Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- Be Strong- II Timothy 2:1-13 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

But the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason, I endure all these things for the sake of those who are in the midst of me, those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and with it, eternal glory. It is a trustworthy statement. For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. And so as we look at this section of chapter two, when he exhorts him to be strong, there are six things that he is going to exhort him to be strong in. The first one in verse one is he tells him, be strong in grace, be strong in grace. Let's look at verse one one more time.

It says, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Paul says, you therefore, my son. Now, anytime you see the word therefore, you need to look at the verses that preceded it, because that builds the context for what he's about to say. And the verses that preceded it were Paul telling Timothy, that you are aware of two different groups of people.

One was a group of people who abandoned me, who have turned away from the faith and turned away from me. And one was an individual who sought me out and persisted not only in his love for me, but in his love for Jesus Christ. Knowing that there are some who will turn away and some who will press in, he tells Timothy, you therefore, my son, be strong in grace, be strong in grace. That phrase be strong literally means to be strong, be strengthened or to be enabled or to be empowered, to be strengthened or to be enabled or to be empowered.

And it's interesting how often Paul tells Timothy that he needs to be strong. And I think it's an important thing for us to pay attention to because remember, Timothy was a nervous individual, right? He was a timid individual. He had a hard time really locking into being strong and things and so Paul knew he needed to exhort Timothy often, you have to be strong in these things.

We live in a difficult world. We live in a difficult world. We live in a difficult time. Your flesh is gonna tell you that it's time to quit. Your flesh is gonna tell you that it's too hard. The world is gonna tell you that this isn't worth it. The world is gonna tell you that what you're doing is worthless. And I'm telling you, Timothy, don't be like those

who turn away because you listen to your flesh. Don't be like those who turn away because you listen to the world. Don't be like those who turn away because the temptations took you out. Instead, be strong, be strengthened, be enabled, be empowered to be who you've been called to be. But lest we think that this power dwelt in Timothy, lest we think this is Paul telling Timothy,

it's time to really gird up your loins and become a man now, we realize exactly what he means when he says to be strong. Because he tells Timothy to be strong in grace. To be strong in grace. That phrase means this, to be courageous with the strength that God's grace provides us. to be courageous with the strength that God's grace provides us. If anybody understood what it was to have to be strengthened by God's grace, it was Paul.

Matter of fact, in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul tells a story about himself. He doesn't actually name himself in it, but we all know from the context that that's who he's referring to. He tells a story about a man we know as him who is caught up into heaven and allowed to see all kinds of amazing things. Caught up into the heavenlies and able to see all of the things of heaven, and he said things that were so amazing that it would actually be wrong for me to tell you what I saw because I can't describe it properly with words.

He was allowed to see things that no human had ever been allowed to see before. And lest he be lifted up with pride, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he was given a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble. He called it a messenger of Satan to buffet him. And he said, I asked the Lord three times to remove this thorn from me. I asked God three times. Take it.

Take this away from me. But God's response was the same every time. He said, my grace, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9, my grace is sufficient for you because my strength is made perfect in your weakness. See, we have to realize something as human beings. If we are going to be strong in grace, we have to first admit that we are weak in our flesh. If we are going to be strong in grace, we have to first admit that there is nothing in us

that is strong enough to make us weak. There is nothing in us that is strong enough to handle the things of this life on our own. We have to first realize our great need if we are going to be strengthened by God's great grace. And the hardest thing for us as human beings is to come to the place of saying, this is my weakness. It's so hard for us to be transparent.

It's so hard for us to be honest. It's so hard for us to be real because the world around us says, fake it till you make it. Make sure everybody sees the best side of you. Make sure nobody sees anything wrong with you. And Jesus says the exact opposite. He says, be real. And then I can do my work. Be honest. And then I can begin to pour into you. Because Paul had to say, Lord, I can't keep doing this.

I can't keep handling this. And God had to say, I know. It's exactly where I need you to be. Because when you're weak, then you're strong. He tells him, be strong in grace. So what does that mean? What does it mean to be strong in grace? Well, I wrote down three things that I think that means to be strong. In grace. Number one, and I, oh yeah, I did have you put it up there this time, didn't I?

Number one, you are to rest in God's grace. Rest in God's grace. What does it mean to rest in God's grace? It means this. Your flesh will constantly tell you that there's a set of works that you need to do to earn God's love. Your flesh will always tell you, it's great that God says he loves you. Now make sure that he really loves you by doing just a little bit more.

And you will build a system of works in your mind. Whether it be through a religion that you fall into, because I've seen that happen to people. Or whether it's your own religion that you build in your own mind, a system of works that you build in your own mind. We all have a tendency to become a works-based individual and think, if I want God to love me, I have to do this.

If I want God to accept me, I have to do this. It's great that Jesus died for me, but I'm going to add to that with my own works. And that's not resting in God's grace. Resting in God's grace is being able to be confident in my people. I can be confident in my position in Jesus Christ, no matter what circumstances are happening in my life, no matter what circumstances are happening around me.

I can rest in who I am in Christ. I can let go of the past, and I can be confident in who I am in the present. And confident in what God has for me in the future. That's resting in God's grace. You see, as you rest in God's grace, it makes you even more transparent about your weaknesses. As you rest in God's grace, it makes you even more transparent about your failures.

You realize your failures and your weaknesses don't disqualify you. Your failures and your weaknesses are opportunities for God to show himself strong. And all of a sudden, we stop hiding who we really are from God. And we stop hiding who we really are from each other. And we start living transparently. And we start living honestly. And we start living authentically.

Why? Because you are confident in who you are in Christ. Because you are resting in God's grace. So number one, if you're going to be strong in God's grace, you need to rest in God's grace. Number two, you cannot take God's grace in vain. You cannot take God's grace in vain. What do you mean by that, Ryan? Well, this is what I mean. And I've shared this lots of times before.

But I remember living in California and I saw this bumper sticker on the back of a car. And this bumper sticker said, If Jesus paid for my sins, I might as well get my money's worth. And that's a horrific statement to make, right? And if any of us ever read that, we would go, That's crazy. I would never say that. You're right. You'd probably never say it. But you might live by it.

You might not ever say it, but your life might reflect that. Because you know it would be the wrong thing to say. But how many of us have that attitude in our life and the way that we live? Oh, it's okay. God's grace is there to cover that. And listen, you can rest in God's grace. I don't want you to get me wrong. But resting in God's grace doesn't mean giving yourself an opportunity to sin.

That's called licentiousness. Which is opposed to God's grace in the same way that legalism is opposed to God's grace. And so we can't take God's grace in vain. Instead, God's grace should cause us to, in an even deeper way, pursue Him through His Word. In an even deeper way, pursue Him in service. In an even deeper way, pursue Him in prayer. Because as I take God's grace and allow it to change the fabric of who I am,

it automatically forces me to push deeper into my relationship with Jesus Christ. And so number one, rest in God's grace. Number two, don't take God's grace in vain. But number three, be strengthened by His grace. Be strengthened. Be strengthened by His grace. How do you do that? This is a question I've been wrestling with this week. How do you allow yourself to be strengthened by God's grace?

How do you put shoes on that and make it walk? Go with me to a place in Scripture. Go over to the book of Isaiah. Over to your left. If you're following along with us in our daily Bible reading, you should have a bookmark somewhere near this anyway. Because I think we're in the 40s in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40. And I originally wrote 29. Oh, look, these guys are so good to me.

Start in verse 28. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 28. I'm going to give you guys a second to get there.

Isaiah 40, 28 says this. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary. And to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. We have to understand something about God's grace. God's grace is given to us. Therefore, the only thing we can do is wait on the Lord. We need to wait on what God has given us. Now, waiting on the Lord is one of the hardest things that we do because it requires activity in our life.

What does it look like to wait on the Lord? Well, in the margin of your Bible, either here or over in 2 Timothy, you might just write John 15. John 15. Because John 15 gives us the key to waiting on the Lord. John 15 tells us that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. And every branch that abides in him or may, maintains connectivity with him or maintains an active and living relationship with him

bears much fruit. So what does it mean to wait on the Lord to be strengthened by his grace? It means that I remain connected to the source of God's grace in my life and that's Jesus Christ. It means I remain connected through an active and living relationship with Jesus and I wait upon him. I pour out my heart to him in prayer. I receive from him through his word

and I wait on him together. He gives me everything that I need in my life to be sustained in my life because that's what God does for us as we wait upon him. I'll tell you this story. I told it, I think I told it right after dad passed away, but I'll tell you now. There have been two very significant times in my life where I have battled intense grief and they've come a few years apart from each other.

And the first time was several years ago when I lost someone that I loved and I was just really battling with it and kind of questioning some things. And in that moment, I sat down on the couch in my office and I opened up my Bible to spend my time with Jesus like I did every single morning. I just happened to be in the Psalms that morning and it was Psalm 40 verses one through three. And it says, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and he heard my cry.

He brought me up out of the horrible pit or the miry pit, the miry clay and he set my feet upon a rock. Praise to our God. Many will see it and will fear and will know the Lord. Amen. And that ministered to my heart. And in that moment, in that moment, I felt like God was sitting right next to me, putting his arm around me on that couch in my office and saying, I got you.

I'm going to get you through this. Well, fast forward a few years later and it was two days after my dad passed away and I did the only thing I knew how to do and that's get back into God's word. Get back into my abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. And I was in the Psalms because I'm in the Psalms every single day, it seems like. And I opened up the Psalms

and it just happened. It just happened to be Psalm 40, verses one through three. That exact same section. And in that moment, it felt like God put his arm around me again and said, I still got you. You see, that's waiting on the Lord and being strengthened by his grace. The only way that I could go and do the funeral for the first loved one that I love so much

and it hurts so bad to lose. And the only way I could do the funeral for the father that I lost is because I was sustained and empowered by God's grace. And that came through my abiding relationship with God as I waited upon him. And that's the only way that you can do anything in life. That's the only way you can have the power to live life as God has called for us to live.

Because this is a hard life that we live and you have to learn to wait upon the Lord. But I want to remind you of something because this is what God's been showing me lately. What God's been showing me lately is to truly wait upon him. I live a busy life with a very busy schedule and that's a ridiculous excuse for not taking time to wait on the Lord. I don't remember who it was that said,

it was a great saint of old that said, I am so busy. I am so busy today that I must wake up early because I think I need at least two hours in prayer. So the busier you are, the more you need to dedicate yourself to that time of waiting on the Lord. And I want to hurry up and read through my scripture and hurry up and write a few things down so that I can move on because I've got important things to get to.

And God keeps going, would you stop? Just stop and wait. Because I want to speak things to you, but you won't stop long enough for you to listen. So I'm having to intentionally slow myself down and say, it's okay. It's okay if I'm late to this. It's okay if this takes me longer, if I don't get anything else done today than this, because the most important thing I can do

is be sustained by God's grace. And it only comes as I wait upon him. So back to second Timothy, he says, be strong in grace. The second thing that he tells Timothy that he needs to do is he needs to be, he needs to be strong in grace. He needs to be strong in discipleship. Be strong in discipleship. Notice what it says in verse two. He says, the things which you have heard from me

in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. There's a, I guess, a theory, a statement, a program within ministry that's really important to pay attention to. And they put a fun name on it. It's called the discipleship cycle. The discipleship cycle. And that's exactly what Paul described right there.

Is he just described the discipleship cycle. Paul said, the first thing I want you to do is I want you to take the words that you heard from me. The things that I taught you. What did Paul teach Timothy? Well, he taught him everything, right? He taught him the word. He taught him doctrine. He taught him theology. He gave him wisdom. He gave him practical stories.

He gave him practical examples. He gave him his life. He said, the things that you have heard from me, I now want you to, to entrust, and that word entrust is really important because that word entrust means to commit as a treasure to trustworthy men. Now, if Timothy's going to do that, there's a handful of things that have to take place. Number one, Timothy first had to receive.

You can't give out, and we'll talk about this again in just a minute. You cannot give out that which you have not received. And so Timothy, first of all, had to learn from someone else. He had to learn from Paul, but he did not end with the learning. He now had to take what he had learned, and he had to give it to other people. He had to teach other people what God's word had to say,

teach other people the examples that he had been given, and then impart his own life in the same way that Paul did with him because he was to follow the exact same example, the discipleship cycle. See, there's an unfortunate thing that's happened in the modern church. The modern church has been turned into a, you come and listen, and then you go and live your life. And that's not ever what God intended the church to be.

God intended teachers within the church, and we've talked about this before. We follow the synagogue model, which was an early church model where a pastor gets up and teaches while you listen, but the point is not that you'll just listen and be happy that you've listened and then go on and live your life. Now you take the words that I've taught to you and you deliver them to other people. You begin to teach the other people that are around you.

This has been the model throughout scripture. When in the book of Moses, everybody said, Moses, you've taken too much on yourself. You need to divvy that out amongst some leaders. Moses chose some leaders, and after he chose some faithful men, according to the standard that God gave to him, he not only taught the congregation the law, but he taught the leaders the law so that the leaders could implement the message to the congregation, and there would be this cycle that would take place in the congregation, that they would disciple each other.

And that's what's supposed to take place. I told first service, I said, I know that my job with Fellowship of Christians, which is mainly discipleship, is to work myself out of a job. And that's what I'm in the process of trying to do, is work myself out of a job. Because I want to teach kids how to disciple each other. And it was a beautiful, a beautiful thing happened here about a month or so ago.

A month ago, beginning of the month. We had set up an activity out in Dexter with my Dexter FCA kids. And we were going to do this bonfire, have a little devotion. And then I realized that I had double booked myself. Because I was also supposed to be at a conference in Iowa that weekend. And that weekend I was like, oh no, what am I going to do? I have to be at this conference.

I'm not going to be there to give the devotion. Hey, student leaders, would you guys like to give the devotion for this? Why don't you guys do this? I think this would be a great opportunity. And they're like, oh yeah, okay, yeah, we can do that. They got a little nervous about it, but they all worked it out. And it was so beautiful. So I finished up earlier at the conference

than I thought I was going to. So I made it back in town, just in time, just in time to make it over to the football game. And so I called my wife and said, hey, I'm in town. Do I come over there and be a part of all of this? Or is that going to make them nervous? She goes, I don't think you're going to make them nervous. As a matter of fact, I think you're going to be really happy.

They've all worked out their own parts to do this thing. And so I'm like, okay, well, come on out for us. So I go out and I just get to sit back in the background, right? And as I'm sitting in the background, they did the most amazing job of putting together a devotion. They each took a part of it. And they even made visual aids. They made, these little cards and they took the ax prayer model,

the ax prayer pattern. They put it all on this card and each of them took a portion of it. And they taught all of their fellow classmates, all of the students that came exactly how you pray, following the ax model, and then handed out a card that they could hold onto. And I was just like, well, you guys are better at this than I am. Why don't you guys just take it and run with it?

You see, that's the discipleship cycle. And the funnest part of that all for me is that the girl that started off sharing it said, Pastor Ryan taught us how to pray. Like, and I was like, I got a little misty eyed because of the smoke from the fire. But, but I got a little misty eyed at that because I was like, that's what it's supposed to be. I taught them.

Now they're teaching each other. That's the discipleship cycle. You see, everybody should have two people in your life. Everybody should have a Paul and everybody should have a Timothy. You should have a Paul that you're learning from and a Timothy that you are discipling. And I don't care how long you've walked with Jesus. You should have somebody, somebody that you're pouring into that's that that needs to hear your story.

You know, they've done a study and they have found that the amount of time between you getting saved and you sharing that story with somebody else is very exponential as far as how strong your faith is because the earlier you share your story. In other words, the less time there is between you getting saved and you sharing that story with somebody else builds your faith even stronger because every time you share your story of what Jesus has done in your life, it's a faith builder and it's, it's an accountability partner for you. And so it actually strengthens your faith to be pouring into somebody else. And so we all need those people in our life.

You need a Paul. We talked about this yesterday at men's breakfast. We were talking about the fact that we are to pursue wisdom. And part of the way that we pursue wisdom is that we pursue wisdom through the people of God by allowing people into our lives that can share their wisdom with us. I've been telling kids this for years. I told them twice this week,

I said, you need to find older people and you need to have them share their wisdom with you because you need to hear that. But now I'm going to tell all of you, not young people in here this morning, something you need to find some young people to do two things with. Number one, you need to find some young people to share wisdom with. But number two, you need to find some young people to share wisdom with you.

And I bet I know what some of y'all are thinking right now, but Ryan, they're younger than me. They don't have anything to share with me. And if that's what you think, then you have a problem with pride because if you think you can't learn from someone younger than you, that's something you need to deal with between you and Jesus because we can all learn from each other. But you need to find a Paul in your life.

I unfortunately have lost the Paul in my life and I have to find a new one. You have to find a Paul in your life, somebody that's pouring into you. And then you've got to find a Timothy, somebody that you're pouring into because that's the discipleship cycle. That's why he says, Timothy, take the things you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and entrust like a treasure, these things to faith, full individuals, trustworthy people who are able to teach others.

Also be strong in discipleship. Number three, he says, be strong like a soldier, be strong like a soldier. Notice what it says in verse three, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. So Paul's going to use three examples and we're going to use them as be strong.

Like in the first example that he gives us as a soldier and he says to be strong like a soldier because soldiers lead a dedicated life. They lead a dedicated life and he tells them be strong like a soldier first of all by suffering hardship with me like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. There's Paul giving that exciting invitation again. Timothy, I'd like to invite you to go do something.

Something fun this weekend. I would like to invite you to suffer with me. To which most of us would say, no, but it's what he tells them that he needs to do. He says, suffer these hardships with me. In other words, take your part with others in enduring hardship, pass through the difficulties that you are called to endure. I love watching military movies, right?

I don't care if it's a true story or not. That's not true. I care more if it's a true story, but, but I'll watch any of them. But, but I particularly love the ones where you get to watch their training process that leads up to it. Um, I always love that movie American sniper because it shows all of the training process that leads up to being a Navy seal and,

and those guys know when they sign up for what they sign up for, that they are signing up for hardship. And if that is not indicated by signing on the dotted line, you learn it quickly through basic training. And if you didn't learn it in basic training, you learn it in buds training because they teach you, this is a hard thing to do. And they abuse those guys to an extent, but they have to, sometimes you read the things about the training that some of those, especially those kind of guys go through.

And you're like, why on earth do they just batter these guys the way that they do? Because they know that they are going to face a battle and they need to know that they're not going to dime out on the guy next to him in the middle of the battle, but that they're going to hold on tight and they're going to fight hard for the guy next to him. And that's what they want them to do. They need to know you're not going to give up in the heat of the battle, but that you can, you can handle hardship because the hardship that you face in basic training will be nothing compared to the hardship that you face in the battle and brothers and sisters, we have to understand something as believers in Jesus Christ.

I bet you did not come to Jesus because you wanted to get into a battle. I bet you didn't come to Jesus because you wanted to get into a war. As a matter of fact, I bet you came to Jesus because you needed deliverance from something in your life. You needed hope and purpose and peace in your life. And you're like, Ryan, I came to Jesus for peace. Why am I in a war?

Because you didn't realize it before you came to Jesus. You were already in a war. You were just a prisoner of war. And now you've been set free from prison and now you get to fight. And as soldiers of Jesus Christ, we have to, we have to fight. And sometimes that means enduring hardship. And I think sometimes we just got to buckle up buttercup because things aren't

going to get easier. Right? And I love this because, because Jesus was the same way. Jesus was not like, how can I get the most followers possible? Jesus was almost like, how can I make as many people not follow me as possible? Cause he was like, listen, if you're going to put your hand to the plow and look behind you, how are you really not fit to follow me?

He said, if you're not willing to leave behind mother and father and family, then you're not fit to follow me. If you are not willing to take up your cross daily and die to yourself, you can't follow me. I can imagine the PR people of Jesus's day. Listen, Jesus, you've got a great message with this salvation thing, right? Like the servanthood thing that you're killing that right in the demographics of

those that love to see a servant hearted individual. You are killing it, but there's a few phrases you've got to lose because otherwise you are not going to earn a whole lot more followers than this. And these are the hard ones. You've got to drop those things. And Jesus is like, why would I do that? I'm not looking for more followers. I'm looking for real disciples.

It's all there is to it. And listen, it's the greatest battle you'll ever get into. And he'll give you everything you need for it. And the prize is worth more than you can ever imagine. But we're in a battle. He says, be strong like a good soldier who's willing to suffer hardship. But not only is he willing to suffer hardship, he doesn't get entangled with daily life.

Notice what it says in verse four, no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. That word entangled means to be interweaved or involved in. The idea is this. Don't get tied up with civilian affairs. Don't get tied up with civilian life and pursuits. A soldier who is truly a dedicated soldier.

They keep themselves focused on the pursuit of what they're doing and they don't get wrapped up with the things of this life. They are wrapped up with being a soldier. They are wrapped up with doing that job with pursuing that calling. And they can't be allowed themselves to be bogged down by all the garbage of this life. It caused me to think about another verse in scripture.

It reminded me of Hebrews. Chapter 12, when he says, therefore, let us, let us lay aside the, the sin and the weight. Those are the things of this world that so easily ensnares us, wraps itself around us and causes us to fall. You see in this life as believers in Jesus Christ, you have to learn to differentiate between that, which is good and that, which is great between that, which is okay.

And that, which is best because the okay things of this life are fine for everybody else. But for a soldier of Jesus Christ, you have to learn to differentiate between that, which is Christ. You have to have the best and you have to pursue greatness. You can't be content with mediocre. And so he said that he doesn't entangle himself with the things of this life.

Instead, he is occupied with how can I please the one who enlisted me? You see, a soldier has one King and that's Jesus. I read this in a commentary. I think it was John Corson's commentary where he talked about D-Day and, and when they landed on the beaches and, and how many guys got mowed down by machine gun fire. And yet they kept going and, and climbing up the cliffs and being killed.

And yet they kept going. And he said, some guys were interviewed years down the road. And they said, why were you willing to face certain death going into that battle? Why were you willing to do that? And you know what they all said? They all said, because I love the guy next to me and I love my commanding officer. None of them said it was because they wanted to serve their country.

None of them said it was, it was because of some great cause that they had. None of them said it was because it was some belief in a flag that they had flown. It was because they loved the guy next to them and because they love their commanding officer. It's amazing what happens when you love the guy you're serving. You'll do anything for him, right? We'll deal with athletes in just a minute,

but athletes are who I'm around the most. And I'm here to tell you right now, I've watched it over and over again. You show me a coach that loves their athletes and I will show you a group of athletes that will do anything for their coach. He can have rigorous standards for them. He can be hard on them. He can yell at them. But if at the end of the day, they know he loves them,

they'll do anything for him. If he believes in them, they'll follow them. They'll follow that guy to the ends of the earth. Why? Because he loves them. We have a commanding general like that. He went to the ends of the earth for us. So it's no problem to go to the ends of the earth for him. A good soldier is occupied with pleasing the one who enlisted him. Be strong like a soldier.

Number four, he says, to be strong like an athlete. And of course, athletes lead disciplined lives. And so notice what he says. If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. If anyone competes as an athlete, he doesn't win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. And you know, as well as I do,

those of us that have been in sports, there's two sets of rules. There's rules for training and rules for competition. And you have to abide by both sets of rules. Otherwise, you can't win the competition. If you, first of all, don't follow the rules of the training, you're not ready for the competition. And so you have to be disciplined in the way that you handle yourself in the training.

You have to be disciplined in the way that you handle yourself in the preparation. You have to be disciplined in the way that you handle yourself on and off the court, on and off the mat, on and off the field, because if you don't compete according to the rules, you cannot win the prize. I saw incredibly gifted wrestlers when I was in high school that ended up getting kicked off the team because they couldn't compete according to the rules. Because they could not keep themselves.

themselves clean off of the mat. And because they couldn't do that, they couldn't compete on the mat. And it happened all the time. And it was the hardest thing in the world to see because our coach held a high standard and he had rules for us. And if you didn't compete according to them, you couldn't compete. And it's no different in a match. It's no different in a game. It's no

different in whatever sport you play. They have to compete according to the rules. Well, as believers in Jesus Christ, there are rules that we compete according to. We call them God's law. We call it God's standard. And God has a standard that has to be kept because if we don't train according to the rules and we don't compete according to the rules and we disqualify ourselves, if you don't

lead a life of discipline, then you will become disqualified. I've watched it happen in lots of ministers' lives. As a matter of fact, every conference that I go to right now, the first thing they say is, we've seen a lot of big ministers fall this year. We've seen a lot of big ministers fall. And it's true. There is a list of celebrity pastors and non-celebrity pastors that have absolutely

ruined their ministries because they did not maintain a disciplined life. And he tells Timothy, be strong like an athlete. Compete according to the rules so that you don't become disqualified. The next thing he says, number five, is he says, be strong like a farmer. Be strong like a farmer. Notice what he says in verse six. He says, the hardworking farmer ought to be the first

to receive his share of the crops. Farmers are hardworking individuals. Now, I've never lived on a farm. I've never worked on a farm, but I've been around a lot of you farmers, right? I was just in Dexter this last week. Actually, I was in Oxford. I was talking to Dexter people. And this young lady was there watching the junior high football game that I was watching my daughter

cheer in the other night. And she was wearing this really cool shirt. It said, catch a calf on it. I said, I do not know what that means, but I want to know what catch a calf means. And so, the mom explained to me exactly what catch a calf was and that she literally caught a calf. And I was like, oh, tag me in, coach. I want to get that. She's like, they put it, they put them in a

pen. And if you catch the calf, you get to keep the calf and then raise it and make money off of it. And I'm like, I don't care about raising it and making money off of it. I want to chase that thing around and see if I can catch it, right? At the age of 45, I'm pretty sure I damaged myself pretty good, but ultimately kind of feels worth it. But anyway, so she's telling me about this

calf that she got. And of course, it's kind of late by this point in time because we're getting later in the evening. And she said, yes, she really wanted to come watch this game. But I told her, I said, remember, there's still chores to do when you get home. You still got to deal when you get home. And the girl counted the cost and she said, I'm willing to do it. So she was

going to be up late doing her chores. And I was just like, what a life to live. What a life you farmers live, right? Because you're hardworking. Like my wife wanted us to have chickens here a few years ago when eggs were like $11 billion a dozen. And I was like, no, no, I don't want to have chickens. That's a lot of work. And she's like, I've heard that they are animals that pretty

well take care of themselves. I'm like, there are zero animals on earth that take care of themselves. Zero. I am not taking care of chickens. I don't like to take care of Carl. And he's cute and fuzzy, right? And looks at me like this. I don't like taking care of him. I don't want to take a bunch of chickens that are going to attack me and try to peck my face,

right? Hardworking farmers said for the farmers, they have to partake of the harvest first before anyone else can. There's two things that we kind of learned from this to be strong like a farmer. Number one, if you're going to be strong like a farmer, you got to be patient and wait for the harvest. You got to be patient and wait for the harvest. That's the hardest thing to do in any form of ministry. I don't care what form of ministry

you're in. I don't care if the ministry is your kids. I don't care if the ministry is your loved ones. I don't care if the ministry is a children's church class, a small group, or a church that you're pastoring. The hardest thing to do is to wait for the harvest because you pour your heart into it. You pour your life into it. And you just want to see God do something. And man,

you just have to wait. And a hardworking farmer has to wait for the harvest. And that waiting for the harvest requires an incredible amount of trust in God. I do think that's why the Bible is just littered with agricultural metaphors and similes is because there is no greater trust in God than to be some sort of a farmer. Because you have to trust in God for the weather. You have to trust in God for the seed.

You have to trust in God for the soil. It's an incredible amount of trust. And then you just have to wait for the harvest. And some of y'all have been waiting for a harvest. Some of y'all have been pouring into your kids. Some of y'all have been waiting for a harvest. Some of y'all have been praying for people that you love and you haven't seen anything yet. And God says,

be strong like a farmer and wait for the harvest. I've been battling this here lately myself. And God in his infinite wisdom is so good at giving me exactly what I need, exactly when I need it. Because the other morning I cracked open my Bible. It was in the book of Galatians. I came to Galatians chapter six, verse nine, and it just leapt off the page at me.

It said, don't grow weary. And that's what we have to do, brothers and sisters, is we just have to keep giving in, giving ourselves to the work of the ministry until we see the harvest. But there's another lesson I think that we learn from this, because not only does the hardworking farmer have to be patient and wait for the harvest, but the hardworking farmer has to receive the share of his crops first before he can give his crops out. And that's a spiritual principle that we see here. You can only give out that which you have

first received. You can only give out that which you have first received. That means that if you want to be worth anything to the people around you, to love on them, to minister them, whether that's your family, whether that's your coworkers, whether that's just people in the community, if you want to be able to love and minister to those people, you have to receive it first, because you can't give out what you have not first received. And so that means that you have to take care of yourself spiritually, and you have to take care of yourself physically. Those are important things for us. Spiritually speaking, you have to have a

daily time with the Lord. Listen, there's this great study, and I've shared it before, that says that you've got to be in God's Word at least four times a week. There's a marked difference in the life of any individual who is in God's Word at least four times a week. But that means that if it's that great four times a week, how much better seven days a week?

You've got to be in God's Word on a consistent basis, just like I wake up every morning and go, ooh, I need a cup of coffee this morning. Ooh, breakfast sounds good, right? Like, and I feed myself. You know why? Because I want it every day, and my body needs it every day. God's Word is food for us, spiritually speaking, and we need it every single day. And we have to take care of ourselves

spiritually. But you know what? Another lesson I've learned here recently is you have to take care of yourself physically. Like, I think sometimes we live in a world where we have to let ourselves go physically, especially when it comes to rest because of this crazy world that we live in that tells us that if you're not going 90 to nothing all the time, you're probably failing somehow. Last Sunday, I go all day on Sundays, and so Sundays are a really long day for me. And so

usually on Monday mornings, I don't take Mondays off because I take Fridays off. I try to. I don't take Mondays off, but I don't get in a real big hurry on Monday mornings. I try to really take some time for spiritual recovery. If I don't get in the office till nine, I don't get in the office till nine. It's totally fine because I know my time in the Word is the most important thing I'm

going to have that morning to recover from Sunday. Well, last Monday, I had to help out, and I found, I had forgotten about it, but I had to help out with an FCA golf fundraising tournament. And so I got a message from my boss over the weekend. He said, hey, I need you in Wichita a little after six, north side of Wichita on Monday morning. And I'm like, oh, dude,

that's for all the guys that live in Wichita, no big deal. For the guy that lives in Ark City, a little bit bigger of a deal. So I'm exhausted from Sunday, go to bed, get up Monday morning, 4.30 in the morning, get myself ready to go. And I drive up there, and I'm in Wichita all day long. I didn't get my time with Jesus, and I really didn't get very much rest. And so by the time I get back five or six o'clock that evening, I am physically,

mentally, and spiritually exhausted. Genuinely, one of the most exhausted days I've ever had in my life. I felt like I'd run a half marathon when I got home that night. And I don't go to bed early. I'm not an early to bed sort of a person. I'm like 10 o'clock Ryan, 10 o'clock. I'm like, hey, what else can we come up with to do? And I wasn't like that that night. I got done eating dinner, and I was like,

I genuinely don't know if I can stay awake. And so about 7.45, I told Aaron, I said, I think I have to go to bed now. This sounds terrible, but I am so exhausted. And I went, and I laid down at eight o'clock that night, and I did not stop sleeping until my alarm went off at six o'clock the next morning. And I was like, wow, I must have really been tired. And in that

moment, God said, do you not know that sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is sleep? Like, I know that sounds like a terrible thing, but I'm like, I'm not going to do that. I'm not that is true. Why do we feel bad to rest? Why do we feel bad to take care of ourselves physically in that way? Because the world that we live in today that wants us to multitask and do all these

different things doesn't take into account the fact that God said rest is literally so important that I'm going to build it into the 10 commandments. The other nine commandments that have to do with morality and loving God, I'm going to build in this 10th commandment that says you should take a day and rest. Now, we're not bound by that commandment to take one specific day. Now, our rest is in Christ, but there is still something incredibly healthy about rest and taking a day to sleep and sit around and do nothing. And you know what we do when we do that? When you take a day off and you

sit around and do nothing, what's the first thing you tell somebody around you? I'm really sorry. I probably shouldn't have done that, but man, it felt good to rest. Why do we apologize for resting? It's the most ridiculous thing in the world. It's like, dude, God built this into the schedule. God took a day off. And if we don't take care of ourselves, you're never going to be able to take care of the people around you.

You're never going to be able to love on the people around you. And I think that there's a lot of anger in the world today because there's a lot of very tired people. They're tired mentally and emotionally. They're tired physically. Most of all, they're worn out spiritually. Because if you don't take in, you have nothing to give out. I don't know who needed to hear that this morning. I needed to hear it myself. So there it is.

Be strong like a farmer. And then we come to the last point. Remember Jesus. Verse eight. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal. But the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason, I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen so that they may obtain

the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. Paul says, remember Jesus. Remember, first of all, that Jesus is a living savior. We serve a living savior. You notice that he said he is risen from the dead. He's the descendant of David. And he's the one I've been preaching in my gospel. He's a descendant of David, meaning he was a real person,

but he's risen from the dead, meaning he's really victorious. We serve a living God. We serve a risen savior. Every other religion, they're serving a dead God. Every other religion, they're serving a dead leader, someone that they're still remembering daily so that they can serve this guy so that hopefully one day they can make it to whatever their form of paradise is. You and I serve a living God, a risen savior who has a active and

living relationship with us, who doesn't just say, I hope one of these days you make it. He guarantees that if your faith is in him, you're going to make it. Why? Because if you were to make it, you're going to make it. You're united with him in his death. You're united with him in his resurrection. That means the victory that he won by rising from the dead is yours. And it's the confidence that you have.

That's why Paul tells him, remember Jesus, because you have victory, because you have hope, because you have everything that you need through this living God who has given you brand new life. Remember Jesus, because you serve a living savior. He says that living savior is why I'm in prison. That living savior and serving him is why I'm enduring hardship, even to the point of being in prison like a criminal. But the word of God is not imprisoned. This is one of the times I

prefer the New King James translation of this. Paul says, it is for this reason that I endure hardship being in these chains, but the word of God is not chained. Isn't that great? God's word can never be chained. God's word can never be held back. Paul says, I can be sitting in this prison right now. I can be sitting here chained because of giving up the gospel of Jesus Christ, but you can never stop the word of God. They tried to burn it. They tried to

destroy it. They tried to hide it. They tried to imprison it. They tried to kill it. Everything that they could. You can't stop God's word because God's word is living and powerful, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword able to pierce between bone and marrow. That's how sharp it is. That's how powerful it is. And sometimes, brothers and sisters, God's word is

chained in your life because you won't just unleash it to do its job. Oh, Ryan, God's word is really hard for me to understand. So is everything else. Dig into it, unchain it, let it do its job. Did you hear what I said earlier this week? The other day, I was living in despair. I was down and out, feeling worthless, and I opened up God's word, and God's word leapt off

the page at me and said, don't grow weary. And I was like, that's a good word right there. God's word became unchained in my life, and it changed my perspective. And it restored the joy. You just have to unchain it and let it do its job, right? Like Ray Charles said, it's going to do what it's going to do, and let it do its thing. But not only do you need to unchain it in your own life, you need to unchain it for the people

around you. Too many Christians are scared they're going to get asked the question they can't answer. They don't want to use God's word because they don't know if they can defend God's word. I'm here to tell you right now, I've never seen anyone use a weapon that tries to defend the weapon before they use the weapon, right? Like if a soldier's in battle, he doesn't defend the sword before he cuts a guy's head off. He just goes and lets the sword do its

thing. And brothers and sisters, sometimes you got to quit trying to defend the sword and just start using it. Because even if you defend it, people are still going to disagree with you. Just unchain God's word and let it do what it's going to do. We've got to do that in our lives. Let it start with you first. And then with the people around you after that.

And somebody asked me a question here recently. They were like, how do you share the gospel on a daily basis when you're in a very secular work setting? Like how do you start? How do you do that? So we got to start gospel conversations. How do you do that? So you know what I used to do when I worked construction? Is I'd look at a guy and say, can I tell you what I read in my Bible

this morning? Never one time did one of them say no. Never one time. People would say, oh, I'm not going to say, okay, what did you read in your Bible this morning? And we would start a conversation about it. I actually had a guy that asked me a question. We were working at UMKC in the basement of UMKC. And this guy, he was a drywaller. And every day he came to me with a new question. All

because I started off by saying, can I tell you what I read in my Bible this morning? And from that day, I don't know what ended up happening with him. But from that day on, every day he came to me with a new question. And sometimes I would be able to answer it. And sometimes I would say, that's a good question. Let me get back to you on that. And so that's what I would do.

I would come back with an answer every single day. And we had gospel conversations every single day. That's how you unchain God's word in a life of people. It doesn't take magic. You just have to do it. And so he says, remember Jesus. He says, this is the reason I endure these things, for the sake of the chosen, so that they can come to faith in Jesus Christ. And he closes

this section with a hymn. He says, it's a trustworthy statement. For if we died with him, we would not have died. We would not have died. We would not have died. We would not have lived with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, meaning a lifestyle of denial of Jesus, he will deny us. But if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot

deny himself. Brothers and sisters, be strong. Amen. Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And Lord, just thank you for another day that you've given to us. Thank you for another opportunity to be in your word. And Lord, I thank you for your continued faithfulness in our lives. And so, Lord, I pray that you would continue to use your word as you see fit. Father, I want to lift up every person

that's in this room this morning that is battling with their own weakness, that's battling with their own failures, or that's struggling to be authentic and honest about the fact that I just don't feel like I'm enough. And Lord, I pray that they would be strong in your name. Lord, I pray that they would rest and find their confidence in who they are in you. Father, I pray that you would, as they wait upon you, Lord, pour your truth into them. Lord, empower them,

strengthen them by your grace, because they need it. We need it, Lord. So, Father, be with us as we go out from this place. And Lord, empower us to do what you called for us to do. We just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

We just thank you for your word this morning. God, I just thank you for how sharp and powerful it is, Lord God. And I just pray that you would continue to minister to us as we leave here today. And Father, we love you and we praise you. And in Jesus' name, amen. God, just have a wonderful week. God bless you.