we are at the end of the month of January. So usually it's about this time that many of us realize that our New Year's commitment to get into better shape is officially over. I mean, that's kind of the end of it. We had a good run for nine days, And then it just fell apart. And the older you get, for me it seems like the quicker it falls apart. I mean, I think I gave up on December 31st on my New Year's resolution. I was looking at some statistics about weight loss and exercise. The annual revenue of the U.S. weight loss industry, including diet books, diet drugs, weight loss surgeries, et cetera, et cetera, is about $20 billion. They estimate that the number of people on diets in the United States, I think this number is low, but I don't know, is 108 million. And they say that most dieters typically make four or five attempts per year. So don't worry if that first one didn't work, you got at least three or four more to go. The percentage of females who are consuming weight loss products is 85%. No commentary. The number of people who had bariatric surgery, which is just cut it down, if I fully understand it, at least with the main effort of just taking care of the obesity was 220,000 people. A positive one, the amount of time spent on daily exercise by people who lost and kept off at least 30 pounds for at least five years was at the average one hour of exercise a day. Average salaries paid to celebrity endorsers of major weight loss programs ranges from $500,000 to one celebrity endorser makes $300 million a year just to endorse weight loss products, which one person estimated that comes out to about $33,000 per pound lost. We are a world that is very much into being in shape. The other day as I was You already heard about it. As I was going into a barbecue place a couple weeks ago, across the street was this huge fitness center. And this fitness center had two stories of glass. And it was amazing how many people decided they were going to do their workout right in front of that glass, looking down upon the barbecue eaters. But they all had headphones in, and they were just working out. Just at a glance up there, after I dealt with my own guilt, I thought to myself, I'm so glad I'm eating just protein mainly today. As I looked at there, I thought to myself, man, some of these people have spent a lot of money and a lot of time working on whatever it is they've been working on up there. Just the other day, I got a chance to hear about what is called the Fit Bark, which is a dog exercise monitor and location tractor. tracker. So it keeps track of your dog's steps and the percentage of steps that they need to achieve. Our in-home workouts for our family personally, we have really gone through a lot of things. I should say I have really gone through a lot of things. I had a body by Jake thing. I had a bun and thigh rocker one time. I've had a number of different things. In fact, I was actually going to bring in the latest exercise machine that I had, which is a really It's a really nice swin, it's kind of recumbent. It's very nice. It was given to me by someone who gave me a gift that made me feel guilty, which is, hey, you need to get in shape. I was gonna bring it in here for like a visual illustration, but I was like, that's too much work. And then I realized the only work I'd ever gotten on that bike is moving it into and out of moving vans. When I became the pastor of First Baptist Niles, I got a Planet Fitness membership. And I want to let you know, the one day I went to Planet Fitness, it was worth it. And for the next six months, every time Jen kept saying, I think we probably should cancel that membership. It's like, no, no, no, I'm going to use that. And then I tried to cancel that membership, which was difficult as well. I know, we know working out is good. We know it's important. But often the question is, and the reason we fail so many times is, what does it take to get us to maintain a good diet and good exercise? For me, one time early on in college, it was a bit of a competition on the exercise side. It was lifting competition, getting in shape with the guys around me. There are times that some of us, either someone we love or ourselves, could go through a little bit of a motivation in terms of there could be a health scare. I remember when my dad had his stroke, And his doctor, he was talking to me about this, the doctor said, well, you're going to be back. And my dad said, no, I'm not. I'm not going to be back. And he made this commitment to do this work. For me, the first major weight loss decision that I made was as a youth pastor where I sat right down here and I saw what my pictures for the mission strip looked like up there. And I was like, that's not good. And so I made some changes. Now that I minister to adults, you guys are a lot more accommodating. So you seem to put up a little bit with a little more girth, maybe I would say. And often what I find is I'm usually a type of guy that I like the diet thing. I'm not so much the exercise thing. I know it's going to shock you that I'm not a big workout type of guy. But I have found that as I've started to say, okay, I really need to do this, I start to recognize instead of just doing it when it's an emergency, I probably need to think of it in terms of preventative thought. Health thought. What is healthy? What is good? What do I need to do? Sometimes we have to ask, okay, so what makes it worth it? And what is something that we would commit to? Let me ask you, why do you do what you do in your Christian walk in terms of diet and exercise? Why do you do what you do in your Christian walk in terms of diet and exercise? Is what you're doing going to keep doing the job that is necessary for God to keep working in your life as he uses you in the days ahead? When it comes to our lives of exercise and diet and exercise, a lot of times the question that we ask ourselves at the very beginning is, is this worth it? Can I just keep doing what I'm doing? Am I going to be okay? And usually after we get information and after we get instruction, the new thing in the world today, I don't think it's very new thing, but is you need motivation. You need some sort of personal trainer. You need to buy some piece of equipment that they pipe in some person in there to yell at you to keep working out. Today, we're going to look at what it means to be in good shape as a believer. And what it means even to be in good shape in this case, as Paul talks to Timothy, as a pastor. I invite you to turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4. We're going to look at verses 6 through 11 today. Follow along there as I read these verses together. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of good doctrine, which you have carefully followed. But reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, for to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you would help us as we are in your word today to recognize how important and vital the nourishment of your word is and the exercise of godliness is. Lord, may we recognize that these are the most important things, the most foundational and fundamental things in our lives as believers. Lord, I would pray that today if we recognize that these are areas that we need to improve upon, or Lord, maybe some areas that possibly we've been ignoring, that we would get the right biblical diet and exercise and see what you will do, what you have promised to do. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. First thing that I think we can kind of pick up on here in the passage, and you can already kind of see it, is the aspect of the best diet. We see this here in verse six, and there are some words that happen in this passage. This passage kind of flows forward and then really brings it back. It kind of goes from instruction, we see the term these things, which is a word that's been being, these two words, these things, have been used more in the pastorals than anywhere else. Teach these things, learn these things, go through these things. It talks about instructing in these things. And then Paul's going to talk about there is words of faith and what happens, what we need to reject, and then the work that we need to do. And really the center of the passage is verse 9, which is, hey, pay attention. And then, it's gonna walk back through what are the things that can result in rejection, what are the things that we need to trust, and then again, command and teach, it ends with these things. You almost see these things as the bookends of this passage in verse six and 11. In verse 6, we have these words. Man, that has got to have, at this point, really caught the attention of Timothy, right? Because Paul's been walking through leadership. He's been walking through the things to avoid, what apostasy is. And he has been walking Timothy through these things. And Timothy's probably, you know, I imagine he's taking notes or whatever it is, and he's working through these things. But all of a sudden, Paul gives this thing, hey, if you do a certain things, you're going to be a good minister. You can almost imagine Timothy, since it would be a letter, kind of stopping and wanting to go back after this. Wait, what do I need to do to be a good minister of Jesus Christ? It says here, you need to instruct the brethren in these things. These are the things you need to do and really in a sense where you start leaning into as he's going to talk, this is what you need to do and here's your responsibilities, Timothy. Instruct the brethren. Now that term, instruct the brethren, is actually one word that is a word for being placed under or laying oneself down upon. It is a very submission type of word. you need to instruct the brethren in these things. As I said, these things is mentioned seven times in 1 Timothy, 12 times in the pastoral epistles. It's used over and over. Really within this passage we've seen these things includes the faith, it includes the things to believe, the things to know. We have even have, we are really coming off of even the faith that we have seen and even the verse five that led into this, it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. So you have the word. you have the interaction with the Lord, and he says, if you want to be a good, and the word good there has a leaning towards better, or it can even be an honest, true, legitimate, integrity type of minister. In fact, this word good, you've kind of seen in the title, the title of the series has been good and grounded, which are really the terms that are used concerning the church, but this word good has been used in 1 Timothy for good warfare, good work, good testimony, good standing, and here you have good twice, a good minister, And you have good doctrine. That which is best. That which is honest. That which is true. That is which will make you better at these things and in these areas. And the term he uses is the term minister. Now this word is also the word that is used for deacon earlier on. A deacon is a person, as we saw before, is a one who is doing some type of ministry. So while I would love to say to you, hey, just buckle up and just sit here and say, hey, let's figure out if Pastor Dave meets these qualifications, it's talking about someone who ministers. And we are all called to serve. So the principle here, while the direct precept to Timothy, as this is how you are a good servant, here's the things that you need to do, there are principles that fall into our lives as we minister to the lives of others. You're gonna be a good minister if you instruct, if you place people into remembrance, if you place them under the teaching of these things. But also what happens here is he says, you need to instruct them. And it's really, it was easy for me as a pastor then to get into the next section here and say, so I need to see my people nourished in the words of faith and nourished in good doctrine, which I've carefully followed. But I realized this is where Paul makes a break. He says, you need to instruct these things. You're gonna be a good minister of Jesus Christ. And then he's describing what Timothy is supposed to be. You personally need to be nourished in the words of faith and good doctrine. Timothy, if you're going to be a good minister who is instructing in these things and all these things we've been working through and what all the faith entails and placing people under that, for you to be able to do that, you have to be nourished in the faith and doctrine. You have to be personally self-fed. The word there is a word for a feeding. It does also include an educational, where you are growing in knowledge. It is something that is profitable and produces growth. There's a couple of things that Paul refers to. He says the words of faith. It's actually a reversal of the words that he's used over and over, faithful words. These words that you are about is the word of God and the words of faith and being in the word and having the word around. It's kind of really the words, but he also advanced on that and that is good doctrine. Say, well, what's the difference between the word and doctrine? Well, the difference between the word and doctrine is you have the word, you read the word, but if you don't know how to put together the word and you don't understand what does this mean in the great context of things, you're missing out on doctrine, theology. to be able to say, okay, I understand what this means. You need to be, he says, Timothy, you need to be nourished and fed in the words of faith and of the good doctrine, he says, which you have carefully followed or which you have been doing. Maybe we'd say it's almost continue thou in the things thou hast learned. You have been being taught these things. You have been learning the word. You have been learning this doctrine and the word that is used, there's a systematic teaching that has been taking place. And really what he's saying is you need to keep growing. You need to keep in the Word. You need to keep doing this nourishing aspect. You need to do this. Be nourished in that. And really, it's almost like what Paul's getting to is this is what the goal is. The goal of being a good feeding minister is to be a well-fed minister. And if you are a well-fed minister, you will produce a good, well-fed people. The principle that applies beyond just the pulpit and just the pastor is, as God has called us to minister into lives of people, the things that we want to minister into their lives should be, and rightfully is, the Word of God. And what the Word of God teaches, not just, here's the Bible, memorize it, make sure you know the books of the Bible in order, but also to be able to answer the questions, how does this apply to the world around us? How does this work in the things that are going on in the life that we live? The biggest issues that we all face in the world today are all biblical issues. All of them are. The biggest things under attack are things that the Bible speaks very specifically to. Your biggest problems, the Bible addresses. And even your littlest problems. the Bible addresses. He said, Timothy, if you are going to be the man, if you are going to be the guy, if you are going to be used to bring this instruction, then you yourself have to be in the word. Along with detecting error, you have to grow in and develop and proclaim and pass along the truth to the church. Any minister who has themself not gone through and grown in faith and doctrine cannot pass on faith and doctrine. Maybe you might say, well, I kind of know what the Bible says, but I'm not really able to kind of put it together. And that's what we call doctrine. That is something that that my prayer is that you are hearing not just preaching and teaching, but it includes doctrinally thinking through these things. It's the reason it's good to get in a good Sunday school class and a good Bible study where you're gonna be able to kind of walk through and think through what does the Bible says, how does it apply, how does this work? Doctrinal stuff is how it works, how it fits together. Doctrine is what keeps you from falling into what I might call one verse cultism. Back at Bible college, we'd have some fun. We'd see if there was a verse. We'd see if we could take a one verse out of context and make a cult out of it, because that's what cults do. They mistake a verse and they handle it wrong. For example, and this would be a verse in a certain translation. The translation soul sleep has been totally misused and gone almost fully cultic. Fad religions and people who fall into cults generally do because while they know the word and they know when other people say things from the word that sound like the word, yep, that's the word, but if they have not grown in doctrine, they are not able to recognize that's the word and that sounds like religious words, but that does not match up with the teaching of scripture. This is where we all have to grow and any person who is teaching and ministering or raising kids or whatever, it should be an area that we want to grow in. Jeremiah talks about identifying cults. He says, this is what the Lord Almighty says, do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are speaking visions from their own minds that is not from the mouth of the Lord. We need to see the nourishment of the word and the growing in these things in terms of good doctrine as vital to the survival and moving forward of the church, of how important it is. This is the reason we fail at diets and exercises. It's because we see it as self-improvement. So it's like, I'm self-improvement, but what's the problem that we always get into? Now, maybe I don't get into as much anymore, but it still happens, which is like, you know what? I'm pretty good. I don't know if I need to improve that much. I mean, that's kind of, you know, that's kind of being, you know, I'm being a little selfish. I mean, I don't want to be in such a good shape that people around me are intimidated by my physique. I mean, that's just not nice. And really, I'm surviving pretty well. I've learned this now in the last year. Hey, my numbers are good. Isn't that good enough? If the numbers are good and the doctor says, hey, your numbers are pretty good, do I really need to go the extra mile and put in the extra effort? Life gets different. Life got different for me when they said, if you don't make these changes, you are going to die. Suddenly, okay, so now I need to rethink sugars and breads and popcorn and potatoes. I need to back that down. Why? Because it's one thing, self-improvement, but I'm kind of enjoying myself. It's another thing, like, I see them, and I think the way that I've instructed my father-in-law is we try to see these things now, Dave, as poisonous. And if we see them as poison, hopefully we won't eat too much of that. although the family keeps producing food that is poisonous to us. I don't know why they do that. And I'm glad we live in an era where there's a lot of sugar-free stuff, but once I figured out if I don't do this, my life is on the line, I took it a little more seriously. This is true in our spiritual walk for too many believers, myself included. We do Bible study as self-improvement instead of survival. We do it as wanting it as something good versus that is vital. I cannot exist without it. We do it for ourselves personally instead of recognizing that our commitment to the Word of God affects generationally and in terms of the community. The reason that some people are struggling around you is because you are not nourished up in the word of God and you are not able to be the example that you needed to be around them. Now, are they responsible for their walk before God? Yes, they are. But maybe the reason you and I need to make sure that we're being nourished up is because God wants to use us in the lives of others. That's the point Paul is making to Timothy. He's not saying the congregation doesn't need to be nourished in good faith and doctrine. He's saying you need to be because that's what you're passing on to them. and we think too much, as I said, self-improvement, good, personal, versus survival, vital, generational, and eternity-impacting thought process. Why do you come to church? Well, it's good for my kids. Versus, I need to be here because I'm instructed to be here, and this is vital to my walk with the Lord, and it's vital to the building up of my brothers and sisters in Christ around me. The next time you're not sure if you're gonna get anything out of church, go to church and get something out of something for someone else. You be the person who builds up. You be the person who encourages. You see, for me, it used to be, well, maybe I'll try this, and maybe I'll do this, and maybe I'll do sugars, or I'll just eat lots of meat, and I'll do all those things in my own personal diet. But once I knew, all right, it's this, this, and this, it's gonna be preventative, and it's gonna be life-preserving, now I'm on task, this is what I do, now I gotta do it. And it comes to the same with our nourishment of the Word of God. Sound preaching, sound doctrine, instruction in the whole of Scripture. It is amazing how much time people think about what they eat, and how often do we not think enough about what we're being nourished in in terms of the Word of God. We need to be nourished. But diet alone won't do it. I've been finding that out. There's more here. Look at the next verse. Okay, so what are we supposed to reject? Now, these are words, profane, fables, or words as used before. This is the only time that Paul drops in old wives here. In fact, it's the only time in Scripture. that he uses this specific word. The word fables is really myths. These are tales, these are trifles. Paul is really working through it. The word profane there is like dirty, and it's either dirty, it could be morally dirty, but it's also just, it's not worthy. It's like I wanna pick up dirt on someone. It's really these old wives tales, and they're things that we want. He says there's some things that you need to reject. Why? Well, in this diet and exercise, this nourishment and exercise, he said, there's just some things that are only going to do harm. You need to reject them. You need to say, that is not what I should be doing or evolving myself in and taking care of. Paul, in 2 Timothy, Paul calls these things enticing and attractive. Maybe we would even kind of lean into religious novelties, fantastic claims about new truth. If you just do these seven steps, you'll raise perfect children. If you do these things, you'll restrain this, you'll do this. And the problem with all these teachings and all their systems, while many of them aren't necessarily denying the gospel outright, they are trying to replace it and replace the foundational work that the word of God does in producing and then we exercising, working unto godliness. It's not only diet, as I said, it's exercise. I read this here. The latest snapshot of Americans exercise habits is not a very pretty picture. Only 18% of us meet the weekly recommendations for cardiovascular and muscle strengthening activity, which means five out of six of us don't measure up. I know you want to say, Well, that's the government, but I'm pretty sure five out of six might be a pretty accurate number. And how many of us aren't doing what is very profitable important to our long term health? The studies Let's say if you do this much work cardiovascular and you do this much working out, what that does for your heart, what that does for your body, what that does for the systems of your body, the longevity that you will bring to your life and the value that brings. Come on, we all know them. And we're like, oh, I'm in trouble. Man, I hope I get that taken care of someday. And then when we're at a certain age, we're also gonna realize, I wish I could go back and maybe gone out and taken a walk or two more. the current guidelines, the guidelines I found, call for 150 minutes a week of moderate or intense physical activity, walking or, it says raking leaves, but I don't do that. Or 75 minutes of vigorous activity like jogging or swimming. When we aren't inactive, the medicine is clear. It leads to obesity. It leads to diabetes. While exercise can help control rate, it also cuts down your risk of heart disease, cancer. There's all types of benefits. We know this, yet often we pick one or the other. Eh, I'm going to diet. Or anyhow, I'm going to exercise. And really, I think, how many things do we see on boxes that say, you take this thing, you do this with proper diet and exercise. And here Paul is saying the same thing here. You need to exercise yourself towards godliness. There's a combating of error, there's upholding of truth, there's an investment and learning and growing in truth as there's a training for eternity and passing on generationally. But there's also work to be done. When I was going through this, I was thinking about Peloton's kind of the new thing right now. And I was almost like, what would it be like if you had Pastor Dave's Spiritual Peloton? Right? Just have me pumped in, it'd probably be prerecorded, because you don't want me to see you doing, you know, in person anyway, right? You're like, come on, open up that Bible. Come on, read those verses. Oh, you know you can do it. All right, go be nice to your wife. Okay, now have a good conversation with your kids. All right, let's talk about what's going on in 1 Timothy. Come on, five more minutes, all those types of things. You'd probably be like, yeah, I'd actually go for that, right? You're kind of like that. Like, I actually kind of need that. Not even my wife would want that. You don't want that from me. What does exercise take? Work and discipline. You have to continue doing it to get anything out of this. And this word that is being used here, this word is the word that comes from athletics. It's a word that has gym built into it, the gymnasium built into it. We are in an athletic obsessed society. Why can't we be a godliness obsessed church? It's like, that church is crazy. All they're ever doing is godly things. All they're ever doing is treating each other in a godly way and acting in a godly way, and that's all they think about. They're listening to things about doing it. They're watching their pastor. Why do they keep doing that? Exercise, now again, what is Paul saying? To Timothy, you need to exercise yourself to godliness. You see, I'm not responsible for your spiritual walk. I really am not. I am responsible for the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. I have a responsibility as a shepherd, but I don't even know if you have a personal trainer. I'm gonna assume if you have a personal trainer, you may get more time with him than you get with me. But that's not my responsibility. By the way, it's not your personal trainer's responsibility. I don't know how Pelotons work. Can you just do nothing and just watch the video? I don't know. Maybe they know. These days, everybody knows, so maybe they're watching you. you are personally responsible for the exercise of godliness. And the way that you exercise godliness is you gotta get up and go do godliness. Well, what is godliness? That's why we're in the Word of God. That's where Paul has been and that's where Paul is gonna continue to go. How do I be godly, Pastor Dave? Well, be in the Word. These go together. When we only do one, I'm a guy raised in the church, pastor's kid, kind of an apologetic doctrinal junkie. I love debate. I love all those things. I have always leaned heavily on the nourish side. But I haven't always been great on the exercising godliness side. I did enough, right? You do enough. I got up and I walked. Why? Well, because I have to get to the table. And some of our spiritual life is, oh, I did exercise today, what'd you do? Well, I got up and I walked around and I did work and I went to bed. That's not exercising yourself into godliness. And in the same way in the diet and exercise world, the same is true in the spiritual realm. The opposite is true. Maybe you're a person like, oh, I'm always doing, I'm always serving, I'm always helping. Have you been in the Word? Have you submitted yourself to the Word of God? Have you grown in your understanding of faith and doctrine concerning the Word of God? That's susceptible to failure as well. Both of these have to be connected. They have to come together. The exercise of godliness alone is what leads to susceptibility to apostasy and all of the heretical stuff. You see, almost all of the heretical stuff is trying to be godly without the Word. trying to get to heaven without the word, I will do, do, do, so that I will be made right. That's exercising, quote, godliness, without reading and learning and growing on what God is telling you to do. But I've also known people that could sit in my office and we can debate and discuss the nuances of the word for hours and hours on end. But without that, I would say, James would say the thing, that your faith without works is dead. You have to be able also to be godly. Don't be about the non-biblical mythology, the spirit world, the even, I think, some of that is even referring back to the other things that Paul is talking about. Don't be about that. Work out the reverence, respect, the application of respect of God and respect of others. Reject the bad and do the good. Have the doctrine in, have the godliness in. You have to put these things together. If you don't, it's gonna be a problem. Ben Paul does what a really good motivational trainer will do. He gives the motivation. He's going to walk his way kind of back through this. He kind of comes to the end of this. For bodily exercise profits a little. Okay, so let's, I don't want to totally downplay bodily exercise. I've already said that. Bodily exercise does profit a little. Some of us it may profit more than others. Bodily exercise profits a little. But godliness, right, exercise yourself toward godliness, is profitable for all things. I could spend the next 90 days just trying to tune this body God has given me into an in shape, whatever you feel in the blanket. But there's a couple things that are part of that. First of all, I'm still getting older and my body breaks down in ways that I have no control over. Second of all, It's not going to profit me that much. It will probably profit me in the long term, but it's not of great profit compared to what exercising and godliness would do. Now, it's not an exchange. You're like, all right, I'm giving up exercise bodily. I'm going all godly. You might need to do that a little bit if you've been over-exercising, but what this is saying is that has its profit, but it's not nearly as profitable as God let us for all things. Imagine that. Imagine if someone says, if you do this exercise, it will affect every single area of your life. All things. This is an unbelievable promise. The word prophet, as you can imagine, this is the advantage. This is the godliness advantage. It profits all things. And he's been saying this kind of over and over. There's an all and all and all that has been taking place. And again, all things is the faith and all these things. Why can we accept this? Because it's a promise. It's an announcement. It is the promise of God. And the thing that we also see here in terms of this motivation is it's great profit and it's all over the board. And he says, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. So what's that say? When we are godly, it affects our lives right now, but it also affects eternity. Imagine that profit. Imagine that investment. Imagine what that means to say, all right, if I am going to grow and exercise and work out on my being what God wants me to be and living my life in a godly manner, if I do those things, it's gonna profit me. And you're like, well, that sounds a little bit selfish, but hey, you will have profits. Now, I really think the word of God when it's talking about profits and fruit is always talking about kind of, I always see it as two tiers. There's fruit in my life, but it always becomes fruit in other people's lives. And the same is happening with Timothy. If you grow in these things, if you exercise yourself in these things, there's gonna be great profit to you, to those around you. It's being written to a pastor who is pastoring leaders in churches all around Ephesus. Say, this is the great advantage, and we would almost call it, maybe you'd call it a two-realm promise. Godliness profits in this world and the next, so get your godliness muscles going. Get them moving. And I would say, the other thing I see here is this great motivation is that it's going to happen. This promise means if you do this, it will happen. Verse nine, as it says, kind of the culmination of this before Paul kind of brings it back in a little bit. And he uses what is really a formula word that he uses multiple times in Timothy and Titus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. This was almost like, this is almost like a, it is so. It was a thing that Paul repeated to say, listen, pay attention. It probably, because of the amount of times it was written, and possibly even within the preaching of Paul, some say that this may have been something that he used a lot, where he would get done preaching or he would say this, he would say, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. This is faithful, it's right, it's true, and you should accept what I'm saying. Take it in. Use this. In fact, he's really, he's doing a reverse of Verse six, it talks about words of faith. He's saying these are faithful words. He's flipped those two words and says, this is very faithful. Pay attention. It's almost like you say, if you're gonna catch something, catch this. What is he saying there in this motivation? He said, well, for to this end, this is why we labor and suffer reproach. This word is the word that comes and is attached to weariness. Come unto me all ye who labor. It is the word that is used that says the lilies toil not. This is a word for exhausting resources and strength. Saying this is the reason we're tired. This is the reason we do the work, we do the toil. This is why we do this. Because what? It's faithful, it's worthy, and it works. And that's why it's good. There's nothing I hate more than putting a ton of energy into effort to something that accomplishes nothing. You ever done that? You put all your work and labor into something and either maybe it was a gift or maybe it was a project or maybe it was just something you did and by the time you get to the end of it, it ended up not making a difference or not even working and it's just, I just totally wasted my time. I totally wasted everything I was doing. Too many of us as believers are totally wasting our time. And we are doing things and laboring on things that it probably isn't worth it. But Paul says, when it comes to this ministry that I'm calling you to, Timothy, we labor and suffer reproach. It's the word for revile. In Luke chapter six it says, blessed are you when men shall hate you, when they shall separate from you, when they shall reproach you. It's not all a bed of roses. It's not all dancing through the tulips barefoot when we do this. When we are exercising godliness, there's gonna be. We're to reject these things, but others are gonna reject and reproach us. And there's a lot of good reasons people will reject and reproach us. I think one of the main good reasons is because if they're living a life of sin, your life of godliness should make them pretty uncomfortable. And they're gonna push back. Is anybody pushing back on you because you're just too godly? You've done too much godliness? Why? Because we trust in the living God. This is going almost beyond faith, faith and hope. believing in what God is saying here, believing in the promise of God and this high level of probability. We trust in the living God. He is not dead. He is the one who is alive. In fact, the living God, as we've talked about before, is a reference that is used a lot, talking about the life-giving, strength-giving. He is the one who gives us our life and energy. We trust in him. He is the savior of all men, especially those who believe. This is what we are supposed to be seeing. And so he's kind of gotten back that we need to trust even in the midst of this reproach. And he finishes where he starts. These things command and teach. We've seen these things before, the faith, the belief, the knowledge, the doctrine, the word of God, the prayer, the power, command and teach these things. So he said, this is what you need to instruct. Here's what you need to do in your own life. And now you need to command and teach those going beyond. The word command is really a declaration type of thing. I actually like this. I feel like this matches up with words of faith and good doctrine. Words of faith is a proclamation. Good doctrine is the teaching of the breakdown of it. And it's almost like he's saying this, command it, say it, and then sit them down and walk through it and teach it. See, Paul here is not just talking about Timothy. He is church establishing. Timothy is supposed to be church establishing, leadership choosing and developing, character building, foundational strengthening work. And Paul's saying, it is starting with you, Timothy, but then it has to be passed on to others. Say, Timothy, as you are building up and being used to build up the church and you are combating error and upholding the truth and training for eternity, it needs to be something that is active in your life and goes into the lives of others. And that's why it needs to be more than just the word. One commentator was kind of talking about the way that he viewed the responsibility of ministerial leaders. He said, there's a couple of contents that are important, which is strong doctrine, but also for the world around us, honest answers to honest questions that are led by the word of God. I think too often we hit the doctrine and the faith hard, but we have generations say, yeah, but I've got some questions about some big things in my life and I don't have an answer to it. And these two realities we may even say is the spiritual reality and the relationship reality. See, the greatest return for this life and the next comes from the nourishment of the word and the exercise of godliness. Last night, the glow on my laptop late at night, I was walking through this and kind of Usually on Saturday night, I'm kind of putting my last little thoughts on. I like to kind of have it in my head. I like to kind of read through my notes and read through the passage one last time right before I go to bed. I've dreamed some really great messages. And I was struck that this is the thing that I have to make sure I deal with. I was really convicted. I know you're like, isn't that the way it's supposed to go, Pastor? Yeah, that is the way it's supposed to go, but it doesn't always go that way. But all of a sudden I was realizing there's a problem in my life. The problem in my life is a problem I think that we, a lot of us believers have, and that is we have too much little profit and too little great gain. Too much little profit and too much great gain. And I think what happens is, these are kind of what, as I was kind of writing this down, I realized that I too much, and we all too much, either have a problem of overcomplicating things or being overconfident. We make something way too complicated or we have too much confidence. And I think that's sometimes why we don't turn to the word of God. We wouldn't say it out loud, but we almost say to ourselves, this is way more complicated than just a couple of few Bible verses. This is way more complicated than something the word of God can go through. Or else we don't turn to the word of God because like, I got this, I can get this figured out. And then we get into either times that I've had too little nourishing or too little exercising into godliness. As I said, I've generally been well nourished and pretty godly, and only pretty godly for the most part because of the churches that I've been in and the teaching and preaching that I've been under. And there are times that I've been less nourished. And there are times that I've been less godly. I should be fed and led by the word Biblically and intentionally exercising godliness. And what happens is my balance gets out of whack sometimes. Too much doctrinal. Okay, maybe there's not too much doctrine, but I don't think you go too much doctrine, but to the not doing the godliness and faith, the soul-shaking, relationship-growing aspect. I am just a couple of weeks away from being your pastor for one year. That is crazy. My brain did this math this morning. I was like, my last pastorate, I'm at the 10% level of how long the Lord had me in my last pastorate. That doesn't even seem right. And as I sat there looking at the passage, I realized that I've got some learning to do. And this is the learning that I realize I have to do. I love this church so much, and I know you do too. And I, as the pastor, have felt like there is so much to fix, so much to figure out, and so many things I want to see happen here, that I very easily, like many of us do in our marriages, in our families, in our homes, in the things that are going on in our life, I tend to get too much into strategy and problem solving, which by the way, strategy and problem solving is really good if it's biblically led. But what happens is I counsel and I sit there across from someone and I try to tell them, this is what the word of God says. And they say, you don't understand Pastor Dave, it's more complex than that. And I realized for me sometimes, I think to myself, you know what? There's so much going on here in this church, I've got to figure it out. I've got to figure out the complexities and I got to have this confidence and my job's to be in charge. We do it in our life, we do it in our marriages, we do it in our ministries. And I've done it in my life and my responsibilities. And this is what I've found. And I hope I'm not alone. The harder I try without the proper nourishment of the word, And the proper exercise of godliness into others, the more I spin my wheels. The more I just find that the more I do, the less I'm accomplishing. I have found that as I sat last night looking at my notes and looking over this, I wrote this down. I said, Dave Berman, if you are losing or lacking in nourishment and all that it involves, you need to get back into the word of God. And as I wrote that down, this is all I did. I have not been doing a good job because, like all of you, too busy. Now, I gotta study the Word. I gotta preach, gotta teach, gotta invest in my family, but I'm just doing it because I'm just trying to do enough to get by. And I've been doing it too much. The other side is, I said, Dave Burg, if you're losing or lacking in exercising godliness and all that involves, that's not gonna work either. Are you being godly in your growth and your relationships? And I realized that this was my problem. The reason that I cannot be a good servant of the Lord, it's because I'm not doing what's right. I may be a hardworking servant. I may be a committed servant. I might be a strategic servant, all of which I should be. But if I'm not nourished in the word and exercising godliness, I won't be a good servant. My responsibility is to be fed and led by the word, biblically and intentionally exercising unto godliness. So in just a moment, I'm stepping down front because I realized I've been doing enough, but just enough. And if I'm going to do what I'm called to do, I need to be nourished in the word. And if I'm going to do what I need to do as a husband, As a father, as a pastor, as a friend, I need to be exercising godliness. I have been lacking a little bit in nourishment, and I'm committing before you to get that right. I wanna ask you to say, Pastor Dave, how's your time in the Word? Not your preaching prep, not your teaching prep, how's your time in the Word? I've been lacking a bit in godliness. There's been some areas of my life that sin has been creeping up and in in my thoughts and attitudes. And I've had to confess those things this week. And I've asked God to forgive me and cleanse me. And this morning, I'm gonna try to do verse 11 just a little bit. I'm telling you, I'm commanding you, and I'm trying to teach you. Is there anyone else in here that says, I need to get back to being fed and led by the word and biblically and intentionally exercising myself to godliness? I wanna ask you to bow your heads. This feels a little too basic. Study the word, be godly. But I want to ask. So someone in here would say, you know what, Pastor Dave? There's one or two here and maybe both. I have not been nourishing myself in the word and good doctrine, and I need to make that commitment for what God wants to do in my life and the life of those around me. Is there someone in here that by raised hand, my hand is up. Is there anyone else here that says, I need to be in the word? All right, all over the auditorium. So everyone here that says, man, I love my Bible study, I'm in it all the time, I don't even do anything other than study my Bible all day long, Pastor Dave, but my relationships in my life have not been working hard at doing the things that God has commanded me to do, and I need to start doing what God has been instructing me to do. Any of you that raised hand, I'm raising my hand. Anybody that say that, that's where I'm at. Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you so much for your promise in the word today. that if we exercise unto godliness, if we are nourished by the word, you will bless in all things, both in this life and the life to come. And Lord, I believe that means in our lives, our relationships, our homes, our workplace, our schools, our jobs, this church, and this community. And Lord, help me, because I've been guilty of this too. Lord, may we see your blessing. by making this commitment. I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.