kidding. I love everybody in this room. But I saw this guy coming at me one time and he went over half of a city block and never took his eyes off of his phone. And I was like,

that's the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. Like he has no idea that the world is going on around him. And we struggle with being present. Sometimes. Sometimes our minds are just preoccupied with work or you name the thing. But if you're going to be ready, you've got to be present. He says, be ready. And be ready in season and out of season. The idea is when the time is opportune

and when the time is not opportune. When it's the perfect moment to speak the gospel and when nothing in life is perfect, you've got to be present in both of those times and be ready in both of those times to preach the gospel. Because sometimes God will lob one up to you and you can just knock that thing out of the park. And sometimes God throws you in the middle of a situation where you're going, man, I think the last thing that they want to hear right now is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I can tell you in that moment, the thing they need to hear right then is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It may not be through your words. It may be through a hug. It may be through a listening ear. It may be through you just knowing that they're having difficulty in life and they need you to pay attention. But they need the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, be ready in season.

And out of season. Well, again, how are you ready? What does it mean to be ready? What does that look like? Well, I wrote down three things. What does it look like to be ready? Number one, you have to be prayed up. You have to be prayed up. There's a wonderful story in the gospels. I don't remember which one specifically it's in. In the gospel, I think it's in Matthew.

The gospel accounts. Jesus goes up on what we call the Mount of Transfiguration with the gospel. And he goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration. And he goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration. And Peter, James, and John, and they're kind of allowed into the inner sanctum of what God's doing. And at the bottom of the mountain are the other nine apostles. And they come back down the mountain

and the other nine apostles are trying to cast out a demon and it's not working very well. And Jesus comes down and says, oh, faithless generation, how long will I remain with you? And he casts out the demon. And later they're like, hey, you know, Jesus, so remember that time earlier when we were like, oh, we can't cast out the demon. And you were like, oh,

the demon's cast out. And we're like, why couldn't we do it? Why couldn't we do it? Like, what did you do that we didn't do? And Jesus said, ones like these can only come out through prayer and fasting. And the Greek structure of that sentence, what he basically says is, those can only come out if you're living a lifestyle of prayer. You see, if we're gonna be ready,

prayer can't just be one little thing that you do every now and then. It has to be your lifestyle. Being prayed up has to be the lifestyle that you live. Because you can't do anything but pray until you've prayed. But once you've prayed, you can do anything. And that prayer is what goes in before us and binds the strong man so that we can go in and take the spoils.

It's what prepares the way for everything that's gonna take place. I'll tell you two instances where I've seen this. The first one I've shared with you already is fields of faith. Both the years that we've seen so much fantastic things happen with fields of faith, it's because there was war that went on beforehand. And the war that went on beforehand was prayer, right?

Like the Sunday before fields of faith, we had three waves of people go out to the field and pray. And I remember thinking as, so a group of kids met, and it was earlier in the afternoon, and they prayed, and I couldn't be there because of my schedule. And so I then show up and pray with a bunch of old people for a little while. And then the third wave of people showed up to pray as another group of teenagers.

And we all just walked around the track and we prayed together, walked about a mile around the track praying and just lifting up these things. And I remember thinking in that moment, God's going to move because kids are praying, right? Like, sidebar, like God answers kids' prayers in a different way than He answers anybody else's because I think He wants to build their faith, right? And kids aren't afraid to pray really bold prayers.

And like, for the most ridiculously huge thing, Lord, please grow His leg back. I should be asking kids to ask for God to grow my hair, right? That is what I should be doing right now. If you don't believe me that kids ask bold things, just wait till they give you their Christmas list. I want a new car. Samesies, no, right? I mean, they're not afraid to ask for big things.

Anyway, that's just a little bit of a sidebar. But that was the first time that I'm like, whoa. And then God moved and great things happened. Well, moving into our fall conference, they set up a 24 hours of prayer with different people throughout the state to where there was somebody praying every hour for 24 hours leading up to it. And guys, I can't tell you everything

that I saw take place last weekend because I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you everything I saw take place. I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you everything I saw take place last weekend. But let's just say some kids were set free from some pretty gnarly things because they're dealing with some garbage and they need prayed for. But you know what? It's not just kids that are dealing with garbage

that need prayed for. There's adults that are dealing with some garbage that need prayed for. I don't totally know the whole story of what happened in Wichita this weekend at Wichita North High School, but y'all should be praying for Wichita North High School. Because I don't know if you saw that Kenny Taylor, that, oh, that's a hard one, man. Because those of us that are my age and older

in the wrestling community, we know who that guy is. And he was a beast. He had everything going for him. And I don't know what happened. I still don't know the whole story. All I know is they found him at the high school. He was gone. And that's the most heartbreaking thing I can imagine. Heartbreaking for his wrestlers, heartbreaking for the people that he works with.

And all I can think is that guy needed somebody. He needed somebody praying with him. He needed somebody to be ready. And it hurts. And I'm here to tell you right now, the kids around you, they're going through the same thing. And I told my college kids the other night, I said, hey, listen, these are the things that we know about. There's things that we don't even know about.

Those are the people that are willing to admit that they've got problems. Some people aren't even willing to admit that they've got problems. And if we're not prayed up and ready, we won't be prepared for what's in front of us. So number one, be prayed up. Number two, be read up. Be read up. Be read up. Be read up. Be read up. Be read up. Be read up. Be read up.

Be read up. Be read up. Be read up. And be in God's word constantly. And I don't know how many different ways, shapes, and forms I can say it, but I'm just going to keep saying it over and over again because I think it's the most important thing in the world that you can do. If you're going to be ready for what God's going to throw at you on any given day, you need to be in God's word.

I cannot tell you the number of times that someone has shown up in my office or they have called me or they have texted me or they have met up with me and whatever they threw at me, God prepared me for through my reading that morning. I know sometimes they probably think I'm making it up, but I'm not. I'm not that smart, especially on my feet. Like, whatever they threw at me, God gave me that morning in my reading time.

So you have to be read up because God's word is not just something that we read for our own well-being, although it is. It's something that we read to be prepared for what God's going to throw at us that day or what life is going to throw at us that day. You have to be read up. You have to be in God's word because it is your food, but it is also your weapon that you use against the attacks of the enemy.

So number one, you need to be prayed up. Number two, you need to be read up. Number three, you need to be filled up. You need to be filled up. Listen, I realize that you're going, isn't that what it means to be prayed up and be read up? Yes, it is, but there's more to it than that. Being filled up means you really take the time for God to fill you, that you really take the time

for God to pour into you everything that you need. Sometimes that takes place through your reading time. Sometimes that takes place through your prayer time. Sometimes that takes place through your time of worship. I think you should have a time of personal worship, if the only time that you worship the Lord, that you praise the Lord in song is on a Sunday morning,

I am really sorry. That is not enough. You need time to praise the Lord on your own, where you can belt it out at the top of your lungs. Now, listen, y'all, you know, especially you men in here, you know how I feel about this, right? I read this thing the other day and it said, a healthy church is men singing and babies crying. Well, we've got the baby crying thing down, right?

No problem there. We need some of you men singing. But you will never be able to belt it out in a gathered worship service if you're not belting it out on your own between you and Jesus. You need to learn to be a worshiper. Listen, men, I'm talking to you because we're supposed to be the ones to take the lead on this. We're supposed to be leading in the church.

And I'm here to tell you there is nothing better than the sound of a bunch of grown men pouring out their hearts and words. I love men's conferences for this reason. When you walk into a worship service in a men's conference, and there's just this like baritone sound of like, we praise you, Lord. And everybody's like, whoa, like, no, there's not a high octave in that room.

And that's okay. Because that bassy sound is what fuels worship. And dare I say, sometimes I don't hear a very bassy sound in here. I'm not trying to pick on anybody, or am I? We need men singing. But listen, if you're going to praise the Lord on a Sunday morning, it's got to start on Monday morning. It's got to start between you and the Lord. And I would venture to say that a lot of times

the reason why you don't sing to the Lord with all your heart on Sunday is because Monday through Saturday, you don't either. And you need filled up in that time. You need to be filled with the truth of God through that worship time between you and Him. You need to just sit with the Lord and let Him be the one that fills you. Because listen, if you're not prayed up,

if you're not read up, and you're not filled up, then I know that you're not filled up. I know what's going to happen to you is you're probably going to start getting angry with people. You're going to get irritable with each other. Every little thing that comes along is going to be the biggest thing that's ever happened. Oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened today.

Right? And everything will annoy you, and everything will irritate you, and you're in a bad mood all the time. I know because I'm there sometimes. This in particular happened to me over the summer as Dad was going through the things that he was going through, and I was ministering to Dad and dealing with the things that I was dealing with with him. And I was like,

and some very close people, one of them being my wife, who know me well, came to me and said, I don't think you're okay. I think you need some time to be filled up with the things of the Lord because you've given out too much. And I don't know that everybody else can see it. Please tell me you didn't see it. I don't know if everybody else can see it, but we can see it.

We can see because I was being more irritable. I was being more annoyed with things. And I just needed some time. And so I went back to prioritizing my time in the Word. Went back to prioritizing my worship time between me and the Lord because it was necessary. Because listen, if you don't stay prayed up, if you don't stay read up, if you don't stay filled up,

then pretty soon you'll be fed up. And you won't want to deal with anybody ever. You're not going to be ready to deal with anybody that's going on, anything that's going on around you. He says, preach the Word, be ready. And then he tells them three things. That he needs to do. He says he needs to reprove, he needs to rebuke, and he needs to exhort with all patience,

or with great patience and instruction. The word reprove there means to correct erring doctrine or behavior. To correct erring doctrine or behavior. This is part of the preaching of the Word. Whether formally or informally, there should be a correcting aspect to what you declare to people. There should be a correcting of errant, errant doctrine or behavior.

The word rebuke means to warn those who sin. It means to warn those who sin. Listen, this is not an easy thing to do in the lives of people to rebuke people. But it has to be done. This is where boldness is really key. Because if you're going to rebuke sin in the life of somebody else, or you're going to rebuke sin in a blanket sort of way, then you're going to have to be really bold

in the way that you do it. You have to be very loving in the way that you do it. But you have to be very bold in the way that you do it. Because you are speaking forth the truth of the Word of God, and not everybody's going to enjoy that. And so you've got to stay bold. Reprove, rebuke. And then number three, he says to exhort. Exhort. That word exhort means to encourage

those who are growing spiritually. To encourage those who are growing spiritually. This is where the informal preaching of the Word of God is so key. Because the word exhort in the Greek carries with it the idea of calling to one's side. Calling to one's side. That's the idea of encouragement there. In other words, exhortation is not just me telling you, keep going, you're doing great.

It's me coming alongside you and putting my arm around you and saying, keep going, you're doing great. I see the areas of sin that you're struggling with in your life, and I want to come alongside you. I see the areas of sin that you're dealing with, and I want to be the one that helps you. And let me tell you about the areas I'm struggling with, and you can help me too.

That's exhortation. That's coming alongside someone and encouraging them to continue to grow spiritually. Listen, I can't always be there for everybody. There's way too many people in this room. I would never sleep, right? But you all can be involved in each other's lives. That's where the person sitting next to you right now is clutch in your life. That's where the people that are in your small group,

they're clutch in your life. Because they're the ones who can come and put their arm around you and say, come on, let's keep moving forward together. That's exhortation. And he says, if you're going to do these things, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, it has to be with patience and instruction. With patience. With patience and instruction. I'm going to tell you what the Amplified Bible says,

even though I don't want to tell you what the Amplified Bible says, because it's hard. The Amplified Bible says, with inexhaustible patience. Inexhaustible patience. You know why I don't like what that says? Because my patience is fairly exhaustible. But he says, but your patience needs to be inexhaustible with people. It is so... It's so frustrating to tell somebody the same thing

over and over again. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever noticed it's really frustrating when somebody comes to you for the 97th time and says, here I am again, and I'm really sorry. And you have to be like, let's get back up and go again. See, that's inexhaustible patience. It's where you just keep showing some more grace and a little bit more love. And you're probably asking yourself a question right now.

Same question that I ask myself. How can I have inexhaustible patience when mine is so exhaustible? You see, I respond to the patience that God has shown me. As God continues to show me patience in my own life, I'm reminded I got to be patient with the people that are around me because that's how God is with me. Inexhaustible patience. But with that patience, he says,

faithful teaching. That's what instruction is, faithful teaching. Parents, I'm going to give you just a quick little word here, something that I'm learning as my girls are getting older. Kids need to know the why. If you're going to make a rule for your kids, if you're going to hold them in your arms, if you're going to hold them accountable to something, they need to know why you're holding them accountable.

They need to know why those things are important. Right? Now listen, when they're three, they don't always need to know why. But as they get older, you need to start explaining some things to them. I'm disciplining you, and this is why. You can't go over here, and this is why. It doesn't mean that they're going to necessarily accept it and be, well, now that I know the why,

I'm really happy about it. Well, thank you then for doing that. No, but it creates space. It creates a space for them to be grateful for what you did. It creates a space for them to be thankful for what you did. It creates a space for them to be grateful for what you did. I didn't like it, but I get why you did that. I remember being in my early 20s and going to my parents and saying,

I didn't love everything you held me accountable to when I was growing up, but I'm thankful for everything you held me accountable to when I was growing up because I realized that it's made me who I am today because they always took the time to explain to me this is why we're doing it. And if you're the parent who always says, because I said so, figure it out. It's not an explanation because you wouldn't accept that from anybody else. Come up with the explanation.

There needs to be faithful teaching. And that's the way we're to be if we're going to preach the gospel. There needs to be faithful teaching that's involved in it. Well, he's given us the charge. He's given us the instructions. The last thing he does is he gives us the why. He says four, verse three, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,

but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance, to their own desires. And they will turn away their ears from the truth and they will turn aside to myths. Why does he need to preach the truth? Why does he need to preach the word? And why is it so important? Because there's going to come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine.

Can I say, we have arrived. There's a lot of people that don't want sound doctrine today. Instead, what they want is they want teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. They want teachers who will entertain them. I love listening to reasons why people show up to churches. And listen, if that's the way you showed up to this church and I am clearly doing something wrong.

They're like, well, the pastor is just so entertaining. Or they have all of these things. Or I really love their coffee shop. I know that's not why you're showing up, although those ushers do kill it with the coffee, don't they? They're like, well, I show up for these things and it's all of these tertiary things. And you're like, well, that's the way you show up to that church?

Not because the pastor gives you the truth? I hadn't thought about that. He says they're going to accumulate to themselves teachers according to their own desires. In other words, they're going to accumulate to themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. I would like to introduce to you podcasts. Right? Now listen, I'm not saying you can't listen to a podcast.

I'm saying make sure that it's teaching the Word of God. Because here's what can happen. I don't like what that guy has to say. I don't like what that guy has to say. Ah, this guy. He speaks to me. I finally found someone that I connect with. You realize he's telling you sins? Okay, right? That's why I connect with him. And we have to be careful about that sort of thing.

Accumulating to ourselves teachers according to our own desires. He said they're going to turn away from the truth. They're going to turn toward myths. Turning aside from the truth and turning towards the myths. Now listen, when I taught this to first service, this is what I told them. I'll tell you the exact same thing. These verses are a level of accountability

for all of us. First of all, these verses present a level of accountability to me. Because I need to make sure that I am not the kind of pastor who only tells you what you want to hear. I need to make sure that I'm the kind of preacher who doesn't just want to entertain you but wants to teach you. That doesn't just want to build the numbers of the church but wants to build the members of the church.

That wants to build up the body of Christ not just make a bigger body of Christ. That's something that I have to continue to hold myself accountable and I expect everyone to hold me accountable to. That I faithfully teach the Word of God but it's also a level of accountability for all of us. What are you looking for? Are you looking for somebody to tell you what you want to hear

or are you looking for someone to tell you what you need to hear? See, I deal with this with counseling sometimes. Sometimes people come to me with questions and when I answer their questions they never come back again. You know why? Because I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear. I told them what they needed to hear and that's not what they wanted to hear.

And so they don't come back. They don't ask me those questions anymore. Sometimes people do that when they show up to church. Well, that guy's kind of mean. I've actually had people tell me I'm kind of mean before. I'm a very nice guy. But when you tell people what they need to hear some people don't take that very well. Are you looking for who's going to tell you the truth

or are you looking for who's going to entertain you? Because we need to be looking for the people that tell us the truth. Brothers and sisters, we live in a culture that is in need of the truth. And so I solemnly charge you, in the presence of God, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season to reprove, to rebuke, and to exhort with patience and with instruction.

Because you've been entrusted with the message of the truth. And God wants to use you to reach the people that are around you. Amen? Let's all stand.

Well, it's Thanksgiving week. So dancing through your minds are images of turkeys and pumpkins. Mac and pies and mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. Someone actually told me that green bean casserole is their favorite dessert. I've never heard that before. I had to rebuke them. But with patience and instruction. But it also means that you're about to gather

with your families. So first of all, take advantage of the fact that you have family. I think sometimes that's probably one of the biggest things that we take for granted is the families that we have. So soak up the time that you have with your family and use it as the opportunity to be the one who can show them the love of Jesus. And use this week as an opportunity

to remind you of everything that God has done for you. Because we take so much for granted. And God wants us to be thankful for everything that he's given to us. Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I thank you so much for what your word has to say to us. And Lord, I thank you so much for how patient you continue to be with us. And Lord, for the many blessings

that you have brought into our lives. Lord, the material blessings, but most importantly, Lord, the spiritual blessings. So Father, be with us as we go into this week. Keep our hearts and minds focused on you. And may we draw closer to you in everything that we do. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

For how great your love truly is for us because nobody else could have done what you've done, Lord. And so Lord, now, as we leave here today, I just pray that your Holy Spirit go with us. Amen. Bless us this as we're coming up on Thanksgiving, Lord God. Help us to be thankful for everything that you've done for us. All the ways you provide for us and take care of us, Lord,

and love on us. And just be with those who may be traveling this year as well. And just give them safe travels. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Guys, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.