WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:07.599 This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:13.199 For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantParquay.org. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:15.759 We love at the thought of you coming back. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.960 We want to agree with John and say, Marinat the Lord, come. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:21.839 Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly. 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:24.160 Because of you, God. 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:25.760 Because of what you've done for us. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:27.120 There's confidence. 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:32.960 We can sit in here and hold up hands because we have a relationship with you that you bought for us. 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:35.039 So therefore, we are bound. 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:39.759 Father, speak. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:43.280 We don't want to move forward as my friends say. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.479 We don't want to continue on if you don't continue to be here. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:47.520 Because what would be the point? 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:49.039 The colossal waste of time. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:49.840 So be here. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:50.560 Be present. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:51.119 Speak. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:52.159 Use your word. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:53.200 We love you. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:54.799 Your name I pray. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:55.679 Amen. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:56.240 Amen. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:57.359 Will y'all do me a favor? 00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:58.719 Grab a seat. 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:00.240 Let me introduce myself. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:02.560 My name, uh, as Neil mentioned earlier. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:07.519 My name is Aaron Cotton, and I'm the student pastor uh here at uh at Grand Grand Park. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:14.879 It's always always a privilege to stand before you uh this morning on uh senior recognition uh Sunday. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:22.079 Um if you got your Bibles, would you open up with me uh to first, I'm sorry, to 2 Timothy uh chapter chapter 3. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:32.799 Uh and what I want to do this morning is uh is I want to I want to read the text and then I I want to come back to the text and allow the text to kind of walk us through what God wants us to hear uh this morning. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:38.560 You heard a lot of text this morning because the title of uh our sermon is The Living Truth. 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:40.640 Uh the living the living truth. 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:45.519 Uh Paul writes this to young Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:47.439 We'll start in verse 10. 00:01:47.599 --> 00:02:10.319 He says, You, you, however, have followed my teachings, uh, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith and my patience, my love and my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:22.800 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, and while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:40.080 But as for you, Timothy, not like these other guys, continue in what you have learned and what you have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:43.520 You've got a pen bracket this verse for me, it's verse 16. 00:02:43.919 --> 00:03:00.639 All scripture is God breathed, breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:17.039 I want to open up with a question uh this morning, and the question uh would be this if you were on your deathbed, you've got to the point in your life where you're about to tap out on this world and enter into the next, if you were on your deathbed, who would you want in the room and what and what would you say? 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:22.879 If you've ever been in a moment like that where someone is passing, there's a there's a depth to the room. 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:26.800 There's a lot of fidgeting going on in the room, and there's a lot of listening in. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:30.560 There's a few words that are mentioned in an environment as this. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:32.479 And you think, Aaron, why would you ask that question? 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:39.360 Because when Paul is writing to Timothy, this is his second imprisonment, and he is on the brink of uh of death. 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:45.120 He is about to uh uh, like I said, end this world as we know it and enter into the next. 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:53.759 And he is not uh like in house arrest in his first imprisonment, but he was in his second uh in Rome under this uh this ruler named Nero. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:04:01.280 He was a ruthless ruler, a ruthless guy who was popular up front, but eventually people thought uh that he was crazy. 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:05.280 He he would he would go out uh into and he would persecute Christians. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:14.879 There was a fire that happened uh back back then about about 64 uh or 65 AD, and this fire broke out and uh uh and it burned 10 out of the 14 sections of Rome. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.040 And then the people needed to blame somebody, right? 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:23.600 Because you've ever been in that situation and you have a sibling in the house, you know when you get blamed for something, it ain't me, no, it's their fault. 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:25.360 I I want to get that off of me. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:28.480 So he in the same way says, now I didn't I didn't do anything. 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:31.439 Let's blame somebody, let's blame, let's blame the Christians. 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:38.720 So the entire empire goes out to to goes out towards towards Christians to put an end to them. 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:44.639 What Nero used to do, he used to uh uh dress these Christians in furs to be killed by dogs. 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:49.600 Others were crucified, and still others were set on fire to illuminate the night. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:53.439 And then he would open up his garden for everybody to come and watch. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:55.040 Sick and dark. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:56.160 But people came. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:58.480 You think, Aaron, why would you write this? 00:04:58.560 --> 00:04:59.920 Or why would why would you say this? 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:10.240 Because it this is what's happening during this time, that it's dark, it's dark and depraved, and yet the church, the kingdom of God, is in the midst and it's and it's growing. 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:13.360 And who who's entrusted to this, to the to the church? 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:14.480 Young Timothy. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:18.879 If you know anything about Timothy, we know he's young uh and that he is sickly. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:26.240 Uh, and as my students say all the time, probably way too much, not probably, they do say way too much, is that Timothy was awkward. 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:28.000 Everything's awkward these days, right? 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:35.600 You just something happened in the house and people don't know it's awkward, like I've just walked in uh the room, but apparently, okay, this is this is awkward. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:41.439 Uh, but Timothy, being awkward, he was known as awkward, sickly, and and he and he was young. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:54.240 That's why Paul says at the beginning of his of his book, he says, Timothy, you haven't been given a spirit of timidity or awkwardness, but of power, of dyno might, of and love and discipline. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:06:02.560 That Timothy, you're your temptation to shrink back and to lay low and to excuse yourself to what God has entrusted you. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:05.680 You are without excuse, you possess power. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:08.560 Possess love and you possess discipline. 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:20.079 Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2 that even though he's in chains, even though he's in a dungeon, even though he is behind bars, he makes this comment though though I am bound, the word of God is not bound. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:22.480 It's about to be unleashed in this place. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:25.920 Someone grabbed me before I came up and he said, Hey man, rock it tonight. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:26.720 I said, Yeah. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:36.399 Yeah, it's it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna be brought because when the word of God is open, church, as we stand before God's whole word as it is opened up, it ought to open up us. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:40.480 It ought to, because we're gonna read here, look with me in 2 Timothy chapter 3. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:59.439 Paul says to young awkward Timothy, he says, You, however, unlike these false teachers who love pleasure and who love self rather than God, you have, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, and my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, and my steadfastness. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:03.680 And I thought if I was tracking with Paul, I would agree with him in every single one of those. 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:08.639 Yeah, if you got a pen, put discipleship next to verse 10, because that's that's what it is. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:17.839 Timothy, you have followed my teaching, you followed my my conduct, not that I just acted one way on Sunday, but no, I was consistent every day throughout the week. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:30.720 My aim in life, my my purpose, according to Philippians 3, laying everything what lies behind and pressing on to what lies ahead, my faith, my trust, my patience, and my hupamone, my endurance. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:33.199 You followed me in all these things. 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:44.000 And then he writes also, Timothy, follow me in my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium in Lystra. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:48.240 It was at this point in the text I looked at and I was like, nah, Paul, I'm good on that one, right? 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:52.560 I'm good on the faith and the patience and the and the teaching, the conduct, and the purpose. 00:07:53.040 --> 00:08:00.879 I'm good with all, but persecutions and sufferings that happened in Iconium, Lystra, and Antioch. 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:02.720 These three places are significant. 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:08.319 If you ever notice when you're in conversation with somebody and you don't really know them, you always ask, well, hey, yeah, where where are you from? 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:14.800 And they uh and if they're from your hometown, like the whole conversation goes to a whole other level of, oh yeah? 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:16.319 Oh, have you been at this place? 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:17.680 You know, this joint is amazing. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:18.720 Brown in the back. 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:20.240 Of course, no one knows about it, right? 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:21.120 But I do, right? 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:22.399 Because this is our our hometown. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:25.279 The whole conversation conversation goes to a whole different level. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:31.600 And and Paul mentions these three places because Lystra was actually Timothy's hometown. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:39.679 Any any country music listening people, this is the point Paul got his boom box out with Eric Church and started saying, This is my hometown. 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:41.120 Like this was his jam. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:46.480 Like Paul's about to say, hey, remember, remember where you were from, remember your hometown. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:50.000 If you got your Bibles, go with me to Acts chapter 14. 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:56.720 I want to read to you what happened in Iconium, uh, in Antioch, in Lystra. 00:08:56.960 --> 00:09:00.399 Because Paul is jogging his men, his memory. 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:03.759 Remember my persecutions and my sufferings. 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:05.279 We'll go to Acts 14. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:21.759 The Bible says this, after Paul just healed a man, Luke writes, and when the crowd saw that what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lyconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:30.480 And it says in the Lyconian language, if you've ever been around Spanish-speaking people and you don't know Spanish, it gets a little difficult to understand, right? 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:32.080 This is the this is where Paul is at. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:33.600 They're speaking in Lyconian. 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:36.960 The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:41.200 And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:42.399 I thought that was funny. 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:44.240 Like Paul's the one that he did all the work. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:45.679 Like he healed a guy, right? 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:48.159 He he healed, and he he's labeled as Barnabas. 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:50.799 I'm sorry, he's labeled as Hermes, the messenger. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:52.799 And Barnabas, who didn't do anything, right? 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:53.840 He's just kind of camping out. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:55.360 This is pretty this is pretty cool. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:56.639 It gets named as Zeus. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:10:03.600 And what happens is the whole the whole town uh comes out, and uh Paul says to them, men, why are you doing these things? 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:07.200 We are also men of like nature with you. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:26.320 Church, be careful of who you put on a pedestal too high, because they are in like nature with us, for we bring good news, we bring the gospel that should turn you from vain things to a living God, repentance, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:40.799 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave them without a witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:47.200 Even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:59.279 Paul says, Hey, all these things that you've really enjoyed, the the the rains that have have come, the fruitful seasons, the satisfaction of your heart with food and gladness, like those things are good, but you're you're missing it. 00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:01.919 All all these things come from the ultimate giver. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:02.960 Like you're you're you're missing. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.080 Let me let me let me tell you about the the living God. 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:12.000 And anytime church, the word of God is open, anytime truth is proclaimed, people will respond. 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:13.759 And look how the people respond. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:26.000 People Jews, according to verse 19, came from Antioch, Iconium, and persuaded the crowds, and they stoned Paul, and they dragged him out of the city, supposing, supposing that he was dead. 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:35.279 They they began to stone him, that he was not he was knocked out, and and they they thought they the reason why they quit is because they thought they thought he was dead. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:39.600 I uh at my house when I was uh growing up, everybody has a pet that they have, right? 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:43.840 For me and my but my the pet that we we have is my a cat named Patrick, right? 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:45.519 Who names their cat Patrick? 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:47.600 Like that's a that's a huge my mom does. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:49.840 Uh she named our cat Patrick, right? 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:52.559 She nursed that thing from from when it was a kitten, right? 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:54.960 Apparently it survived uh be because of her. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:59.039 And I remember uh I was in my house uh one one evening and my I heard my mom scream. 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:02.000 And when my mom screams, it's usually not that big of a deal. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:05.279 She's making something real small and just blowing that thing, blowing it like a bug. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:07.679 Like usually she can't do bugs, can't do roaches or spiders. 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:10.320 Those things, if you ask her, she just can't do it. 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:12.080 I heard this blood curdling scream. 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:13.679 You thought murder would have happened, right? 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:16.399 So I go in like Matlock, I'm in, I'm investigating. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:16.960 That's right. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:17.759 I watch Matlock. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:20.559 I go in there and I'm investigating, or Columbo, let's use Columbo. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:23.679 I just go in there and I'm investigating the scene, the scene, what is going on. 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:29.120 And my my cat Patrick was in a coma, like just passed out, like sprawled out all the way on the bed. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.440 And my mom screamed out, he's dead, he's dead. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:33.519 He's not, he's not going to get up, right? 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:39.519 And the teenager, I mean, all the you know, for all the young, uh, for you goes old, if you remember you're younger, just so interested. 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:41.200 So what I do, I got a stick. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:42.159 I got a long stick. 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:45.120 I'm gonna check to make sure if this thing is really, really dead or not. 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:47.120 So I'm going in like I'm about to pull vault, right? 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:52.159 I'm going in and investigating this scene, and I begin to take the scene, I begin just to poke it just a little bit. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:54.720 And mind you, the cat's 20 years old, right? 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:55.679 It's about time. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:59.840 We love you, it's but it's it's it's not going like it should, right? 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:01.600 It's it's probably it's probably time. 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:03.120 But at that moment, it didn't, right? 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:07.519 And I poke and began to move, and all of a sudden in that moment, it's like, okay, whoa, and I'm screaming. 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:11.679 Like, I'm I'm the one screaming out loud, uh, thinking this one cat was once dead. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:13.039 Now, now it's alive. 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:14.080 They go up on Paul. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:14.879 He's been knocked out. 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:15.919 They probably got a stick, right? 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:17.039 They're kind of from a distance. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:18.240 Paul, are are you? 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:25.360 And then he then he starts moving because church, the gospel cannot be extinguished, it cannot be put out. 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:27.279 That God was not done with Paul. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:37.039 He had a ministry in store for him for him, that even when the midst of opposition, of suffering, he rose up and entered the city. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:46.639 And on the next day he went with Barnabas to Derby, and they preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, and then they returned to Lystra. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:54.320 That Paul went back to the exact same place, the exact same place in which he was in stone, he was stoned. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.000 That this guy was motivated. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:57.360 There was nothing stopping Paul. 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:02.559 And before we put him on too high of a pedestal, we ought to remember that he is in like nature with us. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:07.519 He was motivated by the gospel, nothing was stopping him. 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:13.919 He entered the sitting through, he said, through many tribulations, according to verse 22, we must enter the kingdom of God. 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:22.720 And when they appointed elders for them in every church, and with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they in whom they had believed. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:25.279 Paul, there's no stopping Paul. 00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:28.799 He was he was committed, and you think, Aaron, why would you go back all the way? 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:32.960 Because this is the moment in Timothy's home, hometown that he ought to remember. 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:39.039 If you ever see me baptize uh students, I always say to them, I always say, Hey man, remember. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:48.559 Remember this moment in which we stand before you remember this moment because there's gonna be trials ahead, there's gonna be persecutions and there's going to be sufferings. 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:54.080 But he who is faithful now, he who's faithful now, who is faithful now will always, always be faithful. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:55.759 Always. 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:02.559 And what Paul is saying to young Timothy, awkward, young, sickly Timothy, is hey, hey, remember your hometown? 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:05.279 Remember when I got stoned and then I got up? 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:05.919 Remember that? 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:07.840 Because God wasn't done with me. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:11.200 I continue to press, I continue to press on. 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:12.000 Remember that. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:16.159 And remember that from all those the Lord had rescued me. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:17.759 Look it with me in 2 Timothy 3. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:26.320 He says this indeed, all, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:30.720 Persecution is not an option, it's a promise. 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:39.039 It's what's expected, it's what's what happened before, it's what's happened in the past with anybody because truth will always be resisted. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:44.559 That the health, wealth, and therapeutic gospel stands no place in the scriptures. 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:50.159 It stands no place because those who commit to follow Christ will inevitably face opposition. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:53.759 The truth will always be resisted, it will always be opposed. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:16:03.440 And those things that we don't like, those things that we want to we want to flee from, those are the very things and those very moments that God uses us to make us look more like Him. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:11.600 Because He's detaching our hands from what we ought not to literally woo us so we can attach it, we can attach it to Himself. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:20.879 There is a peculiar peculiar peculiar glory for those who trust Jesus in the midst of suffering. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:36.000 So when someone dies, when you don't make the team, when you lose your job, when people mistreat you, make fun of you, criticize, make you out to something you're not, when people hurt you emotionally and physically, all because of your faith in Jesus, you're not the only one. 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:43.759 You're not the only all those who went before us, Abel and the prophets and the apostles, namely Jesus himself. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:52.000 Holy living, it convicts, it convicts those who aren't in the truth. 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:56.240 And that's why they look at you and that's why they want you to join them in what they're doing. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:16:58.559 Because they're convicted. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:00.879 I love what John Piper says about this. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:11.200 If there's any guy talking about suffering, this guy talks about, he says this is the suffering is not meaninglessness, it's not vanity, but it's producing in us a peculiar weighted glory. 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:13.200 Therefore, don't lose heart. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:22.799 Take these truths of of of these living truths and preach them to your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and that you are cared for. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:31.759 In the midst of suffering, it's an it's it's an it's an invitation uh extended to you to know God in ways that you never have would have before. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:35.200 To know him in a unique way. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:41.759 In the shadows of suffering, the focus is no longer removing me from the self, but no, I want more, I want more of him. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:43.440 I want more of him in my life. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:49.440 So the first thing this morning of of lit this living truth is is the first thing we talk about is to remain in it. 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:51.680 It's to remain, remain in the truth. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:59.839 Look with me in 1 Timothy 3, the Bible says, for people will be imposters, go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:22.480 But as for you, Timothy, but as for you, continue, remain in, do not sway from in what you have learned and what you have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it, how from childhood you've been equated with the sacred scriptures, which also make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:29.759 The Timothy, you you've been trained from the beginning from from your grandma and from and from your mom. 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:37.759 That that that that this is there ought to be a continual dependence upon Jesus because it's not just some decision we made a years ago. 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:39.440 No, it's Christ didn't die for that. 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:44.319 He he died for us to completely surrender to him to remain in his in his teachings. 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:50.960 That's why when I get the graduates here in the last service, I will say to them that don't leave what you've been taught. 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:53.359 Don't leave what your parents so labored for. 00:18:53.519 --> 00:19:02.079 Don't don't don't don't leave the teachings in which you heard in which in this room, but no, to continue, to remain, to camp out, and to cling on to the truths. 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:05.279 Not sway from the right or to the left. 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:10.559 There's a learning, and then there's also a firmly, a firmly believing. 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:15.200 When I was growing up, church church wasn't an option. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:18.000 Like we didn't have the option not to go to church. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.079 My mom would always come in and say, Boys, it's time, it's time to go to church. 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:30.160 And uh we uh we always knew when my mom would be coming into the house, our way our AC is set up, you can hear the note like we had it down to a T, right? 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:34.000 And every every Sunday morning, uh it was always war at my house, right? 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:36.799 And my mom would uh be some of y'all experienced this this morning. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:38.559 Uh so you can really resonate with this. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:43.119 I I was one of those kids that just did not, I just did not care for church, didn't care to go. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:46.480 None of my friends really, really went there, but it wasn't it wasn't an option. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:51.519 And we I hear we hear her come in to come wake us up, and we'd eventually just start playing possum. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:57.680 Well, Sunday morning, oh we had we had no idea, then we'd intentionally be just walking real slow. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:59.519 Uh just to go, no, get in the car. 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:06.880 Like we're going, we're going to church, and we go, we go to church, and I mean I would hear and I would sit in the back because I was always way too cool for school, right? 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:09.279 I was always the guy that this is for all them. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:11.359 I I don't really need any of this. 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:14.240 And I remember the way that my mom would wake us up. 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:15.759 She called it the elephant lick, right? 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:18.480 She would, instead of just dumping water on us, right? 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:20.480 She'd come and just have a wet rag, right? 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:22.000 Oh, you ain't gonna get oh, you're sleeping. 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:23.039 Oh, sorry about that. 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:26.960 And she'd just start taking that wet rag and just rubbing it all over our faces. 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:28.720 And at that moment, it's like, okay, I'm out. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:31.839 I'm out, I'm I quit, I tap out, my submit, all right. 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:32.880 She put us in the headline. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:35.839 Like, we're going to we're going to church without, it's not a choice. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:37.519 Like it's it's happening, all right? 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:38.480 Submit. 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:40.000 Submit to your mom. 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:47.839 So we go and we I go to church and I, like I said, I never I never really's I I remember studying scripture. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:53.839 I remember even handed being handed a vest where you could memorize scripture and have patches for what you memorized, right? 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.920 It's like the religious letter jacket, right? 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:57.039 And I had that, right? 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:00.240 I had the big, like the most one covered with my patches. 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:02.640 But here, this church is I didn't know Jesus. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:05.839 I I knew a lot about him, I knew a lot of truth. 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.720 I could quote it to you, I could even sing it to you, right? 00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:12.480 I could even probably do a dance for you, Father Abraham, have many sons. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:14.079 I still remember everything. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:16.640 And I remember I remember it all. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:21.119 I remember my mom told me my fifth grade sermon says, Aaron, you're gonna you're gonna be going to summer camp. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:22.720 And I said, Mom, I are you kidding me? 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:24.079 I I've already spent Sundays with them. 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:27.119 You're telling me I have to camp out and spend a whole week with them, right? 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:28.640 Are you are you kidding me, right? 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:36.240 And I get to camp, and I'm of course, so if your children's work in their house, and you see that kid in the back who's who's doing who's doing this thing, that that was me. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:52.799 That was me in the back, and it wasn't until my my fifth grade summer, till I realized my brokenness when a when a guy up front who was playing just his acoustic guitar and who was wearing a snapback hat before it was really in, who had a beard that was way, way too long, right? 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:58.799 Uh I remember him singing Amazing Grace, and I remember thinking, why don't I think grace is amazing? 00:21:59.279 --> 00:21:59.440 What 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.559 Why it was so distant. 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:06.640 And it was in that moment I realized I didn't know Jesus. 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:13.519 That if he were to come back, if when I were to stand here and sing, I am bound, I would be fearful to stand before God Almighty. 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:14.880 But not long, no more. 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:17.920 Because in that moment I decided, God, I surrender all. 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:25.039 I'm going to forget what lies behind me, and I'm going to completely surrender and completely trust in you. 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:27.440 I'm going to place my trust in you. 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:29.119 I remember going to church. 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:32.880 I remember my mom holding my hand because you moms like to hold our hands, right? 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:38.880 And when it gets about older elementary, junior high, it's no longer to hold, no longer cool for my mom to hold my hand. 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:41.839 I remember my mom holding my hand, right, for so long, right? 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:43.680 But our hands are sweating. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:45.039 Like we got that thing going on. 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:47.359 I remember thinking, oh, this is humiliating. 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:49.599 Mom, I don't want you holding my hand. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:54.000 And I remember she would just sing over me, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Aaron. 00:22:54.079 --> 00:23:00.880 And lean not on your own understandings, but in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:06.799 And I was just a punk kid, a rebellious kid who was in the back to say, I don't want any of this. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:16.720 But God relentlessly pursued after me in that back row and said, No, God, no, no, no, no, Aaron, I want you, and I'm gonna buy you back into myself through my son. 00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:19.759 And it was irresistibly glorious. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:34.400 So when I read true, when I read truth, when I read Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, when I read stories, sometimes I just start weeping because I remember when my mom you would just labor and pray over us when I was just a knucklehead and a rebellious kid who didn't know Jesus. 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:38.480 And I rem I remember just thinking, not me. 00:23:40.559 --> 00:23:45.599 Because she trained me and she put me in a position where the truth wooed me. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:48.880 And it stirred within me. 00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:59.039 And I want to encourage those parents who have had kids and who have raised kids and who have done and you have taught and you have brought, and they're not. 00:23:59.839 --> 00:24:01.200 And they're just not they're just not around. 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:03.440 They've gone off to college and gone off to the wayside. 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:09.359 There's a reason why Paul makes a distinction between Timothy, you learning and you firmly believing. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:15.119 That the firmly believing, you placing your faith in Jesus is a work of God and Him alone. 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:18.880 So I tell people, I tell students, I I love when they're just honest with me. 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:20.799 So Aaron, I don't, I don't get this whole thing. 00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:22.160 I say, Hey man, you camp out here. 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:24.799 And that may be you in this in this room, just kind of checking things out. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:32.640 You check things out, you listen, you hear, but when the word of God goes out and it starts wooing inside you, you you got to respond. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:37.200 Because the firmly believing is a work, is a work of God. 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:42.160 Timothy, you've learned this, you've firmly believed this, you've committed yourself. 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:44.079 Committed yourself to what, Timothy? 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:45.759 Look at with me in verse 16. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:46.880 All scripture. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:49.279 This is what you've committed yourself, Timothy. 00:24:49.440 --> 00:25:02.799 All scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every every good work. 00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:22.240 All of Scripture is God breathed, not those passages that we just we we like, not just the passages that excuse the way that we live, not those, no, all of it, all of scripture is God breathed, finds its origin and is created by God to teach and to reproof and correct and train. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:24.799 And to train in righteousness. 00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:28.079 Someone grabbed me earlier before I came up and he was like, Really? 00:25:28.160 --> 00:25:29.039 Really, your your chucks? 00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:30.400 You weren't you wearing chucks today? 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:33.039 I was like, Yeah, yeah, I'm wearing my chucks, right? 00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:33.920 Were you at my wedding? 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:34.799 I wore them then too. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:37.920 Like I, though this is just this is just my these are my game day shoes. 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:44.799 Like this is this is just what I what I wear because here's the deal, church, is when we come up and we come on a Sunday morning, this is training ground. 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:52.160 This this is the point when we come on a Sunday morning from our long weeks, and we this is like in Psalm, what we just read in 32, where we find our refuge. 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:53.839 This is this is our hiding place. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:58.000 This is where we find security, and this is when we we find we find rest. 00:25:58.079 --> 00:26:05.920 And Paul says that when the word of God is taught, it's profitable for teaching, correction, and rebuking, and also training in righteousness. 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:07.440 I'm not much of a runner, right? 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:12.160 I told you guys last, I'm out of myself that last Sunday when I told y'all I ain't the running type. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:18.640 Uh uh, but uh if I were to tell you that I'm the biking type, and uh we had the MS-150 that happened uh I think a couple couple weeks ago. 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:25.440 If I were to tell you, hey, for those that are interested in going to the MS-150, hey, we're gonna go train out of Memorial Park, right? 00:26:25.599 --> 00:26:27.440 We all get together, we're all really excited about it. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:28.400 Yeah, let's go, let's go. 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:30.720 Some of you guys are like, no, y'all, you can go have that, right? 00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:32.160 I'm gonna go ride my bike, right? 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:38.799 So we get up there and we we're gonna go train, and I get you guys together, and all of a sudden someone comes without their bike. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:46.079 They come walking up like in in in in their blue jeans and in their boots and they're and they think, I oh, I I missed, I missed the memo. 00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:49.599 Like, no, man, we're training for the MS-150. 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:52.160 You need a you need a bike to tr to train. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:54.079 Like that, that would be foolish. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:57.039 That would be odd. 00:26:58.480 --> 00:26:59.519 But here's the deal, church. 00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:06.319 When we when we come in here, when we come in this training ground, and we don't and we don't bring this, we're missing it. 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:19.680 We're we're missing we're missing the training, we're we're missing, we don't have the equipment, we don't have what's before us, we don't have the correcting and re and reproof in the and the teaching if we don't center ourselves around this. 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:28.079 So question I would love to ask you that maybe we could talk about in community groups tonight is this is when is the last time this has affected you? 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:31.839 When is the last time this has affect affected you? 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:36.799 That's has never been it's not foreign, it's not something just out there, but no, it's it's personal. 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:39.279 That's personal. 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:47.279 All scriptures breathed out by God, profitable for all these things, for training, for correcting, and teaching. 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:50.480 Look with me in chapter four, Paul is gonna continue on. 00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:53.279 This is the point in which Paul he gets he gets serious. 00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:57.839 This is the moment where he gets his blue paint out, starts putting it on his face, right? 00:27:58.000 --> 00:27:59.839 He's got his he's growing out his hair. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:07.519 All my William Wallace fans in the house, Braveheart fans, this is the point where Paul gets on the horse and saying, Hey, freedom, freedom to it's it's coming. 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:08.240 Here it is. 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:09.680 I charge you. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:18.880 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:33.680 All these I I charge you in the presence of God, I charge you in the presence of the appearing kingdom in the midst of judgment, I charge you in the midst of all these things, because Paul has got, he's got to appeal to a higher authority than himself to make this charge valid. 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:36.799 And he says, I charge you, preach the word. 00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:43.759 Preach the word to herald the truth, to speak the good news, to get it, to proclaim the message. 00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:47.519 So not only are we to remain in the truth, but we're to proclaim it. 00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:53.279 We're to speak about it in our walking, in our days, and our works, the people that we are in we encounter. 00:28:53.519 --> 00:29:00.400 There's a certain specific ministry that happens here, but there's also a proclaiming truth that happens throughout the week amongst us all. 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:02.960 We should be speaking the truth. 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:05.200 We should be getting it out, speaking what? 00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:08.799 Speaking the all truth, all scriptures God breathed. 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:11.599 We should be speaking about that. 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:13.279 I charge you, preach the word. 00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:15.119 In season. 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:17.599 Be ready in season and out of season. 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:19.680 Reprove, rebuke, and exhort. 00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:22.240 And with complete patience and teaching. 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:23.200 Preach the word. 00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:25.920 In season and out of season. 00:29:27.039 --> 00:29:30.240 Back in 2009, uh, I was coming to the church. 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:37.279 I've been here about a year, and uh, and Lance was talking about going on a scouting trip uh that was gonna go to Mexico to Bustamante. 00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:40.240 Some of you guys in this room, some of you men have been there before. 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:44.400 Uh, we decided we're gonna go on a scouting trip to go check out this this potential mission site. 00:29:44.480 --> 00:29:46.960 And I, of course, the the teenager in me, right? 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:48.160 I was just so excited. 00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:55.599 Yes, sign me up, all right, to go on this unplanned, unprogrammed trip to Bustamante, Mexico. 00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:57.839 I didn't know it was gonna take 20 hours to get there, right? 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:02.079