SPEAKER_00: There is a a clear uh benefit from sitting on the front row, if for those who've never tried it.
SPEAKER_00: If you suddenly get out of sync with the music and you break into solo or have a small group like we did this morning, nobody else gets to hear you.
SPEAKER_00: And Kent, you're awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Kent is like, you will not trap me.
SPEAKER_00: I will not join you, brother.
SPEAKER_00: You will sing on your own and join me when it's time.
SPEAKER_00: So, but we sure appreciate you guys for leading worship each and every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: So it's my pleasure to be here again to preach um and just have this opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I was thinking this morning of all of the work that goes into today in this in this service.
SPEAKER_00: You had this bulletin prepared in advance.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, the music's been selected and arranged, and the scripture of praise, the assurance of pardon uh has been selected and printed.
SPEAKER_00: It's on the podium here.
SPEAKER_00: Someone has prepared a prayer of Thanksgiving and a prayer of confession.
SPEAKER_00: Um we meet as a team each Sunday out in the front foyer area, and we look at, you know, how are we doing as far as the volunteers and the coordination?
SPEAKER_00: Do we need any any backups there?
SPEAKER_00: And yesterday at 5 30, our our elder group chat lit up, and uh it was news from Andrew that he returned home from vacation with a fever and sick.
SPEAKER_00: And um in the past he he would push through, and he it's a you know, I pushed through, and and I think we don't really um recognize him enough the number of times that he pushes through the his faithfulness to be here, and and there are many times that he may not be feeling quite well, but this time he couldn't push through.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I wanted you to take a moment um and just look at your bulletin because it it's it's here.
SPEAKER_00: And I was considering this, preparing for today, and I see this welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Calvary Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: We desire to be a God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, spirit-driven, biblically rooted congregation that develops passionate followers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I I didn't I didn't come to Calvary as an as an elder.
SPEAKER_00: I came as a husband and a father seeking to be where God wanted me to be and where God would continue to sanctify and and nurture me.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that's the same for a lot of the the people that we had this morning that stood in to teach and to serve and that do time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, they uh that that role wasn't uh wasn't a role that we just had.
SPEAKER_00: That was a role that they they grew and and grew and they held, and and it was in God's perfect timing and his and his providence that that they would have that.
SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, at the end of the day, when you look at this bulletin, it doesn't have any of those names in it.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say anything about that.
SPEAKER_00: What it does is you find that we want to be rooted in God's word and what we do here today.
SPEAKER_00: Um God who is worthy of all praise.
SPEAKER_00: You see that heading, man who is sinful before a holy God, Christ who is our great salvation, and then there's a response to God's word and sacraments.
SPEAKER_00: So we're here to worship, and there's a portion of that that I get the pleasure of participating in or bringing, which is the preaching portion of that.
SPEAKER_00: But we've already worshiped, we've already uh been grounded in a biblical worship in what we've done.
SPEAKER_00: Um so um I just think it's it's great to look at this and think that it's rooted in the sufficiency of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So when you come to these moments and you say, What do we do next?
SPEAKER_00: Solo scriptura, God's word is sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: And so we open his word and we worship and we rejoice because he has made himself known through his word.
SPEAKER_00: So I just uh I just love this.
SPEAKER_00: What an opportunity, what a joy to come together and worship God.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, we do love you and we do recognize your sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: We recognize that you have made us as your unique image bearers, and you have placed within our hearts a desire to worship.
SPEAKER_00: It sits there, Father, in a sinful fallen world, we will do that wrongly, but being called by you into your light, we get the great opportunity to be stirred by the Holy Spirit, to sing, to be moved as only you can move us as your people to worship you.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, I pray to that end today that as we open your word and we gaze into your truth and we consider your loving kindness to reveal yourself to us, I pray that it would be a great encouragement to us.
SPEAKER_00: It would stir our hearts as your people, and that with hearts stirred, lives transformed, we would be in this world speaking a hope, living a hope, revealing a hope for your glory in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we are going to be in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 6.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a moment to turn there, but I'll also have it on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: But I can't guarantee where your visual range is, how well that is uh on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: But if you'll turn in your copy of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Second Timothy four, one through six.
SPEAKER_00: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
SPEAKER_00: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
SPEAKER_00: But as for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do work, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
SPEAKER_00: So in John MacArthur's commentary on 2 Timothy, he gives us this view of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: So we we have the um the prison epistles that we we think of, and then we have these pastoral epistles where where Paul is is trying to build up those like like Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we've seen before is that Paul has been in prison in Rome and he's had certain privileges and certain freedoms and certain certain rights, and he and he had been released from that.
SPEAKER_00: But in this incarceration, when he writes 2 Timothy, there's there's a real ominous tone to Paul's writing.
SPEAKER_00: That the clock is ticking.
SPEAKER_00: This is it's believed that he, you know, he's in prison now under Nero's reign, and and we know that Nero was a was a very vicious persecutor of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so um we we see that in that Paul he's writing to Timothy, he's writing to encourage him, he's writing to to make sure that he he follows through.
SPEAKER_00: And he desperately wants Timothy to come to see him, but he also recognized that there's this fear, this persecution is really creating a demand.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's stifling to some degree uh the church.
SPEAKER_00: Um and yet there's this threat of death, and there's this letter to Timothy, again, just to strengthen Timothy, who is Paul's son in the in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: So I love their their deep and loving relationship and Paul's concern that Timothy would be strong in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: So as we consider our text today, um, this is the outline or the cheat sheet for the fill-in-the-blank form that you may have before you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna look at it in basically five points: the charge, the command, the condition, the counterfeit, and the commitment.
SPEAKER_00: So beginning with the charge.
SPEAKER_00: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when when I was ordained as an elder, I was asked uh by the team at that time, so select a man that has been instrumental in your spiritual growth and has been a great influence on you spiritually, because we want him to come and be part of your elder ordination and to and to preach your charge as an elder.
SPEAKER_00: I selected my boss at the time, who's a godly man and he's an elder at Grace Community Church.
SPEAKER_00: And after sharing with the pastor who I selected, he said, Um, well, that's a little unorthodox.
SPEAKER_00: I thought he'd be a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh no, I've all I've already stepped in, step one, and and I've broken some kind of elder rule, and I'm not even ordained yet.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but um when I think about that that role that he had, that's the only time in my life when I've I've sat uh in front facing this position, and I had someone preach directly to me a charge.
SPEAKER_00: Um it is a very it was a very powerful uh moment to me.
SPEAKER_00: Um he was telling me from that forward, from that moment forward that I would I would have a mission.
SPEAKER_00: Um it wouldn't be easy, but it would be necessary, and God had called me to that, and it would be hard work.
SPEAKER_00: And it wouldn't be just hard work for me, it would be hard work for my wife, for my family.
SPEAKER_00: Um it was a powerful, it's a powerful moment in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, recognizing that his death may be imminent at the hands of Nero, charges Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: He has this opportunity where he can give Timothy this charge.
SPEAKER_00: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when you think about this, calling God, the Father, and the Son to be witnesses, the the power of this charge.
SPEAKER_00: I I charge you in the in the presence of God and Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He he intends in in this moment, I they're witnessing it.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm gonna tell you, Timothy, is the greatest purpose of your of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And then he adds, Timothy, we paraphrasing, we we will all be judged and you will be held accountable for what I'm charging you to do.
SPEAKER_00: There is a day of judgment that will come.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm charging you to do and what you your your role will be is going to be critical.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this isn't a judgment of condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: This is a a judgment of evaluation, as John MacArthur included in his commentary.
SPEAKER_00: They directed to 2 uh Corinthians 5, 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whatever, whether good or or evil.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have this Bima seat uh image here, where it's it's basically like a competing athlete.
SPEAKER_00: And I think about in the Olympics where the athletes come forward and they're given their medals and they're given their crowns.
SPEAKER_00: You've you've done you've done well, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: And this is so it's this this idea that that judgment will come, it will come to all, um, and there will be this evaluation at the time.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this great weight in what Paul is communicating to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Um there's no complacency in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get this this sign up and sit back kind of approach in what Timothy is being called to.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something more in this charge that I think we need to look at.
SPEAKER_00: This judgment of God isn't limited to the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's not just saying it's only you, Timothy, that will experience this.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, when you stand before people, you stand before those that will also be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching.
SPEAKER_00: You have this moment, you have this opportunity, you have this time, and and you yourself will be evaluated.
SPEAKER_00: But those people that look at you, that face you, that you teach, they will also be judged.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight in this role, Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight in this charge that that I'm putting before you.
SPEAKER_00: I think we don't look at this sometimes in a sense of how weighty it is, in a sense of what's being conveyed when we think about um one judgment, evaluation, if you will, and two, how important it is to be in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I didn't say it, but the title of this sermon is just preach the word.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just preach the word.
SPEAKER_00: If we could capture that, own that, live that, how much more uh strong would we be in our faith?
SPEAKER_00: I I don't have, you know, yeah, Andrew's out sick when thinking about being here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here for some performance.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like I've got to to brush up on some performance.
SPEAKER_00: I just have to open God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We just have to sit and we were talking about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We could we could sing together, we could read scripture, and we could leave fulfilled without anything that I would do with Brian.
SPEAKER_00: The command, moving on, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Paul gives Timothy this clean and direct command to preach the word, which reminds me of a movie.
SPEAKER_00: That's terrible.
SPEAKER_00: Everything seems to remind me of a movie.
SPEAKER_00: So there was a movie years ago about a group of city slickers that went to a dude ranch for a quest to kind of rejuvenate their lives.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they were their lives were restored and crumbling, and there was an old trail boss that gave a key line in this movie.
SPEAKER_00: The trail boss's name was Curly, and he said, Do you want to know what the secret of life is?
SPEAKER_00: And he held up his index finger.
SPEAKER_00: I actually cut this, it was a band-aided thing.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't for sure.
SPEAKER_00: He held up his index finger and he said, This.
SPEAKER_00: Mitch, your your finger?
SPEAKER_00: Curly, one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Just one thing.
SPEAKER_00: You stick to that, and the rest doesn't mean anything.
SPEAKER_00: Mitch.
SPEAKER_00: But what is the one thing?
SPEAKER_00: Curly?
SPEAKER_00: That's what you have to find out.
SPEAKER_00: And this movie, there's a lot of this emphasis on the one thing.
SPEAKER_00: What is this one thing?
SPEAKER_00: Paul isn't leaving it open to Timothy what the one thing is.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling him the one thing, preach the word.
SPEAKER_00: That's the one thing, Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Preach the word.
SPEAKER_00: When I think of preaching the word, I think of Peter at Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: He stood and preached.
SPEAKER_00: And when you think about a sermon and and and you know his his audience, we're going to be in Acts 2, 36 through 41, if you have a problem uh reading that.
SPEAKER_00: And so Peter, you know, the the the Holy Spirit has come.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's there's all of this stir.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with people?
SPEAKER_00: And and and Peter delivers this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And if you think about a sermon close, I'm always reminded of just how God doesn't depend on man.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a line.
SPEAKER_00: You you you you killers, you brutes, this is who, let me tell you who you are.
SPEAKER_00: And he and he lays it out there, and the and the and the weight of that lands tremendously.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: For the promise is for you and for your children, for all who are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to himself, and with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.
SPEAKER_00: For those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
SPEAKER_00: I love considering Peter in this moment, in this time, you have the floor, and he preaches.
SPEAKER_00: You murderous people.
SPEAKER_00: God wasn't dependent on that.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit was moving and changing hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They were cut to the to the core.
SPEAKER_00: And then I think of Peter and John 21, 15 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is asking him, Peter, do you do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: You know, Peter says, Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_00: I love Peter, do you do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: He says this three times, and Jesus, responding to these yeses, says, Feed my lambs.
SPEAKER_00: Feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I think this opportunity, this command to feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter is given this time to speak this truth to these people.
SPEAKER_00: These people that would have been shouting, or may have well shouted, crucify him.
SPEAKER_00: And yet in feeding, he brings this truth of who God is in his word.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, this denier of Christ and coward, would now be standing boldly before the men of Israel, proclaiming them murderers.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't relying on the perfect sermon or the perfect plan.
SPEAKER_00: He was testifying to the truth of who Jesus was and what they had done, whom you crucified.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we bring to the world when it's in turmoil and needs truth?
SPEAKER_00: It's a simple answer.
SPEAKER_00: We bring the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's all we can bring.
SPEAKER_01: That's transformational.
SPEAKER_01: The condition.
SPEAKER_01: Preach the word.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready in season and out of season.
SPEAKER_00: Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
SPEAKER_00: So this is Timothy's condition.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, be ready.
SPEAKER_00: And this readiness in the Greek, this is this is kind of a military type uh view.
SPEAKER_00: It's pointing to a readiness of like a sneak attack.
SPEAKER_00: If you can imagine always being on guard, you're you're always at a at a at a place of readiness.
SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, if if we understand and we know that part of the the equation, then it's you know, this readiness for a sneak attack, then we need to kind of understand what what are the what's the season?
SPEAKER_00: What's meant by the season?
SPEAKER_00: What season are we in?
SPEAKER_00: So I'll I'll admit this because you're going to see it on the slide.
SPEAKER_00: So I think I pretty much have to.
SPEAKER_00: Um I use AI and Chat GPT sometimes to get a view of what the world thinks.
SPEAKER_00: And what if you if you think about the cacophony of voices and and all of this that that one thing that just wraps its arms around it to say, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00: Chat GPT can be that tool.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I look at that, and this is kind of a a large part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and some of it I think is is accurate.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask, what over church history, um, what are the seasons of of history that the church has experienced?
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like from your perspective?
SPEAKER_00: And I I think it it was uh an interesting thing.
SPEAKER_00: I've I've added in the in the bold section here uh the season.
SPEAKER_00: I've kind of given it these titles.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is the persecuted minority, and I just say that's a season of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things pointed out there is this was the early Christian church where the Roman Empire, and a lot of like what we're seeing with Paul in this circumstance, um, there was a there was a small minority and they didn't have a very strong voice.
SPEAKER_00: So that would have been the persecuted minority.
SPEAKER_00: The oh the the next one, I feel like suddenly I'm out there really talking.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the second one, imperial favor.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so this one is a season of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: So if you think about Constantine and you think about the emperor and you know, giving them this complete freedom, I'm I'm making this sort of an official thing.
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's great freedom in that.
SPEAKER_00: The the third one, there was uh medieval dominance, and again, another season of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Their king sought the uh opinion of the church, uh universities and things, and educational systems grew in this medieval time frame.
SPEAKER_00: And it was it was a very prosperous time.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was the it's funny, ChatGPT you know refers to it as the Reformation crisis, but there was again a season of persecution under the Reformation.
SPEAKER_00: The uh the Christianity, the church kind of lost some of its connectivity, you know, the monopoly it had in Europe, and and we see that that was that was broken.
SPEAKER_00: The Enlightenment, there was a decline in influence.
SPEAKER_00: I call that the season of marginalization, because now there was a competing idea.
SPEAKER_00: There was reason, there was science, there was skepticism.
SPEAKER_00: All of this kind of came into the basket, if you will, of beliefs.
SPEAKER_00: And in that, the church became somewhat marginalized.
SPEAKER_00: So there was that season.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was a season of revival.
SPEAKER_00: And in this time, there was the Great Awakening, the first and second great awakening, and the church begins to surge and there's this activity, especially in the United States, where we see this happen, uh, where there was this resurgence or this revival.
SPEAKER_00: And then this final one here is the uh modern secular secular secularization.
SPEAKER_00: I said that so easily before.
SPEAKER_00: And I just put that as a season of Western complacency.
SPEAKER_00: So if you think about that season, here it says in much of Western Europe and increasingly North America, church attendance, religious affiliation have declined.
SPEAKER_00: However, it's not it's not that way in the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say Africa, Asia, um Latin America.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these these seem to be growing, but more so than than the West at this time.
SPEAKER_00: The West has is in some area, I would say some status of decay.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if I I just think if this is true and this is happening the rest of the world, but we find ourselves North America, uh America in decay, what do we what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: How do we respond?
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a simple answer.
SPEAKER_01: Preach the word.
SPEAKER_01: Be ready.
SPEAKER_01: Be mindful of the season you're in, and be ready.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 6, 10 through 18.
SPEAKER_00: Finally be strong in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I can't read that from up there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm, stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_00: In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication to that end.
SPEAKER_00: Keep alert with all perseverance, make supplication for all saints.
SPEAKER_00: Seasons in our lives will they'll come and go.
SPEAKER_00: Church, society, it'll come and go.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be times when we have this sense as believers that we're on the winning side.
SPEAKER_00: Things are looking good.
SPEAKER_00: There's been an uptick.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: You know, however you want to look at that, we're at times of peace.
SPEAKER_00: Um that's not our season, I would say, submit to you here in America.
SPEAKER_00: If we if we start to become complacent and sit back and feel like, oh, we're we we've made it.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's an election cycle, maybe it's something where you look and your litmus test says we've made it, I would encourage you to be ready.
SPEAKER_00: We're in spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_00: We need to have a readiness given by the gospel and armed with the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We can't not know this, guys.
SPEAKER_00: We can't ignore this because it's around us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: So the condition of Timothy that Paul is saying, he's saying, be have the word, preach the word, be eager, be ready.
SPEAKER_00: Seasons are going to change, know the season, and be prepared.
SPEAKER_00: So what is the other condition?
SPEAKER_00: There's the condition of the world and the and the church.
SPEAKER_00: And I I put the, I don't want to just say the always say the world because we're in this mix.
SPEAKER_00: So it we influence the church.
SPEAKER_00: We bring the world into the church in so many cases.
SPEAKER_00: So when you look at this and you you see reprove, rebuke, and exhort, it means that it's needed.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy, you this is a need that you're gonna have to address in bringing God's word, in preaching the word.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna have so what is reproved?
SPEAKER_00: It's correcting behavior or false doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: We have to use the word of God in a corrective way for the false doctrine that we see taught throughout the world.
SPEAKER_00: We can't just say it's good for them, but I'm glad I'm not them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is it needs to be rebuked.
SPEAKER_00: To rebuke is to correct motives towards repentance.
SPEAKER_00: You I I need to use the word of God to change the motive of your of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, your motives are are are wrong.
SPEAKER_00: What what does Henry say?
SPEAKER_00: Stinking, thinking or something like that, you know?
SPEAKER_00: I hate to misquote him.
SPEAKER_00: If that's totally off, don't tell him I said it.
SPEAKER_00: But it's that it's that motive.
SPEAKER_00: I that motive that I can, it's not my opinion.
SPEAKER_00: It's that what does the word of God say with this?
SPEAKER_00: And then the need to be exhorted, taught, and trained.
SPEAKER_00: This developing passionate followers of of Christ, that is our sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: That is a path we're on where we invest in one another and we and we look to build one another up to teach so that we're better prepared tomorrow than we were today as we face the world.
SPEAKER_00: So what season are we in?
SPEAKER_00: I just made a note here.
SPEAKER_00: We aren't going to accomplish this through our opinions.
SPEAKER_00: That makes us no different than the world.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to accomplish this through the preaching and teaching of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: If we want to be engaged in the world for God's glory, for his truth to go out, we will be engaged by utilizing his word as that sword, uh, as part of our warfare.
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to share this with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to say, it it's one of those things when you throw it out there, you think, where does this go?
SPEAKER_00: Southern Baptist Convention was was held.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the headline that I see from the Southern Baptist Convention.
SPEAKER_00: Southern Baptists ban women pastors again.
SPEAKER_00: This time they want to put the ban in the Constitution.
SPEAKER_00: So there is the turmoil, I guess if you will, that the world wants to throw out.
SPEAKER_00: So I asked ChatGPT.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to have this in every sermon, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, eh, it's, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And it's probably a terrible prompt.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you the grammar or anything with this, but I asked, what does Western society translate this to mean about God?
SPEAKER_00: Because if we make these statements, if we say that this is happening, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: There's the horizontal relationship that we have with each other, and then there's the vertical relationship.
SPEAKER_00: If I make this statement, what am I saying about God when I say this?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what I want to be bringing is God's word and his truth.
SPEAKER_00: So you have multiple options, I guess, that you could you could take in how I believe and what I what I use with this.
SPEAKER_00: Um but for ChatGPT, it said this supporters often hear God has established different roles for men and women, and the church is being faithful to scripture even when it is unpopular.
SPEAKER_00: That would be the supporter's view.
SPEAKER_00: Um, critics often hear God is patriarchal, excludes women from leadership, and values men more highly than women.
SPEAKER_00: And many secular Westerners hear this is another institution limiting opportunities based on gender.
SPEAKER_00: So I say that not to get into a debate necessarily on this, but there's a truth claim that goes out from God's word into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And the world wants to give you a competing claim with that.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to be very careful in where we place that and what we do with that and how we reconcile that.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so the church is seeking to be biblical, but I would say in the season that we're in, it creates conflict because the world wants to portray the church as the enemy of women.
SPEAKER_00: You think about that.
SPEAKER_00: This is these are statements that want to portray the church as the enemy of women.
SPEAKER_00: So if we will accept that argument, if we will accept that truth, if I can somehow convince you the church is your enemy, then I can open the door to another option, another belief that is the champion of women.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: The door is open, the church is the enemy of women, what will fill the void?
SPEAKER_00: What will champion women?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of brokenness in what has filled that void.
SPEAKER_01: And it it burdens me for women.
SPEAKER_00: Who stands in line at the abortion clinics over what was allowed for women when we looked at other options?
SPEAKER_00: The brokenness in this world, the sadness that said, I'm unloved, I need something everyone has forgotten about me.
SPEAKER_00: And it breaks my heart to think about us getting mixed up in that and not just coming forward to say, Do you not know who Jesus is?
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know how loved you are?
SPEAKER_00: Can we not open God's word and explore it for the numerous times that Jesus showed?
SPEAKER_00: We just studied the Samaritan woman at the well.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful story.
SPEAKER_00: To lean into that truth and to lean into that love and say, that's who God is.
SPEAKER_00: This other stuff is just background noise.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I don't want to be any part of that.
SPEAKER_00: And do you think when when we allow that, what that means for the enemy?
SPEAKER_00: It's that old question.
SPEAKER_00: Did God really say as he approaches this conflict with women, did God really say the deception that God must be keeping something from you instead of desiring something for you?
SPEAKER_00: What God desires for you, but the world is just itching to to grab you and pull you into an alternate into an alternate view.
SPEAKER_01: Where is your champion?
SPEAKER_01: Your champion is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no other.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, severe persecution has to ensue when you hear something like this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're not going to tolerate it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, get ready, church.
SPEAKER_00: The war is coming.
SPEAKER_00: You know, get get your battle, get ready.
SPEAKER_01: But the the attack, it's it's a sneak attack.
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Do we stand ready, church, in God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Because what follows isn't persecution.
SPEAKER_00: It's consumerism that's being described here.
SPEAKER_00: I I know what I want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: My ears are itching for a message that is pleasing to me and one I can't agree with.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: There's there's church down the road and they're preaching something over there, I can get behind.
SPEAKER_00: I I can agree with that.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: That's comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: The church becomes a business, and the person that gets to teach is the one that wins the popularity contest.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I want to go over there.
SPEAKER_00: And when we talk about consumerism and you want to know where it slips in, it slips in through us.
SPEAKER_00: Church not being guarded.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that sounded good.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, that was a good message.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't difficult to hear.
SPEAKER_00: That didn't challenge me a bit.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait for lunch.
SPEAKER_00: When our passions get to govern what gets taught, then sin is no longer sin.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we see that all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Say it all the time, my ears are itching.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
SPEAKER_00: That's so tolerant, that's so inclusive, that's so and and and fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00: I feel good.
SPEAKER_00: When was the last time somebody called out sin?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: How severe does this become?
SPEAKER_00: It's this severe, they turn away from listening to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's so offensive.
SPEAKER_00: Like I I can't even I can't even stand it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want any part of that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want I don't want to hear that truth.
SPEAKER_00: The church is no longer standing on a biblical foundation, and what is it teaches is it's as good as mythology.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: It's as good as mythology is how bad it gets.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm gonna navigate this in some way, hopefully a good way.
SPEAKER_00: We see that today with politicians, they're they're labeled Christian in order to garner conservative votes.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I see you guys sitting out here, look at these numbers.
SPEAKER_00: How many votes can I get?
SPEAKER_00: They want to get those conservative votes, and then they say something like, God needed Mary's permission for conception.
SPEAKER_00: And you you see something like that get published, and all I can say is this is pure mythology.
SPEAKER_00: It is it's pure mythology.
SPEAKER_00: It is a it is a tale that's being spun that that somehow we're looking at that going, you know, this is this person is a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we start to we start to throw throw labels out there, and then we we hear something, and to accept that, do you realize how constraining that is for God?
SPEAKER_00: God has to have a plan B.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, we appropri we approached Mary about that deal, it just didn't pan out.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't pan pan out because Mary turned it down.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's what's that's what's being said, it's what's being implied.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's like, hey, it it hey, it all worked out.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And when and when we hear that, if we just kind of sit like, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's just kind of in the weeds, it's a little blurry, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: That's a counterfeit.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lie.
SPEAKER_00: That's something that's being told to kind of spin to make you comfortable so you can get in and and and then you cast a vote based on that.
SPEAKER_00: But if we as believers don't stand up and call that what it is, the world won't.
SPEAKER_00: The world will say, boy, that was an easy thing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I go this way out, and it's an easy path.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody challenges me.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: If there's reproof, rebuke, and exhortation, then there's a church filled with God's people, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, armed with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We must be ready for this season and standing on the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be building each other up in God's word to be ready, to be awake, to be alert, to recognize a sneak attack when it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: I think we deceive ourselves when we think a trumpet's gonna blow and the enemy's gonna come in the doorway.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's gonna be what's comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: I I I I hate to say that.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna feel comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm thinking of C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
SPEAKER_00: It's the little things, guys.
SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not the big.
SPEAKER_00: So the commitment.
SPEAKER_00: But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And like Timothy, it's the same for us.
SPEAKER_00: Always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
SPEAKER_00: This commitment isn't limited to Timothy or the elders of the church, it's for each and every one of us to be this way.
SPEAKER_00: It's for us to be the church.
SPEAKER_00: And this, I will say in this uh evangelist, there is a suggestion that, you know, their roles, there was elder and there was evangelist, and somehow you could just label that, okay, that person's role is evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they will do.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is saying is that that's you too, Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just put that, you can't just say, well, that's my elder, you know, that's my whatever, you know, this person is.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's for us to engage in this world with God's truth and to go and evangelize.
SPEAKER_00: That's us being obedient.
SPEAKER_00: That's us being faithful with that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, fulfill your ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna close with James one twenty-two through twenty-five.
SPEAKER_00: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man that looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and he goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
SPEAKER_00: But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not spend this time, take our efforts to study, and not be doers.
SPEAKER_00: So, one thing I do want to add before I close one thing you can do if you've never accepted Christ, is to accept Christ as your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're always here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there are members here.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to find an elder to talk to somebody about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I would encourage you to talk to somebody right next to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's not reserved for me, but I'm here as well.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd love to talk to you about that.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Father, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: We love you for your truth.
SPEAKER_00: We love you for revealing yourself to us.
SPEAKER_00: God, we have so many reasons to speak your truth into this world because we are your people of hope.
SPEAKER_00: And God, when the world looks and they see all of the turmoil and all of the things and they say, How can you have hope?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what an opportunity to speak to the reason for our hope, to share Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that as we engage this world that you would renew our minds, that we would see the schemes of Satan, that we would see the false things of this world, and they would fall away from us like scales from the eyes of the blind.
SPEAKER_00: And you would help us to see.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, we don't want to take a position to appear arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: We want to take a position to feel purchased by the blood of Christ and redeemed, and go and express that into this world.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray to that end, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be your people.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to move as you've called us, to be obedient, to be prepared with your word, with the gospel in season and out for your glory in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.