“But As For You" (2 Timothy 4:1-8)

please give a huge welcome back to Jackie Hill Perry how are you Saints you probably didn't hear me I said how are you Saints okay you can sit down all of us don't have Joyce Meyers knees you understand um first of all I originally felt some type of way that y'all put me last I said the people are tired they didn't have lunch and things but it's a honor uh to to be here um I just appreciate the Apostle prophetes Pastor preacher teacher worship singer deaconness like you got all five F uh gifts in Miss CC ws and so I'm happy to be 
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 here I feel like I should I guess I'll introduce myself so I kind of just want to get straight to the text I'll just say my name is Jackie I live in Atlanta uh with my husband Preston we've been married for 10 years we got four kids ranging from the age of nine to two two of them are here they've been driving me wild this whole weekend one of my daughter's knees are ashy cuz I ain't bring no lotion it's just a lot you know I'm used to traveling by myself I didn't I didn't pack accordingly I forgot I was mama I just you know it's like oh your knees are great and so happy Mother's Day to me and then um and I'm here with my mama y'all can say what's up to her and my friends Megan and Jordan so yeah you know black mamas they they deserve their flowers for many things but one particular gift that black motherhood has given us is that black m have a particular lexicon they they have a catalog of phrases that are part Parable and part comedy if you ain't got a black mama just listen and learn let's say let's say it's after school and and you you go down the block to play with your little friends or whatever and if it's winter time you can come in the house and you probably won't hear nothing crazy but let it be about 68° enough when you done on your bike and having your race and you walk through the screen door and you walk past the hallway and your mama get a little whiff of your back she just going to say you you know you need to go take a bath cuz you smell like outside 
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 and some of our European friends are saying what does outside smell like exactly and I'll tell you it smells exactly like outside black mom is also used saying that if you really think about it don't make that much sense like fix your 
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 face is there a toolkit for that how do I how do I fix a face so or watch your mouth my eyes are here my how do I watch my it don't got to make sense though cuz your spirit discerned what she meant by it um my mama used to do this thing I I never confessed this to you um that made me mad which is when I was around my friends I guess I was doing a little too much you know she would say don't make me embarrass you in front of your little friends plot twist I'm embarrassed now because you just embarrassed me in front of my little 
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 friends I I think one I see myself using in the future I like this one because it's multi-ethnic now we all here um cuz everybody's mama has you Koreans Asians everybody uses this which is when you wanted to do something dumb with your friends and you tell your mama about it your mama says so I guess if everybody jumped off a cliff you do it too huh it's the huh you do it too huh I like that one I like that one cuz I think it'll actually preach and and it preach not just to my kids or to your kids but it'll also preach to the church because we have preachers jumping off cliffs left and right you knew I was going the jokes was just to warm you up um we we have preachers inviting cardinality into the sanctuary of God we we have preachers preaching messages that have nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with you we we have we have so-called prophets giving people demons in the name of deliverance we have Christians we have Christians who don't know how to read their Bibles don't know how to pray without ceasing don't know how to take up their cross daily and that don't know the basics because they're not being discipled and what it actually means to love God with all of their heart all of their mind and all of their soul and I'm here to tell you that just because everybody is doing it you don't have to jump off the cliff because as you go about making disciples if you see the popularity of liars the the easy Christianity of the lukewarm the synchronistic tone of the culture the apathetic leadership of the weary if you see see that you might envy it and if you envy it you'll want to jump and if you do for a short while it will feel like you are flying it will feel like you are free but but I'm here to tell you that it won't be long before your body hits the ground the text before us is not written by a black Mama but by a spiritual father to a spiritual son like us Timothy is doing Ministry in an impossible environment there is false teaching and immorality all around him and not just in the world but in the church and the Apostle Paul writes this letter to Timothy while in prison before his death and in it he is instructing Timothy his son in the faith that even if every single person around you loses their rabbit tail mind even if everybody around you jumps off the cliff even if your pastor even if you're even if everyone decides to lose their soul to gain the world because they think it will help them fly since you know the truth you can stay Standing On Solid Ground let's pray Lord we thank you we thank you for your word and how it is has revealed to us your son we thank you that that those of us who have seen him have come to recognize how valuable he is so we pray God that you would stir up an awareness of the beauty of Jesus God I pray that you would give us affections for Christ I pray that you would give us Zeal in Ministry I pray that you would give us power to communicate and defend and contend for truth truth and I pray for those here who have a form of godliness who do not authentically know you God I pray that today they would know you and that you would set them free so that they can love you for real we pray this in Jesus name amen turn in your Bibles to Second Timothy we're going to teach today I'm sorry that I had to be the last one to to teach you but we going to walk through this text and then we can go about our way and you can go eat chicken and or unless you Vegan eat the mushrooms fried and batter or whatever um cuz you know it's not chicken so I don't I don't know um looking at verse one I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living in the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as for you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry the title of this message is but as for you the direct context of this letter is that Apostle Paul is writing to his spiritual son Timothy and the faith instructing him when it comes to pastoral Ministry some of us might be pastors and so this text applies very specifically other of us others of others of us may not be pastors but we are preachers and teachers and bible study leaders and discipleship makers and group leaders and influencers and mothers and daughters and aunties and sisters and Grand like so I am going to apply Paul's instruction to us in a broad sense therefore this message is for every Christian who actually wants to make disciples when we get to chapter four 4 Paul has just told Timothy to continue and what he has learned from childhood namely as it relates to his acquaintance with the scriptures Paul goes into this long thing where he describes the nature of scripture as being God breathed and and profitable for all the things and this is what he says after that look at verse one I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom preach the word that's my first point by the way is that in whatever Ministry God has entrusted to you I beg you preach the word notice Paul doesn't say preach a word as if Timothy has options but for as if he has things to decide between when it comes to what he is to communicate Paul had already told Timothy what word he was supposed to preach in chapter one Paul says that this word is a good deposit that was entrusted to him by God in chapter two Paul says that this word is the word of truth that should be handled rightly in chapter three Paul said that this word is breathed out by God so when Paul says preach the word he means that word the good deposit word the word of God the word of Truth the spirit breathed word and do you know that the reason the word even exists in the first place is because God God wants you to know him there's this thing called The Creator creature distinction which basically says that God is God and we ain't God God as God means he is eternal he is omniscient he is omnipotent he is Holy he is transcendent he is invisible as a creature you are different you are bound to time you are finite you are human and therefore how can you as a creature know anything about an invisible and Transcendent God if he doesn't decide to tell you I say it one more time you as a creature are bound to time you are INF you are not infinite you are finite you are human and therefore how can you as a creature know anything about an invisible and Transcendent God if this God does not decide to tell you somebody might say somebody might say well Jackie does it Romans 1 say that God can be known through creation so we don't necessarily need the Bible if we can learn about God from the trees and and from the stars and from the Moon and from the mountain and I would respond by saying that's weird it it's weird to me when people use the Bible to undermine the Bible it feels satanic the only reason the only reason you know that the creation preaches is because the Bible Told You So secondly by looking at creation by looking at creation somebody would come to the conclusion that somebody Divine had to make all of this so the creation is able to preach that there is a God but creation cannot tell you which God it is therefore creation is an insufficient source of divine revelation but do you know what is sufficient the Bible the first sentence of it Genesis 1 1 says in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth and I love this part do you know how he did it with words he merely said let there be and there was and this God does not just make worlds with words he reveals himself to creatures in it with words to Abram to Isaac to Jacob to Moses he communicated used verbs and nouns and syntax and adverbs and and and Epistles and Psalms and songs he communicated with him his name and his law and his promises with language eventually eventually the second person of the Triune God Jesus Takes on flesh revealing God to and do you know what the Bible calls him a word John said in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh and dwell among us and it is by looking looking at Jesus in the scriptures that the god of creation is revealed so the mountains might preach but it's not as sufficient as the scriptures which gives us all that we need to know about God so if we want to know him if we want to understand him if we want to reflect him if we want to meditate on him we must know the words that he has given us there is no legitimate knowledge of God that you can have without God God's revelation and since God wants to be known by you he accommodates himself by communicating with you in a way that is understandable do you understand how crazy it is for a transcended God to talk to you what a what a what a kindness that God's self-disclosure is written down once on tablets of stone then on Scrolls that became a book that you got on your phone and being similar to Jesus who is the word the written word is also human and divine and not so human that it lacks Divine Authority and Not So Divine that it lacks Human Experience and personality this book is written with human hands and it is the product of the be Breath of God it's both what a kind that God's revelation is contained in a piece of literature that is sacred and true and God breathed and authoritative and profitable and clothed therefore we need not add to it or take it away this book that gives us 800,000 words and seven different genres with 40 different authors written over the course of 1500 years which is able as Paul says to Timothy to make you wise for salvation what other words are we supposed to preach if not this one so I'm I'm just simply I'm just simply here to say that that if you're out here doing Ministry to preach a word but not the word I need you to sit down immediately immediate upon a rival just sit because here's the gag if if your word didn't make me then surely your word can't save me it can't regenerate me it can't give me a new mind and a new heart like what what can your word actually do it's only this word that can do a work and so if we want to see Revival happen in this generation if we want to see actual change happen in this generation we don't need new methods and we don't need new words we need to return to the means of Grace that God has already promised to bless which is the faithful preaching of the word of God I know you like your prophets I know you like their words I know you want to hear about your season I know you want to know that you got victory but when you going to get in Psalms when you going to understand Romans when you going to work through Leviticus when you going to look at Amos you just G to keep skipping the book that Prophet done spoke slept with about 16 people before he done got on this stage but you trust him anyway that wasn't in the notes that wasn't in the notes oops Paul tells 
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 Timothy Paul no for real cuz y'all said I got an hour yeah I got 41 minutes like come on like I I think this ain't in my notes I I think we have to know that if you don't know your Bible and if you don't love your scriptures then you are setting yourself up to be deceived because if you are esteeming the word of a prophet over the word of God how will you know when the prophet is lying it's simple it's simple why do you think Eve was deceived because she didn't know what God said she looked at the tree and said that he said that we can't eat it or touch it he never said that she couldn't touch it so it was her lack of clarity on God's word that opened her up for Satan's deception and that's what's going to happen to this generation as long as you stay on Tik Tock loving the word of a prophet more than the word of God you will be deceived I'm telling you Paul tells Timothy Paul tells Timothy to preach the word why verse three for the time is coming when people will not endure suffer through sit with sound healthy teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths Paul has already talked to Timothy about time before this in chapter 3 he said in the last days there will come times of difficulty in the last days the difficulty will be so because people will be lovers I ain't there yet if if if you're familiar with the text you know Paul means means more by them being lovers but the different sins he describes in the list like being proud in the last days and arrogant in the last days and ungrateful in the last days and Unholy in the last days all of those are expressions of a love so so it seems as one commentator put it that the entire list is a reaction to people being lovers of self from this love of self which is an inordinate self-centered narcissistic kind of preoccupation with ourselves that we're actually born with I don't know if you ever seen a 2-year-old it's the most self-centered being you've ever made in your life like we're born centering ourselves and he says that people will not only be lovers of themselves in the last days but lovers of money and lovers of pleasure what shocked me befuddled when I actually paid attention to this this section of Paul's letter is that the people that love themselves more than God are people who also have a form of godliness I used to think that this text was talking about the world but this text is actually dealing with people in the church which tells me that tells me that there is people among us people with Generations people in pool pits people in our friend groups people who talk like Christians and and walk like Christians but we are the ones who are being Hood wied Bamboozled LED astray and flat out deceived because they're godliness is a form it's a public appearance with no inner reality so when we say they have a form of godliness I'm going to put it as plainly as possible people who have a form of godliness are not Christians they have not been converted they have not been given the eyes to see and the ears to hear they still have a white or Heart of Stone they are whitewashed tombs they are still dead in sins and trespasses even though they write sermons they are still and the kingdom of darkness and slaves to sin but they have a form of God that makes it seem like they belong with the Sheep but because they deny the power that can make their profession sincere they relegate themselves to the position of a wolf that only wears sheep's clothes and I think most people with a form of godliness don't even know their true identity because we tend to believe that every wolf or every tear or every goat knows that they are that but that would take a level of self awareness that blind people don't have apart from Revelation uh Paul earlier in Timothy he says that when we correct our opponents when gentleness and respect that it's God who might grant them repentance which leads to a knowledge of the truth including a knowledge of yourself remember Paul the writer of this letter he was trying to destroy God's church and was fully persuaded that he wasn't an actual enemy of God until Jesus revealed himself this same Paul in chapter 3 said that evil people and Impostors Will Go On from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived these people who love themselves who love pleasure who love money have a form of godliness because they don't know God and they don't even know that so they are just as deceived as the people they are trying to Enlighten it is in fact the blind the reason I bring this up is because what kind type species category of person do you think folks with itching ears are listening to be because if they are accumulating teachers to suit their passions passions meaning those desires and affections that are produced by the flesh if if they're accumulating teachers to suit their passions what is the nature of the teacher one must find who will scratch the itch it would need to be a teacher who has the same passions as you so I if you of are lover of yourself and only want to hear about yourself and your purpose and your moment and your rights and your plans and your Victory if when you open the scripture and are wholly uninterested at finding God in the text you just want every narrative to apply to you the historical and Theological context don't even matter matter just preach me happy if that is you you'll be delighted by the preaching that fills the pull pits nowadays because it's people with a form of godliness training and helping other people to do the same even Devils make disciples have you ever noticed that the ethical practices that Paul says will like exist in the last days namely lovers of self lovers of money lovers of pleasure that you can find a preacher for every passion that's why 2 Timothy 4:3 says that people will accumulate they will Heap up teachers to suit their passions the reason they can create a pile of teachers is because there are a lot of options to pick from so so if you are a lover of self the good news is there's a preacher for you there there are preachers with what I like to call a self-centered hermeneutic who are reinforcing your innate narcissism with every so-called sermon that interprets text through the lens of self instead of Jesus Calvin said everyone who in his preaching has kindly extolled the Excellence of Human Nature has received great Applause from all almost all ages Johnny James the walking Bible said if you want to preach and bless nobody make popularity your aim I say I if you want to preach and bless absolutely nobody all you got to do is let your preaching be an echo of what the world already loves which is itself if you just talk to people about themselves and just talk to people about themsel like if we don't see Jesus in the text whoa if you are a lover of money there's a preacher for you there are Pros it preachers ready to twist scripture to accommodate your greed and in if and when this teaching is paired with a word of f Faith framework that says if I name it and claim it I will have it you have partnered with a doctrine that is more new AG than Christian that's the secret that's Sanctified the Bible says that is the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil so how is it possible that somebody can listen to 60 Minutes of Health wealth and prosperity instead of Jesus and his kingdom and not discern that a demon was involved in the sermon 
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 prep if you are a lover of pleasure there is a preacher for you there are plenty of preachers ready to tell you that what Paul had to say about sexual ethics isn't what he meant that fornication isn't actually a sin that same seex sex isn't a direct perversion of God's original design and an outworking of our Collective idolatry Romans 1 there are even preachers arguing for polygamy by pointing to love shared between the persons of the Trinity as evidence for why somebody can have one two and three spouses this heresy these are heresies exist because we have preachers who have the same Spirit as Eli's Sons they are worthless priests that's what the Bible says they are worthless priests who need deliverance and we love them but if you are a slave to perversion yourself it makes sense for you to preach and listen to perverted messages there is in fact a preacher for every passion which brings me to point number two We Don't Preach to suit passions we preach two passions dealing with the issue hear this this is very uh instructive for this time dealing with the issue of unsound teaching cannot happen through intellectual instruction only as if the mind is the only thing that's corrupted we also need to apply truth to the affections it's absolutely necessary to preach to the mind that's what I'm doing to instruct and train people in the truth right we've already made the case that you can't even know God or find Salvation apart from God's special Revelation so the problem with itching ears is a theological problem but as history will show you can intellectually academically know the truth and still functionally believe a lie even now we might not know nothing about it there there are articles bringing attention to a plethora of sexual abuses within a particular denomination in America where there is no lack of sound teaching they know atonement they know propitiation they know substitutionary like they know all the stuff so their problem can't be that they don't know truth it's not an issue of intellect but passions the theology in their minds is competing with the perversion in their hearts so to say that we need to preach to passions is simply to say that the ministry of God's word must be comprehensive we must lay claim to the mind and the affections by preaching truth to the whole person so that by the power of God's spirit they will love God with all of their heart and here's why this needs to happen if people are accumulating teachers that suit their sinful passions one of the ways to subvert the influence of these teachers is not by making 15,000 Tik Tok videos calling out every false teacher okay and they're making a lot of money off that that's the the funny part um it's by dealing directly with the affections of the people who are attracted to the false teaching Thomas Charmers has a work he called the explosive power of a new affection by which he argues that there are two ways to help somebody who has an affection for the world the first way is to show the person the vanity of the world I feel like when I grew up in church that's what they did it's like oh porn is nasty why would you watch porn and sex is disgusting why would you do that it's like it don't feel that way though so I'm I'm not resonating with your testimony wow just smoke weed that's the devil's po it gives me peace like what do you mean we it's the sense in which we think that appealing to the ity or the shame of a object will deliver somebody somebody from the love of the object but we all know they actually don't work right so we think that the like reason will be enough to deliver people from the world like that you should just get it you should just understand but it's like in sin I'm even darkened in my understanding so at some point something else has to happen inside of me and I'm actually persuaded that that is one of the reasons for the prevalence of people with a form of godliness in our churches because how many false converts do we know exist because we thought that because we got them to agree with our Doctrine it meant their heart was different theological Ascent acknowledging truth is not necessarily the evidence of spiritual reg regeneration let me say this way you can know the truth but it does not mean that you've entrusted yourself as its Lord or put it y'all go what say so what Charmers puts forward as a better alternative is that we must preach Christ in such a way that people develop an affection for Jesus that replaces all ofs and as an example of how to do this in Ministry I'mma preach to the passions in the room because they're here the Bible says that in the last days people will be lovers of themselves and one of the principal manifestations of this love is an inordinate love of self and I say inordinate because a natural love and honor for what God has made includes valuing yourself right but the love of self that Paul is referring to in the last days is an unnatural love there is a a centering and a a loyalty to self in the heart and in the mind and in the life that looks nothing like God and some of the blindest lovers of self are religious people because if you if you are a person who has shaped your entire life around serving people it can be hard to discern how profoundly egotistical you might actually might be because it is possible that your service to others is ultimately service to yourself to be a lover of self is to live in opposition to God's law for the law and the prophets hinge on two things to love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all of your mind and with all of your soul and to love your neighbor as yourself and don't get it twisted and think that Jesus is saying that you have to love yourself to know how to love others as if narcissism is a prerequisite for obedience Jesus in this text is assuming your human nature and how preferential Your Love of self is and he is saying keep that same energy when it comes to everybody but you what is helpful for you to know is how this love of self is showing up in the preachers and the content you listen to maybe you like teachers who have a bent towards preaching individualistic forms of purpose that have no sound theological basis maybe you prefer teachers that interpret passages with only you and mind maybe heresy feels more practical than Holiness to you and I believe that that's because of Genesis 3 that there is something underneath all of this which is Sin Sin and therefore pride is manifesting in two ways pride has convinced you that you are everything which is ego and pride is also showing up as shame which has convinced you that you are nothing so you are constantly moving in between self-love and self-loathing and therefore your affections your passion are drawn towards teaching that functions as a religious fig Leaf you want teachers and preachers that will cover your nakedness you want preachers you want preachers who will coddle you you want preachers who will make you feel safe you want preachers to handle your trauma you listen to their foolishness to cope with your fears and your failures you listen to preachers who will accommodate your flesh some of you have believed a lie that their flattery will restore your dignity we all want to feel important especially those of us who have been on the other side of abuse we all want to feel valuable but how often do you consider the value of God and how it is only in Christ Jesus where you can be fully clothed it's in him where your sin and your shame can be removed and the primary reason any of you even exist is to know him this this God in Genesis 1:1 the one who created the world created you and unlike you this God is Not self- serving but self-giving to the point that he did as the song said that he came from Heaven to Earth to show the way from the cross to the Grave with your debt to pay from the cross to the Grave to the Grave to the sky and it's only by the power the regenerating power of the holy spirit that we don't lift nobody's name but him on high and this we say with the psalmist not to us oh Lord not to us but to your name give give Glory that's an example of how you preach to passions because all the people in the room with some uncruel about their nature and their position before God in addition to being confronted with the value of Jesus and if anybody in here just so happens to decide to believe the truth with their heart and their mind the itching ears will be be healed in other words to preach to passions we must preach the gospel and all who have ears to hear will find themselves not wanting to listen to the teachers that they used to listen to because they just don't do it for them no more like when you've when you've seen God for real when when you've had the bread of life when when you've had the Living Water you just can't enter rain emptiness anymore Paul tells Timothy I'm almost done to preach the word because a time is coming when people won't listen to it on one end that's a little discouraging because it's given why we even doing this Apostle like like you're telling me to preach to the word and people won't even want to hear it even in chapter one Paul told Timothy that everybody in Asia including previous Partners in a Ministry hermogenes and F filus you should have already known they was going to turn their back on you cuz their name is filus that's not a trustworthy name imagine tattooing that on your arm yes sir I want filus um Paul Paul told Timothy that people he was in Ministry with they left him they they jumped off the cliff so I can see Timothy hearing this letter read remember this is an epistle so he heard this letter read to him and as he hears it in his mind he's wondering if gospel Ministry is actually worth it I I could see in his mind him thinking through all he will have to go through for the sake of Truth the opposition from without and the opposition from within Paul had told him in chapter 3 that all who desire to live a Godly life will be persecuted so preaching the word is cool preaching the passion sounds good until I'm confronted with what that requires of me because truth be told we want to be honest people who preach two passions and people who preach to suit passions they don't have the same Warfare the devil ain't fighting him in the same way the cost is different the pain is different the Betrayal is different the discipline is different the money is different you know how wealthy I would be if I decided to lie to 
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 y'all it's the differences between the one who preaches to Passion and one who preaches to sue passions that tempts the true church to Envy The Wicked the PSAL and explained it this way the psalmist said in Psalm 73 for I envied The Arrogant I saw the prosperity of the wicked they have an easy time until they die and their bodies are well fed they are not in trouble like others they are not Afflicted like most people look at them the wicked life is easy for Sinners and they increased their wealth here it is did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing one day one of you may become apostate and potentially a false teacher not primarily because you had issue with Doctrine but because you were unwilling to suffer you will look at the ease of the Unfaithful and jump off the cliff in an attempt to experience a easier version of Christianity with it which is no Christianity at all and sadly if you maintain a form of godliness you might keep your position in church but as a tear among wheat and I grieve the possibility that some of you because of your refusal to entrust your entire self to Christ you will have to wait till Judgment Day to find out who you really are this is why verse 5 is so necessary Paul says to Timothy I get everybody is losing their mind I get everybody don't want to love Doctrine for real I get everybody don't want to cling to Jesus when it gets hard I get that but but as for you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry Point number three we want to preach the word we want to to preach the passions and by God's keeping power we must preach till we are finished Paul knows that he is about to die for the time of his departure has come Paul's Ministry began on a road called Damascus when Christ revealed himself to a blind Pharisee and set him on Mission and now the time has come for him to finish that mission the good news in this whole story is that when his ministry is fulfilled and he is killed for telling the truth do you know whose face he will see again in between both appearances Paul preached he he proclaimed forgiveness of sins in Antioch he challenged the idolatry present in lisan Athens he preached while he was in jail and reasoned in the synagogue he confronted divination spirits and healed people of their walk but he also made tents he also made friends but at the end of his life everybody left him the man who God used to give us 13 books of the New Testament is in a jail sale by himself for preaching the word and you mad cuz you made one Tik Tock and don't nobody like you no 
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 more what did you expect but but it's because Paul knows somebody that he's not ashamed for he knows he knows he he knows by intellect and exper he knows who he has believed and since he has fought the good fight and since he he has finished the race he has kept the faith after he is martyred he will be rewarded with a crown hear me therefore Paul is not talking out of the side of his neck when he tells Timothy to say stay sober minded which is to say to keep his head to to not let the syncretism or the false teaching or the slander or the gopel or the Betrayal don't let nothing in this world have you lose your mind stay focused Timothy the word You Preach has to be the word that you believe again and again and again if the Lord rescued Paul out of the lion's mouth he could do the same thing for you people of God the preachers around you the people around you the Christians around you might have let loneliness talk them into some things they might have let Pride take them to some places they might have let money steal their souls but as for you you keep your mind right casting down every single thought that exalts itself above the knowledge of God stay sober Mindy Paul is not offering superficial encouragement when he tells Timothy to endure suffering remember remember the writer of this letter was whipped five times beaten with rods three times and stoned once he he's faced dangers from Rivers dangers from robbers dangers from his own people all because he knew who he had believed and was commissioned to tell other people about him so because I've been through that I've been there done that you can also endure suffering to Timothy when Ministry friends stop being faithful because of how much it hurt them to be holy you trust God anyway they Curse God and die but as for you endure suffering if we have died with him we will also live with him if we endure with him we will also reign with him Paul Paul is not being a hypocrite when he tells Timothy to do the work of an evangelist have we forgotten that the writer of this letter said to the church in Corinth that he decided to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified so you don't have to believe the lie that you have to be clever to get conversion Timothy that you have to be carnal to draw converts Timothy that you have to be catchy and cute and interesting to make the gospel attractive plot twist is not attractive the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing that don't believe the lie that you got to to wear the right stuff and wear up shoulders with the right people that you have to be pretentious to keep your position that you have to make the message relevant for it to be reverent like that you need fireworks and lightning and miracles and signs and wonders to draw people to Jesus people in Ministry they might move that way but as for you do the work on of evangelist by preaching the plain flat-footed gospel the gospel is what saves us the gospel is what keeps us the gospel is what changes us the gospel is what sanctifies us the gospel is what renews your mind for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which men must be saved how do you expect salvation when you don't talk about the 
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 name the gospel is the message that we are all born in Adam and worthy of death but God in his love sent Christ Jesus to die for our sins and to raised for our justification so that all who by the power of His Spirit repent and believe in his name they will have life and life abundantly fulfill your ministry Timothy preach till finished because we got to remember that we are doing Ministry in the presence of a judge that's what he said in verse one he said I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead it means that one day we will into a courtroom and God is not only the judge but he is the witness he is watching you Timothy see these these people have a form of godliness are functional atheists they are preaching about somebody they don't actually believe exists the Living God is is Seated on his throne high and lifted up and he sees he sees the sexual sin he sees the self-centeredness he sees the perversion he sees the the the pride and this God will judge anyone whose name is not found written in the Book of Life Timothy will be thrown into the Lake of Fire so don't be discouraged by Liars do not envy their success because they will have their day in court you stay faithful though because guess what God's justice is your Vindication that you were telling the truth the entire time that the same Jesus who will judge people who hate him by his appearing he will also reward those who love him some of the people some of the people you started with they will not finish with you they will lose their minds they will they won't endure suffering they will stop preaching the gospel first to themselves and then to others but as for you fulfill your ministry you must preach till finished um 
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 quick work quick 
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 work I was praying for y'all this morning two things came to mind one was God leading me to pray that some of you would stop taking his name in vain we often think about the language of taking his name in vain to say like oh my God and stuff like that but to take God's name in vain is to treat his name as an empty name it's to sing to him with no affection for him it's to attend conferences and act like you love him when every day you hate him to to to write and act like you love the name when you don't love the person and the reason that that's a part of the Ten Commandments it comes right underneath God saying that he's a jealous God and that we should have no Idols before him because it's the idolatry that's leading to you teaching to treating his name the way you do because you replaced him with everything else that he made the second word I felt was some of you need to repent again remember last night when CCE gave the altar call I think sometimes we're like no I I repented when I was seven or I I repented when I was 12 I I walked down the aisle but how many of you have repented since you might need to repent again because God cares about his glory God cares about the blood of his son and some of of us don't understand the degree of Mercy we sit under because we have trampled his blood under foot and yet we still breathe I don't think you understand Aza touched the ark and was killed We Touch Idols all day long and yet we're still here the good news though is that the go El Works hallelujah it's true it was efficacious when Jesus died for Sinners he took on your sin he took on your penalty absorbing the wrath of God so that all who entrust themselves to the Lord Jesus do not get what they deserve because they get him but not only that when Jesus died and rose from the dead the Bible says that all who also entrust themselves to him can have victory over death too so it means that every besetting sin you have doesn't have to be a master doesn't have to be Lord doesn't have to be but not only that Jesus also sent the Holy Spirit to fill us and to give us the power to know him and love him and serve serve him and Obey him and care about him and prefer him like the blood does work I know it because it's still working for me I I don't think you get it so I want to pray for us um Lord we thank you we thank you for your love we thank you for your kindness we thank you for your word we thank you for your truth God I pray Mercy in the room that you would have mercy in the room all who prefer everything other than you I pray Mercy in the room that you would save that you would set free that you would deliver that you would renew I pray for those God who have grown up in church have grown up around you have sat under teaching about you but they still don't have an affection for you and some of them want it God and perhaps they think if I just read enough and if I just fast enough and if I just stop listening to this music or I just change my clothes they're doing everything except believing so I pray that you will pour out faith in the room that people would simply trust in the one whom you have sent God I pray for everyone who has opened themselves up to Demons everyone who has meddled with some form of Witchcraft some kind of syncretism simply because they're impatient God they don't want to wait on you they don't want to trust you so it's easy easier to engage in a ritual than it is to sit in prayer God I pray that you would deliver them from every Spirit every demon every stronghold that has their minds God I pray for their friendships God I pray that they would cut off everybody that is leading them into sin God I pray that if it means that they'll be lonely for a season I pray God that that doesn't have to be the case but that you would provide authentic Christian Community I pray for the lonely people in the room that you would strengthen them in the season that you would give them a church that you would give them a pastor that you would give them leaders that you would give them Joy 
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 God God if anyone is depressed lift it lift it and replace it with joy that's a fruit of your spirit so fill them with your spirit so they can experience your joy God I pray for every mother in the room that they would trust you with their children that they would not control that they would not coddle but that they would entrust I pray for every woman in the room who dislikes you because they're infertile that they would trust your timing and trust your will and that while they are waiting on babies from their womb that they would make babies in the church I pray for fruitfulness that we would be mothers in the spirit even if we are not mothers in our bodies God I pray that you would provide everyone a sister a friend a confidant somebody who was a conduit of Grace and even identity we are so lonely in this generation God and so I pray that you would help us keep us protect us in Jesus name amen 
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