Well, we want to welcome you to another evening of classes in the Grace Institute of Biblical Studies. Good to see all of you tonight. A few students are missing. I think Adam had to work late. Paul's working afternoon shift. Becca had to work, if I remember right, as well. But good to see you. In fact, one of my favorite times of the week is to come and teach at Gibbs. Not only because God has called me to teach His Word, but because I believe that you want to learn the Word of God, and there's no greater thing to learn. By the way, a welcome to everyone that's watching as well down in the cities in Milwaukee. And a real special thank you to those in Milwaukee. They sent me a bag of M&M's. I like M&M's. Peanut. Peanut. And they got it right. And, you know, in 2 Corinthians 4, 1, it says, as you have received this ministry and have received mercy, we faint not. And so M&M's fits right with that verse. So we'll even spiritualize eating M&M's, you know. And they sent me the Magas. Even. And they came in really handy today, because I didn't have time for supper. So thank you so very much. Appreciate eating them. Any of you want to gain favor here in Duluth, take note. I like Snicker bars, too, by the way. My favorite candy bar is Snicker. My favorite candy probably is M&M's. And ice cream's always in order. No wonder I'm not skinny, huh? So, well, we have a very full evening planned for tonight, but let me, before we get started, let me just say this, that, you know, we had originally planned Gibbs to be at 9.30 on Sunday mornings as a class, and then on Monday nights as well. Then 9.30 got taken over by our main service, and so we've been kind of scrambling and pushing and so forth to try to make this work. And I know this has been a little difficult. At first, you didn't hardly have any tests for quite a while. Now we're trying to jam everything into the last few months, and this has a certain stress, you know, perhaps not as bad as my son, who told me that he was talking to me about his nursing class at Bemidji State, and he says, you know, I know students who are taking medication for panic attacks, you know. Hopefully you're not there at that point, you know, and so forth. But if you'd open your Bibles to 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, where we want to get started tonight, I'm just going to give just a few devotional thoughts and a little short pondering the page that fits right in with our first message here in Biblical distinctions. 2 Timothy. Chapter 2. Now I particularly camped on 2 Timothy this year because it's a passage of scripture I don't want you to forget. It's a passage I want you to be able to read again and again and again. And if you're involved in significant ministry, I don't know if significant is the word, you know, intensive ministry for the Lord, that this is a passage that can help you and you can go back to time and time again. Now I'd like to call your attention to verses 1 and 2 again. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So notice the mission is to entrust to faithful men what the message, these things, the truths of the Word of God, And the purpose is that they'll teach others also. And the means, again, is verse 1, you therefore, my son, be strong. And again, that word be strong is in a passive voice. It literally should be translated, and is in a couple translations, be strengthened, or keep on being strengthened, in or by means of the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And you need to keep being strengthened by means of the grace that's in Christ. His grace has been provided through the cross. His grace is in view of your position in Christ. And grace involves great and precious promises. His grace involves the power of the Holy Spirit. His grace involves casting your care upon Him in believing prayer and learning to faith rest in this. But if you're going to be faithful in verses 1 and 2, verse 15 is going to be necessary. For in verse 15, we've seen, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The word be diligent is the Greek word spoudazo or spoudazon. And in doing so, it carries the idea of diligence, eagerness. One person loosely translates it to sweat profusely. It carries the idea of the exerting of energy, as it were. Now, we recognize the strength comes from the Lord, but this is an appeal to your will. to be a diligent student. And the King James translates its student, or study, I should say, because of the rest of the verse. Be diligent to present yourself approved to who? To God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, that pleases Him, who's rightly dividing, accurately handling the word of truth. And if you're going to accurately handle the word of truth, you're going to need to be diligent in your study. Be diligent in your study. You know, what does diligence in study involve? Okay, what does it involve? What does it look like? What does it involve? Students, you wanna give me some ideas? What does diligent study look like? Does it look like you wait till the last minute? No, no, that's not what diligent study looks like. Though sometimes you might, and then you get stuck, and then you don't learn it well. What does diligence study look like? It involves some dedicated time and some dependence upon the Lord. And it takes discipline, which is the fruit of the Spirit. And even in doing so as a student, you expand your capacity. It takes, in a sense, strapping yourself in the seat and sticking to the task until it's completed. And sometimes we're not used to doing that. We're used to a lot of discretionary time or kind of doing what we feel like. And part of Gibbs training is learning to cut the fat out of your life. And some of you have a lot more fat than you thought. And others of you, especially those who are married students, you're trying to find air to gasp, grasp sometimes. Because you're busy, and I know that. And we're trying to be sensitive to that. In fact, we're going to temporarily put on hold that assignment on the Bible, God's amazing book. So you can just wait on that. How many of you have done that already, by the way? Oh, well, you're really doing well then. The rest of you didn't, just don't worry about it for the time being. But we're going to just try to do some things so you can make it through this semester. because we want you to be successful. Now I understand part of Gibbs too is there is a weeding process that goes on somewhat as far as people finding out this isn't really for me or this isn't a good time, or I'm just not willing to put forth what's needed to make this thing work. I mean, there's part of that and there's the other part of that is learning to look to the Lord and be stretched. You know, I remember a number of years ago, with the very first class of Gibbs students, it was right towards graduation time. It had been five years. I was very sensitive and aware of the personalities and patterns of each of the students by then. And a guy came to me and he said, Pastor, do you think I could ever be a pastor? And I thought for a little bit and I said, um, no, I don't think so. And I probably hurt his feelings a little bit. I said, no, I don't think so. You can't sit in the chair long enough to study. You're always wanting to run here and run there and to pasture, to teach the Word of God, you got to strap yourself in. You got to sit in. Now, if he made that adjustment, so be it. But at the present pattern that he was going, he just could not pass it. You cannot get up and wing it when it comes to teaching the Word of God. You are held accountable for what you say. And that is why diligent study is necessary to show yourself approved unto God. Because you're not only proving to God, you're impacting people's lives. They're going away. Just think of the two series I recently taught on outer darkness. What if I would have taught that if you're an unfaithful Christian, you can be cast into outer darkness? Would that have affected some people's lives? It would have. Just think of the study we just did on heaven. Wow, wasn't that awesome to learn about heaven? I mean, incredible. And it affects people's lives. It affects how they think. You see, this book, the Bible, God's word, is not something to be trifled with. It's not something to be twisted and contorted. It's not something to be winged. It's something to be studied and carefully and accurately taught. And if we do teach something inaccurate, have the humility to come back and say, you know, I think I got that wrong, this is the way it is. And hopefully you don't have to do that very often. If you do that very often, you're not going to have an audience, okay? That's why you need to study. And so I just want to encourage you over the next two months, keep looking to the Lord, hang in there. Keep drawing upon the grace that's in Christ. Remember the cause. Be diligent in your study. Summer's coming. Summers are off. Praise the Lord. You know what happened the first Gibbs class? As I proposed to have them do courses in the summer, I thought it was mutiny on the bounty. I mean, it was, it was carnal city almost, you know, immediately. And I am sensitive to feedback. And I said, Oh, I realize you guys need a break and I'll just, just can't, just can't. And I guarantee you're going to have a summer break as well. The next couple of months, You're going to have to be diligent. If you're having real trouble, talk to us about it. We're going to try to work with you, make what adjustments are needed. But also, there's adjustments on your part needed as well. And there's times when you just have to, in a sense, tighten the belt. You have to cut out the fat. You're going to have to really let some things go that don't really need your attention. They might be nice, but they're not necessary because the cause is greater than that. you