Final Faithful Instructions Pt 2

Just a lavish praise upon you, Lord, because you're worthy of all honor and glory and praise. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

We worship the God who was. We worship the God who is. We worship the God who is and does and sings. You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like.

Lord God, we just want to take a moment and just say thank you for what you've done for us, Lord. Lord Jesus, for taking our rightful place on that cross. God, and taking the punishment that we deserve. And Lord God, we just want to take this time and just return praise to you, God. And we want to glorify you, Lord Jesus. And we... And we... Thank you for how good you are to us.

Lord God, you are... There's no one like you, Lord. There is king of... You are king of kings and Lord of lords, God. And you are... You are a good, good father also. You love us as such, as your children, Lord. Despite all of our sin and our disobedience, Lord God, you still loved us. Loved us so much to send your son, Jesus. And we just thank you, Lord. And we can't thank you enough.

And now as Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, I just pray that you would overflow him, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. Lord, give us soft and receptive hearts to receive it. And Lord God, but not just to stop there, but also to do your word, to act on it, Lord. God, 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.

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. As always, on the left-hand side, the things that go on. Throughout the week. In the middle, just a reminder that tonight is our baptism and picnic. So bring a covered dish and probably a chair. That's always a good idea. And we will meet at the picnic shelter of Paris Park at 530 and eat.

And then at 7, we'll head over to the pool and do baptisms. And have a little time of family swim time after that. So come on out for that. A reminder that Grief Share starts back up at the end of this month. And then, ladies, there is a... Women's breakfast coming up this Saturday. August the 9th in the Agape room. All of the info is right there. Breakfast served at 830.

Study begins at 9. And all the ladies are welcome. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. For our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 3. Psalm 3. We're looking at the New American Standard for this part. Just so we all sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you.

If there's not, make a friend. And as you are turning to Psalm 3, 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 Allen and the even verses. Psalm 3, a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. Oh, Lord, how my adversaries have increased. Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no deliverance for him in God. Selah. But you, oh, Lord, are a shield about me. My glory and the one who lifts my head.

I was crying to the Lord with my voice, and he answered me from his holy mountain. Selah. I lay down and slept. I awoke for the Lord sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, oh, Lord. Save me, oh, God, for you have smitten all my enemies on the cheek. You have shattered the teeth of the wicked.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be upon me. Upon your people. Selah. And, Father, we come to you now, and I just praise you for that promise of your word here, that you are a shield about us, Lord, our glory and the one who lifts up our head. So, Lord, I ask this morning as we prepare to spend some time in your word that your Holy Spirit would just minister to our hearts.

Lord, may we be encouraged, may we be convicted, and may we be challenged, Lord, to become who you have created for us to be through the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, we just thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 6. 1 Timothy, chapter 6. Well, today we come to the end of our study in 1 Timothy.

And as we've said, all of the pastoral epistles, which we'll move into another pastoral epistle next week, all of the pastoral epistles have this theme of faithfulness attached to them. And so throughout the epistle of 1 Timothy, we've seen Paul's call to Timothy, and ultimately to us, to be faithful. And so as we come to the last chapter, he gives them what I have entitled final faithful instructions. And so we started into that a couple of weeks ago.

We said that there were six pieces of instruction he would give us all together as he sort of rapid fires to Timothy at the end of the book. The first three we went over a couple of weeks ago, which were that Timothy was supposed to teach those that they were to honor their masters. Servants were to honor their masters. He told them the truth about false teachers.

And he taught. He taught them the necessity of contentment. And so now as we move into the last half of the chapter, we'll look at the final three, and he's going to tell us to fight the good fight, to teach generosity, and to stand guard. So we pick up in verse 11 as he tells us to fight the good fight. And this is what it says. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

Fight the good fight of faith. Fight the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality, dwells in unapproachability, He who is the great and unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. He tells them to fight the good fight. And underneath the heading of fighting the good fight, he's going to tell them to do three things. The first thing he's going to tell them to do to fight the good fight is actually that he needs to flee. Notice what it says again in verse 11. It says, But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness and godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

He tells them that he needs to fight. flee. But before he does so, I want to point out how he refers to Timothy because I think that this is beautiful. He refers to Timothy simply as man of God. Now, there is a title in the Bible that is reserved for some of the greatest of the saints. Some of the strongest men and women that God used, some of the strongest men that God used throughout scripture were referred to as man of

God. I think this is really important because Timothy, as we've talked about before, had a little bit of a confidence issue. Timothy could be a little bit nervous as a human being and nervous as a pastor and nervous as a follower of Jesus Christ. And so as he's giving him this urging, as he's giving him this command, as he's giving him this instruction to fight the good fight, he refers to Timothy as a man of God. And Timothy would have known, because he was a

studier of the scriptures, that that title was reserved for some of the greatest servants of God. And so as he gives him this command and starts off by calling him a man of God, it gave him the confidence that he needed to fight the fight that he was going to have to endure. And so he tells the man of God, the first thing that you need to do is you need to be a man of God. You need to flee from these things. Flee from these things. The word flee, of course, means to

separate yourself or to run from, but the word actually carries with it the idea of a continual habit. Make it a habit of fleeing from these things. Now, I hope you're asking yourself a question right now, because it's the question I asked. It's a really good thing to do when you study the Bible to ask questions. What is he supposed to flee from? What are the these things

that Timothy is told to flee from? Well, I think in the direct context of what he tells him to flee from, we should look up in verse 10, because I want you to notice what it says in verse 10. For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, O man of God, as it says in the New King James Version, but you, O man of God, flee from these things. So what's he

telling him he needs to flee from? He needs to flee from the love of money. Why? Because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It's something that we talked about in the book of about a couple of weeks ago, so I will not belabor the point. But he tells him to flee this because he knows that once the love of money takes its hold in the heart of an individual, especially of a

pastor, especially of a Christian leader, but of any Christian in general, then all of a sudden that idol begins to take hold. And that idolatry is so hard to break. So he tells him to flee from these things. But you know what I found interesting? I thought, I wonder if there's anything else we're supposed to flee from. Do you know there's only two things in Scripture that we're told to flee

from that Jesus has given to us here? Do you know the second thing that we're told to flee from is lust? And that's actually what he tells Timothy in 2 Timothy. He tells him to flee youthful lusts which war against the soul. And I find it interesting that two of the greatest things that have taken down men of God throughout history have always been the love of money

and lust. You throw in pride and you have the three things that have taken down every great man or woman of God throughout culture. And quite frankly, the things that take down Christians on a daily basis. And so he tells them, you need to flee from these things. You need to run from them and make it your habit to run from them. In other words, once you start to see it spring its ugly

head, don't decide to stick in there and fight. Run as far from it as you possibly can. But don't just run in no particular direction. Because if you just keep running, you'll eventually be worn out. What does he tell them to do? He says, flee from these things. But then he tells them the adverse of what he is supposed to do, but pursue. But pursue righteousness and godliness and faith

and all of these different things. Pursue the good things of God. The word pursue means to run swiftly to catch, to run swiftly to catch or eagerly endeavor to acquire. And so he tells them, listen, you need to run with purpose. If you're going to flee from the love of money, then you need to pursue godliness. You know, he says the exact same thing in second Timothy when he tells them to flee youthful lust, but pursue righteousness

and holiness. Because you see, we are made to pursue something and you will either pursue the things of this world or you will run from the things of the world and you will pursue, you will pursue the things of God. We are to run swiftly towards the things of God. And I would like to take just a moment to look at what he tells us that we are to pursue, what we are to eagerly endeavor to acquire. The first thing he tells us is that we are to eagerly endeavor to acquire righteousness,

righteousness. Now, the idea of righteousness here is not right standing with God. We don't have to pursue that. That was given to us at the cross. It was given to us the moment that we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Instead, when he says righteousness, what he speaks of is righteous acts. In other words, the righteous things that we do. Pursue a life of righteousness. And then he gives

us the next word, which is very similar to pursue godliness. Make godliness the pursuit of your life. Make righteousness the pursuit of your life. Because I'm here to tell you right now, if you pursue righteousness and godliness, it's impossible to pursue the love of money and lust in your life. That's just all that there is to it. Because you're running in the exact opposite

direction. He next tells them that he is to pursue faith. And again, faith here is not the faith, Christian faith. But the idea of faith here could also be translated faithfulness. In other words, pursue being a faithful person. We live in a culture of flakes. I don't know how else to put it other than that. We live in a culture of people that will not keep their word. And listen,

I'm not talking just about young people. And I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it. I have just as many people over the age of 50 that bail out on me as I do people under the age of 50 that bail out on me. And you just need to know that. Flakiness doesn't care what age you are. You're human. And we don't like to keep our word. And so if you want to be someone who is not known

for being a flake, not known for being someone who doesn't keep their word, then pursue faithfulness. In other words, pursue keeping what you say you're going to do in every part of your life. He says, pursue those things. And then he tells us to pursue love. And of course, the word love here is that word agape, which is that perfect love. And we are to pursue

that love in our life, not only in and of ourselves to receive it from the Lord, but to pursue it. And so if you want to be someone who is not known for being a flake, a lifestyle of love towards the people that are around us. And then he tells us to pursue perseverance. The word persevere means to bear up under, to bear up under. And that's exactly what we're to pursue, becoming individuals who bear up under the difficulties of life

and maintain their Christian witness in the process. And then the last thing that he tells us that we are to pursue, which is really interesting, underneath of the heading of fight the good fight, he tells them to pursue gentleness. Now that's kind of an interesting statement because that doesn't seem like something that would be involved in the fighting the good fight, but that's because we don't always understand the word gentleness. The word gentleness could also be translated meekness here, which we usually translate as weakness, right? Because we think somebody that's a gentle individual is a weak individual. That's

not the truth. Gentleness is power under control. Gentleness is power that you don't exercise even though you can, because you have learned to control your emotions. You have learned to control your temper and you have become someone who is gentle. I want you to think about it. Jesus was known as gentle, and yet he could have at any point in time that he wanted to

call down legions of angels to destroy every single one of his enemies. As a matter of fact, when they came to arrest Jesus and they said, are you Jesus of Nazareth? Do you remember how he responded? He simply said, I am. And do you remember what happened to the soldiers the moment he said, I am? They immediately hit the ground because the power of his deity

had come forth. And yet he was gentle and he kept it all under control. And we are to pursue that gentleness in our lives. And so the first thing he tells them to do is to fight the good fight. Number one, you've got to flee. The second thing he tells them to do is that, number two, you have to fight. Notice what it says. It's where I stole the line from in verse 12. Fight the good fight of faith. Fight the good fight of faith. The

word fight literally means to contend with an adversary. To contend with an adversary. And in the Greek language, this word fight is used of both the soldier and the athlete. Some commentators say that this leans more towards the athlete, but I appreciated Warren from both angles. So I'm going to do that this morning. I'm going to take this from both angles. So first of all, let's talk about the athlete who contends in the games. The

athlete who contends in the games. You know that I work with athletes a lot and I really appreciate those who are really good at their sport. And I love to work around people who have a process in the way that they do things. And so I thought, well, if an athlete fights the good fight, if an athlete does this in this contest, what makes them great? What makes them great? What makes them great? What makes them great? What makes them great?

Fight the good fight. So I identified three things. A really good athlete who fights the good fight, number one, sets a goal. You talk to anybody who's good at a sport and they have a goal that they're pursuing constantly. Either they have a record that they're chasing, they have a championship that they're chasing, they have improvement that they're chasing, you name

it. Every athlete, they all have a goal that they're going after. And they set that goal and they pursue that goal, right? So that's the first thing that a really good athlete does. And as believers in Jesus Christ, you're going to have a goal that they're going to pursue. And you're going to have a goal. Do you know that? Do you have a goal in your life? The goal that we have

is sort of twofold. Number one, to become like Jesus. Number two, to know Jesus. And that goal will be culminated when we go home to be with him. And we are truly like him because we've seen him as he truly is. And we get to know him because we see him as he truly is. But that's the goal that we're pursuing now. And as we have that goal, we're continuing to set little goals

along the way. And so as a good athlete contends, they set goals. And as believers, we should set a goal. Number two, a good athlete makes sacrifices. A good athlete makes sacrifices. They have to change their diet. They have to change their exercise routines. They have to sometimes go to bed earlier or get up earlier. You name it. They have to make sacrifices in their

lives in order to become the athlete that they want to be. And they willingly do it because they are pursuing a goal. I remember watching Kale Sanderson win the Olympics back in the early 2000s. If you don't know who Kale Sanderson is, I don't know who he is. I don't know who he is. He's currently the coach of Penn State Wrestling. And he wrestled for Iowa State. And he was four

years undefeated NCAA national champions, which is just an unheard of thing. And then after he won his fourth national championship, he goes on and he wins the Olympics. And I remember watching an interview with him after he won the Olympic gold medal. And after he won the Olympic gold medal, they said, what are you the most excited about? And he said, drinking pop. Because he made

some sacrifices in his life. Because in order to continue to make weight, in order to keep himself in this condition that he could, he had to sacrifice certain things in his diet. And he was just so excited that he didn't have to make those sacrifices anymore. And that's the way it should be for us. As believers in Jesus Christ, we make sacrifices. We're told in Hebrews that we are to

first of all lay aside the sin which easily ensnares us. Those are the no-brainer things. Everybody knows you can't do that. But we're also supposed to lay aside the weight that so easily ensnares us. In other words, they're not necessarily sinful things. They're just not helpful things. We have to lay aside those things if we are to run the race with endurance, and it requires

sacrifice. And too many Christians today are like, well, I've got the liberty to do that. Yeah, you can still be a Christian and do that, but are you a mediocre Christian because you do that? Are you someone who has sacrificed your knowledge of God for your desire to fulfill some sort of a fleshly desire because of some form of an idea of your liberty? I don't know about you, but if it's

keeping me from knowing Jesus, I want to get rid of it in my life. And I'm not going to lie, there's no way I'm going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. Because while it's a weight, it's a weight I kind of enjoy, right? And that's the problem. But if you're going to be a good athlete, if you're going to fight the good fight, you have to make

sacrifices. And then the third thing that a good athlete does is they remain focused. They remain focused. They get up every day and remind themselves, this is why I'm doing this. This is the goal that I'm pursuing. And they maintain that focus day in and day out. How do you maintain your focus day in and day out? I call it daily devotions. You see, every day you get into God's word and you remind yourself of why you're doing what you're

doing. Why do I continue to seek after God? Why do I continue to make the sacrifices? Why do I continue to do the things that I do? Well, because there's a God who knows me and loves me. And he wrote me an entire Bible so that I would not only know how I'm supposed to live, but so that I could know who he is. And it maintains the focus. And so we are to contend. We are to fight the good

fight, contend against an adversary as a good athlete. But then I got to thinking about the aspect of a soldier. And I would like to tell you about a soldier that I know. I know a soldier who was one of my students and one of my kids for a really long time. And he's now a Navy SEAL. And I remember watching him go through this process. Only this process didn't start for him the day that he went to boot camp. This process started for him before

he graduated from high school. I think it was somewhere in between his junior and senior year of high school, he decided he wanted to be a Navy SEAL. So his dad bought him two books. He bought him a book called No Easy Day about the Navy SEALs. And then he bought him a book called Eagle Fit, which gave him all of the workouts that the Navy SEALs did. So his entire senior year

of high school, he did those workouts every day. As a matter of fact, every day, this young man would carry a 40-pound rucksack and he would run to school. I remember that was the year that we had a bunch of flooding. And Chestnut Bridge was closed down and covered in water. And he wore his 40-pound rucksack and ran through the water on Chestnut Bridge because he was so determined

to do this every single day. And he did all these workouts. All of his friends would spray him down with hoses while he was doing push-ups. I was like, I want to do that. He's one of my students. I was for a little while. He's a good kid, but still would have been fun. But I remember watching him go through this entire process and all of the sacrifices that he made, all to pursue one goal,

to become a Navy SEAL. Well, then he made it all the way to Hell Week. And I remember him going into Hell Week. I sent him a text, hey, pray for your brother. I know this is going to be hard. Just hang in there. And he said, thanks. Keep praying. And so he goes all the way through Hell Week and he makes it. He survives Hell Week. If you don't know what Hell Week is, Hell Week is

exactly what it sounds like. I watched some YouTube videos on it when he was in the middle of it. I literally cried for him because I was like, dude, this is the hardest thing I could ever imagine going through. Because they literally tried to destroy you so that you could become the greatest warrior in the world, right? And at any point in time, you can quit Hell Week. All

you have to do is ring a bell. And they will tell you, ring that bell anytime that you want to, and this is all over for you. And I remember after he finished Hell Week and he was in the hospital because he had sustained some injuries during it. I'm texting back and forth with him and asking him some questions. How are you doing, little brother? And all these kinds of things.

And I said, how did you survive? How did you make it? And he said, one thing kept me going. I knew my mom was coming to visit me at the end of Hell Week and I couldn't let her down. And I was like, oh, that's the goal. He had the focus. And every day the focus was, this is what's going on. This is my goal. This is what I want to achieve. So I have a question for you. Are you fighting the good fight? Are you contending against the

adversary? Are you disciplined? Are you focused? Do you have the goal? Because I get a little concerned sometimes that in the Western culture church, we've made Christianity, this easy thing. And don't get me wrong, it's the most joyful thing you can imagine. Following Jesus is the greatest adventure of my life and I would never choose anything else. But it's hard. And it's a fight. It's a contending against an adversary. And I have a question for

you. Are you contending against the adversary? Dads, are you fighting every day for your families? Are you fighting every day to contend against the adversary so that you can be the best father, so that you can be the best husband, so that you can know Jesus, so that you can set an example? Because I'm determined the reason why too many women, too many young ladies are falling for pansies that use them is because they've never seen a dad who

fights for them. And they need to see that in their life. They need to see a dad that contends daily against an adversary so that they will hold their standard high. Moms, are you contending against the adversary? Are you praying for your kids? Are you focused on your kids and making sure that they know jesus are you focused on being the right kind of wife for your husband

are you focused on on putting jesus first in your life and not your kids and not your husband but jesus first because you know that that will ultimately make everything else better you kids that are in here are you fighting the good fight have you set your eyes on the prize or are you too concerned with whether or not you're going to become tick-tock famous are you too concerned with what everybody else has to say about you are you too concerned about what you're going to do friday night and what party you're going to go to or have you set your eyes on a goal i'm here to tell you right now the party on friday night you won't remember in a year the party on friday night

you won't remember in 35 years but you will remember this the focus on the goal of jesus contend against the adversary fight the good fight of faith and then along those lines he says another thing along the lines of fighting i love the next part this next line he says take hold of the eternal life to which you were called take hold of eternal life that phrase take hold means to seize upon or to take possession of now he's not telling timothy you have to earn eternal life because that would violate scripture in fact in the book of romans it says that the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord so if he's not telling him he has to earn eternal life what's he telling telling him

that he needs to do well i like what warren or what kenneth weiss says in his in his commentary he said paul wanted timothy to experience more of what eternal life is in his own life on this side of eternity paul wanted timothy to experience more of what eternal life truly is in his own life on this side of eternity i need you to be aware of something eternal life does not begin the day that you take your last breath on planet earth eternal life for you began the day that you put your faith in jesus christ do you know that that's when eternal life began for you you just change locations when you take your last breath on planet earth but eternal life will continue for you and what god desires for us is god desires for us to

take possession of that eternal life here and now and not say well i'll enjoy eternal life in the future no he says i want you to have all of the benefits of it right now so i got to thinking what eternal life looks like to take possession of eternal life now if he told us to do it how do we do it i was thinking about jesus's prayer in john chapter 17. in john chapter 17 jesus was praying for his disciples and then as he was praying for his disciples he said that they may know eternal life because eternal life is knowing you and him whom you have sent so how do we take possession of eternal life well first of all we realize that eternal life is jesus that is eternal life so we take possession of that by knowing him in every aspect of our

lives on a daily basis a.w tozer in his book pursuit of god has this chapter on the presence of god and as he's talking about the presence of god he talks about the fact that the the uh the eternal presence of god or the the ever-present nature of god is something that everybody knows but not something that everybody enjoys it's something that everybody knows but not something everybody lives in because there's a difference between the right and the wrong and the right and the reality of the presence of god and the manifestation of the presence of god let me explain to you what that means god is here right now jesus is right here among us his presence is here he's not outside the building he's everywhere right now and he's sitting right next to you

that's the presence of god and you can know that in your head but you don't always perceive that in your spirit you see that's taking possession of eternal life taking possession of eternal life is realizing that jesus is right here among us and beginning to see him at work right here right here among us what ab what aw tozer says in that chapter is he says what we have to start desiring is the perceptivity of the presence of god being being always perceptive of his presence right here among us well how do we begin to do that well again i'm going to give you three things the first thing that we do to truly begin to take possession of eternal life is to learn all about

it through his word you see this declares jesus to us and if that declares jesus to us then that's going to teach us all about eternal life is it's always going to come back to what his word has to say about himself but we need to realize something because there's a second part of this i will always tell you how important god's word is in your life i will never stop until the day that i die because i think that this is the single most important book you'll ever read because it will truly declare to you eternal life but apart from this second thing it's just words on a page black words red words sometimes blue words i've actually seen a new bible which is the words of jesus in blue which is kind of fun to think about that's neither here nor there

other than that it's just words on a page but the second thing that we need is not just the word of god we need the holy spirit and you need the holy spirit at work in you because what the holy spirit does is he takes these words on a page and he makes them alive he takes these words on a page and he makes them applicable to just you and he takes those things and he says and this is what you need to hear today which is why we could all read the same chapter in the bible today and we might all come in and talk about it and we'd each get something different out of it you know why because that's the holy spirit at work i used to do a bible study with a group of kids and i love doing studies like this and and um and we started reading through passages of

scripture together and i loved it i said just write something down and so when we get together uh me and this group of kids i would say well this is what i got out of it this is what the lord spoke to me and out of six kids we'd get at least four different things that somebody had had learned differently because the holy spirit took god's word and he made it applicable to each end of the book this is what he was saying we need to get that power of the holy spirit into our lives you know what jesus told us he said i have a lot of things to tell you but you're not ready to receive them right now you're not ready to take them in right now but when the holy spirit comes

he will lead you into all truth because he will take of what is mine and he will declare it to you because he will reveal me to you that's why we need that power of the holy spirit that brings me to the third thing if we need the word of god and we need the holy spirit of god then you need prayer in your life because prayer activates the power of the spirit through the word of god as you start to pray lord send your holy spirit pour out your spirit and give me the understanding of you of around me of you in me of you at work in the world and he begins to manifest his presence to you and it's the greatest thing you can ever imagine not in some weird way i've never ever once seen some

bright shining light that was jesus and god i just saw jesus right i've never done that in my life but i've sat on the couch in my office at my home i've sat down with the word of god and it's almost like the words leapt off the page at me because the holy spirit said and that's what i want to say to you and i was like wow it's exactly what i needed and exactly the moment i needed it because that's what the holy spirit's able to do in manifesting his presence to us he says take possession of eternal life so number one he says to flee number two he says to fight number three he says to keep notice what he says in verse 13. he says i charge you in the presence of god who gives life to all things and of christ jesus who testified the good confession

before pontius pilate that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our lord jesus christ which he will bring about at the proper time he who is the blessed and only sovereign the king of kings and lord of lords who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see to him be honor and eternal dominion forever amen he tells him that he needs to keep the commandment only before he tells him that he needs to keep the commandment i want you to notice what he says because he brings a pretty serious charge here he says i charge you in the presence of god who gives life to all things can we just for one quick moment before we get into this charge in this

commandment can we just take a moment and think about how amazing it is to be a part of the holy what he just said there that god is the one who gives life to all things that god is the source of life that god is the sustainer of life and that god is the giver of life that the reason that your entire body is animated in the way that it is is because god breathes life into you because god breathes life into you you are now a living being and isn't it amazing that the one source of life that we have is from god therefore the one reason why everyone is alive is because of god and yet we have an entire world of people that don't understand that the one reason they're alive is because of god and so they don't honor their creator therefore they never

live their life the way they're supposed to isn't that amazing do you realize that as you sit here today you are those who know that god is the one who has animated you and given you life and now you have a brand new life in christ that makes you the richest person in the world because not only do you have the life that comes from god you know the god that gives you life he says i charge you in the presence of god who gives life to all things and of christ jesus who testified of the good of of the good confession before pontius pilate keep the commandment i hope you're asking yourself a question right now you know what what commandment does that commandment do what was the commandment to do the work that these people are doing

and i'm an advocate for it and i can answer this question right now if you want to ask that question it's a great question i'm really glad you asked whether you did or not i was going to tell you but but i'm really glad that you asked that question what commandment is he talking about well i believe again we're looking at two different things here contextually speaking in other words in the proper context of of what he says here i think it has to do with everything that he's taught him about faithfulness to keep the commandment to stay in emphasis and teach good stand strong in the word of god keep the commandment to be faithful but in a broader context i think that we can ultimately go back to what jesus told us because right before jesus was

crucified as he was talking to his disciples in the upper room he told them a new commandment i give to you that you love one another as i have loved you so i really think ultimately at the heart of what paul is saying here to timothy when he tells them to keep the commandment i think he's telling him to keep the commandment that jesus gave to love others as christ has loved them now sometimes we look at that the wrong way sometimes we think love and affirmation are the same thing though they're not the same thing right i had parents that loved me growing up and they did not often affirm the things that i was doing as a matter of fact they went against the things that

i was doing and then punished me for doing them why because they loved me you see sometimes love is showing grace and patience and kindness and sometimes love is telling someone the truth and telling them you can't live that way anymore sometimes love means you stop casting your pearls before swine in other words eventually you have to tell somebody i'm enabling you i'm no longer helping you and that's love sometimes love is showing tenderness and patience and and sometimes love is bringing people to a point of decision but no matter what it is he says keep the commandment to love one another another is i have loved you and then i love how he finishes this off he says keep the commandment

without stain or reproach in other words without it being sullied without it being marred by the things of the world until the appearing of our lord jesus christ which he will bring about at the proper time this is both challenging and comforting to me first of all it's challenging because how long are we to keep the commandment how long do we keep loving people in the way that jesus loved them until jesus comes back right we all want to know well how long does the love continue well it'll really never end right because when jesus comes back love will continue it's the only thing that continues so it's challenging because we realize that this is a lifelong commitment to keep the commandment to love one another but i'm also comforted because

i know that jesus will come back at just the right time you know what the great thing about jesus is on time he he never shows up too early he never shows up too late he's always on time he gives you what you need on time he shows up on time and in the world where every time something happens in the world everybody kind of freaks out and runs around and says what does this mean what are we going to do now we can kind of sit back and be the ones who say listen god's in control because in just a minute he's going to tell us he's the only sovereign god the king of kings and lord of lords so i don't have to live my life in fear i live my life in confidence because the god who created the heavens and the earth the god who sustains the

heavens and the earth is also the god who knows the timing for the heavens and the earth amen so he says he says keep the commandment until the coming of our lord jesus christ which will be at the proper time and then he goes on to praise him about being the king who is the only sovereign king of kings lord of lords but verse 16 really got me i marinated on it for a little while it's hard to put it under a heading he's just breaks into spontaneous praise he says who alone possesses immortality in other words he's the only eternal and he dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can't see i don't know why that just really struck me and i i just sort of marinated on this for for a good bit of the week

i just kind of thought about what does it mean that he dwells in unapproachable light and no man has seen him and no man can see him the only thing that's gone through my head with this is is is one of the great stories of the old testament it's the story of moses in moses after he was given the law for the first time and then goes down the whole situation the golden calf won't go into all that he has to go back to receive the law again when he does so he makes this request of god he says lord show me your glory and god says listen no man can see my glory or they will die but here's what i'll do for you hide yourself the cleft of the rock in other words hide yourself in a little cave up on the mountain

and i will cover you with my hand and i will allow my glory to pass by you and when my glory has passed by i will remove my hand and you can see the back side of my glory the pastor i served under in johnson county always called it god's afterburners right so let's see the afterburners of the glory and that's exactly what he did the glory of god passed by and god removed his hand and moses saw the back side of god's glory and he said well let me see the back side of god's glory the afterburners and it made his face glow why because god dwells in unapproachable light and can't be seen by any man you know why that's cool because he sent us jesus because in the very beginning of the gospel of john it says no man has seen god at any time

but the only begotten of the father he has declared him to us he has explained him to us in other words god the father dwells in a place we can never see at least not on this side of eterna but jesus made him known to us he made him knowable to us and that's the beauty of grace now i don't know how you picture this this is how i picture it paul dictated all of his letters and he's getting pretty geeked up at this moment he's talking about spontaneous praise and he says all these things and he says whom no man can see or has seen to him be glory and eternal dominion forever amen wait two more things right and so he goes on a little bit further it's like he wrapped up his sermon

you guys thought i was done i'm not so there's two more things he's going to talk about the number two he says teach generosity teach generosity verse 17. instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches but on god who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy instruct them to do good to be rich in good works to be generous and ready to share storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. He says, teach generosity. And there's two things he tells them to instruct the rich.

The first thing he tells them to instruct the rich is he says, instruct those who are rich in this present world not to become conceited. Don't become conceited. In other words, don't get arrogant about the riches that you have. Don't be arrogant about the fact that you have so much. Don't be so conceited. Don't be so self-focused in everything that you do. Now, you may be sitting

here this morning and you go, well, this clearly isn't for me because I'm not rich. You know what? That's not true. Compared to the rest of the world, if you're sitting in these seats right now, you are rich. Therefore, these words are for you. As a matter of fact, I think that this is a really good word for the United States of America today. And this is just me, and I'll probably get in

trouble for saying this later. You know, Ryan, God's okay with us. We're having money because we work hard and we're conservatives. Well, that's great. Don't be conceited. If you are living in the United States of America today, you need to understand that you are rich compared to the world. And I believe that this is a really good word to be spoken to all of us. Don't be conceited. Don't be arrogant. Don't be self-focused.

Because that's the way we can kind of tend to be sometimes. And I don't care if you're a conservative or a liberal. I kind of do. But for the most part, I don't. We can all be that way. He says, don't be conceited in the way that you handle your riches. And the second thing he says is, don't set your hope on riches. Don't set your hope on riches. Don't set your hope on the money of this world. And I love the word that he uses to describe the riches. Did

you notice it? Look at it again. It says the uncertainty of riches. You know why? Because that's exactly what they are. Here today, gone tomorrow, right? I was thinking back. I kind of enjoyed doing a little bit of studying about the Great Depression because it's just kind of a fascinating era. And what's really fascinating is what led up to it. Because leading up to the

Great Depression, man, things were booming in the United States. They called it the Roaring Twenties, right? Because everything was booming. And then there was that one day, Black Sunday, when everything, that one day, everything crashed. And when everything crashed, so did everybody else. And those whose hope was set on God continued on. And sustained it. Those whose hope was set on the uncertainty of riches, they jumped out of

windows. And that's just the real history. He says, don't, don't set your, don't set your hope on the uncertainty of riches. Instead, set your hope on God. Because God will never change. The dollar will change. The, you know, buy gold, all the things, it'll all change. God never will. And you know what God promises? God promises to supply all of your needs.

According to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. So you don't have to live with the uncertainty of riches. You live with the confidence of God. But then he goes on to tell the rich one other thing. He says, instruct the rich about this too. Instruct them to do good and to be rich in good works. To be rich in the good works that they do. In other words, think about how you use your

finances. Think about the fact that you could either build your kingdom or you could build God's kingdom. You could either build your kingdom or you could reach the world. You can either build your kingdom or you could see the world change for Jesus. Now I'm not saying you can't own nice things. Own nice things. Be wise with your finances. But make sure that you, that they don't

control you, but that God controls you. And then you use them accordingly. He says, make sure to tell them that they should do good with their riches. To be rich in good works. And then he tells them a second thing. And that they are to store up treasures in heaven. He doesn't use those exact words, but that's what he means when he says this. He says to store up treasures in heaven. We all remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the

Mount. Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust can corrupt and where thieves can break in and steal. Instead, you should store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt and where thieves cannot break in and steal. Why? Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there your heart

will be also. Do you know that you give away your heart with the things that you have? Do you know that you give away your heart with the things that you talk about? You can tell what somebody's heart is focused on if you just have some conversations with them, because they'll talk about the thing that's the most important to them. And it'll tell you a little bit of where their heart is. You give

yourself away all the time. I do it, too. We all do. We naturally give ourselves away by the things we talk about the most. What do you talk about the most? What's the thing that occupies most of your mental bandwidth? I will tell you that that's probably a really good chance that that's your treasure. Because if it's what occupies the most of your time, it probably occupies the most of your heart,

which means that that's where your treasure truly is. And we're in a process of becoming those who stop having our treasure on earth and start having our treasure in heaven. So he says, teach generosity. And then the third thing he says, the last point that he makes is to stand guard. Notice what he says. He says, So, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and opposing

arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you. Guard what has been entrusted to you. The word guard means to keep as a sacred trust or treasure. There's a pretty interesting movie that I've watched. I'm not saying you should go watch this movie. You probably shouldn't. But I found it kind of fascinating. There's probably a lot of things Jesus doesn't like in it.

A lot of things my mom shouldn't let me listen to. It's a pretty interesting movie. It's called The Book of Eli. And The Book of Eli, it's got Denzel Washington in it, and it's this post-apocalyptic world. And he needs to get somewhere, because he has a treasure that needs to be delivered. And everybody tries to kill him the whole time on his way to get to his

destination to deliver this treasure. And he spends his entire life on this journey protecting the treasure. Spoiler alert. He's blind. He carries this book with him. He sits down with the book and he finally gets to his destination, and they said, Okay, what's the treasure you need to deliver to us? And he said, Get ready to write. he starts quoting the Bible and I thought what a fantastic picture of the

way you and I are supposed to be he tells Timothy guard the treasure that's been entrusted to you guard that which has been entrusted to you what's been entrusted to him the Word of God is a message of the gospel one in the same in my opinion but the Word of God is a message of the gospel and he says you're to guard it you to treat it as a treasure and you're to keep it why because he had already said that there will be evil men that will come in that will pull some away from the faith teaching them doctrines of demons trying to lure men to become their own disciples that's what Paul told Timothy the apostasy is coming so guard the treasure false teachers are coming so guard the treasure an easy gospel is coming so guard the treasure the

seeker-friendly gospel is coming so guard the treasure the social gospel is coming so guard the treasure and that's what we're supposed to do brothers and sisters we have this treasure in an earthen vessel the Word of God is in us because the truth of God is in us because of the gospel and we're supposed to guard the treasure that God has given to us and he tells Timothy you have to take really good care of it you have to preserve it you have to protect it from the false you have to protect it from the evil you have to protect it from the flesh and I'm here to tell you right now the error that Timothy lived in not a lot different than the one we live in right now because I see some of

the things that come out that people say and I'm like oh sweet Jesus we have got to guard the treasure because the things that I see people say that right now that people send me little clips from like Instagram and things like that of like stuff that Bible teachers say and I'm like wow that's a real guy in a real church talking to real people and he's really deceiving them he's really preaching the false because he stop guarding the treasure and brothers and sisters it's not an easy job but we have this treasure in an earthen vessel and we're supposed to use it wisely and we're to guard it he says as you as you do so you need to avoid worldly chatter you need to avoid empty chatter and you need to avoid false knowledge there was a the

heart of most of the false teaching at that point in time was was a system of teaching called Gnosticism which put knowledge on a really high plane in it and it stripped the gospel of its simplicity and replaced it with some sort of a deeper spiritual knowledge that that only the select few could have and so it was false knowledge that was falsely called knowledge and in today's world we have our own versions of it but but I think what we really can struggle with in the conservative churches is we spend so much time debating about isms we spend so much time debating about doctrines that have a man's name attached to them and don't spend nearly enough time talking about the Bible and what

Jesus really had to say about these things I had somebody come and ask me a question the other day and and it was a question where there's you know there's a question where there's a question where there's a there's two distinct two distinct sides of this coin and they both have a man's name attached to them and they're like what do you think about this and I said well I'm somewhere in the middle because I feel like the Bible somewhere in the middle and so we talked about it a little bit and I said listen here's the thing if you're gonna determine which side of this that you're gonna be on just don't miss Jesus just don't miss Jesus in all of it because if you start getting yourself too attached to a doctrine with a man's name on it you'll

end up missing Jesus you'll give in to one of the questions that a man asked he kept saying Jesus I see you may I have transgressions you know I want your mind to work for me Jesus you got to wait and you know if Jesus were going to do that I was going to come to you if you had 아까 you know you know if you'renant out of that rosary you known pointed a stone to the other side of the line to say slice and that's why Jesus we can never say T're we can never work without only поч Palahippus that's the Marc advantage so you only prove to others there's just something about that word grace there's just something that's kind of like a great big easy chair that you just get to sit back in and take a

little nap because you can just rest in the grace of Jesus the word grace of course means unmerited favor which is exactly what that means you can't earn it you can't deserve it you can only be gifted it that's exactly what Jesus did for us and Paul so many times in his letters he starts with grace he says grace to you and then he ends with grace grace to be with you and it reminds me that it is the grace of God that saves us it's the grace of God that sustains us and it is the grace of God that will keep us and take us home I always share this and I'm gonna do it every time okay so just deal with it I'm gonna repeat myself my favorite line out of the song amazing grace I write it in the cover of all of my Bibles and it says this

his grace is the grace of God that sustains us and it is the grace of God that sustains us and it is the grace of God that sustains us and it is the grace of God that has brought me his grace has brought me safe thus far and his grace will lead me home and I'm here to tell you right now I've watched it happen and his grace truly does lead us home amen grace be with you well this morning is Communion Sunday and I think we're about to unleash the kiddos to come in so the kids are gonna come join us so come on in guys so if you've got a kid that's gonna come through these doors you might just keep an eye on them because there's a lot of faces for them to see a lot of faces to identify and they're not big people and I don't know as many of them

as I used to identify all right come on in kids good something tells me there's one more class Cassandra's running hey tight kids there's one more really spiritual class down there they're undoubtedly in deep prayer right now it's the three-year-old here they come other direction big guy so you're waving reunited it feels so good so before we partake in community I like to always take a few minutes to talk about what we're doing here so it's not of each of these trays there's a couple of cups that are stacked together bottom cup has the cracker the top cup has the juice in and of themselves pretty mundane things that don't really mean too much it's what they represent that has power and

so that cracker of course represents the body of Jesus Christ the Son of God the Christ and on that last night of the feast Jesus took the bread and he broke it they said this is my body which has been broken for you take and eat and while we don't believe that it actually becomes the body of Jesus it carries with it a strong representation of our understanding that part of the purchase of our Redemption was the breaking of the body of Jesus that he he endured the beatings that rightfully belonged to us that he took a crown of thorns on his head that he was pierced for our transgressions that his stripes are what truly healed us and we are reminded that his body was broken for us and in

that top cup there's that juice and again in and of itself it means nothing other other than what it represents for us and on that last night of the feast Jesus took the last cup the last cup of the Passover meal was called the cup of Redemption and he said this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you take and drink and every time we're going through this we're going through this we're going through this we partake of the cup we are reminded that the blood of Jesus Christ is what covered our sins that though they were red as scarlet he made them as white as snow and so as we partake of this we are reminded and we are told that we declare the death of Jesus and since since it's such a holy thing that we do we're told

to do so in a worthy manner and the first aspect of doing so in a worthy manner is an understanding that this is a family meal that this is a meal that the Christians partake of in a celebration of what Jesus has done for us so if you're here this morning and you're not a believer I'd actually warned you not to take it because it's a family meal but I could tell you this right now if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ one of the greatest things you can do is put your faith in Jesus in matter of fact when we do this last song you can just take this moment and you can confess your sins to the Lord and ask him to to come and be your Savior and in that moment you will become born

again and you too will be a part of the family of Christ that's the first part of partaking in a worthy manner the second part is that we truly are reverential in the way that we do this that we realize that this this isn't just some other thing that we do this is the central basis of our faith the death of Jesus Christ so we we come about this we come to this in a reverential sort of way but the third thing that we have to realize is that as we go throughout a week or a month or day there are things that end up cutting off our fellowship with the Lord and it's a great time to make sure that there's nothing that's between us and God but there's nothing that's cut off that fellowship whether it be an

unforgiveness we harbor against somebody else or or a sin that we have taken part in in our lives it's it's a great time to confess those things to the Lord so I'm gonna ask the worship team to come on up and they're gonna sing one last song for us and as they sing this last song I would just ask you to allow the Lord to search your heart to do the business with God that needs to be done between you and him and then we'll partake together so in just a minute the ushers are gonna come down and they're gonna hand out the elements and as you receive your elements if you would please stand and we'll partake together

if you pray with me father we come to you now Lord I thank you for the body of Jesus Christ that was broken for us wounded for our transgressions bruised for our Iniquities the chastisement of our peace was placed upon him and by his stripes we are healed Lord I thank you for the body of Jesus it was broken for us father I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that is enough to cover our sins or the blood of Jesus that has never failed us the blood of Jesus that makes us his watch snow so father I thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and as a we declare this as our one true hope, may we always have in mind the great love that you declared for us on the cross. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's partake. And if you'd bow with me

one last time. Father, we come to you now, and I praise you for your word. Lord, may we guard it with all of our hearts. And Lord, may we take hold of eternal life, that we would not be satisfied to live in the mundane, that we would not be satisfied to live with the temporal things of this earth. Lord, that we would pursue you with all of our hearts. We praise you, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Be blessed.