Preach The Word | 2 Timothy 4:1-5 | Pastor John Miller

in this last chapter chapter 4 of 2nd Timothy we have come to the last words of the great Paul the Apostle some have called this section or even the entire pistol Paul's a swan song the last words of great people are significant they're like windows that help us to see into the very soul of the person speaking and many times when I'm reading this passage and thinking about I'm thinking what would I what would I say if I knew I only had days to live because that's really where Paul is at Paul had a certainty that he was going to be executed now it could be days could be weeks could be a couple of months but it would be a very short period of time Paul's in prison in Rome and he's not under house arrest anymore receiving friends and so forth but he's in a dungeon it's called the mammer team dungeon it was basically a hole in the ground like a cistern and they would drop the prisoner in and there was no way to get out and they would actually drop food down to them so it was just a deep dark hole or dungeon so he's pouring out his word his last words to his young Protege Timothy in the faith and Paul says in verse 7 we'll get there in just a moment I fought the good fight I finished the race I have kept the faith those famous words of Paul I've fought the good fight I finished the race I've kept the faith the race that God said before him the faith that God had entrusted to him and the fight that he was in in the spiritual warfare of the ministry that God had called him to so he's now being verse 6 poured out and we'll look at that in just a moment again as a drink offering so Paul is writing to Timothy with a full understanding that he is going to die and he's passing the torch to his young Protege the longer I'm in the ministry the more I think about the next generation and will they be faithful to God's Word will they be faithful to the gospel would it be faithful to preach God's Word and to live a godly life and to impact their culture their generation and I think basically we all have a responsibility to serve our own generation but if we can have a lasting impact by committing to faithful men those who will teach others that that's a that's a passion that I have as well now the first section of this chapter is verses 1 & 2 and I would give it the title of the charge look at it with me verse 1 & 2 Paul says verse 1 I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ uses his whole title Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead and I'm reading from a King James translation so uses the Old English quick for alive in the Old English if you were dead you weren't very quick if you're if you were quick or alive then you were living so he'll judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom this would be a second coming and here's the charge verse 2 preach the word be instant in season and out of season and reprove and rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine I don't know if you have a life verse but I've actually adopted this passage as my life verse that this has been kind of like the guiding light the direction the guide and the motivation for many years of ministry that God has called me to to do just what Paul tells Timothy to do charges him to do this one thing to preach the word now the charge is a solemn charge I want you to notice that I charge the therefore the word charged there is actually a word of I adore thee it was used to call someone into a courtroom and to testify under oath I don't know if you've ever had the experience of being called into a courtroom being put on the witness stand and saying do you solemnly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God and say I will or I do and you swear on the Bible it's a very very solemn kind of a situation well that's the picture of the imagery when Paul uses the word charge he's calling Timothy into a courtroom and he's saying I adore thee I command thee I charged thee so he's to testify under an oath in a court of law Paul is giving Timothy a solemn mandate that he must obey in in the Greek this is what's called again and imperative or a command it's imperative it's a command it's not an option Timothy you are to preach the word now Paul realizes that he's going to pass off the scene and Timothy's going to take his place in ministry and what's the one thing he wants Timothy to do he wants him to preach the word I am completely absolutely totally convinced biblically and I think that I see it in experience that the greatest need in the church today is for pastors to do just what Paul told Timothy to do and that is to preach the word today pastors are doing everything but preaching the word and they're involved in politics which is okay but that's not what the Bible calls us to do or a pastor to be there are valves in psychological counseling they're involved in other social activities but the Bible calls the pastor to preach the word when Paul met with the elders at Ephesus in acts 20 he said I know that after I leave shall Grievous wolves enter in among you they'll not spare this flock but to lead people astray after them so he says I want you to preach the word I want you to feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight when Peter wrote to the pastors of the elders in the church he said you are to Shepherd the word Shepherd actually means to feed the word pastor is the Latin form of the word Shepherd that's what the word pastor means Shepherd and it actually has the word the word actually means excuse me to feed not only to lead not only to protect but it has the primary meaning of feeding so I believe the number one primary job of a pastor is to feed the sheep and my goal as the pastor of this church is that you are fed the Word of God that when you come to this church the Bible will be opened it will be read it will be explained and it will be applied to our life so you come here not to be entertained not to hear some message that is basically some something other than scripture but you come to hear a word from God and that's my commitment I believe the same mandate applies to all pastors and even to us as Christians that when you witness and when you counsel and when you share with individuals don't give them your philosophy don't give them psychology don't give them social justice give them the good news of Jesus Christ nothing more nothing less share the Word of God that's the pastor's number-one priority so Paul calls on two witnesses in this courtroom I want you to notice them in verse 1 he says I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom so here's the two witnesses they are God the Father that's pretty solemn and God the Son so God the Father and God the Son the Lord Jesus Christ and he says that Jesus is going to come and he will judge the quick the alive and the dead at his appearing Jesus is going to judge all mankind he'll judge believers for their works he'll judge but unbelievers for their sin he was sitting on a great white throne and judged the unbelievers he will set on what's called the Bema seat we're gonna see at the end of our section tonight and he'll reward Christians for their faithful service but you need to realize that we're all going to stand before the Lord and we're going to have to give an account of our ministry and how we lived our Christian life so Paul's giving Timothy the solemn charge and the witness of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead now the statement of the charge is in the second verse and I'm already alluded to it but it is in verse 2 and it is very simple preach the word not what he does in verse 2 is he tells them what to do preach the word and then he tells them how to do it be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine and then beginning in verse 3 he tells him why to do it so he's telling every pastor and I actually believe that it's time for the people who go to church to know what the pastor's job is and we're gonna see that in a moment when in the last days people have itching ears and they turn their ears away from the truth and they're given unto fables the pew should be demanding in the pulpit that he preached that the Bible is preached I think more pastors have preached the word if the people actually said that's what we want if you don't preach the word I'm gonna go somewhere else and find a place where they do preach the word so many Christians going to churches where they don't preach the word when they need to go to the churches that do preach the word but the Bible predicts that in the last days people aren't going to want the Word of God they're going to want their ear tickled or their fancy tickle so the statement and again Paul gives five imperatives or commands all in what's called the eras tense the first is preached the word commandment number one now the word preached there as the Greek word kaeru so it's Velcade you SS o ke Rousseau and we get our word to Herald from it that doesn't mean the preachers name is Harold it means that he is a Herald and the ancient world if a King wanted to disseminate a message he couldn't tweet he couldn't do Instagram goodand on Facebook he can go on TV couldn't write a letter he couldn't couldn't call on the phone he had to have a Harold so a Harold would have the Kings message on a scroll he would walk through the streets of the town he would get up on a high podium and he would say hear ye hear ye thus saith the King and then he would proclaim he would announce the Kings message now I there's so much going through my brain one of the problems I have with this passage tonight is I preached it so many times and I love it so much that it's hard for me to even get through the text but let me say this when I Harold would have the Kings message to proclaim he couldn't change it he couldn't say man this King doesn't know what he's talking about King has a mess of it but I'm gonna put it aside let me tell you what I think you need to know he'd be in big trouble you off with his head he couldn't add to it he couldn't take away from him he couldn't change it he couldn't dilute it he couldn't twist it he couldn't work it around he would actually from beginning to end tell the people what the message of the King was he was a Herald and that's conveyed in the idea of this word kaeru so it has the idea of two Herald with formality and gravity and authority when a herald was proclaiming a King's message he was speaking for the King with all the authority of the King when a preacher or a pastor or a teacher or a Christian is sharing proclaiming God's Word you are a herald you are speaking with all the authority of God himself that's why you should quote scripture when you're sharing with people you should share the Word of God because it's like the two-edged sword right sharper than any two-edged sword and it cuts to the heart of individuals and so the Herald was speaking with authority and formality and gravity he wasn't just discussing things and talking about things he had a message he preached it he proclaimed it if he didn't like what the herald said take it up with the King if you like the message the Herald brought talk to the king about it I'm just a delivery boy and that's what a preacher is supposed to be by the way he's supposed to not invent his message or create his message but just preach his message so what is Timothy to preach notice it in verse two the word not about the word not from the word the word now what is the word back up chapter three to verse 14 down to verse 17 we looked at it last week Paul says but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of knowing of whom you have learned them that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures I believe that the word in verse 2 of chapter 4 is the same as the Holy Scriptures in chapter 3 and verse 15 so you are to continue in the things that you've learned from the time your child you know the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works and without skipping a beat there's no gap between chapter 3 and chapter 4 I charge thee there for now because you're to follow Paul's example Timothy because you're to stand on the Scriptures which brings salvation what you're given by inspiration and are sufficient for life and godliness then I want you to preach or kaeru so to Herald God's Word so that therefore chapter 4 verse 1 takes you back into the end of chapter 3 where Paul it exhorted Timothy to continue in the scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation given by inspiration of God and are profitable for what is right what is wrong how to get right and how to stay right the fact that the Bible is given to stay with God in the case that we never outgrow it we never get beyond it that it's a lifelong process of continuing in God's Word I had a Christian friend years ago when we were young Christians and he read the Bible then he stopped and I go why did you stop reading the Bible because of Google he was I finished it last chapter last verse but girl okay I've done that done dia I finished it I said we'll start over again buckaroo you want me to read it again yeah I want you to read it again and keep reading it over and over and over and over again and meditate day and night and God's Word you know you don't just read the Bible why I've read that or I read that or I read that you continue to read God's Word and every time you read God's Word you discover new things don't you and it's kind of exhaustive list it's it's as infinite as God Himself God has placed his word above his own very name so let me give you the synonyms here the preach the word and then notice in verse 3 sound doctrine then in verse 4 the truth and then in verse 7 the faith these are all our reference to the word you're to preach sound doctrine you're to preach the truth here to preach the word now know what Timothy is not to preach he doesn't say preach philosophy he doesn't say preach psychology he doesn't say preach your own ideas or your own concepts or what you want to say he said preach the word nothing more nothing less I believe that what Paul is telling Timothy to do and telling pastors to do today is preach wet are called expository sermons are teaching expositional Lee now sorry for that big word but expository expositional preaching is this it is preaching the meaning of the text in its historical grammatical and Theological context every verse of scripture has one meaning not multiple meanings you can't make a verse of scripture say what you want it to mean it meant what it what it meant when Paul wrote to the Philippians it had a historical context so to get to the meaning of a text you have to study its history you have to study its grammar you have to study other scriptures and the theology of the scriptures and bring them to bear upon those verses you can't just read a verse and pull that out of context and make it say whatever you want it to say and I actually hear people preaching that way where a pastor will read a verse and then say a bunch of stuff that maybe isn't really even wrong or unbiblical but it wasn't what the verse meant and it wasn't what the verse was all about they just drew an idea out of the verse which wasn't really the intention of that verse so expositional preaching is basically saying what the text says it's pulling out of the text the meaning of the text and I believe that that's what Paul means when he says preach the word the preachers first aim is to discover the text writers intended meaning and to preach its meanings the preachers second aim is to let the text speak again through the sermon the same message of the text writer I want to know what Paul meant by what he said I don't want to know what you think it means or what I think it means or what we feel like it means but we want to know what it means right you ever been in a home Bible study where it's like I think it means this and I think it means that I think it means this and I think it means that and by the end of the discussion nobody knows what it means I don't know about you but I don't like people to take me out of context and it's always bugged me when people when I want to make a statement and people say what did you really mean by that what do you mean what do I mean well what did you really mean I what I meant was what I actually said yeah but you must have meant something else no I say what I mean and I mean what I say God says what he means and he means what he says and when you're reading the Bible you have different kinds of literature poetry and history and you you have prophecy and you have teaching and the Epistle so you have to take all that into consideration but good preaching basically says what the Bible says it's teaching the Word of God well nothing added nothing subtracted its faithful exposition this is the only way to truly preach the word today it's popular for preachers to be famous orders or powerful speakers and it's okay to use humor it's okay to use illustrations it's okay to have practical application but it must be consistent with the meaning of the text and I'm absolutely convinced that your average person in the pew doesn't really know isn't discerning enough to understand what real biblical preaching is because we're not Bereans we don't study the Bible and we don't ask ourselves is that versa he just quoted out of context is that what that verse really means is that was what the intended the author really meant and you can use verses out of context to say things that aren't really even biblical now the next four commands tell us what should characterize true biblical preaching or how to preach the word it should be done with number one urgency if you're taking notes write this down notice it says be urgent in season and out of season or be instant in season out of season so it doesn't matter what time of the year it is what century we're living in we need to preach God's Word with a sense of urgency so you do an instant in season and out of season actually this means that this type of preaching is always in vogue it's always God's will it's always God's per and always God's intention now preaching is truth through personality so it's going to change and differ a little bit and style but the content must be biblical or it's not true biblical preaching so there's no substitute for this kind of preaching it to be done in season and out of season always on duty I'm not a hunter but there's a hunting season I'm not a fisherman but there's a fishing season and you do it seasonally but did you know it's always open season for preaching the word it's always the time the right time to be preaching the word and then we do it with relevancy relevancy how do we do that by reprove rebuke and exhort you reprove you exhort and you reprove what does that mean the word reprove in verse 2 means to convince of sin it's to convince of sin by argument is to preach the word to the intellect and to bring conviction of sin a preacher worth his salt isn't afraid to preach sin doesn't gloss over those sins that will offend individuals and then you rebuke that means to chide or to censor or to place blame a lot of pastors are afraid to preach the sins of the Bible and in our time and in our culture in our world today it's even getting more difficult you preach on the sin of homosexuality you always get a backlash believe it or not even in this church people though I don't think it's a sin I don't think it's wrong have you read your Bible do you know what God's Word says to be able to preach against pride and jealousy and unforgiveness backbiting and slander fornication adultery stealing lying these are sins that are listed in the Bible and the preacher shouldn't pull any punches you should go out of your way okay every week I'm gonna preach on sins but whatever is in the text you preach it one of the values of preaching through the Bible is you have to deal with all the text there are some pastors that when they come to the subject of divorce they jump over it they skip over why because it's a sensitive subject and might hurt somebody's feelings and they might be offended or maybe they've been through a divorce and that that's that's true and it should be preached compassionately and understandingly but we should be able to proclaim what the Bible says about it we shouldn't be afraid of or ashamed of what Bible has to say about that situation and so we shouldn't be afraid of the scriptures to exhort and to rebuke and to reprove and then thirdly it says to exhort there in verse two that's encouragement so thank God it's not just preaching sin but it's preaching encouragement that's to preach to the emotion to comfort God loves you God will forgive you if we confess our sin God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from what all unrighteousness our job as preacher someone said is to afflict the comfortable and the comfort the afflicted I like that but I don't come in purposely to make you uncomfortable and I don't take any delight or pleasures in preaching things that kind of convict people but if the word is preached faithfully and God's Spirit brings conviction don't shoot the errand boy don't don't get upset with the delivery boy I'm just a Herald delivering the message but notice thirdly that the preaching should be done patiently verse two with all long-suffering now whenever you have that word long-suffering it has in the context that I deal with people and you're not to resort in your preaching to human pressure or human techniques to try to influence people you're to trust God's Spirit to work through God's Word you're to have faith in the power of God's Word and the work of God's Spirit working through his word to change lives and being patient with people God will work in their hearts and it takes time for fruit to grow and then fourthly the Scriptures are to be taught intelligent ly look at it verse two and doctrine good preaching must have doctrinal content the word doctrine is actually the word teaching now a lot of people do they go I don't want doctor and I just want practical teaching I want real rubber meets the road on how to live the Christian life but the misnomer there is you can't live the Christian life if you don't know what it is you can't worship God if you don't know who he is how we live the Christian life is based upon doctrine teaching understanding God and who he is in his word so God's Spirit doesn't work in a vacuum or a void there's no premium on ignorance and again one of the great voids in preaching today in the church is a lack of doctrinal content it's real practical life situational kind of preaching but it's not based on an exposition of scripture and an explanation of the doctrines that are contained in those scriptures as actually what you go through the Word of God and you explain a text in its historical grammatical context also its theological context what theology can we drive from that and by the way theology just means study of God knowledge of God so what do we learn about God where do we learn about Jesus what do we learn about salvation what do we learn about heaven what do we learn about Hell we want to learn when you come to church you should actually learn you should come with your Bible you should come designed to learn the Word of God so it should be taught intelligently with doctrine in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 Paul says that God has given to the church pastor teachers so there's to be the instruction and in first Timothy chapter 3 verse 2 one of the qualifications for an elder or pastor is that they are to be able to teach so to be urgent in his approach to be relevant in his application to be patient in his manner and intelligent in his presentation now he begins in verse three down to verse eight we may only get to verse five but in verse three down to verse eight he tells us the reasons for this charge to preach the word and by the way a lot of people today think that expository preaching is not in vogue it's not what people want people want topical sermons their life situational they want people they want them to feel good and so forth and that may be true but the preachers motive is not to give to the people what they want is to be faithful to the Lord as to his word now I don't want you to be offended by that or freaked out by that but I don't sit around during the week and try to think what what's gonna really make these people happy what should I preach about and God wants them rich God's going to prosper them that's what people that's what people want to hear but my motive is opening the Bible taking a text that God's led me to and then excreting it and explaining it and applying it it's that simple so that when you come you're actually getting God's Word that's what it means to preach God's Word not for me to have an idea and then find some verses in the Bible that I can throw into my little speech to make it sound like a biblical sermon it's kind of like a pep talk with verses thrown in from all around the Bible but to have a text and then they look at the context and to explain it grammatically historically and theologically so that you go away going wow the Bible makes sense wow I understand the Bible wow this is not just some old dusty book this is really cool and you should learn and grow in your knowledge and it should also whet your appetite to study the Bible as well and I also believe that when a preacher is preaching the word that he is modeling for the people how to interpret the word how to rightly divide the word and how to study the word in the way he handles the word in the pulpit if he uses it out of context gives the idea to the people that you can just tear the Bible out of context make it say whatever you want it to say now let me give you the reasons for the charges and I won't try to try not to tarry on them the first is because the Word of God is true that goes back to chapter 3 verse 16 it's given by inspiration of God why should we preach the word it's God's Word that's why when the Bible speaks God speaks God still even speaks through what he's spoken and then secondly the word is profitable chapter 3 verse 15 to 17 it tells us what is right it tells us what is wrong watch TV watch Hollywood listen to popular music talk to the people on the street and and and ask me does anybody know what's right or wrong in this culture anymore does anybody have a fixed point for knowing what is right or what is wrong we become so we become what's called per miscue Asst you ever heard that term promiscuous what that means is we're permitting today what we didn't permit tomorrow things that you would never have thought would go on in our culture are happening things that ten years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago even just a couple years ago you never thought would happen or happening I don't know about your been I'm almost shocked every day to see what's going on in our world so this is constant shifting of our mores in our culture there's no fixed point and if there is no God there's no final Authority if there's no final Authority then there isn't any real right or wrong there is any real moral standard other than what we conclude is right or wrong what we devised what we decide and then might becomes right and what I want to do I'll do it y'all usurp my power over you and if Hitler wants to kill you know five six thousand six million Jews he can do that and no one can tell him that's wrong on what basis do you do that well it's not nice who says it's not nice we all have our own thing and that's why the Bible says every man was doing that which is right in their own eyes we've kind of like back in the book of the judges we have no standard so why don't we preach the word because it tells us what is right what is wrong how to get right and how to stay right if someone comes to me and they want to know about marriage I don't have anything to tell you other than what the Bible says if someone comes to me and says a woman which came to me Sunday and she her four-year-old grandson died she lost a four-year-old grandson and she was just brokenhearted I can open my Bible and talk about heaven and war babies go when they die young infants go and they die that there's hope in Jesus I don't give them philosophy I don't give him some science isn't gonna comfort her heart sign it science isn't gonna tell you where you go beyond the grave it's only the Word of God I'm going to start a new series Easter Sunday in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 we're gonna go about eight weeks on what happens after you die what's what's beyond the grave what who is there a resurrection of our body will we rise again will we go to heaven what's it going to be like and what's the resurrection of the body we're gonna kick it off on Easter Sunday with a resurrection of Jesus Christ who's the firstfruits of those who sleep but when someone needs help we need to open the Bible and say this is what God says in his word and when God speaks the arguments over right it's like the final word so it's God's Word that's why we preach it the word is profitable that's why we preach it and then verse 1 of chapter 4 we'll be judged by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that's why we preach it I'm gonna answer to God and then verses 3 & 4 of chapter 4 finally back to our text dark days are coming dark days are coming notice anniversary for the time will come when men will not endure or put up with or tolerate sound teaching but after their own lust or desires they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they will turn for their ears away from the truth which is the word that is preached and shall be turned unto fables so for our because Paul is giving the reason that we should preach the word because the time will come a memoir under a sound doctrine they won't tolerate or put up with sound doctrine that day that time has come and what happens with the pastor's that sometimes they'll leave preaching the word because they want to grow the church they want to appease the people or they want to be popular or palatable so they won't be faithful to the word they want to kind of impress people and then the authority shifts to the preacher and the glory goes to the preacher it's not the focus is no longer the Word of God the preacher is not eclipsed by the scriptures the preacher gets all of the attention but notice they have itching ears I love what Harry Allen Ironside said he said they want preachers who will tickle their fancy not trouble their conscience I like that don't tell me I'm a sinner tell me I'm okay tell me God wants me healthy and wealthy they want their ears tickled it's an itch for novelty now the itching ears are the people's not the preachers the preachers are the one that are doing the itching when the preachers are preaching they don't say preach it brothers they say itch it brother Egypt ah ha ha it feels good scratch it and Ironside goes on to say that I also not the preachers don't have itching ears but they have hitching palms because it's usually they want money as well they want to say whatever is going to help them get rid they're lining their pockets it's not hard to find a preacher that will build a golden calf for you to worship notice in verse 4 they shall turn away their ears from the truth and should be given unto fables they don't want God's Word so this is part of the last days apostasy and depart from the faith so when they go to church this is what happens when they go to church they don't say is what the preacher saying biblical is what the preacher saying scriptural is what the preacher saying when God says they say is the saying what I want to hear is the preacher saying what makes me feel good is the preacher saying what makes me feel happy or is the preacher saying what the Bible says so what we want is we want a pallet or an appetite for God's Word not to have our fancy tickled or our ears tickled to hear what we want to hear so what should to methey do he should do what we should do not give up not get discouraged not stop preaching but to continue preaching the word now he needs to follow Paul's example because in verse 4 it says they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be given unto what fables fairy tales made-up fanciful stories so we're gonna get verse 5 and we're going to stop there I can't I'm almost can't resist going to the end of the eighth first but I want to stop here and we'll continue next week but notice verse 5 but watch thou in all things so here's what Paul says in conclusion 2 Timothy watch in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist make full proof of thy ministry that statement make full proof of your ministry means full fill your ministry God has given you a ministry fulfill it keep it do what God has called you to do now notice in verse 5 he says watching all things that actually means be sober the NIV translates that keep your head in all situations be watchful be sober don't be intoxicated by the philosophies of the world and don't be seduced by the current in the church there's always different fads and trends that float through the church but the man of the preacher the preacher of the word should be consistent and not be influenced by the trends and the popular movements of the day he's to endure afflictions verse 5 be willing to suffer for the truth of the gospel like Paul who had suffer and the believers throughout church history don't water down the word for pragmatic reasons to escape suffering be faithful to preach and when you preach faithfully the word you will encounter satanic opposition and then verse 3 or verse 5 as well notice do the work of an evangelist now this definitely has clear application to every Christian Timothy was a pastor he wasn't an evangelist but he was to do evangelistic work always remember the unbeliever always preaching the gospel when we go out about our business we should always be concerned about sharing the gospel with those who don't know the good news of Jesus Christ and then he closes in verse 5 fulfill your ministry or discharge all the duties of your ministry the darker the day's get the more we must seek to be faithful to preach the word now I realize that what we've covered tonight you're thinking I go to stay at home I'm not a preacher I don't preach the Bible but you know if you listen to this text tonight and you understand this text tonight you and I are all supposed to be preachers in the gospel you preach to people in ways and places I could never reach do you know that they're not gonna come to revival Christian Fellowship especially not on a Wednesday night tomorrow some of you go to work so if you go to school some of you encounter people in the neighborhood you'll go about your business you have an opportunity to preach the gospel how precious are the feet of those how beautiful are the feet of who published the gospel of peace amen to bring the good news of Jesus Christ so how should you do it you should do it intelligently with urgency you should do it patiently same way Paul told Timothy to preach the word you preach the word and you do it faithfully and you discharge your ministry that God is entrusted to you what does God called you to do what does God called you to be when you get to heaven you're not going to stand before me and give an account and I'm not going to stand before you and have to give an account I'm gonna stand before Jesus and what I want to hear is well done thou good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of the Lord he's not gonna say well done thou good and intelligent servant well done thou good and creative servant well done thou good and tricky servant well down now good an amazing servant faithful servant he just called us to be faithful to what God has called us to do whatever God's called you to do whatever God's calling you to be you must be faithful at that and soon we're gonna be in heaven and soon we will be rewarded now we didn't finish the passage down to verse eight but Paul looks around and Paul looks back and Paul looks forward Paul says a crown waiting for me and the next few verses get so amazing as Paul talks about the end of his life and he's being poured out and his departure is at hand and he fought the fight he's finished the course he's run the race and there's a crown waiting for him is there a crown waiting for you all those who love his appearing are you looking for the coming again of Jesus Christ are you anticipating the Lord's return are you living for him I hope so let's pray

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Length: 44min 12sec (2652 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2019