If you have your Bibles, open them with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Our church is like yours. Relentlessly plotting our way through books of the Bible and taking small passage of scripture and just trying to build our understanding precept upon precept, truth upon truth as we work our way through the Bible. And so I'm taking a break. Our church is in John, so this gives me a kind of a break from John for a week and and I hope an encouragement to you as it is my own heart, a needful Reminder for me, as we look at this passage together, considering ministering as a church, or you could say as a Christian, ministering in the last days in which we live. Well, I'm gonna begin reading, you can follow along with me, beginning in verse number one, and we'll look at this together. The Bible says, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people to be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power, avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sin and led astray by various passions. Always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of truth, just as Janes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth. men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be the plain to all, as was that of those two men. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecution and suffering that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and at Lystria, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. While evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it and how from a childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching and for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge, the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And we'll turn away from listening to the truth and wandering off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry, for I am ready to be poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will await me on that day. And not only to me, but also to those who have loved his appearing. Pray with me, would you? Father, we thank you for this morning. Thank you for the great singing and the prayers and the great reminder of your goodness to us. Lord, we thank you for this book that you've given. We thank you for this message given to Timothy and now to us. We just pray that you would use it in our lives. Help us in Jesus name. Amen. Well, you may be much like me. I find out the more I talk to people, at least my age group and older, we have this kind of nostalgia where when we think about the culture, especially as we see it getting worse and worse, we tend to have this thought that there's always a better time to serve the Lord. or a better time for the church or a more profitable time in history that the church existed and it was, I guess in some ways, ministry a lot easier. We tend to think that there is some other time to serve God and now is a time where we must hunker down and just wait out the storm. I feel that in my own life because I feel the anxiousness of the political environment that we're in the past five years has pushed us so far left that it's unbelievable in some ways. I come from Tennessee and the Bible Belt, and so there's a culture shock already coming to New York. But add to the top of that just the national decay of any moral standards or foundational for morals that we've experienced. We see the fear that we feel of our children and them being raised up in a culture like this or our grandchildren. I wanted to remind us as we look at ministering in the day of the church, being where the church is, that there is no greater time for the church to be the church than in the day that you and I live. There is no better season in life to serve God than the season that you're at right now. I mean that not just geographically and not just socially, I mean that in your life, whatever seasons going on in your life, whatever age, season, things coming along with that or troubles that you're facing, there's no greater season in your life to serve God than in the moment that you live in. After all, we're reminded that tomorrow is no certainty for us. And we live out the gospel and we serve and we minister and we respond to God's word today. Well, the world that we live in needs faithful, bold witnesses to Jesus Christ. I was looking at Barna's research in 2019, being reminded that eight of the top 10 post-Christian cities in America are strung throughout New England. Manchester being number five just down the road, Boston equal to it, Burlington, Vermont, and all these other cities around here. And by post-Christian, the article just simply states, a general reluctance to engage in spiritual conversation, an aversion to evangelism, and the erosion of religious beliefs and practices. You are, from here, you're used to that and know the idea of that hardness that has been a part of New England over the years. But I would say more than just New England, it is something we see all over the nation, all over the world. There is a continual reminder, glaring reminder, that whatever commonality we had in any biblical ethics or morality has been lost. Things are becoming more polarized and more divided as we go along. And yet I still come back to that battle in my own heart, and I think the battle in our church's hearts all over the area, and that is that thinking it was much better years ago, or some decade or century ago, to serve God than it is in this moment. And in fact, even Reformation Sunday, we are reminded that over the past 2,000 years, the church has always existed in darkness. It is considered called the light of the world in Matthew chapter number five, right? And it is meant to be that influence, that light in a dark world. It has always existed in darkness. It has always faced difficulty. I don't know what that does for you, but at least for me, it helps me to see that the reality of what I see and feel is more normal than what I tend to want to tell myself. In fact, we are at a place now where God has in his providence and in his goodness placed us to serve and to be a witness to his goodness and grace in the world. Well, Paul deals a little bit with that to Timothy as he gives him instruction. And those of you who are familiar with the letter, I'll give you just a little bit of background before we look at the passage itself. And Paul is writing to Timothy, his young son in the faith, one whom he has worked alongside of and mentored and discipled. He has already sent him one letter. to tell him how to order the church, how to structure the church and fix some things that are going wrong in the church, the church of Ephesus. And he continually reminds Timothy, I want you to be faithful and continue to carry on the ministry that you have been entrusted. Here, the second letter, Paul is about to give his life for the gospel witness. He is about to lose his head, historically speaking, for his testimony, for preaching about Jesus Christ. Now doesn't that strike you as odd? I know we have brothers and sisters in the other parts of the world that that suffer even give their life for the gospel. But as we look at these figures in church history, these these ministers of Christ is given to us who have literally given their lives for the testimony of saying, saying the gospel, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. And if you put your faith and trust in him, you too may have everlasting life. And because of that message, Paul would be beheaded. The letter here is structured in really just a word of encouragement to Timothy. He reminds him at the chapter number one that he has to stir up the gift of God that is within him. And then he continues on to remain faithful in the midst of opposition. And he uses several illustrations for us. We won't look at those just by way of mentioning. He tells him to be a good soldier, and an athlete, and a farmer, and tells him God will help you work this out in your own life, what these things mean. Chapter number three that we read here gives us this great conclusion at the end of the chapter, this great doctrine of the Word of God, doesn't it? It is the inspired, infallible, God-breathed Word. And yet, in between those, He reminds us of the things in which Timothy is going to face. If you take notes, if you're in the habit of taking notes, I will give you my outline. And that's one of those curses that we have to have, I think, is an outline. But I want us to first look at ministry through the lens of its difficulty. Secondly, I want you to consider with me this morning ministry through the lens of faithfulness. And third, ministry and its success. Paul begins this in chapter number three, verse number one, look at it with me. He says, but understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. Now I'm reading the ESV, the King James. It says there will be perilous times. That's the translation I was raised up on. NIV says there will be terrible times. They all mean the same thing. There will be a season of difficulty that we exist in, that we live in. The last days. I'm told that you're going through Matthew 24 over the past couple of years, is that right? Through Matthew 24, and you have an understanding of what last days in Scripture means. He's speaking about the time between Jesus' ascension, when he goes up into heaven, and the time in which he will come back, his second coming, his return. The last days is that season in which the church will grow and spread and preach the gospel. It was a time that Timothy lived in, that he experienced, but it's also a time that we live in. We live in the last days. And with that, the difficulty which Timothy faced here in chapter number three, I think we see intensified in our own culture as the last days progress on. The first thing we notice is he tells us in verse number one that in these last days, there will be times of difficulty. Not the obstacles and the difficulty of how much gas costs a gallon. We were in conversation at the NIDA conference and we were asking each other, you know, depending on where they were from, how much is gas where you're at? Thankfully it has come down some where we're at, but it's not what he's talking about. And I think you know that. He's not talking about the difficulty of bread and all the other things that we face. There's difficult things in life. He's saying that the ministry that Christ has called the church to do, the service which he has called the church to do, will be done in a time and a season of difficulty. In fact, I said another way, ministry is difficult, if not just for the simple fact people's involved. Would you agree with that? but also because what we do is a spiritual battle. It's a spiritual work. It takes God to open up hearts and change minds. It takes God to bring people to repentance. It takes God and the Holy Spirit to convict. There's a spiritual battle in nature to it. But here he says that the difficulty is not that, it's the culture which you live in. There's a difficulty in the culture, verse number two through three, And it is if he's trying to lay the groundwork. Some of you have built your own house or built a project and what you did, you went and seen the area where you're going to do that. And so you're trying to make preparations. You want to see what's going on and what you have to work with. And so Paul just tells Timmy that this is exactly what you have to work with. The culture which we live in. Notice verse number two with me. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen without conceit, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God, Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power and avoid such people. It's almost if you want to write Selah after that, think about it. Now, I don't know about you, but there's parts of the Bible. Gabe mentioned the Old Testament this morning in Sunday school, but there's parts of the Bible where we need some help. You've got to get a Bible dictionary, you've got to figure out what customs are and what this stuff means, how it applies to our life. But there's other passages that we come to in the Word of God where we come to realize that this is pretty clear and we understand what it's saying. I think this is one of those passages. As if Paul just takes a snapshot of the culture of human society, human existence that is at enmity with God, and he says, this is what it looks like, this is what will mark it. Not just the situation in which Timothy's living in, but Timothy's environment, it was like that, but this is what it's going to look like that the church is this. So here we are, twenty-two, one, whatever year it is. I'm from the Adirondacks, we don't get out much. I'm just kidding about that. And he gives us this message. This is what it will look like to minister. You live in a world that reflects all of these characteristics, all of these attributes. And you turn on your TV, you go outside, you look around, you said, he hit it. He hit it. That's a bullseye. I mean, it's just as plain as the nose on your face. This is the world we live in. This is the culture that we live in. While there's a diversity of manifestations of man's sin against God, his rebellion against God, I think chief of that, promoting all of that is that first description and summing it up. He says, people will be lovers. Now, Matthew 24, he says, the love of many shall wax cold, right? But not the love for themselves. He says the culture, the environment which you and I live will be a manifestation of people who love themselves. Now maybe you've heard some teach and some say that the problem of the world, the problem of people is that they don't know how to love themselves or they don't love themselves. And I know that's bled into Christianity where we said, well, we cannot effectively and biblically love our neighbor as ourself if we don't first learn how to love ourself. How many of you have heard that? The Bible says that isn't our problem. Our problem is, is that we love ourself too much. In fact, the abuse, the love of money, being proud or arrogant, our abusiveness, the way authority has domineered and abused people under them, subordinates and husbands abusing wives and children and all the other things in society is a manifestation of a man or a woman or a people who are in love with themselves and they're enslaved to their own passions. That's the culture we live in. We see it in our modern day where loving yourself is one of the greatest virtues. In fact, you love yourself so much you pursue that authenticness of who you are. Idolatry and every other problem that we face is really just a glimpse of our own image which we're beholding. It is not enough that we love ourselves and we are able to create our own destiny, your own gender, our own whatever else we want to create. But we demand that other people love us just the same way in affirming an affirming manner. In fact, the only sin in our culture is the sin of not loving in that way or not being affirming. Well, you know that I don't need to go into much detail with that. You live in the world, you have a newspaper and a TV screen. Look at it with me. He says, not only will there be lovers of themselves, they're proud and arrogant. They're abusive, ungrateful, unholy. Notice he says disobedient to parents. Isn't that remarkable? I'm not going to preach against you children this morning that are in here that you need to quit being disobedient to your parents, but we are disobedient to our parents. What he is saying is that the culture is at such a place that it rejects any form of authority. Any form of authority that would push against or demand something on the person, whether it's in the family structure, whether it's in the social structure, whether it's in the government, whatever it is, we're rebels at heart. Our whole country is founded on rebellion. And we're a generation, not just here, but all over the world, we're a generation that rejects authority that goes against what we want. You can kind of see the problem with that when you break out the Bible and says, thus saith the Lord of God, right? This says the Lord, this is what the Bible says when they reject authority in such manner. Well, let me mention secondly, not only is there a difficulty of the culture we live in, but the difficulty of the corruption that we find in the world, verses six through nine. He says in the midst of this cultural environment, you'll find that there are some who have this kind of personification of righteousness or religion. They have a form of spirituality. They have a religion, but they have no power. They have affirmation, yet they cannot provide transformation. They will offer a crossless, and in many cases, a Christless salvation. They will give promises and all of them are empty. I was always struck, dumbfounded as I drive by churches, or at least signs that says churches. And that's a very loose term, isn't it? And you see a rainbow flag on the church. There's one in near 45 minutes from where I live, where we get gas. And every time I stop there, I look at it and there's a flag. I think to myself, what in the world are we communicating? So I did some homework. I'm not much of it. I just looked on the website at some of these places and many that you have in your own environment. You're familiar with those congregational churches, things like that. And they declare this kind of open and affirming declaration. But not only did it declare that, but in the process, they say God is still speaking today, which I think he is through his word. What they have done is they've taken away anything that the Bible has given to them to help their people, to help their spiritual state, and their standing before God. They're like these men. They have a form of religion, a form of sentimentality, they have a form of godliness, but at the end of the day, they have no power, there is no transformation, there is no true salvation. You think how hard it would be to be a lost person and decide, you know, I think I'm going to go to church. Where would you go? I mean, when you think of churches in our area, they range from way, way out in left field to way, way out in right field somewhere. And to the world, they're all lumped together. You exist in a town and in a community where many other buildings exist in a town and community, and they claim to have the same Bible, they claim to be affectionate of the same Lord, they claim to have some of the same principles, and yet they have no power. There is no gospel. And that's the world that Timothy will live in. Not only living in that, but they will continue to oppose Timothy and his ministry and what he's doing. Well, the third thing we see in the difficulty is the callousness of the world of people. Notice we're in chapter number four, verse number three. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Do you think we're in a place like that? I remember a story, maybe you've read it, of the fight between Whitefield and Wesley in England. They were battling over the doctrine of predestination election. Of course, Whitefield believed in predestination, he believed in election. Wesley didn't, so they had a great division among them and the Methodist church at that time was split between Calvinistic and the more Arminian group. That battle would play out in the newspapers and different things as they would, you know, argue against each other. Wesley had said one time, O Absalom, O Absalom, you know, speaking about Whitefield. One of the funny things about that time was Wesley telling his followers, when you go by and you hear Whitefield preaching in the open air, stick your fingers in your ear so you can't hear him. Could you imagine that? You're walking by and you hear the guy and you just start going like that and you're walking down the road. I can't hear you. Like a little kid, you're trying to tell him something to do and he's making noises and he says, I can't hear you. What he's saying is the culture is much like that. People will not endure, they will not tolerate, they will not put up with someone telling them something other than what they want to hear. That's a very sad place to be. Because if all you have is people coming along telling you exactly what you want to hear and what you think, there is no room for growth, no help, anything. You're just as lost with them as you are without them. He says people are not going to put up with you, Timothy. They're not going to put up with your message. They're going to, in fact, find false teachers. They're going to find teachers who are going to tell them, you know what? You really are the greatest. I don't care what that other guy said. Maybe he won't tell them that, but you get the point there. We feel this difficulty in the callousness of the day in which we live in. They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But fourthly, considering the difficulty, there's the difficulty of the own personal cost of following Jesus. Notice with me back in chapter three, verse number 12. Notice the statement that he makes here. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. What does he promise? Will be persecuted without exception. All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted. Now we live in an amazing, amazing time and we've been given some amazing freedoms in our country. It still doesn't take away what it's saying here, does it? standing on what is true ministry in the day in which you live in and trying to serve others and help others and bless others and teach them about Christ and share the gospel with them. And he's saying that all who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted, will face difficulty. Now, I just downplayed that a little bit because that's kind of how I think about persecution here. But that's not always been the case around the world. We know that. Now, I want you to look. Not only is ministry in the last day difficult, we get that. I tried to let that sink into me not to discourage me, but just to tell me that the reality of the things that you and I see are are expected. Why do you think God gives us a book of Revelation and Daniel and all that other stuff to make your pastor go nuts when he's trying to study and bring it all together and teach it clearly and find good application? We're going through Daniel on Wednesday nights and it's fun to say the least. No, He's speaking to people, giving prophecy to people to prepare them to anticipate that what you're seeing is not a mistake and God's not let go of creation and kind of let things get out of control. He's saying, this is the world that you will live in, you exist in, quit being surprised about it. The Bible have told you so. Be prepared, understand that. I think that helps me change my perspective when I think about ministering in the day in which we live. But while all of this is going on, he's telling Timothy, I want you, you're required to be faithful, be faithful. He begins this in verse number 10, doesn't he? When he says, you have followed my teaching and my conflict, my aim in life, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and Lystria, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord has rescued me. In verse number 14, he gives us this contrast. The world does what it does, but as for you, continue. Be faithful. I don't know if our young people need anything more than that kind of message ingrained in them. What is required to live in the world that you live in and to grow up with a Christian testimony is stick-to-itiveness. It is to demonstrate a kind of velcro with your faith and convictions and the only way that our young people is going to have that is if they see older people, more mature people in the faith display the same kind of continuance. We have a young man who joined the military from And he's off in basic training right now. Our little town's about 400 people in the wintertime. We count bears as well for population because it makes us feel better. And small school, small world. I mean, you've got sales service maybe on a small area of the town. He's not withdrawn from the world. But he is entering into, and I sat down with him, I said, you're entering into a world that you have never, ever experienced. And you will have to decide for yourself whom you will serve. You will have to display a continuation, a grip, a stick-to-it-ness in your faith if you're going to hold on to it. For those of you going through the study in Titus, you might remember that Paul says that the elders must display a conviction to where they hold fast to the word of God and the things that they've been taught. But I love how he speaks about it here when he speaks about the faithfulness and he speaks about it as he looks back in the past. Verse number 10, he points him back. He says, you follow my teaching. You've seen the example of how I've suffered. I'm not sure that's right, but anyway. How I suffered, my teaching, my aim in life. You've seen my patience, my love, and my steadfastness. So you have a message, how do you minister in a world that is set against the gospel, at enmity with God, who's rebellious in all these ways that we've talked about? He said, well, you've had a good example. And I think there's something to say is that most of the time what we need is not something new. It's not something novel. It's something that has been declared and displayed and shown to us over and over again. And did you know the Christian faith, I know you know because Reformation Bible Church, it's a stupid question, wasn't it? That the church didn't start even in the 1500s? That what we believe and what we've been given has been given to us throughout the centuries? There's an antiquity to the Christian faith. I grew up in an area that was an independent Baptist and they didn't really say no creed but Christ, but I kind of think they believed that. And I kind of thought the church started around some Billy Graham crusade growing up. That was just my own ignorance. But there is something to realize what we teach and what we preach is nothing new. It's nothing novel. The example is set for us. Now, there's new ministries. There's avenues and platforms to give the gospel. There's programs and all these other things. But that's not the solution in and of itself. You need those things. You've got to reach out. But the answer is given here in the example in Paul's life. It's simply someone who is taught to live for the glory of God. continued on in his faith and his patience towards his persecutors, his declaration, his demonstration of love, not only for Christ, but even for his own countrymen. Can you believe that Paul would say, and I think honestly, because it's in the Bible, why would he lie, right? That I wish myself a cursed for my countrymen. That is love, isn't it? That is a love for the lost. love for one another, his steadfastness, his persecutions. And so he says, you've had an example for you. Look in the past and see that as you continue on. But his call to them is not only live in the past, but to be consistent in the future or in the present. So what you see in verse number 14, but as for you continue in what you have learned and what you affirmably believe, knowing whom you have learned it, Ever from a childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scriptures breathed out by God, correction, breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof and correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work. That's a mouthful, isn't it? Well, there's too many in our culture nationally, there's too many in our churches who wave the Christian flag one month and the world's flag the next month. There's too many in our churches and in our communities and in our nation who on one day of the week they You know, they pull their Bible out and they raise up their allegiance to the flag and all the other things like that. And the rest of the week they show their commitment to the world and the way the world lives and the way the world does things. And it's kind of pressing against here that Timothy is not to give in to that kind of thing. To be reminded as we live this life day in and day out, as we minister together corporately, as we live individually as Christians, we're to be consistent. It takes God's grace. I know that it takes work and community and fellowship. All of that is true. But there is something in our minds that that should stick. Continue consistently. Keep walking in the ways in which you have learned. Let the world does what the world does, but you, but as for you continue. Now, why does he say that? Well, he says that for two reasons. One, because the foundation of your life and the foundation of what you believe is supposed to be based on the word of God. It is God's word. The source is given to us as being God breathed. Our moral perception about the world, our moral perception about life, about family, about church, about compassion, about pity. All the things that we stand on and are meant to live out of are formed not on our own human wisdom or some philosophy of the latest day in which we live in, but they're formed based out of this is what God has said. He is the one who's the author of our life and the creator of heaven and earth. And he is the one who has given us a word. He has spoken and he has spoken clearly and plainly so that you and I may know how to live. It is his word. It isn't Oprah's word. I don't think I've ever watched an Oprah show. I don't know why I said that. Someone must've said it this week and it stuck in my head. It isn't our politician's word. It isn't even Gabe's word. And I like Gabe. I think we're friends. I'm glad he prays for me and vice versa. It isn't our parents' word or our grandparents' word or some class that we grew up in. It's not that it's the word. Our continuance, our faithfulness can be sustained because what we stand on is God's word. God's word. He is the one who has spoken. And since we are accountable to him, it is his word that matters most. But not only because the source is found in God himself, but notice Paul sets this in its attractiveness. Sometimes we get scared of that, right? Like we're trying to peddle something. It's not, he's trying to say to Timothy that what you have been given is not only God's word, but it is, It is profitable. It is good for you, Timothy. It is good for you, church, that you continue on in his word. It is good for you to be faithful in what God has given to us. It is it is good for you. Notice it is first good for your own salvation, as he says that in verse number 15, the sake of writing, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. How do you know anything about salvation at all. The world says save yourself or it says you don't need saving at all. And yet here the Bible teaches us something completely different. It is God who has come to save us. It is God who is the only one that we can find deliverance and hope and help from. It is in His Word that we are instructed by what it means to be lost, and what it means to be in sin, and the condemnation that weighs on us. It is in God's Word we find the hope and deliverance from such a fate. It is in God's Word that we find that if we look away from ourselves, where the world is saying, look to yourself and inside yourself, and God's Word says, look away from yourself, look unto Me and live, Israel, or New Hampshire, It is here that we are instructed for salvation. Paul writing to the Corinthian church, very familiar with that. I'm sure that he tells them when I came to you, I didn't come with philosophy, but I came nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That way, whatever hope you have for eternal life, whatever God transformation that had taken place in your life, it took place based upon the power of God and not on my power persuasion. So he says that we are to hold fast and continue in this present or to do that because it is God's word, which has been given to us. It is his word, which is profitable for us to make us wise unto salvation. And verse number 16 and 17 is God's word that is profitable for ordering our life, for teaching, for proof, for correction, for training and righteousness that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work. Doesn't it seem like a hard task? The world at enmity against God. People live and kind of my greatest ambition when I was growing up is to be the man of my own man. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. How do you go from that to some place to where you see someone who is and will humble themselves before Jesus Christ? It almost seems so simple that it has to be complicated. And yet Paul reminds the Corinthian church later on when he says, I didn't know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He brings out the powerful transformation of what God's word brings. Chapter number 6 verses 9 through 11 say this, Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor the idolaters, nor the adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. You know, we're not to look, just because things are difficult and just because things are hard, we're not to look like it's all over. even in continuing faithfully with the word that he's given, with the message that he's given to us, we're to do that with the assurance that the message which God has given to us, the gospel which God has entrusted to us, is the very thing that gets the job done. He says, this was some of you, you were idolaters, you were immoral, you were adulterers, you were homosexuals, you were thieves and greedy and drunkards and revilers, but you were washed. You were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of God. I think for us, as we think about continuing on being faithful in the moment, there are two implications. And one is the personal application and living personal application of God's word and his will for our life and living it out. Paul doesn't just give him a discourse of the Word of God, he sets before him first the example of what it looks like to live faithfully before God and in a world that is against God. Sometimes we can be so doctrinally accurate, I'm not accusing, I'm saying the temptation of my own art, we can be so doctrinally accurate in some areas, but miss the beauty and the motivation that that should give us to demonstrate some of the things we see in Paul's life. There's that personal application that we are to trust Christ as our savior. We're to look at this as God's word. We're to order our life according to his wills and his desires for us and for human flourishing. And as we do that, we're to do it in a way that is seen in how we teach and our conduct, our aim of life, our faith, our patience, our love, and our steadfastness. And so there is the personal application this morning of your own life, allowing the Word of God to form your convictions, form your worldview, to instruct us how we're to act and serve. And I emphasize that serve because they both go together, don't they? To believe and to serve. To understand and receive and to love, which is to give. And we're to allow the Word of God to do that and shape us. And those ways that means church. As Calvin said in his sermon on Titus, we must not mind a little rebuke from time to time. We must, in hearing the word of God preached to us and being instructed by it, allow it to do its work, which is not always a Hallmark greeting card when it comes to us. Does anyone know what that means? The word of God is sharp like a sword. And sometimes we may feel like it's a hammer. Maybe we need that. Actually, it says in the Old Testament, it's like a hammer, right? Breaking the rock. But not only the personal application for you and in your families. but also the way in which we minister as a congregation corporately as Word Center, in which I believe that you have demonstrated that here this morning. That the message we share, whether it's preaching or teaching, maybe you're like, well, I'm not gonna do that. I said that too, but take that up with the Lord. But the way you share with others and your family and your friends, those you go to school with, It is from the Word that gives life. We share what the Bible says. We stand upon what the Bible says. We hold fast to what the Bible says. And we do that in our current culture among hurricane wind and forces sometimes. And yet we still do. We minister from the Word. So we apply the Word. We live out of the Word and we minister to the Word. And the only way you're going to do that is be in the Word, right? Do you agree with that? Paul tells Timothy with all the weight and authority he can muster up, basically before the presence of God on judgment day, Timothy, preach the word, preach the word. Well, ministry is difficult and God has given us the tools to be faithful and effective. You know, in Albany, and I'll share this with you, and I'll try to hurry up. I don't have a clock. They told me I could just stop until I run out of words. Albany is on, I think, six on the list of the top 10 post-Christian cities in America. Godless place. If you know anything about the politics of New York, then you know that it's a godless place. Yet right downtown in Albany, there's a rescue mission, Albany City Rescue Mission. The man there, whose name is Perry Jones, godly, godly man, been there for decades, doesn't take any money from the state. They've tried to force him to take some. He says, no, because if I take your money, then I'm going to have to do what you tell me to do, and I'm not doing it. The mission itself owns a city block at least. They're continuing to build and to thrive because one thing is evident in big cities, and that is homelessness is not going to go away. Drug use and violence is not going to be done away with. And here this place is open 24-7, ministering to people. And the thing that they do, they emphasize most, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They bring them in, they feed them, they take care of their needs. In the midst of that darkness, there is a glorious, glowing reminder of God at work in the world through the power of faithfully and compassionately giving the gospel to many. If you guys ever get a group up and go there, I would encourage you to do that. They love having visitors and having a tour of the place. Let me conclude with this. We talked about ministry and its faithfulness. I want to mention ministry and its success. There is something about that order. Success follows faithfulness. We kind of want to be like Jack and the Beanstalk, and if we plant a seed out the window, the next morning we come up and it's full grown. We do something, we want automatic, immediate results. When my wife is gone, I eat sandwiches and other stuff that doesn't take a lot of time to fix, because I want to get on with the eating thing and get it done with. Ministry is much like that. We want the immediate and we miss the mark in which God has set us to. There is in one sense, Paul is speaking to one of the one of the benefactors, one of the people who has benefited from his own faithfulness. The church of Ephesus that he's writing to is a church that he planted. He spent more time there than he did anywhere else in his ministry of going around different places. Countless churches that he planted, countless people speaking other languages, bowing down to other idols. Now at the end of Paul's life is worshiping and praising Christ and thanking God for salvation. And in many ways, God gives us that kind of fruit here. We see people's lives changed. Pray for people and God answering prayers as they come to faith in Christ and as we share But the success isn't necessarily here that we're meant to set our eyes on. In fact, anything that we see here of God moving and working is a thing which should cause us for thanksgiving and worship and gratitude, but should drive us even further to minister and to carry out the mandate which God has given to us. The eyes and the success is seen in God's eyes. It is seen when we will see him face to face. And Paul says that here, doesn't he? At the end of this section, for I am ready now. Being poured out as a drink offering in the time of my departure has come, I have fought a good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. I don't know how many people in their 70s have mentioned, men in their 70s, several of them who were ministers, have mentioned, my greatest ambition in this season of life is to end well. And the sad thing is, I think, is that people that have not gotten to that place in their life, they wait till then to let that be their motivation. This verse, verse number seven, ought to be every one of our greatest desires. That we fight the fight which God has placed us in, that we run the race that God has given to us, that we keep the faith. That we live with an eternal perspective on the end, not just in the moment. Not just in finishing the building, but in the full work of what God has given you to do. Not just in ending a program, or starting a new program, and the outcome. All that has to be done, and it's aggravating, especially if you don't like that, and lists, and to-do lists. But our focus is on eternity. This world is not our home. We plant and we sow, we water and we sow and we do those things like that. But it is God who gives the increase. It is God not only who gives the increase in the moment, but it is God who rewards each man according to their works or woman. And young person, according to the works and Paul with confidence at the end of his life, he says, I have finished the race. I have fought a good fight. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award me on that day. Isn't that remarkable? He said, I'm looking forward to the prize in which I will receive from the hand of God. Now you and I might be like, well, that's good, Paul. You're a pretty exceptional guy. You did some pretty cool stuff. You've seen visions you wouldn't tell us about, kind of left us confused at that part in Corinthians. Even Peter said some of your end time stuff was confusing. So that's good for you. But he says that is a promise which all of us should hold dear, because it is not just an award that is awarded to me on that day, but also to all who love his appearing." Well, if we are completely focused, result-oriented, in our ministry as a church corporately, then we will miss the greater joy and the greater mandate to be faithful in what God has given to us. It is not that we don't want to be successful, but it is that we see our success is from God's perspective and not our own or the world's standard. And I want to leave you with that encouragement as we anticipate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the crown of righteousness that he has waiting for those who love him. Amen. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for this morning and we can gather together. Lord, we thank you for the reminder. It's a needed reminder that there's difficulty in the world we live in. There's difficulty in ministry, and yet you have set us here by your providence. It is your timing, and it is a place you have placed us, and Lord, we pray that you would remind us of that, that we can faithfully continue on the ministry you've given to us and the witness and the light and the message which you have entrusted to us. I pray for each one here this morning that you would just continue to bless this place, use it for your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.