Faithful to Stand Pt 3: In Your Ministry

Good morning. It's good to see you all. I'm glad you're here. I invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Lord, we just thank you for the day. Lord, I just thank you for those that are able to be here. Lord, for those that are still stuck at home or stuck without power, Lord, I just pray that you would just be with them and be with the crews that are out working this morning, Lord, trying to restore power and everything. Lord, I just pray that you bless this time, Lord. Bless your word as it goes out.

Help us to focus on you, Lord Jesus, because it is all about you. In Jesus' name, amen. Lord God, I just want to take a moment. And Lord, I just want to thank you for your body that was broken and the blood that you shed out on the cross, Lord, for us. I just thank you that because you spilled out your blood for us, Lord, that we have redemption. Lord, that we have forgiveness.

And Lord, that we have newness of life. Thank you for your precious blood, Lord Jesus. Thank you that it is making all things right in our lives. Lord, that it is changing our lives, that it's changing our hearts. This last one, I just want to glorify you.

Transform our hearts to the point that we reflect you completely, Lord. People look at us that they see you. We just want to glorify you and magnify you. This morning, as Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, I just pray that you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit. Give him the words to speak and give us hearts, hearts to receive it and ears to hear it. We love you and we praise you.

And in Jesus' name, all God's people said, amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning.

If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. First of all, over on the left-hand side are things that go on throughout the week. Please take note of those. Get yourself plugged in somewhere. In the middle section, a few things to take note of. First of all, just a reminder that there is still a Bible Prophecy Conference coming up this weekend at Calvary Chapel of Emporia.

And also, ladies, there's a women's breakfast coming up this Saturday. All the details are right there. Or in your bulletin. Both convenient places that you can take note of for that. So get plugged into that. And then two things that are not in your bulletin. That you need to be aware of that my wife wanted me to share. First of all, we will not be doing Vacation Bible School this year.

With all of the construction going on, it's just, I just don't think we have room and space and mental bandwidth for all of that. If you've never been a part of EBS here, it pretty well takes up the entire property. So we were like, hey, this could get a little complicated if we tried to do this this year. So we opted out of doing it. We're taking a year off.

We'll probably be back next year. But just know that that's. That's what's happening there. And then also the other thing my wife wanted me to say is that they could really use a little bit of help in the twos and threes ministry, the toddler nursery. So if you've been around for about six or so months and you're like, hey, you know what I really like to do?

I'd really like to hang out with much toddlers because they're really fun. Then you should go talk to my wife afterwards because she would really appreciate you and love you for all of eternity. She'll love you for all of eternity anyway, but she'll love you more if you help out with twos and threes. So 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're going to be in Psalm eight,

Psalm eight, looking at the new American standard for the responsive reading part. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm eight, 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 with Pastor Jared in the even verses, Psalm eight for the choir. Director, I've never known how to pronounce that, but on that instrument, a Psalm of David. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth who have displayed your splendor above the heavens from the mouths of infants and nursing babes.

You have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained. What is man? That you take thought of him and the son of man, that you care for him. Yet you have made him a little lower than God and you crown him with glory and majesty.

You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. And read verse nine with me. Oh, Lord, our Lord. How majestic is your name in all the earth and father, we do praise you that you being God, Lord, majestic in your nature, Lord, still saw fit to stoop down to us as man to draw us near to yourself.

And so, father, I pray that as we spend time learning in your word this morning, more that your Holy Spirit would do the work that only your Holy Spirit can do in us. Father, give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear and give us minds that can comprehend everything that you have for us this morning. In Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of First Timothy, chapter four, First Timothy, chapter four.

As we approach today's message, we come to the last in our series in chapter four on faithful to stand throughout chapter four. We said that Paul had taught us or would tell Timothy three things about the importance of being faithful to stand that he needed to be faithful to stand in the midst of apostasy. He needed to be faithful to stand on the truth. And today he will tell him that he needs to be faithful to stand in his ministry.

And so we pick up in verse 11 of chapter four. And this is what it says. Prescribe and teach these things. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. Show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. be faithful to stand in the ministry. There's three things he's going to tell him that he needs to do in order to be faithful to stand in the ministry. Number one, he's going to have to be an example. Number two, he's going to have to stay focused. Number three, he's going to have to watch himself. So let's take the first one, be an example. Starts off in verse 12 by saying,

let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Let no one despise, let no one look down on your youthfulness. Now, most agree that Timothy at this point in time was probably in his mid to late 30s. And as we know, age is just a number, right? Like, it's kind of fascinating to see what

different people call old, you know? So I've worked a lot with teenagers, and they all think that I'm pretty old. And I work with college kids, and they all think that I'm pretty old. And then I go, and I go to the men's breakfast, and they all think I'm pretty young, right? Like, sometimes the men's breakfast is more fun in those situations because they still think I'm the young

guy. And so age is a little bit subjective where that goes. But as far as the culture that Timothy was living in, you really weren't considered to be someone who had much influence until you were 40 years old, right? And so for Timothy, even being in his mid 30s, he was still a pretty young guy as far as the ministry is concerned. And really, even in today's culture, in the ministry,

being in your 30s is still a pretty young guy to be pastoring a church. And so Timothy had taken over this church from a very tenured pastor, Paul, and he was pastoring this church. And I think because of that, he was kind of being pushed around because he was a kid. As a matter of fact, the idea behind the Greek there is stop letting people push you around because you're young. It was interesting because I was reading a commentary on this by a guy named R. Kent Hughes,

fantastic commentator. I really enjoyed reading him. And he was talking about the first time he received a pastorate when he was in his mid 30s. And he talked about how he woke up every morning and kind of questioned, he's like, what am I even doing here? Why would they have put me in charge of this? And, and you, you have all of those thoughts and feelings that go through your mind. And as I was reading that

yesterday, or excuse me, on Friday, I was like, man, I totally appreciate where R. Kent Hughes is coming from. And I can definitely appreciate where Timothy is coming from here. Because I also took over a church from a very tenured pastor. And, and I remember I was about 36 years old when I started taking over for Mark because he was sick at that point in time. He'd had, he'd had cancer

and had gone through some surgeries and things just really weren't going very well with all of it. And so what was supposed to be six weeks of me filling in for him while he had his surgery, turned into about six months of me filling in. It was just a really long time. And, and I was about 36 at that point in time. And by the time I took over as the pastor, I was 37 years old, which

apparently, according to scripture, meant that I was a pretty young guy. And I remember waking up every morning after I took over as the pastor. Every morning, I just had this sick feeling in my stomach. I just had this like knot in my gut. Like, what were they thinking? What am I thinking? What am I doing here? I have no clue what I'm doing. And, and for about the first six months

to a year, that's the way it was just about every single day. Because I kind of despised my youthfulness. And I kind of felt like everybody else despised my youthfulness. Whether that was true or not, that was how I felt. I remember after about a year in, my board asked me, they said, so how are you doing with this? How are you feeling with, with the new responsibilities

that you have? And I said, well, I don't want to throw up every single morning. So I feel like we're making progress, right? Like that was kind of the way it was at that point in time. And that's kind of how Timothy is right now, which is why Paul has to tell him, listen, don't despise your youthfulness. But listen, I think that there's a word there for everyone that's in here this

morning, whether you're young or whether you're old. Okay. Can I just say something to those of you that aren't young anymore, right? I'll use that phrase because that feels a little bit better than any other phrase that I could use. For those of you that aren't young anymore, could you stop despising young people? Listen, that's a hard statement to make, but I'm just going to be honest. I live in it. I live in this culture and I live around

people that aren't young anymore. And sometimes they tend to despise young people, just like Timothy. Sometimes they tend to look down on people because they're young and, and, and you view young people as these, these, kids that won't get jobs and, you know, they, they don't, won't work hard and they don't have any commitment. Well, you know why they don't work hard and don't have any commitment? Because no one's

ever expected it of them. See, kids will always do what's expected of them. And so if you don't like that about them, maybe you should, maybe you should start with you and go, maybe I, maybe I haven't been holding people accountable the way that, the way that I should. So, so could we just stop doing that? Could we stop looking down on young people? But, but, but also if you're not young in here

this morning, if you're a, if you're a not young person here this morning, don't despise your age, either. Like, don't look at yourself and say, well, I'm useless now because, because I'm not young anymore and, and ministry's for the young and life is for the young because, because God knows you have so much to offer. Like, like your life is so valuable. You have so much to offer, especially to the next generation. This is why we have to change this in our culture right now,

is, is we have to change this, this age war. I don't know when we started putting titles on generations, but I hate it, right? Like, I, I hate putting titles on generations because it creates so much separation in our culture. It separates us all. Well, I'm a, I'm a Gen X person, which obviously makes me better than everybody else. And then there's the millennials and then there's the Gen Z and then there's the baby boomers and all these

kinds of things, right? And, and why did we start doing that to each other? Why didn't we all just start viewing each other as people who all have something to offer? You know, I've shared this before and I'll keep sharing it all the time. Like I've told kids forever, find somebody that's older than you, that's walked with Jesus for a long time and just attach yourself to them and

say, teach me as much as you can. I want to hear your stories of faith because you have so much to offer. Don't despise your age either, right? Don't despise the fact that you have wisdom. But, but again, I want to speak a word to you young people in here. Don't despise your youth. Don't think, well, I can't be used by God until I hit a certain age. I can't be used by God until I hit

this point in time. Like, like too many times we look at the young people and say, well, that's the church of tomorrow. No, it's not. It's the church of today. They're just the young people in the church of today. And God wants to use them in powerful ways. God, God wants to use you in your school. He wants to use you in your home. He wants to use you here at church, right? Like he

wants to use you in all these kinds of ways. It's going to require some commitment, but don't despise your youthfulness. Take that as your opportunity to serve God in the place where you are now, right? And so he tells him, he says, he says, don't despise your youthfulness. Don't let anybody push you around because you're young. Instead, what you need to be is you need to be

an example, an example to the people that are around you. Listen, Paul does something very interesting. He takes away seniority and he throws in authority, right? Seniority is not nearly as important as authority and authority comes from the example that you set because if you live out the right example, that will supersede anything anybody else has to say because then they can't say, well, that's just a young person. They don't know anything. They'll

say that's a young person, but they set an example to everybody. And I know I can trust them. And so we get five ways that whether you're young or not young, you should be setting an example to the people that are around you. Number one, you should be an example in your speech. You should, you should be an example in your speech. What? There it is in your speech. Proverbs 10, 19. Listen,

I love the video people more than I can put into words. So I'm not going to give them too hard of a time right now. Okay. We should all thank them later for the fact that they do a fantastic job at what they do. I have no idea how they make the magic happen, but they make the magic happen. And I'm so appreciative of them. So we are to be an example in our speech. Proverbs 10, 19, which one

I read pointed this out. You might just write that in the margin of your Bible. I'll read to you what it says. It says in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. Can I put it to you in Chuck Smith, very plain language. It's, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and cast out all doubt, right? Like, like sometimes

it's better just to be quiet because your speech is going to give you away. But listen, brothers if you want to set an example to the people that are around you, it has to start with the things that come out of your mouth. And as a start with the things that you say, because your speech is the first thing that people hear about you. Your speech is the first thing that catches the ears of the people that are around you. And if your speech is filled with profanity, if your speech

is filled with perversity, if your speech is filled with criticism, if your speech is filled with anger, then that will not set an example to the world that's around you. The world that's around So why would I want their God if they talk just like I do? He says, you should set an example in your speech. Your speech should be seasoned with love. Your speech should be seasoned with grace.

Your speech should be seasoned with purity. And it should set the tone for everything else in your life. He says, be an example through your speech. And listen, if you can't do that, sometimes the best thing you can do is maybe just be quiet, right? Because then you know you won't offend anybody in your speech. But we have to learn that if we're going to be an example, it starts with the things that we say.

Number two, he says, be an example in your conduct. Be an example in your conduct. The idea of conduct is your manner of life. And I liked the way that one of the commentators put it. He said, your manner of life in the day in and day out aspect of life. Sometimes in the church we can have a problem because sometimes in the church you can have three different manners of life.

You can have three different aspects of conduct. You have the work. You have the work version of you. You have the home version of you. And then you have the church version of you. And all three of those versions don't look the same. That's a problem. You know what we call that? We call that hypocrisy. That means that you're living more than one life. And you need to make sure that your conduct is something that sets an example to the people where day in and day out your conduct is viewed by the people that are around you as something that is to be honored.

And something that is worthy. When I was in high school, junior high, somewhere in that range, one of my favorite basketball players was this guy named David Robinson. You guys know who David Robinson is? The admiral, right? David Robinson was a man, but he was also an incredibly strong believer in Jesus Christ. And I read an article about him when I was a teenager.

And he was on the dream team, right? The USA dream team that played in the Olympics. And one of the other guys that was on that team with him was a guy by the name of Charles Barkley, right? Now, listen, what Charles Barkley said was terrible, right? But that's a bad imitation of him. I'm sorry. I tried. That's the best I got. But Charles Barkley looked at him and said, I don't want to hear about your God.

I don't want to hear about your religion. I don't want to hear about any of it. That's what he told him. And according to this article, that's what he told him day one when he showed up in the locker room for practice to be on the dream team. But by the time all was said and done, Charles Barkley respected David Robinson because he lived it out every single day.

It wasn't just something he claimed. It wasn't just something that he said. It wasn't just something that he believed. It was something that he lived. And he won over Charles Barkley to where Charles Barkley then defended him for the fact that he was a believer in Jesus Christ. That's fantastic. You know why? Because his conduct set an example to the people that are around him.

A little bit more of a modern day, that's not true because I'm old, although not according to this. Actually, I'm over 40, so it is according to that. Either way, a little bit more of a more recent example. One of my favorite KU basketball players. This was Wayne Simeon. You guys know Wayne Simeon was? Wayne Simeon played for KU back in the early 2000s. And when he got drafted into the NBA, he went down and played, I think it was for the Miami Heat.

Again, read an article about him. He's a very strong believer in Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, he's in ministry now. Read an article about him going down and playing for the Miami Heat. And of course, there was some pretty rough guys in the NBA at that point in time. And they were bound and determined to get him to go to a strip club. And he would not go to the point where finally they quit asking him because he won them over with his conduct.

He set an example with his conduct. Brothers and sisters, we have to understand something. People are watching our lives. And if you claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ, then your conduct needs to match up with that. Set an example in your speech. Set an example in your conduct. Number three, we're supposed to set an example with our love. Now, it's kind of fascinating because the first two things that he tells are very outward.

The last two things, which we'll get to in just a moment, faith and purity, those are very inward. And what links them all together is love. Because love is the linchpin that holds the outward life and the inward life. Because outward love has to be motivated by an inward love. Otherwise, it becomes, once again, hypocrisy, right? But the idea is that our love that we have in our life involves the whole life, both outward and inward.

And that love that we show should be an example to the people that are around us. After all, what did Jesus tell his disciples? He said, they're going to know that you're my disciples by the love that you have for one another. Sacrificial love. Sacrificial love. And with that, he included, love each other as I have loved you. By telling them the truth. By offering them salvation.

By living according to grace. And by serving others. And so he says, be an example in your speech. Be an example in your conduct. Be an example in your love. Number four, he says, be an example in faith. Now, usually we look at that word faith and we think about the faith, right? Faith in Jesus Christ. But that's not the idea behind this word. The idea behind this word faith could also be translated to faithfulness.

In other words, be an example in your faithfulness. What is the biggest complaint anybody has about a young person? They never do what they say. You know what my biggest complaint about not young people is? They never do what they say. You can't say that, right? Yes, I can. Okay? Because we're all humans. And that's all that there is to it. And I've had just as many people over the age of 40 bail out on me as I have people under the age of 40 bail out on me.

So you just need to know that. That's just true. That's pastoral talk that no one likes to hear. And so you have to pay attention to your faithfulness. Because listen, you can tell somebody something, but when you show them by their faithfulness, they go, now that's a guy you can depend on. That's a woman you can depend on. But if you're somebody who's constantly going back on their word, somebody that can't be trusted, eventually people go, well, maybe I can't trust their God either.

Maybe I can't trust that either. But we're to be examples of faithfulness. Right? So one of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories of all time, right, is Horton hatches the egg. Most people know Horton from his more famous story, Horton Hears a Who. Same Horton, different story. Right? So here's the story. I've probably told it before. I know I have, but I don't remember who I tell what.

So act like it's the first time you've heard it. So the dodo bird lays an egg, right? And she's sitting on the egg. And she decides she needs a vacation because sitting on that egg is the hardest thing she's ever done in her life. And she's so bored. And she needs to fly south for a little bit. Right? So she comes to Horton, the elephant, and says, can you sit on my egg for me?

And he says, yes, I will. So he sits on the egg. And everybody comes to ask Horton to go do something. Hey, don't you want to go play with us for a little while? Let's go get something to eat. He gave him all these opportunities to quit. And he says the exact same thing every single time. I can't leave. Why? Because I meant what I said. And I said what I meant.

Go ahead. An elephant's faithful 100%. Right? Listen, that's the way we should be. Where everybody says he won't bail because he's always faithful. You know why? Because we serve a faithful God. Therefore, if we want to be like him, we need to be faithful 100%. So be an example in speech. Be an example in conduct. Be an example in love. Be an example in faith.

Number five, be an example in purity. Be an example in purity. Now, there's kind of two meanings to this. They're very similar. One is the idea of love. Another is the idea of moral purity. That's usually what we think of when we think of this word purity. And while that is true, moral purity is an aspect of this word. It really doesn't take this word far enough to where it should go because the idea is purity of motives.

Moral purity comes from your purity of motives. It means that everything that you do should have a pure motive behind it. You're not trying to win the approval of others by what you're doing. You're not trying to, oh, what do you want to call it? Manipulate others through what you're doing. Your goal is 100% pure to please God in everything that you do. What a wonderful testimony of an individual no matter what age it is.

Whatever they do, they try to please God. Remember, that's what was said about Jesus. He pleased God in everything that he did. And so he says, don't despise your youth. Instead, be an example. Be an example in these ways. I want to give you two final thoughts on this. A couple of great quotes that I read that I think will drive this idea home. The first one is from the preacher's commentary, Lloyd Ogilvie.

It says, this example that Paul sets does not demand perfection, but it is a striving for integrity and quality. It does not demand perfection, but it is a striving for integrity and quality. I like that quote because it, first of all, reminds me I don't have to be perfect, but that's not an excuse to remain the way that I am. Right? If perfection is what was required, we're all disqualified.

So it doesn't require perfection. But what it does require is a striving or a growth in integrity, a striving or a growth in quality. In other words, our lives should be trying to be more, have more quality and have more integrity every single day so that everybody can say that person is blameless. That's the idea behind it. Second quote I thought was really good is by R. Kent Hughes.

It says, the ministry is a character. Profession. Godly character creates moral authority. I'm going to read that last part one more time. Godly character creates moral authority. I watch it happen in the political world. I watch it happen in the work world. I watch it happen in the entertainment world. And sometimes I even see it happen in the church world where people say, how can you say that's wrong if you're doing that?

And while it's unfortunate that we justify one by the other, there is a little bit of a point there. There's a little bit of a point that's to be made. That our lack of moral quality takes away our ability to have that kind of authority. And so when we live according to this, godly character creates that moral authority. So he says, be an example. Second thing he tells us that we need to do or that Timothy needs to do is that he needs to stay focused.

Stay focused. Look at verse 13. He says, until I come, give attention to the power of God. Give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. And take pains with these things. Be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all.

Under the subheading of stay focused, he gives three things. The first thing he tells them that he needs to do is he needs to give attention to something. He needs to give attention to something. The idea of giving attention means to devote yourself. Devote yourself to these things. What's he supposed to devote himself to? Well, first of all, the public reading of scripture.

The public reading of scripture. Listen, that's why, no matter what, I'm going to get this Bible out every Sunday morning and I'm at least going to read out loud to you whatever I'm going to cover that day. Because I want you to not only read it for yourself, I want you to hear it through the ear gates. That's why we do a responsive reading because the public reading of scripture is so important.

At the time when Paul was writing to Timothy, we have to understand this. We have to understand that not everybody owned a copy of the scriptures at that point in time. They definitely didn't own copies of all of the letters that Paul had written. And so the only way that they could hear that, the only way that they could take that in, is if it were read publicly.

But that doesn't mean it's not still an incredibly important thing for us to do. And so when we're in a setting like this, it's important that the scripture is read publicly. That it is heard, not only through the ear gates, but taken in through the eye gates. Because that's an important part of learning. But I want to challenge you to do something. I think that the public reading of scripture, or the out loud reading of scripture,

is good in every aspect of your life. I actually think that families should sit together and the scripture should be read. Well, my kids aren't going to understand that. It's okay. I don't even know if you guys understand anything I'm saying. But I still do it, right? Because I know that the Holy Spirit is good. That's nothing offensive. That was a joke. I think that you all take in everything that I say and you memorize it and tell everybody about it later.

But it's important to do that. It's important to read that to your kids. Listen, probably the first 97 times you read it to them, they're not going to get it. That 98th time. They're going to take that sucker in and they're going to go, oh, yeah. That's why you embed those things early so that later they draw from them and they've recognized it. So that when it comes back again, they read, oh, I've heard that verse before.

Yeah, I know what that's talking about. But you know, I think even in your own personal reading time, one of the greatest things that you can do is just to read out loud to yourself. Brian, that would sound weird. It does. I do it all the time, okay? Especially early in the morning when I do my devotions, right? If it's real early in the morning, I'm like, I'm just going to...

I don't... I don't like project it like I'm preaching it, but I'm going to like kind of mumble it a little bit because there's something about saying it out loud and taking it in your ears as well as your eyes that sort of makes you really think about it. Matter of fact, at points in time, I really struggle with focus. I think I've shared that with you before. I don't know.

I can't remember. I forgot. I wasn't paying attention that day. But one of the greatest things that I do is I will... I even do this with books. I have the Audible account and I will actually read a book while I listen to the book at the same time because I struggle that much with focus. But I do the same thing with my Bible. I remember before we had smartphones...

That's right, kids. There was a day before we had the smartphone and all we could do was just listen on a computer or a cassette tape deck as I would turn the Bible on and listen to it while I read it at the same time because I would take in so much more that way because my brain wouldn't wander. There's just something powerful about the hearing of God's Word. Hearing it read.

And I would challenge you to do that in your own life. Maybe not in the middle of Starbucks. That'll get weird. It might get you kicked out. But just read it out loud, right? And so he says the public reading of Scripture. But the second thing he says to devote yourself to is to exhortation. Exhortation. Some of your translations may say preaching. It's a similar idea,

but it doesn't quite carry the full idea of exhortation with it. It's interesting to look up the word exhortation in a Greek dictionary because there's almost kind of two different ends of the spectrum that exhortation has. What does exhortation can be, right? So almost across the board, most of the places that the word exhortation is used in Scripture, it can be substituted with comfort or consolation.

In other words, speak words of comfort to each other, right? He says use the Scripture to comfort each other. Speak those words of exhortation. The word literally means to call to one's side. That's what the word exhortation means in the Greek. But it's interesting how many times if you look up, hey, let's see where this is used other places in Scripture, most of the time it's used for comfort.

And I have found that one of the greatest comforts that you can give to people is just to read them the words that have always comforted you in the past from Scripture. I have people reach out to me sometimes when they're going through things, especially grief. I seem to deal with that quite a bit. And they'll be working through some things, and they'll say, I'm just having a hard time right now.

Do you have anything for me? And there's some books I recommend to people and stuff like that, but the greatest thing I can do is just send them the Scriptures that God has used to minister to me. Because in my life, God has brought me, especially to two or three places in the Psalms that have just brought so much comfort to my life. And so I'll just send them that.

Sometimes I'll give them my thoughts along with it. But those aren't nearly as important as what the Scripture has to say in allowing the Holy Spirit to minister through the Scriptures because God wants to bring those words of comfort and consolation to us. But of course, the other meaning of exhortation, which is usually what we think of, is the idea of a moral or a spiritual directive. In other words, this is what God's Word says.

This is what you should do. I'm going to exhort you with it. Don't just take it in as something that you've learned. Turn it into something that you're going to live by in your life. Turn it into something that you'll live according to in your life. And so he says, devote yourself to exhorting people to the Word of God. And while that is the job of the pastor,

that's kind of the job of you guys too, right? You can read the Scripture and you can exhort someone with it. You can say, this is what God showed me. And God will use you in a powerful way like that because God always uses His Word. But the third thing he's supposed to devote himself to is he's supposed to devote himself to teaching. To teaching. Teaching is the idea of instruction in sound doctrine.

Instruction in sound doctrine. And listen, I know that this is what I was created to do. I teach God's Word. I'll teach anybody that is willing to listen to me or willing to receive a message from me or whatever. And it's just something that I love to do. I've never been a preacher. I've never been one that's good at giving an evangelistic message every now and then someone will get saved.

But I just like to teach the Bible. It's what it says. And so I devote myself to it. But one of the things I've learned, and I hope one of the things that you've learned is that part of devoting yourself to the teaching of God's Word is that I should devote myself to being taught God's Word. I don't know if you realize this or not, but it's really hard for me to listen to a Sunday morning sermon on Sunday mornings.

I'm kind of busy at that point in time. And there can be this danger for us as pastors. And the danger is that we'll keep giving out and the only time we really take in is when we're prepping. And that's when we're ready to give it out again. And God has really ministered to me over about the last six months to a year that I really need to find someone that I'm taking in from.

And so I've got a couple of different pastors that I listen to on a pretty consistent basis and some books that I read on a pretty consistent basis that are just for the purpose of me taking in. Because as important as it is for me to devote myself to teaching you God's Word, it's every bit as important for me to be taught God's Word. Just like it's important for you guys to be taught God's Word, and then every now and then teach somebody else. I don't know how to teach anybody.

Me neither. I just figured it out. That's what we do. You just teach them what God's taught you. This is what God gave me. He said, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. So the first thing he says is give attention to. The second thing to stay focused is do not neglect. He says, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you

which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. The word presbytery there simply means the elders. The elders laid their hands on him and he received by the power of the Holy Spirit a gift and that gift I believe that's being referred to here is the gift of the pastor teacher. But for some reason, Timothy was having a tendency to want to neglect the gift.

Because when he says, do not neglect that gift, it's a really imperative statement. In other words, stop doing what you're already doing. Stop neglecting the gift that's in yourself. I started asking myself, why was Timothy neglecting the gift? You know why he's neglecting it? Because it's hard. Right? Like the gifting that God gave to Timothy was hard. And you, be a young guy and go take over a church

and lead the church even though there's all kinds of garbage going on around you. Even though there's falsehood going on around you. Just, you jump in there and you do that thing. And it was hard. And he was like, I don't know if I want to keep doing this. And he says, no, don't neglect the gift that God has given to you. And can I tell you that the, we need to understand that

the only gift out there is not just pastor teacher. There's lots of gifts out there. And God wants us to know that. And God wants to individually gift each and every one of you to do something that only you can do. And I would tell you, don't neglect the gift that God has given you. And if you don't know what that is, then you should seek out one of us as pastors or elders

or somebody else that you know that's walked with the Lord for a long time and is solid in their walk. And just have them lay hands on you and pray for you. That God would bless you with the gift that he wants to give you. I remember when I was 17 years old and had just started walking with Jesus. I wasn't walking with Jesus for a real long time. I went to a men's conference up at Calvary Chapel of Johnson County.

And they kind of had this time at the end of one of the evenings of the conference. And it was just a time of waiting on the Lord and praying together and perhaps exercising some of the gifts of the Spirit at that point in time. And they said, if you don't know what your gifting is, I just want you to stand up. And some fellows are going to come around. They're going to lay hands on you.

They're going to pray for you. And so I did. I stood up because I'm still pretty new at all this at this point in time. So I stood up. I'm like, I want to know what my gift is. And they laid hands on me. And they prayed for me. And then I fell down the phone. I'm just kidding. That didn't happen. And so they did that. They laid hands on me. And they prayed for me.

And nothing magical happened. But it wasn't long after that that the Lord started laying on my heart the desire to go into ministry, that I wanted to go into some aspect of ministry. And I believe it was at that point in time that I was given the gift of pastor-teacher. And it's been being developed ever since then. And who knows what God wants to do with you because God wants to use every single person.

He wants to use every single person in here in a powerful way. He says, don't neglect the gift. And so I started thinking about this this morning. I thought, what causes us to sometimes neglect the gifting that God has given to us? Why do sometimes we neglect that? We push that back and say, that's not for me. Well, I came up with three things. Three reasons why sometimes we will neglect the gift.

Number one is laziness. It's hard. Oh, that's going to be so hard. It's going to require so much time. It's going to require some sacrifice. I may have to get up early on a Sunday morning. I may have to stay up late on a Saturday night. I may end up not getting to do some of the fun things that I get to do. And you know what? That's going to be so hard. I'm just going to let somebody else do it.

Meanwhile, God's gifted you to do something that only you can do. I keep telling you this because God does not want me to be the only guy in the church that uses his gift. If we are going to be the church that God has called for us to be, then God wants to empower everybody in the church. To be doing the work of the ministry. That's what God wants you to do because you've all been called to be witnesses.

But sometimes laziness keeps us, I just don't want to do that right now. Well, then you're going to miss out on the blessing of serving God. The second reason why sometimes we end up neglecting the gift is through distraction, right? Like maybe we get a little bit excited, but we get distracted by the things of the world. It's amazing how many distractions there are out there that will pull us away.

From being used by God. We get distracted by the pleasures of the world. We get distracted by the toys of the world. We get distracted by the events of the world. By our jobs. All these different kinds of things. And they all distract us. That's why the writer to the Hebrews said, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. The weight that he's referring to in that verse is not something that's inherently sinful.

It's just distracting. And it's distracting you from what God has done. It's distracting you from what God has called for you to do. And so he says, So we have to be careful about these distractions because they'll pull us away. And then the third thing, The third reason why sometimes we can end up neglecting the gift that God has given to us is because we become overextended.

We become overextended. We see needs in so many different places. And we're like, Well, I can do that. And I can do that. And I can do that. And pretty soon we never do the thing God called us to do because we're doing all of the things he didn't call us to do. Right? Like I appreciate enthusiastic people. But every now and then someone will come to me like,

Well, do you need me to handle that? Nope. I just need you to keep doing what you're doing right now. Because what you're doing right now is really important. I can find somebody else to do that. You devote yourself 100% to that. I started reading this book that I have to read for FCA. It's called Traction. It's a business-minded book. But there was something in there that was very interesting to me.

And it said, One of the ways that you stay focused, find what you're good at and do only that. Too many businesses, too many Christians end up falling behind because they're not doing the thing that they were meant to do. You're trying to do all of the things that you're not made to do. Find what you're made to do and do that. Again, if we were to go back to Hebrews, it says,

Run the race that is set before you. That indicates that each of us has a race that only we can run. You run your race. You run your race with the gifting that God has given you. And just run yours. Let everybody else run theirs. Amen? And so he says, First of all, give attention to these things. Second of all, don't neglect the gift. Third, he says, Take care of yourself.

Take pains with these things. Verse 15. Take pains with these things and be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all. I'm going to read to you what some of the other translations said because I thought it was really good. Be absorbed in them. Be occupied in them. Diligently attend to them or stay constantly engrossed in them. Are you picking up a theme here?

Make it the point of your life. What things are we to make the point of our life? The Word of God and the work of God. That's what he's been telling him about. The Word and the work of God. Stay occupied in those things. Stay absorbed in those things. Constantly give yourself to these things. Why? Well, because Jesus gives us the answer in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33.

Do you remember what Jesus said? He said, If you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all of these other things are going to be added unto you. So if you keep your focus and you absorb in them, and you absorb yourself in these things, you focus on these things, it aligns all of the other things in your life because now all of your focus is where it should be and everything else in your life is going to be really good. Everything else in your life is going to seem to operate a little bit better because this focus is correct.

You see, if the vertical isn't correct, the parallel never will be. And so he says, Absorb yourselves in these things and this is what will happen. Your progress will be evident to all. In other words, people will start seeing the difference in you, and you don't have to explain yourself to everybody. You don't have to worry about whether or not they're going to push you around for being a youth

because you're being an example. You're absorbed in the right things, and your progress will become evident to all. See, I'm a really big proponent of people showing what they say through their lives. Well, let's see how they live, and then we'll see if what they have to say is correct. I told first service this, but growing up as a, Calvary person, you read all of the stories of the Calvary people,

and one of my favorite stories is about a guy named John Corson. John Corson went on to start a really big ministry up in Oregon, fantastic teacher, but he was someone who was a little different than most of the other Calvary pastors because he didn't like get saved out of drugs and all that kind of stuff. He was actually going to a seminary in Los Angeles called the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Biola for short. And Calvary Chapel was really taken off, and it was really big, and all of his professors said, oh, don't go down there.

That place is a cult. And of course, he got a little bit interested in it because so much fruit was being produced at Calvary Chapel. And so he started riding his bicycle down to, sidebar, that guy's giant. So thinking about him on a bicycle is a super funny thing to imagine. That's neither here nor there. So he got on his bicycle and rode down to Calvary Chapel,

Costa Mesa, and he goes, not only were they wrong, they were really wrong because their progress is evident to all. Why? Because they were absorbed in the word of God, and they were absorbed in the work of God. Fast forward to Calvary Chapel of Arc City. My mom, around the time that she got saved, when she was just a young thing, Calvary Chapel had started here,

and my grandma said, don't go be a part of it. My grandma loved Jesus with all of her heart, very traditional in nature. Don't go there. I think that place is a cult. Of course, my mom ended up going there, and she ended up getting saved. And pretty soon, my grandma started loving it, too, because she saw the word of God, and she saw the work of God, and the progress became evident to all.

And that's the way your life is. People say, did Jesus really change your life? Listen, if you absorb yourself in the word of God, and you absorb yourself with the work of God, then your progress is going to become evident to everyone, and everyone will have to say, that must have been Jesus. Right? And so he says, if you want to stand strong in the ministry,

number one, you need to be an example. Number two, you need to stay focused, but number three, you need to watch yourself. Notice what he says in verse 16. He says, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation, both for yourself and for those who hear you. He says, pay close attention to two things.

First of all, pay close attention to yourself. Again, he's talking to Timothy, a young pastor who is living in an immoral city in an immoral world that has given over to all of the things of the enemy. And he gives him a very important piece of advice. He says, watch yourself. Watch yourself. Why does he need to watch himself? Why does he need to watch his life,

how he lives? Why does he need to concentrate on his personal development? Because godly character creates moral authority. And a lack of godly character strips you of your moral authority. And he knew that one of the best things that Timothy could do was to watch his own life. To watch and know that the things that were happening in his life were pleasing to god.

To watch and know that he was living a life that was pleasing to god that could not be cast down with blame. Because if you want to affect the work of god, you try to destroy the worker of god. And my friends, I'm here to tell you right now, the enemy wants to take every single one of you down. He hates me because I'm a pastor and he hates you as much as he hates me because you're a believer in Jesus Christ.

Dads, if the enemy can take you down, he knows that he can take your family with you. Moms, the enemy knows if he can take you down, he knows that he'll take your family with you. You have to watch your life. We have to watch who we are because how unfortunate to think that we will have given ourselves to Christ and yet our lives will disqualify all of our work.

I told first service about this and I even questioned whether I should share this second service, but I'm going to. One of my favorite teachers is a guy by the name of Ravi Zacharias. I love that guy. I love listening to him. He's a Christian philosopher. And while I'm not overly smart, I do really enjoy listening to philosophy. And I always enjoy listening to his broadcast,

Let My People Think. It was just so fascinating. As a matter of fact, I have a book in my library by him that I never did finish after what I'm about to tell you. And he lived a fantastic life that was so good at presenting how all of the other religions didn't match up to Christianity because of Jesus and did such a fantastic job of pointing people to Jesus.

But after he died, accusations began to come out and it turned out a lot of them were true about some immoral issues that he had in his life. And I'm here to tell you right now, the entire body of work of Robbie Zacharias, right, wrong, or otherwise, has been tainted because of it. And to say that I was brokenhearted when I heard about that would have been a massive understatement. That hurt my heart so bad when I found out about that because I thought so much of him.

I was in the middle of reading a book of his about Jesus. And I just couldn't bring myself to finish reading it because he didn't watch his life. Because he didn't watch his life and brought down his ministry. Because he didn't watch his life and brought down his ministry and brought down his legacy. Friends, we need to understand that if we are to live as God has called for us to live,

we have to watch our life. Because the enemy's looking for any foothold he can have in our lives. And if he gets a hold of it, then he will take us down. And I say this to say you should pray for me a lot because I know that the enemy wants my life. And he would love, after a message like this, to take me down in some way, shape, or form. Pray for each other

so that the enemy will not take us down. He says, watch your life. But the second thing he tells them that he needs to do is he needs to watch his teaching or watch your doctrine. And again, I've watched it happen before. I don't think most false teachers start out thinking to themselves, I'm gonna be a false teacher. I'm gonna be someone that leads people astray.

Like, no one wrote that in their little booklet when they were four years old. What do you wanna be when you grow up? I wanna be an apostate false teacher, right? Nobody wants that. Well, how does it happen? We start getting led astray. Slowly but surely, your doctrine starts to fade a little bit. It fades because of the sins of the flesh. It fades because something's a little bit easier.

It fades because something was a little bit more popular, because this will make you a little bit more money. This will put more people in the chairs. You name it. And pretty soon, it starts to fade. And as your doctrine starts to fade, your life goes with it. That's why he says, watch your doctrine. And listen, this isn't just a word for pastors. This is a word for everyone, right?

I remember, and listen, I'm gonna get myself in trouble right now. But I remember when the Enneagram came out. Do you guys remember the Enneagram came out? You ready for me to crush your hopes and dreams? Okay, so when the Enneagram came out, I was like, well, first of all, this is dumb, because I don't get into these kinds of fads, right? And when it first came out,

my wife was like, you need to take, this has nothing to do with false doctrine. I'll get to that in just a minute. You need to take, I wanna feed you. You need to figure out what your number is. I'm like, I can't be identified. I'm too weird. Like, I'm too all over the spectrum in life. Like, that thing's not gonna identify what number I am. And she's like, no, no.

And her and a couple of other people, I think he's this number. I think, I don't know what number he is. I'm like, all right, I'll take it. So finally I take it. And after I took it, you know what it said? You can't be identified. And I was like, see, I'm too weird. I don't fit the numbering system. Well, then I started doing some studying about it, mainly because I was annoyed at the time.

My motives weren't pure, but God used me. He used it anyway, right? Do you know how the guy came up with the numbering system for the Enneagram? He did it through automatic writing. Do you know what automatic writing is? Automatic writing is where you let your mind go and you let your spirit guide take over and do the writing for you. It's demonic. That's how he came up with the numbering system.

And I remember when I first started telling people that, they're like, oh, is it really that big of a deal? I'm like, well, I don't know. You tell me, is the demonic a big deal? Feels like a big deal, right? Kind of feels like a big deal to me. But you have to watch it. You have to watch your doctrine. Because listen, it can be something small that ends up leading into something big.

Do you know what started happening? I started watching the Christian bookstores. God, be more gracious, Ryan. Be more gracious. I watched it happen. All of a sudden, now there's these journals. The Enneagram devotional journal. And then there was discovering God through your Enneagram number. And I'm just like, what are we doing? We're not watching our doctrine.

And because we're not watching our doctrine, we end up fading and we end up compromising. Again, if I've stepped on your toes, please forgive me. Just know I love you. And I don't want to hurt your feelings or any of those kinds of things. But this is just reality. I can't be a good shepherd and not warn about things. I can't be a good shepherd and not tell you these kinds of things.

Which is why Paul says, watch your teaching. Watch your doctrine. Because we can be led astray so easily. We can get distracted so easily. And so he then goes on to say, he says, pay close attention to yourself, verse 16, and your teaching and persevere in these things. I love that word persevere because it's exactly what it says. You got to persevere. You got to keep working your way through them.

Brothers and sisters, sometimes we can buy into the lie that once you get saved, you're just going to coast through life, right? You're going to live in the Barbie world. You know, world peace, your own apartment, a sweet camper, every job you can imagine. And that's it. That's Christian life. Everything's going to be great. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right?

No. You got into a war. When you got saved, you got into a war. Before, you didn't know you were in a war, but you were in one. You were just on the losing side. Therefore, you were going, you were captive in the war. Well, you got set free from captivity, but there's still a war. And we have to persevere in it. Every day is a battle, brothers and sisters. And if you embrace that,

then you can look at it with the most positive attitude possible and go, today we fight. You know what happened when the first thing I did in the morning, got here about 10 till 7, and I go around and start flipping air conditioners on, and I go to the cornerstone room, and I, well, I turned that air conditioner on 20 minutes ago. Why is it still 78 degrees in here? That's not good.

The air conditioner wasn't working. Battle number one of the day, right? This is life. We fight these things all the time. Praise God for a really smart usher that knew how to go fix that thing for me. But there's battles every day in life, right? You got to persevere in that. How do we persevere? Through the word of God and through the work of God. He says,

if you persevere in these things, notice what it says, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and those who hear you. What does he mean by salvation? He means you will be set free from the thing he warned us about at the very beginning of the chapter. Salvation from those who are falling away and following deceitful spirits, doctrines of demons, hypocrisy of liars, those who are seared in their own conscience, with a branding iron.

Brothers and sisters, we need to stand fast. We need to be faithful to stand. Faithful to stand in the midst of the apostasy that goes on around us. Faithful to stand on the truth of the word of God and faithful to stand in the ministry that God has called for us to. And we've got to stay focused. Jesus is coming soon. And we've got to stay focused on the right things at the right time.

Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I thank you that you have blessed us with the opportunity to be in your word. I thank you that you've blessed us with a place where we can gather to learn your word together. And Lord, I thank you for every person that's in this room and every person that's watching online.

Lord, I just praise you for how good you are to us. And Lord, I pray that as we depart from this place that your word would sink deep into our hearts. Father, that we would become the men and women of God that you've created for us to be. Lord, that we would identify the false, stand strong on the true, and Lord, be focused on Jesus Christ. Lord, we just thank you and praise you.

In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed. Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, come. Lord, start a revival in our families and in our communities, Lord, in our church. Father God, we know that you're coming again. Help us to live expectantly of that, Lord. And Father, as we leave here today, I just pray that you would with your Holy Spirit go with us and continue to minister to us.

Change our lives, Lord. Change mine. Lord, we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.