I want to call your attention to 2 Timothy chapter 2 this morning. 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2, I want you to begin reading in verse 1. We'll read down through verse 7. Paul is writing to Timothy, his young protege in the faith, really his swan song. This is Paul's last letter. And he's giving Timothy some last minute instructions as a disciple of Christ and as a preacher of the gospel. And he says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. The husband that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." Father, bless the preaching of Your Word now in Jesus' name. Amen. Paul is challenging Timothy to be strong in the fight of faith. He reminded him in chapter 1 not to be fearful. Don't have the spirit of fear, but steer up the gift of God which is given to you. He mentions a couple of deserters, Phagellus and Hermogenes, of a challenge not to quit. Then he mentions Onesiphorus as a great example of a servant. He says, he oft refreshed us. Wouldn't you like to be known to be a person that oft refreshed us? Just when you're around him. I guess Onesiphorus was the kind of guy, when you were around him, you got a charge, you got refreshed. Then he says in 2 Timothy 2 verse 7, consider what I say. The word consider means to exercise your mind, to really think about what I have just said, to understand it. I think one of the problems of today in our fast-paced culture is that we hear a lot of things, we get a lot of information, but we don't spend a lot of time thinking, really understanding what we've just heard. Maybe you come to chapel, you go to class, or you come to church service, and you hear a message, God stirs your heart, but you maybe lose it when you go out. We need to consider some things. Paul says here, take some time, Timothy, I want you to hear what I'm saying. I want you to consider some things. And so I want to look this morning at some things that we need to consider as disciples of Jesus Christ from this passage. Number one, we need to consider the strategic nature of a disciple. Strategic, the critical, the very important nature of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. He says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who should be able to teach others also." As a Christian, God has you in a place where you can be and need to be a link in a great chain of influence for Jesus Christ. I don't know if you've ever thought about much why you were born where you were born. Acts chapter 17 verse 26, when Paul is preaching there, he says that God has set the bounds of our habitation. Well, that verse hit me one day, it said, you know, why was I born? I mean, I was serving, at that particular time, we were in Sudan, Africa, in a Muslim country that had just separated from the north and the south, and I thought, you know, what if I was born here without any chance of ever hearing the gospel, or born into tribalism? But I wasn't. I was born in southern Missouri, and I was born in a Christian home, and God placed me there, and I think He'll hold us responsible for where He placed us, for the gifts He's given us, but God has us in this strategic place. Each one of you students, you come from all over the world. God has you here to train so that you might go out to be used of Him. We're in a great sphere of influence, a strategic nature of the disciple, whether you're in a position of leadership in your school or position of leadership in your home. As men, we lead our families. As church leaders, we lead. God has placed us there, and that is a very critical, very important nature of that. He says that we need to be strong, and our strength is grounded in the grace of God. The same grace that saves us enables us to serve Him. Paul said in I Corinthians 15, 10, But by the grace of God I am what I am. And he says, And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Three times in that verse he talks about grace. He says, I am what I am by the grace of God. Aren't you glad for the saving grace of Jesus Christ today? Aren't you glad that salvation is not by works, it's by grace alone? That God in His grace reaches down and offers us salvation. I'm so glad that God saved me. As I said, I grew up in a Christian home, but I wasn't saved. I grew up and I made a profession. Actually, I was baptized as a child on January 17th. I know it was this day because it was my sister's birthday. When I was an eight-year-old child, I said yes to a couple questions a preacher asked me, and I was in, and nothing else was said. But as I got older, I knew that nothing really had happened. and God took me overseas in the military and a missionary to the military. Well, actually, my wife got saved first, and then she said, oh, you need to get saved. And I said, oh, I'm saved. She said, no, you don't have what I got. And so, but a little bit later after that, I got saved. But I'm so glad for the grace of God this morning. And he goes on, he says, and his grace which was bestowed upon me is not in vain. You know, I don't want God's grace to be bestowed upon me in vain. God has given us grace in salvation. He gives us grace to serve him. He gives us grace in sustaining. He'll give us grace when it comes time to die for him. God's grace is awesome. It's like John Newton said, it's amazing grace. And Paul said, Timothy, be strong in this grace of God. Now this grace enables us to do what God has told us to do. like the things mentioned in this passage. This is really Paul restating the Great Commission in chapter 2, verse 2. Teach others also the things that thou hast heard. So you hear messages, you hear classes, you read the Bible, you are learning, you're in a time in your life, students, where you're learning And you're deep into the things of God, and that's a great thing. But he says, the things of God, the things that you have heard, commit to faithful men. That is, other people who are saved and growing in the Lord. Now, I've learned over the years, you may have to lead one or two people, maybe ten people to Christ to get a faithful man. But you just keep going until you get a faithful person where you can pour into your life what's being poured into theirs. You've had it poured into your life by someone, now they're pouring it into you. I'm thankful for a pastor, a missionary pastor in that young, when I was a young Christian who had come over to our house and sat with Karen and I and teach us the Word of God. I know it wasn't easy for him because I was stubborn and hard-nosed and all this, but he taught us the Word of God. He spent time with us. He poured into what had been poured into him, poured it into us. Not only his life and the teachings, but his own life. And so that's what we're to do. And we do it by grace. Who shall be able to teach others also? So do you see the chain here? I teach you, or these instructors, these people that have poured into your life, your parents, and all those who are pouring into your life now, they teach you, and you teach someone else, and then they'll teach someone else. And this is multiplication. This is how we reach the world with the gospel of Christ. If we would just do what God tells us to do, and win people to Christ, disciple them, teach them to win people to Christ, and disciple them, then we could win this world for Jesus Christ. Listen, God hasn't given us a command that's not possible. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and He has not rescinded His orders. We're still under the order, over 7 billion people on planet Earth, and we still have the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So we're here not just to constantly take in. We're here to be giving out the truth and reproducing ourselves in others. By the way, I love preaching. I'm thankful for a school like this that keeps the pulpit hot and preaching is tremendous. Young men are being trained to be preachers, but I'm going to tell you something. It's not just preaching. You've got to spend time with people. Jesus Christ took the disciples and he was with them. It's witness and it's withness also. He took them and spent time with them one-on-one, pouring his life into them. So, consider the strategic nature of a disciple. Number two, consider the strenuous nature of a disciple. Verses three through six, Paul talks about three different type of people, a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. You see, the Christian life is incompatible with laziness. But as you men and women that are going out into the ministry, you need to be self-disciplined. Listen, if all you learn at Bible College is how to be self-disciplined, that's a great thing. Because when you get out on your own, you're a pastor in a church, maybe nobody might wake you up and send you to the office or get you in the book and study and visit and things that you have to do. Someone said, couch potatoes and lovers of ease are foreign to the high calling and high privilege of the Christian life. So true. And Paul uses, here he uses a soldier, a farmer, a runner. He uses a slave many times. He uses a boxer at other times. All these are strenuous. So there's a strenuous nature to being a disciple. And obviously, there's a contemplative side of Christianity. There's a need for quiet time. There's a need for you being alone with God, spending time with Him, and meditating on the things of God. But there is this strenuous nature. Paul emphasizes this with Timothy, mentioning three different professions. First of all, A soldier, verse 3, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. The word woreth, that's a, we're at war. The day you got saved, you, you know, I have a friend that leads people to Christ in the prison. He hands them a King James Bible and says, welcome to the war. Because we're in war and it's a strenuous thing. A life of a soldier is rigorous. It's a disciplined life. Whether a soldier's on parade or on guard or on the battleship or on furlougher, he's always a soldier. And to be a good soldier, Jesus Christ, involves courage, involves commitment, involves sacrifice. So a soldier, then he uses an athlete, verse 5. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. to strive. Paul's thinking here of the Greek games, which were very popular in his day, and they're even more popular today. The Olympic Games and sports. Like a soldier, dedication and hard work is needed and it's required. Anyone who ever participated in sports knows that in order to win, you can't hang out with a Big Mac at McDonald's. You've got to get on the field, you've got to get in the gym, you've got to work out, you've got to be disciplined. So there's that strenuous nature brought out again. And then a farmer, verse 6, the husbandman that laboreth, that's a farmer, that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. Farming is hard work now, it was hard work then. It involves early and long hours, constant toil, plowing, sowing, watering, weeding, reaping, storing. There's disappointments. There's too much rain, not enough rain, pests, all these kind of things. And then there's patience. So you get the idea that the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an easy life. It's not a life of ease. And we need to consider that. We need to consider that. If you're trying to get into the ministry for an easy way out, you need to go get a job. Because the ministry is going to be hard work. If you're going to do it good and you're going to do it for the glory of God, it's hard work. And it's through the grace of God, like Paul said, it's not me, it's the grace of God through me. But I want to tell you, it requires discipline. Acts chapter 13 too, when the missionaries were sent out of Antioch, he says, separate me, Paul and Barnabas, for the work whereunto I've called you to. Number three, consider the sacrificial nature of a disciple. There are some things that must be put up with as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Notice he says in verse three, endure hardness. There are things in this life that we must endure, at times hard things. When I was saved 40 years ago, I didn't know that we would be facing things in America that we're facing now, very difficult things. dark things. People come to Christ with multiple, used to say baggage, now we say cargo, you know. And there's preachers falling out of the ministry. These things are hard and it's endure hardness. Paul was in prison when he's writing this. He knew the hardness. He explained some of his trials in Second Corinthians chapter 11. Let's just go there. Second Corinthians 11. Verse 23. He says, Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I've been in the deep, in journeyings often. and perils of water, and perils of robbers, and perils by mine own countrymen, and perils by the heathen, and perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." Wow. You know, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, earlier on, he talked about, he said, but this light affliction, this is his definition of light affliction. That didn't sound too light to me. But here's the guy that's saying, hey, Timothy, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. There are some hard things that we must endure. When David Livingston opened up the interior of Africa, he sent word back after he had established some missions, he had sent word back to Scotland to try to raise up some missionaries. And somebody asked him, sent word back and says, they want to know what the roads are like there. And Livingston says, if you have men who will only come if they know if it's a good road, I don't want them. He says, I want men who will come when there's no road at all. Endure hardness. I know when we were in Sudan, people say, what side of the road do you drive on there? I said, the best side. You know, sometimes I had to make roads. But listen, there's a hardness that must be endured for Jesus Christ. We must remember we're not in peace. We're in war. We're in battle. We are the soldier in God's army. There's some things that must be avoided. He says, verse four, no man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. As a soldier, there must be some things that must be avoided. Things that in civilian life would hinder you from doing a good job on the battlefield. In Deuteronomy chapter 20, let me just read you some verses. You might want to write this down. Deuteronomy 20 verse 5 through 8. There was instruction given to the young men by the officers that were going out to war. He said this in Deuteronomy 20, verse 5, And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, Which man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? Let him go, and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? Let him also go and return into his house, lest he die in battle and another man eat of it. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, hath not taken her? Let him go home and return into his house, lest he die in battle and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return into his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart." You see, there are some things as a soldier that must be avoided. you're going to do a good job on the battlefield. When I was in the military and I was with a deployment unit at one time, we had to make sure all of our affairs were in order back home before we deployed. Why? Well, if I'm in a deployed location, I can't have my wife call, hey, where's that insurance card at? No, no, no, you can't be tangled with the affairs of this life if you're gonna soldier as a good soldier. And likewise, Jesus said, hey, if you're gonna, and Paul said, if you're gonna soldier as a good disciple of Jesus Christ, you cannot be entangled with the affairs of this life. There's certain things we must give up. certain things, certain interests, maybe certain habits, maybe certain amusements or certain friends that you have that are holding you back from being all you can be for God. You students have set apart your life to come to Bible College, but maybe there's someone back home kind of pulling you back. Maybe someone just saying, you know, okay, you kind of get that over, you get that out of your system and, and, you know, you come back home to real life. No, no, no. You know, they're holding you back from being all you can be with Jesus Christ. I don't even know any of you, but I do know that there's always a battle of, of something getting in our way from letting us all go all out for Jesus Christ. Well, if we're going to soldier good, we can't have anything that would entangle us. Anything that would keep us from being the best we can be from the Lord must be sacrificed and avoided. And then he says there must be some things that must be avoided. He says to be obeyed, to strive lawfully, he says to the runner in verse 5. An athlete can't do as he pleases and expect to win. In all sports and all events there's rules and you've got to keep the rules if you're going to win. You may be a good runner but if you don't run by the rules you won't win. 1989, the third day of 1989, I shipped out to South Korea, would be there for 18 months. But in 1988, the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, the summer had just happened. When that 1988 Olympics, there was a sprinter, Ben Johnson from Canada. You Google him. He was amazing. Ben Johnson that year set the world record for the 100 meter, 9.79 seconds. and took the gold medal for Canada. Three days later, they took the medal from him because he had tested for steroids. You see, he didn't strive lawfully. He was a good runner, but he didn't do it according to the book. You couldn't do that and win and be a competitor. And he had cheated. You see, that's just one example. Listen, we've got a book. We've got to go by the rules if we're going to win. If we're going to win for Christ, we're going to do for Christ, we've got a book that we have to go by. There are some rules and some things that must be obeyed. So there is a strategic nature. There's a strenuous nature, a sacrificial nature. And then lastly, we need to consider the satisfying nature of a disciple. Verses four through six, he talks about the soldier or the one being crowned, the runner being crowned there. Look at verse chapter 5. So there's that crown in verse 5. The Bible makes it clear that there are crowns that we win for our labors. We strive lawfully. We do it for God's glory and not our own. There's crowns that we'll win for the Lord. is a rewarder of those who serve him. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 10, For God is not unfaithful, unrighteous, to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered and do minister. You see, God will give us our crowns and the way I understand it in Revelation chapter 4, here we are with the great multitude before the throne of God and we are casting our crowns to him because really it's only through him that we did anything. And so we say, yes, thank you, Lord, for the crown, but thou art worthy to receive all honor and glory. And so there's that crown. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Then a partaker of the fruits. I like this one, verse six, where he says, the husband that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. This means that we get to enjoy some of the enrichment from our labors right now. I love when that happens. I understand that it's not the end of the meeting or the end of the service, but the end of the age when we receive the full benefit of our reward. But there are some people along the line that we get to receive and we get to enjoy the fruit, you might say, of their growth, their salvation. This past year, I got the privilege of seeing the first that I know of, the first Jewish person saved in our ministry. Man had been attending our church for quite some time and Dwight Smith came out and did a revival. And one night when Brother Dwight preached, this young man, Daniel, came down the aisle. I said, this is it, man. We've been praying for this guy. And I took, I stepped over here, Brother Smith, for giving the invitation. I stepped over here and I took Daniel by the hand and he said, can I receive Jesus if I don't believe he's God? And I said, Daniel, that's not the Jesus of the Bible. So then Brother Dwight, I said, hey, he wants to spend some time with you. So Brother Dwight spent three or four hours with him that night, and then he called me late, and he said, he didn't get saved. I'm like, well, good, I get to lead him to Christ. But anyway, so a little bit late, a few months later, he got saved, praise God. He got in, and one of the first ones I called was Brother Dwight, and I said, Daniel got saved. I got to baptize him. He's walking with the Lord. That's some fruit. A farmer must be first partaker of the fruits. I could tell you about some others. I could tell you about a young lady by the name of Frankie, about six years ago, that walked in our church, and boy, first time she heard me preach, she got mad and told her friend, I'm never coming back. I don't know what I said, something about Catholicism. I don't even hardly ever say anything about that, but I did that day. And that's the only religion she had, and she got mad. Her friend said, I'll buy you a coffee if you come again. So she came the next Sunday, she got saved. And man, she was messed up, but I'm gonna tell you, she's a trophy of God's grace. We've been able to see her grow in Christ. Brother Dwight's writing, he's doing a testimony for one of his tracts that he uses. Just a trophy of God's grace, someone that, you're the farmer, you're the laborer, man, you're sowing the seed, you're harvesting, and you're planting a lot of seed that you don't know, you gotta wait till the end of the age to find out, but sometimes God lets you eat that fruit then. And that's part of our rewards, praise God for that. And then, verse 4, he talks about pleasing Him. I think that's the greatest reward of all, knowing that we pleased our Lord. Just knowing that we'll stand before Him and hearing Him say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. I grew up in southern Missouri and I played football and I was the center. I thought, well, I get to hold the ball every play, so I liked doing that. For four years, I faced this one kid in Ozark, Missouri. He was the nose guard. And for three years, he whipped me. I mean, he beat me all over that field. In my senior year, all I did was train to beat that guy in Ozark. Me and the nose guard, we had it going, you know, me and our team. And we trained to beat that guy. And when we played Ozark that night, my senior year, I turned that guy everything but loose. I was on him like ugly on an ape, man. I mean, I was all over that guy. And I whooped him. I mean, we won. I was opening holes for the backs. I mean, it was great. I mean, it was a great game. It's my best game I've ever played. I thought so anyway. And then in the locker room, after the game, we'd won big and everybody's happy. My coach walks in, and now my coach was a guy to be feared. He was an all-American college player, and you didn't want to make him mad or anything like that. But he comes walking in the locker room with that stern look on his face, and he walked right to me. And he said, Dennis, that's the best game you ever played. Well, that was all I needed. See, I'd pleased the coach. My friend, one day we're going to stand before Jesus. Oh how I want to hear, well done thou good and faithful servant. That I did it for his glory, not mine. That I did everything I've done for his glory, not mine. That I served him with his power, not mine. Just to hear him say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you for the privilege to stand and preach. Lord, I know even preaching how you spoke to my heart about being a servant of Jesus. Today, Lord, I don't know anyone really here, but you know every heart and you've spoken to hearts. And so I pray that you would do the work that only you can do in each life. Lord, there may be someone here that's not even a disciple of Jesus. Maybe they were like me, they were a lost church member for many years, but Lord, please help that person to get saved. God, help them to surrender. And then there's others that maybe they've got something in their life that they need to get rid of so that they can be all in for you. Have your will and way in this invitation time. In Jesus' name, amen.