Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you. I'm so
thankful to everyone for handling everything while I was gone.
Thankful to Brother Rex for coming, and Brother Obi, and the singers, and the readers, and the players. We had a good vacation, and very
thankful to have had it, and I'm glad to be back. I sincerely
missed you all. I'm very thankful to see Brother
William and Sabrina. We love you both. They gave a
thank you note to this congregation. I put it on the bulletin board.
Brother John Chapman sent one as well. That's on the bulletin
board. And I'm very thankful. Let's have a word of prayer together. Our high and holy Heavenly Father,
Lord, we come to you this morning truly so grateful for another
day to gather in your name. Lord, there are times when we
really enter into the privilege and the blessing that has been
given to us in this form of worshiping you. And we are so, so grateful,
Lord. Thank you for all of your kindness
to us and to our brethren. Thank you for your sparing hand. Through all of the. The devastation
that you sent. And we pray Lord that you would
be honored and glorified in all. All of these things, Lord, we
pray that you will be honored and glorified today as we look
into your word. Teach us and. Help us and bless
us. Be with our teachers right now. Be with our children right now. And we just pray, Lord, that
you will. Look our way. Just let your countenance
be on us. We pray that you will be with
all of our brethren who are standing in pulpits. We pray for Brother
Luke this morning. He's in Madisonville. Lord, help
him and bless him. We pray for all of our brethren
going through trials. Be with them and comfort them,
we pray. Keep us looking to you, Lord. Let us not stray like we
are so prone to do. Draw us nearer to you. Draw near
to us, meet with us, have mercy on us and forgive us, for Christ's
sake, amen. Turn with me to 2 Timothy, chapter
two. 2 Timothy two, we're a very small
crowd this morning. And I kind of like that every
now and then. I know that sounds strange, but
it feels more intimate to me. It feels like I can just talk
more and I don't have to preach so much. Kind of reminds me of
the old days. And I have something to just
talk to you about this morning. It's too long. This is too long. I don't know if I'm going to
get through this Bible study. I want to. I'm starting late. And I'll go as long as I can
go, and then we'll stop. Hopefully, we'll see. But I really
have something to say this morning. I really have something on my
heart. And I pray the Lord will make it to be a blessing. 2 Timothy,
1 and 2 Timothy, these two books, They are among the last letters
or the last epistles that the Apostle Paul wrote. 2 Timothy is very commonly believed
to be his last letter before his death. And Paul is writing
to Timothy in regard to him being a pastor to the church at Ephesus. That's what he is writing in
regard to. And throughout chapter one, and
then continuing in chapter two, the heading at the top of my
page says that Timothy is exhorted to constancy and perseverance. He is exhorted to consistency. He is exhorted to faithfulness. He is exhorted to a continuing
in what God has called him to do. And I pray that God would
give me that. And I pray that God will give
you that. Think about it, okay? Just think
about it. Don't you want God to give me that? I do too. And I want God to give
you that, in the same way that you want God to give me that. You want the Lord our God to
give me a constancy and perseverance. And that's what I want God to
give you. Same thing, in the same way. Look back at 1 Timothy. Go to the book of 1 Timothy,
chapter one. Verse two, Paul said unto Timothy,
my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God, our
father in Jesus Christ, our Lord, as I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus. He's setting up the whole point
he's making here. When I went into Macedonia, that
thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
He said, you stay here and exhort these brethren to teach and follow
and believe no other doctrine but what God has given to us.
The doctrine of God alone, God's word alone. Look at verse 18. This charge I commit unto thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before
on thee that thou mightest war a good warfare. War a good warfare. Contend, that's what he said.
Fight for the truth of these things. There's gonna be so much
opposition. That's what a war is. Two sides
that are opposed to each other. Fight for the truth of these
things. Look at chapter four, verse 13. First Timothy four,
13. Till I come, give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift
that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying
on of the hands of the Presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give
thyself wholly, completely to them, that thy profiting may
appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, Timothy. and unto the doctrine continue
in them. For in doing this thou shalt
both save thyself and them that hear thee." This is convicting
to me and it ought to be convicting to me. It's a good thing to be
convicted in this way. Paul said, give attendance, neglect
not, meditate on these things. Take heed unto thyself and unto
the doctrine. Continue in them. Continue in
them. Look at chapter six, verse 20. Oh, Timothy, keep that which
is committed to thy trust. avoiding profane and vain babblings
and oppositions of science, falsely so-called, which some professing
have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. Stay
on Christ. That's what he's telling him.
That's what he said through the whole first letter. Don't get
sidetracked by anything. Stay on Christ. Stay on the Word
of Christ. All right, now look at the second
letter, 2 Timothy. Chapter 1, verse 8, Paul said,
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
Don't be ashamed of this message, this declaration of Christ our
Lord. Verse 13, Hold fast the form
of sound words. Stay on Christ, get on Christ
and stay on Christ. The word of God concerning Christ.
That's what Paul has been saying the whole time. And I said all
that and I showed you all that to point out that he is just
continuing the same thing. Same old thing, okay? He continues
the exhortation of constancy and perseverance in chapter two. And that's where we are now.
And I want to look at what he says here in the first seven
verses as a whole, a message. You're going to see this immediately.
A message could be brought from each one of these verses. We
may do that. We may go back and see a message
from each verse, but I want to see the first part of chapter
two as a whole first. All right, so let's read these
first seven verses. Thou therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou
hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that woreth
entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please
him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also
strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive
lawfully. The husbandman that laboreth
must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say,
and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Again, Paul is
exhorting Timothy in the responsibility of being a pastor. And he told
Timothy right there what to preach, how to preach it. He told him to mentor the message
to other men. He told him the responsibility
of forwarding the message to the next generation. He told
him what life would be like for a man in the ministry and how committed he should be
if he's going to be in the ministry. This was critical information
for Timothy. And this is critical information
for us. This is very critical. We need
to take this to heart. I believe, and this is a moment
where I'm just talking to you, just me and you. I believe we
need this now more than God's people ever have. I honestly
believe that God's people need this And what I'm about to say
is to us and for us, and it's for all of God's people. It's
interesting to me that not many of us are here today. Because
I have felt in my heart that I am saying this to us, definitely
we're included, but I'm saying it to that camera right there.
Maybe somebody's watching on the other side of that camera
right there, right now. And if the Lord tarries 50 years
from now, this is 2024, maybe in 2074, somebody will
find this on the internet and God will use it and bless it
in that moment in time. I believe God's church needs
to hear this, needs to know this. It's critical information. We
need this more than we ever have. Paul said in verse seven, consider
what I say, ponder this, meditate on this. This is important. This is important. All right.
Let me, let me try to very quickly. If I can't do it, I'm not going
to do it very quickly. We'll just stop and I'll figure
out how to pick up next week. But verse one, Thou therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That's what to preach,
how to preach it. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. You could see a whole message
from that, couldn't you? He said, Timothy, if you're going
to preach, be strong in grace. That's a preacher's class. That's
what that is. That's a preacher's class. If
you're going to preach, then you be strong in grace. Don't frustrate the grace of
God. Don't muddy the waters of the
grace of God. Now I say that, I repeat that
to myself and I say that to any other man who's had the responsibility
of the task of preaching laid on him. If we are going to preach,
we need to be strong in grace. Grace is our message. That's
what we preach. We preach grace. Wherein do you
differ over there? Here it is. We preach grace.
Oh, we preach grace too. We preach grace alone. We preach
grace by itself. We preach the free gift of salvation
through the finished work of Christ. We actually preach that
salvation is totally of the Lord. Earned by Him, freely given to
us through Him, applied to us in Him. It's of God. It's through God. It's to God.
He gets the credit for it. He gets the glory for it. All
of it. He started it. He performed it. He finished it in and by the
blood of his cross. It was all grace, grace, God's
grace. And what about man's responsibility?
We don't preach that. Isn't that a little weird? We
don't preach that. We are not weak in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. We're strong by God's grace. If we are, he gets a glory for
it. By God's grace, we're strong in it. By God's grace, we are
not going to be strong in the works that is in man's flesh. We're going to be weak in the
works that is in man's flesh. And by God's grace, we're going
to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Salvation
is not by man. Salvation is not by man's works. It's by God's grace alone. And
God's grace can only be found in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's what we preach, that's
how we preach it. Verse two, and the things that
thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou
to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. First
of all, what is a faithful man? He said, you commit this to faithful
men. What is a faithful man? What makes a man faithful? Here
it is, a faithful man or a faithful woman is a man who is full of faith. That's what it is. Not works. I need to be faithful. I got
to work, work, work, work, work. A faithful man is a man that
is full of faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A man can only be faithful in Christ. A man can only be full
of faith in Christ. But if a man is gonna preach,
that's what he needs to be. And I'm not saying that's what
I am. I haven't arrived, I haven't attained. Even the apostles said,
increase our faith. We believe, help our unbelief.
But that's what we need to be, and that's all that we need to
be. If a man is gonna preach, that's all that he needs to be.
He doesn't need to be full of knowledge. He doesn't need to be full of
charisma. He needs to be full of faith
that looks only to Christ. If a man is gonna preach, Christ
needs to be the only object of that man. The only mark that his sights
are set on. The question needs to be asked,
is Christ enough? Are you preaching the whole counsel
of God if Christ is all that you're preaching? Are we really
preaching the whole counsel of God? Yes. Yes, Christ. He's the finish line. If a man
is going to preach, he needs to believe the Word of Christ. He needs to glorify the Word
of Christ. He needs to feed the sheep of
God with the Word of Christ. That's a faithful man. That's
a faithful man. And here's the thing about that.
It is the pastor's responsibility to not lay hold of any man suddenly,
number one. Number one. But then to pray
for and seek the guidance of God's spirit in at his time,
raising up the right man, making it known. And he does. When he
raises up a man, he makes it known to people. I think the
Lord's hand is on him. And it is the pastor's responsibility
to mentor and to encourage that man in the message of the grace
of God that is only found in the blood of Christ Jesus our
Lord. That is a pastor's responsibility. And we pastors need to hear that
now more than ever. I'm telling you, the United States
of America needs gospel preachers. And it is the pastor's responsibility
to Pray that God would raise up some. And pray that God would
give us wisdom to speak to, to encourage, to mentor. I need mentoring. But you know
what Paul is saying? It's our responsibility. It's
not our responsibility to just let this thing die out. It's
our responsibility to pass this message along. Oh, y'all have
heard it a thousand times. Those babies in the nursery haven't.
They haven't. We need this message. Verse two,
the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the
same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach
others also. Verse three, thou therefore endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He said, Timothy,
endure the hardness. That word hardness translates,
suffer the hardships, suffer the troubles, endure the afflictions.
If a man is called to be a pastor, it is going to be hard. It looks easy. I know that it looks easy because
I used to think it was easy before I was called to do it. Really,
it looks like you have all kinds of time on your hands. You just
visit with people, you just call people on the phone, and then
you throw a little something together last minute to stand
up and say in the pulpit, we're just kind of repeating the same
old things anyway. Believe Paul on this. Trust the
Apostle Paul on this. Trust God Almighty speaking through
the Apostle Paul on this. It's going to be hard. It's going
to be hard. He compared it to a soldier in
the military who's in the middle of war. Verse four, he said,
no man that wareth. Verse three, thou therefore endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He compared it
to a soldier in the military who's at war. And I was never
in the military, and I can't speak on what it's like to be
a soldier today, but back when this was written, They didn't
have drones that could drop missiles. Some guy controlling it in a
completely different country. And they didn't have fighter
jets who could just wipe out a whole hillside, you know. Back
when this was written, war was hand-to-hand hard. It was hard. And I know that
many of you have jobs and careers that are hard. I'm not trying
to diminish any other career, but being a pastor is among those
hard jobs. A dear brother and fellow pastor
told me, we were talking about it a long time ago, and he said,
I was such a fool. He said, when I was called to
be a pastor, he left his regular work. I did too. And he said,
when I was called to be a pastor, he said, in my mind, I was considering
it early retirement. And I said, I get it. I don't
know if that's exactly what I thought, but I kind of, I don't know. I did think, well, I'll go visit
my dad all the time, and I'll just get somebody to fill in
for me in the pulpit. It didn't work. I can't get to
Fairmont to save anybody's life. I go about once every two or
three years. Verse three, thou therefore endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth
entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please
him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Paul said, Timothy,
it's going to be hard and you're going to have to commit your
all to it or you will never survive. Verse four, no man that wareth
entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please
him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. What he's saying is
when a man is in the military and specifically at war, that's
what he's talking about right here. No soldier in the middle
of battle entangles himself with the affairs of this life. In
the heat of the firefight. You know, no soldier goes out
to work a job in that moment to support life, you know, housing,
food, living expenses. Can you imagine our soldiers
at war right now? Can you imagine them all having
to go work a nine to five job? The military is their job. Full time. Could you imagine
them having to get off work, come back to the battlefront,
you know, put their fatigues on and their bulletproof vest
on and get their rifle and say, okay, where are we on things?
You talk about lose the battle. Our military feeds those soldiers
and clothes those soldiers and houses those soldiers. Why? So
they can be completely focused on and committed to the task
at hand. That's how committed a pastor
needs to be to the task at hand. I'm telling you, this convicts
me. I'm flesh just like anybody else. Elijah had like passions just
like any other man. You constantly think about the
affairs of life. I have a wife, I have children, It's difficult. But that's how committed a pastor
needs to be to the task that has been laid on him. Paul is
not saying that, you know, you can't take some time off to rest,
you can't take a vacation. Our Lord did that. He resorted
to the Mount of Olives often for a rest. It's not what he's
saying at all. What he's saying is, A congregation
should commit their all to supporting their pastor. You know how difficult
that is for me to say right now? It's not really difficult because
everybody in here, I did think, I did wonder if we would have
visitors. We don't have any visitors in this room. Everybody here
knows me. You know, you know that I'm repeating
what's written here, but we need to hear this. The congregation
of God needs to hear this now, 50 years from now. A congregation
should commit their all to supporting their pastor. You all have. You all have. And he's saying
with that, a pastor should commit his all to the work of studying
and preaching the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I pray that God will cause
me to Do what needs to be done on my end as he has already caused
you to do what needed to be done on your end. You have done it.
But here's what I am saying. Keep doing it. For the sake of
the ministry. For the sake of the cause of
Christ. For the sake of the gospel. of Christ, and may he cause all
of us to strive to improve and increase in what he's caused
us to do. Verse five, and I'm gonna keep
going, okay? Even if we have a really fast
turnaround, I just want this to all be together. Verse five,
if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except
he strive lawfully. He said, if we're gonna master
any task, we need to strive to master it. If you want to be
the best in playing an instrument, I'm telling you, you're going
to have to strive at it. If you want to be an athlete
that goes to the Olympics, you're going to have to strive at it. And you're going to have to never
stop striving. You're going to have to do it.
You're going to have to do it right. May we pastors May we pastors
never get to the place where we say, how I'm preaching to
the people is good enough. The way that I feed the sheep
here, that's good enough. That's just good enough. Absolutely not. May we pastors
strive to be more clear, more honoring, more glorifying, more
focused on the person and the work of Jesus Christ with every
message that passes. May the next one be clearer than
the last one. May the next one be more glorifying
than the last one. And may the congregations for
the good of the ministry, for the advancement of the gospel,
for the cause of Christ that all pastors are engaged in. May
every true congregation that exists right now see their responsibility in the
cause. And may they see their pastor
as a soldier. and do everything they can do
to provide everything that he needs. What does he need? More food? What
does he need? More bullets? What does he need? Another bulletproof vest? Has
he been shot up so badly that he could use another bulletproof
vest? May congregations strive to provide,
strive to do more. May the true congregation of
Christ never say, what we do for our pastor is enough. We don't need to do anything
more. If he needs to do something on the side to take care of the
affairs of life, he can do that. That's the attitude of a losing
battle. Now, again, I'm just gonna say
this because you all know me, but if somebody hears this online,
they don't know me. And I am not saying this on my
own behalf. I'm not saying this for my own
behalf. You all know that. I'm saying this for God's called
soldiers, fellow soldiers, future soldiers. The good of the cause. Soldiers, pastors, me at the
top of the list, this is what I have to say. Gabe Stoniker,
commit yourself. Snap out of it. You see people
smack themselves in the face. Commit yourself. Pastors, soldiers,
commit yourselves. Those of you who support soldiers,
commit yourselves. Verse 5, If a man also strive
for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully,
properly, fully, completely. He's got to do it right. We're
going to do this, we need to do it right. Verse 6, The husbandman
that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. The farmer that
grows the vegetables must eat the vegetables if he's going
to continue farming. That's what he's saying. And
that has a physical application, but it most definitely has a
spiritual application. If you're going to be blessed
by the preacher, the preacher needs the time and the ability
to give himself to studying and digging into the Word of God,
that he might be blessed first. and can then bring that blessing
to you. If a man does not have the time
or the ability to give himself to the study and the meditation
of these things, then the congregation should not expect to receive
a blessing from that man. If a congregation desires a blessing,
then God will give that congregation the heart to fully support the
man. He is the delivery man. He's
not the author of the message. He's not the author of the blessing.
He's God's means. He's just the delivery man. And I pray this will be for the
good of the gospel. I pray it will be for the good
of the ministry. I pray it will be for the good of God's people.
I pray it will take the most effect in me, in my heart. But as Paul said, I pray the
Lord will cause us to consider these things. Verse seven, consider
what I say. The Lord will give you understanding.
in all things. I pray that he'll move our hearts
in this direction more and more. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.