Timothy. But before we start, let's go to the Lord and pray. Father, we're grateful to be gathered as your people once more. And Father, as we are gathered, we recognize that it is not us who have gathered, but you who have gathered us. Father, you have called us in Christ. You have made us a people, though formerly we were not a people. You have redeemed us from our sins. wash us from our iniquities. You have joined us to yourself and to each other. Father, all these things are things that you have done for us in Christ. And so, Father, as we gather, we come to worship you, to acknowledge that you have done great things on our behalf, to say that we stand in awe of those things, and we also want to come with thanksgiving to say you have done those things for us, and we are grateful. And Father, as we look on those things, we do want to see more of what you have done for us. And Father, we're so grateful that you have given us your word, that through your word, you show us who Christ is and what Christ has done for us. We get to experience that. And so, Father, I pray that as we come this morning, our heart's desire is to see more of what you have done in Christ as we open your word. Father, I pray that that would be the outcome of our time in your word this morning, that our eyes would be open to see Christ clearly, that our hearts would be move that we would rejoice in who Christ is and what he has done. Father that our wills would be in submission that we would desire to obey what Christ would command of us. Father I pray that as I come to preach a word that your spirit would be here in our midst. Father we need your spirit because our hearts aren't naturally going to do those things but we trust that through your spirit that you can do those things in us. Father I pray especially for myself that you would fill me with your spirit. Father that the The words I speak this morning would be truly your words, that they would be true and glorious of Christ. It would be according to your word. Father, I pray that through your spirit they would be beneficial to those who are here listening. So we lift up this time in the name of Christ. Amen. Apparently I have a lot of papers. Give me just a second. I think I brought my sermons here. There we go. This morning we're gonna be in 2 Timothy 2, 1 through 2, but before I jump in, I want to go ahead and remember where we've been so far. And so we started off several weeks ago, actually almost more than a month ago. looking at an overview of Second Timothy. And this is the summary statement, the summation of the entire book that I set up, is that Second Timothy tells us that serving the gospel will be hard, but it's always worth it. So keep pressing into Christ. And we put together an outline as we went through that introductory sermon. We split it up into kind of two halves. We said there's an introduction, and then we get this list of exhortation or charges from Paul to Timothy. And if you read through them, you can start to group them. There's six major exhortations or charges. sometimes those charges include lots of subcommands, and so there's lots of exhortations, but there's six major exhortations, and the first three all go together, and the next three all go together, and so he said the first three all had to do with how is Timothy going to be strengthened? How is he going to be strong to serve in the gospel? And then the second three all had to do with Timothy being strong with the gospel, and so those are the two halves of the book that we're looking at, and right now we're in that first half of the book. And so we're in that portion where Timothy needs to be strengthened by the gospel. And we saw that we've had a couple of exhortations already. Several weeks ago, we thought about the first exhortation, which was, fan into flame the gift of God that is in you through the weighing on of my hands. We thought through that. We saw how Timothy was, as we pull out of the passage, burnt out. But Paul wants Timothy to fan that into flame by remembering what God had done for him. And then last week, we went through the second exhortation, which was, therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. And we thought about what it meant to not be ashamed of the gospel, or instead, to be bold, to be ready to serve in the gospel. And we went through several examples of what it meant to be ashamed or not ashamed. And so we looked at Paul, we looked at at Epaphras and at, I'm not thinking very well right now, but a couple others. You can look at 2 Timothy 1 if you want to. I've been pretty sick all week, so if I seem like I'm pretty tired and maybe not pulling things off as well as usual, that's why. But this week we want to enter into the third of the exhortations or charges for this first half. And it's going to be, as you might recall from the introductory one, there are three charges. And I always think the third charge is the most important charge in the list. And so as we've been building up, Timothy, how are you going to be strong? so that you can keep serving the gospel. We're going to come to 2 Timothy 2.1. He's going to be saying, then, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And that's where we're going to be this morning. I've said that all verses 1 through 13 are that section, and it is. I'm not going to do all verses 1 through 13 this morning, because I think there's a lot there. We're going to kind of slowly unpack this section. So actually, I'm just gonna do verses one through two this morning. Did that for a couple reasons. One, I thought for myself, keeping a shorter sermon wouldn't be the end of the world. You probably won't mind that either. But also, I think there's enough in these first two verses that I wanna pause there and think about that. So as we come to 2 Timothy 2, one through two, that's gonna be my verses for the morning. And so we'll start by reading that. If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to 2 Timothy 2, one through two, or I'll have the text here up on the screen. So 2 Timothy 2, one through two, it says, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. And he's gonna keep going after that, but I just wanna unwrap these first two verses here in 2 Timothy 2 this morning. So my proposition for their message this morning is gonna be this. Strength from ministry can only come from one place. Strength from ministry can only come from one place, and that's being filled with and immersed in the grace of Christ. Being filled with and immersed in the grace of Christ. Well, I have three points this morning that I want to get through. First, I want to see that Timothy needs to be strengthened by grace. He needs to be strengthened by grace. Then we're gonna see that he's gonna be encouraged by camaraderie. Encouraged by camaraderie. And then I wanna stop and think about how specifically are we gonna apply this to ourselves? This entire message is gonna be extremely applicable. It'll feel like application all the way through because we're going through an exhortation. But I wanna just take five minutes at the end and think about specifically what does this look like in our lives when we do this? So let's start with that first point. Paul's gonna tell Timothy to be strengthened by grace. And so I wanna look at verse one in this first section. So he says, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So as we enter into chapter two, he starts with, you then, my child. Something I've mentioned several times as we've gone through 2 Timothy already, but he has this great compassionate heart towards Timothy. This father's heart, he looks at Timothy and says, my child, I understand, and here's what you need. And so we start with that. This isn't a general giving a command to his soldiers. This is a father that's caring about his son. He says, you then, my child. And then he continues, he says, this is what you do. If I'm going to sum up this first half of the book, this is what I want you to do. He says, you then, my child, be strengthened, be strong. So that's what Paul wants Timothy to do. Before I want to stop and think about what that means, what I want to look at is first, this is not a command that is somehow specific to 2 Timothy. This is a command that we're going to see all the way across the Bible. In fact, we all kind of know that in the back of our minds, but I want to stop and think about how many times this command goes from the beginning to the end of the Bible, because I think we might overlook this, but it's actually one of the most repeated, perhaps because of that, one of the more important commands of the Bible. So we can go back to the Pentateuch and just look at Deuteronomy 31, 6-7. It says, Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to get them. and you shall put them in possession of it. And so when Moses stands and preaches to the people, he tells the people, be strong and courageous. And when he looks at Joshua, he looks at Joshua particularly and says, you, be strong and courageous. And then when we see Joshua finally installed as the leader of God's people, Joshua 1, 6 through 7, God speaks to Joshua again using the same words, be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. Let me fast forward a little bit. I'm not gonna hit every one of the commands, because that would take all morning, but I wanna fast forward a little bit. We'll hit some highlights. We'll come to the building of the temple, and David is charging Solomon. It's towards the end of David's life, and he's charging Solomon, and he says, you're gonna need to build this temple. And so we come to 1 Chronicles 28 20, it says, then David said to Solomon, be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed for the Lord God, even my God is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. Or we could go forward a little bit more. We'll have 2 Corinthians 32.7. This is Hezekiah speaking to the men on the walls as the Assyrians look like they're just about to take the city. And he says to his men, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. We can turn to the Psalms. We see this command repeated throughout the Psalms, just to give a couple examples. Psalm 27, 14, it says, wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Or Psalm 31, 24, be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. We can enter into the prophets, and Isaiah 35 says this, say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. I'm gonna click off, sorry. Or we could go to Daniel 10, 19. It says, and he said, oh man, greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you. Be strong and of good courage. And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. Or in Haggai, Haggai's gonna charge Zerubbabel and Joshua, the governor, the son of David, and the high priest, and they're going to rebuild the temple. And he looks at both of them, and he starts with Zerubbabel, he says, yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Then he looks at Joshua, and he says, be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts. Or we could go to Zechariah 8, 9, and it says, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, Let your hands be strong. You who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouths of the prophets who are present on the day that the foundation of the Lord of Hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. As we flip over into the New Testament, we run off the prophets, we come into the New Testament. This is a command that we see repeated over and over again in the New Testament as well. I'll just pull a couple examples. We see 1 Corinthians 16, 13. Paul, at the end of the book, is going to charge them, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Or we could go to Ephesians 6, 10. Paul says at the end of the book of Ephesians, finally, be strong in the Lord. and in the strength of his might. Or Colossians 1, 11, this is his prayer for the Colossians. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. So as we come to 2 Timothy 2, 1, we hear that again. He says, you then, my child, be strong, be strengthened. in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. I want us to put that in context of all the times that command had been given before and say, why? Why is that command so important in the Bible? Why is it given over and over and over again? We get this idea that maybe it's not going to be easy. Maybe it's going to be harder than we might imagine to go and complete the work that God lays in front of us. In fact, this is what we looked at Hebrews 10 last week several times. We referred back to it, and this is what Hebrews 10 had said. It says, Hebrews 10, 36, you have need of endurance. You have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. So the first thing as we look at that, that you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The first thing that I want to think about there is that you're going to need strength beyond you if you're going to endure in ministry. That's what Paul's saying to Timothy. Timothy, you're not strong enough. You aren't strong enough. You are weak. You're going to need strength beyond you if you're to endure in ministry. In fact, I think Paul would go ahead and crease that statement. He's gonna say, not only do you need strength to endure in ministry, you need strength if you're even going to endure in the faith. Just walking in faith with Christ is gonna take a strength beyond you. So he says, you then, my child, be strengthened. You then, my child, be strengthened. You feel weak right now, Timothy. Let me tell you, you are. You are weak, and you need to be strengthened. But then he continues on, he says, this is what's gonna strengthen you. I'm not just saying be strong and walking off. He says, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. I got a thing off. By the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And so as we look at that, he's gonna say, this is what's gonna do it. How are you gonna be strong? Go find the grace of Christ Jesus, and that will make you strong. And so he says, Timothy, you need to go to the gospel and find strength in the gospel. And that's going to be what strengthens you to go on into ministry. And that's great. He looks at Timothy, he says, Timothy, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And it sounds great, but then as we stop, we might be in danger of saying something like looking at a brother in need and saying, be warm and be clothed, because it's great to say, okay, be strong in the grace that you have in Jesus Christ. What does that mean? What does it mean to be strong in that? And so I wanna stop and think about that for a second. If this is what Paul holds out to Timothy and says, Timothy, this is gonna be your source of strength. What does that mean? How do we do that? And actually, there's three times, or actually two times, the third one actually isn't exactly this phrase. But there's another time in the Bible that we're going to see a phrase very similar to this, and it's going to be in Hebrews 13.9. So this is at the conclusion of the book of Hebrews. I've told you all before, I believe that Hebrews was either written by Paul or written by somebody very closely associated with Paul, and so it has a lot of the same tone as many of Paul's books. written towards a different audience. This is how he concludes in Hebrews. He says, do not be led away by diverse and strange teaching. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. So he's gonna say the same thing to the audience in Hebrews. He says, this is what you need. You need to be strengthened by grace. And then he makes a contrast. He says, it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods. which have not benefited those devoted to them. So Paul looks at this, he says, here's two things that you could run after to be strengthened. You could run after foods or you could run after grace. When he's saying foods, what he's referring to is the Old Testament sacrificial system and those who want to run to the altar and be strengthened by the food that is at the altar and want to find their strength and their hope there. And Paul says, no, just a second. Foods are an example of your works. Foods is what you could do to go and grasp on. And so he's saying, no, the heart should be strengthened by grace, not by foods. And so he's saying something like this. Grace is where you should find your confidence. Grace is where you should find your security, not in external actions. So he says, your heart should be strengthened by grace, not by foods. And so that's the negative. We aren't gonna be looking at external actions, things that we could do to strengthen ourselves. We have to rely on grace to find that strength, but that still leaves us with this question. Okay, that's great. I can't find strength in these things, but how do I find strength in grace? What does it mean to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus? Oh, I forgot I put another verse in there. When we say, I think Paul is saying something like, grace is where you should find your confidence and security, not in external actions. This is something he's already brought up in 2 Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1, 8 through 10, he said, therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling. not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. So this is definitely within what Paul is thinking. No, don't run after external works, things that you could do to strengthen yourself. Look for grace to strengthen you. But again, how do we do that? Okay, we've got the negative. Don't run after these. We need strength. We can't run after external things to strengthen us. But how do we find strength? grace for that I want to turn to Ephesians 3 we read Ephesians 3 earlier this morning to get this and the whole chapter but this is the prayer at the end of Ephesians 3 starting in verse 14 Paul says this for this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth his name that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner beings so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And so Paul's praying for the Ephesians. He says to the Ephesians, I want you to be strong too. If you're gonna be strong, God's gonna need to give that strength to you. So he prays that God would grant you to be strengthened with power. And when they're strengthened with power, what is that gonna look like? And he says, this is what it looks like in the end. When you're strengthened with power, Christ is gonna dwell in your hearts through faith. That's gonna be the strength that you need to be filled with. Okay, that's still all good. That still seems very philosophical up here. So what does that look like? Paul says, well, that's, that is, when he says that is, he's saying basically he's restating the statement. He says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And this is what that's going to look like. That you being rooted and grounded in love. may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. He says that strength. that strength, when you dive into Christ and you find how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ. When you know the love that surpasses knowledge, that's strength. And so I think when Paul says to Timothy, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, he's telling Timothy something like this, you will find strength by exploring the unsearchable riches or the unsearchable depths of grace. You will find strength by immersing yourself in Christ. And so it's similar to what he said over and over again. He wants Timothy to take his eyes off of himself. He doesn't want Timothy to be looking at a situation, he's gonna group Timothy. Yeah, what you're going through is hard. That's not easy. He says it's normal. But he says, here's where you're gonna find strength. Take your eyes off yourself and dive into Christ. Take your eyes off yourself and explore how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ. Know that grace and there you will find strength. So we come back to 2 Timothy 2.1. You then, my child, be strengthened by grace. He looks at Timothy, he says, you need strength. Ministry, even walking in faith, is not easy. You're going to need strength beyond yourself. He says negatively, find strength in grace, not in anything that you could do, not works of your own, not external actions. And he says, find grace by diving into Christ. Go explore the unsearchable depths of grace and make that your passion. Make that what you imbibe on every day. When you do that, you will find strength in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And so that's his first, that's his great charge to Timothy. He says to Timothy, don't look at what's going on around you. Look at Christ. Go start every day by diving in and finding out how great is the love that Christ has for you. When you do that, and you're gonna be able to stand and continue in ministry. So that's the first one, be strengthened by grace. But then we have a second verse, verse two. And as we go through chapter two, at first glance, it's gonna seem like we get these pepper fire, this almost shotgun fire of commands that have very little to do with anything. He's gonna say, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Then he's gonna say, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Okay, that's interesting. Two good commands. How did they go together? But I think they're actually all going together very closely. And then when we get to some more commands, next time I come to Second Timothy, we're going to see that they're all flowing in a line. And that's what I want to see here. And preview, I think that the emphasis here is be strengthened by grace. and then be encouraged by camaraderie. Be strengthened by grace, be encouraged by camaraderie. So we come to 2 Timothy 2, 1-2. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. Entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So as we look at this, we can say, okay, this is something that Paul's already been talking about several times. Paul's already looked at this concept of generational faithfulness. He looked at Timothy and said, look, your faith started in your grandmother, went through your mother, has come to you. He says, my faith started with my ancestors long ago, and it's come to me. We all serve God with a clear conscience. Now he's saying, we need to keep that faith going. We need to pass it down to the next generation. That's usually what a lot of people are going to talk about in this, and that's a great thing to talk about, and I'm going to talk about that a little bit, because it is a great thing to talk about here. And so, at first glance, Paul's saying something about generational faithfulness is another reason to be faithful. Generational faithfulness is another reason to be faithful. Timothy, if you quit now, you're not gonna pass it on to the next generation, and that's gonna create this break. You received this, you need to pass it on. But that doesn't necessarily help us tie it into what's going on. He just said, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What does finding faithful men and training them up have to do with being strengthened by grace? Actually, Paul knew the Old Testament really, really well, if you hadn't noticed that. Paul knew the Old Testament really, really well, and I think actually Paul has some Old Testament examples floating around here in the back of his mind. He's looking at Old Testament examples and saying, okay, there were men in the Old Testament, leaders of God's people, who were burnt out, who didn't know how to keep going, and what happened with them. And he's got probably one in the back of his mind right now as he starts to write this, and it's gonna be Moses. Moses leading the people out of Egypt. So we read all of Exodus 18 this morning. I just wanna read the middle 10 verses again. Exodus 18, verses 13 through 23. This is right before they get to Mount Sinai, so they've left Exodus, they've gone through the Red Sea, they're marching through the wilderness towards Mount Sinai, and we meet them as they're marching, Exodus 18, 13 through 23. The next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, what is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening? Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws. Moses' father-in-law said to him, I love how bold Moses' father-in-law is. He said, what you're doing is not good. Moses' father-in-law said to him, what you're doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out. Moses, that's too much for you to handle, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice. Again, Moses' father-in-law, extremely bold, speaking almost like he's God. Moses, obey my voice, and I will give you advice, and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people. Men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you. you will be able to endure, and this people also will go to their place in peace. I think that example is in the back of Moses' mind as he's talking to Timothy. He says, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust a faithful man who will be able to teach others also. He's saying something like this. Don't try to do ministry alone. Don't try to do ministry alone. Find partners to share the burden. Don't try to do ministry alone. Find partners to share the burden. And then once we see that, it starts to wrap into the rest of it very easily. He started out using my child, be strong. You aren't strong enough. You need to find strength outside yourself. to continue in ministry, and that strength needs to come from the grace of Christ. But then he's going to continue and say, you're right, you aren't strong. You aren't strong. Just as Moses' father-in-law said to him, Moses, you aren't strong enough to do all of this. You're going to burn yourself out. Paul's saying the same thing to Timothy. Timothy, you're burnt out. Maybe you need to go find some other guys to go help you. Find some faithful men. Teach them, make sure they're able to teach others also. And so that's what Paul's getting at, be encouraged by camaraderie. You're right, you're not strong enough. You're gonna need to get strength from the grace of Christ, and you're gonna need to have partners in the ministry. Go find people who are going to be able to pray with you, share the burden, who's gonna be able to walk with you and help the load of the ministry that you're under. So I want to tear that apart a little bit and we'll look at just the first half of that phrase. And what you have learned from me or heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. He says, this is how you're going to find faithful men. First, go back to what you heard from me. Go back to what you heard from me. And he adds this on. Heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. I think what he's saying is the content of the gospel has been clearly attested to. It's not going to change. So go back to what you heard from me from the beginning. And I said it in the presence of many witnesses. Lots of people have already heard this gospel. And so the content of the gospel has been clearly attested to and will never change. Find partners. who are gonna be rooted in that same gospel. Don't go out and find anybody. Find people who are going to love the gospel that I shared with you, Timothy. You're gonna share it with them, and they're gonna love it and wanna serve in that gospel as well. So he says, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So he's gonna say find partners who are rooted in that same gospel, and then he's gonna use this word entrust. That's a word Paul's already used. That's that word deposit that we talked about last week. He's gonna say deposit it in them. He's saying something like this, intentionally train up partners. You've been given a ministry, Timothy. Intentionally train up partners in that unchanging gospel. Don't just go around and wait for people to walk up beside you and say, hey, I'm ready to serve with you. He said, go find men who are faithful, who already love the gospel, that gospel that I shared with you, but then go train them. Teach them what it means to do ministry and to stand beside you and serve with you. Literally, he's saying, deposit what you've been given in them. In fact, like I said, this is a word Paul used several times. I said, Paul repeats words several times as we go through this book. We saw that word remember at the beginning of the book. Now he's gonna use this word deposit several times. In the ESV, it's translated in trust. And so we'll see it repeated as the word in trust. It started back in 2 Timothy 1.12. Paul's saying about himself, but I am not ashamed. He said, this is why I suffer as I do, because I've been a preacher and apostle and teacher, but I am not ashamed. For I know who I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me." Paul says, that gospel was deposited in me. We'll see in other places, he's going to say, literally, that gospel got deposited in me directly from Christ. Christ came to me on the road to Damascus and taught me the message that I was to go proclaim. So he says, that was entrusted, deposited in me. And then Paul's gonna look at Timothy and say, that deposit that I had, I went ahead and deposited in you as well. We'll see that in other places where Paul lays his hands on Timothy. And then he says this about Timothy, 2 Timothy 1.14, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit and trust it to you. Paul says to Timothy, that was deposited with me. Now I deposited with you and you've been serving the gospel, but you're getting worn out. And so now he's going to say in 2 Timothy 2.2, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That deposit was given to Paul, given to Timothy, and Paul says to Timothy, keep giving it to others. It doesn't stop with you. You're not the end and you have to do everything. Go find other men and keep sending the deposit on. And by doing that, you're going to find men who are going to be able to stand beside you and be faithful in ministry to the gospel, and it's not all gonna fall on your shoulders. Just as Jethro said to Moses, you can't do it alone, Moses, go find some men to go help you. Paul's saying the same thing to Timothy. But he's being very careful. Go find some men to go help you, but make sure they're faithful men, men who love the gospel. I think in the back of his mind, I tried to make this sermon short, because I know at work, as I start to talk, I start to cough, and so I hope I get through the sermon before I start coughing too much. But he says to Timothy, make sure they're faithful men, because we need to be faithful. We are stewards of this gospel. It was deposited in me. It was deposited in you. Go deposit it in others. So in 2 Corinthians 4, 1 through 2, Paul says this. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Paul's looking. He says that about himself. He says, Timothy, that's true of you. You're a steward of the mystery of God. You need to go and make other people stewards of that mystery as well. Here's the thing, oh, thank you. He says, this is the thing. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. So he says, go find people who can help, but you're gonna need to find stewards who are gonna be found trustworthy. Make sure that they know the gospel and they're able to teach it to others also. So as we look at this second portion of the verse, we might summarize it like this. Don't try to do ministry alone, find partners to share the burden, but make sure that they're faithful partners. Make sure that they're faithful partners who can steward with you. So the deposit that was given to me passed down to you, you can pass down to them and you know that just as I guarded the deposit and you're guarding the deposit, you can be sure that they're going to guard the deposit as well. And so it says, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace. You need strength. And here's where it is. And Timothy, you're not strong enough. You're right. Go find some men to help. Just make sure that they're the right sort of men. Make sure they're faithful, they love the gospel, and you can train them up so that they can teach others also. And so we start to get this idea of the deposit's gonna be passed down. He starts at the beginning of the book looking back. He says, Timothy, look at all the deposit that has been passed down so far. And he's gonna say, keep passing the deposit down so it doesn't get lost. Don't squander the deposit that's been given to you. So that's all that I wanted to cover this morning. It was just those two commands. Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. Entrace to faithful men. Entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So I want to go just through some applications. Obviously, all of that is extremely applicable. And again, I want to stop as we go through applications. Obviously, this is incredibly applicable to pastors and pastoral ministry. We can apply this directly to that and say that about this. But like I said before, I think anyone who has a gospel ministry, and if you're in Christ, you have some sort of gospel ministry, whether it's to your family, to your children, and evangelism, coworkers, all sorts of gospel ministries, we can apply this as well, and we can say, okay, the command here is be strengthened by grace. And whatever way that you are serving Christ in gospel ministry, how are you going to be strengthened by grace? And I want to look at four things. First, we need to stop and recognize that we are weak on earth. If we're to serve in gospel ministry, we need to recognize that we're weak on our own. We don't have the power to endure. In fact, that's gonna be a danger. If we think that we're strong, that's gonna be a danger to us. Paul's gonna look at Timothy and say, Timothy, be strong in grace. Why? Because, Timothy, you aren't strong. You aren't strong. You need to recognize that about yourself. If you puff yourself up with pride and think that you are strong and that you have the power to endure, That's gonna be when you start falling on your face over and over again and want to give up. Paul's gonna say that over and over again. He's gonna look at himself and say the same thing. I'm not strong on my own. I can't be strong on my own. My gospel ministry can't be in my own strength. So he could go to places like 2 Corinthians 12.10. Paul says this, he's been talking about some weakness, he doesn't designate exactly what that weakness is, but some weakness that he's been afflicted with. He's even prayed to God that he would be, that weakness would be taken away from him. God says no, but then he says this, for the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. Paul says, this is what I've come to realize is I need to be content with that. That's going to be my lot in this world is that I am weak and I'm going to face suffering. But then he says this, for when I am weak, then I am strong. If you try to be strong on your own, you're going to find that you're weak. But when you're able to recognize, no, I'm weak, I don't have it in me to go serve Christ in the way that He ought to be served, then you can become strong. But what does He mean by that? When I am weak, then I am strong. I think He'll explain that in another place, going back several chapters in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 4-7. Paul's talking about his ministry. He's saying that he has this great and glorious ministry, a ministry that's greater than Moses who came down from the mountain with a shining face. But then he says this, we have this treasure, this great and glorious gospel ministry, we have this treasure in jars of clay. I'm gonna say, the ministry is glorious, but we're just clay pots. We have this treasure in jars of clay. And he says, that's actually an important point, not something to be overlooked. It's not like a problem with God's design. It wasn't a flaw in what God has told us to do. He didn't give us this glorious message and just forget to get a suitable vesicle to carry the message in. He says, no, that's important because when we have this treasure in jars of clay, then it shows that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. So he says, Timothy, admit your weaknesses. Admit that you are weak. You aren't strong enough to do the things that you need to do in ministry. So if we're going to be strengthened by grace, we need to start by looking at ourselves and saying, we are weak. It's not within us. We don't have the power on our own to go serve Christ. And that's gonna bring us to the second application. First, we admit our own weakness. I don't have it in me to go serve Christ. And then second, we immerse ourselves in exploring the grace of Christ. We immerse ourselves in exploring the grace of Christ. And just to be practical right now, okay, he says, be strengthened by grace. I think he's saying something like this. Timothy, go read scripture. Go read it and love it and explore all the things that Christ has done for you. Timothy, go meditate on the things of Christ. Meditate on how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Timothy, go pray and find the grace of Christ. Go and sing. Boy, singing is a great way to explore the depths of the grace of Christ. Go sing on your own with others. Go sing and celebrate the things that Christ has done for us. Go join in corporate worship and explore the breadth and the height and the length and the depth of the grace of Christ. And so really, this verse is a call to personal devotion, to say, I'm not going to forget to go search out the things of Christ. I'm going to devote myself every morning, get up, go and search out how great the grace of Christ is for me, and then use that to spur me on to all the things that God's going to lay in front of me that day. I'm going to go and meditate as I go through the day and say, wow, these are all the things that Christ has done for me. He's redeemed me from sin. He's redeemed me from sin in big ways. And he's also redeemed me from these specific sins that I see in my life. He has ransomed me. He's given me a place before me. He's welcomed me before his throne. Look at all these great things that Christ has done for me. And guess what that's going to do? It's going to fan into flame the gift of God that is in him. through the weighing on of his hands. That's what Paul is saying to Timothy, and that's what we ought to take away from it. Immerse yourself in exploring the grace of Christ. Then third, we should go find partners to work with us. Don't try to do things on your own. Doing gospel ministry on your own is going to be a recipe for discouragement and burnout. Jethro tells Moses that, Paul tells Timothy that. Don't try to do it on your own. That's foolish. Instead, we should try to find partners. We should go find partners to work with us, who are able to encourage us, who are able to pray with us, or be able to pray for us. and therefore be partners with us in gospel ministry. We have to admit we can't do it on our own. First, we admit our weakness. We go and say the strength that I need is going to be found in grace, and I need partners. I'm not going to be able to do this on my own. Those are all three ways that I think we should apply this passage and say whatever way that God has given us in gospel ministry, we can do those things. In fact, we need to do those things to run after the grace of Christ. Wow, I got way off in my clicking. There we go. Those are all ways that we should pursue being strengthened by grace. But then one final application I think we ought to make as we come to this passage is we should encourage church leadership to train up men who will be able to continue in faithfulness to the gospel. We should encourage church leadership to train up other men who will be able to continue in the faithfulness of the gospel. So Paul is building this idea in 2 Timothy. Well, Timothy, this gospel came to me, I passed it down to you, and now you're gonna need to pass it down to the next generation. And now, we're actually part of that. We are, I don't know, 500 generations later, and that deposit has still been coming to us. And we ought to be ready to say that deposit came to Paul and to Timothy and then to 498 other generations and has now come to us. And we're going to be a link that passes that deposit on to the next generation. And so, as a church body, we should be figuring out ways to encourage the elders, the deacons, to help train up other men who will be able to continue in faithfulness to the gospel. So that could look like several things. It could look like just a passion from the church to say, yes, go find men and train them up. We're going to do what we can to help you with that and to serve you in that and to encourage that with you. But I'd also say this. especially if you're a young man, is not all, in fact, the Bible says it's relatively few will be called to pastoral ministry, but you shouldn't reject that out of hand. Maybe you're being called to go be trained. Maybe you're someone who ought to be trained in gospel ministry, and you should be ready to volunteer and say, yeah, I'd like to be trained. I'd like to learn more about how to preach, how to teach, how to serve the gospel in a local church. And so that should be on the back of our minds as a congregation, is how are we going to facilitate continuing this in our congregation, to pass it down from one generation to the next, so that in 30 years, we don't cease to exist, but we'll have said, you know what, we passed it down to the next generation, and there are faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So those are four things we ought to think about as we come through this. And kids, as we close, this is gonna be a kid's question for this passage. Where does strength for ministry come from? Where does strength for ministry come from? Strength comes from intentionally knowing how much Christ has given to us. Strength comes from intentionally knowing. That means devoting yourself to know, go explore it, but intentionally knowing how much Christ has given to us. Let's pray together. Father, we're grateful for Paul's words to Timothy. We're grateful that you ordained that, that you authored that through Paul. Father, we're grateful that you have offered us a source of strength. We come before you and admit our weaknesses. Father, I come before you and admit my weakness. Father, I'm not a vessel that on my own would be able to serve you well. But Father, we're grateful that you have offered us grace in Christ. Father, I pray that you would train us all to search out that grace. to search out how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, to spur us to know that love that surpasses knowledge, so that we would be filled to the measure of all of your fullness. Father, I pray that that would be our strength. Father, we need that strength. We need that strength if we are to continue on being your servants. Father, I need that strength to continue on serving in this church. This congregation needs that strength to continue serving in each of the ways that you've called them to serve you. So Father, I pray that you would honor what you promised here, that when we seek out your grace, we will find strength there and strengthen us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.