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Men. Men. 2 Timothy chapter number 1. The Bible reads, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. We're starting a brand new book tonight, 2 Timothy. And let me just give you a little bit of an overview of the book of 2 Timothy. This is probably the last epistle that Paul wrote. But at the end of it, he says, I'm now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith. And the one thing that comes across very strongly in the book of 2 Timothy from beginning to end is that he really just doesn't want Timothy to quit. He really doesn't want him to change. And he's just, you can just feel that he wants Timothy to continue the work after he's gone. And that's what comes across in every chapter of this book. That's pretty much the theme of the book is one preacher who's older, he's passing off the scene, he's going to be gone, trying to pass the torch to the next generation and make sure that they don't screw it up and make sure that Timothy continues to stay strong and preach the word of God as it's meant to be preached. He starts out by talking about the fact that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. He says to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, obviously this is not his physical son but it's his son in the faith. He calls him elsewhere his son after the common faith. He says, my dearly beloved son, grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. Now what does he mean by whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience? Well the apostle Paul was an Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, he was of the stock of Israel and his ancestors or his forefathers worshipped the true God. In the Old Testament the Jews, whether they were of Judah or Benjamin or Levi, they worshipped the true God. They were serving the Lord and obviously at the time that this book is being written the Jews were completely apostate and the kingdom of God had been taken from them. But Paul's ancestors served the true God and he serves the true God as well now through the Lord Jesus Christ his savior. And so the Bible says I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. So he's thanking God that he has remembrance of Timothy night and day and he says he serves God with a pure conscience. You know it's a great thing to have a pure conscience. There's no substitute for it. To be able to just go to bed at night put your head on the pillow and have a conscience void of offense before God and man. And when we do sin when we do wrong to make it right to confess it to forsake it and there's nothing worse than having a bad conscience weighing down on you guilt shame. It's great to just make things right and confess your sins repent of them live a good life so that you can have a pure conscience before God and you could be able to say this truthfully like Paul could doesn't mean that he's perfect but he had a good conscience before God and man says in verse 4 greatly desiring to see thee being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice and I am persuaded that in thee also. Now fainted means that it's fake. So when he says the unfeigned faith that is in thee he's acknowledging the fact that there are a lot of people whose faith is fake. They pretend to believe something that they don't really believe. There are a lot of false prophets Judases infiltrators but he says I'm persuaded of you Timothy that your faith is unfeigned especially because of the fact that that unfeigned faith dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I'm persuaded that in thee also. So Timothy here is a third generation believer. He's a third generation Christian as it were because his grandmother and his mother were believers and now he's a believer. Now who here is a third generation or more believer? Put up your hand if that's you if you're a third generation or more. Who's a first generation meaning you got saved before your parents got saved. Put up your hand if that's you. That's most of the church right. Who's second generation. So the vast majority of our church is first generation. And that's great because that means that we're reaching people with the gospel. Amen. You know if everybody's third generation that'd be a little scary. You know we're not winning anybody to the Lord. Everybody's just you know been saved since grandma and grandpa and great grandparents and so forth. Now I'm a I'm a third generation Christian. My dad was saved. His dad was saved. And my dad's mom was saved. And my dad's mom came from a long line of Baptists some of whom were even preachers if you go way back. And then on my mom's side my mom is saved. Her mom is saved. And her dad got saved only shortly before passing away. Look what he says in verse number six. He says, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And one way to look at this passage is to look at it as advice for the third generation Christian or advice for the second generation Christian. Because there are certain tendencies among second and third generation Christians that are different than first generation Christians. You know first generation Christians are usually pretty excited about the gospel. They're pretty excited about being saved. They're pretty excited about the things of God. And not only that but they don't have a tendency to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord because it was something that really changed their life and it was something that just came to them and they used to not have that assurance and not have that understanding and not know if they're going to heaven. And they were without God and without hope. But now that they're saved they usually are excited about it. They're usually not going to be as ashamed. But the tendency with second and third generation Christians would be to take things for granted. Everything's handed to you. You grew up with the Bible. You grew up with church. You grew up with preaching. And you might not appreciate it as much because you didn't go through life without it. It's all you've ever known. And then not only that but you know you grow up with it and you probably didn't really have to fight for it much because your parents were on board with you your brothers and sisters were on board with you. And look that's me. I mean I grew up in a fundamental Baptist family. I mean when I was born my parents were the members of a fundamental Baptist church. Both my parents are saved. My sisters are saved. My brother's saved. A lot of my cousins are saved. A lot of my aunts and uncles are saved. My grandparents are saved. And so as a third generation Christian like Timothy there could be a tendency to be a little bit dead of a Christian. And so Paul is saying Timothy stir up the gift of God which is in you. Stir up the gift. And this is a great message for my children who are growing up just with everything handed to them and just everybody else is fighting the battle for them and they can just smoothly sail along in their Christian life. You know I hope that they don't grow up and just be a dead Christian and just be watered down and just come to church and do the minimum. You know I hope that God would light a fire in them and I hope that they would stir up the gift of God which is in them by the laying on of my hands and not just be dead and complacent and watered down. And that's what happens to a lot of great churches of the past. Over time they're filled with and run by the second and third generation that doesn't have the fire. They don't have the zeal. They're not stirred up. They're not as excited about it because they don't appreciate it. You know David he fought all the battles and he was a man after God's own heart. The next generation comes along solemnly as a man of peace and peace is greater than war. The bad thing about that is that he's comfortable, he's complacent and he just starts going after women and wealth and pleasure and he wasn't zealous and stirred up about the things of God at times in his life. He got backslidden and he got complacent. We want to make sure that our children get this message from the book of 2 Timothy. This book of 2 Timothy is a great message onto every teenager and under the next generation and under those of you who are second and third generations not to just go oh ho hum we've read the Bible our whole lives. We know all the stories. We've been soul winning so many times we came and counted. Hey get excited. Stir that thing up. Be on fire for the Lord. Don't be dead and complacent. This is Paul's concern. Look if Paul's writing to Timothy about these things it's what he's concerned about. And especially when this message just keeps coming through in every chapter this is what's on Paul's heart. Obviously God is the author of the Bible but he used the human instrument the Apostle Paul and he used this human instrument of Timothy to be the recipient of this letter to illustrate these truths to us that we can apply in our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. He's saying I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. Every once in a while we need to be stirred up. Sometimes a good sermon can stir us up a good fight can stir us up going out soul winning can stir us up but we need to be stirred up we can't just get too comfortable and too placid every once in a while we have to throw a rock into the water of our heart and make some waves and get stirred up because you know sometimes it takes some kind of a change in our lives maybe getting out of our comfort zone go on a missions trip or or you know go on a soul winning marathon or just you know go on a Bible reading marathon or just something just get stirred up get excited get fired up about the things of God remember why you would you used to be excited about it and get excited about it again. God has not given us the spirit of fear verse seven but of power and of love and of a sound mind be not the other four ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me as prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Another tendency amongst the second third generation Christian could be to be fearful or ashamed of the testimony of our Lord why because they they're not used to fighting for it they're not used to having to take a stand they're not in the public school necessarily standing up for the word of God and being ridiculed and having to separate from friends and so forth they have grown up in church Christian friends Christian parents so there could be a tendency to get fearful or ashamed and not wanting to partake in the afflictions because they're not really a warrior and so we need to make sure that this message comes across loud and clear to the second and third generation to my children and your children hey don't be afraid don't be scared don't be a coward be ready to suffer affliction be ready to take a stand don't be ashamed of Pastor Anderson don't be ashamed of the word of God don't be ashamed of other men of God don't be ashamed of this book or the teachings of this book there's nothing in this book to be ashamed of nothing you know who ought to be ashamed is the world out there with all their filth and all their smut and spitting in the eye of God that's who ought to be ashamed of themselves the adulterers and adulteresses and the fornicators and the drunks why should we be ashamed be a Christian we ought to proclaim that with boldness say yes I'm a Christian glad to be a Christian tell everybody I'm a Christian love the Bible carry it everywhere you go be ashamed of that why would we be ashamed to be against homos let them be ashamed bunch of perverts and so the second and third generation needs to get fired up and they need to to get over their fears and be ready to suffer affliction and not be ashamed of the man of God or of God himself or of the word of God the Bible says in verse number nine who has saved us the power of God it said at the end of verse eight who has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began so nobody earned their way into heaven nobody's going to heaven according to their works or by the deeds that they do or do not do it's salvation by grace through faith plus nothing minus nothing by plus nothing we mean you don't have to do any works to be saved minus nothing means you don't have to turn away from any sins to be saved it's all by grace it's all through faith it's not of works lest any man should boast it's a free gift of God and the Bible says here that it's not according to our works it's according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began this is similar to what it said in Titus chapter 1 when it said in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began the Bible says in 1st John 2 24 and this is the promise which he has promised us even eternal life God's never going to break that promise and before this world began in the beginning was the word God's word God's promises were already settled in heaven even before this world was even created and God's word makes it crystal clear that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Jesus said verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life that promise was promised before the world began Jesus Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and before this world was even created there was already a plan God already knew what was going to happen he knew that there would be sin he knew that we would have to pay for our sins and he knew that he would send the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior to die on the cross for our sins to be the propitiation for our sins that was all planned in advance and it wasn't plan b it was plan a that's right it was planned from the beginning that Jesus Christ would be our Savior and that all we would have to do is believe on him to be saved that it was never going to be by the works of the law or the works of the flesh or by deeds that we've done it was always through putting all of our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that's how salvation has always been and always will be and that was foreordained before the world even began that promise was already in place before the world began his purpose and grace his plan what was his purpose to come to the earth to die on the cross to be buried to rise again to provide a free gift of salvation to anyone who would believe and he said but it's now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ the word manifest means it's obvious it's it's open it's exposed everybody can see it that's what manifest means so what the bible is saying is that this plan was already in place God already called us with the holy calling even before the world began and even though that plan existed that plan is now made manifest now we can see it very clearly in the old testament they couldn't see it as clearly they knew it was there but they really saw through a glass darkly and they didn't know as much detail as we know I mean we have the whole bible in our hand it takes us all the way from genesis to revelation it takes us from the beginning to the end of the story and so now that calling that grace that salvation and exactly how it's going to work and all the details of it is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel where unto i'm appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the gentiles for the which cause i also suffer these things nevertheless i'm not ashamed for i know whom i have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which i have committed unto him against that day now i'm gonna i'm gonna stop and take some time to expound this verse verse 12 is a pretty powerful verse and it's an extremely famous verse because there's a song in the hymnal where you sing this verse i mean when you're memorizing scripture and you're if you want to learn second timothy chapter one you you know when you get to that verse you can't help but just start singing it because i've sung that song my whole life but i know whom i have believed sing it with me and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day so that's a really famous verse and i want to stop and park it on this verse a little bit because it has a lot of great truth in it first of all i want to talk about the word ashamed now the word ashamed in the bible it has two different meanings that come through when you when you look this up in scripture now one of the meanings of ashamed is the most obvious meaning just the the meaning that we would use in everyday speech in 2017 and in fact it's even used that way in this chapter where it says in verse 8 be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our lord what's that mean don't be embarrassed of it or shy about it don't be ashamed of it right also later on in the chapter it says at the end of verse 16 he was not ashamed of my chain that's the same thing he wasn't embarrassed of my chain he was not uh shy about it he was open about it that's what it means to be ashamed of something okay but there's another meaning of ashamed in scripture when it just says it doesn't say ashamed of but sometimes not all the time but sometimes when it just says i'm not ashamed or let me not be ashamed it doesn't have that meaning that we would think of not being embarrassed or being shy about something if you'll study this word because it's used a lot in the book of psalms it often refers to not being let down not being left hanging not being let down now you can see how these two meanings would be connected because obviously if you put a lot of trust in someone and then they let you down that could be embarrassing so you can see how the two different meanings could have developed over time but all throughout psalms uh for example there's another song you know while we're talking about famous christian songs how about the song where you sing unto the oh lord do i lift up my soul who knows this one oh my god i trust in thee let me not be ashamed let not mine enemies triumph over me yea let none that wait where's the echo on the be ashamed all right never mind it's a lost cause but anyway you said you know when your kids you're singing in rounds where there's an echo going back and forth but in that context he say look god i'm trusting in you don't let me be ashamed i don't want you to leave me hanging i don't want to be let down i don't want to be you know caught in a situation where i've got no help and all throughout psalms that you'll find scriptures about saying hey let those people be ashamed let them be ashamed i don't want to be ashamed god let me not be ashamed and if you get the context and do a word study on ashamed you'll see a lot of situations like that and so what he's saying here in this verse he says for which cause i also suffer these things why do i suffer these things why do i put up with prison and persecution and attacks and afflictions he's saying you know because i'm a i'm a preacher i'm an apostle i'm a teacher of the gentiles and you know god has appointed me to preach the gospel and that's why i suffer these things but he says nevertheless in spite of the fact that i suffer these things in spite of the fact that i'm in prison in spite of the fact that i'm persecuted i'm not ashamed why not because i know whom i have believed and i'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day he's saying look i know god's not going to let me down god's able to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day so even in the face of temporal uh persecutions afflictions troubles he's not ashamed god is with him god has not forsaken him god's going to see him through now here's an important verse where this is sometimes misused go to go to romans chapter 10 romans chapter number 10 this is a misunderstood scripture because if you don't understand the word ashamed that it has another nuance to it another meaning to it and look up all those verses and psalms and and another place in the bible to to comprehend what the word ashamed can mean then you could you could come away with a false doctrine here so i just want to point this out uh because what the bible is saying here in let's just start in verse 9 just to get the context romans 10 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and shall believe in thine heart that god is raised from the dead thou shalt be shall be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for there is no difference between the jew and the greek for the same lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved now here's a misunderstanding of this passage the misunderstanding of this passage would be whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed means that anybody who believes on christ is never going to be embarrassed of christ or shy about confessing christ that's simply not true even second timothy chapter one proves that that's not true because if if anyone who believes would just never be embarrassed or shy then why is he telling timothy don't be ashamed of the testimony of our lord that should be automatic according to that wrong understanding of this passage but if we actually look at this passage carefully look at the first word of verse number 12 it's for right well the word for means because so it says in verse 11 for or because the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for or because there is no difference between the jew and the greek for the same lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him now if we were to take the wrong interpretation of this passage and say well this means you're not going to be embarrassed you're not going to be shy to to confess him openly if we're to take the wrong interpretation of it then verse 12 would not compute because it wouldn't make any sense to say well they're never going to be embarrassed because you know there's no difference between the jew and the greek it's like huh what is no difference between the jew and the greek have to do with not being embarrassed or not being shy but if we take the correct interpretation here that being ashamed is being let down or left hanging or relying on someone who does not come through and kind of leaves you holding the bag right then it makes perfect sense saying hey whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed why not because he's rich unto all that call upon him nobody who calls on him is going to be ashamed nobody believes on him is going to be ashamed because it doesn't matter if they're greek it doesn't matter if they're a jew he is rich unto all that call upon him and then it has another because for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved so that actually makes sense that actually flows when you understand it that way there's a logic there that says hey if you confess with your mouth the lord jesus and shall believe in thine heart that god that god is raised over that thou shalt be safe why because whosoever that's why so there's no there's no wondering well i confessed with my mouth the lord jesus and i believed in my heart that god is raised from the dead but does you know am i does this offer extend to me too does this apply to me too am i eligible for this he says yeah look whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed meaning that if you put your faith and trust in christ to get you to heaven he's going to get you there you're not going to be ashamed you're not going to be left hanging you're not going to get there and the gates shut and you're knocking on the door saying lord lord open to us no no if you believe on christ you're saved you will not be left hanging you will not be ashamed now is it possible for a believer to be embarrassed or shy about christ of course that's what second timothy is rebuking and even peter himself what did he do he denied christ why because he was embarrassed or shy so he was that definition of ashamed but he was not ashamed in the sense that god never let him down god didn't leave him hanging that's what this is saying so we don't want to come up with a false doctrine that says well if people aren't bold about their faith that means they're not saved you don't you know that that's adding another layer or another requirement to salvation so that's kind of a scary doctrine when you start adding things like that because then people start doubting their salvation like well i was embarrassed at one time and said that i wasn't a christian or something which you know i know somebody who saved who one time when they were backslidden somebody said well you're not a christian are you and they said oh no so they did like an apostle peter now it's wicked it's wrong it's a sin but does that mean that person wasn't saved nope peter was saved timothy's saved but yet he needs that admonition let's go back to second timothy i just wanted to to point that out about the word ashamed and you can look up the word ashamed on your own look at all the different references you'll you'll see what i'm saying especially in the book of psalms so the bible says in verse 12 for the which cause i also suffer these things just like suffer has two meanings right suffer has the meaning of going through pain and sorrow and it also has the meaning of allowing something in this case it's pain and sorrow that he's going through i also suffer these things nevertheless i'm not ashamed god has not let me down i i've not been left hanging because i know him whom i have believed and am persuaded that he's able to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day now what does it mean to commit something unto someone well it's great because that that word's used in this same passage so we can jump down to verse 14 to understand that term that good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the holy ghost which dwells within us committing something unto someone is entrusting it to them for safe keeping so if i give you something valuable and i trust you to hang on to it that's what it means to commit something unto you so basically when we get saved we're committing our souls unto the lord because he's the one who is taking us to heaven it's not on our own works it's not our own merits we're not trusting in any other savior or any other god we're committing our souls unto the lord jesus christ our savior and so what what this could be twisted as though is you know what some people will twist this to oh you got to make a commitment to christ that that basically salvation is like a commitment to doing works or going to church or living a different kind of lifestyle that's a work salvation so i want to make sure that to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day we're committing unto him our very eternity our very soul for safe keeping and we're not going to be ashamed he's not going to let us down because we're trusting him and he can save us and will save us and has promised to save us and he'll never break that promise so the bible says uh i'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day verse 13 hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love which is in christ jesus that good thing which was committed unto thee by the holy keep by the holy ghost which dwelleth in us so again this fits with the theme of second timothy what's he told him so far let's just think about what advice has he given timothy first he tells him hey stir up the gift of god then he tells him don't have fear have power love and a sound mind then he tells him don't be ashamed of the testimony of our lord don't be ashamed of me his prisoner he tells him look uh you know hold fast the form of sound words don't change the doctrine and then he tells him the good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the holy ghost which dwells in us what's he telling him stay faithful don't change don't be a wimp don't get watered down stay fired up don't get into weird doctrine keep on preaching the truth don't get scared don't back down don't shy away from afflictions so do you see the theme that's coming across in second timothy he's telling this guy look don't quit be like me i'm about to die i'm gonna be gone i need you to be like me because i'm gonna be gone and i want you to continue the work that's the message of this epistle and then in keeping with that theme what's he say in verse 15 he starts giving an example about people who failed he says this thou knowest that all they which are in asia be turned away from me that doesn't sound good now what does he mean by that all they which are in asia be turned away from me you know we got to get the context of the word all all what i don't think he's saying every single person in asia has turned away from me i mean that'd be pretty weird since he won so many people lord in asia obviously he's talking about the preachers because he's talking to a preacher timothy and he's and he's mentioning other preachers that are examples of preachers that have turned away from him so these are preachers many of whom he probably ordained or had at least fellowship with and had preached to and taught i mean he's the guy who went around starting all the churches in asia and he preached the gospel to everybody in asia but at the end of his life sadly all they which are in asia i think he's saying all the preachers that are in asia had turned away from him and then he gives some examples of whom are phyjealous and homogeneous i mean he say even phyjealous even homogeneous have turned away from me now that doesn't mean that these guys aren't saved it doesn't mean that these guys were were necessarily teaching horrible doctrine they might have just been distancing themselves from paul just because of the fact that he's going to prison because he says of the good example right after well he was not ashamed of my chain so it could imply that these guys might have been ashamed of his chain right so he says this thou knowest that all they which are in asia be turned away from me of whom are phyjealous and homogeneous the lord give mercy out of the house of onocephorus here's the good example for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain but when he was in rome he sought me out very diligently and found me the lord granted him that he may find mercy of the lord in that day and in how many things he ministered unto me in emphasis thou knowest very well so here we see that paul was forsaken by a lot of old friends other preaching uh peers in his life and he says you know onocephorus was there for me he refreshed me he wasn't ashamed of my chain he sought me out very diligently these other guys won't touch me with a 10-foot pole you know onocephorus made a point to come visit me and check in with me and refresh me and everything like that so what is this what does this show us one of the things that it shows us is that a lot of people are going to quit no well let me ask you this let me ask you this was it right of phygelus and hermogenes to back off from the apostle paul obviously not because who's the holy spirit using to write the book this isn't the epistle where's the epistle of phygelus where's the epistle of hermogenes you know these guys were compromised these guys were watered down god allowed them to be brought up he's the one that's the true author of the bible god is basically bringing these guys up as a poor example and so these guys are in the wrong big time so it goes to show you that even amongst bible believing preachers sometimes you know a lot of them are gonna go south or quit or fail or water down or or get a little bit compromised i mean it's just the it's just the nature of things it's sad but that's the nature of things i mean look if if throughout history christians continue to be on fire for the lord throughout their whole lives and churches sent out other preachers to start churches and they all stayed with the doctrine and they all stayed right and stayed on fire and if christians were raising their kids and the kids are all growing up and serving the lord and being just as fired up as their parents would the world be in the situation it's in right now two thousand years later there's been plenty of time to evangelize and start great churches everywhere but what do you see a constant second and third generation getting watered down getting backslidden not being excited and then also the same thing with preachers we see the first generation of preachers like an apostle paul that i mean he was fired up till the end he made some mistakes along the way nobody's perfect everybody's human we can see the the mistakes that paul made it in acts but he was serving god and winning a ton of souls all the way up to the very end but what do we see the majority doing all i mean you got all day in asia and then you got paul ono cipha is to mothy is a couple guys that are still you know exactly where they need to be and i'm not saying that these guys were were way off but maybe they were way off we don't really know how off they were but we know that when you're turning away from the apostle paul you got some serious problems serious problems and so there's a tendency toward decay there's a tendency toward apathy there's a tendency toward kids not turning out right grandchildren not turning out right pastors that are sent out compromising watering down the truth churches going downhill having a heyday having an exciting powerful time and then the next guy takes over and they go downhill or maybe that same guy gets old and fat and lazy and soft and relaxed even if he's not physically fat but he becomes a spiritual fat cat and he becomes spiritually lazy and and spiritually apathetic and watered down and and so forth look that's the tendency if we don't make a concerted effort to make sure that that doesn't happen i mean we've got to be swimming up the stream all the time because as soon as you stop fighting as soon as you stop swimming as soon as you stop struggling you will just begin to float down the stream that's the way the world goes the world goes down down down down down and it's only people who make the effort to die daily deny self take up the cross you have to fight fight fight push push struggle work and you say well that sounds too hard but if you don't you'll fail and that's not to say you don't rest from time to time you know god god tells us to rest rest is great take a day off every week take a few weeks off every year but you but your life in general though needs to be a struggle and if you're looking to just kind of get all your ducks in a row and live this really cruising comfortable life where you kind of just get everything set i mean look it's just never gonna happen i mean think about how foolish i would be as a pastor if i thought you know what faithful word baptist church we're like a well-oiled machine around here right i mean we are like a well-oiled machine i mean we got our 10 soul-winning times cranking we got mission strips up to the indians every week we got you know all these that you know we got we're on a schedule man every year we go drive six hours to another big city you know we we fly to another city every month and a half we're on a system we got a schedule we're like a well-oiled machine i mean we can just sit back and just let it happen i mean just look at look at the souls just keep on coming i mean just every week a hundred people saved 150 people saved just the the the the children just keep being born right just i mean how many births are coming up i'm looking around and seeing all these women they're nine months pregnant we're about ready to give birth we just got a two-for-one over here from brother garrett cursway so you know just children just being born physically spiritual babes in christ are being born the kids are growing up the teenagers are growing up the teens are out soul-winning we're out soul-winning i mean nothing could stop us we're just a well-oiled machine but oh no oh no it's a it's a constant battle it's a constant fight just one fight after another and it's it's like that game whack-a-mole where just things just just the enemies just keep popping up false doctrine problems in the church just just just dumb things are popping up and it's just bam you know oh modalism you know oh repent for sin careful but you know it's just it's always one thing if look if it's not that it's something else oh you know it's it's it's just problems but the way that problems don't bother you is when you just realize the fact there's gonna be problems and just realize that that's the name of the game the people that are depressed about it and by the way this doesn't just go for church i mean i'm talking about church because i'm the pastor this is my life but for many of you this is your life too amen church is our life god's word is is our lamp to our feet our guide to our path and every day we live for the lord not just the pastor but anybody but here's the thing even in the rest of your life even in your marriage your marriage is gonna tend toward decay marriages don't just automatically just get better by neglecting them or just by sitting back and just letting them go same thing with raising your children there's a tendency toward decay same thing with your job with your house i mean think about how things just break in your house all the time this is one thing about renting that's that's good you know when you own a home it's just constantly breaking and just when you think oh man we've replaced the water heater we replaced the air conditioner we replaced all the windows or you you know and then the the dishwasher goes out and the stove goes out and then the you know i just we had a doorknob go bad and i changed out the doorknob and i was like hey honey look it's we're good the next day the other doorknob goes bad because there's two doorknobs on the front door i'm like i was just there i just fixed it you know but everything is just decaying all the time but people who have this weird idea that they're going to get to a point in their life where there's no fight no struggle no problems they're the ones that get all depressed and down and sad and oh man it's just one thing after another but what you've got to get like is just this attitude that says just yup it's just going to be fighting and struggle and pain and and you know there's going to be good times there's going to be fun there's going to be excitement and there's going to be lows and there's going to be highs if you expect the problems then you're not going to get so mad when they come and you're not going to get so sad when they come the things that you know the the times that i find myself just flying off the handle in a rage it's usually when when i don't expect something you know what i'm saying like when something just comes at me out of nowhere is when i usually would have a tendency to lose my temper but usually if i can if i can foresee the evil then it i can control anger much easier much easier so you know sometimes you just have to go into certain situations just understanding there's going to be problems the kids are going to do dumb things sometimes they're going to break stuff they're going to spill stuff and you just kind of get that into your head that it's just you know part of your monthly expense is just to buy another box of glasses you know because there's going to be a glass dropped every couple days when you have 11 people in the house and and most of them are children so you know you just you just you just plan on it every once in a while you buy it you go to walmart you buy another box of glasses instead of just oh man no you gotta be kidding another glass it's like the saying goes there's no use crying over spilled milk right just let it go you know look bad things are gonna and look people are gonna betray you people are gonna let you look at king saul i mean king saul everybody's excited he's the king he's a great guy and then what's he do he blows it and then samuel is just like oh so and god says quit weeping for saul go annoy david you move on and so you gotta just get it through your head that you're always gonna have financial problems you're always gonna have fights and struggles and battles and then just be and then just learn to be happy in that mode right just learn to be happy and just you know what i'm just happy with my life i'm happy with the good times i'm happy in the bad times i'm gonna accept good from the hand of the lord and i'm gonna accept evil from the hand of the lord blessed be the name of the lord and you just go through life understanding that life is not always going to be peaches and cream and sweetness and light there's going to be ups there's going to be downs just just just go with it and don't sweat the small stuff and have the serenity to accept the things that you can't change right don't just get so hung up about spilled milk you know you've got to just get a better attitude by understanding that problems are part of everyone's life even if you're not even saved you just have a different set of problems oh the christian life's so hard well the way of transgressors is hard yeah it's just a different set of problems and i'd much rather have the problems associated with being a christian than the problems associated with being worldly especially because with the worldly there's no reward the end of those things is death you know at least we have rewards for our suffering they suffer for not they suffer for nothing when they go through all the the the health problems from all their drinking or drugs or stds or or they have all the problems associated with divorces and and children out of wedlock you know don't look when you commit sin you have another set of problems your gambling problems and your you know all your other addictions and problems and and the lung cancer and everything else you know yeah being a christian okay you're gonna go through things but everybody goes through things so why don't you just quit trying to live a perfect life because you're never gonna have a perfect life and so you know that's how i remain joyful is just by realizing hey this is where this is my life it's always like this if it's not one thing it's another and i truly enjoy it i truly love it you know we've got to learn in whatsoever state we're in to be content to be content and so that's a strong message here in second timothy toward the the long time christian the second generation christian the third generation christian is don't go soft stay in the fight finish the course keep the faith let's buy rides and have a word of prayer