2 Timothy chapter 4. Thank you for being here. Getting that time of the year where you start smelling turkey two weeks before it's here. and you get in that kind of a tryptophan related mode where you kind of get sleepy, you know, kind of get spiritually, kind of get numb around the time of the holidays and stuff like that, and give you some things for you to consider. It's a great time of year, and I'm not going to preach to you about Thanksgiving today, but there's a mindset, and I think it should permeate Christianity as a whole, that every single day when you wake up, the first thing you should do is try to find something to thank the Lord for. You know, griping and complaining can become habitual, but I've never seen gratitude become habitual. I've never seen in the few people I've talked to when it comes to marriage and things like that and had a couple of conversations along those way. I've never had any one of the two individuals, the man or the woman, that's what a marriage is, man and a woman, opposite sex coming together. I've never had one of them come in and say, you know, preacher, I just really got a complaint. My husband thanks me way too often. Every time I turn around, he's just so grateful for every little thing I do. It's just driving me insane, and I wish you'd tell him to shut up, you know? And I've never had the husband say about the wife, you know, well, Preacher, she's just grateful for everything. How come the men laugh more than the women there? Stay at it, boys. You'll get it right sooner or later. You're a repeat offender. You say, how long do I stay with it? Till you're dead. And then you can rest in peace and know you finally got it right. But think about this for a minute. Think about it just for a moment. Have you ever paused for a minute to realize that part of our nature is to complain almost as if God has dealt you a bad hand? I mean, doesn't that tend to, generally speaking, isn't that what gets blown up in our lives? It's whatever's going on that's wrong? I bet you if I were to preach on, be careful for nothing but in everything, give thanks to the Lord, I bet if I were to preach that today and say, look back a year ago and tell me how many of those things that you thought were life-changing and life-ending, how many of those things are no longer even a blip on the radar screen, I bet you that some of you couldn't even remember what those things were. But at the time, they were major events. I'd like to title this, it's a common thing, it's been preached on a lot of times, most preachers preach on this, and you're probably thinking that I'm gonna go ahead and preach on the first five or six verses there, but I'm not. I'm gonna preach on a message of what a way to go. The Apostle Paul will be my illustration here or my example and there's some things here that I admire about the Apostle Paul. He gives a charge there to Timothy there in 2 Timothy chapter number 4 and tells him to preach the word and we'll talk about that in a second. And then he talks about the doctrine going away just like he mentions over in chapter 3. And then notice what he says in verse number 5. But watch thou in all things. endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Pretty confident Paul is, pretty bold, pretty sure of himself. But what a way to go to know I've done what God wanted me to do and I'm ready to lay my head down for the final time, or in this case, get my head cut off. What a blessing to know I've done everything God wanted me to do. I'm ready to be offered. I'd like to say this, being ready to be offered, ladies and gentlemen, had nothing to do with Paul's salvation. That's step number one. But Paul said, after my salvation I did what God would have me to do. That's what we're going to talk about today. Henceforth is laid up a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous does shall give me at that day, judgment seat of Christ, and not to me only. but unto all them also that love his appearance. Do thy diligence, come shortly unto me. Later, he says, before winter. Verse number 10, why? For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, the Cretans to Galatia, and Titus unto Dalmatia. Brother Larry, you pray. Ask the Lord, would you please? I thank you, Lord, that we've learned the importance of the soil preparation and being good for a good planting, a good seed, which is the word of God. We thank you for that. I pray this morning, God, you might help us that our ears, our mind, our upper heart might be clear to the point of being a good builder this morning as you have prepared your preacher to give us another message. And we realize, Lord, that we, our hearts, my individually, personally, Lord, that our hearts have to be prepared to hear the word. So I ask for that this morning. I ask for a clean filter. I ask for us to be able, our ear gates to be open in a manner that we might hear the word correctly and not try to rebuke it or refuse it. I ask you for help with that this morning. I ask for the mic for our preacher to preach. I thank you for his help, spiritually and physically, God, for him to be able to mount the pulpit and give us the word of God. I thank you for his desire to dig into the word of God, to give us some good spiritual food, that that will sustain us for the days ahead and even this evening, God, whatever our walk may be. We thank you for this place. We thank you for the pulpit. We thank you for the preacher. I pray, God, you'd empower him to preach. May your word have free course. I pray you'd help him in Jesus Christ's name. Amen, thank you, you can have a seat. I have been thinking along the lines of this passage, if it were my time to be absent from the body and present from the Lord, would I say like Paul, I finished my course, I kept the faith, I've done what God wanted me to do. I wanna finish first and foremost the way God wants me to finish. The older I get, the more I recognize, the more I realize that the idea of finishing begins to be something that a lot of people take for granted. They just assume they're going to finish the right way because they're just going to keep doing, and they don't take time to recognize all the opposition, the things that can happen along the way. I know Moses was concerned about how he finished, and we preached about that before. I know Elijah finished in a whirlwind, caught up there in a chariot by the Lord. I know my dad said to me that when it came time for him to pass away, he said, son, you need to remember that all they're going to remember about you is how you finish. I know the old preacher was concerned about how he finished. I know he was concerned because Bob Jones Sr. being one of his mentors or one of the individuals that he followed after closely, he said, I remember Bob Jones Sr. as he got older, he lost his mind, he had dementia, and he said things and did things that were not normal for him to do. And oftentimes they'd find him if he escaped out of the bedroom or out of the hospital room, walking around with an empty suitcase saying, I got a train to catch, I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go. He feared finishing and all they remember is the mess he made right at the very end. I don't want to make that mess. I can't guarantee that I won't make that mess. I feel like if I don't follow in the steps of Paul, and he's our mentor, he's the one we follow. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. But I think what a blessing it might be to put your head on the pillow every night and say, I finished my course. If tonight's the night, I'm ready to go. I'm not talking about your salvation now. I'm talking about after you're saved. I say that if you're ready to go, then you're probably living the kind of life that seems to show that you're ready to go. I don't know that you're ready to go if you're not ready to hit the judgment seat of Christ. Look, if you will, please, in 2 Corinthians chapter number 5. Again, not preaching lordship salvation. I'm not trying to convince you that if you're not living it, you're not. I don't believe that. I believe that once you get saved, even if you got saved early in life and you haven't lived for the Lord, I believe your soul is still saved. I believe that if we're not careful along the way, that as the fruit begins to season and over time, if you're not careful, once you hit that period of ripeness in your life, to take advantage of that, that before long, you can go from ripe to rotten very quickly. Before long, what'll happen to you is you get caught up in the mundane, the routine, the average, the everyday, and then before long, it just becomes something that you do instead of no longer what you are. And I dare say that sooner or later, if the rapture doesn't happen, that deathbeds are coming in the direction of every one of us here, even the youngest. We're guaranteed that not all of us are going to make it to the rapture. Some of us are going to die prior to then. When is the rapture going to be? If I knew, I honestly, I would tell you. And the reason is, is I would see a flourishing of individuals who if you knew the date of the rapture, if you knew when that was going to happen, you would change what you're doing right now. Not for all of you. All of you are like, I wouldn't change nothing, preacher. I'd be like Martin Luther. He said, if the Lord was to come back tomorrow, what would I do? I'd go plow my taters because he was in the perfect will of God. But can I say this? At least some of us would say, you know what? If I knew the Lord was coming in the next week or two, I probably should make some adjustments. Let me ask you just a couple of things. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, look in verse number 17. There should be a change that we're saved. In other words, there should be a testimony to other people that what we used to be doesn't exist any longer. Now, I got saved in church and I was only seven years of age when I got saved, so you might not notice as big a change in somebody like me as maybe in somebody like you. But the Apostle Paul said this after he got saved, late in life, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. I not only think that our destiny changes, or shall I say the destination changes, where we're headed, but the way that we are right now toward the things of the world. Would you agree with me using D's? Our disposition toward the things of the world should change? I mean, should we continue to have worldly thoughts? Listen, I'm just preparing for the judgment seat, okay? This is church, we're going to talk about Bible. This is not a politically correct sermon. I'm saying if God is our judge, do you think He's going to judge us as to whether or not we were politically correct with the rest of the world, and if the rest of the world agreed with our politics, or our preferences, or our prejudices, or whatever it might be, we're just going to look at this the way God looks at this. And Paul says to you very clearly, all things, the old man should be passed away and all things should become new. The desires I had, the things that I want to do because my destination has now changed, I need to change like I'm going in a different direction. Before I was going to hell, after I finished my earthly life down here, now I'm going to heaven. The preparation is not just the saving of my soul, but can I say this? How about my outer garment that we talked about in Sunday school? How about that I want to be clothed with the righteousness of the saints? How about that if we consider that I've now had what we will refer to as repentance? Listen, repentance simply means a change of mind. There should be an evidence in your life, in my opinion, that you're saved. Not proof that you're saved. But the old desires over a period of time, if you're feeding the right dog, guess what happens? Those old things that used to trip your trigger, that used to get it, shouldn't just be age that takes that away. It should be replacing the food source. It should be replacing or changing the channel. It should be changing your disposition toward the way that the world sees you and what the world thinks, because why? I'm now an ambassador for Christ. I've now been saved. I'm born again. The world is not my home. I'm just passing through the devil. I mean, there's a place laid up somewhere beyond the blue. However that song goes, can I say this to you? That oftentimes, after we get saved, there's very little change. But even more importantly, after we've been saved a long time, there's not a whole lot of change. Now I don't know about you, I can only speak for myself. I can only tell you what the Bible clearly says. The Apostle Paul was instructed in all things, actually trained at the feet of Gamaliel. He actually knows what the law and so on and so forth is. And the Bible's right. The Bible says the Apostle Paul lived above the law blameless. But Paul said, I need to let those old things pass away. I got to put on the new man. I don't know about you, but I think that my mindset towards certain things should change. You live in the day and time of compromise. You live in the day and time of, let's just make peace with everybody. We don't want to have conflict. We don't want to have controversy. We just kind of just kind of want to float through life. What happened to that pioneering spirit that you once had that separated you just because you were saved? Now I'm saved, but I still want to fit in. I don't know that I can be ready to meet the Lord to go up and get caught up at the rapture or at death if my attitude toward the things, my disposition toward the things, the direction of my life hasn't changed. If I turned around and changed the direction to accept Jesus Christ and then after that I turned back around and went back into the ways of the world. There are people that are not far from here, you know what they say, well you were never saved. That's not true, I don't believe that. I believe if that's the case then 80% of the church is probably not saved because there hasn't been that much change in your life. Especially lately. Paul said there's some things I need to work on and it wasn't outer stuff. PAUL NEEDED TO WORK ON THINGS THAT CAME FROM THE INSIDE, AND A DESIRE AT TIMES TO DO WHAT HE WANTED TO DO AS OPPOSED TO WHAT GOD WANTED TO DO. I'M JUST SAYING TO YOU, ARE YOU NOW READY TO BE OFFERED? CAN YOU LAY YOUR HEAD DOWN TONIGHT AND GO, YEAH, I'M GOOD, TODAY'S THE DAY, I GET HAULED OUT OF HERE, MAN, WHAT A BLESSING. INSTEAD, HERE'S WHAT WE GENERALLY DO. PREACHER, I DREAD THE JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST. I MEAN, I'M AFRAID I'M GOING TO GET MY BRITCHES TORE UP, OKAY? IF THAT'S THE CASE, WHY NO CHANGE? If that is a true statement, or is that how we just kind of kick the can down the road? We just move it down the road a little bit. Well, I mean, I know, preacher, but let's not get fanatical about this. Let's don't get too carried away, preacher. We've got a long time to go. I have a list a mile long of individuals that died at an untimely time. And here's the thing, we get to thinking, because we're alive today, that we're going to be alive tomorrow. But none of us know if there's a ticking time bomb. And the illustrations, there's all kinds of illustrations of people's lives who were cut short just like that. You don't know when that's going to happen. I would like to say that maybe a directional change might be good. Why? The Apostle Paul was on that crooked path and going down there and destroying Christians. But after he got knocked off of his beast there, got down in the dirt, and the Lord blinded him, the Lord had him taken by a little boy, interestingly, to a street called what? Called what? I would almost indicate that the Lord's trying to send you something. I mean it's time that we're not so crooked that you can screw our socks on when we die. That we're so crooked we could fall through a barrel of fish hooks and come out unscathed. Or as my friend used to say, we're as crooked as a pile of coat hangers. At some point in time, shouldn't there be some idea of where I'm going, what I'm doing, some solidity to that, something solid, something you can sink your teeth in, a firm foundation, which is Jesus Christ and where you began. And shouldn't I go on that narrow path instead of that wide path? Why is it we desire to go back to that broad path so badly? IF IT IS NOT THE FACT THAT WE'RE LOOKING INTO THE DISTANCE AND THINKING HOW IS THIS GOING TO COME OUT AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST? AM I GOING TO BE PLEASING TO THE LORD? YOU KNOW YOU CAN BE PLEASING TO PEOPLE HERE, BUT DISPLEASING TO THE LORD THERE. THEY TAUGHT US SOMETHING YEARS AND YEARS AGO. MY PAWPAW TAUGHT ME, AND I DIDN'T REALIZE THE LESSON, BUT THEY TAUGHT ME THAT YOUR HEAD AND EYES CONTROL THE REST OF YOUR BODY. IF YOU'RE TAKING A MOTORCYCLE CLASS AND THOSE KIND OF THINGS, THEY TEACH YOU IF YOU LOOK DOWN YOU GO DOWN. I find that a lot of Christians nowadays haven't changed their view. They're still looking on the earth in this manner. They've not looked up in quite some time, or they haven't viewed things from his perspective. And can I say this? Oftentimes trouble, tragedy comes our way, despair, discouragement comes our way, and we tend to look down. And then it's not long before we find the justification we're looking for to go down. They taught us that if you keep your eye on where you're going, the rest of you will follow. Paul said, I keep my eyes on the author and the finisher of my faith. I press toward the mark and the high calling of God. Why? Paul is looking out into the distance. Paul's making his mind up. He's deciding at this point, I'm ready to be offered. Why? Because when the Lord said change, I changed. When the Lord said don't, I did. Remember this, Paul's not a wicked, ungodly, horrible sinner and that kind of a thing. Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee of Pharisees, above the law, blameless, was doing exactly what he felt God wanted him to do. He was a religious zealot sold out to his beliefs. And when the Lord knocked him off of his horse there, or off of his beast there, the Lord said to him, Hey, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he said, Lord, what would thou have me to do? He said, the first thing I'm going to do is give you some schooling. I'm going to send you down to a street called Strait, Paul, because you think you're on a straight and narrow, but you're all over the place. things from God's perspective when it comes to that. And understanding that people actually ought to be able to see by our choices and by our direction, by the places we go, the things we do, that's all that they understand. Does that make sense to you? Most people are not going to read the Bible. Lost people, you can quote John 3.16, or John 11.35, or Romans chapter 3, or Romans chapter 9, or Romans chapter 10, or Revelation 22, or Isaiah 53, all the salvation verses in there. They're lost people. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for they're spiritually discerned. Neither can he know them, but you know what he can do? He can look at you and go, what's different about you? We're going to Hooters, why aren't you going? I don't even know, is that still a place anymore, I guess? I don't have any idea. We're going to the bar, why aren't you going? We're going to the rock and roll show, why aren't you going? We're going to the place where there are things going on there that we shouldn't. No, the fact that you're absent from that, don't you believe people can see that? Why? You're a human being, they're a human being. They don't understand God, but they can understand you and go, well, why are you doing that? Well, because I don't believe the Lord would be pleased with me. Somebody is running my life other than me. I make choices according to that. Should that not be so? If we're an ambassador for him, I wonder whether or not they can tell what king we represent. You live in a carnal world. It's found in chapter 3 of Timothy. We won't go there. But that carnal world in the last days is all the things that are going on in the church because the world has slipped in. But listen, it can only creep in one Christian at a time. We have control over that through the power of the Holy Spirit. But guess what happens? Sometimes we just don't want to make that change. We're too much of a chameleon. We can be good at church, but then it's kind of like, well, in comes the justification. And as one fellow said to me at the break today, he said, preacher, how am I supposed to know? And I gave him a couple of examples. And he said, oh no, if I did that, my conscience would bother me, the Lord would get on to me. I said, well, there you go. But sometimes our conscience can get so sophisticated. Then all of a sudden we can become disobedient to God's word but there's a justification for doing it. I don't know what that line is for you. You say, who am I accountable for? Me. I'm responsible to tell you what the Bible says and then you set it the way you want to set it. Giving assurance to know you're going to give an answer at the judgment seat of Christ. Everybody in here. Every man will give an answer for the work done in the body whether it be good or evil. So we're all gonna have perfect accountability. You don't need to worry about whether other individuals are gonna be held accountable. You need to be worried about yourself being held accountable. The chameleon idea, the mindset nowadays is not something that'll make you ready to be offered. Because if you realize you're fixing to step from this life to the next, and you know you're fixing to have to give account, I'd be willing to say that you may not be ready to go. You're saved, but wouldn't it be better to go and be in fellowship with the Lord? Secondly, would you turn to 2 Corinthians 5, look in verse number 20. Paul says this, he said, now we are ambassadors for Christ. And though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to. You know, we have a responsibility, there's a calling upon each of us to tell others. I found this, I found a good way for me to prevent gossip in my life is to start witnessing to other people. It's strange when I'm witnessing to other people the thought or the idea of the people I want to gossip about. And by the way, I never gossip about people I like. And you don't either. Oftentimes gossip is simply a justification for us doing something that we're under conviction about. and we gossip until we resolve it in our mind that well it's really okay. But Paul said you're an ambassador for Christ. Can I ask you this? We have a responsibility to preach Jesus. Peter really got a change in Acts chapter number 5. We won't turn there in the interest of time, but Peter came out After all the things that he went through and the denial and the betrayal and the Lord calling him back up there on the beach in John chapter 21, he's walking there with John into the temple there and he tells the man that's lame, silver and gold have I none but such as I have, I give thee unto thee. And then later on in that passage there, they're out there preaching the name of Jesus and they get called in front of all the big dogs, the Pharisees, they get called in front of the religious people. And they say, you can no longer teach in the name of Jesus. And now all the anti-government individuals jump in and say, see there's the justification. No. The Lord has a right to cause a jailbreak if His authority chumps the authority of the government. And Peter at this point says to them, he said, listen, we're not going to obey man, we're going to obey God. And he goes from that point to preach Jesus. And Gamaliel comes in there, the one that trained Paul, and he says, y'all better leave these guys alone. God's doing what he needs to, and you better keep their paws off of them. And nonetheless, after Gamaliel gets done with his talk there, he gets up there and the people say, okay, well we're going to let him go, but not until we beat him. And they beat him and give him instructions, don't speak the name of Jesus. And Peter goes out, and guess what he does? He begins teaching again. Guess where? You know where they find him? They find him in church. The Lord said, get up, go back into church, go into the temple, and here's what I want you to do. Preach Jesus unto them. And so they find him again. Guess where he's at? He's in there preaching Jesus. You say, why? He comes at the end of that passage in Acts chapter number 5 and he says, ain't this a blessing, man? Ain't it good? I finally got a beating for the right reason. I followed God instead of following man. Why? I'm an ambassador for Christ. Everybody else may be able to do other stuff. I can't, Peter says. That's not who I am. Moses had to make that choice. Moses could have let that burning bush go, but he chose to turn aside to sea. And when he did, God spoke to him, but he didn't call him and just say, Hey Moses, you're doing good, and I love you, and I appreciate you, and you're forgiven, and you really messed up back when you were 40, but now that you're 80, you're worth something. He gave him something to do. He said, Go back to Egypt and tell them I am. He gave them a task. Moses, you are an ambassador for me. I'd be willing to say if Moses' life didn't match his talk, I'd be willing to say they'd call him out as a charlatan, and they'd probably dismiss him from the ministry. If we're ambassadors for Christ, have you ever paused? Jeremiah was the same way, Isaiah was the same way. If you look through that Bible on a consistent basis, you know what you find? You find the Apostle Paul. No one ever questioned who it was that sent him. His authority was no longer training under the feet of Gamaliel. It was no longer statutes and ordinances that were written by the law. It was that God sent me and people knew Moses had God on him. I just wonder whether or not, if that's the case, how much time we waste in talking about all kinds of other things, let alone his own bride. And how comfortable we've become. That's literally become something that's known in all churches. When they refer to hypocrites in the church, what do you think they're referring to? They're referring to people who say one thing and do another. But I find if I get back to where I was before and I start witnessing to people, And I start trying to go to the highways and the hedges and compelling them to come in. I find my focal point changes to that which God was concerned about, which is why He died for me. I'm so grateful that my dad preached. I'm so glad that he took time to teach me. I'm glad that he told me. I immediately got a burden for my brother. I was afraid he was going to go to hell. I immediately got a burden for Kurt Dirk that went down the street. I thought he was going to go to hell. And the burden was I want to see him saved and so I'm going to try to save him. It was to at least tell him. But we've lost that in the last days, the final days. And I say that what do you go out, what's going to be on your lips when you get ready to go out? I hate to use this, it's kind of close to home and all that, but I would like to say this. When my mom got ready to go, my niece got a recorder thing, a phone thing or whatever, and recorded and asked her whether or not she was ready to go. And she said in that video, she said, yes, I'm ready. She said, well, how do you get there, Nanny P? And she gave a clear, even though she had been in and out, she gave a clear display of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Admit you're a sinner, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust Him for your salvation, and then you'll be ready. That's true for your salvation. But you know what's strange? Nobody ever doubted what side my mom was on. She lived an entire life and died in her 90s. over 30 years by herself after my dad had passed as a testimony to God was able to sustain her and to take care of her. But she constantly, even on her answering machine, she always spoke about the one that saved her. What do you spend the time talking about? See, it's a little easier for me because if you put down all the amount of time I talk, The majority is when I'm supposed to be trying to feed other people, so I don't get to be a part of that equation. But my time off, it's all of a sudden, what is it that you're talking about? Just because you talked about it in church, does that mean it should stop in the rest of your life? If we're ambassadors for Christ? Can I say this? He didn't draw a line as to where we're supposed to go. There used to be a day back when we first started doing youth camps and things like that, that almost every single youth camp you would have some kid that was called to the mission field or called to preach. It almost never happens anymore. They're discouraged from that because it's not a viable career. And all you're going to do is talk about Jesus, and you can't make the dollar bills you could make in the regular secular world. And go to college, and when you've finished all that, and you've had a career, and you're getting old and gray-headed or ball-headed, then you can move into something that's, you know, along those lines, after you've made your mark in society. The God in Acts chapter number 16, you know what He said to Paul? Somebody over here needs you. We've kind of lost that pioneering Macedonian call. but he also called us apart in the sense of he called us to separate from the rest of the world. He said, you're not to be like them, you're not of them, so stop being like them. I don't think you could look at the apostle Paul's life, again, he being our witness, I don't think you could look at the apostle Paul's life and you could say with your right heart to say to yourself, you know something, I kind of wonder where Paul stood on these things. Paul, as a matter of fact, was willing to go get stoned in Lystra, you remember that? In Acts chapter 14 or so. And then all of a sudden the Lord lets him come back down here, and the apostles are there, and they go down to Derbe, and then the next verse right there, at the top of the next thing, you know what it says? And they went back into Lystra. That's the very place that the people stoned him. But Paul considered that opposition to be the perfect will of God. He went in there and set up a church and set up a pastor and set up a mission field down there in the very place that wanted to kill him. Now I don't know about you, but sometimes all it takes is a ruining of our reputation to prevent us from going to places that are not so popular. I don't know of anybody here, maybe on a foreign field, that's in danger of you losing your life because of your witness for Jesus Christ. I don't know that. I mean, I don't know of anybody that would be willing to do that. Here's the greater thing. Let me ask you this. If we're not to have fellowship with the things of darkness, and we're supposed to come out from among them and be separate, can people tell by the choices we make, the things we do, that we've come out from among them? I'm just talking about whether you're ready or not. And if in your mind you're ready, then okay, that's wonderful, that's fine, I'm glad. Then this sermon's not for you, you can take a nap, I'll be done in a few minutes. And it'll be just like any other sermon, it came and went, and you'll walk out and go, yeah, whatever, that's not me, man. Me and God, we're like, there's no need for improvement, I'm doing great, man. I mean, I'm literally up there with Moses on Pisgah ready for the Lord to bury me, because who else would be at my funeral? Or maybe there should be a pause in all of our lives to go, if today was the day, am I ready to be offered? Man, what a way to go to be Paul and say, I'm ready. I've finished my course. I've done what God told me to do. I'd like to be like the Apostle Paul. Look in verse number 14. Why should I be that way? Because God loved you. Look in verse 14. What should constrain you? Do you find the law in there? Do you find requirement in there, verse 14? What do you find that should constrain you? Can people tell by how you live that you love Him? Preacher, what's your example? Let's move off of Paul for a second. Let's move off of the three Hebrew children and Daniel. Let's move off of Jeremiah in the pit and Elijah at the juniper tree. Let's move off of them for a second. Let's see if we can see a demonstration of what the love means, not to the world, but what love means to God. John chapter three said, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. Do you think that people can see the demonstration of the love of Jesus because of his willingness to pay the price that was required? Nobody held a gun to his head. As a matter of fact, when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, Father, he said, is there any way that this cup can pass from me? You know what he said? No. He said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Can you imagine that his love was demonstrated when as a man he's on the cross and he cries, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's the one that sent him down here. To do what? Not live in the lap of luxury, to be an outcast. But could we see in today's 2024, do you see love demonstrated? It cannot be demonstrated by anything monetarily or materially. It can only be demonstrated by the price He was willing to pay to set the example for us. Now I just want to ask you a question. Nobody can die on Calvary's cross and be a substitutionary atonement, a propitiation for our sins. You all understand that. I'm not saying that. I'm saying if the benchmark is a willingness to give up what you want for the benefit of what God wants, the demonstration of love speaks for itself. And here's the challenge. Is that what people see in you? Or has that integrity slipped a little bit? So easy to do when you don't have anything or when you're younger. When you get older, you get a little bit less secure and you get insecure. And the next thing you know, you kind of think because the Lord has been so good to you, you kind of begin to think to yourself, well, you know, a little bit's okay. Let's not get carried away. This idea of putting myself out there. I mean, Lord, I'll give you whatever you want, but don't require me to live a crucified life. Paul said, I die daily. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. I mean, isn't that somewhat sobering to imagine that can people see that I'm motivated because of the love of Christ constrains me? I'm not motivated because of what He might do to me at the judgment seat of Christ, which is wrongly taught. I don't believe you should be serving God because of the terror of the Lord and you're afraid of getting your hind end tore up or even losing rewards. I believe you should serve Him because you love Him. And if you love Him, that love constrains you. It puts you in a position that says, I'm doing this because I love Him. I'm not looking for anything other than He did this for me. I want people to know how much He loved me and how much I love Him. Boy, that's gone nowadays. Not just the charismatic, but might I say this, compassion that is demonstrated by the Savior is often lost, and we turn that to other things for our own creature comfort. And we miss the opportunity for people to see, why don't you go to church? Why do you read the Bible? Why do you pray? Why do you give? Why do you do whatever it is? Why did you give this up or give that up? Why did you do that? Because I love the Lord. David said, I love the Lord. God never doubted David's love for him. I wonder for me, this is me. If the Lord ever sees enough of a demonstration in my actions, To happenstance, say, I guess that boy must love me. Because he's always given me far more than I've ever sacrificed. Love continues to give. When you get married, you make a vow. And in that vow, you say, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, forsaking all others so long as you both shall live. Isn't that what you say? Integrity goes out the window when your circumstances are different. And the Lord keeps you even though you're ready to divorce Him because it's inconvenient to have a wife around, a husband around when you're wanting to do stuff you shouldn't do. I remember years ago at a youth camp over in, not Monticello, the other one that starts with an M there, on the other side of it, it's not Madison, it's another one, Marianna. and the old preacher is up there and there's, I don't know, a couple hundred kids back in the day there in this big auditorium and he's up there drawing and he's got a kid who's gotten saved and he's doing right and he's been living for the Lord and then all of a sudden he gets surrounded by all of the athletes and the cheerleaders and he gets surrounded by all of the popular kids in the school and that kind of thing and they got him there he's got a crowd around him and they begin to talk to him about the Lord and he preaches through a whole bunch of things like that and then toward the end of the picture he begins to draw a picture of Jesus over here and here's Jesus and he's bound and he's got on a lawn cloth and he's got stripes on him and he's just standing there after being beaten and that kind of thing getting ready to go to the cross and the inference is did you forget somebody when it became inconvenient? Did you forget who loved you enough to die for you? You say, well, preacher, what do you know about that kind of stuff? Listen, I am ashamed to say to you that the majority of the sin I committed was not from zero to seven. It was after I was saved and knew better. You say, why? The love of Christ didn't constrain me. I loved myself. I made some bad choices still saved what'd you do nothing thank God for the blood you can't find it it's been erased but I wonder how many times in your life I wonder how many times Paul said you know what Paul said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ it's a power of God right Paul said, I know in whom I am believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep me against that day. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of him if it costs me the chopping block. I'm not ashamed of him. I'm ready to be offered, man. You say, why? God gave me a new lease on life. I'll never forget what he did. I've heard so many preachers. I've heard so many Christians. I've heard so many people say on a regular basis that, you know, God has done so much for me. I'm so deeply indebted to him. And they kick him to the curb right after the Sunday morning service. You sit down in the car, turn on the music, go to the places they shouldn't go, do the things they shouldn't do, hang out with the people they have no business hanging out with. And you know what it says? It's like, well, I mean, the Lord doesn't tell us not to do that. Integrity in Christianity is gone. You say, why? I don't think there's enough of the love of Christ being preached. I don't think we've gotten to the depth of what it cost him to die for us. Trust me when I tell you the wickedness that I did commit was bad enough that it cost him his life on Calvary. He had to be dirtied up with my sins, that's not enough. Even if he did that, you know what, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes we've kind of lost that, haven't we? I would like to be reassured as Paul come back to 2 Timothy, let me put a bow on this for you. I'd like to have that consolation to know Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. I hear it preached a lot. You can be doctrinally correct and still be wrong. You can know the doctrine, but in practice, you follow a false doctrine. Thank God for eternal security, but if they took eternal security away from us, would you live a cleaner life? If you were worried about losing your soul to go into hell, would you change? Maybe not. No, preacher, not me. I'm good. I mean, I'll keep that in the back of my mind, but no, no, I'm good. I'm ready right now. So if the Lord were to have the rapture happen right now, you can say, I'm ready. Saved, glory to God, born again, doing what God told me to do yesterday and doing my best to do it today. Okay, good, well, for the rest of us mortals, I just wonder whether or not I would have that consolation, because I want to say this to you before we get down to where I'm headed in verse number seven. You know what he said? There's a crown of righteousness in verse number eight that's laid up for Paul and for all those that love is appearing. Can I bore you with the illustration? It has nothing to do with the love of Christ here. It has to do with whether or not you would love it if he were to show up right now. The illustration I've used, and I don't think of a better illustration, that the boys' mama made chocolate chip and, I don't know, pecan or macadamia nut or, I don't know, whatever, walnuts in it or whatever, big as your head cookies and that kind of thing, or sugar cookies or whatever, and they came out of the oven, she put them on the cooling rack, and they got nice and crispy and doughy on the inside, and put them into the cookie jar, and remembered there was no milk in the refrigerator. And she got ready to leave out of the house and she went out the door and she told the boy, she said, now don't touch that cookie jar. I'll be back in a few minutes. I have no doubt that boy loved his mama. But his mama left and then came back a couple of minutes later because she forgot her keys. And he was up on the counter with his hand in the cookie jar. Don't tell me the boy didn't love his mama. But don't tell me he loved her appearing. Paul specifically says in verse number 14, the love of Christ constrains me, but here he says, those who love is appearing. To love is appearing means I'm ready for him to appear right now. The accounts are square. If I had druthers, I'd like to go right after a Lord's supper, preach a sermon on Sunday night, and kick off in the pulpit before I could mess it up. But that's not how life is. But we need to be living our life as if we are ever ready. I don't know if you're an ambassador or not. You're an ambassador for somebody. Somebody's watching you. The Lord fixed it that way. You're to be a burning and shining light. You're not to hide your light. You're supposed to be set upon a hill. All the things that we know that are in the Bible, but sometimes we don't realize people are watching us whether we want them to or not. And generally speaking, it is never that we complain about people watching us because we're doing right. Because you're being recognized by your boss for doing an exceptional job, you don't mind if he's watching you then. Because you expect a raise. But it bothers you if he's looking at the clock when you come back from lunch 30 minutes late. It bothers you if he goes and has the audacity to check your work behind you to find out you did a cover up there and you didn't do it right. Uncover it and do it again. It bothers you when they're watching you. Why? You're only concerned about being watched when you're doing something you ought not do. When grandma used to sing, watching you, watching you, there's an all-seeing eye watching you, I begin in my mind's eye to think to myself, do I really want him to watch me? Am I ready to be offered? He watches me when nobody else is around. He's paying attention to everything I'm doing. He's not looking for bad. He's looking to find the things He can reward you for. But the problem is He has an all-seeing eye and He can see everything that's going on. And He sees both the good and the bad. And I wonder how many times his heart has been broken because after him paying the price he paid for me, I've been disloyal to serve myself over serving him. As a matter of fact, I would say I would not be married however many years if I had been as disloyal to her as I have been to him. I wrote a poem down here in my Bible and I think it bears repeating if I can find it. I guess the Lord doesn't want me to find it. I'll read it to you tonight. But here's the basic gist of it. I only have a minute. 60 seconds in it is how it begins. And once that minute's gone, I don't get that minute back. And the issue then becomes, ladies and gentlemen, this idea or thought of, if I go to the judgment seat of Christ, God's a timekeeper. What have you done for him since you were saved? You do understand I'm not talking about do you have a string of ears on your belt where you've led a bunch of people to the Lord. I'm not talking about monetary gains that you've given. I'm talking about personal changes. I don't know about you, but I'm not the same now as I was when I was a baby. I'm not the same when I was in first grade as I was in 12th grade. I'm not the same when I worked downtown as I am now. That's eons ago. There's a constant change going. And what I'm trying to do is follow because the Lord continues to see things in me as I grow older to say, okay, now we need to deal with this. And my readiness by which I am willing to as quickly as possible subject myself to him, why? Because I'm afraid he's gonna tear me up. He's gonna blow up my water heater. He's going to beat me with many stripes. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. No, my motive should be, Lord, I know what you're asking me to do is an opportunity for me to demonstrate how much I love you. My flesh doesn't like it. Paul says later in the passage to come before winter, that means I have a limited amount of time to prove it. I don't want to get to the end of my life and look back and wish I'd taken the opportunities God gave me to demonstrate his love for me by being forgiving of other people. Or be as gracious to other people as he's been to me. Or as concerned about the loss as he was, willingness to give up his way in eternity to be able to save those now. I don't want to come to the end of my life and go, oh well, I guess I'll just have to take my licks. I guess what I want to drive home to you this morning, ladies and gentlemen, is this. We've been motivated oftentimes by the wrong reason. Our reason for serving Jesus Christ should be gratitude, and it should be because His love constrains us. And I realize it is a debt that we can never repay. But I do believe our attitude toward serving him should let him know how grateful we are that he saved us. Nowadays, what you have is a Christianity that says, I got saved to avoid hell, and now I'm waiting to see what God's gonna pile on me. What is he gonna give me instead of what can I give him? Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. If you'd like to come, you certainly can. I'm gonna close and make a very short invitation. And I realized it's not a popular message. It's not something everybody wants to hear. But for me, when I read that passage a few days ago in my Bible reading, I thought, this is my question, are you ready to be offered? Oh, I thought, sure, I'm ready to be offered. I'm absolutely, I mean, I'm saved. Anything else you wanna do? Anything else you need to do? Any other thing you want to get fixed before you come to see me?" And I began to scratch down on a legal pad. And then I read on in the passage, you better come before winter. You better get it done now. You say, why? Wintertime's approaching. Your time to check out may be soon. Not worried about going to hell at all. But I am worried that when I get there that the Lord said, I gave you time. And David, you could have fixed it. David, you could have fixed it. I gave you time. You could have fixed it. I wanted you to fix it. That's why I brought it to your attention. David, you knew there was a limit. But you lived as if you had plenty of time. I've learned this about conviction. It erodes pretty quickly. I've seen it erode from the altar to the front seat of my car. And what I was under heavy burden about, and I get in the car, and life catches up with me, and it's gone. Are you ready to be offered? Is there a crown of righteousness up there that's got your name on it because you hope He comes today? Because everything's square.