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2 Timothy 2 22.

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Paul had been given Timothy some instruction on how to be an approved worker.

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Now in the context, these scriptures are really speaking to someone who would be in church

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leadership more like a pastor or a role, I believe.

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But nonetheless, there are certainly good things here we can get that I think are applicable

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to all of us in some way.

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And so we started this section a couple weeks ago.

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We didn't come last week because of the storm, but we're continuing on with that same idea

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of being one who is an approved worker.

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And so these words would have been good for Timothy as a leader, good for leaders today,

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and good for the rest of us.

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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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I thank you for your good word.

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And I pray that these words would instruct us tonight.

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I pray that these would be words that you would use to speak to our hearts, that we

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would listen to what your word says, dear Lord, that we would examine ourselves to see

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the areas where we fail, dear Lord, where maybe we're not doing good.

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And maybe we'll see some of these areas tonight that you'll point out to us, God, that we

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need to work on.

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So I pray that you would help us to do that.

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I pray that your Holy Spirit would be with me, that I would preach and teach in a way

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that brings glory to you.

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I pray that you would hide me behind the cross and let us have a good night tonight.

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In Jesus' name I pray it.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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All right.

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Second Timothy chapter two, verse 22.

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Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who

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call on the Lord from a pure heart.

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All right.

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Flee from your youthful passions.

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That might be another way of saying, okay, it's time to grow up.

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There comes a point where you have to grow up.

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There comes a point when you have to move on from childish things, when you have to

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grow up, when you have to take on responsibilities, when it's time to be an adult, when it's time

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to mature a little bit, especially for those who are going to lead God's people.

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And this is, I think, I feel pretty confident in saying this, that this is a problem that

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we have in our world today, that at some point in time from people about 40 years old and

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under, the lower you get under, the worse it gets as far as adults not wanting to be

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adults, adults not growing up, children not getting responsibilities.

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And so then in turn what you have is a lot of people who by age would be considered adults,

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but by mentality would be considered children.

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Here's an example of this.

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Last year, McDonald's introduced adult Happy Meals.

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Now isn't that the craziest thing?

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Happy Meals for adults.

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So if you're 40 years old and you want a Happy Meal, you go and they give you the little

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Happy Meal box with the pictures of all the characters that were popular at McDonald's

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when you was a kid, 30 years ago.

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And it even comes with a toy.

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Now I think that that summarizes this idea, this thought here, that we need to grow up,

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that we need to mature.

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And everybody says nowadays about kids, well, kids just aren't as mature as they used to

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be.

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Well, whose fault is that?

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There's parents and there's grandparents raising them.

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And if you treat a child like a baby and you raise them like a baby, then they're going

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to grow up to be babies.

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They're not going to be adults.

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And so maybe it's just on a side note, that might be a good job for us as parents and

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grandparents to raise up our kids to be adults, give them responsibilities, help them to be

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ready for the world.

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But the age of responsibility and maturity has greatly increased throughout the last

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few years.

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Think about people that you know that's been married 50, 60, 75 years.

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They probably got married when they were teenagers most of the time.

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And you say, well, kids can't get married today when they're teenagers because they

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were a lot more mature then.

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Well, whose fault is that?

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Where's the problem?

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But how much longer can the age go?

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That's another topic.

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But here's what Paul is saying to Timothy here.

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He's saying you need to flee from your youthful passions.

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You need to grow up.

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You don't need to be childish.

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You don't need to be like a kid.

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You need to be a man who is mature and who is ready to do the work of the Lord.

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And this is good for us, not just people who are in ministry, but this is good for all

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of us that we try to reach some level of maturity in our life.

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Okay?

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So we know what to flee from.

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We know what to avoid.

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We know what's unhealthy for us.

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But what does he say next?

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He says, and pursue.

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So don't do this.

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Flee from this.

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This is bad for you, but pursue this.

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Run to this.

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Chase after these things.

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Desire these things.

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And he gives him a good list of things to pursue here.

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The first one is righteousness.

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Okay?

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To seek to do what is right, what is good.

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This is what we should pursue.

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Are we pursuing this in our life?

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Are we pursuing to do what is right?

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What is morally good?

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What God's word commands us to do?

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This is what Paul tells Timothy to pursue.

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The next thing he says is to pursue faith.

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Now that one's, the rest of them, you can kind of see, okay, I can pursue this.

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But how do we pursue faith?

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I mean, faith is something we have or we don't have.

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We've come to faith in Jesus Christ or we haven't come to faith in Jesus Christ.

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But to pursue faith, I think, is just simply to continue to strengthen our faith because

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there are days that our faith is weak.

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And so how do we pursue faith?

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Well, we pursue faith by continuing to have faith, even in those times where it's really

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difficult, which is why chapters like Hebrews 11 are important for us as Christians.

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Because what we see in Hebrews chapter 11 is a long list of people who are celebrated

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for their faith, praise the Lord.

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But yet even people in scripture that we see sometimes that are celebrated for their faith,

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even some of those disciples who walked closest with Jesus had doubts sometimes.

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Even their faith wasn't strong.

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And so even some of the people who saw Jesus every day sometimes didn't have strong enough

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faith.

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And so we shouldn't feel quite so bad when we have a lapse in faith.

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But we should not be content with having a weak faith or with doubting.

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We should be like the scripture that says, God, I believe, but help my unbelief.

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This should be our desire that we pursue faith, that we pursue to grow in our faith, that

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we see the areas where we do doubt and we don't trust in the Lord like we should.

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And Paul says, okay, here's something you need to pursue.

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You need to pursue faith.

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You need to pursue love.

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Okay.

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Are we pursuing that in our life?

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Are we pursuing a love of God?

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Do we love God?

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Okay.

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If we love God, then how do we see that playing out in our life?

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Is there some actions in our life?

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Is there some fruit being produced in our life by the way that we live that shows that

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we love God?

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Are we pursuing love?

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Are we pursuing love for one another?

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Do we love people?

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Do we love our spouses?

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Do we love our children?

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Do we love our grandchildren?

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Do we love our neighbor as ourself?

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These are questions that we need to ask ourself.

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Now the church answer would be, yes, I love, but the real answer may be, not really.

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There may be some people that I don't really love.

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I know I should love them and there's a part of me that wants to love them, but sometimes

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there's a part of us that have people that we don't really want to love because they

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do some really rotten things to us.

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They're pretty nasty to us.

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They're pretty mean to us.

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They've hurt us in a lot of ways.

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They just continue to do evil things and they're not deserving of love, right?

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Sometimes it's hard for us to love people, but at the same time, by our own standard,

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we would be those very same people in God's eyes who do some pretty evil things, who are

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pretty rotten, not deserving of God's love, yet God loves us.

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God gives us the example of love through Jesus Christ and then here we're called to pursue

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love.

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We need to pursue love and we need to do the things that accompany love.

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If you love somebody, how do you treat them?

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If you love somebody, you're there to support them and to help them and to encourage them

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or to correct them sometimes.

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These are things that come along with love and so we need to be pursuing love and that

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needs to be evident.

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Love is not just a feeling, it's an action.

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Love is shown by how we treat people.

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If you tell somebody you love them and they're hungry and you say, man, I see you need food,

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but I love you and then you go on your way, well, that's not really showing much love.

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Now, maybe you do have some level of love in your heart there, but true love would say,

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there's a need there.

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I'm not just going to tell you I love you, I'm going to help meet that need.

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Love is an action word and we need to remember that.

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We're called to pursue love here.

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What else does he say?

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He says to pursue peace.

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All right, that's a hard thing to do.

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It's a good thing to do, to pursue peace, to try to be at peace with everyone so long

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as it's within our power, but sometimes it's not.

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Sometimes it's not.

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Sometimes you can do everything just right and you try to keep the peace and some people

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just don't want to be peaceful, but sometimes we're the ones who aren't doing a good job

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of pursuing peace.

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Sometimes we should keep our mouth shut.

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Sometimes we shouldn't stir the pot, but sometimes somebody comes at us or says something or

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we hear something going on and we have to jump right in there.

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We have to open our mouth and next thing we know a situation boils up, but we need to

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not try to fall into that trap.

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We need to try to pursue peace.

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Maybe there are times that we could bring peace to situations.

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Maybe we could not say anything.

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That might be a good idea sometimes.

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Maybe there are other times when situations are beginning to boil up that maybe we need

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to interject.

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Maybe there needs to be somebody to come in with a level head to try to calm things down.

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We need to pursue peace.

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We don't want there to be strife.

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We don't want there to be arguing and complaining and all these things going on.

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We want to make sure that we are not the one fueling the fire.

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You can't control what somebody else does, but you can control whether or not you're

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going to throw fuel on the fire or not.

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Are you going to be one who helps situations to explode into something that it shouldn't

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be or are you going to be one that helps to bring peace?

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These are the things that Paul tells Timothy to do.

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These are good instructions for all of us that we flee from our youthful things, that

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we flee from childishness, that we mature a little bit, and that we begin to pursue

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these things that he says.

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You look in our world today and a lot of times what you see is just the opposite of this.

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You see childish people who are doing what is immoral, who doubt God, who hate one another

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and stir the pot all the time.

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That's what you see a lot in our world today.

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If you don't believe me, get on Facebook sometimes and look at some of the stuff that people

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post.

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It's the exact opposite of what Paul calls Timothy to and us as well, I believe, in this

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passage.

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We don't be those who pursue the things of God and not the things of the devil.

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Sometimes it might be easier for us to hate than love.

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Sometimes it might be easier for us to jump right in the middle of a conflict and stir

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the pot than it is to bring peace, but that's not what God calls us to do.

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God calls us to a higher standard.

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We need to look at these things and we need to try to pursue these things in our own lives.

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Verse 23, but reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels.

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We already saw that kind of a similar thing a couple of weeks ago.

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That is, don't argue about things that don't matter, about quarrels, about trivial things

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that are not of any significance.

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Sometimes even Christians can fall into those traps.

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The Bible is full of a lot of scriptures, some of which are not easy to understand and

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some of which leads to multiple interpretations.

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That's one area sometimes where you might have some quarreling about things.

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Maybe sometimes we have serious things we need to talk about, but that's not the intention

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here.

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This quarreling about disputes, about things that don't amount to a hill of beans, but

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that can destroy people's relationships, can destroy bodies of Christ.

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Those are the things that we must always be on guard, that we do not fall into that trap.

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There are people that have arguments and disputes with people and they hold grudges against

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those people for 20, 30, 40, 50 years and go to the grave holding a grudge against somebody

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over something that did not make a bit of difference.

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Now, you probably know some people like that, but I hope that you're not a person like that.

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If you are, well, then you need to work on yourself.

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Life is too short to hold grudges over insignificant things, but when it comes to church and brothers

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and sisters in Christ begin to quarrel in such a way that affects our relationships

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with one another, it affects our relationship with God, and it can affect a whole church.

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No church is immune to that.

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The devil is at work and he is so good at finding somebody he can work through and who's

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it going to be?

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Is it going to be me?

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Is it going to be you?

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Well, we'd all say, the devil's not going to work through me.

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Well, we have to be careful.

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We have to make sure that we're pursuing the things of God.

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So long as we're pursuing the things of God and we're trusting in God and we're seeking

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God and we're striving to live by his word, then we're not immune from temptation, but

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we'll be much better off to fight against it when it comes.

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But the moment the devil begins to work, then that's a problem because then we begin to

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have quarrels and feuds and disputes amongst one another and that can destroy a church.

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And Lord knows we don't ever want to be part of anything like that.

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So we want to avoid those things.

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All right, verse 24, the Lord's slave must not quarrel.

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Okay, that's what we just saw, but must be gentle to everyone.

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Okay, well, that's a good requirement.

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Now in the context of someone who's going to be a leader, then you want someone who's

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going to be gentle.

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Now Jesus was certainly one I think we would look at and say that he was gentle.

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He was compassionate.

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Brother Ernie is one that we would look at, I believe, and say that he is gentle and that

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he is compassionate.

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And that's an important thing because you got people and they're going through sin and

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they got things going on and you know how it is because you've done stuff you shouldn't

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do.

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And as a leader, you got people coming to you saying, hey man, here's what's going on.

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Would you pray for me?

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I need help in this.

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And you have to be able to have some compassion and some gentleness to realize that, look,

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people struggle.

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What you don't want is somebody said, I can't believe you did that.

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You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

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I just didn't just go off and not have any compassion whatsoever.

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I just can't believe it.

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No, that's not a good quality to have.

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You want somebody that's going to follow the example of Jesus.

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You don't pretend like sin's not sin.

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You don't push sin under the rug.

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But there has to be some gentleness there, some compassion there to point somebody to

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the love of God.

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If you got somebody who's a hothead, that's not gentle, that's always like a bull in a

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china shop in every way that they want to handle every situation and deal with people,

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then that's not good.

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That's not going to be good for the kingdom of God or for a body of brothers and sisters

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in Christ.

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Paul says here that the one who is the Lord's slave must not quarrel.

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Now this is not just good advice for those in leadership.

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This is good advice for all of us.

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Must not quarrel, but must be gentle with everyone.

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Are you gentle with people?

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I don't know.

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Some days I'm gentle with people, some days I'm not.

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Because some days you have a bad day, right?

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Some days you have a bad day and somebody does something you don't like, somebody pulls

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out in front of you, somebody messes your order up and you're not gentle.

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Some days you just go with the flow.

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Some days I order my breakfast platter, I always get eggs over easy, I get sausage,

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I get grits, I get toast.

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And some mornings they give me bacon and I like bacon but I don't want bacon on my breakfast.

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And some mornings I just eat it.

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And some mornings I say almost, now I ain't ever rude when I say it, but some mornings

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we just have a bad morning and some mornings we can take it and some mornings we say, no

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I want my sausage.

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And we need to be able to have a gentle answer.

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I try to be gentle.

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I say, you know I didn't order that bacon, I ordered sausage.

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But sometimes we're not so gentle.

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We go to McDonald's and we get our adult happy meal and they give us McNuggets instead of

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a double whopper and we say, I ordered McNuggets.

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And we're not so gentle.

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We go back up there and say, I'll order, get your head out of your phones and get back

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to doing what you need to do and pay attention to what you do.

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And sometimes we're not so gentle in how we deal with people but what we need to remember

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is sometimes people have a bad day and sometimes you have a bad day and sometimes you do things

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that are not right and you act in a way that is not right and your mind is on other things.

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And so we need to remember that.

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And maybe we give somebody a little compassion.

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That might make all the difference.

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They may be having the worst day in the world and what they expect is for people to come

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and treat them like that.

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What they don't expect is for you to say, Oh honey, it's all right.

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I'll just eat these chicken nuggets.

328
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It ain't a big deal.

329
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I'm just glad I got some.

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I appreciate you working and we'll get it next time.

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They're not expecting that.

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A little grace and a little compassion.

333
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So what Paul calls Timothy to here is to be gentle to everyone.

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And we need to make sure that we're doing that.

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Check ourself to see if we're gentle when we encounter other people.

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Able to teach.

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Now this is certainly more applicable to someone who's a leader, someone who's a pastor, an

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elder in a church type position.

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They must have some ability to be able to teach God's word effectively.

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Not everybody has that ability.

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That's not saying that people that don't are stupid.

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It's just saying that some are called in that way and those in the case of Timothy or others

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who are in those leadership positions need to have at least some ability to be able to

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teach God's word.

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Able to teach and patient.

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Must be patient.

347
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Okay.

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00:19:06,820 --> 00:19:08,640
This is a good one for us to work on.

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Not just for those who are in leadership, but all of us.

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How's our patience?

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How long is our fuse?

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Well, some people have a really long fuse.

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Some people they can put up with a lot.

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Some people have a really short fuse.

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Some people it does not take much.

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00:19:22,780 --> 00:19:27,920
Some people can be having the best day of their life and all of a sudden they're at

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the red light and the light turns green and the car in front of them takes more than two

358
00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:36,360
seconds to pull off and next thing you know, oh, oh, you didn't learn how to drive.

359
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Let's go.

360
00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:38,360
The light's green.

361
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Why don't you go?

362
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And just like that we lose our patience.

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But we need to work on those things.

364
00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:44,760
We're patient with people.

365
00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:48,040
Give them a little bit of slack.

366
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Show some patience.

367
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I have to pray for that a lot.

368
00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:51,720
I don't do good at that.

369
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That's something y'all can pray for me about.

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00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:57,440
I want to be more patient than I am and some days are better than others, but some days

371
00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:01,000
I'm just not as patient as I'd like to be.

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But these are things that Paul says is important.

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And what does he say here in verse 25?

374
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Instructing his opponents with gentleness.

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Okay, here's some good advice, especially for those who are in a leadership or anybody

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00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:22,240
really who is ever trying to share the gospel with somebody or share God's word with somebody.

377
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Sometimes you face opposition.

378
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Sometimes people are coming at you.

379
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:26,680
They're trying to attack you.

380
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All right, well, are you going to butt heads with them?

381
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:32,240
Are you going to start that arguing kind of like we talked about a while ago and begin

382
00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:33,240
to quarrel?

383
00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:36,240
Or are you going to have a gentle answer for them?

384
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Not to be argumentative.

385
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:43,120
We're not going to make much progress if we're argumentative, but to sit down and have a

386
00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:49,440
good conversation and to give a gentle answer to those who come and begin to teach things

387
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,200
or say things that are opposed to you.

388
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,960
Sometimes people might knock on your door and they may say, hey, we want to tell you

389
00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,160
about Jesus or we want to tell you about God.

390
00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,680
And you let them in and they begin to tell you, well, here's what the Bible says.

391
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:03,880
And you say, well, I don't know about that.

392
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,280
My Bible doesn't say that and I don't believe that.

393
00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:09,400
And how are we going to respond?

394
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,880
Is it going to be a knock down drag out or are you going to say, well, let's look at

395
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:13,880
it in my Bible?

396
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,520
And will gentleness begin to work through the scriptures that others may come to you

397
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:19,600
saying, hey, here's what God's word said.

398
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You say, this is not what God's word says.

399
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:26,280
Now you're going to make a lot more progress with somebody if you're gentle than if you

400
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:30,520
say, you don't know what you're talking about and if you believe that you're going to hell.

401
00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:33,960
Maybe they are going to hell if they don't trust in Jesus Christ.

402
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,520
But is that going to win them to Jesus Christ?

403
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:37,520
Maybe not.

404
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:38,520
Maybe so.

405
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:39,520
Maybe that gets their attention.

406
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,040
But maybe the best way to get their attention is with gentleness to be able to teach the

407
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,560
word of God effectively to them and say, let's look at this.

408
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:48,480
Let's look at what God's word says.

409
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:49,480
And what does he say there?

410
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:57,000
He says, instructing his opponents with gentleness, perhaps God will grant them repentance, leading

411
00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,680
them to the knowledge of the truth.

412
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,380
So what's the goal in dealing with your opponents with gentleness?

413
00:22:03,380 --> 00:22:08,480
That they would come to the Lord, that they would see the truth of God's word, that they

414
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:13,680
would come to the knowledge of the truth of God's word that would lead to repentance,

415
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:16,080
that they would trust in Jesus Christ.

416
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,720
And how does Paul say that that needs to be accomplished?

417
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:23,520
Through gentleness, that you respond with gentleness.

418
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:28,080
This is good, good instruction for us to pay attention to, not just people who preach and

419
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:33,880
teach, but all of us when we encounter people who might tell us things that the Bible doesn't

420
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:39,400
say, things that are just clearly false, things that are untrue about God and God's word.

421
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:41,280
How do we respond to those things?

422
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:47,000
Well, we need to respond to them, but we need to respond with gentleness in the hopes that

423
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,160
we can lead someone to Jesus Christ.

424
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:59,360
Verse 26, then they may come to their senses and escape the devil's trap, having been captured

425
00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:02,320
by him to do his will.

426
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:03,320
Okay?

427
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:07,600
So Paul gives Timothy a lot of instruction here, a lot of instruction on how to be an

428
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:13,720
approved worker, how to flee from the childish things of your past, how to mature, how to

429
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:19,200
pursue all these different areas that he gives us to pursue so that we can grow in God, so

430
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:24,000
that we can work on ourselves, that we have a gentleness about us, that we have patience

431
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:30,060
about us, that we don't get into quarrels or arguments, but that we can rightly divide

432
00:23:30,060 --> 00:23:36,880
the word of God so that we can gently lead others to Jesus Christ so that, as Paul puts

433
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:43,120
it here, that they may escape the devil's trap, that they may come to their senses,

434
00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:45,720
that they may come to their senses.

435
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:51,360
We see that language sometimes in scripture about people who are going in the wrong direction.

436
00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:54,720
I believe that language is used of the prodigal son, I think.

437
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:58,560
I'm pretty sure it is, when it says that he was out there eating a pig's slot, and I'm

438
00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,680
pretty sure the text says, and he came to his senses.

439
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:04,000
And I think there's one other account.

440
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,080
I can't remember that off the top of my head.

441
00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:13,920
But this idea is that there sometimes in our life has to be times that we come to our senses.

442
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:19,080
Now here it's talking about those that Timothy or anybody else is going to try to reach who

443
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,520
are coming with some kind of teaching that's not of God.

444
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:29,560
But perhaps sometimes even for those who are of God, maybe for us sometimes we need to

445
00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:31,840
come to our senses.

446
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,020
Maybe tonight some of us need to come to our senses.

447
00:24:35,020 --> 00:24:36,280
Maybe we hadn't been living right.

448
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,400
Maybe we hadn't been doing right.

449
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:44,640
Maybe we see some things on this list today that we failed a test.

450
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:46,400
Have we been pursuing righteousness?

451
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:47,720
I don't know.

452
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:49,600
You can answer that for yourself.

453
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:50,600
You don't have to lie.

454
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:51,600
Just answer yes or no.

455
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:52,600
Be truthful.

456
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:53,600
You're the only one that's taking the test.

457
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:55,320
You and God are the only one who knows.

458
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,080
And if you lie, He's going to know you're lying, so you might as well be true.

459
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,160
Are you pursuing righteousness?

460
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,580
Are you pursuing faith?

461
00:25:02,580 --> 00:25:04,080
Are you pursuing love?

462
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,480
Are you pursuing peace?

463
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:08,400
Are we pursuing these things in our life?

464
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,000
Maybe we are pursuing some of them.

465
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:11,000
Maybe we are.

466
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,560
Do we have patience?

467
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:15,680
Do we have gentleness?

468
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:17,080
These are things that are important.

469
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:18,340
Maybe we have these things.

470
00:25:18,340 --> 00:25:20,560
Maybe we don't have these things.

471
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:23,760
Maybe we see passages like these in their wake-up call.

472
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:25,000
Maybe we're acting childish.

473
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:26,960
Maybe it's time to grow up.

474
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:32,600
Maybe it's time for some of us tonight to come to our senses, to remember the love of

475
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:37,880
Jesus Christ, to remember the gentleness of Jesus Christ, to remember the compassion of

476
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:44,920
Jesus Christ, and to pursue those things so that God can work in us and that through what

477
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:50,800
God works in us, we can share those things with those that we encounter and the hopes

478
00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:53,560
that they, too, would come to Jesus Christ.

479
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:54,560
Let's pray.

480
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:56,000
We come to you, dear Lord.

481
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:57,720
We thank you for your Word.

482
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:02,200
I pray that you just bless God that what we've read tonight, that we would look at our own

483
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:07,000
lives, that you would help us, dear Lord, to be those who come to our senses if we are

484
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:08,960
acting foolish tonight.

485
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:13,360
I pray, God, that you would help us to grow in all of these areas, that we would pursue

486
00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:16,640
righteousness and faith and love.

487
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:22,960
God, I pray that you would help us in all of these ways, that we would try to be patient,

488
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:27,000
dear Lord, that we would try to be gentle with others and help us, dear Lord.

489
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:28,120
It's hard.

490
00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:29,760
It's hard sometimes to do that.

491
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,520
So we need you to help us, help us to strive to do that tomorrow.

492
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:38,440
Let it be our goal, dear Lord, to try to show somebody a little grace tomorrow, to bite

493
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:45,000
our tongue, dear Lord, maybe when it's easier to speak, to give somebody a little bit of

494
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:50,120
mercy, dear Lord, when they don't move as fast as we want them to at the red light or

495
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:53,160
they mess our order up or whatever it is, dear Lord.

496
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:58,160
There are a lot of ways that things get us all bent out of shape that don't really amount

497
00:26:58,160 --> 00:26:59,480
to anything.

498
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:04,800
So help us to be those who grow in you and have compassion like you.

499
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:06,800
And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

500
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:29,920
Amen.