As we come to this portion of our worship before the Lord and the reading of scripture and the singing of psalm and the preaching of his word, I always take this opportunity to remind us again that for the word to be effectual unto salvation, the spirit of God makes the reading but especially the preaching of his word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. So we come to this portion, as the scripture says to us, with all due diligence, preparation, and prayer, we receive the word with faith and love, we lay it up in our hearts, and by God's grace, we seek to practice it in our lives. So would you rise with me and turn in your Bibles to the book of Psalms? We will read Psalm 1 together, which really is the gateway to the whole book of praise. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Again, turn with me in your New Testament to 2 Timothy, chapter 1. 2 Timothy, chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. 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 manifest through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day that which was entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. May the Lord add his blessing to this reading of his holy word. Let us pray. Joey, can you turn that down just a smidge? I'm already loud enough as it is. Father, we do thank you for, again, this opportunity to gather in the name of our Savior to celebrate and magnify you for your glorious resurrection through which you have begotten us again unto a living hope. Oh, Lord, our hope is truly in you. We look to no other because you are the living and true God, the creator of heaven and earth and all that in them is. You rule all things by the word of your power. Your word never returns to your void, but accomplishes all that you send it to do. And so we beseech you, oh Lord. We call upon your spirit to cause your word to go forth now in power, that you would search us and try our way. that if there be any wicked way within us, O Lord, that we would confess our sin to you, whom we know are faithful and just, to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Father, conform us into the image of Jesus. Help us now to set our thoughts above, upon Christ, who is seated at your right hand. And for this, we give you thanks and praise, and bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. As I was meditating and thinking about the sermon for today, I came to the realization that I don't know which is harder, to preach first sermons, where you are preaching to a congregation, maybe for the first time because you've been called there as a pastor, or maybe because you've been invited to preach at a congregation you've never preached before, and so you don't really know the people. You don't really know where they are spiritually. You don't really know what their engagement to the Lord actually is. And so it's difficult, especially when you come to the area of application. Now, I've had the opportunity to preach many times first sermons. And thankfully, I'm not like John Wesley, who wrote in his diary, preached at such and such a place, never invited again. But on the other hand, last sermons are also very difficult. I've had to preach a number of last sermons throughout my ministry. And the difficulty is because you know the people well, you know their hearts, you've watched them through the years as I look out at this congregation and see many of you young people who were pint-sized when you first came and now have grown up in the congregation, and many have gone on to married life and to further education and different things, and you look and you say as you preach the last sermon, it could be in the very providence of God that this would be the last time that I would preach here. Last time I would have the opportunity to open God's Word to you. And that always brings a special kind of tension and problem. It's, what do you say if this is the last time, if this is the last opportunity that I will have to stand in this pulpit? What would I say, or what should I say to the congregation that I have watched through the years just continue to expand and grow and mature in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? And I'm always drawn to different places in the scripture where there's kind of these last times, like in Acts chapter 20 when Paul and Peter referred to them last Wednesday night when Paul was meeting with the Ephesian elders and basically said to them, this, you will not see my face again. It's not going to happen. The Lord has already shown me that I'm going to roam, and that I'm going to be imprisoned, and all kinds of things are going to take place, and the chances of me, in God's providence, of coming back to you here in Ephesus are slim and none. In fact, they are none. And so He gives them a word. He says to them, fierce wolves will come at you. There will even be those from among you who will rise up and bring all kinds of twisted doctrine seeking to allure you astray, to take you away from the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then I think about this second epistle of Paul to Timothy that we abbreviate and just simply call Second Timothy. The Apostle Paul is in Rome, more than likely, as he writes his epistle. He basically has given instruction to Timothy about certain things that he would want him to do in his first letter to Timothy, but now is writing to him again, giving instruction to Timothy as to how, after Paul's departure, he is to behave. I'm going to look at two of the things that he says to Timothy in this epistle. He actually says four things primarily. He says to Timothy he is to hold fast to the pattern of sound words that he has received. He is to teach that pattern of sound words. He is to abide in that pattern of sound words. And he is to preach that pattern of sound words. That's Paul's exhortation to Timothy. By God's grace, I will seek to open up to us this morning two of those things, and that is, one, that we are to hold to the pattern or keep the pattern of sound words, and two, that we are to abide in that pattern of sound words that has been communicated unto us. Now, why is this important? Well, it's particularly important because Paul tells Timothy in chapter 3 that grievous times are coming. Difficult times. Paul was a realist. He recognized that as the Gospel went forth in all of its power and glory, as multitudes were being brought in, especially as we see the work of God's Spirit in the church in those first three centuries, that at the same time, the devil would raise his head, come against the church, fight against it with everything he had in his arsenal. Grievous times would come. And so Paul basically says to Timothy, hold fast to the pattern of sound words. We face grievous times in our day. I don't believe they're any more grievous than any other day in the history of the church, but they certainly are grievous to us. We feel the pinch, we feel the pain, we feel the stress, we feel the persecution, we feel the hardship, we feel all of those things. And I often hear people say that what we ought to do then is pray for revival. Well, I don't think we should pray for revival. Follow Martin Lloyd-Jones here, I think we should pray for Reformation. Judgment begins at the household of God. And Reformation is a flowing out of, or Revival is a flowing out of Reformation. Reformation flows into Revival by extinction, by extension, but they are distinct. Reformation has to do with the Church. It has to do with us. It has to do with our looking inwardly, our looking at ourselves, seeing those things where we fall short, and determining by God's grace to reform to reform the church, to walk in the way, as Paul says here, to walk in the way of a pattern of sound words. So the first part of this sermon, in a sense, is addressing us as a congregation, and the second part will address us as individual Christians in the midst of this congregation. Paul says to Timothy in verse 13, hold to the pattern of sound words. And what does he mean by that? Well, what he means is you are not to swerve because of pressure, because of your own ideas, you're to stay the course, you're not to be lazy, you're to give yourself completely and wholly to this Word that you have received as the Church of Jesus Christ. Don't swerve because of pressure. Economic pressure. that pressure that will, in likelihood, be put upon the church because the government doesn't want to be in competition with the church of Jesus Christ. So it will do all that it can do, all that it must do, to try and curb and hinder the voice of the gospel as it comes from the people of God. We sometimes swerve from the pressure of family. Our families often are not converted. Our families often don't hold the same views that we might as those who are reformed and born again. And so they pressure us. pressure us not to set aside the Lord's Day. I remember as a young preacher, my in-laws used to always have their family gatherings on Sunday, and they would invite us to come, and I would say, well, I can't come on Sunday, and my father-in-law would always say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, that's the only day you work. All the rest of the time, I'm just out doing nothing, playing around, as one of my friends always says, having my jollies. That kind of pressure that they begin to put upon you. Paul says to the church, hold to the pattern of sound words. Stay the course. Some years ago, I went on a sailing trip with my father-in-law, and we were in a 20-foot sailboat and got caught in 25-foot seas. It's not very much fun to be in a little sailboat when the waves are much higher than what your boat is. Where we would find ourselves going down in these troughs between the waves where all I could see all around me were walls of water. Suddenly coming up to the top and basically having the boat just kind of spin around because the rudder came out because the waves were so steep. We'd slide down the other side, sideways, flip around, come up again with the water. crashing over us. I remember yelling to my father-in-law, what do we do? And as we came up to the top of this wave, he looked and he said, see that light? That's on Anacapa Island. You keep your eyes on that light. You stay the course. You don't turn this boat in any other direction. You just keep going straight for that light. And that's exactly what Paul is saying to Timothy here in this particular place. He says, Timothy, you have been given the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you set your eyes upon that light and you stay the course. You hold to the pattern of sound words. You don't swerve to the right, you don't swerve to the left, but you just keep going. No matter how big the waves become, no matter how hard the wind blows, no matter how much we're being tossed, Timothy, you stay the course. hold to that pattern of sound words. Or even our own laziness. Listen, to be a Christian and to be a faithful church of Christianity, you must not be lazy. It takes work to follow Christ. Not that our works justify us, but anybody who tells you that Christian life is easy, that all you need to do is kick back, let go, Just let go. When God does everything, He's not telling you the truth. It takes our labor, it takes our service, it takes our commitment to the Lord in all things. Hold to the pattern of sound words. The apostle puts it in these terms in verse 14. He says, guard the good deposit. Guard the good deposit. He says, follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. In other words, Paul tells Timothy not to fail because of an underestimation of the work of that which you have been given in that pattern of sound words. I've often heard people talk about everything the world needs. The world needs better governments. The world needs more wealth. The world needs more health. The world needs more this. The world needs more of that, but what the Apostle Paul says to Timothy here is what the world needs is the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a church, we do believe that the gospel will change the world. You can go to heaven under a bad government, you can go to heaven poor, you can go to heaven sick, but you can't go to heaven without Christ, and it is Christ who is preached to us in the Gospel. He is the good deposit. He is what we have to offer the world. Him and nothing else, Jesus only. Because Jesus only is the way, truth, and life. And only by Jesus do men and women become reconciled to God. There is no other name given under heaven whereby we might be saved, save in the name of Christ. He is that good deposit that has been committed unto us at Covenant Community Church that we might offer Him, that we might proclaim Him, that we might command men everywhere to turn to Him and to Him alone. Guard the good deposit. Notice he says guard it. Why? Because there is an enemy that roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We must not lose the good deposit by an underestimation of the cunning craftiness of our enemy. He seeks to ensnare the church of Jesus Christ. He seeks to ensnare us. But Paul says we're not ignorant of his devices. And we stand against him. Not that we've shut our doors so that somehow he can't get in, but because we go into the highways and the byways. We go to the people. We go to the streets. We go to the corners. We go to their houses. We go to their markets. We go everywhere that they are gathered together because the gates of hell will not prevail against him who is upon his horse riding forth conquering and to conquer. The gates of hell shall not prevail against him. And thirdly, as we hold to the pattern, as we guard the good deposit, we're not to be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus. Paul says in verse 8, 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. We're not to turn back because of embarrassment, we're not to turn back because of ridicule. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1.16, I know whom I have believed. He says, I have believed, I have believed the gospel because in it is revealed the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Now, I would ask you the question, and I'm not begrudging this in any way, shape, or form, but in all the recent years that we have seen members joining the church, and I thank God for every one of you that is here. As you know, when I first came here, there was virtually no one. But most of that increase in membership has come from where? Christians moving into the area? Christians making a transfer to this church for one reason or another? Let me ask you, how many of you invite your neighbors to church? In a consistent way. Maybe you did when you first moved into the neighborhood, or maybe you did when you first met them and told them they were Christians. But how many have established a relationship enough with your neighbors that you have the opportunity to invite them to church? And why don't we often invite them? Well, it used to be because we're so small. We were afraid people would come in and say, well, there's not many people here. It must not be something I want to be involved with. But now maybe it's just we're a little embarrassed. We're embarrassed because we have a congregation that preaches against the LGBT whatever letters you give to it movement. Because we'll stand up and say that homosexuality is sin. We have no problem with disciplining our children and raising them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, and we're afraid that people might come in and be offended? And so we hope that they get saved someplace else and they kind of come by a roundabout way to come to us. Or because of the ridicule. How often have we kept silent at work because we don't want those in the workplace to know that we're Christians because of the ridicule? Or when Christians are being ridiculed or a church is being ridiculed, we keep silent because we're ashamed. And Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, don't be ashamed. The world is going to hate you. They've hated me. They're going to hate you. and they're going to do all manner of evil against you. So don't be ashamed. And why was Paul's exhortation to Timothy and through him to us this way? Because you have received a trust from God in the sound pattern of words You have received a trust from God that has come from Christ through His holy apostles, through the early church, through the reformers, through men like Jonathan Edwards and others who have come and proclaimed this good news to you. You have received it. It has come to you as a gift. And we are to appreciate the value, the worth of that gift that we have received. So hold to the pattern of sound words as a gift from God. There's a sense in which we as Reformed Christians have all the more reason to thank God for the revelation of His Word, because by His grace and in His mercy, He has given us an understanding of that Word that many have not possessed in the history of the church. Not because we're better, Not because we're bigger, not because we're smarter, but because God is gracious to keep His testimony of Jesus before the watching eyes of a lost world. God is gracious to keep His light shining in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation. God is gracious to cause His Word to go forth in power because of its truthfulness. And God has supplied you all you need as a congregation to keep that pattern of sound words. Paul says in verse 7, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. He's given us a spirit of power. the power that came upon the church of Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost, that power that came that they might be, that we might be a witness to Christ in all the nations, every nation, every kindred, every tribe, every tongue, none being left aside or left out. Because our God closes doors that no man can open, and He opens doors that no man can close. And as a church, we need to be willing to run through those open doors and then to fervently pray that God would give us wisdom and direction as we proclaim His Word to the nations, because He has given us all that we need. The Greek word that's translated in many of our Bibles as discipline is actually a word that means even-keeled. A ship or a boat that goes the fastest through the water is the ship that is actually balanced in the water. Not leaning too much to the left, not leaning too much to the right, but is even keeled. And so it pushes through the water with power. Or some of our translations say, a sobering mind. And why do they do that sobering? Because a drunkard does what? He weaves back and forth. When I was learning how to sail, my teacher laughed at me at one point and said, Tony, turn around and look behind you. And I did, and the wake behind us was going like this. He goes, as long as you keep going like this, we're never going to get to where we're going. We're never going to arrive. You need to make a straight line and love. We love him because he has first loved us. My friends, God's love is overwhelming. God's love is overwhelming. Notice how John says it in verse 1. Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God. What kind of love is that? I made the comment in one of my classes the other day that God loves us in Christ as He loves Christ. God loves us in Christ as He loves Christ. That should overwhelm us. That should make us weak at the knees. That should make us fall down in praise and adoration of a God such as our God, for there is no other God like Him in heaven and earth. God has supplied us with all we need. As the Scripture says, He's given some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the building up of the body of Christ. For the building up of the body of Christ, He's given us all that we need to be built up in the pattern of sound words. And you have seen the results. of the sound words in the lives of your loved ones. Those of us who are parents who basically committed in our children's baptism to raise them in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, which meant that we would raise them in that pattern of sound words that had been once and for all delivered to the saints, and we've seen how they've grown. One of the things that I praise God about this ministry that I've had here with my wife Kathleen for those many, many years, is we have seen God's children The young people of this church being catechized and growing up and being shaped by the pattern of sound words and the fruit that it bears in their lives. The life that God has been pleased to give them. We continue to pray that the Lord would use them mightily in the furtherance of His kingdom from generation to generation. You have seen the results and you should thank God for them continually. But it's not enough for the church simply to hold to the pattern as a congregation of sound words. But you must also, as Christians, abide in those sound words. What Paul says to Timothy in chapter 3 is, Timothy, you must be firmly settled in sound doctrine. Firmly settled in sound doctrine. In other words, Paul is telling Timothy, for us as Christians, we need to take heed to the admonition of Jesus that we don't build our house on the sand. that we build our house on the rock, because the rock is what is firmly settled. And we must be firmly settled upon that rock by being firmly settled in the sound doctrine that the Scripture gives to us. Listen, you come to Covenant Community Church, hopefully not to just feel good on Sunday mornings, but you come here because this congregation, as a congregation, seeks to rightly divide the Word of Truth, proclaiming the full counsel of God, as Paul tells the Ephesian elders, the full counsel of God, that we labor to see you conformed into the image of Christ. With all the strength, with all the gifts, with all the graces that God gives to us, we seek to firmly settle you in sound doctrine, to have your feet planted and well grounded in Christ. And we offer that in many ways. We have our children's catechism classes, we have our adult Sunday school, we have our Wednesday night meetings, we have men's meetings, we have women's meetings and studies. All of these things is for the purpose of seeing that you, as an individual member of Covenant Community Church, are well grounded in that pattern of sound words, which is able to make you wise unto salvation, as Paul says. able to make you wise unto salvation. You must be persevering in sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is not something that you just take today and leave off tomorrow. But you must persevere in that constant instruction, that constant progress of learning, that constant work of the Spirit and sanctification. God sanctifies our minds that we might cast down every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. That we might stand girded in temptation. That God would secure us by those sound words. Notice how Jesus, in his own temptation, used the pattern of sound words to ward off the temptations of the evil one. Summarized in this way, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Every sound word. And all of God's words are sound. They never return to him void, but always accomplish that which he purposes to do. And by long-suffering persecution for the sake of sound words. Martin Luther's famous cry at the Reformation was, if you can prove from the word of God, then I will recant. But if not, I will stand firm in the pattern of sound words delivered to us once and for all in those apostolic writings. And I can do no other. And he was willing to suffer for the cause. of those words. He was willing to pitch his life right there. This is the line in the sand. This is where we can go nowhere else. We cannot deviate, depart, turn away from, ignore, pervert, change. those patterns of sound words. Paul says, if anyone comes to you preaching a gospel other than what I've proclaimed to you, I don't care whether it's an angel, whether they call themselves an apostle, I don't care what they call themselves, let them be accursed. Because there is but one pattern of sound words. And they have been delivered to us in the sacred writings. And why, Paul says, to us are we to do that? Verse 2 of chapter 3, because men are selfish, self-seeking, self-centered, self-congratulating, always banishing about in their lips that phrase, me, myself, and I, and no other. And it's only the sound words that deliver men from such destruction. He tells us in chapter 3 that the reason that you must hold to the pattern of sound words is because men often only hold to a form of godliness and deny its power. At the beginning, when I was reading Scripture, I said what? That we must come to the Word with preparation, diligence, and prayer. We must receive it in faith and love. We must lay it up in our hearts. We must practice it in our lives. and do not receive it, to not lay it up in your heart, to not lay it up, practice it in your life, is to have a form of godliness that denies the power of that Word. As Christians, the Word is to be our drink, our food. In Christ, our all in all. He tells us we need to hold to this pattern and abide in this pattern because there are false teachers and they are prevalent, and we have them prevalent in our days. Even now, in Reformed circles, there are men who, in my opinion, are denying the very Christ that bought them. by teaching that he was not fully God. Paul says, you have been instructed, Timothy, in that sure Word of God. Verses 14-17. This congregation, if I can't say anything else, I can say this. You have been instructed in the sure Word of God. You have had open to you, week after week, month after month, year after year, the sure word of the living and true God. That pattern of sound words that's able to make you wise unto salvation. There's no excuse. There's no excuse for us. And how are we to do this? Well, Paul tells Timothy, one way we do this is by fanning into flame. One of the things I've learned through my many, many years as a Christian, that is, if I'm not constantly feeding that fire of my heart with the wood of the Word, that my love grows cold. There is a constant need in the Christian life to keep fanning into flame that word as it blows upon our hearts. There's a constant need to be as those who keep the fire stoked. not letting it die down to embers, hoping that maybe it will come back. Paul says we do this by faith and love. Notice how he says, Follow the pattern of sound words that you've heard from me in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Follow these sound words. How? By faith. I believe God. God is not a man that He should lie. God is a truth teller. And God has revealed to us everything we need to know about Him and every duty He requires of us. He has left nothing out. He's left nothing for us to discover on our own. Either by direct statement or by good and necessary consequence, we know what we need to know about Him and what duty He requires of us, and we receive it by faith. By faith we believe that the heavens were created by the Word of God. By faith, we believe that God has sent forth His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. By faith, we believe He has been raised from the dead. By faith, we believe He has ascended on high and is seated on the right hand of God. By faith, we believe that He will come again to judge the world, separating the sheep and the goats. By faith and love, we love Him because He first loved us. By this shall they know that you are my disciples, Jesus said, by the love you have one for another. And how can a man say that he loves God if he doesn't love his neighbor? When your enemy is hungry, feed him. When he's thirsty, give him water. When he's naked, clothe him. The Father has loved us, that we might love him with all of our hearts, our soul, our mind, our strength. Let me do this by the help of the Holy Spirit. Paul says here in verse 14, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard that good deposit that has been entrusted to you. Abide in that deposit by the Holy Spirit. Listen, my friends, the Christian life is a spiritual life. It cannot be lived, Paul reminds us in Romans, it cannot be lived by the strength of the flesh, it is only by the Spirit of God who is indwelling us. Paul says to the Christians, know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, that God dwells in us? And that He has promised to unleash in us rivers of living water. The power that we can say no to ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil age. The Spirit of Christ who has come to conform us, mold us, shape us into the image of Christ. And it's by His help. So let me give these final words of exhortation. First of all, to the pastors and elders of this congregation. It has been my great privilege over the last 20 years to work with men in this congregation that I highly esteem in the Lord. beginning early on with John Van Boris, who he and his wife Millie joined themselves to work and labor together with us here in a fledgling, little, tiny group of people, not really sure what the Lord would do, but being firmly convinced and believing that God would bless His Word. And I know It brings me great joy and I think I speak for John also that it brings him great joy as we've seen this work that God has been pleased to do here. But through the years. the different men at different times who served on that session, and the men who now serve on that session, my admonition is that as you lead the church, that you lead them in this pattern of sound words, giving not into any of the devices of the evil ones swaying you, turning you, causing you in some way to deviate that course in any way. I don't know if Pastor Peter remembers this, but early on after he came, the church was still fairly small. Financially, we weren't doing all that well, and he basically came and said, you know, Tony, it looks like that if something doesn't happen in the next year, we're going to close the doors here at Covenant Community. And I said to Peter, Peter, let's just persevere. God will do great things in this place. We trust Him. We believe Him. And so my exhortation to you as elders and pastor is turn away not. Don't swerve to the right or the left. Keep your eyes on that end. The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To you parents who have young children, who pray for them constantly, that God would be pleased to save them at an early age, that God would open their eyes and unsot their ears, that they might embrace the covenant, that they might earn their baptism, The best way to that end is by holding to the pattern of sound words in your life. As Moses says to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy, speak about them when you get up, speak about them as you go to bed, speak about them when you're walking in the way, speak about them when you're sitting at the dinner table, speak about them, speak about them, speak about them. Don't let them off of your lips day and night. Because as Paul said to Timothy, Timothy, I believe this rests in you, as it rested in your grandmother, as it rested in your mother, because they gave to you the pattern of sound words, and I believe now rests in you also. That pattern of sound words that comes to us by the inspiration of God's Scripture, so that we might be thoroughly equipped onto every good work. But I especially want to address myself to the young people in the congregation. Because whether you realize it or not, probably in this stage of your life, pressure is your greatest enemy. Peer pressure. Wanting to be like your friends. Wanting to be like someone else. Wanting to do more than you're allowed to do, you think, as a Christian. That kind of pressure that comes when you're at school, when you begin to work. All of those pressures, as they constantly come. And I would say to you, be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. Pattern your life after Christ. Ground yourself in that pattern of sound words, because that is your defense, that is your rock, that is your shield, that is your strong and mighty tower, that is your buckler, that is what keeps you from the arrow that flies by day, and the pestilence that stalks by night, from the sin of this world. Twenty years. I started in June, the 20th year here at Covenant Community Church. I've watched many of you grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And for that, I will ever be grateful to God for his kindness and mercy to me as I've served you here in this place. And my hope and my prayer is that I have preached to you Christ and him crucified. That I have been able, by my ministry here, both in teaching or in the pulpit, to magnify and glorify the Savior who, besides there is no one or nothing comparable. It is a great blessing and joy to be a Christian. To trust in Christ, to know our sins are forgiven, to know that one day we will stand before Him and we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And I hope by God's grace I have been able to picture, to paint, to portray, to hold forth Christ as He is. He's the lily of the field. He's the rose of Sharon. He's the bright and morning star. He's the King of King and Lord of Lords. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we adore you. We praise you. We magnify your name. We give to you all the glory and honor. As we never tire to say, Lord, there is none like thee in heaven above or in the earth beneath. Our God, you are a magnificent Savior. You are a wonderful counselor. You are a mighty God. You are the Prince of Peace. You are our hope, our stay, our love, our desire. You are our all in all. You are everything to us. We pray, O Lord, that You would be pleased to cause us as Your people and as individuals, as Your people, to hold to the pattern of sound words, as Your people, as Your children, Lord, that You would help us to abide in that pattern of sound words, that it would be evident to all that are around us that surely You have extended to us the sure mercies of David. Father, I do pray and ask that your blessing would be and continue to be upon this work here at Covenant Community, that the name of Christ will always and forever be exalted from this place. And for this, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Now look up and receive the benediction of our God. Jehovah bless thee and keep thee. Jehovah, make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee. Jehovah, lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Go forth in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.