Jesus at the center of it all. Jesus at the center of it all. From beginning to the end, it will always be, it's always been you, Jesus. Jesus, nothing else matters. Nothing in this world will do. ♪ Because Jesus you're the center ♪ ♪ And all this world revolves around you ♪ ♪ Jesus you ♪ ♪ Jesus at the center of my life ♪ ♪ Jesus be the center of my life ♪ From beginning to the end, it will always be, it's always been you, Jesus. Jesus, nothing else matters. Nothing in this world will do. ♪ Because Jesus, you're the center ♪ ♪ And all this world revolves around you ♪ ♪ Jesus, you're the center ♪ From my heart to the heavens, Jesus be the center. It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you. From my heart to the heavens, Jesus be the center. It's all about you. Yes, it's all about you. Jesus, be the center of your church. Jesus, be the center of your church. From beginning to the end, it will always be, it's always been you, Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Test one two. Is that me? That's too loud. My breathing test one two. Hey, it's great to be here tonight guys. Um, wow, that sounds kind of weird echo. Um, it is my privilege, uh, for like pastor Jeremy was saying, uh, the 10th time, I believe that is correct, uh, to be here for opening, um, of the, of the Conference of the yearly conference and opening the theme for our year whatever time we end up doing that Back in the day. I think we used to do it like in October November sometimes and and now we're doing it closer to September But man, it is my privilege to be here. I see a lot of jerseys Which is great. I forgot mine. So I decided to come in my pastor jersey today and so that's what I came as and but I can see that that you guys, a lot of you remembered your jersey, which is great. It's always fun to be here with you guys. Sunday night is always a great time to get things started and get excited about what's going on. Go with me in your Bibles, because with 110 degrees outside and about 99 inside, we've got to move on this thing. So go with me to 2 Timothy. We're going to find our passage in 2 Timothy. And if this thing keeps doing that, I'm just going to go with the handheld. So a second Timothy is where we're launching out from and our theme this this year is continue continue and Man, it's it's wonderful. I thought it was a great theme and studying this portion of Man I learned some stuff. I was just fascinated by it I have studied the Bible for a long time, but it's amazing just as you dive in again There's just more that from God's Word that reveals through the Spirit some new things and some new truths And I'm hoping tonight that I can share with you Some more of these truths and that'll be something that will be exactly that for you I don't know where you're at tonight. I really don't. I know most of you. I've interacted with a lot of you. But I can shake your hand. I can say, how's it going? I can see a smile or a straight face or a serious face or a crying face. But obviously, the real you, there's a lot of layers between there, right? And so, I don't know where exactly you're at, but my desire is that tonight, I could be an encouragement to you and that God's word can be something that will challenge you. And there is nothing greater to challenge us in our life than God's word. And so, that's the basis. You know God's Word, it's awesome to find out its original context, its original audience, and then to find out how it can be applied to my life today, because even though the book that we're about to read or the portion that we're about to read was written somewhere around 67, 66 AD, which means about 60, 67 years after Christ, that this still, this would be now, so, 4900 and I don't know 40 years later It's still applicable to us, but it's good to know where it started at It's good to know the context because it helps us to understand certain parts of it So here you go with go with me in your mind. We're going back to the year 66 67 there's the Emperor Nero and and this Emperor Nero, he's losing control of his kingdom. There's a lot of bad things happening. He's losing control, and he's a crazy guy. He's an evil guy. He sets the part of the kingdom on fire that was losing control, and he decides that he's going to blame it on the Christians because, hey, you know what? I've got to blame it on somebody. I did this, and now I've got to blame it on somebody. I'm blaming on Christians. So they start persecuting Christians like crazy. I saw just the other day, I saw the movie Paul. Somebody did the movie Paul, and if you haven't seen it, I encourage you to see it. It'll give some background even to this. But they would take Christians, dip them in oil, put them along the walls of the city, and light them on fire. And that's how they would light up the streets at night where Christians dipped in oil, lit on fire. That's what's going on at this time, evil, bad stuff. They would go and they would grab these Christian communities, and they would yank them to a stadium, and they would release them inside of the stadium. And you would say, what were they doing, playing football, playing soccer? No, they were running away from bears and tigers and lions that were being released at the same time. And it was a sport to the people to watch the Christians being slaughtered by these wild animals. And King Nero, that's how he would appease the people, that they were living in misery, but because of his bad kingdom, because of his bad reigning, but he would blame it on the Christians. So one of the leaders of the Christians at this time was a man named Paul, and so they had imprisoned Paul once before, told him to stop preaching. He kept on preaching. They'd release him. He'd keep on preaching. They'd get him again. They'd beat him up. They would whip him. They would stone him. Again, they would release him. He'd keep on preaching. Well this is one of the last times that he gets in prison, and he's sitting in a prison having walked with God for some time, having lived having left the legacy of being a forthright man, an honest man, and a man of integrity, and having left a lot of spiritual children along the way, left people that he had discipled, he had showed, hey, this is what the Bible says. They had believed in God because he had preached to them, and they became to know Jesus Christ as their Savior, and they started to grow. And one of those young men is a man named Timothy. And so in his first imprisonment, he writes one letter that we known as First Timothy to him. And during now this second imprisonment, he writes this second letter. And he knows that Christians. Yeah, we can go. We can go with that. He knows that Christians. He knows that Christians are, man, they're suffering, they're going through a hard time. He's lived it himself, probably worse than any of the Christians at that time, yet he still knows that he wants to do something. God, through His Spirit, moves in him, and he says, you know what, I want to leave some words of encouragement. My time here is not going to be long. So I need to leave some some instructions because God has taught me so much. And so what we find here in Second Timothy is exactly that. And so we're we're in chapter number three. There's only four in Second Timothy. So we're like at the end of the end of the last one of the last letters that that Paul is writing here. And so Paul writes to Timothy and he gives him some instructions about the need for him to keep on sharing the gospel, for him to keep on sharing the good news the same way that he was taught that he would teach others. And he tells him to instruct other people and to show other people the way, the way of Christ. And so there we find that he tells them, look man, I know there's going to be tough times. I know there's going to be school friends that are not going to treat you right. I know it's not going to be easy to stand up for what's right. I know there's going to be some things that are going to be happening in your life. There's going to be this thing invented called the internet. And it's going to present a lot of good things. It's going to present a lot of bad things. Be careful. he doesn't say that but he says look things are coming and you got to be faithful and he says there's there's there's a Difficult times coming, but you got to be faithful and he's kind of exhorting him So got the full picture now, right? I got you. I got you. We're there. We're there This time, the first time he was in prison, he was in a house arrest. He was in his own house. They just had soldiers there. He couldn't go and come as he pleased, but people could come visit him, and he could do that. This second time, they threw him in a deep, dark dungeon. In fact, many of the other Christians that the first time could go and visit him, they didn't even know where he was. I don't know about you, but there's nothing like being isolated, lonely, to really just bring you down spiritually. Paul was in a dark dungeon, isolated, left alone. And yet we don't find a faithless man, we find a faithful man. And he's got something to show us tonight. Here in verses 14 and on. We get the portion where we will be gathering our thoughts from and kind of for the week. But verse 14 is our theme verse, 2 Timothy 3, 14. It says this. It says, But continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned them, and that from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it 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. I want to say, this portion gives us some great insights. When you think about this man, beaten, not able to walk straight, not able to see right. He had a problem with his vision. He's sitting there spending so much time in a dungeon alone. and yet he's giving this type of advice he knows what it's gonna cost Timothy because he's paid the price himself if he continues to believe in God to believe and follow the Messiah believing that the Lord Jesus Christ was a true Savior of the world and the true Son of God and yet he starts that last that first phrase of verse number 14 with that phrase but continue but continue however tonight the title of my message is exactly a little bit different my message tonight is before continue before continue you see because we want to launch off on continue and I feel like maybe there's a generation that needs to start at the before continue that there's a generation that maybe is not where Timothy was right at this moment You see I believe that in order for us to truly get to even continue There needs to be a before continue and I find that in this same portion in the same book of the Bible 2nd Timothy There's three things that I find that I think come before continue and tonight I want to exhort you on a challenge you with these things and And so tonight, if you'll just give me just maybe about 15 minutes of your time, we'll go through these, and I'm going to try my very best for us to be able to understand something that will be a challenge and a help to you tonight. So let's pray and ask for God's direction and God's help. Father, I thank you that by your grace I am behind this pulpit tonight. Father, it is only by your goodness and only by your forgiveness that I can stand here. Father I pray Lord that you would just through your spirit give me the words to speak and that already what your spirit has left sealed in your precious word your unfailing eternal word will be what will guide us tonight give us wisdom and direction in Jesus name I pray amen and amen before continue let's go back to chapter number one and I find here that we find first of all the appeal the appeal is faithfulness the appeal is faithfulness look with me if you will in verse number 5 of 1st Timothy 1 it says this when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you that is in thee which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I am persuaded that it also in you wherefore I put you in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands for God had not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind man what a challenging phrase to start off with he says look man Timothy before continue I'm gonna challenge you I'm going to appeal to you to be faithful. To be faithful. To be a person that has faith. To be a person that is faithful to the faith that you began with. A faithfulness, a faith that was passed on to you generationally. I know here there's a lot of you that have a faith that has been passed on to you generationally. I want to say to you that the appeal tonight, before we continue, is to grab hold of that faith personally. To grab hold of that faith individually. That truly that faith would be your faith. May it be said of us what Paul was saying of Timothy. Look, you're not just a churchgoer because that's what your grandma did or your grandpa did. You're not just a churchgoer because your mom and dad dragged you to church or told you to go to church, but you truly have a faithfulness in your own faith in Jesus Christ. He exhorts him and he appeals to him to be faithful He goes on to say and we don't have time. I don't want to I want to jump ahead But he says this in verse number 13 of that chapter 1 He says hold fast the form of sound words, which thou has heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus It's a very individual appeal, an appeal to faithfulness, to carrying on that faith, to believing in that faith. Can I tell you tonight that there's a generation that needs to see in us, there is a world that needs to, but most of all, there is us who need to have that faith and that faithfulness to that faith. Paul says, look, you gotta hold fast. He uses phrases like that. He uses phrases like, God has not given us a spirit of fear. He uses phrases like, hey, listen, I know that you have an unfeigned, not a fake faith, a real faith. I tell you tonight young person before continue comes a real faith you know why and you know what's so funny is that I've seen I've done 38 you about to be 38 years old 37 and a half and I be what I've seen having grown up here at Bethany Baptist Church having been around the youth group since the time I was about five years old and So that means in those 33, 32 years, I've seen maybe every four years there's a new youth group. So I've seen about eight generations of youth groups that have come through here. And can I say to you that those that do not continue are usually those who never made an appeal to live a faithful faith. Those that never had hold had held claim to that hold fast of the sound doctrine who had not personalized and individualized the faith that they heard about they didn't truly believe and Before continue comes that before we can continue before we can be challenged to continue there needs to be an appeal to faithful faith to saying yes I'm gonna stick with it to this I believe to this I know to this I am convinced you think about the Christians of the time of Paul in this moment in time who because of their faithful witness Today, my son sits somewhere along here. I can't fathom the thought of soldiers coming into here and saying, hey, if you don't renounce your faith, we're going to grab him right now. We're going to take him out. We're going to tie him to the post that's out there. We're going to drip him full of oil. And we're going to light him on fire. And we're going to tie you in front of it so you can watch him burn. That's exactly what was happening. Oh, I can tell you right now, if there is an ounce of doubt in my faith, at that moment I'll be like, okay, I'm done. That's good. Okay, never mind. These these Christians Paul was appealing to even Timothy himself He was saying look you've got to have that realness One of the things that persecution does is it refines faith? It makes all that fake faith go away if you look throughout any place where there is Christian persecution one of the most difficult things here in America is because you can be any religion you want without persecution pretty much in this country and We don't suffer real persecution, so it's hard to judge what's fake and what's not. You say, Mr. John, I do. At my school, they make fun of me for praying. That's not persecution. Brother John, it's because if I don't say a cuss word, if I don't laugh at their jokes, they make fun of me. That's not persecution. It's uncomfortable. It's not fun. That's not persecution. Oh, but here in this generation, what was happening here at this time, that was real persecution. And yet Paul was saying, even in the midst of that, there needs to be a faithfulness to that faith. An authenticity, a grabbing hold, a personalizing to that belief that I have. Can I challenge you tonight, young person? What do you believe? What do you believe? What are you faithful to? I remember back, for a short time, a buddy of mine, he loved the WWF. And sometimes we were in high school and I would go over to his house and he would watch, it used to be called W, now it's WWE, is that what, WWE, right? And there was this guy, I don't remember his name exactly, he was like the money man, millionaire, million dollar man, maybe that's what it was? Anybody remember from that, back in that era? I was like, oh, Jaime remembers, yeah, you had all those, Anyways, this guy, everything, like anybody who was on the opposite side, he would always try and buy them off, right? He would say, what's your price? I'll buy you off. What's your price? You know that the devil is like that million dollar man. What's your price? Is it a new girlfriend? Is it making varsity? Is it having a music career? What's your price? Is it that new truck? Is it prestige? Is it that new purse from the mall? What's your price? What's it gonna take for you to walk away from your faith? For you to stop having faithfulness to your faith? If there is an answer to that question, the devil will provide it on a silver platter. I guarantee you of it. Paul was saying, hey, before we can continue, there needs to be a faithfulness to that faith. But then he comes back and he goes on to say, he says, look, here's the goal, here's the goal. And we're gonna jump ahead to right before the portion that we just read. So go with me to chapter three of 2 Timothy. But let's look at number 12, verse number 12. It says this, yea, and all that will live, what? Let's try it one more time. Yea, and all that will live, what? Godly. In Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Obviously, the original audience here, he meant it in a very direct and real way. He meant it in a, you might get thrown to the lions way. He meant it in a, not you're gonna have to sit alone at the lunchroom way, or you may not have as many friends on a Snapchat way. He meant like, you're gonna suffer, suffer kind of way. But he tells them, this is what I'm asking you. This is the goal. This is the goal. Notice that he says it in the negative context there. He talks about this in regards to the opposite. In the prior verses, he talks about this in verse number five, in chapter number three, verse number five, it says this. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. He's talking about this generation that might rise up, that they're gonna act like they're real Christians, but they're not. They're gonna act as though there's a spiritual aspect and component to their life, but they're really not but then in verse number 12 He says he clarifies, but here's the goal this that is the goal the goal is godliness the goal is godliness and not only in form not only in the way we dress and not only in the way we behave, not a behavior modification, not only in certain mannerisms that we have, not only, but true godliness. That is to say that in our hearts, we pursue Christ. That is to say that we truly In verse number 10 it puts it this way, but thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering charity, patience. It was every aspect of his life. It was in the friends he kept. It was in the music that he listened to. It was in the movies that he watched. It was in his list on Spotify and on Netflix. It was in the Snapchat rooms that he got to, or the chat rooms that he got to, or the conversations that he had on his cell phone, on his iPhone, on his Android. You see, it was in every aspect of his life. That godliness, it was infused. It could not be separated from who he was. It was one and the same. Godliness in him, that was the goal. It was truly, truly the goal in his life. Godliness, righteousness, wholeness. It's amazing to me how we live in a world that puts before us a lots of forms of godliness that deny the power thereof. It's amazing to me, I have a lot of young people that I'll talk with them and they'll come in, hey, did you hear Justin Bieber got saved? Oh man, did you hear so-and-so got saved? Man, this person, oh, that's so awesome. And I'm like, okay, we'll see. I'll keep the news feeds coming, we'll see where their life is at. You see, because true godliness, guys, true, true godliness, it's not something you put on to go to a service. or to a Christian concert. It's not something that you put on and take off. See, true godliness, which is the goal here, which is what we're talking about when we talk about continue, we're talking about here's the goal. The goal is godliness. The goal is authenticity. It's in the manner of life. It's in the doctrine that I know. It's in what I understand of God. Man, how many Christians in this room who claim to be Christians Yet if I asked you to say what are the 66 books of the Bible, you'd be like 66 books of what? You couldn't name half of them. If I asked you. And I put you on a lie detector test, when was the last time you read a verse on your own? That wasn't for a quiz in your Christian school. That wasn't for points. That was because you truly love God and you want to know Him more. Because you love Him so much that He reached down and rescued you from a sure hell. You would have to pause and think when that last time was. I'm talking about a real authenticity that the manner of life, what you understand and know about God, that your purpose of your existence is truly and wholly and completely to put on Christ in you. That is godliness. Can I tell you, can I challenge you tonight? The Word of God tells us time and time again, before continue, there's an appeal to a faithfulness to the faith. There's a goal that is set before us that is godliness and not in form only, not in conforming to, well, it's because at my church, they tell me that I shouldn't do that. You know, Pastor Jeremy, he gets mad if we start using cuss words out there, I better stop doing that. no, that there's a true authenticity to who you are as you are laser focused on godliness in your life growing in godliness taking on and putting off Ephesians has a lot to say and I can't share more about that tonight but the goal is godliness the appeal is to faithfulness I want you to go back with me to chapter number 2 and we'll finish here 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 19 Here in this section of this letter, Paul was trying to tell Timothy about those faithful men and how they needed to be, those faithful approved Christians and how he needed them to look and how they were gonna be. And he said this in verse number 19, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. This is the true test, says here in verse number 19. The Lord, excuse me, the Lord knoweth them that are His. The Lord knoweth them that are His, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. I want to tell you, here we find three things, the appeal to faithfulness, the goal that is godliness, and then we find the result that is closeness, closeness to God. If you ever want to do a measuring stick as to where you stand in your walk with God, measure that. How close is my walk with God? Does he know me? And do I know him to the point that I'm separating from iniquity? That word iniquity means sin, means wickedness. Wickedness in all its shapes and all its forms and all its ways. And the question is tonight, the result of that faithfulness, the result of that goal that is godliness, will be closeness to Him. Closeness to Him. I want to finish with that question tonight. Does God know you? Is that seal on you tonight? Here he says nevertheless the foundation of God stand is sure having this seal the lord knoweth them that are his Tonight you can fool me About whether or not you're a christian you absolutely can you can live in my house my entire life and still fool me about you being a Christian. You can live right next to Pastor Jeremy, or right next to a pastor your entire life, and he can watch you, and he can see you, and you can fool him on whether or not you truly belong to Jesus Christ. But two people you will never fool, God and yourself. You see, that seal is known to God, and it's known to you. You know whether or not there is closeness between you and God. And before continue, there's a faithfulness to a faith. There's a goal that is godliness, and there's a result that is closeness. I want to finish here, 2 Timothy chapter 3, and verse number 14 starts out with that word, but continue, but continue. That word continue doesn't necessarily mean like. I'm walking and then I stop. Continue, I keep walking, right? That's more of. The word I'm running in place. And I keep running in place, I abide, I'm there. I abide, I'm there. I'm steady. I'm steadfast. I'm there. I'm there. I'm abiding. It's the same word we find in John 15 forward. And we'll finish with that passage in John 15, 4. It's amazing when I looked it up and as I studied it, I love to study words, origins of words, where words come from, especially in the New Testament. If you ever get a chance, it's on Google. You can just Google the Greek word or the background for any word in the entire New Testament. It's at the tip of your finger. It's one of the great uses of the internet. There's a lot of bad uses, but that's one of the good ones. I love studying the words. And that same word we find in John 15, 4, it starts out with this word, abide. It's the same word, continue, abide. But here it says this, abide in me and I in you. I told you that the appeal is to faithfulness. The goal is godliness. The result is closeness. For us to continue before continue, there's godliness, there's faithfulness to a faith, there's a closeness that happens as Jesus being the first one that continues. When were you saved, Nick? How old were you? Seven. So at seven years of age, Jesus Christ came into Nick's life and he's there. And he's abiding, he's continuing. And throughout the rest of these nights, I'm gonna encourage Nick on how he can continue in Christ. But tonight, before continue comes, is that Christ in you? Is there that godliness in you? Is there that journey? Is there that process? For me, it started when I was 12 years old. And there was that process that started in me. For you, I don't know. I can remember for me, it was an August evening. I can remember exactly where it was. I can remember the occasion. I can remember the place. It was next to my dad's desk. It was right there in his office. And I remember that place, the occasion. But what about you? Do you remember when that godliness began in you? Do you remember when that faith became your own individual faith? in that first phrase of verse number 14 here where it says, but continue thou. It's an individual commandment. And tonight, it's a very individual question. Do you know that Christ? Does that Christ abide, continue, live? Is he steady in your life? Can you put your finger on a calendar, or at least put your finger on a memory, on an occasion when that became a reality in your life? Because if not, all that we'll study Monday through Wednesday, it'll be a challenge to you, but it won't be real to you unless there's that moment, unless there's been that occasion, unless there's been that realness in you to having started that journey of closeness to God through His Son, Jesus Christ. The goal is godliness, the appeal is to faithfulness, the result is closeness. Can I challenge you tonight, young people? Can I challenge you before we continue? There is that challenge of godliness and faithfulness. Let's pray.