Session 5 - The Church Standing Firm (Acts 20:28-30)

Acts 20 and Paul’s Charge to the Elders

This particular session is titled, A Church Standing Firm. Now some of the aspects of the Reckless Doctrines we'll cover are repetitive, not in that I've quoted these things yet, but in general when we talk about what the prosperity gospel does to the gospel, we've already covered the main issues and here and now we'll talk a little bit about Reckless Doctrines and we'll give you some quotes, but then we'll shift to what the church is supposed to do, which is your relentless devotion.

So if you will turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 20. We're going to spend a couple of minutes in verses 28 to 30 and looking at Paul's charge to the elders there and that'll jettison us into the rest of the session.

Acts 20 verses 28 to 30 and we'll read the text together and then pray and jump in. Paul writes, well Luke writes, Paul says, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

Let's keep reading a little longer. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years they did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I have coveted no one's silver, gold, or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive.

When he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them and they began to weep aloud. They embraced Paul, that's the smoker, repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken.

And they would not see his face again and they were accompanying him to the ship. Let's pray and if the fire department's on the way they can join us for the word. Father, thank you for the words in Scripture which guide us, which teach us, which correct us, and inspire us to fulfill our role.

In this session titled, The Church Standing Firm, would you both affirm and guide and teach us that there are certainly those here who are doing these things, they would be encouraged all the more and affirmed, and there are those who are in churches that are not doing these things, and they are in need of guidance and direction.

Help us to be faithful in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you want a healthy church, if you want a healthy home, you need to get two things right. We're talking spiritually here. You got to get Christ right and you got to get the gospel right.

Both of these essentials impact the ordinances, church leadership, regenerate church membership, our assembly for worship, the preaching of God's Word, singing, spiritual gifts, care for the hurting, discipleship, evangelism, everything in the church, everything in your home drives out of a proper understanding of Christ and the gospel.

The purpose of the church, especially, which is to glorify Christ, ultimately is impacted by your view of Christ and the gospel, but Satan does not want this. He doesn't at all take a vacation from assaulting the church's purpose.

He works hard to distort the person of Christ and the message of the gospel. He knows that the best way to bring the house down, if you will, is to undercut the legs of the church by attacking the head of it, and so he does that relentlessly.

Satan's not neutral. He aims to wreak havoc in the church and on the church, because ultimately he hates the church because the church's purpose. I love what Martin Luther once said, where God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel next door.

The primary means for the assault on the church is leadership, and so if you're gonna be a church standing firm, and if we're going to attend the right churches and be the right church leaders with all of the heresy and blasphemy and undermining theology that we've walked through, then we need to ensure that our leadership and our view of these things is biblical.

Today, one of the primary ways in which Satan undermines the church is by getting imposters into pulpits and in the church leadership. There are what Jude describes as wild waves of the sea and clouds without water, professing to be wise.

They're proving to be fools, and yet many professing Christians are blind to the fact that our greatest threat in the church is not from the outside. As crazy as the world is, as dark as things can be, the greatest threat to the church is on the inside, and we are in need of leadership reformation at all times.

In Acts chapter 20, where we started, Paul has called the elders from Ephesus down to meet him at Miletus for final instructions. He predicts the days that are ahead so that there'd be no confusion on their part, and he's explained to them that savage wolves will come, and men will rise up, and they'll be coming from within, and they'll speak perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

Basically, an assault on the gospel and on the church is coming, and the church needs to be aware and warned in a similar way that Paul has warned other churches. He tells Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11, 13 to 15, for such men are false apostles.

He's talking about these men that are undermining the church and undermining Paul's reputation and attacking the church there. Deceitful workers, he says, they're disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

He says no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, therefore it's not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

J .C. Ryle writes this, inside the church, Satan is ever laboring to sow heresies, to propagate errors, to foster departures from faith. If he cannot prevent the waters from flowing from the fountain of life, he tries hard to poison them.

If he cannot destroy the medicine of the gospel, he tries to adulterate and corrupt it. No wonder he is called Apollyon, the destroyer. It's so true. This is what Satan does. So if you're gonna be a church standing firm, you need to be wise to his strategies.

There's two particular headings, if you want to write these down in this session, we're gonna look at their reckless doctrines, and then we're gonna look at your relentless devotion. So we'll look briefly at kind of those guys, the bad guys out there, and we've spent a good deal of time dealing with that, so I won't spend as much time, and then we'll look at your relentless devotion, what you and I should be doing and looking for.

Like those in Ephesus and in Corinth, and throughout history, we're facing an onslaught of deception, and basically you need to know at least some of what is being taught and propagate the truth. Interestingly enough, I was in India the last time I canceled on this conference, I was supposed to come a number of years ago, and I needed to go on a trip to India.

I say I needed to because I hadn't been back yet since being there on a heretical ministry trip years prior, and I wanted to go. I had the opportunity to go and minister and preach a number of times, and I had a meeting with a group of pastors, and they were Baptist, Lutheran, non-denominational, there was even Pentecostal preachers there, and nearly all of them were preaching prosperity theology.

It was fascinating to me. I had shared my heart with them and asked them some questions, and one of them in particular, who was not a Pentecostal prosperity preacher, he was a conservative young brother, he said, if I didn't preach the prosperity gospel here, people would leave my church.

I have to preach it. It's the only thing that works, so I have to mix it in a little bit with preaching the truth. Our brother Conrad Mbiwi has been clear for decades on Africa's battle against prosperity theology.

We're no better here in America. In Latin America, I spoke with a brother not long ago, he said that we're really the number one hub for the prosperity gospel around the world. A lot of people make a big deal about Africa, but here in Latin America, prosperity gospel is king, he said.

What you have is reckless doctrine being propagated all over the world. I'll offer you some quotes that I haven't been able to in other sessions, but Paula White, in her book Living the Abundant Life, wrote about what God told her while sitting in her luxurious backyard, he said to her, and I quote from her, Paula, it has nothing to do with what you deserve, because it's not of your works.

Okay. Sounds almost like the real gospel. It is because of the provision included in the blood covenant that you can sit here today. Oh, got it. She was sitting in her luxurious backyard, looking at all her wealth, and she's wondering just, wow, God.

And it's explained to her from God Himself that it's because of the covenant. Well, if the covenant gets me an infinity pool, and Bentleys, and million-plus-dollar penthouses in New York, then you know, sign you up, most people would think.

But she would say, the abundant life and the covenant guarantees you wealth. It's a mockery. At one point, my uncle on TBN said, and I quote, make a pledge, make a gift, because that's the only way you're gonna get a miracle.

Miracles happen when you do something. As you give, the miracle will happen. All right, so get to the phones and get busy, end quote. This is what people are listening to around the world. Joel Osteen says, our words have creative power, and so you just speak into existence whatever you want.

I remember growing up, I used to put this into practice all the time, at one point I wanted so badly a Ferrari, and no joke, one day we got one. We had a Ferrari F430, and it was used as this symbol that God had provided.

In fact, the story of the F430 Ferrari, and it was red, was so infamous that I, at Shepherds Conference this year, ran into a dear, dear brother who works for Living Waters now, with Ray Comfort, and I looked at him and said, what are you doing here?

He's like, me? What are you doing here? That is the second time that's happened at a Shepherds Conference. I ran into another brother from my past, a few years prior, and he looked at me, and before I could even ask him what he's doing here, he said, what happened?

You know where you are? He's one of my baseball teammates, and the hilarious thing about the brother from Living Waters is, he said, do you remember the last time I saw you? I said, no. He said, we were racing.

I said, what? Doing what? We were racing, and he said, you remember my, he had a BMW, like M3 or M5, and he said, you had the Ferrari, and I'm like, wow, you know this, you, yes! People will know I'm not lying now because of you.

Like, we really did have a Ferrari. The problem was that it was through a shady business deal that involved church people's money, and someone even did jail time because of it. The idea that you're just gonna live the blessed life and not suffer is so attractive to people all over the world, but it is reckless doctrine.

Paul the Apostle in Philippians 129, in that passage, even tells the church at Philippi, it has been granted to you the privilege of suffering. It's a privilege that you would suffer for Christ's sake.

John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus crucified, Stephen stoned, Paul beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and killed. All 11 disciples martyred, but for John, historically argued, who basically withered away on Patmos.

Polycarp, one of John's disciples, burnt and then pierced. Tyndale was strangled to death, then burnt. On and on, history shows faithful Christians, martyred, suffering for the gospel, being killed. Where is their best life now?

Where was their riches? Where was their 80 years in health and wealth? It's not there. Many of these propagators teach a sort of my-will-be-done gospel, and what we come to know when we study the Word of God is that the safest prayer we can pray is much like Jesus in Luke 22, 42, when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane and he says, if possible Father, let this cup pass for me.

Then he says, but not my will but yours be done. Many faith healers and prosperity gospel preachers will say it's a prayer of unbelief. In particular, Bill Johnson from Bethel will say it's a prayer of unbelief to say, if it be your will.

It's always His will. It's not true at all. So what do we see from others? What you have is a fake version of God. Bill Johnson from Bethel, in a book that now has been edited to not have this quote, and he speaks out the side of his mouth on this issue a great deal because so many people have made noise about it, but has never repented of this teaching or even changed some major portion of his theology with a clear announcement, wrote on page 29 of his book When Heaven Invades Earth, I have the original version, they just quietly released a new version that doesn't have this in there as though that will quiet the noise, he said, he, meaning Jesus, performed miracles, wonders, and signs as a man in right relationship to God, not as God.

If he performed miracles because he was God, then they would be unattainable for us. Bill Johnson's reckless teaching is that you should be and can be doing signs and wonders. You can and should be calling heaven down to earth.

Why? Because Jesus was just a man when he did all these things, not God, so you can do them too. Bill Johnson also, on page 50 of Supernatural Power of the Transformed Mind, said Jesus had no ability to heal the sick, he couldn't cast out devils, and he had no ability to raise the dead.

He said of himself in John 5 19, the Son can do nothing of himself. It's not at all what he meant. He had set aside his divinity, he says. He goes on to explain, this was to show us that we could do it too.

See, all the versions of Jesus and God are not the Jesus and God of the Bible at all, but they all use Scripture. Others who propagate these sort of beliefs include Kenneth Copeland, Todd White, Todd Bentley, Lou Engle, Heidi Baker, Michael Koulianos, who's my Uncle Benny's son-in-law, his brother married my sister.

They have schools, armies of students traveling around the world, they're planting churches, they're invading communities, and they're targeting young people. It's one of their greatest target zones, is Gen Z and Millennials.

All of it. A different presentation of the same old heresies, and they're careful. They're very careful. They use great branding, great marketing, they use great music, because they know if it looks good, sounds good, feels good, then a lot of undiscerning folks are gonna say, hey, it must be good.

Unfortunately, it all leads to the same place their heretical forefathers have led people. The only solution is to move away from reckless doctrine and preach the truth about Christ and the gospel. This is drawing the next generation in droves, but we know what works, don't we?

The gospel. The Word of God. It always works. It may not be filled with fanfare, and it may seem like an extra narrow road these days, but it's a faithful road. And so while you have a lot of reckless doctrine being propagated, and you have many from within the professing church saying and teaching and caring about in these ways, what we have, number two, and more importantly, is your relentless devotion.

This is what we must be committed to. If we're gonna take by way of application Paul's exhortation to the elders from Ephesus, we can see there's certain things that the church is supposed to do if it's going to stand firm.

If we're gonna determine to be faithful in our calling, and so what I did is took some things from Paul's pastoral letters and boiled down a list. And the first thing that we ought to do is, number one, pray for the lost.

You and I should be people of prayer, a church of prayer for the lost. In 1st Timothy 2 .1, Paul says first of all then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.

You and I are never to be too far from praying for both these people to repent and for those who follow them to have their eyes opened and come out. In a way, an imprecatory prayer perhaps is appropriate at various times, those are the prayers that David would pray, that would even pray the calamity of God's judgment and justice to fall upon the wicked.

You might even pray, Lord, either save the leader that is preaching false doctrine in the pulpit that my dear loved one sits under, so that you would also open the eyes of my loved one, or open the eyes of my loved one to the heretic that he or she is sitting under.

Expose them for what they are and call out from among them this precious soul that I love. Yes, it is good to pray that the Lord would shut down certain churches, yes. It is also good to pray that those pastors in those churches be changed.

I at times am sensitive to that in my own prayer life, mainly because of the experience at the church plant I was a part of. I'm glad that perhaps somebody was praying, either Lord shut them down or save them all, and he chose to save us all by his grace.

But we're to pray. I know it's hard to stay hopeful, I know it's hard at times to pray for these people who either are deceived themselves or they're doing the deceiving, but a wise mentor once told me, you got to have in ministry the heart of a child and the hide of a rhino, was the way he described it.

The heart of a child and the hide of a rhino. You got to be tough and tender. You got to pray and preach with wet eyes, he said. Tearful, hopeful. You got to see souls when you're praying and when you're preaching this stuff, so we ought to.

And you see that reflected in Paul's ministry, even for his his kinsmen, his fellow brethren. You remember what he says? If basically it meant that I wasn't saved, just save them, I'll give whatever. He said I'll become all things to all men.

There's this ethic about Paul with his evangelism, and he's praying constantly, so should we. Number two, you protect the standard for elders. So these are all P's, by the way, they're alliterated. Pray for the lost, number two, protect the standard for elders.

You need to be under qualified men. 1st Timothy 3, 1 through 7, when Paul is establishing order for the church, and the background, by the way, to 1st Timothy is Ephesus, so contextually, I want to make sure that's clear.

We have the elders that he addresses in Acts 20, then you have Timothy stationed to do work there. It's a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it's a fine work he desires to do.

An overseer then must be, and he begins to list all the qualifications, starting with above reproach, and many linguists would say that's the overarching umbrella, if you will. Above reproach looks like all of these other things.

The first one being the husband of one wife. Now, I don't even need to go further, because false teachers barely make it past number one, and if they do, they're quickly nullified by number two. Their filthy lives, their licentiousness behind the scenes, their practices of adultery and theft and homosexuality.

In fact, my first trip ever doing any type of ministry was with Justin. I was invited to go and speak and record some videos with him in Tennessee, and I was picked up by a gentleman, and was told this gentleman's gonna pick you up, he wants to talk to you.

I said okay, and I said yes to everything back then, I was just happy to be saved, like great. Pick me up, whatever, don't know the guy, and he proceeds to tell me that he was saved out of this church, in which to make it up the rungs of leadership, he had to share his wife and sleep with men.

True story. And I got to the recording and I told Justin, he said, brother I know, that's why I had him pick you up, I'm telling you, this stuff is crazy. I'm like, I know! But by the grace of God, he's saving people, and like, what in the world?

You don't have a lot of what goes on today if you protect the standard for elders. Leadership is, I'm gonna say it hyperbolically, but you get it, it's everything. Meaning, the church rises and falls on leadership.

You say, wow, it just really puts a lot of stock, doesn't that sort of put leaders on a pedestal, isn't that unhealthy? No, no, that's not what I'm saying. Rises and falls not on the personality, not on their great ingenuity and their growth strategies and how cool they are, no.

Rises and falls on leadership because Satan operates that way, like a Trojan horse. He would rather infiltrate the leadership than anything else, because leadership is influence. So the church has to protect that.

At our church, we would say, the men sitting in the room, we think of that in the terms of deacon meetings or elder meetings. It's a very weighty thing. It's important. Now if you go here, you're blessed, you know that.

If you're elsewhere, you may be at a great church, but maybe you're not sure. I think a lot of American Christians should do a double-take. Not causing grief and chaos for good, faithful leaders. How do I know you're qualified?

You know, every week. But yes, you should look under the hood, at the very least. Because if you protect the standard for elders, you've got a fighting chance. Number three, pay attention to sound doctrine.

What does Paul say to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4 .16? Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things. Word means to take pains. Agonize over it. That's the work of ministry.

For as you do, what's the benefit? He says it will ensure salvation both for yourself and those who hear you. You've got to pay attention to sound doctrine in a church. A lot of people like programs, they like fellowship.

I'm all for it. What we're gonna do at lunch is worship. It's koinonia. It's fellowship. We ought to. Certainly. Serving. Helping. Outreach. Community. The people running the sound right now. Praise God.

There's a lot of different programmatic elements to the church, but what should undergird what the church does and why it's gathered is to preach the Word, to receive sound doctrine, and that all our worship would be guided by sound doctrine.

You have the church for the unchurched today. You have the LGBTQ inclusive church now. You've got a lot of this stuff that has nothing to do with sound doctrine, but the church is cool, or I like the music, or what other reason?

My kids like the youth group. It's really fun. Church can be fun. You can like the music, that's okay, and you can enjoy going somewhere that is a happy place, but in the end, sound doctrine is what you need.

That guards your life and it guards your soul. If you are not in a church that is preaching sound doctrine, if the driving engine of where you are being cared for spiritually is not a doctrine-driven church, you are not gonna be spiritually strong, you're not gonna be spiritually healthy, and you're not built to last in your Christian walk by way of your health.

People say, ah, doctrine's so divisive. Just love people. We're a loving church. We're the love people church. You love people best by giving them what they need. They need sound doctrine. Number four, provide care for the hurting.

Provide care for the hurting. In contrast to false teachers who pray upon the weak and they exploit people, Paul actually exhorts Timothy to care for the hurting. In 1st Timothy 5, 1 through 16, there's this whole section on orphans, widows who are poor and they're qualified, they're without protection, these people in need of care, and faithful shepherds.

Actually, false teachers, at one point Paul says they pray on weak women. They're always going after the vulnerable and the weak, and isn't it remarkable that Paul still has a theology of justice and protection for the hurting?

There is this role that the church is to play, because we love sound doctrine, because we love the truth, and we actually love people, in which you say, hey, we're gonna protect the vulnerable. We're gonna welcome them.

We're gonna care for them, and we're gonna feed their soul and care for their needs. Why? That is the exact opposite of what false teachers do, who while they appear so loving, like a mother hen just gathering everyone in, it's all for the purpose of exploiting people who are desperate and who are needy.

I remember at one point in my young childhood, there was a woman named Marina, and she was the first person to ever give a million dollars to our ministry. It's a remarkable donation. And she was worked over for some time, and she was a widow, and her husband had a fortune.

And I remember the goal was to get her to give a massive portion of that fortune to our ministry, and that goal was accomplished. And the effort lasted for what I remember to be hours as I sat there as a child in her home, while our church leaders worked every angle.

I don't remember her being around our ministry long, don't remember her being around the church long after, but we got what we needed out of her, out of this widow. And there's so many others who, as I mentioned in the testimony portion and in the Q &A, had come to us for prayer for their children, for a sick loved one, and instead of simply ministering, as Paul says, I have coveted no one's silver or gold.

I've sought to only give, not take. I didn't want anything from you, I just wanted something for you. When we just minister to people, and we want to love on them, if you will, and we do that by caring for their needs and proclaiming to them the truth, then we would even say, I don't want anything from you, I want something for you.

I want you to thrive in your walk with the Lord, I want you to see what the church is really like, I want you to hear and experience the glory of the gospel and the truth. You know that God has that for you, He has that for His church, that you can experience that because of His goodness and His Word.

When we operate that way, people now begin to see the exact opposite of what so many of these abusive leaders propagate. Number five, put an emphasis on the eternal. You know, it's good for a leader to be free from the love of money, because then he can be without hypocrisy when he preaches to the rich.

Paul tells Timothy, instruct the rich to be rich in good works, not to be conceited or fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. In verse 18 of 1st Timothy 6, instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share.

Why? Storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so they may take hold of that which is life indeed. Such a great phrase, I'm glad it's in the Bible, because wealthy people will think that life indeed is their stuff.

And even Christians who are wealthy can get into a mindset of bigger barns, like I've built it all, I've got my hedge of protection around me, and it's good to be prudent, it's good to plan, all of that is right and good, it's biblical, but our relentless devotion is to put an emphasis on that which is eternal.

There is no U-Haul behind the hearse. You're not taking anything with you. You are blessed to be a blessing to gospel work, to the local church, to the advancement of Christ's mission and purpose. False teachers love themselves, they love their wealth, they love their stuff, they build their ministries to feed their ego and feed their materialistic greed, and faithful shepherds model what it looks like to have eternal perspective, and faithful churches what it looks like to have eternal perspective.

So if you want to be faithful in a church that stands firm, then by all means have a congregation that works hard, that is wise with money, have a church that is stable in these things as God provides, and then leverage it all for what God would have the church do, and what God would have the church be about.

There is a freedom that comes when we're free from the love of money, because we can simply preach the truth, and without apology, without tiptoeing around and being fearful of what wealthy people might say, you can look a rich person in the eye who's a Christian and say, so how are you using all of your wealth to advance the mission of the gospel?

Because you are taking none of it with you, and of all people on the earth, you as one of his saints, you know that. So what are you doing to advance the gospel? I remember meeting with a very generous person one time, and because I came out of what I came out of, at times I'm not a good fundraiser.

I just ask people questions, and I remember asking this gentleman, you're very wealthy. He said, okay. And I said, what do you do with all that Jesus said about how hard it is for rich people to get into heaven?

He said, wow, you just kind of, that's a very blunt question. I said, yes it is. I've sat on private planes like you, driven cars like you have, so I'm not down on wealth and enjoy your stuff, but what do you do?

Because you love the Lord. I remember him saying, I assess my heart every day. I have to keep assessing what I'm putting my trust in, and where we're putting our treasure. It's a daily struggle. And I remember them saying, when it's attached to your spiritual gift, the gift of generosity, it's what you love to do and what you want to do, but you also have to be so careful, because the heart is so deceitful, and riches, they just pull at you.

And I remember thinking, what a great example that is of how the Christian can have much, but you know, like I think I heard Lawson, Steve Lawson say this once, there's nothing wrong with having stuff, the problem is when the stuff has you.

Put an emphasis on the eternal. Number six, prepare to suffer for the gospel. You've got to accept suffering is inevitable, it's even useful. When suffering comes, we don't say, God, why are you doing this to me?

We would rather say, of suffering, I knew you were coming. I've been waiting for you. I'm ready for you. I've been preparing for you for a long time. They say in life, expectation breeds frustration, right?

When you think everything's gonna go smooth, you're gonna get to work on time, then there's traffic. Now this morning, I'm driving in, I took Kootenai Road, because I wanted to see some more sights. I saw turkeys, I saw a deer, I was loving it, but then I realized that there is a very long train, and I don't know if anyone else was stuck at a train this morning, but I was stuck at the train, and I was gonna be late.

And what expected to be a wonderful scenic drive turned in me, thinking of Pastor Jim, saying, you are late for the conference. It gets more serious, though, and more weighty, though, when you think life's gonna be great, everything's gonna be awesome, I followed Jesus, it's all gonna be perfect.

Now, no. Paul says to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 1 .8, join with me in suffering for the gospel, according to the power of God. You want to be a church that stands firm? Expect suffering. In fact, if your life is perfect, and everything's peachy, you should wonder what you're doing wrong.

When's the last time you shared the gospel with somebody, and your form of suffering, not in a way of asceticism, and oh, I'm just trying to suffer now, and no, not that, but by just being faithful, you endure some challenges.

There's some sandpaper moments, if you will, in your life, because you were just living for the gospel, and trying to honor the Lord in your faithfulness. That's normal, and it's good. Let's do 7, 8, 9, and then eat some barbecue.

Number seven, point out dangers. Point out dangers. You want to be faithful church, don't avoid calling things what they are. It doesn't mean a tangent every Sunday when the text doesn't call for it, but there needs to be an unapologetic gear in every faithful church leader that is shifted to when that speed is needed.

On multiple occasions in these letters, Paul is pointing out dangers and dangerous people. He names names unapologetically. That's an example to us. And then it all culminates with 2nd Timothy 4, 2, where Paul says, "...reprove, rebuke, and exhort with patience and instruction.".

There's a corrective nature to ministry. If you're in a church that doesn't make you uncomfortable regularly with hard truth, you have a problem. Either you're not listening, and they are, or you're under the wrong preaching.

Like a trainer who never makes the clients sore after their workouts. Like a coach who never tells a player, hey, you're slow, get better, here's how, let's train. You would fire a gym trainer that came to the gym and said, hey, we're gonna eat some snacks today, have some fun, you know, you're fine, you look great, you look great, doing well.

I put on 12 pounds from eating nachos. Yeah, it's okay, you're loved. That is an enabler who should be fired. Coaches who tell your kid every, he's so easy to go to the big leagues. No he's not! Why then would we ever tolerate a pastor who looks at us and goes, hey, it's okay, we all sin, it's alright, we don't want to make people uncomfortable now.

No. You want to be told the truth, given the problems, given the solutions. Number eight, preach the Word. Movements die, associations get old, even seminaries fade and denominations waver. What doesn't?

God's Word. You preach the Word. When there's spiritual famine in the land, you give hungry hearts the only thing that will satisfy them. Why does Paul say preach the Word? Because that's what will work best.

Says to Timothy, preach the Word. There's a time coming when people will not endure sound doctrine. They want their ears tickled. They want their own kind of teachers. They'll turn away from the truth to the myths.

You though, you be sober in all things, you endure hardship, you do the work of an evangelist, he says. Fulfill your ministry. And so in that, we have the answers for suffering, for sickness, for sin, and the like.

We preach the Word. And number nine, pass the torch. There needs to be a raising up of leaders and people in a church that stands firm. You listen to the language and phrases that Paul uses in his pastoral letters.