A Picture of Suffering

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2 Timothy 2:1-7

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Turn your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 2. There's a certain story of two men that were sharing the gospel in the city of Lystra.
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By the working of God, there in their ministry, there in the city, they heal a man.
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And after they heal a man, the crowds begin to call them gods. Well, what they do is they hush the crowds and they tell them, you know, they're not gods and they share the gospel.
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And this was much to the dismay of the Jews. And so how the
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Jews responded is they took one of these men and they stoned him, drug him out of the city and they left him for dead.
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He then rose up, returned to the city, preaching the gospel in many other cities and returning to this one along the way.
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The same man was shipwrecked. He was snakebitten, thrown in jail multiple times, mocked, ridiculed, and eventually sentenced to death.
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This man once had held a fairly high status among the so -called religious leaders of the day that was gone.
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The cause of his hardships, you ask, following Christ and sharing his gospel.
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The same man writes in Philippians 3, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
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Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain
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Christ and being found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
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As you well know, this man is Paul. And we find
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Paul writing to Timothy still in the midst of suffering for the sake of the gospel.
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If you found 2 Timothy 2, if you'd please stand as we read our text this morning,
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Paul writing to Timothy, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
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Sharing the suffering is a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
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An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
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Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
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Let us pray. Father, this morning, as we have sang your praises,
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Lord, as we have through song been reminded of your truth, Lord, now we come to your word and the preaching of your word.
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I pray, Lord, that you would bless the preaching of your word this morning, that you would help me,
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Lord, to preach it rightly, to preach it boldly, Lord, that maybe it may be preached out of a heart of love for you and,
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Lord, for these that are gathered for this church. Lord, I pray that it would be applied rightly,
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Lord, I pray that you would be glorified through it as we read, Lord, of these hardships that Paul faced throughout his ministry.
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He did all, Lord, by your grace for the cause of the gospel and for Christ.
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Lord, may we too be so emboldened, not because of any strength of our own, but that can only come from you.
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Lord, we thank you this morning for Christ and it is in his name that we pray, amen. It's been a little while going through this.
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I've preached a sermon in Timothy and then it's been a month before we've heard another one or sometimes two months.
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So I don't usually take this much time to remind you of what we've talked about, but we do need to be reminded of a couple of things about 2
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Timothy before we get going. First off, this is a pastoral epistle. We mentioned that before.
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It's a pastoral epistle. There are some that are of the belief that this is something written only to the application of ministers.
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We can't mistake the context that this indeed is a letter written to Timothy as a charge to the minister of the gospel, that it is a necessity for preachers of the gospel to study this letter and the charge given in its words.
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However, the words of this text, the words of this letter are necessary for every believer as well and are applicable for every believer.
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It is a pastoral epistle. It is Paul's final letter before he was martyred.
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He is imprisoned in Rome for the second time and unlike the first time, he is not under house arrest, but he's thrown in a cold jail cell and in chains.
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He is suffering for the gospel, chained as a criminal and this was not a luxurious jail cell.
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The conditions were horrible and Paul knows his death is imminent.
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We read that in chapter 4 verses 6 through 8. He knows that his time is coming to an end and that this will probably be his last letter and he gives some final instruction to Timothy.
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He knows that these are the last words I will be able to say. This is what
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God chooses to deliver through the final words here of Paul.
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He has a very short amount of time to say what needs to be said and he covers a weighty topic.
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I've shared this quote with you I think a few times since we've been going through chapter 1, but I think it's summarized,
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Votibachum summarizes it pretty well that the message of 2 Timothy is this, Timothy they are about to kill me for preaching the gospel.
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When they do, you preach the gospel until they kill you. There's a weight to this and we've covered chapter 1.
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We finished chapter 1 and we get to chapter 2 and in the ESV, he begins chapter 2 with you then.
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The King James and the LSB, they both in this beginning of chapter 2 use the word therefore.
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And this therefore, this you then is linking the previous chapter that we've covered.
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We can view it as referencing what he's just said in chapter 1. So if you go back to the beginning of chapter 1, you then,
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Timothy my child, my son, with the sincere faith that dwelt in your grandmother, your mother, and now you by the grace of God, with the
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God -given spirit of love, power, love, and self -control, but not of fear, not being ashamed of the testimony of our
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Lord, or afraid to share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, knowing the gospel, following the power of what you have heard from me in the faith and love there in Christ Jesus, guard what has been entrusted.
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Seeing those who have turned away from me and those who have stayed and not been ashamed.
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And now, my child, therefore, my child, be strengthened.
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Be strengthened. Be made strong. I've told you all these things, now be strengthened.
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I've challenged you, Timothy. You have been challenged, Christian, as we have went through this.
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Believers, you've heard the words of chapter 1, we've been challenged. And the challenge in chapter 1, when we read of it, the hard truths that we see, at times it can be overwhelming, it can be heavy.
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Timothy, Paul's reminding Timothy, I want you to be reminded this morning to be strengthened.
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Be strengthened by what? By the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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Made strong by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, fully dependent upon the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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We can do nothing, believer, you can do nothing, I can do nothing of worth without that grace.
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There is no Christian who is not dependent upon the grace of God. None, not one.
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Paul was dependent upon the grace of God and he's telling Timothy, you are going to need to be dependent upon the grace of God.
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You must be dependent upon the grace of God. We must be dependent upon the grace of God. We cannot rely on the strength, on our own strength, we cannot rely on the strength of Quatro or of Steve or of the men and women in this church.
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We must solely rely on the strength of God. Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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Timothy needed reminding of that. We need reminding of that. We ought to thank God for that grace.
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Brian Chappell notes that nothing would come Timothy's way as he guarded the gospel that he would not have the graced strength to handle.
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No person, no pain, no problem, no responsibility, no tragedy.
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God would give Timothy the grace for these things. And the strength that Timothy needed for the task at hand, the strength that we need today comes not from our working.
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It comes from God and God alone through Christ our Savior. You then my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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Verse 2, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
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So he says, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. What is it? What had
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Timothy heard from Paul that was so important? What is he telling
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Timothy to entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also? It's the gospel.
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The gospel that he had heard from many others in his life, that he had heard from Paul. The true, unchanged, not watered down gospel.
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The gospel he mentions in chapter 1, one particular verse, verse 13, follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
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The next verse in our text, if you were to continue after our text in verse 8, remember
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Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, has preached in my gospel.
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So he's telling Timothy, preach and teach the gospel. Don't add to it.
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Don't take away from it. Be committed to the truth. In Timothy's day and the day that we live in, there are temptations that arise to change the message, to lessen its offense, to add our own opinion in the face of mockers, in the face of ridicule, some publicly out here on the street or social media or from the government.
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We might be tempted to lessen the offense of the gospel or to add our own opinions.
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Paul gives Timothy no such leeway. We have no such leeway.
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He is telling Timothy to preach the gospel and to teach the gospel.
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Teach it to others so that they may teach it to others. He says, take what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and entrust it to faithful men.
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Faithful men who will stand upon the truth and fight against the heresy that would try to take hold in Ephesus.
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Not men who will waver from the truth when pressed, but men who have also been strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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Who were faithful men, reliable men, and qualified to teach others.
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Men able to teach. I don't see it as too much of a stretch to see that Paul probably meant those whom would be qualified as elders from the previous letter to Timothy.
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Don't necessarily have to be elders, but those who have nothing to disqualify them.
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Men who would be qualified, faithful, reliable men able to teach.
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Going back to verse 14 of the previous chapter, men who by the Holy Spirit dwelling within them would guard the good deposit that had been entrusted to them.
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One God -designed way to guard the good deposit we have been entrusted with is for it to be taught by those who are biblically qualified to teach it.
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And to be preached by those who are biblically qualified to preach it. Where this is ignored, trouble will soon follow.
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We don't have to look very far in evangelicalism today to see this. Generally, in places where the truth and where the gospel has slipped, where it has been changed, there was a change before that in who was teaching the truth.
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When you deviate from Scripture and the teaching of the message, and who is teaching the message, who is preaching the message, soon the message will deviate from Scripture as well.
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May we desire, in the face of opposition, in the face of being ridiculed and saying we're old -fashioned, oppressive, not in touch with today's culture, in the face of that may we desire to be obedient to Scripture and not to waver in this.
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And to do this by the grace of God. So he's telling Timothy, in part, fulfill the great commission of Christ.
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Timothy, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus to guard the gospel and spread the gospel.
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And after this charge to Timothy, to fulfill the great commission and to disciple, he then reminds
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Timothy once again that he will suffer for the gospel. Remember, that's our underlying theme here.
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In verse 8 of chapter 1, he says, not to be ashamed, but he tells him to share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God.
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He goes so far as to charge Timothy to join in the suffering for the guarding and spreading of the gospel, and then he repeats himself here.
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It's like he's saying, Timothy, join in the battle. Don't sit on the sidelines.
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You cannot sit on the sidelines. And friends, we must understand that Christianity, it's not a spectator sport.
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You don't enjoy Christianity sitting on the sidelines and watching everybody else spread the gospel, watching everybody else faithfully serve in the church, watching everybody else faithfully helping their brother and sister in this journey, in this battle that we have as believers.
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You don't see that. It's not a spectator sport. We'll see that more clearly this morning.
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But Paul presses this even further, and that's where we're going to spend the rest of our time this morning.
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If you see the rest of our text, beginning in verse three,
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Paul gives three images or examples of what this suffering for the gospel looks like.
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He gives them to Timothy as a minister of the gospel. We must see that context, but I'm of the firm belief that these examples and characteristics are only applicable and important for the
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Christian minister, but also for the Christian as well. And these three examples, they're not just pictures of suffering for the gospel, but also what the
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Christian life as a whole should look like. So let's look at these. The first illustration that we see is that of a soldier sharing the suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
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Paul, in more than a few places, he compares the Christian to a soldier, and the life of a believer to a battle being fought.
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It was a common metaphor that Paul used. And he had told Timothy in his first letter, you know this, fight the good fight.
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He told him, fight the good fight. And there's a reason that Paul uses this imagery so often as a comparison to the life of the
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Christian. This is how he viewed the Christian faith. This is how we should view it.
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In our culture today, Christianity is not viewed as a battle to be fought, as a battle to be won.
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Christians are not viewed as soldiers in need of armor, but rather they are viewed as sluggards in need of their belly's filled, or as beggars in need of crumbs, or as nice people in need of your acceptance.
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You won't see Paul positively comparing the Christian or their life to any of these, but rather a soldier fighting a war, an athlete running a race, a farmer planting and tooling about a harvest.
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We must recover this biblical view of the Christian life. And abandon the nominal
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Christianity that is so prevalent today. We are not Christian in name only, but also in duty and action.
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So we see a soldier. Let's look at the characteristics of this soldier. The first thing we see is a suffering soldier.
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He says, share in the suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
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This is a constant in each of these. But we see a suffering soldier.
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No one in Paul's day, and I bet very few even in our wicked day today,
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I bet there are very few even in our day, that go into the profession of war as a soldier for a life of comfort.
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That, hey, I want to be a soldier because I want an easy life. That's ridiculous.
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When you read the oath of enlistment for the U .S. military, it reads,
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I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I will obey the orders of the
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President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to the regulations of the
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Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. We have various forms of this oath throughout our history, but they're all the same in a few ways.
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They're supposed to defend and obey. Nowhere does it speak of comfort and ease.
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They make sure that the candidates know what they're getting into. A branch of the
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Navy, like the Navy SEALs, they take it a step further. I voluntarily accept the inherent hazards of my profession, placing the welfare and security of others before my own.
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I serve with honor on and off the battlefield. The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from others.
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Uncompromising integrity is my standard. That's the oath of the
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Navy SEALs. They accept the hazards. They understand that it is dangerous.
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They understand that they may die and that it may cost them everything. They accept that there will be suffering, and they do suffer horribly at times, even in their training.
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If you read of their training. But they joyfully share in the suffering as a good soldier of the one who has enlisted them.
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And a believer, believer, you will suffer.
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You will suffer. It comes with it. You will suffer. You will suffer for your faith in Christ.
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It may look different than Paul's. It may be mentally, it may be physically, emotionally, and or spiritually.
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Christ says as much. Paul says as much. 2 Corinthians 4, 8, and 9.
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We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.
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Later in the next chapter, Paul writes in verse 12 of chapter 3, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
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We must understand in our comfortable lives, in our lives of relative peace as far as on the home front, our comfortable lives of not worrying about being bombed and not worrying about these things, although we see yesterday that maybe it's not as peaceful and not as safe as we thought.
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But it's still, compared to the rest of the world, compared to history, we live comfortable lives.
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We sit in an air -conditioned, comfortable room. It's 90 -something degrees outside,
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I'm wearing a jacket, and I'm comfortable. So we must understand in our comfortable lives that throughout history, the message that we preach, the message that we spread, the message that we go out and proclaim is a message that meant death.
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Throughout history, it has meant death. It did for Paul and for Timothy, in some places it still does today, and I will tell you, the world still hates this message just as much today as they did back then.
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Being killed is not the only form of suffering. There are many. You can think of it, you know, self -denial, if you want to view that, but rejection, mockery, loneliness, betrayal, ridicule, all of these things.
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Paul says, share in it. Embrace it. Embrace the suffering.
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Paul, as we read about in the beginning in Acts 14, Paul, for preaching the gospel, he upset the
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Jews, and what did they do? They stoned him. They drug him out in the city, and he gives up, and he walks back into town, and he goes around, and he preaches, and it says he came back, and he preached again there where he had been stoned.
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Embrace it. We may not be stoned, but I believe that living a godly life in the wicked culture that we live in today, you cannot be persecuted.
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If you're going to your workplace, and you're spreading the gospel that we see in the
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Bible, not this gospel that, you know, you hear this all the time, just show them Jesus.
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Just show them Jesus, and they'll want to come to church. Well, Jesus showed them Jesus, and they crucified him.
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Paul showed them Jesus, and they stoned him. They mocked him. They cut his head off. The problem is, is we have too many people that are
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Christian in name only, and not in deed, that in here where it's comfortable, hey,
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I'm all about it, but when they go out there, they face no persecution because they're not telling people about the gospel.
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They're not standing against wickedness and saying that marriage is between one man and one woman for life because the
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Bible says so. That killing a baby, even in the womb, even as early as one week, or as early as conception is murder because the
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Bible says so. You say that much in our world today, and you will face persecution.
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All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted. Are you living a godly life?
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Are you standing upon these truths and being unwavering about it? Are we doing this in our lives?
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Share in it. Embrace it. Embrace the suffering, and understand that it's not meaningless.
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Suffering for Christ is not meaningless. This is counter -cultural to the nominal Christianity of today that says you're best and most prosperous life now.
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I believe that the Christian life is the best and most prosperous life, but not as measured or defined by the world.
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Paul was able to do so because, you know, verse 12 of chapter 1, we've mentioned it several times, why?
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Why was he able to suffer as he did? Why was he not ashamed? Because he knew whom he had believed.
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He believed in Christ, and he was convinced that Christ is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to him.
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You don't suffer by your strength. Paul was not ashamed to suffer because his faith was in Christ.
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It's very important to know who you believe, or what you believe. We ought to know what we believe.
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We ought to know why we believe it. Paul knew that, but even more so, we need to know who we believe. His faith was in Christ.
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Do you know Christ? Is your faith in Christ this morning? Children, is your faith in Christ this morning?
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Do you know Him if you don't repent and trust in Him? Well, if you do know
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Him, believer, you can embrace the suffering because your faith is in Christ.
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Paul beckoned Timothy to join in standing unashamed.
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He beckons the same of every believer, sharing the faith as a suffering soldier, but look at our text, but also as a good soldier, a suffering soldier and a good soldier.
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He then breaks it down and you say, what's a good soldier? What does it mean to be a good soldier?
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Paul, if you look at verse four, he defines what it means to be a good soldier.
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The first thing he says is no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits.
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In other words, a good soldier has a wartime mentality. May we have a wartime mentality.
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We are not in a time of peace. As far as we have a very wicked world, you walk out this door and it's wicked.
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We must have a wartime mentality, single -minded devotion to the task at hand.
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To put off, to be single -mindedly devoted is to put off the unnecessary and focus on the critical.
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There was a Roman code of the Odysseus. It said we forbid men engaged in military service to engage in civilian occupations.
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They wanted them focused. They wanted soldiers who weren't worried about finances and weren't worried about what was going on back home, but were solely devoted to battle.
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We see examples of this in war. We see men who have achieved accolades in war for being devoted.
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We see this in sports. What made Michael Jordan arguably the greatest basketball player to ever play was his single -minded devotion to the game.
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It went beyond obsession, and people who didn't share that devotion, they didn't get it. They were intimidated by his devotion and approach because nothing was more important to them.
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Now, ultimately, it had become his God and it was great idolatry. It was sinful. But the illustration serves to see that those who are single -mindedly devoted to something become more and more like what they are devoted to.
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We must become single -mindedly devoted to Christ, that we may become more like him.
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I read earlier in Philippians, Philippians 3, 13, Paul writes, Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing
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I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.
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In our text, Paul was challenging Timothy to put into focus what was important.
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Put into focus what was important and what was worth his devotion. In Philippians, Paul continues in verse 14.
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He tells us what it is he's striving for. What was Paul striving for? He says, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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No doubt, Timothy should strive for the same. Child of God, there is nothing we must more single -mindedly be devoted to than Christ in the spreading of this gospel.
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Too much of what we spend our time on, sometimes even in the setting of the local church, is wasteful of time that should be devoted to Christ.
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I love hunting. I love sports. There are many things I love. I love potlucks.
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I love those. I'm in favor that we continue having potlucks. I love eating on Wednesday nights.
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I love the fellowship, but I'm going to be honest with you, I love the eating. I love these things.
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Many things that I enjoy, and I see no fault in enjoying them, many of these things
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I do. But too often, we begin to place these things where only
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Christ should be. We begin to place these things, we begin to be affectionate in ways towards these things that we should only be affectionate towards Christ.
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Too long, too many have desired to go back and forth between two masters. Too often, we see these things elevated, even these good things.
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Church, we have been commanded to fulfill the great commission of Christ.
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Chiefly, because Christ is worthy. Also, for the salvation of sinners to the glory of God.
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And our aim is to please Him. Our aim is to please
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Him. Why? Does a soldier not get entangled in civilian pursuits?
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Look at the rest of that verse. Because he desires to please the one who enlisted him.
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The soldier's goal is to please his commanding officer. That takes precedent over everything else, even the soldier's family at times.
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They don't aim to please extremists, activists, or political parties, but rather the one who enlisted them.
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Christian, you should want to please your spouse. Husbands, wives, you should want to please your spouse.
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You should want to please everybody in here, listen, kids, you should want to please your father and mother.
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Employee, you should want to please your boss, your friend, your pastor. But above all, our aim is to please the one whom enlisted us to battle.
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That is Christ. We have been saved by His grace. Paul didn't want
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Timothy caring about pleasing other entities to distract from his chief affection, his chief goal of pleasing
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Christ. We don't aim to please the world. Our chief concern is not to be popular.
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Our chief concern is not to be liked. Our chief concern is not even to get more people to come in our doors.
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Our chief concern is to please God. Aim to please
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God as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, a soldier made good by Christ.
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Aim to please Him. Next, very quickly, we see in verse 5, the second example or picture.
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An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Not crowned unless what?
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This athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. So two things that I want to point out here with the athlete seeking to be crowned.
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One is this athlete must be disciplined. They must be.
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If you look at a professional athlete, we have the Olympics coming up here in less than a month.
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I don't know the exact date, but it's coming up very quickly. And these athletes, if you watch these athletes, they're the best in the world.
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And to be the best in the world, they must be disciplined. Even in their training. The training of these athletes is grueling.
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There's a great deal of suffering in the training to be great. To achieve the goal of being an
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Olympian. To win the gold. And I'm not totally sure, but I don't think participation trophies were a thing in Paul's day.
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I can assure you that he would not ascribe to the belief that everyone gets a trophy. I mean,
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I understand that all in Christ will receive a crown they do not deserve. But Paul's image of an athlete used here, it drives us to see an athlete working to be crowned.
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This athlete wants to be crowned. Who is putting in, as these Olympians are, four years of strenuous hard work to achieve the top crown of their event.
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Not a slouch just trying to get by or just be part of it. Someone that's striving to be crowned.
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There will be no Olympian next month who is out there just, hey, I'm just glad to be here.
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They want to be on the podium. They want to be singing their national anthem as they stand on top of the podium wearing a gold medal.
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But he uses this imagery to further drive home the life of discipline for the believer.
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Not selfific discipline, as like we are saved by our discipline, but rather those who have been changed.
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Those who have been born again are disciplined for the cause and work of Christ. Much like a soldier, they have given themselves and their time to their goal.
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What is that goal? What was Paul's goal again? Philippians 3 .14, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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So we have an athlete seeking to be crowned that must be disciplined. But our text says that an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
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We must abide by the governing rules. He must abide, this athlete, must abide by the governing rules of those who instituted the race.
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You think of track rules. To win the race, you must abide by the rules given.
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You must stay in your lane. If you step out of your lane, you're disqualified. If you drop the baton on a relay race, you're disqualified.
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If you run up and Charles is standing by the back and you're behind and you run up with the baton and you throw it to Charles, even if he catches it and he keeps running, you're disqualified.
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Because you didn't abide by the rules that were instituted by the ones who made the game.
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As a Christian, we must abide according to the rules. We don't make up our own.
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We live according to the rules. Not our rules. You know, you think of kids, listen.
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What did we learn about? What was the story we learned about this week? What was the name of the book?
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Pilgrim's Progress. We learned about Pilgrim's Progress this week. So, many tried, so I think of two.
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I think of formalist and hypocrisy. So, he's continued on the journey.
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A Christian has just went to the place of deliverance. He's continued on the journey. And what did the formalist and hypocrisy do?
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They jumped over the walls. They jumped over the walls. And what does Christian tell them?
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He says that in this book, it says the only way to the celestial city is on the narrow path through the narrow gate.
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But they were trying to cheat. They were trying to go their own way. We must understand that we not only serve
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God, but we serve Him according to His means. By the way
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He has instructed us to in His Word. And there is only one way to the celestial city. It is through the narrow gate.
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It is through the cross of Christ. We can't make up our own way to heaven.
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We can't make up our own way to serve Him. We can't make up our own way to worship
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Him. We live according to His Word. We worship according to His Word.
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We evangelize according to His Word. Everything according to His Word. Not looking to this, not looking to that, but rather looking to Christ.
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An athlete is seeking to be crowned. Christians are seeking to be crowned. I think of Hebrews.
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I'm going to read this very quick. I don't want to keep you too much longer. We're almost done. But Hebrews chapter 12.
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I just could not mention this text. Paul or the author of Hebrews.
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Some believe it to be Paul. I've heard Luke. But the author of Hebrews says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Consider Him who endured for sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint -hearted.
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He says, lay aside every weight. It's hard to run a race with unnecessary weight holding you down.
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Gunner cut his hair and he said it made him run faster. He was more aerodynamic. I should be really fast.
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I don't have any hair. But it's hard to run a race with unnecessary weight holding you down.
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They don't run races with muck boots on. Even things that aren't sinful, even things that aren't sinful, that may keep us from running this race for Christ, become sinful.
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If they're not sinful in themselves, we must lay aside these things. Lay aside every sin.
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Confess it. Repent of it. Flee from it. We must run this race with patience.
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But none of these things can be done without looking to Jesus, for He is the founder.
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He is the author. He is the protector, the completer of our faith.
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And He, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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So we see a good soldier, a suffering soldier, a good soldier.
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We see an athlete seeking to be crowned, and finally, we close, we end with, it is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
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Also a common application. Christ uses a farmer as an example. We see this.
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We see a qualifier here. We saw the suffering and the good soldier, the crowned athlete.
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Now we see a hardworking farmer. He is illustrating that the ministry will require hard work.
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There isn't passively leading from the side. As a pastor, we can't lead from the side.
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And I realize that everyone here is not a minister. He's not a pastor. Like I've said a couple of times, the illustration still has application.
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I want to be very clear here. As you already know, there is not one iota that you can add to your salvation through your works.
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We have been saved by grace, through faith. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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But those who have truly been born again have a work before them. We have a work before us.
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Believer, you have a work before you, one that requires diligence and perseverance.
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And it will be hard at times. The things that we deal with in life as a believer will be hard.
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It will be too much for the weak body and mind to endure at times. But Matthew 24, 13, the one who endures to the end will be saved.
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This is not done alone by our working. We are held and we are kept only through the working of the
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Holy Spirit. We understand that we cannot work ourselves to salvation, and it is not our work that keeps us.
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The point is this, though. Enduring through the hard work and the difficult times of suffering is evidence of your conversion.
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That you have been saved by the working of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit is at work in you still.
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If you fail to endure, it means you were never truly working for the Lord. You were deceived and you were either working for yourself, the world, the enemy.
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Your continual endurance for the work of the Lord is evidence that you are His. You know,
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James, a very familiar scripture says, So also faith by itself, that if it does not have works, is dead.
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But some will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.
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You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
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Anything with life produces fruit. Anything with life, it produces something.
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He says the hardworking farmer ought to have the first share of the crops.
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As we labor, child of God, as you labor, as I labor, it is not in vain.
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There will be a reward to the laborer. There is a reward for those who have repented of their sins and trusted in Christ.
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Those who have trusted in His perfect life, death, and resurrection. Those who labor for Christ, although it may be difficult, although it may be hard at times, and you may suffer, the reward is so much greater.
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Having Christ is greater than the difficulties. Paul writes in chapter 7, he says, think over this.
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Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. He tells him, think over what you've said.
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Paul's words that we've read were not too difficult to understand. I don't believe this passage to be hard for the reader to understand.
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So what was Paul exhorting Timothy to do here? You know,
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Paul's hard work felt easy to him. How? By the grace of God in Christ.
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He was made to see the all -surpassing worth of the Lamb. And he's telling
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Timothy, think about what you've heard. Meditate upon these words, and what will happen?
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When we meditate upon the Word of God, believers, when we meditate upon His Word, he tells
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Timothy, the Lord will give you understanding. Understanding is a gift from God.
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Some can read this Word from front to back and remain clueless to the things of God, if not for the
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Spirit giving them understanding. We ought to hunger for the Word of God. We ought to read the
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Scriptures daily seeking to know more of God. But we also ought to pray for understanding of His words.
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We ought to meditate on them. We ought to desire not to just pass by the words that are written, but we ought to seek to understand them so that they can be properly understood and properly applied.
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Paul was not simply telling Timothy these things to increase Timothy's intellect.
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No doubt that it did. But Paul says, consider what I'm saying.
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Understand these words. I'm not just spouting on about soldiers and athletes and farming and suffering.
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I am, by the working of the Spirit, preparing you for battle. May we see these words as that.
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Preparing us for battle. A battle in which we will suffer. A battle in which our flesh will fail.
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A battle in which there must be discipline and hard work. Consider this,
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Timothy. Consider this, child of God. Think these things over and the
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Lord will give you understanding. And child of God, understand this, that through the suffering, the discipline, and the hard work, may we remember
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Jesus Christ. Risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my
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Gospel. Remember Him. He is worthy. He is worthy of it all.
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You have and will fail in your devotion. You have and you will fail in your discipline.
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You have and will fail in your working. But we have a Savior who is perfect in all of these areas.
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He was perfect in every area. And He is risen and reigning. Our King that enlisted us for battle,
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He is reigning and He will not fail. He will not be defeated.
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We can go out to battle knowing that they can take everything from us, even our lives.
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But our King will reign supreme. There will be victory in Christ. He is risen and reigning.
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You do not suffer in vain. You do not suffer alone. So I urge you this morning, stake everything on Christ.
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And not only is He risen and reigning, He is risen and returning. Unbeliever, He is coming as a righteous judge.
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And He will judge you rightly. And we talked this week about being clothed in His righteousness.
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Kids and adults, likewise. If you are not found clothed in His righteousness, you have the holy wrath of God Almighty coming for you.
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Repent. Repent now and believe the Gospel. Believer, the bridegroom is returning for his bride.
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Prepare to suffer for a little while. But great is your reward in Christ.
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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful for Your Word. We are thankful,
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Lord, for this imagery that You have given us to show. Lord, the life of a believer.
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Lord, to help us to understand that we will suffer. We will suffer for the cause of Christ.
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That our suffering is not in vain. That Christ is victorious and will remain so.
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May we trust all the more in Him. It is in His name that we pray.