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We're going to be in 1 Timothy chapter 4.

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We're going to finish up chapter 4 tonight, Lord willing.

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This is easy passage tonight.

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We've had a couple of tough ones the last few weeks in Timothy and some of the things

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that he's dealt with and a strong warning in the passage last week to be on guard that

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we don't give in to deceptive teachings of demons.

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We want to always be on guard.

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That's what we saw last week.

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We want to be those who are trained in godliness.

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He told us that we recognize that in a physical sense that training is good.

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It makes us strong.

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It makes us healthy.

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It makes us live longer.

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It helps us in a lot of ways.

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Paul says if we recognize that physical training has some good in this life, then we need to

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recognize that training in godliness has even better results because it helps us as we walk

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in this life and those who are godly will see God in the life to come.

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We saw that last week in the passage we looked at.

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This week we will start in verse 11, 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 11.

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Let's pray and we'll jump in.

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Father God, we come to you.

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We thank you for your good word.

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I pray that you would bless it tonight, that you would speak to us, that you would help

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us to listen to you, dear Lord.

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I pray that you would hide me behind the cross, that I'd preach and teach in a way that brings

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glory to you and I pray that you'd free us from our worries and distractions for these

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next few minutes.

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In Jesus' name I ask it.

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Amen.

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1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 11, command and teach these things.

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Well that's pretty simple.

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Paul has given Timothy a lot of things to teach here through these first four chapters

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and he's going to give him some more things to teach as we continue on in the rest of

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the book.

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But okay, I've told you some things that you need to instruct these people in, the people

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of Ephesus.

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You need to instruct them.

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You need to teach them these things, these things that I have already told you and these

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things that I am about to tell you.

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Verse 12, let no one despise your youth.

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Instead, you should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in wisdom, in faith,

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in purity.

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Now, we don't know exactly how old Timothy was.

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We can conclude that he was young.

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Perhaps when we think of the term youth, we may think of a teenager and while I suppose

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it is possible, there's kind of a wide range of ages that people have kind of settled upon

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that Timothy could have been up to about 40 years old.

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He could have been up to about 40 years old, some say.

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Some say maybe in his mid-20s.

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We don't know.

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He was probably considered a young man by those around him and so how old he was, it's

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hard to know.

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But Paul says, look, don't let anybody despise you because of your youth.

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Now, it appears that Timothy was a godly man.

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It appears that he probably was a pretty wise man and so we need to recognize that sometimes

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that age is not necessarily an indicator of wisdom.

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Now certainly age comes with some wisdom.

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There's some basic wisdom you learn just from living life.

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But good godly wisdom on how to live a godly life and obedience to God and to know the

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way of God and have good discernment, those types of things and that type of wisdom doesn't

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necessarily mean that you have to be old to obtain it.

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There are certainly some Christians who have walked with the Lord for many years who may

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not be as wise as much younger Christians who have only walked with the Lord for a short

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period of time.

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And so we may be tempted to see someone who is young depending on what your definition

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of young would be.

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Now, I'm 40.

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I don't consider myself young.

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But when I go visit somebody that's 80 or 90 and they say, how old are you?

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And I say, I'm 40.

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They say, oh, you're just a kid.

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So I guess it comes with comparison.

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It depends on who you're talking to.

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And so maybe that's the same idea that we see here with Timothy.

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And so even though he may have been viewed as younger by his audience, Paul says, don't

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let anybody despise you because of that.

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Don't worry about that.

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You just do the best job you can do.

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And so there certainly may be young brothers or sisters in Christ who are very mature in

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the Lord, who are very wise in the Lord.

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And so how do we know that?

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Well, we know that by seeing how someone lives.

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There may be other Christians that have been Christians for 40 years.

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And maybe in their mind, they may be 75 years old and they think they are wise, but maybe

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their actions speak to something other than that.

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And so we have to realize that old age is not necessarily a sign of wisdom and youth

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is not necessarily a sign of foolishness.

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There are plenty of foolish old people and there are certainly a few wise young people.

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I would say that to find a good, wise young person is probably somewhat rarer than to

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find a foolish old person.

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They're probably a dime a dozen.

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So it's probably not something that often you would see someone who is young and who

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is wise and godly.

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But Timothy is one who fits that description, that call that Paul speaks of here.

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So what does he do?

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He says, don't let anybody despise your youth, but instead be an example.

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He says, you should be an example to the believers in speech.

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Okay, well, this is good instruction.

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Now in the context, he's talking to Timothy here, who's certainly gifted and it appears

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to be gifted in preaching and teaching and leading and instructing these people, kind

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of pastoral qualities, what we would call pastoral qualities.

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That seems to be kind of what Timothy's gift is.

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Now we may not all be gifted in that way.

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We might not be all called to serve in the same way that Timothy is called to serve.

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But nonetheless, this advice and these instructions, I believe are good to all Christians.

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And so what does he say?

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Be an example in speech.

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Okay.

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So the things that we say make a difference.

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What do we say?

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Do we talk about people?

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Do we use foul language?

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It's not necessarily about just the words you say, but sometimes maybe kind of the way

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you say them.

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That is to say, you may not say what we consider a dirty word, but then maybe we gossip a little

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bit or maybe we kind of say things or hint at things or kind of talk about people in

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such a way that's not good.

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And so we need to watch our speech in all ways.

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Now the obvious way is, well, I'm not going to say any curse words.

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Okay.

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Well, that's a good place to start, but maybe there are other ways where our speech kind

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of gets us in trouble and we need to be aware that, hey, our speech is an example.

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And so we want to speak in such a way that brings glory to God.

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So sometimes maybe we need to think, and it's hard to do this, but maybe we need to pray

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that God would help us to think for just a second before we speak.

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Maybe we say, man, if I say this, is it going to hurt somebody?

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Maybe it doesn't seem so bad on the surface, but if I say this thing and somebody finds

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out I said, is it going to hurt somebody?

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Is it going to be a negative thing?

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So there might be lots of ways in which we need to kind of look at our speech to say,

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okay, is my speech being a good example?

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Is my speech building up or tearing down?

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Because sometimes we kind of tear people down or we tear things down.

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We talk about maybe people we know or maybe even people we don't know.

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Maybe it's leaders of our country or whatever it may be.

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There may be times that we see those people and we kind of tear them down, but maybe we

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need to be reminded to build people up with our speech.

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And that's hard to do.

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It certainly requires a lot of help from the Lord.

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So he says, be an example in speech, in conduct.

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Well, that's pretty easy.

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The way that we conduct our lives, the way that we live, people are watching us how we

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live, whether we like it or not, good or bad.

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We don't do anything to be seen by people or at least we shouldn't.

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But regardless of whether we are living to be seen by people or not, we will be seen.

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And so whatever you do is going to be seen, whether it's good or whether it's bad.

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There is always somebody watching, always.

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We may think that, man, nobody's going to see about this.

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And maybe on occasion we slip by, but there's always someone that's going to be watching,

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even the most minute things.

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And you may be surprised at some of the least things that you do for the glory of God when

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people see those things, what impact it might have for the kingdom of God.

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And so we need to be aware of our conduct, both our good conduct and our bad conduct,

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that we do more of the good and less of the bad.

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So we need to be able to conduct ourselves in a way that's going to be a good example.

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And we can think to ourselves, okay, is this the type of things that other brothers and

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sisters in Christ need to be doing?

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Is this the kind of thing that I could say, okay, what I'm about to do, y'all look at

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me and y'all follow my example?

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Quite frankly, if we're honest, there are some things that we would not want anybody

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to know.

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We wouldn't dare say, please follow my example, because we know it might not be the best example.

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So Paul tells Timothy, and it's good instruction for us too, to lead your life in such a way

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that you're a good example.

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He says to be an example in love, in the way that we love other people, the way that we

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love or if we love at all is obvious in the way that we treat people and the way that

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we interact with people and the way that we speak with people.

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Now love is not a feeling, it's not just a word, it's an action.

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And so if we say we love, then that is going to be acted out in some way.

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If we say we love people, then that's going to be reflected in the way that we interact

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with them and the way that we treat them or the way that we help people who are in need.

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And so we need to be an example in our love, that we're not just those who say, I love

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you or I love God, but we are those that our actions speak louder than our words, that

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our actions show that example that we love God.

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It says that we are to be an example in faith, that our faith needs to be strong, that we

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need to be those, that when tragedy strikes, when life is difficult, that people can look

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at us and say, man, your faith is strong.

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And we can say, yes, it is.

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My faith is strong in God because God is good and he is gracious to me and I trust in God.

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I'm not going to doubt God.

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But what kind of example would we be if we say we love God and we say we trusted God,

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but it's the first sign of trouble, we begin to question God and we begin to doubt God

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and people say things about God and say, I don't want anything to do with God.

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Well, that's not a very good example.

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That shows that our faith is not very strong.

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And sometimes God, I believe allows us to go through certain things in this life to

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strengthen our faith.

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And indeed it does for those who are in Christ, when we really get in a hard time and we really

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go through a tragedy, what do we do?

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Well, hopefully we begin to pray.

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We really begin to pray more and seek God more and read God's word more.

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And what does that do?

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It strengthens our faith because what we are doing is we're trusting in the Lord with all

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of our heart and we're not relying on our own understanding.

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We're seeking him in all of our ways so that he will guide us on the right path.

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Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six.

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That's what we want, right?

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We won't guidance.

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We won't help.

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We won't strength as we go through times of trouble.

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And that is found in God.

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And so we need to be those who are an example of the faith.

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And sometimes you could probably think of an example right now of somebody that you've

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seen really go through something and you say, man, their faith has been rock solid through

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the midst of the most difficult disease that they battled or loss of a loved one.

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They continue to praise God.

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And when you see faith like that, that is a good example.

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And I believe that that's the kind of faith that Paul is talking about for Timothy and

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for you and I, that we need to be an example in purity, that we need to be pure.

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We need to be clean.

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We need to keep ourselves clean from the things of the world, from sinfulness so that we won't

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be stained with sin.

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We need to kind of check our life sometimes maybe to see, okay, am I living a pure life?

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Am I living a godly life?

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So he gives Timothy a lot of examples here.

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He says, look, don't let anybody despise you for your youth, but let your walk with God

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be obvious is what he's saying.

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And it needs to be obvious by these examples.

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Now anybody we see with these examples, whether young or old, if we see people living their

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life in such a way as a good example in these areas, then that's a good sign.

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So we can look at people, whether they are young or whether they are old and kind of

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get a good idea if they're living a godly life, if they are living in wisdom or not.

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And we can check our own self against these things and say, okay, am I being a good example

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in these areas?

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And maybe you'd go through this list and you say, I'm doing awesome.

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Well read it again, double check.

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Maybe you are doing awesome.

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But then again, maybe there's a couple of things on it and you say, ah, maybe I need

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to clean this up.

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Maybe my example has not been too great here.

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But that's why we read the word of God so that we can, as we saw last week, train our

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self up in godliness so that we can seek God in these ways so that we can be a good example.

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Verse 13, until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching.

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Okay, so Timothy is to lead the people.

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He's to preach to the people.

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He's to teach to the people publicly.

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He's to probably similar to what we're doing now, stand before them and tell them the word

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of God and the commands of God, the things that Paul has taught them, the teachings of

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Jesus Christ, the things that we would call the Old Testament or the New Testament.

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It would be Timothy's job to address the people of the town, of the city and say, okay, here's

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what's going on here.

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Let me tell you the word of God.

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Here's some encouragement for the word of God.

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Here's some correction from the word of God.

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Here's some strength from the word of God.

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And this was Timothy's job.

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And Paul says, hey, do this until I get there.

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Now, when was Paul going to get there?

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I don't know.

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But Paul says, look, I'm going to get there and until I do, then it's your job to preach

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to these people and to teach to these people.

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Verse 14, do not neglect the gift that is in you.

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It was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of the

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elders.

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Now, we don't know exactly what that gift is that Timothy has.

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It's never explicitly told to us.

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Now, I believe it probably is what we just talked about in the last verse, what Paul

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commanded him to do, to preach and to teach in that way, to exhort to the people publicly.

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Perhaps that is the gift.

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Perhaps it's not.

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Perhaps there's some other way in which Timothy is gifted.

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It's not specified for us here.

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But regardless of what the gift was, what does Paul tell them?

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He says, do not neglect the gift that is in you.

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Now, I think this is good instruction, not just for one who may be a preacher or a teacher,

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but for any of us who are gifted in some way.

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And I would say, I believe that everybody is gifted in some way.

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Now, what those gifts are, I don't know.

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We may look at some things and say, well, that's not a gift.

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But maybe you're gifted in a way that you're overlooking.

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Maybe there's something you're good at and it's something that God has blessed you with,

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some ability and some gift, no matter how big or how small it may seem.

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If that's something that God has given you that you're good at, that's a skill that you

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can use for His glory, then don't neglect that.

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Then use that skill, whatever it may be.

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If it's preaching, preach.

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If it's teaching, teach.

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If it's picking up groceries for your neighbor because they're not able to go do it.

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Whatever it may be, I think there are some of us that are gifted in certain ways.

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Some of us notice things better than others.

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I think that's a gift.

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I think Michelle's got this gift.

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We'll be going through a parking lot or something and she'll say, oh, here's an old lady over

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here.

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Let me go help her put her groceries in the car.

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I would never see that.

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I don't notice stuff like that, but she notices it all the time.

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Oh, that lady's having a hard time putting her groceries.

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She goes over there and helps her.

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Well, that may seem kind of trivial, but I believe that that's a gift to be able to kind

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of see those things and be aware of those things and notice those things.

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We might be gifted in certain ways to do certain things that are a blessing to people that

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may be very small.

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To put three or four bags in the trunk of a car for somebody is probably not a difficult

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task for most of us, but it may be a huge blessing to the person you do it to.

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If the Holy Spirit leads you and you have a gift in some way that you have some ability

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to do something or maybe just the ability to notice things that maybe others don't,

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well, then whatever our gift may be, then we need to use that gift for the kingdom of

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God.

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That's what Paul tells Timothy here.

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Now he says, it was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council

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of elders.

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Now, I don't think that he's saying there, okay, so the reason you have this gift is

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because it was prophesied and people laid their hands on you and therefore you have

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a gift.

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So all we have to do is have somebody prophesy and we'll lay hands on them and they'll have

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a gift.

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I don't think that's what it's saying.

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I think the gift certainly comes from God.

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It was prophesied that Timothy would have this gift and we saw that earlier on in the

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book, whatever the gift may be.

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It was certainly prophesied about Timothy and we don't have a copy of that prophecy

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in scripture.

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We don't know exactly what the prophecy was other than, hey, this is what you're going

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to do, Timothy.

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This is what's going to happen.

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And so since he was gifted in that way and it was prophesied about him and it was obvious

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to the people, to Paul and to others, that Timothy had this gift and was a godly man,

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as a result of that, the elders laid hands on him.

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And so we see that today when we ordain a pastor or a deacon or elders or whatever it

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may be, we kind of see this idea of laying on of hands.

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That's in a way kind of acknowledged.

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It's not that there's some power that comes from us like, okay, we hold a gift and we're

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putting our hands on you and placing it in you.

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The Holy Spirit puts the gift in us.

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God puts the gift in us, but it's kind of an affirmation to those who have been chosen

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to, okay, you're going to serve in this capacity and a little bit of accountability.

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Okay, here's this group of elders that's laying hands on you, that's praying for you, that's

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acknowledging that you have this gift.

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And it's kind of an accountability thing too, I believe, that we have to kind of hold one

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another accountable.

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So he says, look, this was prophesied that you were going to be gifted in such a way.

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And in whatever way that was, Timothy was gifted in that way.

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And that was affirmed by those who saw the way he lived and laid their hands on him.

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Verse 15, practice these things, be committed to them so that your progress may be evident

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to all.

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So he gives some good instruction in particular here, probably the best instruction for us

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to consider are those list of examples that he gave earlier on.

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So what does he say?

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Practice these things, the things that I've told you, the ways to train in godliness,

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the good things that I have pointed out to you.

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He says, practice these things.

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Okay?

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We need to be practicing these things.

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We need to be practicing the things of God.

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What does that mean?

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To live them out.

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It's no different than if you want to learn a sport, what do you do?

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You practice, you say, okay, here's this skill, I want to be able to do this skill.

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I want to be able to catch the ball better, or I want to be able to throw the ball better,

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or I want to be able to hit the ball better, or I want to be able to throw the ball through

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the hoop better.

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And so there's a certain way that those skills are attained.

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There's a certain way that you hold the bat or a certain way that you throw the ball or

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a certain way that you catch the ball.

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And so what do you do?

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You begin to practice those things.

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You put those things into practice so that you can master those skills.

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And so that's what we need to do with the things that we see in scripture, the things

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that God calls us to.

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We need to practice those things.

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We need to be committed to them, as he says there in the next verse.

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Be committed to them.

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Now some of you may have done this, or maybe you've got kids or grandkids that have done

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this.

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I want to play this sport.

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I want to... They see somebody on TV, a great baseball.

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I love baseball.

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I want to play this sport.

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I'm going to be the next Ken Griffey Jr.

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But then they get out there and they realize it's hard because you got to practice and

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you got to be committed.

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And a lot of times we don't want to practice because that's hard and we don't want to be

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committed.

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We just want to be the best we can be.

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We want to be the star.

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We want to be awesome.

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But what we have to realize is that those who are up here, they didn't just wake up

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one morning and become awesome.

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It's a lot of hard work that goes into that.

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Same way with people who are wealthy.

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We all want to be wealthy, but oftentimes when you see people who are wealthy and you

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read their stories or hear their stories, they worked for years not making any money.

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They worked 100 hours a week.

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They worked night and day.

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And finally they became successful because they worked hard, because they were committed.

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The people who are good are often those who work the hardest.

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So if we want to be those who grow in the Lord and who are mature in the Lord and who

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are wise, we have to be those who practice the things that the scripture teaches.

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We have to be committed to them.

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And guess what?

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It's no different than baseball practice.

393
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Sometimes it's hot and sweaty and dirty and nasty and we're tired and we don't feel like

394
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it and it's hard.

395
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But boy, doesn't it feel good after you exercise?

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You feel good.

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It's hard in the moment, but after a good exercise, you feel good.

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And that's the way I think it is as we begin to practice God's word and read God's word

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and live out God's word and be strong in the faith.

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Boy, once we live that out and we really trust God, even if we go through the difficulties

401
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:38,940
of life, it feels good to know that we've trusted in God.

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So we need to be committed to the word of God.

403
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He says, practice these things, be committed to them so that your progress may be evident

404
00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:50,120
to all.

405
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:51,120
Progress report.

406
00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:52,840
Now, some of you probably got those in school.

407
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:56,960
We'd get them like halfway between each six weeks is what we had when I was in school.

408
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I don't know what it is now, nine weeks, who knows?

409
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:04,760
But we would, in the middle of whatever, ever how many weeks it was, we'd have a progress

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00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:05,920
report that'd be sent home.

411
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Now, what was the purpose of that?

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So that your parents could see if you were doing okay.

413
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:14,840
Now if you're halfway through and you bring the progress report home and it's full of

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00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:19,880
a bunch of Fs, then your parent has to sign that so you can take it back.

415
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:24,040
And if your parent sees those Fs, then they'll say, boy, what are you doing?

416
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No more video games for you.

417
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You ain't going nowhere.

418
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You ain't doing nothing.

419
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You better get your homework done.

420
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And that's it.

421
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Don't, you're done.

422
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:33,440
You're grounded.

423
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Oh, that ain't fair.

424
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:36,160
Well, that's what a progress report does.

425
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A progress report lets you see your progress.

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Well, sometimes we have to test ourselves in our lives.

427
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We need to kind of take a progress report.

428
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We need to see if we are progressing.

429
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What does Paul tell Timothy here?

430
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:57,120
He says that you need to be committed to the teachings of God so that your progress may

431
00:23:57,120 --> 00:23:59,160
be evident to all.

432
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So how's our progress tonight?

433
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:03,400
Well, I don't know.

434
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:08,120
You may know your progress better than somebody else or then again, maybe not.

435
00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:11,120
Maybe you say, well, I don't know how my progress is.

436
00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:15,640
Well, ask your husband or ask your wife or ask your close friend.

437
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:17,800
Ask somebody that knows you.

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00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,360
Say, hey, I need you to give me a progress report.

439
00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:22,880
That's a hard thing to do, by the way.

440
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:27,240
We don't, because if we see something in somebody's life and they come up to us and they say,

441
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:31,840
hey, I want you to tell me what you see, it ain't easy for us to say, well, there's this

442
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:34,080
area where I see you doing bad.

443
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And we don't like to say that because we know that there's areas that we doing bad and we

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don't want them to tell us those areas.

445
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And so we need to realize though that when we love each other as brothers and sisters

446
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in Christ and we hold each other accountable, it's not about being judgmental.

447
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:55,160
It's not about, let me point out your flaws and us to say, oh yeah, well, you pointed

448
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,120
me, you got three fingers pointing back at yourself.

449
00:24:57,120 --> 00:24:58,680
That's not even what it's about.

450
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:03,680
There are times as brothers and sisters in Christ that we need to be mature enough that

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00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,640
we can give each other a progress report.

452
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:11,920
And perhaps we need to be strong enough to ask somebody who's close to us because oftentimes

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people see things in us better than we see them in ourselves.

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And so we want to make sure that we're making good progress.

455
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And that's what he tells Timothy here, be committed to the teachings of the Lord so

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00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:28,600
that you may be progressing in these things and that it may be evident to other people

457
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:34,120
that other people may see that we are growing in the Lord and the way that we are serving

458
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:35,120
him.

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Verse 16, pay close attention to your life and your teaching, persevere in these things

460
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:47,880
for by doing this, you will save both yourself and your hears.

461
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:48,880
Okay?

462
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,800
Pay close attention to your life and your teaching.

463
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:57,160
Now maybe by paying attention to his teaching here, maybe he means in a couple of different

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ways.

465
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:02,640
Maybe he means be careful what you teach, pay real close attention to what you're teaching

466
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:04,440
or maybe he means it in another way.

467
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:08,240
Okay, the things you're teaching, they're instructions for you too.

468
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:12,640
That is to say the preacher is not just preaching to the congregation, the preacher preaches

469
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:14,960
to himself as well.

470
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,680
And so what does he say here?

471
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,000
Pay close attention to your life and your teaching.

472
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:22,840
So pay close attention to how we live.

473
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:23,960
Think about what we do.

474
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,640
Sometimes we just live life willy-nilly and we don't really think about the things we

475
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:28,640
do.

476
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:30,800
And maybe we should think about the things we do.

477
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,640
Maybe we don't like to think about the things we do because we know that they're bad or

478
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:38,040
maybe we just don't think about it because we don't think about it.

479
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:44,480
But he tells Timothy here to pay close attention to his life and to his teaching.

480
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:52,200
Persevere in these things for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

481
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:53,400
So persevere in what things?

482
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:54,720
In the teachings of God.

483
00:26:54,720 --> 00:27:00,560
I suppose specifically the things that he's told him so far and will tell him, but generally

484
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,520
speaking, all of God's word.

485
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,800
We want to persevere in the things of God's word.

486
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:06,800
Why?

487
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:08,840
Because there's salvation in the word of God.

488
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:09,840
Why?

489
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:14,400
Because it points us to Jesus Christ who is the word who has become flesh.

490
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:19,700
And so we want to be those who persevere in the word of God because it is the source of

491
00:27:19,700 --> 00:27:20,700
our salvation.

492
00:27:20,700 --> 00:27:22,440
It points us to Jesus Christ.

493
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:28,080
The reading of the words doesn't save us, but the words point us to Jesus Christ who

494
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:29,080
saves us.

495
00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:34,960
And so we want to be those who persevere in the teachings of God, in the word of God,

496
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:41,280
so that we ourselves will be saved through Jesus Christ and those that we preach to and

497
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:46,760
that we teach to and that we live an example of our life to, that they would see the goodness

498
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:51,880
and the graciousness of Jesus Christ, that they too may be saved by him.

499
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:52,880
Let's pray.

500
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,920
Father God, we thank you for these good words and I pray that you'd bless them tonight.

501
00:27:55,920 --> 00:28:02,080
I pray that you would help us, dear Lord, to check our lives and to see if we're being

502
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:05,000
a good example and help us to be honest.

503
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:09,480
Maybe we kind of like to sugarcoat our life and the things that we do, but help us to

504
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:14,400
be honest, dear Lord, to see if there are ways that we are not progressing in the way

505
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:15,400
in which we should.

506
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:20,720
Help us to see if there are ways that we're not being a good example and help us to strive

507
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:22,780
to be a good example, dear Lord.

508
00:28:22,780 --> 00:28:27,040
Help us to be committed to your word and to living for you, that we would be those who

509
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,960
persevere, dear Lord, that we would be those who trust in Jesus Christ and through our

510
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,960
example lead others to Jesus Christ.

511
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:35,960
I ask these things in Jesus' name.

512
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:53,200
Amen.