All right, thank you. A couple of things. I tell you, I brag on you all. as far as church that is an interim time and just a sense of unity and just working through and the way the pastor search team has just gone, and that's very good. I'll tell you though, you're giving me a complex. Every time I'm here, it pours down raining. And I don't know why, if you notice that, I'm like, what is this? So that's good. And Joe, the guy that, the pen, Thank you. I told you. I'm a prophet with some of this stuff. I told you this is a cool pen. This is great. And my wife is going to steal it. I had it for three days. She's a reading coach. Thank you. Tonight, what we've been doing is we've been looking through 1 Timothy chapter 2. I want to move on, but I was going to just read this passage of Scripture and then move on and let Jerry handle the fallout, the bombshell from it. But I think it's only fair that we at least look at it. And then we're going to look at—so if we could stand together and read 1 Timothy 2, verses 8-15. 8-15, we're just going to touch on that, and then we're going to look—mostly what I want to touch on tonight is in chapter 4. We want to get through, and hopefully get through at least halfway through chapter 4. But we'll read chapter 4, verses 1-16. Again, this has been talking about the understanding of prayer and worship, and that's been the first couple of verses of chapter 2. There's the idea of prayer, praying, and praying for kings and praying for people to be saved. Then it gets to what tonight—we don't want to dive into this too deep, because I don't want to make too much of this, and I think some have. But men and women in the church, starting with verse 8, "...therefore I desire that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting, and like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair, gold or pearls or costly clothing." Now, don't throw anything at me if you put on makeup tonight, okay? We're going to look at the issue of correct Bible interpretation, but people always get upset with this. But, which proper for women professing godliness with good works. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission, and I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. but to be in silence. For Adam was born first, and Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Nevertheless, she will be saved and childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, and self-control." And I had a little side joke for this, for Jacob's family, but we'll move on. In chapter 4, and this is really what I want to look at, this is called, remember the theme of this is spiritual leadership. and spiritual leadership, and we'll look at the idea of chaos and confusion, and then spiritual conviction. But in chapter 4, now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy and having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If you instruct the brothers in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself rather to godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, But godliness is profitable for all things, having promise for the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end, we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach. Let no one despise you because of your youth, but be an example to believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come and give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands by the council of elders. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. And take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continuing them for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Thank you. You may be seated and let's pray. Father, I thank you for so many things tonight. I thank you, Father, for those that are on this prayer list. I thank you for this church's purpose, the way that this is the way church is supposed to be. And I thank you for this. I thank you, Father, for the example that this church has been. in an interim time. And Father, we do praise you for the rain. We do thank you for the requests that have been maintained to you. I thank you, Father, for the guy that helped me with my battery today. I thank you for Merle. I praise your name for this guy. And Father, I do pray that as far as healing, you are the great healer, that my son tonight, Daniel, that I lift him up to you tonight. Father, I pray that as we look to your Word now, that everything we say and do will be in keeping with your will and your wishes. And I pray, Father, more than anything, when we leave here, that we'd be a little closer to you because of what we do and worship in prayer time tonight. In Christ's name, amen. We look at this understanding of, I mean, we are just, you know, this is a crazy, crazy world. Have you noticed? It's just nutty. And every time you turn on the television or read the newspaper, it just gets a little nuttier. Tonight, we've got the Republican, I don't know, it's the debate. And, you know, we're all looking for somebody to right the ship, you know, and then, you know, we're reminded that, you know, it's not going to be a political answer, that it's only through a spiritual answer that we'll ever to really completely right the ship. But we pray for our world, and we pray for—and every time you turn around, something gets a little nuttier and a little crazier. And I think that's why I say, you know, I think some of us should run for president. I'm really starting to think that, you know. I told my son he should run for president. But anyhow, we look at this issue of worship And now, as we look at this, and you wonder why God has certain things put in certain ways, and if we look at these verses, we've just been talking about last week the issue of prayer. and how vital and how important prayer is. And now we look at something that's so crazy, and I want to tell you that I tell people all the time, I brag on my wife, you know, people like my wife a whole lot more than they like me. And so, you know, she's the better of the deal. And so, you know, I would never, you know, this idea that women are subservient to men, I don't believe that. And so when you look at some of these verses, you wonder in our world today, why would this be here? And so what it is, is that we're looking at a certain issue. And this is an issue of—well, let me back up. I don't know if you've ever talked about difficult passage of Scripture. I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. That means God breathed, and so when I don't understand something, it's not that the Bible's wrong, it's that I simply don't understand it. And there are certain passages of Scripture that I don't understand. And when we do that, we come to a thing called, and I'm going to throw a theological term at you, you don't have to pay me anything extra, the association doesn't have to pay me anything extra, Jerry probably knows, the idea of biblical hermeneutics. And that is the idea of correct biblical interpretation. And when you come to these difficult passages of Scripture, it's how do we understand the culture, we understand the basic historical understanding, we look at the context, we look at the why and the when, and then we come to the place of what's it mean now. And so that's what we're looking at here, is that we first have to understand how Jesus and Paul felt about women. Women in the ancient world was seen as property. And you didn't have rights. You could divorce your wife for burning the toast. And Jesus said, don't do that. You know, that's wrong. Paul said that men were to love Jesus if Jesus loved the church. And so Jesus said, you know, this is how you're supposed to, Paul said, this is how you're supposed to hold your bride up as cherished. And so we look at the context. And so now we're going to look, first of all, holy living by men and women. And the men, first Paul addresses the men. The men in the Ephesian church, they loved controversy. And we look, if you see, if you read, just read through 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, the pastoral epistles, you see this problem of contentious. Some loved controversy. Some were denying the future resurrection. They took advantage of gullible women. And it just goes one problem after the next after the next. That's why Paul wrote this. You see these doctrines of the world in Ephesus creeping into the church. On the women's side, the women in Ephesus were equally culpable, and that some were just kind of moving around, and they had become kind of meddlers and busybodies, moving from thing to thing to thing. And so you see that Paul addresses the issue. And so also we have to understand that Paul's appeal is not in a personal sense or the home, but rather it's a worship life of the church. And so Paul provides instructions for praying and teaching within the confines of the local congregation. The advice that Paul gives is generally for men and women. The responsibility of wives and mothers are also in the mind of Paul. But it goes on from there. He outlines the proper church activity. He gives reason in verses 13 and 14. And then we come here in chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. We back up a little bit. He urged Timothy to lead the hearers to pray. And then in 8 to 15, he describes the attitude and actions of men and women who would be praying. Instead of living in dissension, controversy, and selfishness, Paul directs both men and women of Ephesus to practice holiness. holiness. So that in mind, verse 8, he says, And that basically is anger and disputing and arguing. In other words, don't be contentious. You cannot have unity in the church, you cannot move forward, you cannot reach people for Christ, you can't disciple, you can't do those things if somebody is always in a contentious spirit. There's always an argumentative spirit. You cannot do it. And what happens is you spend all your energy focused and fighting on a certain thing instead of moving forward and reaching people for Christ. When you have people in church you have a lot of different opinions, okay? And so the idea is that Paul understands this, but the idea is not to have a contentious spirit. Don't do it. And so he says, you are not to be contentious, but you are to pray right and pray often. Men are to pray. lifting up holy hands. I love this because we've talked about prayer, prayer is not rituals and formulas, but the issue is the attitude that brings people to prayer. The idea of holy hands describes hands that are morally pure. And this calls for a devout lifestyle that seeks passionately to seek and please God. The anger Paul denounces is a settled attitude of indignation against one another. And the word disputing is that spirit of controversy. And again, false teachers are bringing in controversy. And Paul says, don't do it. The men had defiled their attitude and emphasis. And as Paul is saying, be careful, it goes from everywhere. Anyway, there is a natural bent for us to react, or to do, or to be impulsive instead of praying. We are to pray. And Paul says, pray and pray often. Then respect people in the church. No anger, don't live this way, but have the right motivation for prayer. Be clean when you come before a holy God. Sometimes we get the idea that—I don't know if you've heard this—we get the idea that God is not God, we are God. And we say we'd never do that, but we kind of act that way. You all heard the difference between cat theology and dog theology? We're a dog family at our house. The Bells are dog family. Any cat people here? It's okay. Are you all cat people? Dog people? Dog people? Dog people, okay. Here's the difference. You know, you come home from work, you know, and your dog is there. And the dog looks at you, you know, looks up at you and says, you clothe me, you feed me, you take care of me, you love me. You must be God, okay. Now, if you're a cat person, you know, you come home, the cat looks at you, And it says, you know, you clothe me, you feed me, you love for me, you care for me, and all that. I must be God, okay? And you didn't get that. That's the difference. You don't care. It's raining too hard. That's why I don't tell jokes, Jerry. But that's on the men's side. Secondly, verses 9 through 15, there is an appeal to women. And again, this is, you know, I hear about this a lot. I hear, well, you know, I can't, you ever heard this? I don't know if you all do this here, but you know, I couldn't worship the day because the girl that was sitting in front of me was dressed immodestly. And I just, you know, I hear that, you know, and then I'm sitting there going like, okay, well, why are you looking at her? You know, and I mean, you know, But it happens. But there's a need to pay attention to the doctrine. The context, again, the context here is not the issue of women being bad or subservient to men. The idea of the women of Ephesus were falling for the false teachers in the church. And Paul is trying to correct the doctrine. He says, be careful, be careful. And so it goes on. There's an issue, you know, this whole issue of plaiting of hair, modesty and self. It's all just basically the understanding in our world today. Just be modest. Just be modest. I have a 17 year old girl, daughter. She's beautiful. And she is just, she's, I couldn't, I'm just proud of her. I couldn't expect any more. She's very involved in our home-based church. She sings, she's an outspoken Christian. She's a cheerleader, okay? All of that, and I'm a cheer dad, you know? But, you know, every so often, you know, teenage girls are teenage girls. And she'll start to walk out the door, and me and Sherry will kind of, okay, you know? But, you know, again, I think it's just, it's the idea of showing the issue of modesty, the issue of adornment, good work, all of that. Again, a woman's adornment, in short, lies not in what she puts herself on, but in the loving service she gives out. And, you know, the fact is that this whole context we have to be very careful, because if we were to say, you know, women should not have any sort of understanding of a leadership role in the Church, half of our churches would close. I'd say two-thirds of our churches would close. Men need to step up, is the fact. I was looking at this verse, and I wanted to get to the other, but I was thinking as we were singing, you know, my mom, I could be here all night telling you the testimony of my mother, but my mother was an atheist. She was one of these. She was married young, married several times, basically by herself. Her mother was not a godly person, and She was married and divorced very young, remarried, so I could have a dad. All this time, even though she grew up in the Catholic Church, she was an atheist. She would say, I don't believe it, this is nuts, there's no God. In fact, Jerry, at one point my aunt said, what happens if Marty grows up to be a priest? I was about two. She said he'd be wasting his time because there's no God. Well, what happens, long story short, she comes to see me, collected something in church, a children's church or something like that. Bill Coffman was preaching. She heard the gospel for the first time, accepted Christ. She became a Sunday school teacher. Extremely good. junior high school and high school Sunday school teacher, VBS, the whole works, church secretary, the works. I think now she's seventy three or seventy four. And I she's she's teaching college now that she's been teaching college, but she's been thinking about hanging it up because she's getting up there. You know, I said, no, you know, the pastor will tell you when it's time, you know. But but the fact is, is that I think of all the people that she has reached since 1972, 71. And if somebody had told her, no, you can't teach in the church. This is not referring to teaching in a Bible study, this kind of thing. It is referring to the issue of worship. And you have to understand that what's taking place is that it's the picture of men over here arguing and disputing and debating, and you have women over here arguing, this kind of thing. And by the way, let me set this, the old style the men and women were separated in the church. And it's interesting, when my, I have a long-lost sister, I have a crazy family, I told you it's dysfunctional, I have a crazy family, but I have a long-lost sister that's Jewish. And she followed the Madonna thing, she grew up in a life of wealth and accepted Christ through some crazy things. But she came to the church I was at, she went to different churches, but she wanted to keep her Jewishness, so she went to a Messianic, she's a Messianic Jew is what she is. So we're looking for different things for her, and at the time there was one church where the men were separated, men and women, and that wasn't for her. So we found her another one. But the fact is that you've got to see the picture of what's taking place, and that's what we are. We're looking at modesty and all of that. The appearance. So many times we get ourselves caught up in the idea, if I don't look good, my appearance, what we look like, I wish I had more hair, or I was taller. You know, I don't put pictures of me on Facebook. You know, I have a mug. I don't have a look. I'm Italian, and I've been called Stallone's ugly brother, okay? That's my world. But, you know, we have to be very careful of how we look at this whole understanding of how we look outside, when the idea is that God looks on the heart, on the inside. 1 Peter 3 said, don't let your adorning be external, let the adorning be in the hidden person of the heart, which is in God's sight very precious. And that's what we have to understand, that God is looking all that. He looks past all the things we think and consider so important because God looks at the heart. To conclude these verses, there are two ways that we look at this. There's God's way in the secular culture, the backdrop of the temple. And it could very well be, as Paul uses different things, as he used the emperor Nero, he could also be looking at the backdrop of the temple, which was that temple of Artemis, was that understanding of prostitution. And there are two forms of worship here. There's public worship, God's way, where there's a dependency on God, which is prayer, and then number two, there's a difference in the way I live because I am different. We are different as Christians. Public worship worships the world's way, which is selfish, self-reliant, self-gratification. And so the idea is men are to pray with clean hands. You are to be moral, you are to be ethical, and women are to be pliable and understand correct doctrine. Now, let's get into chapter 4. And if you look at all you need to do, we would call this encouraging words for spiritually confused times. And we said we do live in very strange times. I've got so much to say here, and I don't want to dive off into football, but if you know anything about the International Mission Board financial crisis, The International Mission Board is going to have to move, or 600 to 800 missionaries on the field are going to have to either come home, because the IMB is in a crisis, a financial crisis, $210 million in the red. And this has been going on for the last decade. If cooperative program gifts have gone down over the last decade, all of that, and they've sold properties and done things to keep the ball rolling, well, now it's hit a place where they're just going to have to either let people retire early or just have people come home. Two hundred million dollars in the red, okay? Remember that figure. This is how our world thinks. Sunday, the Dolphins played, okay? And they won. They didn't play well, but they won. We had been hearing all this advertisement of, you know, they spent this, and then they revamped their offense. They paid $96 million for the quarterback extension, and they paid $116 million for another guy, for the top defensive guy in free agency. Between the two, it's $200 and some odd, $10 million dollars, two players, versus six to eight hundred missionaries on the field. You understand? I mean, you know, we can kid about the Patriots, the Finns, all of that, but when you look at the amount of dollars for God's work on the field versus two players to play a sport that I love. But that's the confusion. That's how we are in our confusion in every area, whether it's culturally, politically, spiritually, whatever it is. And that's what's taking place here. And so Paul tells Timothy, we have to be extremely careful. Paul is writing to Timothy, who is a young pastor. And in the series of letters, he gives them instruction and warning and how to do all of this. What happens to the church? And think of it in today's world. What happens? Because we've got all this around us as well. It may not be in these terms, but the spiritual confusion, all you need to do is turn on the radio on Sunday. There are some good pastors preaching, and there are some nutty pastors preaching. There are some good stuff out there, and I write them down sometimes when I'm at stoplights. There's some good illustration. And there are some people that it's bad doctrine and bad teaching, and you have to be careful. And so what we look at here is first the caution of spiritual confusion. And this is in verse 1 through 5. It's the idea of engaging culture. True spiritual leaders are not tempted to chase after fads. They don't conform to the culture. They don't relinquish to the culture. You don't accommodate to the culture. We don't let the culture mold you. And the idea here is, what are the false teachers? What is the issue? What are they fighting? And all you have to do is look at the chapter in chapter 3, verses 14. We see what it is, and that is the doctrine, the personhood of Jesus Christ and the mystery of God, of Jesus in the form of the mystery of godliness. It says here, he appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on the world, was taken up in glory. That's basically the gospel. The body or flesh, Jesus is the incarnation of God, come from heaven in the form of a man. Vindicated by the Spirit, the miracle were demonstrations of his deity. Seen by angels, angels watched over him. Preached among the nations, the Gentiles, the proclamation of the good news. Believed on in the world the cause the preaching of the gospel produces faith in him by many hearers And then number six was taken up in glory and this is the climax of his earthly ministry this is the idea of the life and the death and the resurrection and the Ascension of the glorified Lord and you know what people don't want to hear about that today It's so easy to hear and oh my goodness I love to go to Barnes & Noble and you think you're picking up a cool book, a spiritual discipline or something, and it's some crazy, insane stuff. And you just have to be so careful. And so we see the spiritual confusion. In latter times, some will depart from the faith. This is the danger of apostasy, falling away or departing. That word, falling away, in Greek, it's the idea of a defect, a defect. Let me vent for 20 seconds. I have a Ford F-150. I love my truck, okay? My wife, she has a Volkswagen Beetle, okay? I hate it. I drive it because it's good on gas, okay? But I miss my truck. When I can, I drive my truck, and I let her drive her Beetle. I don't like that car out there. It's a red Beetle. Guys, you can't be cool in Daytona in a red Beetle, okay? I wrote an article—I'm sorry, I've got to do this, Jerry. I got laughed at in Bike Week by a biker. I said, that's it, okay? It's a clown car. My sons won't ride in it, but it's economical and it works, okay? So I do it. The battery goes out today, okay? I'm thinking, okay, no big deal. You know, I've got a couple hours. I can't get—anybody tried to get the battery out of a Beetle before? It's insane, you can't do it. And I'm like, oh, you know what, zoom, zoom, you know, take the, and change, no, no, this thing, no, it's nuts. And you gotta do this, you gotta do that. I had this guy help me, couldn't have, thank you for Merle, because I would have missed tonight if Merle had not helped me, okay. Merle, anyway, it took us, it was a two-man operation, about 30 minutes with tools to get, I never would have, I never would have thought it was like that. Why am I telling you this? There's a reason why I'm telling you this. I gotta tell you, the electrical system in the Volkswagen Beetle is a defect, okay? It's not all there. It's a defect. And that's what we're looking at here. People that fall away, this is that departing. It's your defective, okay? And so, great illustration, okay? The danger of deception, deceiving spirits, it's demons. Some people think, well, you know, hell is on earth. No, no. I believe that we have a spiritual world, I believe so much, and you have no idea, and maybe you do, that we are attacked. The devil loves to just attack and attack and attack, and we have to be so careful. I believe in real demons and real spirits, they're deceiving spirits, they're deception, and in the danger of false teaching, the doctrines of those demons. Don't get caught up in the stuff. I'm a historian. I think we've talked enough. I love history. But, you know, in the History Channel, have you noticed when they try to be spiritual, they come up with all kinds of nutty stuff. And you can tell when you see the Gospel of Judas and all. No, just don't get caught up in that stuff. And the latter times is the understanding of an error of time, an error of time. So what is the condition or the culture of false teaching? First, they speak lies of hypocrisy. You can't believe them. In today's world, you know, it's the spin. You know, we live in a time where truth is relative. I know if I've shared this with you, but it's probably the most devious of sins because it's a twisting of the of the truth. People are clamoring for the truth. Just tell me the truth. But there's always a twist, there's always a spin, there's always a strategy, there's always a point. And don't do it. Secondly, their conscience is seared. They have such a dead conscience. They're so dead towards God. There's such a spiritual malaise towards the things of God that they're cauterized. I come from a roofing family, and I dealt with 700 and 800 degree hot tar. And my hands, thank God I have a tan, but they've been covered over by different things. And the thing is, is that you get to a point where you're so cauterized between different calluses and stuff that you don't seem to feel things. And that's what's happening. There's a spiritual malaise here towards the things of God. They can't tell right from wrong. Dateline, you all know Dateline and the issue of the online predator. It blows my mind that this would happen anyway. But it blows my mind if you watch the show, they set this thing up and people think they're talking to 13 or 14-year-olds that are detectives. And so they get this thing, they set it up, and every so often you'll hear somebody who gets, he's about to be arrested, he says, I know your show. I wondered if it was you or not. And, you know, think about it. If you think, why would you do it? But see, they don't think because they're so cauterized to dead to the things of God. Their conscience is seared. Three and four are, this is the issue of forbidding the Mary and abstaining from foods. This is the idea of legalism or asceticism. And it's the idea of renouncing a lifestyle of, if I renounce a lifestyle of pleasure of the body and society for self, it's the idea that I'm going to be legalistic in these things, trying to be spiritual. And there's nothing more irritating than someone who tells you they're spiritual. Did I tell you about the association on Mondays? I don't know if I told you. I'm 54 now. I'm starting to forget things. Every Monday morning at 8, we used to do 8, we moved it to 9, we have a time of prayer and fasting. And you all are welcome to come. We have about four or five that come. There are pastors, lay people, and we just we pray for about 30 or 40 minutes, pray for the churches, pray for pastors, association area, and all of this. And we say prayer and fasting. And do you know that every single week someone brings a box of doughnuts? And they open the doughnuts on the table, and one day we're all just sitting looking at doughnuts, and I said, you know, this is ridiculous. Fasting is that thing that I do that gets me closer to God. We don't do it anymore, by the way. We put that away. But, you know, there's nothing more irritating than the super spiritual. In my quiet time, you know, it's one thing if God has given you something to say and revealed it during your quiet time. And I hope and pray you have a quiet time. But it's the idea that I have to tell people about what I did spiritually. And that's pride. Anyway, Junior Hill said, The problem with the church today is because in the war to have large numbers and big budgets, we have given in and filled our pews with half-saved pagans, and the purpose of God's will will never happen or take place. The problem is there is a need for discipleship. discipleship. Without discipleship, there is confusion. So we've got the idea of spiritual confusion. The second thing is that on the flip side, there is a conviction of spiritual character and commitment. commitment. In the next few verses, true spiritual leaders are committed to faith in Christ, which is discipleship. And you all know what discipleship is, it's simply the process of following Christ, the understanding of doctrine and teaching. Disciples of Christ don't conform to the culture, but they rather transform the culture. In the next few verses, Paul talks to Timothy and encourages Timothy about some ideas of personal discipleship. He says, you are a Christian leader to fulfill ministry and calling, and these are methods and priorities of ministry to people. Personal discipleship prioritizes spiritual principles. Paul tells Timothy, keep her priorities straight, and there are three ideas here—reject profanity and old wives' tales, exercise toward godliness, and bodily exercise does very little good. Old wives' tales—I'm going to go five more minutes, Jerry—old wives' tales are, you know, these fables, you know, these things, and swamp—you know, the sign is still out there in swamp water that the skunk ape is out there. I don't know if the skunk ape is it. I don't know. I don't know if the Loch Ness Monster exists. I don't know. But the thing is, is that I'm not going to spend every single second worrying if the Loch Ness Monster is true or not. Don't do it. Don't waste your time with this. Secondly, exercise toward godliness. Bodily exercise is very, very good. Did I tell you about the six-second abs? Did I tell you about that? I used to bring it with me. I stopped because it's embarrassing. I was up studying late one night, and I always put the TV on, and the infomercials come on. And I'm reading, and I saw this thing. You could get abs in three months by using this contraption. Six to 10 seconds, five minutes a day in two months, Abs and I went hey You know, so I I bought it. Okay, and I got it $50 this little plastic thing with rubber bands in it and it goes click click click click click and I used to bring it with me to churches, you know when I you know, I look at you know that and it's like it's embarrassing so I I stopped doing that but the fact is is that Paul is not saying Don't think about, you know, taking care of your body and health. He's not saying that. Take care of your body. Take care of all that. But what he's saying here is prioritize your spiritual development over your physical development. Great abs are wonderful. And, you know, I keep telling my wife it's going to happen in six months. Give me six more months, baby. Give me six more months. The priority is God over abs. Personal discipleship projects and protects the gifts God has given. It projects your lifestyle. Don't look down on you because you are young. Again, Paul is 70 talking to Timothy. Timothy is probably about 30, and so that's what we're looking at. Be an example in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith. These are issues of character and attitude. Character is the thing that I think Dr. Sullivan said it like this, it's not something you keep, you simply give it away. You simply give it away. But the issue of biblical understanding is the reading, the reading of the Bible, which is an appeal to action, exhortation, an appeal to the will, doctrine, appeal to the intellect. Don't neglect your gifts, but stay on track. God has given Timothy gifts as he's given all of us. And the issue here is that Paul says that everyone has specific gifts. And the thing is, is that, you know, Some will say, well, I can't sing in the choir, or I can't do this, or I can't teach. But you can do something else. There's lots of things to do. You can greet people as they come in. You can welcome. There's lots of stuff you can do in the church. Don't think that I can't do it. Don't neglect your gift. Then the issue of meditating on God's Word, and that's the idea of filling your mind with God. We're going to stop here, because I don't want to rush through this, because it deals with the Bible. I encourage you to to spend time in God's Word. And that's where we'll stop there and meditating on God's Word. Let's go ahead and pray and we'll close. Father, I thank you for tonight. I thank you, Father, for giving us an understanding of how we are to live, an understanding of how we are to worship, and understanding of who we are in your presence. Father, I thank you again for just this body of Christ that would come and meet and come here even during the rain and to pray for each other and to worship and to hear your word. Father, I thank you for them. And Father, as we dismiss, I ask that you would just give us safety and protection. And Father, bring us back Sunday in Christ's name. Amen.