hopefully I can make it through today because what I get to do today is to bring a charge to my son-in-law on day of his ordination. So thank you pastor for the opportunity to speak here this morning. I'd also like to just say a kind of a personal hello to each one of my church family that are out there watching. I understand there's also several others that are tuned into the live stream and in particular I understand the Wells family and probably more of the Pangaea missions team are tuned in so while I've never met you personally I want to say hello and thanks for tuning in. So Pastor Cole contacted me a week and a half or two weeks ago and asked me if I could, and I'll quote what he asked me, he asked me if I could bring some sort of a charge to Justin during the Sunday school hour on May 3rd. So most of you know, as Pastor just said, that Justin is my son-in-law. He is husband to my daughter, Kaylee, since 2012, I believe it is. He is father to my grandchildren, Adrian, Juliet, and Madeline, who I believe are watching right now. So, hello girls. He has been a Sunday school student of mine for several years. I've known him since he was a teenager. He's lived in my house and in my driveway, for that matter, in an RV, so you all understand, for months at a time. So let's just say that I know Justin very well. And as far as ordination goes, I understand that there's supposed to be some examination of this man. And we've all examined his doctrine and his ministry. I've examined him in many other ways, of course, and I'll just say up front that I think you're doing a fine job in your ministry thus far. Now, of course, I'm always honored when Pastor Cole asks me to come and stand in his pulpit and preach or teach or pray, for that matter. So, again, I want to thank Pastor for that. But having the added blessing of actually speaking directly to my son-in-law, now that is something that I think any father-in-law would relish. So I'll try to keep myself under control, Justin. But this is going to be serious. This is going to be a little funny. And I am going to do this as sort of a Sunday school lesson, the way I would normally do a Sunday school lesson. So for the rest of you, the few that are here and those of you that are watching online, please pay attention because there's going to be things in here for you. So when Pastor asked me, could you bring some sort of charge for Justin, first thing I thought is, well, I should really find out what that term means. What does it mean to charge someone? So what I did was I looked up what it means to charge someone. And I found some interesting ones. One was to impose a price or fee to hold liable for payment. Well, I can certainly do that. We still have the matter of the dowry for Kaylee to settle. So I can do that. The second definition of charging someone was to attack by rushing violently against. Now, Pastor, I'll have you know I've never done this to Justin, but I might enjoy it. It might be fun. So maybe later. Yes. To charge someone also means to accuse formally or explicitly with a crime. And I'm sure he's guilty of something. So we'll think about that one as well. The fourth one I found was to supply with a quantity of charge. Shock therapy? Yes. Okay. And then my personal favorite was, of the definition of the word charge, is to load into a furnace. That one just made me laugh, so. Okay, well anyways, enough with the joking. And with that aside, I know that Pastor actually meant for me to charge Justin as in to instruct him, to uplift him, and to edify him. So that is my intent here today, to do that in regard to his ministry on the day of his ordination. Now I also know that Pastor Cole, Justin's pastor, and Pastor Lewis charged Justin on the day that we had a sending away service. I don't remember what we called it. It wasn't a going away service. It was the day that we prayed over Justin. It was the day that he received his license to preach from Pastor Cole. That was a special day. Some of you may have seen a photograph that Justin's mom, Susan, put online recently. There was a picture of the men praying over Justin right here before this pulpit. That was a special day. And today is another one. So on the occasion of Justin's ordination comes the question. Well, what is it I should say to Justin? How could I charge him? How could I uplift him and edify him in regard to his ministry? How could I instruct Justin? How do I charge someone who has spent almost two years living out of an RV, right? Almost two years traveling the country, sharing his burden for Papua New Guinea with dozens of churches? all over for two years. What do I say to that person? How do I instruct a man who picked up his family, moved 8,000 miles away, immersed himself in ministering to people in Pangaea, the southern highlands in Papua New Guinea, which, for those of you watching, if you don't know, that is one of the most remote places on Earth. That is about as far away from here as you can get on this planet. So what do I say to this man. What do I say to this man who spent almost a year already in a new country, learning a new language, distributing Bibles in that new language, teaching classes. He started a new church in a place called Kumeyaay, not far from the village where they live in Pangaea. This is a man who, at least according to his testimony, has taught five to six times a week in all of these places for quite a long time in Papua New Guinea. And he's seen many people saved and he's baptized some of them as well. So, again, what do you say to this man? Well, of course, as the old guy in his life, one of the old guys in his life, since his dad just showed up here in the back. Of course, I've already reminded Justin that doing anything for a year doesn't make you an expert. This is what old guys say to young guys, but there's a reason for it. The reason is, well, experience matters. And this is where I'm so glad that the Wells family, I'm glad you're watching because I wanted to thank you. I'm so glad that they have you, Kaylee and Justin, and have the Wells family there to help them to get started and get going in their ministry without having to spend all the time building the infrastructure and not having any experience starting green, they were able to come in and start right away. So thank you to the Wells family. So I decided after all of that thought that the best way for me to accomplish my goal, which is to charge Justin this morning, is to use the word of God. Not my words, but the words of God. My words are far less valuable. I'll use a passage that's familiar to most of you in 2 Timothy chapter 4. So if you have your Bibles there, please turn there. In this chapter, what we have, for anybody that's watching or if you happen to be unfamiliar with this particular passage of scripture, what we have here is the Apostle Paul, he's one of the greatest missionaries to ever live. He is instructing a young pastor named Timothy. Now keep in mind that Paul wrote these words while he was in prison. And at this time, he knew that he was near the end of his life. He'd already been on several missions trips. He'd seen thousands of people saved. He had ministered to many. God used him greatly. And here, in 2 Timothy 4, in the first five verses, he charges a young pastor named Timothy. He instructs him. He uplifts him. He edifies him for his ministry. So let's look at what Paul was led by the Holy Spirit, by the way, to say to this young pastor, Justin, you listen carefully. This is your charge, your instruction. They're not my words, as I said. They're much better than that. They are the words that God gave to one of the greatest missionaries at the end of his life as he charged a young pastor. The rest of you also, please listen carefully. As I mentioned, I'm going to do this like a Sunday school lesson. So it'll help you too. But I'm also going to ask you that are online to also be praying for Justin during this time that he can actually fulfill this charge, that he can follow through on it. And just as important, I want you to pray as well that you don't become the ones talked about in verses 3 and 4, and we'll get there in a minute. So 2 Timothy chapter 4 in verse 1, I charge thee therefore before God, Now, Paul charged or instructed Timothy before God, and I'm charging you before God here in the house of God where two or three are gathered in his name. There he is in the midst. There's more than two or three here. God is here. I'm charging you before God. Surprise. I know it's me speaking up here. I know that you know most of these things, Justin. I know, if not all of them, everything I'm gonna say you probably already heard, but this is what we talked about the other day, which is referred to as the foolishness of preaching. I believe God is going to use me, just a man, I'm not a pastor, I'm not called to a foreign mission field, but I think he will use me to speak to your heart with his words. That's what I'm hoping for and praying for today. So I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead, those that are alive and those that are dead at his appearing. Now if you know anything about the judgments of God, and it's not a complicated subject but it's not super simple. So I'm just going to kind of sum it up and say that you know that your works, what sort they are, are going to be judged. Your works won't be judged to determine whether or not you're going to heaven. For those of you online, that is settled if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's settled. But your works, your ministry, Justin, is going to be judged by God himself. The living word is going to judge according to the written word. You're going to judge what sort your work is and what you do with what it is God gives you. Your eternal rewards in heaven will be based on that. So don't ever lose sight of that, no matter what's going on. And there's a lot going on for you right now, I understand. It's a very serious matter. God will judge your works, your ministry. Verse number two. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's correct. Verse number two, preach the word. I'm just going to stop there and just remind you, preach the word, not so much your word, God's words. Now, of course, you have to be apt to teach when you get to the office of a pastor, the office of a missionary, an apostle once sent, you have to be apt to teach. You have to be able to understand and then help others understand and learn how to apply the scriptures to their lives. So you do have to use your own words in helping to explain the scriptures sometimes. But your job is to tell others what the Bible says. First the gospel, which you've certainly been doing in Papua New Guinea, and then the whole counsel of God. So preach the word. Then there's a semicolon in verse two. Be instant in season, out of season, Now according to Strong's Concordance, this was sort of an interesting thing that I did not know until I studied this for this little lesson here. According to Strong's Concordance, this word instant here means to be at hand, to be present, to stand upon. So, to you Justin, be at hand, be present, preaching and standing upon God's word. Now it says, be instant in season and out of season. And that means when it's an opportune time and when it's not an opportune time. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. All of that followed or preceded by another semicolon, meaning it's related to the previous statements about preaching the word, being instant in season and out of season. Reprove and rebuke. have a similar meaning. As a matter of fact, if you use most dictionaries, including the word hunters favorite dictionary, Noah Webster 1828 dictionary, uses one word to define the other. But while they're similar in meaning, there is a small difference. They both mean to convince others of their faults. something we might all like to do, but you have this statement here about doing it with all longsuffering and doctrine. You have to figure in the word of God to helping people to be convinced of their faults. So you need to help people be convinced of their faults using the scriptures and therefore with words that minister grace to the hearer. You can't just say it however you like. I know you know. Just charging you today. For the record, those of you online, he's not offended at all. He's smiling at me. Now, rebuke also has the connotation of restraining others from doing something. See, there is a slight difference between those words reprove and rebuke. And in this case, Justin, what you're going to be doing is rebuking people, helping them to be convinced of their faults, but also restraining them from doing ungodly things. And that's, I'm sure, a large part of the ministry in Papua New Guinea to the people that have never even heard about Jesus Christ. Exhort means to use the word in a slightly different way, which is to urge people, and for you, the people in Papua New Guinea, to do good deeds and have good conduct. So that's why all three, reprove, rebuke, and exhort. And you are to do those things with long-suffering and the doctrine taught by God and His Word. You're going to have to endure provocation for a long time, patiently, not being provoked. Why? Well, that's what the next two verses are about. That's why they're there. The next two verses make this clear. Verse three, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. Now, to you watching at home, I want you to understand that we don't want to be this back here at home, at Faith Bible Baptist Church. We don't want to be the ones that don't endure sound doctrine. We don't want to be the ones that follow after our own lusts. That should not be us. And if you attend a different church than this church, you don't want to be that either. So be careful. You and me need to tend to your spiritual garden, which is exactly what Pastor Seth was teaching for the last four weeks or so. That's what we need to do. Now, Justin, I expect you'll have this experience in Papua New Guinea. of people not enduring sound doctrine, following after their own lusts, heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears. In other words, finding teachers that teach what they like to hear. Makes them feel good. In fact, I think from what you've told me in the past, you've already experienced some of this in the year that you've spent there. With people who have decided to listen to the crowd, if you will, in their house line. Or with people that listen to the missionaries of other religions that are in the area. rather than listening to the counsel of God. So I think you've experienced some of this already. So what's the charge here? Well, the charge is don't let it affect your ministry. That's why Paul is telling this to Timothy here. Be careful. This is why you need to be instant in season and out of season, because this is going to happen to you. Verse four, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. Wow, what a shame for people to turn away from the truth. What a grief that's got to be. I'm sure, Pastor, you've seen it. I'm sure, Justin, you've seen it some in Papua New Guinea. Any pastor, any missionary, for that matter, any Christian, what a shame to see people turn away from the truth and turn to fables, yet we see it. And what I think I would say to Justin about this is that Paul saw it in his time. He clearly thought Timothy was going to see it during his ministry, and it's gonna continue to happen in Papua New Guinea. So don't be surprised by it. Don't be affected by it. That's just what's going to happen. You just keep on going, which is sort of what the next verse talks about. Watch thou in all things, in verse five, Watch thou. That's an interesting term. The English word here, watch, is actually used repeatedly in scripture, but one of the interesting things I learned in studying this out was that this particular Greek term that was translated watch here is only used twice in scripture. It has a little bit different meaning than what we think of as watch. This one specifically means to abstain from wine so that you keep sober and vigilant. Watch thou in all things. The other place it's used, so you know, is in 1 Peter 4, 7, which says, but the end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. So your charge here is to be sober and vigilant in all things. Because, as we learned a couple of verses ago, some won't endure sound doctrine. Some will follow after their own lusts. And some will turn away from the truth. But you can't let that happen to you or your family. Don't let it happen. The next part of verse 5 says, Endure afflictions. Now, first thing is, afflictions is plural, okay? We all have afflictions. You're going to have them. You have some now, I understand. You're supposed to endure them. simply as Moses did, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Just endure the afflictions, following what God wants you to do. Do the work of an evangelist, simply means do all you can to reach people for Christ. Do it, you're doing it. And I think you're doing a fine job of that, by the way. The last part of this verse says, make full proof of thy ministry. And those words, full proof, actually means to entirely accomplish. That is to entirely accomplish the ministry God has given to you. Don't leave undone what God has enabled you to do for his glory. So there's the real charge. And that's where Paul ended his charge to Timothy. I still got some time left, so that's not where I'm going to end. But I do want you to read something else here. Those of you that are following along in 2 Timothy chapter 4, let's look at the next three verses very quickly. After Paul charged Timothy, he then went and said these words. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness with the Lord. the righteous judge who shall give me at that day, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love has appearing." So there's a crown of righteousness, Justin, waiting for you, if you'll fight a good fight, if you'll finish your course and keep the faith. Again, serious matter. Now, that's not the end of my charge to Justin, but what I'm going to do now is sort of turn and make the charge to everyone, all of you that profess Jesus Christ as your Savior today. And in particular, those of us here at Faith Bible Baptist Church. I've had the privilege of teaching and preaching here many times, Pastor. behind your pulpit for the last 20 years or so. About nine years ago, you may or may not know this, I don't know if you ever go back and listen to the sermons that get preached when you're away, I don't know. About nine years ago I spoke here and the subject that I spoke on was called The Charge to Faith Bible Baptist Church. You see, what I had done, Pastor, if you might recall, sometimes you clean things out of your office and sometimes it's books or sometimes it's tapes or something. I came across a tape of your ordination from May of 1983. So I listened to that. Now, during that, for everybody's benefit, pastor certainly received his charge from another pastor at that time, the day he was ordained. But because Faith Bible Baptist Church had already started at that time, there was a charge given as well to us, the members of Faith Bible Baptist Church. These things still apply today. Now, why do I want to bring that out here? Well, three reasons. One, because as one sent from this church, Justin, most of these things still apply to you. All of them still apply to all of the members here. But more than that, I think it's right to apply many of them, not all of them, but many of them towards the missionaries that we send out as a church. That wasn't the subject of Pastor Cole's ordination, but now that I've studied these things out a little bit, it is true. These things should be applied, at least most of them, toward the missionaries. That's Brother Chris Barron and Justin Dye. So all I want to do with the last few minutes that I have here is kind of go quickly through these 13 things that the members of the church were charged with and just show you how they apply to our missionaries. Because ministering to our missionaries isn't something that just happens when they're here. It should be happening on a daily basis while they're on the field as well. So again, it's you listen, there's things you need to do. I'm listening, I wrote it. There's things I need to do. Those of you online, there's things you need to be doing. And we don't just need to be doing them toward our pastor. We do need to be doing them towards Pastor Cole and Pastor Seth as well. But towards Chris Barron, towards Justin Dye as well. So number one, be loyal to your pastor and your missionaries. Show God's man that you're behind him. Number two, love your pastor and your missionaries. We need to love them with a love that only God can give you and love their families also. Number three, respect your pastor's calling and your missionary's calling. They're very different. We need to respect them. And you also need to teach your children to respect them. They are the, I believe, the highest two offices in the church. The apostles, the ones that are sent, and the pastors. Number four, pray for your pastor and your missionary. We're supposed to mount an arsenal of prayer before every service so that Satan cannot hinder the work of God. Now here at this church, we have a prayer meeting at 9.30 in the morning before the service, and I've been coming to that for years. I don't know if we've ever not prayed for the preacher. We need to. The question is, are we doing that for our missionaries? Do you pray for Brother Chris Barron? Do you pray for Justin? One of the interesting things is Papua New Guinea is 14 to 15 hours ahead of us. Right? So it's already Monday morning, early, early Monday morning there. So what that means is we should be praying for Justin before he's preaching at the church in Kumeyaay, right? Well, how about at dinner time on Saturday, you pray for Justin and the message that he's going to give to that church. How about Chris Barron who's in the Philippines which is 12 hours ahead of us. So how about, you know, before you go to bed on Saturday, You pray for him because that'll be right before, depending on when you go to bed, that'll be right before he preaches. Those are things we should be doing. We need to be praying for our pastors, praying for our missionaries regularly, always, holding them up so that God will use them and that Satan cannot hinder them. Number five is obey your pastor. God has given him authority over you. Now, sorry, buddy. He hasn't given you authority over us here at this church. That's held by pastor's office. But you do occupy a high office, as I said. You're an apostle, the way the Bible describes it. You're one cent from this church. That's a high office. And if you, as pastor preaches, if you look at the scriptures where it lists the offices, the apostles first, first the apostles. And you certainly do have authority as the pastor at Kumeyaay. So that is something that those of you that are members of a church, your pastor has authority over you, obey him, okay? It's that simple. Don't try to tell Pastor Cole what to preach, or Justin. I don't know when that occasion would arise, but don't do it. They both need to preach what God lays on their hearts. Pay him a living wage. Again, this was another pastor charging our church on how we should treat our pastor. And I'm just applying it to our missionaries, Justin Dye and Chris Bear. God's man is worthy of being taken care of. Pay him enough that he is not lacking. And also give to him personally. Make sure his needs are met. I'm sure this is the sort of thing that Pastor Cole is never going to say from right here. Nor should he. We should just be doing it. Right? Pastor needs a paycheck. Justin needs financial support from us. We have sent him out. We're the ones supposed to be holding the rope as Faith Bible Baptist Church, so be generous. Support him, be generous, give to him personally. Number eight is build up his reputation. Don't tear him down. That's Pastor, or Brother Justin Dye, or Brother Chris Barron. Don't tear him down. Don't allow others to tear him down in front of you. That's just wrong according to the scriptures. Their reputation depends highly on the things that we all say around the community. Now, a few of us have been to Pangaea. Not me. I was supposed to go in, I think it was April, I was going to be going. So I didn't get there. But some of us have. So some of you had an opportunity at least to influence the people there. And I hope you spoke well of Justin. Same thing here, obviously the charge was originally to us about our pastor. We should speak well of him because his reputation in this area, in western New York say, matters for Pastor Cole and Justin's. We don't want to be tearing him down here either. Number nine is build up his morale. Encourage him. Encourage Pastor. Encourage Justin. One of the things that you may hear often, but I don't know how many people think about it often, is that Pastor Cole carries a pretty heavy load that most of you have no idea about, myself included. I don't know, I just know that he's got some things that he has to deal with that are a grief of heart to him. I know Justin does as well. They're different. But you know what helps is to communicate with them regularly. Talk to Pastor, encourage him, build up his morale. Talk to Justin. Justin loves to get, what, Marco Polo's texts. You probably prefer WhatsApp when you're in Papua New Guinea. That's all about data use and that kind of thing. But you know what, he said to me, I don't know how many times over the year that you were there, just getting communications is a big help. Now, realize that he doesn't always have electricity or, therefore, internet. So he might not respond to you immediately, but do it anyway. He'll get it. Encourage him that way. Build up his morale. Build up his wisdom. That means to give him wise counsel. Now, Pastor Cole, I think, would be, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think he would be the first to admit that he doesn't have all the answers. So I'm not sure if Justin will admit that or not. But look, he needs good, godly counsel. And just a word of caution, they don't need opinions. They don't need counsel of any sort that is not wise and godly. Outside of that, they don't really need to hear that. Build up his leadership, number 11. The way you do that is by cooperating with them. Look, you should be a leader in your ministry, in your realm of influence, within the church, but as far as God's man here, that's Pastor Cole. And therefore, you need to be in submission to his leadership, okay? Be a good follower that way. You can still lead in your ministry, but follow him. and his leadership. We're not really following Justin as a leader. I do believe he is a leader. But we can build him up as a leader. And if you do have opportunity to go to Papua New Guinea, as his sister did, hey, build him up while you're there, right? Follow him. Follow his instruction. You're going to want to do that anyways in a country like that, right? Yeah, you, one of the things I've learned in traveling the world is that there are many cultures that don't really appreciate the way Americans act. Let's put it that way. And I would guess that's probably true in Papua New Guinea as well. Number 12, come to church and listen. Let pastor, Pastor Cole in Faith Bible Baptist Church, let him see you in church all the time, listening to the messages God gives him, praying at the altar, ministering to others, letting God change your life. And you know what? That would be a blessing to his heart, Pastor Cole's heart. I'm just pointing at him, he's over there. Don't you think that would be a blessing to Justin to hear that that was going on here? that his home church was doing the things that a church should be doing. Not just, as is often talked about, just going through the motions or just coming to church and not really doing anything. We need to do all of those things, let God work on us. And then number 13, we need to follow the Christ that he preaches. Now that's more important than all the rest. but it also encompasses all the rest. So that's true for Faith Bible Baptist Church, and that's true for Missionary Justin Dye. We need to follow the Christ that they preach, because it's the one from the Bible, the real living word of God. So there's a lot of instruction there. Most of it directed at Justin, so I apologize for ignoring you mostly that were online. But what I'm hoping and what my prayer has been is that the Lord will use Justin greatly in his ministry. On this day of his ordination, I just wanted to bring this charge. Yeah, I know it's me. foolish that God would use me to tell you his words, but hopefully it'll speak to your heart. And hopefully as you think about these things and even years from now as you're ministering in Papua New Guinea, that these things would stay with you and that you can just stay focused. That is, you know, stick with the stuff, keep going no matter what. All right, let's pray. Lord, we want to thank you, Lord, for Justin. We want to thank you that you've called him to the mission field of Papua New Guinea. We thank you that we can see this day, Lord, the day that he's ordained to the office of a pastor. We pray, Lord, that you would help him to fulfill this charge in his life and his ministry. Help us as his ascending church to uphold our part, that together we could see much fruit from the ministry in Papua New Guinea. We pray, Lord, that you would get Justin and his family back to Papua New Guinea as soon as possible. And we pray that much fruit would come and that your name would be glorified. Lord, we pray now for the next service. Lord, we just thank you for this time that we can celebrate the ordination of Justin. Lord, and we just look forward to you speaking to us again through the message the pastor brings. Lord, we just thank you for all of it and look forward to what you'll do through it. Lord, we just ask for your blessing on the service and your blessing on the ministry in Papua New Guinea. We thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen.