2nd Timothy 4:1-8

We have here 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through 8. And last week we actually, my dad barely got a chance to cover the end of chapter 3. But I think it is, we barely got to touch on it because we had so much fun in the earlier verses. In the light of that fact, let's actually start reading in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, and I'll go ahead and read all the way through, verse 8.

Paul writes, All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I solemnly 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, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day.

And not only me, but also all who have loved His appearing." So, in the light of 16 and 17, I wanted to include those because those are actually a part of his flow of thought. They're carrying on some of the continuity, or the continuity of 4 is based on in part 16 and 17. Why is Paul wanting to remind Timothy in 16 and 17 of the need for scripture? It's of prime importance. What are the qualities of the Scripture so that Timothy can rely on it in its importance? Okay, they're inspired. They're profitable.

When we read the, and of course we're doing this in a little bit of reverse order here, Paul said in Verse 6, 4-6, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. Paul's pretty sure he's nearing the end of things, right? He's going to depart. We haven't gotten to that verse to really discuss it fully yet. But when Paul departs, what does Timothy have to rely on? The Word. As it turns out, it's been very approximately 2,000 years since Paul departed.

And conveniently, we happen to have this reliable, faithful document here that is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. And so, as we go into and transition into chapter 4 here, we need to keep into account or take into account the qualities of that foundation.

Because Paul is actually signing, part of the purpose of this letter is to sign off with Timothy in a written form. Of course he sends for Timothy in the next section. Come visit me in person. There are some qualities here that Paul wanted to remind him of that actually apply to us today.

And I think that's an important element of this, is that the Scriptures are reliable and they're useful for passing on doctrinal truth. And so Paul, after having laid out the responsibility for equipping in every good works, says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. who is the judge of the living and the dead, and by his appearance, or in his appearing in his kingdom.

Two, what does he charge him? To preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. Why does Paul charge Timothy? Why does he charge him with this? Doesn't Timothy already know? I mean, this is his second letter. We've already been through this. Why is he charging him yet again? Review is good. Review is always good. He gives me a great deal of urgency about many things he's already spoken of, ruled on, and so on.

It's like, you know, just before graduation. You know, you want to be sure for it. If you're considering the potential for the church to be carried on for thousands of years or until the Lord returns, of course at this time Paul didn't have a date. We still don't have one, so that's good. there's this sense of urgency and we've got to carry this on.

And so Paul is definitely charging Timothy with the importance of this message. But then the interesting thing is that he charges him in light of several eternal things. Charges him in light of God. What's the significance of charging him before God? Not in light of, but before God? It's an eternal context. One thing that I always love when whenever you're mentioning something in the context of God, you get to use a really cool phrase that always causes people to twitch a little bit if they're not used to hearing it, but you can say, inside the time-space continuum, because God is outside the time-space continuum. So, when Paul charges Timothy, he says, hey, I'm charging you this, you're inside the time-space continuum, but I'm doing it before the author of the time-space continuum. The eternal God, who has no beginning and who has no end, I'm charging you before Him.

Charge to assign a task. being given a responsibility. If you're a steward of something, for example, I have a work phone. This is such a lame and trivial example in comparison. But I'm being charged to take care of it and to use it responsibly. It's a stewardship. And trust. Okay, I'm entrusting you these duties. Wayne? I would say it's related maybe. I get a little nervous around ordination. I tend to step away from that. But if you charge someone with something, it's not necessarily an accusation like we use it in law. You've been charged with some kind of criminal offense. But in this context, it has to do with being assigned a responsibility.

Paul as an apostle has the unique ability to do that. I can't charge somebody with apostolic authority. So Paul has a particularly unique responsibility here when he charges Timothy with these things. But in the presence of God and in the presence of Christ Jesus, again there's an eternal context for that. Two witnesses. Okay. Yeah. You're in my prayerful vision, I apologize. Oh, absolutely.

He doesn't write Timothy, hey, if you feel really good about this, would you mind doing these things? There's an urgency and an absolute nature to the command. Paul doesn't write He doesn't write a lot of charges throughout scripture in this way, so there's a unique sense to the quality of him writing to Timothy with a charge. He does give a lot of instruction, but he doesn't use the phrase, I charge you, over and over again, the way he will still write logical imperatives, the idea that this is true of you, so it should be part of your life. So this is unique, or not entirely unique, but it is something he tends to do more in this personal letter to Timothy. I just want to make a comment. Sure. According to this commentary, the responsible part of the commentary, he's saying that, you know, this charge, it says, I give you this charge. It's really one word. It's basically the entire door of the charge.

He's not being very mild about this. There's a firmness to his request of Timothy. So he charges Timothy in the presence of God, in the presence of Christ, and then he takes a little side note to describe Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearance and his kingdom. Why would Paul bring those up? I mean, he could have just said, God and Jesus, that would have been enough. Why does he outline these nuances? It's all about a future perspective.

If you're going to pass away and you know it, you're going to be thinking about after right now. It's funny to me because when I think about that, it makes a lot of sense now in my mid-thirties, but I remember being a teenager and the idea of dying was so Distant and far off unless there was some kind of accident or something. My mindset was that I got decades left and so I did a lot of stupid things on my bike and crashed and you know, my dad probably Several times thought wow, that was an angel watching over Randy because he should be dead after that but I had some pretty wicked wounds because I thought I was basically invincible. There's that young mindset. But when you're Paul and you're pressed with eternity and this life being over, you start to think a little bit longer term. It was in my mid-twenties that I realized that I had been told, do you have a five-year plan? Have people ever asked you that? Do you have a five-year plan or a ten-year plan or some kind of plan, a retirement plan maybe? I'm not getting any nods of yes. Nobody has any plans. You guys are all reluctant. You're like, I'm not committing to anything.

Here's the context of that. I realized in my mid-twenties I needed to have a hundred year plan and a thousand year plan. And I say that with a little bit of sarcasm there, but the idea is that on this earth we always are thinking about, you know, what am I doing in five years or what am I doing in ten years or some short-term time frame, but we are eternal beings.

These conditional bodies, these earthly bodies will go away, we'll get new ones, but we're going to keep living. We will still have souls and be in eternity. What's your 100 year plan? What are you going to be doing in 200 years? I'm going to be worshipping the Lord. But if you're Paul, you have an eternal perspective. To me, the eternal perspective applies to yourself.

And the urgency to get things done, keep things going, over a long term is for other people who are going to be here and we're going to follow the people who are here we're going to follow those people and so on so that the message stays the same and the importance stays the same. Yeah.

You have to carry on the message until the Lord returns. The example that I think the illustration I think of with that is the fibers of a rope If the church started in Acts 2 and the rope began being formed, the fibers were woven together until the Lord raptures us away. And then the rope's done at that point in time, in that context. The problem with the illustration that breaks down is because we're eternal beings. So it gets a little different. But the idea is that you have to carry it on. I'm only going to be here for so long.

What are my children or the people that the Lord has put me in charge of in life going to do after me? My dad, when he discipled me when I was about 20, was sharing things with me that I'd not heard before. But he wanted to make sure I knew them, so that I could pass them on. And since then, I've learned a lot more. In part from my dad, in part from others.

And I continue to grow. But if I keep them all to myself, what happens? They die with me. That's a bummer. Fortunately, you guys know I can talk for hours. That's unlikely to happen. My wife is smirking because she really knows. She's like, he won't shut up.

So he's charging Timothy, Paul is charging Timothy with these things, and he brings up Christ being the judge of the living and the dead. That's an eternal point. If you're thinking about the souls of those that you're ministering to, that's a really big deal. The living and the dead.

He's going to judge them. That's an important element. And then also, in the light of his kingdom. If you are part of the bride of Christ, are you going to be in the kingdom with Christ? Yeah, that's really cool. So it's a pretty big deal to bring those things. But then we need to actually discuss the things he's been charged with. They're not insignificant. He says, preach the word.

And the word for word there is Logos. Why do you think he uses Logos after, in verse 16, he said, all scripture is inspired? Well, and the implications of John 1-1 are that this is a written form of the fullness of God. That there's an element of the eternal in a person behind the Logos.

It's not just a collection of written documents. I've got a collection of written documents at home that are children's stories. It's a different kind of thing. They're great children's stories. It's not eternal. version of Schindler's List. You know, it glows. It's alive. I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean by Schindler's List. That's okay. I saw the movie, but it's been quite some time.

But what do you mean by the glowing? Just so that I can understand. The list was made up of the people from the concentration camps that were going to be permitted to leave. and therefore would have light instead of a death chamber. It became a document that was not holy, but it was precious. It was like a miracle. It's the book of life. Yeah, the book of life. That's the biblical context.

Preach the Word. And the element of preaching the Word is that it's life-changing, but it's evangelism. Paul is going to talk about evangelism here in just a moment, so we'll keep going with that. But he needs to be preaching the Word. And then he says, be ready in season and out of season. And I have to say that I've heard these verses taught a number of times throughout my life. And as I was studying this, I thought, man, they really missed the point of some of these passages. They were used out of context. So, preaching the Word in part of evangelism, it says, Be ready in season and out of season. What season for the believer? Is there a season or a non-season? Or is it an illustration?

Constantly, always being ready. But what's interesting about the word ready, I was trying to look that up in preparation for the study, and the thing about ready is the idea that if you were a soldier and you were out in camp somewhere on your way to a battle, someone, another army may come try to attack you and find you at a point of disadvantage because you're not ready. And the nuance of this is that you're ready. No one's going to take you by surprise.

Stan? It's when you're called upon. It's when you're put in the situation that you're expected to know the murder. Because you need to pass it on, like you're talking about, pass it on to someone else. This doesn't happen 24 hours a day for us. It doesn't happen all the time. So when it does happen, you have to be ready. Which really brings us to an interesting and important question. Paul's writing this to Timothy. Does this have direct application to the believer today? Or is this just a Timothy? Okay. So then, if everybody's nodding yes, even if that nods don't show up in the recording very well. So everyone's nodding yes. So how does someone become ready?

If you look at verse 3, it says, for the time will come that they will not curse him not. So it's more, I think this is talking more about creatures. Are they teaching us that? Or are they teaching us falsehood? So that's where that sense of urgency is. That's true, but where do teachers come from?

The problem with Timothy is that if it dies with him, That's no good. So Timothy has to be carrying on these truths to the next generation. And so how do we as believers, let's make the bold assumption that we're all mature in every capacity, which I would never say about myself, but let's say that's the case.

How does this verse apply to the person who's a babe in Christ? Does it? Stan? Well, the passage that comes to my mind I think it's in Revelation where it says, when you're pulled in front of the, or taken to court, don't worry about what you can say, because the Holy Spirit will inspire you at that time.

So it has to do with relationship, and it has to do with knowing him. So as you learn more, as Bernard taught in this class originally, as you grow in Christ, you become more mature. This process, the Holy Spirit is able to use you more thoroughly. So what you're saying is that there's a progressive spiritual growth situation.

Were you going to say something? You looked like you were going to say something. The element that comes from this is that really to be ready in season and out of season means we need to be equipped. Fundamentally it comes down to as a babe in Christ you're probably not ready to go out and answer every possible question.

I'm gonna guess that at least, since that was my experience, that's not entirely abnormal. However, we have this need to be equipped. Now one of the biggest problems is, in the church today, equipping is a responsibility of someone else. You need to go to seminary to be equipped. You need to go do this thing to be equipped. And everything is out. You've got to go to the special retreat. Equipping should be part of the daily life of the believer. And I think that's an important element.

What I was going to say was, Timothy and Paul say this over and over again. They say, here's a book reader. Things were passed on by word of mouth, by stories, by illustration. And it wasn't as easy to refer back, well, obviously, I need to go to this page and that page. You had to have it in your mind, in your head. And that was one of the reasons, I think, Paul repeated or emphasized these things. And it would be, when Paul was gone, his Temple State major resource was going to be gone. He needed to take that facet on.

Don't change it. This is the way it is. Say it. But for us, it's a lot more effective if you can, if someone has a question, you can talk to them about it and explain it to them. Now, if you're going to say, look, here it is. That's kind of how it is. If that's how you feel, I can talk to you.

Well, in the truth of the scriptures, in light of 3.16 there, the truth of the scriptures are there so that we can refer to them and we can go to them and we can authoritatively digest them in a way where we have a systematic approach to reading and understanding the text. We know that we know the meaning because we have an accurate approach to studying God's Word. It's not just, this means this to me in a touchy-feely sort of a way. It's like, this is what the author meant, and here are the applications, and we can know it.

And that's an important place to be. Because when Paul lays out the next group of commands or charges, they're not ones that you can take with a touchy-feely sort of a way. Because he says, Reprove. Okay, so to correct, to rebuke, to exhort, to encourage, to take on a better position or a better attitude towards something, to encourage someone, those are encouragement, I guess you could say it's touchy-feely, but the idea is you have to correct somebody and tell someone to stop doing something.

If it's just this means this to me, and it just feels this way, that's a tough place to be. If I just tell you, hey, I don't like that, I'll give you an example from a past work experience. I one time had someone give me the instruction to change a logo. I did some graphics work. Hey, can you change the logo and do such and such to it? OK. So I changed the logo, and I did such and such to it. I'm trying not to be too specific because it's work-related.

If they ever listen to the message, I don't want it to be too condescending-sounding, but they asked me to change it, and then they said, I don't like it. And so I asked, what don't you like about it? And they said, I don't know, I just don't like it. What do you want me to change? I don't know.

Make something different. So that example tying in here is, hey, this is a wrong doctrine. Timothy, you need to correct this wrong doctrine. If Timothy goes to them and he says to them, hey, I just don't like it. I don't like your doctrine. Well, what's wrong with it? I don't know. I just don't like it. There's no value in that. First of all, it's not actual correction. And secondly, what does correction require? Knowing. It needs the correction to the truth.

If you go down to the Sunday school classrooms, almost every lesson starts with this really cool thing that happens. The teacher asks, what's in the Bible? And what's the answer? God's Word, it's truth. What's the answer? The answer that kids know, the answer is truth.

Oh, the Bible's got truth in it. Okay. And so every lesson starts with the Bible has truth. So we need to know it and we need to understand it. And when Timothy is going to have to correct and reprove and rebuke and exhort, he's going to have to do these things with the truth as the standard. Fortunately, we know where the truth can be found.

He's already told us that the scriptures are inspired for that. But then Paul levels this next part of the charge, a sub-part of the charge. He says, "...with great patience and instruction." That's the part where this gets even more tricky. At least for me.

Maybe it's not tricky for anyone else. Have you ever found that you disagree with somebody on doctrine? I know that never happens, but let's just pretend that, on and off chance, you disagree with somebody on doctrine. How long can you discuss your doctrinal differences before things get heated? For me, that's usually about five minutes.

Maybe less. On a good day, maybe a little bit more. But Timothy says that Paul says to Timothy that he should do all those things with patience and instruction. Now patience, that's, okay, patience, alright. You need to last a lot longer before you get worked up. Okay, good, got that checked off.

But then he says with instruction, and this, as I was studying for this, kind of hurt a little bit. Because I realized that sometimes with my own daughter as I parent, and Jessica's going to nod, I know she's going to nod as I say this out loud, Sometimes I don't do it with instruction. Sometimes it's just, no, stop, don't do that. What's the difference between saying, no, stop, don't do that, and having patience and instructing? With instruction there can be learning. I'm sorry? With instruction there can be learning. That's right. With instruction there can be learning.

If you just have to establish new boundaries, you're going to constantly be moved. Let's use the pasture illustration. If you're constantly moving the fence and trying to rejigger the fence to get it just right, and you're constantly saying yes and no and rejiggering the fence, that's not as good as equipping somebody to understand the truth and apply it in their own lives. Stan?

So I said, he taught differently than the other people did, because he spoke with authority. He was awe-inspiring. And that goes a lot with the instruction, because this teacher was God. And he knew all things. So, you know, if you've got the scripture, it's a very similar circumstance. It's definitely that case where you have a good authoritative person to go to. The other element is that when you learn a principle, a principle has broad application often in multiple parts of your life.

When you understand things like you're identified with Christ, where are all the applications for you're identified with Christ in this death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding? Quick, somebody raise your hand and tell me all of them. You can't, can you? You can begin to tell me about some of them, but when you realize that you're identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating, the consequences for that, or the principles that have application in that, are eternal.

And they are basically infinite. Because they're part of being identified with God, who is infinite. So the instruction that comes with presenting the principles that are true in God's Word and presenting the relationship aspect that's delivered patiently is really valuable.

This week I had a conversation with a friend and I thought that I had maybe said to him that he was justified in God so he didn't have to worry about sin anymore. and he could just focus on relationship. I thought I might have said that two or three hundred times, maybe, maybe more. I mean, like really, I've said that a lot to him. And I thought, okay, he knows this.

He's got it. So let's talk about other things. So we talked about other things for the last couple months. I've been trying to not just harp on this thing because I thought, oh, he's probably got it now. So he called me this week and he said, Randy, I read this really cool article. I was like, okay, cool. Tell me about it. And he says, do you know that we are justified and we can stop worrying about all of our sins and we can just focus on relationship?

And I went, I do know that. He goes, you know, I think you've been trying to tell me that. I went, I have been trying to tell you that. It turns out you are correct. But with all these things, he says with great patience and instruction. Go ahead. You don't have to worry.

There's an entire Sunday School series we did on this, so it's a little hard to summarize in a short blip, but I'll be short and we can talk about it more after class if that's okay. Because we're justified, it is though every sin in our life has been dealt with. Every single one of them is now what Christ would have done.

The Randy Peterman that you see before you, in the flesh, has sinned in numerous ways. I could share stories, but we'll save time and I won't, but you can imagine that they're probably not wonderful. But because Christ paid for them, when God sees them, they're not monuments to my folly, they're not monuments to my mistake, monuments to the stupidity of Randy. Instead, before God, their monuments to the grace of the work of Christ on the cross.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Like I said, there's a whole Sunday School class, we could talk about it. But that's a good question. It's the exact reason why 1 John 1-9 is followed by 1 John 2. and in which case he actually... I got to teach this passage also in a different Sunday school class. First John 2, 1 and 2, he says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

Ideally, you're not going to sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction of God's wrath for our sins. and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world. So with justification, we don't have to worry about the sin and focus on the sin.

Instead, Colossians 3, 1 through 4, we set our minds on things above because we have an eternal perspective. So that's a quick answer, and we can talk about it more. But talking with my student, it was the patience. I thought, OK, I've covered this. And the instruction, I thought I've covered this, we're good, we're good.

And then what happens is that the Lord uses those things in your life around you to bring these truths to your attention. And sometimes, I've heard truth my whole, you know, for sometimes decades and I didn't understand it. And it wasn't until finally someone else that I heard one time said that one thing. Or I read one article and I was like, oh, it clicks. I understand this now.

So as Paul's telling Timothy, hey, you need to be doing these things, you need to be correcting, you need to be exhorting, but with patience. Not just a little bit of patience. How much patience? Great patience. And it's not just great because the quality of it is pretty neat. It's an enduring patience.

I'm sure if you want to hear more stories, you can ask the elders. When you're shepherding the body here, Have you ever had to have patience? Yes. Yes, I'm sure they will have some stories. Some of them may even involve me. So, we have barely covered the surface of 1 and 2, but we're going to keep moving for the sake of time, of which I don't know how much I have left. Sweet. Just a few minutes.

For the time will come, Paul continues, when they will not endure sound doctrine. but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires." And the question I've got on the handout is what time is Paul talking about? The time will come. When is he speaking of? I've heard this taught as being primarily modern. Stan? After it happens, I'll let you know. After it happens. The truth of the matter is that that would apply to Timothy as well. He's going to find people around him that are going to want to have their ears tickled.

How long did it take for the church to split off into different groups? After all the apostles died, John goes to be with the Lord. How long did it take? Did it take even that long? The ink was drying and people were already going, hey, I've got this really cool doctrinal idea. It's really neat. It makes me feel good. And you can go through the letters of the different disciples, and they were fighting the split off and the deception and the false teachers and prophets. That's basically what most people understood about it. That's exactly it.

The correction in the epistles were for problems that were happening at that time. So when Paul is saying, hey, people are going to look for ear-ticklers, he's not talking about in 100 years, in 200 years, or 1,000 years, or 2,000 years. The implication is very immediate, and it depends on whom you look at, but you can find... I guess the next group of classes are going to go over Bible history.

One of the things that I enjoyed about that class was simply looking at how weird the doctrine deviated throughout church history. It's amazing. I enjoyed it in a weird analytical sort of a way, not because I liked the erroneous doctrine. But it was just one of those things where it's like, wow, you just follow these doctrines where people have these pendulum swings.

And he says that the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Do you ever think of sound doctrine as something you endure? Hey, here's some good teaching. Oh, I guess. I'm going to endure the sound doctrine. Bring back some of the good old nasty bad doctrine. It's a funny thing, but he says they're not going to endure anymore. They won't tolerate it. And he wrote a lot of other things in other places about that. I won't rabbit trail on it too much. In recent decades, a great many Christians have been brought up, trained, and grained with the idea that you test a church based on how do I feel. When I walk out, how do I feel?

Did you pump me up enough so that I can last for seven days? We fail at that here. If it's just a pump up. No, I'm sorry. We're looking for a weekly steroid shot of spiritualism. That's not going to do very well. So he says, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers, in accordance to their own desires. And I think that the own desires element to that is really peculiar. Because the last time I checked, my flesh, my carnal desires, were not really great measures of spiritual truth or righteousness.

Again, it could just be me. Maybe you guys are all way better off than I am. I'm going to find somebody who tells me something I like to hear. Now, what's the problem with the things that you like to hear? Answer that. Okay, comment. They want things they need to hear. Sure. There was a term I heard, I don't know, I've heard it off and on for a while, but it's been in the last decade, this idea of felt need. I want to go to a church where they help me with my felt needs. This perception of, oh, I need this. I think I need this.

I remember one time, out of my own mouth, saying something along the lines of, I don't want doctrine, just tell me about application. And I haven't figured out quite how you would do that, but that's what I remember saying at some point in time. I didn't want all the nerdy theology stuff. I wanted to just know what to do. Give me the checklist. What's the checklist that'll make God happy? maybe get him off my back, that would be good, so I can just go about my business.

That's not what we're called to, and that's what Paul is warning against, because he says, "...and they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." And the myths thing, they're stories. They're going to turn aside to stories. Are there denominations that focus way more on the mysterious and the stories? There are, as it turns out.

And so when you have turned away from something that is reliable, the inspired truth for correction, for reproving, when you turn away from that to the myths, it gets a lot easier. Do you argue about the myths? How much arguing has to go about the myths? Because they're loose, they're rough, their application, their exactness is missing, there's a lot less disagreement about things.

So it comes with that. Paul continues on, and I'm going to as well because we're running out of time. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Okay, so Paul is not talking about just alcohol consumption here. He's not saying be a teetotaler. What is the importance of Timothy being sober?

By which I would define that, and I believe the Greek implies has to do with self-control. Stan? It also means seriousness. Okay. Yeah, seriousness, self-control. Why is it important for Timothy to be serious? Is it because jokes are evil? And drugs and alcohol are bad too, and so we're going to lump all those concepts into one idea? Well, it's important because depends on where your eternal soul is going to end up someday. That's a very important topic.

Paul wants Timothy to take his responsibilities, these charges, seriously. Be sober about your challenges. What are your priorities? Are you being serious about them? Be sober about these things. Endure hardship. That one's a good one. How much endurance What does Timothy need? Until he dies, just like Paul. Endure. Run the race. Finish it.

So Timothy has been called to endure. I read recently an article where the guy was talking about doing job interviews, and one of the purpose of job interview questions is to find out if you will actually endure in your job. But that applies to the believer. in that we are called to endure, to walk in fellowship, and not be distracted, and to be sober. The endurance element of life is definitely one of those challenges. I know in my own walk, there are times when I get really distracted. Shiny hook, like a fish. Oh, what's that? What's that distraction? It's like, oh no, I need to be beholding and enduring.

He says then next, do the work of an evangelist. So what's a salaried evangelist position involve? What's the work of an evangelist? Does it pay good? What's the work of an evangelist? There's an easy answer, but let's think about the hard answer. What does an evangelist do? to show people that they need God and need to understand His provision for them. So the evangelist might, we might say looking at earlier verses, actually preach the Word and tell people, here's your shortcomings, here's why you need God. The evangelist is sent out and directed by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word, to be preaching the gospel of substitution. and constantly be presenting these things to the world around them, to the people around them.

And then Paul finishes that thought with the idea of fulfill your ministry. What's Timothy's ministry? What's he been sent to Ephesus for? To correct the false teachers and establish the church. Make sure the church is rooted in the truth that is there.

Now we're going to just briefly cover the last few verses because our time is up. He says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Paul knows he's going to go be with the Lord. So he's winding things down. The drink offering is poured out, and when it's done, it's done. And Paul knows that the time of his departure He's already being poured out. The cup's been tipped. Doesn't that relate to Romans 12 where Paul talks about being a living sacrifice. This is the part of the sacrifice. He has been a living sacrifice. Now the drink offering, he is going to die.

Well, there's a parallel there for sure. The principle in this one is mostly the chronological aspect of it. I'm already being poured out. It's the end. It's a living sacrifice. Yeah, that's a perpetual pleasure. When it's poured out, it's done. He's using an illustration from the temple that Timothy would have been at least familiar with. His time to depart is coming. I fought the good fight. I finished the course. I've kept the faith. I've done this. That's why I'm charging you to do the same.

And in closing in verse 8 he says, In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. The crown of righteousness there, the Greek word is the Stephanos crown, or the victor's crown. If you won an Olympic event, you would get the crown. It was a wreath, usually. A crown of victory. Paul knows it's coming. I'm going to be awarded this crown. And he doesn't just say, just for me. Who else is going to receive this crown? All who have loved his appearing. All those who have a relationship with Christ.

We need to stop. I think that was the second bell, was it not? Did we just get the second bell or was that the first bell? First bell? Oh, good. Is it really sad that I have no idea what our bell ringing system is? Like I've taught against it so long? So 10 o'clock is the actual second bell? Is that right? You don't know?

Whatever Brian's watch says, he wins. He's the guy who pushes the bell. So on that day, when is that day? Paul knows it's coming. When he goes to meet the Lord. But is he going to be alone? The rapture will happen, the believers will go up, and we will be rewarded.

This ties in with 1 Corinthians 3, where he talks about the wood hand stubble and the precious jewels. So we will have this eternal reward. What did you do for the reward? What did you earn? Jesus did it all. And that's the cool thing. Hey, if you have faith in the Lord, there you go.

All your rewards are not of your own work. They're not of your own merit. You don't get to have brownie points. I guess that's for Girl Scouts. Merit badges. That's the Boy Scouts equivalent. Covering all the genders. You don't get to brag. That's the cool thing about this. Paul's excited about it. He's got that long-term mindset. What am I going to be doing in a hundred years? I'm being poured out now. What am I going to be doing in a hundred years? We're worshipping the Lord. Any closing thoughts, questions, disagreements? Stan immediately disagrees.

Yeah, no. No, I want to say one thing Paul did do. If you look at his life, he finished the race. He finished the race. The endurance that Paul had, it's phenomenal. It also shows you the importance of that intimate relationship. I know in my own walk, when I look back at times when I was really wrestling with things, it was not because I understood a relationship, it was because I didn't understand a relationship and I was looking for all kinds of ways to work back to a relationship that I already had. But if we understand grace and we understand the truth of God's doctrine, that we've been justified and we've been glorified, then we walk in fellowship. And the results of that are endurance. The results of that are those qualities. But they don't come from our own unction, our own, you know, I'm just going to gut through this. No, you can't. You're not going to gut through it. You're going to have to rely on Him. You're going to walk and rest in Him.

Let's close in prayer. That was the actual second bell, and so I guess I should be done. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would continue to encourage us as we go into the next service and study your word, and we can worship you. We ask that you would continue to remind us this week of the truths that are here. And Lord, even more so, we pray for your second coming, your appearance, so that we can be joined with you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.