1 Thessalonians 3:1-5 Timothy: God's Coworker

Freedom, Statism, and the Church’s Duty to Obey God

And they said, enough is enough. And they have piled up, 50 miles long, a caravan of trucks heading to Ottawa, and now in Ottawa, protesting Justin Trudeau's totalitarian order. Very exciting that someone would finally stand up against that nonsense.

Freedom matters. Now, you guys heard of R .C. Sproul and Francis Schaeffer? One time, Francis Schaeffer was in the same car with R .C. Sproul, and Sproul asked him a question. He said, what do you see to be the greatest threat to the church, the greatest danger that Christians are facing in the West in coming years?

Without missing a beat, Schaeffer said one word. Statism. The rise of a totalitarian state. Francis Schaeffer was a Christian to see that coming. He foresaw the problem. A state that takes more and more authority to itself.

Last year, the state dictated that we were not to meet beyond a certain number of people for the ordinances that God has given us. Meaning that God has told us to assemble in the name of Christ. We are to baptize.

We are to take communion. We are to preach the word. We're to lay hands on the sick. We're to anoint people for the ministry through the laying on of hands. These things, the state told us not to do. But see, they were outside of their sphere.

God has granted, in this world, certain jurisdictions for the state, for the family, for the church, for different aspects of society. But in doing that, he never abdicated his rule over all things. Christ is the ruler of all.

And he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me. Christ has all authority. And he delegates certain authority to spheres such as government, or the church, or the family, in various ways.

When a government oversteps those things, we are not to obey. We are to obey God rather than men. Now, there are some in evangelicalism who have objected to this kind of teaching. And they'll say, wait a minute.

As Christians, we have no rights. As Christians, we have no rights because we're crucified with Christ. So their argument goes, we should then just accept whatever is done to us without objection. But understand this.

When the state commandeers something that belongs to God, they are stealing from us what we meant to offer to him. Liberty ensures us the ability to worship freely. And so we will not allow the state to take what belongs to God because the liberty that we have enables us to bring an offering of our time and our talent, our treasure, everything that we have to be given unto him.

You see, to give the government right over things outside of their jurisdiction is to deprive those things of an offering to God. So it is a big deal. Patrick Henry understood this as he saw the encroachment of the English crown on the colonies.

He said, now is the time to stand up for the freedom that we are given by natural right from the creator. Well, many people said, well, we just don't have the strength to do it. And Patrick Henry said, will we have more strength when they have a government soldier posted up at everybody's house?

We won't have more strength then. Now we have more strength than ever. Church, now is the time to stand up. While we have strength left and the ability to defend ourselves. Patrick Henry went on to say, is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, almighty God. I know not what course others may take. But as for me, give me liberty or give me death. Strong words from Patrick Henry. But what he understood before almighty God is that the life that we are given in the flesh is short.

Only one life will soon be passed. And only what's done through Christ will last. We must defend liberty in order that we would have a life to give as an offering to God. This morning, we are going to see a character in the Bible who you're familiar with, whose name is Timothy.

We have a number of Timothys in the church. We have a youth pastor named Timothy. My son is named Timothy. I call the first and second Timothy after the books of the Bible. But Timothy is for us in the Bible, which is part of why I named my son Timothy.

Part of that is the prototype that God has given us for what all Christians should want to be like. It is a man who is free but freely gives everything he has to Christ. A man who has been captured by Christ and is willingly, freely giving offering of himself to the Lord.

Let's turn now to First Thessalonians chapter three to learn about this character named Timothy. Now, the book of First Thessalonians is written to Christians. It's written to us who believe. And the desire of Paul in writing is to stir us up to ministry.

The goal is not that I alone would minister on a Sunday morning. The goal is that all of you would recognize that we are a priesthood of believers, that every Christian is a minister. And so he stirs up the Thessalonians to the work of faith, the labor of love, the steadfastness of hope.

He holds himself as a model in chapter two of one who came preaching the truth with sincerity, trying to please God, not trying to please man. Not tickling ears. And he says, I shared with you not only the word of God, but also my life as well.

And he's trying to stir up the Thessalonians to be ministers of the gospel, to spend their lives on what truly matters, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So as we come into chapter three, that is still his plan.

And in order to execute that plan, he devises to send them Timothy, his beloved child in the faith. In both first and second Timothy, he begins the letter by addressing it to my child in the faith, my beloved child Timothy.

Timothy to Paul is a son in the faith, not an actual born, but a son in the faith. So let's read 1 Thessalonians 3 and learn about Timothy. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone.

And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

So verse one gives us a clue of what's happening here historically. Paul, Timothy, and Silas roll into this new city named Thessalonica in Greece. Our Canadian with the maple, he's actually born in Thessalonica.

Jesse the drummer, very cool. Thessalonica in Greece had never heard the gospel. Paul, Timothy, Silas go into Thessalonica and preach the gospel. Within a matter of weeks, many people have gotten saved.

Many are believing. But the Jewish people are very angry about this. So they drive them out of town. They run them out of town. And off they go to Berea. Things go similarly in Berea. Many people get saved.

And yet the Jewish people follow them from Thessalonica. And they chase them out of Berea too. But what we see in verse one is the response of the apostle to deal with this. So he says, therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone.

Paul knew that he was the lightning rod. When he preached in the city, everybody listened. And before long, they turned against Paul. They wanted to kill him. So what he decided to do is to sail to Athens to take the pressure off the church.

He took himself out of the equation. He went by himself to Athens. And there are the Jews that were trying to kill him, watching from the shore. Good riddance. He's gone. But he left Silas in Berea. And it turns out he sent Timothy back behind them to Thessalonica.

He wanted to make sure. This is all from Acts 17, by the way. He wanted to make sure that the church was continuing in the faith that they were giving. They'd only been Christians for a matter of weeks or months.

And so he was sending Timothy back to them. That's what's happening. Now, let's learn from Timothy what a Christian ought to be like. First thing we notice in verse 2 is his name. We sent Timothy, from the Greek, timei theos, dear, honored, loved God, theos.

Timothy means honoring God. In a word, that is what Christians are called to do. Our lives are not on this earth for ourselves, but for God. We were made by him. In him, we move and have our being. We were bought with the precious blood of the Lamb to serve him.

We live to honor God. And Timothy's name means honoring God. That's the first thing to notice. Now, Timothy was willing to honor God with his entire body. Everything he was was given to God for God's honor.

Turn with me to Acts chapter 16, and we'll get a glimpse of how Timothy honored God in the body. This is when he first joins Paul's missionary team. Acts 16, 1 to 3. Quick word about Derbe and Lystra.

Paul's first missionary journey. He goes to Cyprus and back to the mainland, travels up through Iconium, comes to a city named Derbe. First Lystra, then Derbe. In this city in Turkey, Paul preaches the gospel.

Many people get saved, but many people reject him, and they stone Paul. They hit him with stones. He's bludgeoned and ostensibly dead, until the believers come and lay hands on him. He resuscitates and goes back into Lystra.

Well, there's a young kid there, probably 10, 11, 12 years old, whose name is Timothy. Years later, on Paul's second missionary journey, Acts chapter 16, 1 to 3, Timothy is now an older teenager, maybe early 20s, and he joins Paul as a missionary.

Let's read it, Acts 16, 1 to 3. Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well-spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him. Now it gets a little strange here. He took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. That passage is very telling.

It had to do with salvation. As a little background, understand that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. The book of Galatians was written by Paul to address how Judaizers of the gospel were saying you must be circumcised in order to be saved.

Remember, Jesus was Jewish. So to be a follower of Christ, they said, you must become Jewish, you must be circumcised in order to follow Christ as the Messiah of the Jews. Paul writes the book of Galatians to refute that nonsense.

He says if anybody brings such a gospel, it's no gospel at all, and let it be a curse if they say so. He'll say in chapter three and chapter four, against the Judaizers, if somebody says you must be circumcised to be saved, he would wish they would go ahead and emasculate themselves, he goes on to say.

Strong language for those who teach such a thing. So Paul did not believe it was necessary for Timothy to be circumcised, to be a Christian. So what's up with verse three? It is an indication of how Timothy was so fully committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He was willing to do anything. Understand, Timothy's father was a Greek, but here's Paul's missionary method. Wherever he goes, the first place he goes is the synagogue to speak to the Jews. Now the Jewish people would not allow an uncircumcised Greek to come into the assembly.

He couldn't go into the temple. So in order for Timothy to have access to the Jewish people, to share the gospel, he was willing to be circumcised. And here's the point. This is a man, as a grown man, an adult, willing to do anything for the sake of the gospel.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6, verses 18 to 20. What we see in Timothy is a man who is willing to honor God with his body. He considered that his body was not his own, it was given to Christ. And whatever is necessary for the sake of the gospel, he was willing to do.

In 1 Corinthians 6, the whole chapter is about sexual immorality. But it culminates with these words in verses 18 to 20. We're told, flee from sexual immorality. For every other sin a person commits is outside the body.

But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. For you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body. Read these words, a Christian needs to understand. A price was paid for our salvation. That price was the blood of Jesus. All of us are sinners. We go astray from God in many ways, including sexually.

But God paid a price for our redemption. He sent his Son, who lived a sinless life. And the Son of God died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin. His body hung on the tree to pay the price of our redemption.

He was buried and he rose from the dead. And he ascended to the right hand of the Father. And there he sits as Lord of all. All authority in heaven and on earth was given unto me, says the Lord Jesus.

He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And the King of kings has authority over our bodies. We were bought with this precious blood. Now Timothy is an example of a man whose body is given to the Lord.

And it's an example for us because Christ has purchased our bodies as well. And they are to be given unto the Lord, not to sexual immorality. Our minds are to be given to the Lord. Whatever is pure, whatever is honorable, whatever is true, if anything is excellent or blameworthy, blameless, think about such things, we're told.

Philippians 4 .8. Our minds are given to the Lord. Everything that we are belongs to him. You are not your own. Timothy models that for us. Another model is in the book of 1 Chronicles. Turn way back in the Bible.

For some of you, it hasn't been a long time since you read the book of 1 Chronicles. Be honest, the last chapter of the book of 1 Chronicles contains my favorite verse in the book. 1 Chronicles 29. Big idea I want to communicate here, this first point about honoring God, is that we honor God when we give him everything that we are.

Joyfully. Not because you're trying to check a religious box. It's not this rote obedience. Where you think you're earning something from God. Come to church on Sunday morning so you can be blessed. Read the Bible so you can get something from God.

It's not how God relates to us. He accomplishes our salvation himself. A full and free salvation. To which we bring nothing. And then, we have the privilege to worship from that place of grace. Bought with the precious blood of the lamb.

We stand before him and we are pleased to offer whatever we can. That's what worship is. Worship is not worship until it's joyfully given. Until it's freely given. Willingly given. Until it comes from the heart.

My son, give me your heart, says the Lord. And this is what I see and what I love in 1 Chronicles 29. It's a story of David desiring to build the temple. But he knows he's not the one to do it. He was a man of bloodshed.

So his son Solomon would build the temple. Yet David desired to contribute everything he could to set his son up for success. And that the temple would bring honor to God. So he gives gold. All the gold that he had as king.

And his own personal possession of gold and silver. And the people follow his example. And they willingly bring 10 ,000 talents of gold. People are exuberantly giving what they can to bring honor to God in this temple that they're going to build.

Now look with me at 1 Chronicles 29, eight through 11. First in verses eight and nine it says, whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord. In the care of Jehiel the Gershonite.

You know that guy, right? Jehiel the Gershonite. He's like the treasurer. He's the one that's making sure that what's given to the Lord is safely kept and used for the intended purposes. We're blessed to have such a trustworthy financial secretary in Stan Willis.

To make sure the money is safely brought to the bank. When given to the treasurer. And a great treasurer in Jeph's fire. So here they had Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced. Notice that. The people rejoiced because they had given willingly.

I love that. For with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. There is no joy. There is no pleasure. There is no happiness in this life. Like the freely given heart.

When the Christian willingly, freely brings to God an offer and knows that God is pleased in that giving. This is what you're made for. To honor God. With your body. With your mind. With your possessions.

With everything that you are. The people here in First Chronicles 29 .9. They rejoiced because they had given willingly. They were glad to honor God with what they had. And David the king also rejoiced greatly.

Then my favorite verse, 10 and 11. David breaks out in this prophetic, joyful praise. David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said, blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel, our father, forever and ever.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Can you feel the exuberance? He's stringing together word after word to give honor. He wants to honor his God. And the praise is just exploding from within him. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty.

This is honoring God. And that is the first lesson of Timothy. Second lesson, he is called God's coworker. Turn back with me to First Thessalonians chapter three, verse two. Paul says, we sent Timothy, honoring God.

Then he describes Timothy this way. Our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ. Have you ever thought of yourself as God's coworker? Do you know that you are called to be God's coworker? Now, I don't mean that in salvation.

Salvation is a monergistic work. The word monergism means mono, one, jism, energy. It's one energy. It's no work that you do, Ephesians 2, eight, nine. For by grace, you are saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Not of works, not of your energy. You bring no energy, lest anyone should boast. Salvation is monergistic. God does the work of saving you. Your dead heart comes alive because God resurrects you. He gives you a new heart.

It's all his work. But notice what it says in verse two. Timothy, our brother and God's coworker. In what sense can a Christian be a coworker with God? He doesn't cooperate in saving himself. God is the savior and God alone.

But the saved Christian is a coworker of God. There is a synergy between God and man, working together for the sanctification of the believer and to reach other people with the gospel. It says, our brother and God's coworker.

You and I work together with God. Many Christians come to saving faith and wait on God to do the rest. But you're God's coworker. One of the reasons that I was so angry about what the state did to the churches is that God has given the church what are called the means of grace.

Have you heard of the means of grace? These are means by which we grow. But we must avail ourselves of those means. He's given us the word, but we have to read it. He's given us the Lord's table, the body and bread.

The body is the bread and the blood is the cup. To come and commune with Him. But we must come to the table. He's given us baptism to be crucified with Christ and raised to newness of life. He's given us the preaching of God's word and the hearing of God's word that we would be sanctified.

Now, these are the means of grace. And for a state to come in and say, you must not gather, you can't come within six feet of each other, you can't have fellowship by showing the expressions of your face.

For the state to interpose itself and take away the means of grace from the church is an assault on the authority of the king. It bothered me to no end, because these means are the way in which we grow.

When a man is sick, I want to go to the hospital as the pastor and lay hands on the sick and pray for healing. The elders, we want to gather you when you're sick and anoint with oil and pray with the laying on of hands according to James chapter five.

When we commission someone to the ministry, we lay hands upon the person. So for the state to come in and take away the freedom to do that is maddening. They're out of their jurisdiction, but church, listen, here we are today freely gathering in the name of Christ, as we were even when it was forbidden.

Here we are, and my question to you is are you a coworker with God in the freedom that you have to do it to avail yourself of the means of grace? Are you working with him? Are you opening the text on a daily basis?

Are you willing to work? Because you are a coworker. Sanctification is synergistic, meaning God is at work in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Therefore, work out your salvation with fear and tremble.

Philippians 2, 12 and 13. There's a work that God does, it's invisible, it's in you, his spirit is doing it, but you must do work as well. You must work, and the example of Timothy is amazing at this particular point.

Notice in verse two, Paul sent Timothy, God's coworker. Timothy is God's coworker, and he's willing to be sent. He's willing to work. This is prototypical for the Christian, and it is consistent in the life of Timothy.

Paul needed to go to Athens. Timothy, sneak around back and go back to Thessalonica. Paul was in jail in Rome, writing a letter to the Philippines. And he says, but I think that it was necessary for me to send Timothy to you also.

I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks to his own interest, but not Timothy. Timothy has proved himself like a son to the father. He has served with me in the work of the gospel.

In Philippians 2, Paul says of Timothy that he's different. In fact, he says, I have nobody like Timothy. Timothy is willing to do anything, and he truly cares. He takes a genuine interest in your welfare.

What can we learn from Timothy? Willingness to hit the floor. The basketball player, who might not be the best shooter, he might not be the most talented on the court, but the coach will still put him in at certain places in the game, because he's willing to dive on that loose ball to get it.

He's willing to set a screen to free somebody else. He's willing to do anything necessary, and when the game is on the line, the coach puts him on the bench, and he doesn't complain. He's the utility guy on the basketball court, or on the football field.

Every team needs that. You see, Timothy, what's so remarkable about him is Paul could tell him to do anything, and he would. Go to Philippi, go to Thessalonica, and he went. Willing to work. He had completely given himself to the work.

We have people in this church who are like, people that, just this morning, they saw that the parking lot still looked a little slippery, and they're out there with salt. And this particular man is an elder, and he teaches apologetics, and he teaches a community group, but he will also be willing, behind the scenes, to go to the handy evangelism camp and give a week of his year to spend time with a handicapped individual, and lead that person to Christ, and walk alongside him.

That's a Timothy spirit. It's this willingness to do anything necessary. Church, we need Timothy-like Christians in all of us. Ask an elder, ask a deacon, what do you guys need? That's what Timothy would do, anything.

Anything. What do you need help with? Where's there a need that I can meet? That's a Timothy spirit, willingness to work. I see that in verse two. We're still in 1 Thessalonians 3. I know we're going through a lot of text today, but the main thing is 1 Thessalonians 3 .2.

We sent Timothy, our brother, God's co-worker in the gospel, to establish an exhortation. Lastly, the hardest one to hear. Let's read verses three to five. That no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.

Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica because they were under pressure. They were getting hit. Some of them were probably in jail. They were losing their jobs. They were becoming outcasts in their own city.

They were under pressure from their own countrymen, we learned last week, and he cared. But see, Timothy models for us a very important lesson, and that is steadfastness in suffering. When Timothy learned Christianity, he did not learn it the prosperity theology way.

You will find on TVEd and other channels, prosperity teachers that tell you, if you'll just give this certain seed money, God will give you seed back in the form of financial blessing, and you'll have health and you'll have wealth.

And sometimes we laugh at the prosperity teachers on TV because they're so ridiculous with the hair and the makeup, but even in evangelical churches, there's a prosperity light where we only wanna talk about how easy life is or how good and blessed we'll be if we just do the right thing.

Job knew nothing of that. When Timothy became a Christian, he saw the full scope of Christianity from the outset. Here's what I mean. Turn with me to 2 Timothy 3, 10, and 11. We're just about done flipping around.

2 Timothy 3, 10, 11. I wanna tell you how Timothy learned faith. 2 Timothy 3, 10, and 11. Paul says to him, you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness.

Mark that word, steadfastness. This is where Christians need to grow, especially in a country that's prosperous. We have so much. Verse 11, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

This is so important. When Timothy first saw Christianity, he was probably a 10 or 12-year-old boy. And what he saw was this short, they say he was hunched over, had bad eyesight man named Paul, come to town, healed the cripple.

The cripple began walking and praising God. Everybody was celebrating. They wanted to make Paul into herpes and turn Barnabas into Zeus. And they said, no, don't do that. And then some Jews came from behind and said, actually, these guys are deceivers.

And so the whole town turned on Paul. And they took stones and they beat Paul with the stones and they piled them on him and killed him. I think the implication of Acts 14 is that Paul was dead. Until the believers came and laid hands on him and he resuscitated.

And then Paul went back into Lystra. And then he moved on to Derbe. That was the end point of the first missionary journey. And on the way back, he stopped at Lystra again. That's when Lois and Eunice became Christians.

And that's when that little boy began to believe. And from infancy, from his young days, learned the scriptures that were able to make him wise in the salvation. So on Paul's second missionary journey, when Paul shows up and Timothy, Acts 16, joins the missionary team, he knows what he's signing up for, suffering.

Everywhere Paul went, he suffered. And listen, when they went from church to church, Acts 14, it says, everywhere they went, Paul kept saying the same thing. So evidently, everybody needs to hear this.

Everybody, you need to hear this. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. He kept saying it. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Suffering is to be expected.

Endurance is required of you. Steadfastness, we are all prone to be tempted and led astray, and very much so when we're under pressure. Paul said, and we can finally go back to 1 Thessalonians 3, we're finally finishing here.

Paul says in verse five, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. Many Christians come to save in faith and experience the joy of their salvation and they're excited to belong to the church and things are going well, and then their dad dies.

And they say, God, if you're real, why did my dad die? And they're tempted to depart from the faith. Or even harder, a Christian who's been faithful for so many years loses his own son. Why did my son die?

Or you're finally starting to get your life together and then you lose your job. God, if you're really there, why are you letting this happen? The struggles of this life are to be expected. It's a part of this life.

It's a part of our sanctification. Notice in the text here, now we're back to 1 Thessalonians 3, we're almost done. Look at verse three. You yourselves know that we are destined for this. Mark that. Philippians 129, it has been appointed to you not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.

Timothy teaches us endurance. It's the only Christianity he ever knew. He sought in Paul and then he began to limit himself. He was persecuted wherever he went. He was willing to suffer for the sake of the name.

But notice that Christ rescued them from them all. Every beating they would heal from. All the pain they had to endure was only for a moment. Weeping endured for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Amen. In this life you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world, says Christ. These light, temporary afflictions are achieving for you an eternal weight of glory that far surpasses them all.

Sufferings in this life are to be expected. But what the Christian needs to grow into is a Timothy-like ability to just endure it, to be steadfast, to be immovable. Timothy was an example of an immovable Christian.

He was the same from when he was a child till his pastoring in Ephesus for all of those years. And when Paul writes 2 Timothy to him, he tells him, do not be ashamed of the gospel, nor of me or of my chains.

And finally he'll tell him, preach the word in season and out of season. There is an immovability to the mature Christian. We learn it from Timothy. So in closing, three profound lessons from Timothy.

One, honor God above all. His name means honoring God. And the way you honor God is to freely give him your mind, give him your body in sexual period. Give him your possessions, your time. That's the first lesson, honor God.

The second is be willing to work wherever the Lord, the master, commissions you to go. Timothy would go to Philippi, he'd go to Thessalonica, just send me. Remember Isaiah? Once he had been touched by that coal from heaven, it touched his tongue, he was cleansed.

A picture of being saved. Once you understand what it means that you're bought with the price, the precious blood of the lamb has purchased your salvation. Then in Isaiah 6, 8, you can say, here I am, send me.

Send me wherever you'll have me go. I'll go to the mission field, I'll go to the evangelism, the heavy evangelism camp. I'll shovel snow. I'll set up the service in the spring outdoors. I'll help in any way needed.

You see that? That's Timothy, just send, send me. He would just go like Isaiah. And then this last thing is being immovable in suffering. Too often, when the hard time comes, that's when we crumble. That's when we give in to temptation.

Paul's fear was that the tempter had tempted them. Expect suffering, but know, listen, know that if it's destined by God, right? It says we were destined for this. If it's destined, there's a purpose.

The light momentary affliction is achieving for you an eternal way to glory. That means Christ is allowing Paul to get stoned so that Lystra could come to saving faith, so that Timothy would become a missionary, and the gospel would go on from generation to generation.

Your suffering is the same way, and I know we don't always know the reason for it, but there is a reason. There's a purpose in suffering, so be immovable when you hit your thumb with a hammer. Just yesterday, I proved how not Timothy-like I am.

The snow, no, I didn't hit my thumb with a hammer, but I spent about an hour trying to get this snowblower to work. Somebody gave me a snowblower, but it didn't have a start switch, so I tried to bypass that, and I got it started after an hour of work, and I started out to the snow.

It was thick yesterday, right? So as soon as I hit the snow, I literally got one foot in, and it just went clunk, and it was like a dead stone. It wouldn't do anything, and I was so mad. I threw a tool down in the toolbox, and I'm marching around, and I thought to myself, why am I so immature?

Like, this is my suffering? I'm gonna have to shovel now, and that's what bothered me so much, and I hope you're laughing because you can relate, not because you're judging me, but see, Timothy had this heart like he was willing to go through whatever happens, and he was in movement.

So let's close in a word of prayer, and ask God to make us like that. In Philippians 3, 17, it says, join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the example that we gave you, to the pattern we gave you.

Paul set the example. Timothy was just like Paul, and we're called to be just like that, too. Let's ask God to make us more like that today through the preaching of his word. Let's pray. So, Father, we've heard from your word.

We know it's you that's at work in us to will and to do according to your good pleasure. Yet you call us to be a coworker with you. Timothy, God's coworker. Sets an example for us, a pattern for us. So, Lord, I wanna pray for us as a church, for each one of us, Lord.

First of all, that we would truly honor you above anything else in our lives. Pray that we would honor you with our bodies, that there would not be sexual immorality among us, that we would know that we are bought with a price, and we would honor you with our bodies, that our minds would be given to you like young Timothy.