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Second Timothy chapter 2.

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We'll start in verse 1.

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We've talked about the last couple of weeks as suffering for the Lord.

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Paul had talked about that and given Timothy some instruction about that.

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It is sometimes hard to do the Lord's work.

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It's not always easy.

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And sometimes it leads to great suffering.

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Paul certainly knew about that.

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And he had just finished telling Timothy at the end of Second Timothy chapter 1 about

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some that had abandoned him.

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A lot of people had abandoned him.

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All of Asia, these people had turned from him.

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But there was one that had not abandoned him.

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And for that he was grateful.

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And so he was explaining that at the end of Second Timothy chapter 1.

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So we'll begin tonight in Second Timothy chapter 2.

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So let's pray and we'll get started.

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God, we come to you.

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We thank you for your good word.

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I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among us tonight.

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I pray that you had hide me behind the cross.

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That I would preach and teach in a way that brings glory to you.

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That you would help us, dear Lord, to hear your word tonight.

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That you would help us to be those who are faithful to you, dear Lord.

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That run the race with endurance.

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That are faithful to follow your commands and to work hard for you, dear Lord.

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I pray that you just would let these words be good to us tonight.

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That we'd be free of worries and distractions.

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And I pray that your Holy Spirit would work in this place.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 1.

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You, therefore, my son, be strong and the graced that is in Christ Jesus.

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So he'd just been telling him in chapter 1, look, there's suffering.

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Paul had suffered.

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He'd been in prison.

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There was a lot of suffering going on, especially in the early church for these who were trying

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to speak out and trying to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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It was not well received by some.

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We saw in the book of Acts that Stephen, as he begins to preach this beautiful sermon

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explaining how everything in the Old Testament is pointing up to Jesus.

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And when he preaches the beautiful sermon, it says that they close their ears and they

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hollered at the top of their lungs and they begin to stone him.

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And so it was a difficult time in the early church.

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And really, it's not any better today.

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We have it better here in the United States.

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It isn't as bad.

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But there are certainly plenty of places in the world where people are still killed today

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for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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So people are always going to be hostile toward the truth of the gospel.

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And so Paul had told Timothy that.

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He said, look, you need to be ready to suffer for the gospel.

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And you need to know, look, even in my ministry, there's been suffering.

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There have been those who have quit supporting me.

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There have been those who have abandoned me.

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But there are some who have stuck by me.

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And so there's bad and there's good.

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And he tells Timothy, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

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So be strong, Timothy, because you're going to carry on this work that I've started, this

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work that others are currently doing.

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And Paul is continuing to prepare Timothy to do this work.

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Now, Timothy obviously had been doing this work and serving the Lord and doing many of

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these things that Paul did for quite some time now.

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But nonetheless, Paul is still investing into Timothy.

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He's still giving Timothy some wisdom and some guidance and some instruction and some

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encouragement.

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And part of that encouragement is, hey, it's not always easy, but you need to be strong

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in the grace of Jesus Christ.

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Don't give up.

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Don't be discouraged when the suffering comes.

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Don't be surprised when you stand up for Jesus if others who also claim to stand for Jesus

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abandon you when the going gets tough.

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But also be aware and rejoice in the fact that there are going to be brothers and sisters

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in Christ who will stand by you, who will not give up on you, who will not stop doing

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the work alongside of you.

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And that had been Paul's experience that he had told him about in the previous chapter.

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And so he says, with that in mind, therefore, be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ.

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Be ready for this work.

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Be ready for it.

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Verse two, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit

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to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

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So what is Paul teaching here?

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What Paul is teaching here is discipleship, similar to what Jesus said.

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Whenever Jesus told the apostles before he ascended and went to heaven, he says, go,

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therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and

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the Son and the Holy Spirit.

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So what did Jesus want his disciples to do?

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To go and make disciples.

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That is, they had heard, they had learned from Jesus, they had trusted in Jesus, and

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they were to continue the work of Jesus because Jesus was going to be seated at the right

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hand of God.

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And so his disciples were to go and make other disciples who would then go and make other

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disciples.

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And that's why you and I are here tonight, because there have been men and women throughout

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the last couple thousand years who have gone and made disciples.

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So what Paul is saying is, look, I've been doing the work of God, and now I've invested

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in you and I've taught you some of the things that I know, and I've tried to help you and

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guide you and lead you and teach you.

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And Paul's time would certainly be coming to an end soon.

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It seems clear as we read the letter that he knows his time is getting short.

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So therefore, he says, now it's your job, Timothy, to continue to do the work of God.

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And so therefore, what does he tell him to do?

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He says, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to

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faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

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So keep it going.

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Timothy, you're ready for the job.

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Your training is complete.

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I've told you what you need to know.

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You're ready for the job.

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You're on the job.

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You're doing the job.

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You're working for God.

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Now surround yourself with faithful people that you can teach them the gospel of Jesus

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Christ, that they too would be well-equipped, that they too would be able to go out and

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teach other people.

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And no doubt, Timothy did just that.

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This is good instruction for us.

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This is what we as brothers and sisters in Christ are called to do.

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Now, certainly those who are in ministry positions or missionaries, certainly there's that call

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there to try to disciple people and to teach people.

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But I think on some level, that's all of our jobs as Christians, is to take people we know

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that come to Christ and to disciple them.

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And I don't know that we always do a good job of that.

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That's myself included, preachers included sometimes.

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We need to make sure we do a good job of discipling people, whether they are children, whether

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they are adults, that they come to Jesus Christ and we try to help them understand the word

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of God.

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And what does Paul do here?

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He encourages Timothy.

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He says, look, here's some things you can rejoice in and praise God and the grace of

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God and all these good things, but also here's some things you don't need to do.

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Here's some things you need to avoid.

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He kind of held his feet to the fire a little bit.

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And so that's part of discipleship, as the scripture says, is iron sharpens iron.

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So one man sharpens another.

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And so we come on services like this.

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We come to Sunday school or Sunday mornings or wherever we meet in fellowship or in whatever

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way it may be, even if it's not a church service.

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And we begin to talk about God's word and we begin to kind of confess some of our sins

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and our struggles.

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And we kind of, we just open up and we pour our heart out in times of pain and suffering.

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What we're doing when we confide in one another and we kind of let our guard down is we're

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telling our brother and sister in Christ, I need help.

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I love you.

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I've trusted you and I'm coming to you to help me.

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And so, so there's this idea as Christians that we are to come together and we are to

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grow in the Lord and we are to grow among one another.

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And that's a beautiful thing when you see that type of growth and discipleship that

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we don't, that we don't stay stagnant, that we don't just keep reading the same verses

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that we've read our whole life, the ones that we love, the same handful.

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And I'm not saying it's nothing wrong with verses that we like.

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We all have verses that we like, but maybe there are other parts of the Bible that we

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don't explore much or topics we don't understand much.

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Maybe we need to dig a little deeper or maybe we need to say, God, what are some areas in

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my life that need work?

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Maybe we look at some scriptures and we say, yeah, I got that.

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Maybe we do, praise the Lord.

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Maybe there are some areas in our life that we do really good, but maybe there are some

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other areas that's kind of lurking around back there in the dark and maybe we need to

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say, okay, God, help me to see these things.

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They may not be obvious to me, but help me to see these areas in my life and in my heart

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that need work so that I can grow in you.

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And as followers of Jesus Christ, we want to be those who grow in Jesus Christ and help

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one another to grow in Jesus Christ and especially new Christians, young Christians.

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I don't mean young in age.

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I mean young in that they just became a Christian.

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They might be 80 years old.

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So be it.

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We need to invest in those people and we need to find people who are going to be faithful

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to the word of God.

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And that's what Paul tells Timothy, commit to faithful men, the things that you have

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learned from me so that they will be able to teach others.

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And the cycle will continue.

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Verse three, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

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No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life.

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He seeks to please the recruiter.

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So here we have some examples in these next few verses here.

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Paul's given some real basic examples of how we are to live.

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And here's the example he gives.

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Share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, not one serving as a soldier who gets

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entangled in the concerns of the world, but one who seeks to please the recruiter or the

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commander or the one who has enlisted him, the one who has called him to serve.

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Now this is a beautiful illustration that we are to be soldiers of God, a song that

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probably some of us learned as a child, Onward Christian Soldier.

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That's one that I remember I used to sing as a kid or maybe we used to sing it at Bible

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school.

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Onward Christian Soldier.

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I fought the good fight, Paul says.

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So this idea of fighting and being a soldier is the idea he's talking about here.

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And he says, be ready to share in the suffering as a good soldier.

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That is to say, in the midst of the battle, a good soldier does not run away.

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A good soldier does not run away.

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A good soldier stands firm.

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He plants his feet in the ground, his shoulders up, his chest out, his shield up, his sword

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up and he's ready to go.

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That's what a good soldier does.

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A good soldier like David.

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What happened when Goliath come onto the scene?

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Everybody was scared.

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Everybody, oh, they ran.

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That's not a good soldier.

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What did David say?

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He said, wait a minute, what is this guy doing?

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This guy's talking about God?

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David said, I'm not worried about this guy.

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And David went right up to him and he killed the giant.

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And here Paul says, look, be ready to suffer as a good soldier.

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Okay?

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When we serve God, it's not easy.

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We battle.

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It's tough.

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It's tough when the world comes against us and people come against us and people want

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to reject the gospel.

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It's not always easy.

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But Paul says, look, you need to be one who is a good soldier, who is ready to serve and

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not one who's going to run away in the midst of the battle.

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One who seeks to please his recruiter.

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One who seeks to please the one who has called him.

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One who seeks to please his commanding officer.

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It is God who has called us.

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It is God who has recruited us to be part of his kingdom.

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It is God who has called us to be in his army.

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And so we don't want to be those who run away when the going gets tough.

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We don't want to be those who are torn away by the temptations of the world.

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A good soldier doesn't get tangled up with the things of the world, it says.

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But a good soldier is focused on his mission.

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What is the mission?

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Here's the mission.

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We got to go to this zone.

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We got to complete this task.

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We got to do this.

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We got to go here.

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Okay, where am I going next, commander?

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The commander's going to tell you.

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Here's where you're going next.

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That's what a good soldier does.

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A good soldier takes the order from the commander and does what it says.

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Doesn't get caught up in things of the world and doesn't run away when the battle gets

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tough.

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So God is our leader.

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He is the one who we seek and say, okay, God, I need my marching orders.

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I need you to tell me where I'm going next.

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I need you to tell me where I'm going to serve next.

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And then we get there and we say, hold up.

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This is a big battlefield.

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There's giants over there.

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And then we got to decide, all right, am I going to run away or am I going to stand firm?

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And so we need to pray that God would help us to be able to stand firm.

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And it's not always easy.

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It is not.

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And there are times that we probably fail, but we want to pray that God would help us

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not to be those who fail, not to be bad soldiers, but to be good soldiers.

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Another example here in verse five.

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Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according

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to the rules.

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Now, this is kind of fitting.

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We're right in the middle of the summer Olympics right now.

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And I love the Olympics because you have the best of the best athletes in the world.

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And you watch these men and these women who are swimming, you know, it's eight of them

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out there.

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And the one who wins beats the one who finishes eighth by like the whole length of the pool.

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And you're like, golly, that eighth place person is pitiful.

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How'd they even get out there?

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But that eighth place person is the eighth fastest swimmer in the world.

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I mean, they're just, they're all of these people are strong.

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And even the worst of the worst is just absolutely amazing.

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And these runners are fast and these gymnasts are so strong and so precise.

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And we're sitting home and we're watching them and we're judging them like somehow what

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they're doing is easy.

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And we're all experts now on how to judge.

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This man's a little bad.

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I don't think they're going to get a good score, you know.

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And somehow we're all experts now at judging gymnastics.

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And it's like, I can't believe they fell off that beam.

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Oh yeah.

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Because it's so easy to flip around on a beam that this wide, right?

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But all of these athletes, they're good.

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Even the ones that fall and even the ones that are a little slower, these are the best

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of the best men and women.

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And do you know why they're the best of the best men and women?

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It's because they go home every night and they lay on their couch and eat potato chips

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and they get up every four years and they get on a plane and they get in the pool.

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No that's not why.

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You know that's not why.

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You know why?

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Because they get up early every morning.

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I'm just guessing.

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But I'm going to guess this.

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I'm going to go on a limb.

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They probably all get up early every morning.

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They probably are all on a strict diet.

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They probably all work out more than you could possibly ever imagine.

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They eat, sleep, and they drink Olympics.

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That's all they do is exercise and they fly wherever they're going to fly for that one

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chance.

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That's what they do.

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That's what their focus is.

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They are so dedicated on this is what I'm training for so that I can be ready to compete.

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And what does Paul say here?

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He says if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according

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to the rules.

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There is no shortcut.

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There is no easy way out.

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If we're going to be one who's ready and willing to serve God, then we've got to put the time

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in and we've got to train.

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There are no shortcuts.

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There are no shortcuts.

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We're not going to receive the crown of life.

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We're not going to receive the reward at the end of our life.

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We think we're going to somehow get a shortcut in and say, oh, God, I was pretty good.

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So maybe you just need to let me in here at the end.

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Nope.

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Those who are of God need to be those who live for God and who are focused on God and

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who train in the word of God and in the commands of God to live by God so that when the time

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comes, we will be crowned.

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It's a beautiful thing.

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You see these folks that they train and they train and they train, and then at the end

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of it all, they get that gold medal.

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Man, that feels good.

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And you feel bad for the ones that come close to the ones that get hurt or the ones that

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fall off.

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You feel bad for them because they've trained just as hard and they don't make the cut.

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But the good news for those who are in Jesus Christ is we're not going to miss the cut.

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If we are those who put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and who live for Jesus Christ

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and are obedient to his commands, who follow the rules and the commands of God, we will

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be crowned as champion when the time comes.

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So we don't want to be those lazily athletes for the kingdom of God.

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We want to make God's Olympic team, so to speak.

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We want to be those who train hard and don't try to cut corners, but those who at the end

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of our life are going to hear those words that we all desire to hear, well done, my

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good and faithful servant.

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And that's going to be a beautiful day for those who trust in the Lord.

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Verse six, another example here.

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The hardworking farmer ought to be first to get a share of the crops.

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Consider what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

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The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to get a share of his crops.

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Now probably most of you in here have farmed and farming is hard work.

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If you want to have a good garden, and sometimes you work hard and you don't have a good garden.

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Sometimes you can work and work and work and you still don't have much to show for.

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But one thing I can guarantee you is if you don't do any work, you're not going to grow

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anything.

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I can attest to that.

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You know how much stuff I grew this summer?

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Nothing.

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I didn't grow anything.

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Do you know why?

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Because I didn't plant a garden.

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I didn't break no soil.

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I didn't put no seed out.

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I didn't put no fertilizer out.

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I didn't water anything.

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And guess what?

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There ain't nothing coming up.

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So if we want to grow something, we have to be those who work hard.

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There's a theme we're kind of seeing here is we have to work for the kingdom of God.

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And sometimes it requires suffering.

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Sometimes it requires a lot of work and a lot of training and a lot of getting our hands

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dirty.

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And that's what Paul says to Timothy.

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You got to be ready to get your hands ready dirty and do the work for the kingdom of God

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and serve God and follow his commands.

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And don't you give up when the going gets tough because you will reap what you sow.

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A farmer farms and a farmer is going to reap what they sow.

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And if you don't sow any seed, if you don't sow any works of God, then there's going to

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be nothing good to reap when the time comes.

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So Paul is telling Timothy, work like a farmer.

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You're going to reap one day.

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You're going to be the one who's going to be able to reap from what is sown with God

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working in your life.

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If you suffer for his kingdom, if you follow him and you listen to him, there will come

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a time that you will be rewarded, that you will receive that crown, that you will receive

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that crop, that you will reap what you have sown.

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And these are all good examples.

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They're all simple examples that we can understand.

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We can understand soldiers and we can understand athletes and we can understand farmers.

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And Paul says as Christians, these are the type of people that we need to follow their

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ethic and the way that they do things and how their life is going and laid out.

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This is an example for how we are to live our life for the kingdom of God.

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Now this last verse here, verse seven, consider what I say for the Lord will give you understanding

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and everything.

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That's kind of seems out of place there a little bit maybe because those things are

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somewhat understandable.

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It's not too hard to understand those things, but nonetheless, maybe it is.

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Maybe there's some understanding there that he thought Timothy wouldn't get and maybe

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there's some understanding there we don't get tonight.

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Maybe there's some things we miss.

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Maybe I totally misunderstood this passage.

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Now that could be applying to the words that he just wrote or it could be applied to the

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rest of the words that he is going to write.

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But regardless, this passage is a good passage for us.

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This verse, consider what I say for the Lord will give you understanding and everything.

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And I would venture to say that every one of us in here would agree that we need more

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understanding than we have.

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None of us understands everything perfectly.

396
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:44,520
There are lots of things in God's word that we just don't really understand.

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I wish I understood everything in there and you guys probably do too, but there are some

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00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:52,620
things that we've read time and again and we've talked to some of the smartest people

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00:20:52,620 --> 00:20:55,880
we know and we still don't really understand them.

400
00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:00,040
And so we need to pray that God would help us to have understanding in everything.

401
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:04,120
The thing that is his will for us to have understanding in and we need to pray that

402
00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:07,000
God would give us understanding.

403
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:12,400
But that's true not only in the word of God, but really in every aspect of our life because

404
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,880
it's hard for us to understand why that we worked hard and we've trusted God and we've

405
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:19,680
been obedient and then we lose our job.

406
00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:21,360
Well, what's going on God?

407
00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:23,240
Why did I, what happened?

408
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:28,480
It's hard to understand why somebody gets sick all of a sudden.

409
00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:30,360
Well somebody gets cancer.

410
00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:32,960
It's hard to understand some of these things.

411
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:38,480
Well I was healthy and I ate right and I didn't abuse my body and then I get sick.

412
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:40,740
It's hard to understand these things.

413
00:21:40,740 --> 00:21:45,000
It's hard to understand why there's so much evil that one runs rampant in the world.

414
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,160
It's hard to understand why bad things sometimes happen to good people.

415
00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:54,560
We could write a whole book full of things that throughout our life that we don't understand.

416
00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:59,040
And quite frankly there are some things that in this life we will never understand.

417
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,480
We'll go to the grave not understanding some things.

418
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But there is one thing that we need to understand and we can understand that I believe and that

419
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:13,640
is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who gave his life on the cross so that we could

420
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be forgiven.

421
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He was crucified and he was resurrected.

422
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We are all sinners in need of grace and that grace comes through Jesus Christ.

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And God's word calls us to put our faith in Jesus Christ and Paul says, and when you do

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00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:32,360
that Timothy, and I think it's good for us too, and when you do that be a soldier who's

425
00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:34,740
not afraid to suffer for the kingdom.

426
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Be a soldier who does not abandon the commands of God.

427
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Be an athlete who trains.

428
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,560
Be one who is ready to do the work of the kingdom of God.

429
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:45,560
Don't take any shortcuts.

430
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:47,600
Don't take too many days off.

431
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:53,680
Be one who works hard and when the time comes you will get to reap the rewards of the kingdom

432
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:54,680
of God.

433
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:59,680
And the crown of life you'll receive eternal life when you get to be with God.

434
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And that is the truth that we can understand.

435
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:07,280
But for the stuff we can't, God help us to understand those things that we fail to.

436
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:08,280
Let's pray.

437
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:12,360
God we come to you, we thank you for this good passage and I pray that we would model

438
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:18,720
our life after these examples dear Lord, that we would be those who are ready to suffer.

439
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,200
Dear Lord we don't wish for suffering and we don't wish it for ourselves or anybody

440
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:27,920
else but God if it comes, when it comes, let us be those who do not flee, who do not run

441
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:31,600
away but let us plant our feet in the ground.

442
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:36,160
Let us stand with our head held high dear Lord and follow that example of David and

443
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,480
say, nope I'm standing up for God.

444
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:45,120
Dear Lord let us be faithful to work hard for you, to not be lazy but to really study

445
00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:50,120
your word and to really seek you, to train as an athlete would train dear Lord.

446
00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:53,560
God I pray that you'd let us be those who work hard for your kingdom.

447
00:23:53,560 --> 00:24:00,920
That we would not be those who sow evil and just sinful things but God that we would be

448
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:07,280
those who would sow the goodness of your word and wisdom and love and faithfulness.

449
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,600
Dear Lord we don't think that God we would be able to reap the reward of eternity.

450
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:12,360
God we don't deserve it.

451
00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:16,640
God not for a second do we think that you're going to reward us because our works are going

452
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:17,640
to get us to heaven.

453
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:18,720
No we know better than that dear Lord.

454
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:21,120
We don't work to earn our salvation.

455
00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:27,840
We work because Jesus through his grace of giving his life for us has assured our salvation.

456
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:32,040
So we work for what has already been done for us dear Lord not because of anything we're

457
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:37,000
trying to earn but for what was freely given through Jesus Christ and I pray that if there

458
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,640
are any here tonight that have not put their faith in Jesus or any listening online that

459
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:46,440
tonight they put their faith in Jesus Christ and I ask these things in Jesus name.

460
00:24:46,440 --> 00:25:07,480
Amen.