Fan Into Flame // 2 Timothy 2:1-7 - Nick Serban IV

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  And so Paul is in prison right now, and he, and he recognizes he's actually on death row.It could be any day, it could be any moment now.His court case and all the things, it's, it's not going well, and he is about to die.And so Timothy is his, is his spiritual son, and he's a pastor in a place called Ephesus, which is a very metropolitan port city, and there's lots of paganism, a lot of idol worship.It's a very difficult and hostile place for the Church and for the Gospel.And so Timothy is in the middle of all this, and he needs somebody to, to help him, somebody to guide him, somebody to, to coach him and mentor him a little bit.How many of you have ever, like, coached a sport before?Raise your hand.Okay.Love it.Or maybe you, you worked in a, in a place where you had to train other employees in your job.Anybody here in the house?Okay, beautiful.How many of you know that in order to teach or coach or mentor someone in anything, it's, it's pretty important that you first have experience in that thing that you're teaching, right?I, I, I don't know about you, but there's been moments in, in, in high school and the middle school where I had to question, like, did this teacher actually read the book that they made us write an essay on?Anybody else been in that position before?Okay, thank you.I'm not alone.Or maybe you had a coach, like a, like a soccer coach or football coach, and they never played the sport.They're just really good at FIFA or, or Madden or whatever, right?It's important for you if you're going to teach someone that you're, that you're passing on something that you first learned for yourself.And, and we're gonna dive into that today because Paul is gonna begin to share some beautiful examples.And when we can frame it from a place of he's coaching Timothy for what he's about to step into, he's preparing Timothy for this difficult season, it really begins to show us what's going on.'Cause I'll say this as a, as a pastor here of Full Life, now becoming Axios ChurchIf you didn't know, we're going through a name change.The signs on the building still need to change, but everything else has been changing.I've had the privilege of teaching and preaching weekly here for, uh, a little over a year now.Um, but I've been preaching as a, as a youth pastor, as an evangelist, as a missionary, I was trying to calculate the other day, for like 17 years, um, which is, which is wild.And one thing that I've learned as a preacher, and I've even learned this from my father and from my grandfather, it's really difficult to preach on something or teach on something that I myself have not experienced.Amen.It's even more difficult, like maybe it's just because of my, my ethics, it's even more difficult for me to teach on something that, that, that I don't even live out myself.And so I just want you to know, like there is prayer, and there is fasting, and there's a lot of studying that goes into teaching, not just on Sundays but on Wednesdays and when we're counseling people.There's, there's a lot of different things going into this.And I can't give you what I, what I don't believe, and I can't give you what I haven't yet experienced from the Lord.I have to spend time in the Word.I have to spend time with the Lord.I have to pray and fast and all these different things.And I have to ask God, "What do you wanna say to this church and to this body?"It's very, very important that we're not passing on or parroting teaching that we're getting from other places.right.We wanna become a church, and we, we'll see today, we wanna become a church and become a people and become a body of Christ that passes on what God has been showing us.That we wouldn't just keep it for me, myself, and I, but when the Lord begins to speak to us, it would just come out of us.Look what God has shown me this week.Look what God has been challenging me in and, and teaching me.And this is why I love our small groups on, on Wednesday nights because we'll be reading the same passage, and we'll have 20 guys around a table, and everybody has something different that God has been speaking to them and showing them, and that's powerful.Again, we need to be really good at passing on what God has been showing us to others.We wanna give away what God is giving to us.And I'll say this, like, pretty much everyone here in the room knows how to recommend a restaurant to somebody, right?Like my wife and I just went out to a really nice restaurant, and I probably had the best oysters and prime rib I've had in Nashville, and now you're on the edge of the seat.What's the name of the place?I'll tell you later.Oh.You gotta come ask me.We all know how to promote our favorite TV shows.We know how to promote the, the movies or the sports teams that we're all about, "Oh, you gotta go see this," or, "I love this player on this team."Like, we, we can get so hyped up and amped up about all these other things, but can we get the same way about Jesus?I wanna challenge you to pass on the message of the Gospel that you say you believe in, that you would live so worthy of the Gospel that it would leak out of your life.That it would come out of your words, that the changes in your life would be so evident that it cannot be contained.I have to talk about this.God spoke to me.I have to tell somebody.Like, I don't know what it is.I, like, I'm a, I'm, I'm a very introverted person, but I can get really, really chatty with the right people.I can get really, really chatty.I think that's why I like to preach a little bit 'cause I can get really chatty up here, and no one's interrupting me.Not yet.Please don't interrupt me.Amen.Hey.You can clap at me and, and shout me down, but yeah, don't interrupt me.With all that being said, again, we need to understand the motive of Paul in this writing today.He's preparing Timothy.He's passing things on to him.Why?Because Tim is in a very difficult place as a pastor.In the church, and he needs to live his faith in a way that stands strong in difficulty.Somebody say stand strong.There's going to be battles in your life.There's going to be hard seasons, and we all need to prepare for those seasons when they happen.And I'm, I'm gonna jump ahead on my notes here for a second because what tends to happen so much in the church and so much in the body of Christ is when calamity hits and when difficulty hits, then we get close to God.But if we had walked closely with him in preparation, the calamity, the difficulty, it wouldn't have been hard at all.Are you hearing me today?I'm gonna, I'm gonna offend you and make you uncomfortable.Is that all right?Can we, can we, can we deal with it?Yes.Come on.I want y'all to talk to me today.Some of y'all are in the hard season, and now you're having to do the greatI call it the great reset, where you've been, we've been living for ourselves, or we've been living comfortably, but now I gotta get serious about my faith because all hell is breaking loose, right?Yeah.But Paul's like, "Hey, I don't want you to be in this place when, when everything starts breaking down and breaking apart that you shrink back and fall away from what God is calling you to.I want you to be prepared right now.I want you to prepare your life for what is going to come."And, and it's so important that we see Paul in this light because he's saying, "You need to get this right in your faith if you're gonna stand strong and stand firm."He says this, 2 Timothy 2:1.It says, "And then, my child, be strengthened"Somebody say strengthened.Strengthened."By the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also."Again, there's that pass it on.You're gonna teach it to others, and they're gonna pass it on to others.It's gonna be this ripple effect that takes place.Verse 3, "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him."We are enlisted in the Lord's army.Hallelujah."An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.And it is a hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."Hallelujah.In order to pass something on, again, you have to receive it first, but it starts with being strengthened in the Lord.Paul says, "Be strengthened," which is, which is really, it's a passive strengthening.He doesn't say, you need to be strong on your own, that you need to getYou need to be strong, but be strengthened, which means you receive strength.You have to receive strength.It's strength coming from somewhere else, not of yourself.So how do we do that?It's by the grace that's in Christ Jesus.And I, and I shared this last week, and, and I haven't had to fight anybody on it yet because the scripture's so good in sharing this.Grace is not only the forgiveness of God.By scriptural understanding, grace is the power of God in your life that helps you live for God.Look at this in Titus 2:11-12, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people."Amen.But it's training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly pla- passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.Grace is the power of, of salvation within our lives, but grace is also a power that gives us the ability to run from all the ungodliness and temptation in our lives.Again, how many of you know it's the Lord, it's the Lord that helps us live for the Lord?It's the power of God at work in us that helps us live for Him.It's very difficult to live for Christ in your own strength.It's very difficult to live for Jesus without Jesus.God's grace is what strengthens us, and there is a power that is available to you.But again, it's not our power.It's the power of God that is in Christ.So again, where does this power come from?How do we, how do we get it?It's found through having a relationship with Jesus.Oh, so cliche, Pastor.Can't you give us something deeper than that?No.It's found in Christ Jesus.How can I be in Jesus if I don't know God's Word, if I don't know Jesus' words?How can I be in Christ if I'm not spending time with Christ, allowing my life to change and look like Him?We have to be present with the Lord on a regular basis.We cannot grow in the power of God apart from God.It's just like your phone.Your phone will stop working if you don't plug it in.It's, it's, it's as simple as that.Like, imagine plugging in your phone once a week on a Sunday, and then having to get your battery to last for the rest of the week.God.Most of us, it's gonna be dead by Tuesday, right?That's right.Uh, Sunday night somebody said, "Hallelujah," yeah.It's so important that we stay connected to the Lord, especially if you get the iPhone update, you know.Then your battery just starts going like crazy.Yeah, it's so bad, yeah.I've had people say to me, nobody in this church, but just people.They've, they've, have come to me for counsel, and they've said, "I'm not really strong in my faith right now, and I don't know what's going on.I'm super busy.I'm frustrated with God, and, and I'm, I'm just doubting.My pastor preaches really hard truths and calls me out for choosing comfort.He's the worst, and he's bald.""I'm not doing well with the Lord right now.God isn't speaking to me."My first question is always, "Well, tell me about your devotional life."And almost always, without fail, they'll say or come up with an excuse, and they say, "Well, I'm struggling with that."But can I offend you here for a moment?Can I, can I ruffle some feathers for you?If that's you, let me just say you're not struggling with your devotional life.You've embraced a non-devotional life, and now you're blaming God for struggling with God when you won't even meet with Him.The enemy loves to use this in our lives to shame us.We kinda talked about it this, this last week."God didn't answer my prayer," "Because you're not spending time with God," that's what the enemy will start to say."God doesn't hear you anymore because you're not spending time in the Word, because you're not praying, because you're not going to church 4 times a week," 4 times a month, whatever.It's a lie from the pit of hell to keep us bound in a place where we go, "I can't catch up."Anyone else been in that place before?Where it's like, "I was doing really, really good in the Word of God.I was, I was praying every day.I was spending time with the Lord.But, but things got busy, and the season changed, and I don't have the time that I used to have.And so now I feel distant from the Lord, and I can't hear His voice anymore, and I j- just can't catch up.I'm trying to go up a, up a creek with, without a paddle.I'm drowning right now."I know it's just me.I know it's just me here today.But again, the enemy loves to use these shameful statements to keep us where we are.Saying things like, "Well, God doesn't wanna speak to you.You screwed up.You're unworthy.You deserve the silent treatment 'cause you've been giving Him the silent treatment."Y'all, y'all hear me today?Yes.I know, uh, again, I'm not saying this is from the Lord.This is, this is the accuser.This is the enemy who wants to keep us in that place where we're just filled with shame.I wanted to say this last Sunday, but I didn't.Shame tends to lead to blame.Yes.Because the accuser, the Devil, is always blaming."No, it's your spouse's fault.No, it's your fault.It's your boss's fault.It's your kid's fault."And then all of the shame begins to build up this resentment.And we, we blame our upbringing, we'll blame our job, we'll blame all these different things.And we're ashamed that we're not stronger in our faith, and that shame and blame game keeps us from the one who can strengthen us.Yes.The heart of God is the heart of a loving Father who welcomes home every single prodigal and backslider, every son and daughter who's drifted in one season or got busy in another season.He's standing On the porch of his house, waiting until he sees you come, and know- you know what he does?He runs out to you.Scripture tells us if you draw near to God, He will draw near to us.He wants to spend time with us.He wants to spend time with His children.And let me just say this, every relationship improves with time together.Husbands and wives, if you want a better marriage, spend more time with your spouse.We don't get along.You'll learn to get along.If you're struggling with your kids, don't put them in their room and ground them forever, like, take them out to Andy's Ice Cream or Waffle House or something.Do something with them.Time with someone will always improve that relationship, especially if you're both trying to improve it together.God is always trying to improve the relationship, but are we?I promise you, the Lord will always meet you when you come to meet Him.And He always desires to improve that relationship with you.So again, draw near to me, He'll draw near to you.Who takes the first step?We do.We take the first step.The strength of the Christian is found in time with Christ.Statistics actually show that most Christians read their Bible for personal devotion less than 10 times a year.Most.And most of us, most Christians, only pray for meals, bedtimes, and problems.Which means that your belly and the devil controls your prayer life.Come on, somebody.Yeah.If we want the grace and power of God in our lives, we have to be connected to Him.There's no substitute for time with God.I'm sorry, but, you know, I like to think that I'm preaching good sometimes, but, like, if this is the only word that you're getting from the Word of God on a weekly basis, your battery is gonna die before Monday morning hits.My wife has become an incredible cook since we've gotten married.Yes, she's making a face.She was not a good cook when we got married, okay?I'm just, I'm just being real.But she's gotten really, really good.There's, there's some food that just makes me, mwah, fall in love with her all over again.But on a rare occasions, I get tagged in to cook.Any men who, who cook here in the house?Hallelujah.Praise the Lord.It's usually to cook the meat, right?Yes.Meat.Stack the steaks.Give me the steaks and stack it up.It's gonna be great.Beef, chicken, pork, fish, venison, all the things.I love it.I'm a, I'm a big time hunter.I don't usuallyI, I, I'm hunting for the meat, all right?If, if they've got, uh, uh, big antlers and stuff, that's great too, but I, I want the meat.And, uh, recently, it was a few weeks ago, my wife's like, "All right, Tag, you're it.Fire up the grill."And I just need to say this, my grill is falling apart.It's, it's got rust in places that it's not supposed to have rust.Um, the, the door is not opening all the way, like, and, and it, not all of the burners are actually burning.And so, like, I know I have to get this thing started early so it gets hot enough to get the nice sear on the, on the steaks.All the men are like, "Yeah, it's all about the sear."But I go to light the grill and it doesn't fire up.And I'm frustrated because this grill is junk.It's falling apart.I'm in the market for a new one, if anybody knows where I can get one.And I'm checking all the things, and of course, the last thing you check is the gas tank.It's kinda hard to light a fire when there's no fuel.And some of us are trying to do life just like that.We're trying to cook with no power and with no fuel.We're trying to do Christianity with no devotional life, no power, no preparation.How can we live a powerful Christian life without power?This seems like such a simple story and analogy, but it's just, it's so true, because what happens is we get frustrated at God and we get frustrated with the environment.We get frustrated at the grill, right?So then we think, "Oh, I need a new grill.I need a new job.I need a new church.I need a new pastor.I need a new preacher.I need a new podcast.I just need a change of scenery.Maybe I'm gonna move cities."But we haven't actually put any gas in the tank, so what's the point?Do y'all hear me today?We think we're gonna change everything around us, all, all of our environment, but if we would actually change our schedule to spend some time with the Lord, then we would begin to recognize like, "No, I have the power."All this other stuff, it's, it's meaningless.So, how do I put gas in the tank?How do I spend time with the Lord and let my life be strengthened in Christ?Well, let me justLet me break this down.I got a bunch of text up here on the screen for you to follow along.There was a study done in 2009, it was actually updated again in, um, I think it was in 2022, 2021, with the Center for Biblical Engagement.They evaluated 40,000 Christians, trying to determine the patterns and habits of Christians, their devotion and prayer life, and they concluded that people who read their Bible once a week or inte- attend a church once a week have no real change in their lives.No change.Once a week in the word, once a week at church, there is no real change in their lifestyle, their bitterness, their anger, their resentment, or their sin.There's really no measurable change across all 40,000 of these people.People who read their Bible or spend time with God twice a week also have no change, measurably.3 times a week, there's a small little pulse, a little bit of change.They start sensing maybe some conviction or there's some small little changes they're making in their lives.But here's where it gets interesting.Christians who read their Bible and they spend time with God 4 times a week or more, this is reading your word, this is prayer, this is coming to church, coming to Bible studies, all the different things, things begin to shift dramatically.It's like a hockey stick.We're going flat, and then we're just, we're soaring from this point on.It's off the chart, where the change in their lives, their attitude, their behavior, and their sin becomes evident, and the power of God meets them, and their lives are actually different.Can I hit you with some stats?Anybody like some stats?30% of these people, again, this is 4 times or more a week, have a drop in loneliness.Or it's a 30% drop in loneliness.32% drop in anger and bitterness, a 57% lower rate of alcohol use and abuse, 68% lower odds of sex outside of marriage, fornication, and adultery, 61% lower odds of watching pornography, 74% lower chance of losing their money to gambling.Yeah, take a picture of that.Amen.That's amazing.4 times a week, 30 minutes to an hour of time with the Lord, and we're seeing all of these things begin to change.Again, this is all the negative stuff, but let me show you some of the good stuff.Here we go.They have increased church attendance.They have higher joy, higher rates of self-esteem, and motivation.Are you struggling to, to get motivated to maybe start working out or start a different habit within your life?Maybe you need to start with this habit first.They're disciplined in their life.This is crazy.228% increased odds of sharing your faith with others.231% higher odds of discipling another believer.218% growth in generosity.470% higher rate of remembering the scripture.Ms. Peggy.4 times.4 times a week, spend time with the Lord, and things change.Things shift, and it's, and it's, and it's beautiful.I, I didn't put the graphic up that you had sent me, Ms. Peggy, but I, but I loved it so much because we're not just reading the word, but we're meditating on it.We're praying about it.We're hearing from the L- We're sitting and we're listening.We're saying, "God, what do you want?What do you wanna speak to me?What are you showing me here?How does this apply to my life?"Ago- again, we say a lot here at, at our church, you know, Sunday's for inspiration, but Wednesday's for application.That's where we have our small groups, because we're diving deeply into all of the, the notes from Sunday and going, "How can we apply this to our lives and begin to grow and change?"And I understand not everybody can make it to small groups, but man, take the scripture that we're talking about on Sunday, and before you watch the football game or golf or, or start making lunch or dinner, read it again and saying, "God, you know, the preacher was all over the place, so what do you wanna say to me?"Right?There's been many times where people have come up to me and said, "Man, I love that you said XYZ," and I'm like, "I didn't say XYZ, I said ABC, but the Holy Spirit must have said something different to you."It happens.This is why, this is why our God is so awesome, and He's so cool.Paul says, "Be strengthened by the power of God."So the power of God in Christ is found in spending time with Jesus.I, I honestly don't know how else to say it to us today.There's power in the presence of God, and if you have a powerless Christian life, go pray.Open your Bible and begin to read it and meditate it, meditate on it multiple days a week.That's where we get powered up.The power of God in our lives is a result of the presence of God in our lives.I wanna challenge you today, take the next 30 days, take the next month, and begin reading God's Word every day, and tell me your life has not changed.Tell me your life's not changed.Spend time with God every single day this week, and I promise you your week will be better.You're gonna hear from God.Instead of spending time on social media and watching TV, turn some of those times into times with the Lord.You could be driving down 65, turn on some worship music instead of Jay-Z and, and all the rap that you listen to, 'cause I know you guys are all thugs in this room.You get one hand on the steering wheel, and you get one hand lifted up, you know?Usually, that hand's on your phone, right?Don't lie.We can take time to be with the Lord.If you don't know how to pray, it's just talking to God like He's your best friend.That's it.It doesn't need to be this, "Father, all holiness," blah, blah, blah, all the things.We can be reverent, yes.But just talk to Him.Just talk to Him.He wants to speak to you.Read scripture.Start with a chapter a day.And here's the thing, don't start in Lamentations.Don't start in Numbers.All right?Get a Bible reading plan.There's a, there's an app that I started using called, uh, Scrolling the Bible.Instead of doom scrolling on my phone, I'm scrolling in the Bible, and it's really great 'cause it's got some, like, some biblical AI stuff in there that helps me, like, and trains me in all these different things.So I, I'm, I'm getting all these things.Um, I, I challenge a lot of people, if you, if you haven't started in the Word of God and, and read it through, um, start in John.The Gospel of John is just one of my favorite gospels because it truly shows the deity and the power of Christ, and it just has this beautiful language for us.So again, pray about what you're reading and listen.Like, if you're gonnaif you're only gonna study for 30 minutes or, or, or pray for 30 minutes, make sure at least 10 of those minutes are you just zipping your lips and hearing from God.Allow Him to speak, 'cause what He's saying is way more important than what you're praying.Can I say that?Yes."Then you, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus."This is great."In what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."Let me just cut this off before it becomes a problem.The word men there does not mean males.Okay?It's the word anthropoid.Somebody say the word anthropoid.Anthropoid.Which means mankind.It's all people.This isn't a only men can teach the gospel to other men.No, no, no, ladies, you're in the mankind, all right?Here's the pattern for Christians.Paul teaches Timothy.Timothy teaches other faithful anthropoids.Anthropoids?Anthropoids.And then they go and teach others.Paul's making a disciple who makes other disciples.Paul is saying, "I'm not keeping this just for me and for Timothy, or just the pastors who have this knowledge, and, and on- only men and only priests and only all these leaders can, can know what the text actually says."And this is where, honestly, we've had a lot of issues with the, the Catholic, Catholic Church.I think they've made a major mistake, and this is why Martin Luther even pushed for the Reformation out of the Catholic Church.Because in the Catholic tradition, there's priestly authority and autonomy, and they're the only ones who can carry the truth of the Bible.And so a lot of Catholic priests do not encourage other people to read the word of God.But what Martin Luther said is that every Christian should read God's word and know Jesus for themselves.It must be passed on.But you, again, you can't give away what you haven't first received.Paul said, "What you've received from me, teach others to teach others."Let me just encourage you here today, part of our, our strength in God is that we share the good news with other people.If you ever had a good workout routine or, again, amazing meal at a restaurant or whatever it is, you're excited to share the thing that you learned.You're excited to, to share those experiences with others.So to everyone here who calls Christ Jesus your Lord, you've got something to share with others.In fact, right now, you have an opportunity to, to leverage even your, your social media platform.Like, I saw some of you already taking pictures of some of the notes on the screen.That can be something that you share and say, "Hey, look what we learned on Sunday today.Look what God was showing us.Like, this is so cool."And it's kinda funny, too, 'cause I was talking to somebody about this.Even with our church, you know, you can follow us on social media at, at Live Axios, uh, on Instagram.But the algorithm only works well in reaching more people if more people are sharing what's being posted.Like, by the time you see something that's gone viral, it's because 100,000 people already shared it.And so we have the ability to, to share what God is showing us and, and sharing with us.There's even people that attend our church that have their own YouTube platforms, Instagram platforms, all these different things, and they're just posting things that God is showing them, and it's, and it's amazing.And we're able to reach so many people in that way.What you hear from your pastor, your small group, your youth pastor, what you hear from your spiritual mentors, whatever God is teaching you, even from your own Bible reading, pass it on to someone else.Pass it on to your children.Pass it on to your spouse.Pass it on to your next-door neighbor.It can just be like, "Hey, can I just, can I tell you something that God has shown me this week?Like, I was reading this scripture, and I, I might have read it 50 other times in my lifetime, but for whatever reason, because of the season that God has me in right now, this scripture is coming alive to me in a new way, and maybe it will for you, too."It's as simple as that.So many times we think that we have to, you know, go through the entire Romans road of leading someone to Christ, but one of the most beautiful things we can do, instead of just, like, hard preaching the gospel, is just saying, "Jesus Christ saved my life.I can't explain it, but I'm a different person than I used to be.I can't explain it.I can't, I can't necessarily preach theologically and, and doctrinally the gospel to you, but all I can say is God has changed my life."Yes.That right there is probably the greatest testimony for this generation.Because a lot of, a lot of Gen Z and a lot of other, other people that are far from God, they don't really necessarily care about the theology of all these things.They just wanna know, is God real?That's right.And if God is real in your life, then maybe, just maybe, He could be real in mine.right.What I love about this is that even though I, I, again, I've read my Bible through several different times, there's always new things that God is showing me because my seasons are changing.You know, what I read in my teen years, and what I'm reading in my 20s, and what I've read in my 30s, I could be reading the same thing, but God's showing me something different because the season has changed in my life.I'm a little bit wiser than I used to be, or at least I think I'm a little bit wiser than I used to be.Let me just ask you this.When's the last time that you shared any part of your faith with anybody?When's the last time that you shared the glorious message of the gospel with somebody?Because I'm gonna offend you here for a second.I'm gonna make you uncomfortable here for a moment.Just brace yourself.Y'all aren't offended.Y'all love this.This is great.If you've never shared the gospel with someone and you call yourself a Christian, you're actually living in disobedience to Jesus.Because he says in Matthew 28 verse 19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."That we should make disciples of all people, and disciples are students who are becoming teachers, who then pass that on to other students.It's disciples making disciples who make disciples.As a disciple, I'm learning from the Lord, and I'm showing someone else what I've learned and how I've grown.Again, I don't have to be, you know, 65, 70 years old and have all of this life experience.I can walk with people that are older than me and younger than me and just say, "This is what God is showing me.What is God showing you?"It's beautiful, and it's, and it's powerful.If we're not living out this great commission from Jesus to make disciples, we are living in disobedience.And again, it's, it's more than just, you know, Jesus is my homeboy, and let me just share some principles that I learned in my Bible study this last week.No, it's God has changed my life.And I've made decisions to begin to follow him.I've made decisions to, to basically take my entire life and center it around Jesus.And because I've done this, I'm a new creation.I'm a new person.So again, if we're living in disobedience to Jesus, what do we do with that?Become obedient.It's that simple.Just start doing it.Don't let shame keep you from doing it.Again, you may have been a Christian for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, your entire life.You may not remember a day when you weren't following Jesus, but nobody ever told you that you need to share the gospel.Just start doing it.Go to your kids today and make sure that they know the gospel.Get them in JBQ.Make sure they know the Word of God.Talk to your spouse this afternoon.Tell a neighbor, tell a coworker.Over the next month, spend time with God every single day, 'cause that's where your strength comes from.But I want you to think of one person that you know that needs to know Jesus.Think of one person.And it may be the, the person that calls themself a Christian, but you know based on their lifestyle they're really not living for him.And again, you may not feel qualified or know enough scripture, but if Jesus is your saver- Savior, you are overqualified to share Jesus with others, because Jesus has changed your life.Think of somebody in your life.I want you to focus this week and this month on passing on what God has been teaching you in your life.It's so powerful.There's nothing like growing in the strength of God's grace and then sharing that faith with someone else.You wanna know why?Because eternity matters.Eternity matters.That's right.There is a hell, and there is a heaven.There are rewards in heaven, and hell is eternal.And the people in your life, they need Jesus, and if you truly love them, don't you want them to be in heaven?If you're strengthened in the Lord and you're sharing this gospel, you will endure some pressure.But just know people that don't live for Jesus aren't always going to be excited when you tell them about Jesus.They might reject you, they might put some pressure on you, they might turn you into HR.But I wanna encourage you to be persistent.Don't be weird, but if you're dealing with opposition, you are going in the right direction.ComeYes.Nothing valuable comes without pressure.Diamonds take pressure.Gold takes pressure.Your spiritual formation takes pressure, amen?Winning the lost in your family, in your neighborhood, in your job, it all takes pressure.So stand strong under pressure.Be strengthened in Christ.You're spending so much time with him, and, and, and your strength is just growing more and more and more, and you, and you stop caring about what everybody else thinks, because you know that eternity is at hand.Pressure is not an indicator that you're in the wrong.It's an indicator that you're fighting a very real devil.Christians who aren't enduring pressure are not a threat to the enemy.I mean, let me just say that again.Christians who are not enduring this pressure aren't a threat to the enemy.And maybe you've never experienced spiritual warfare before, or you've never had the spiritual pressure, and I would just ask, are you even a threat?Yeah, nobody, nobody's messing with you because you're not a threat.But when you start trying to extend the grace of God and the truth of Jesus Christ and the gospel in this weary world, I'm gonna tell you, the devil's gonna pay attention.And this is why we start with the grace and power of God.This is why Paul is saying this to Timothy.He's like, "You're gonna be under pressure.The enemy is not gonna like the fact that you're coming in and sharing the gospel in this ungodly world, that you're actually standing firm in Christ, that you're actually sharing the things that you believe."Paul takes another step, and he gives these 3 examples.We kinda shared them already.If you're taking notes, write these down, 'cause I think it's so important.Paul gives 3 examples of how to live in Christ and how we should live.In verse 3 it says, "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him."So write this down.Number one, we gotta be soldiers.Being a soldier means that you gotta battle.You have a mission.You have an adversary.So- soldiers who shrink back from battle or don't follow orders, they get pulled off the line.And there's pressure when you're a soldier.You've got a job to do when you're a soldier, and Paul uses this analogy because each and every one of us, if we call Christ our Lord, we have enlisted to serve King Jesus, to serve the Lord Commander over everything.And remember, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds.We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.We're not fighting against flesh and blood.We're not fighting with, with guns and rifles, all these things.We're fighting in the spirit.Our weapons are prayer and evangelism and the Word of God, and we walk by faith with the armor of God upon us every single day.This is a, a spiritual battle that we're in.And we serve a great general, a king who will never be dethroned, and until he returns, we're gonna battle for the souls of our children, our neighbors, our family.Paul says, "Be willing to share in suffering."Nothing worth building comes without pressure.If it's comfortable to your flesh, if it doesn't have a little bit of pressure and pain, it may not be worth it.No soldier gets entangled with civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.When you're on a mission as a soldier, you have an objective.You have a target.You're going to a place to do a thing, and what you don't do is get distracted or deviate from the mission.As a soldier in the army of the Lord, we're disciplined, and we're focused on the mission.That's the attitude that he, Paul is telling us to, to have.Hey, you're a soldier, so you're disciplined.You're a soldier, so you have a mission.We're not just hanging out.We're gonna stay committed.We're gonna build his church.We're gonna serve the high king.The second one is the athlete.This might be my favorite one.It says in verse 5, "An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules."Cheaters never win in the long run.Paul tells us if we're gonna be victorious, we gotta do it God's way.We have honor, integrity, and we live like an athlete who's competing to win, and if we violate the rules or we cheat, we can disqualify ourselves.Imagine for a moment that you start reading your Bible every single day, where you're training every day.You're building muscle every single day, and it may seem a little bit odd at first, but with discipline, with discipline, every day may feel the same, but your year will look a lot different.When you're undisciplined, every day may look different, but your year's gonna look the same.Some of the best, uh, mixed martial artistsAnybody like MMA fighting here in the house?We have an MMA fighter here in the church.I'm not gonna call him out, um, but I, but I, I chatted with him about this story, 'cause I wanted to confirm that this was, this was true.But in the, in the mixed martial arts fighting world, in the UFC and all this stuff, the guys to look out for are the, the Russians and the, the Uzbekistani guys.Any- anybody know what I'm talking about?That's okay.You're gonna learn about MMA today.You, you wanna watch out for these guys, not because they're built different, like, genetically.It's because they build themselves differently when it comes to training.A lot of fighters in, in the Americas and in the West will do these intense workouts when they're getting ready for a fight.They may not train all year long, but they, they have these intense training seasons when they're preparing for the fight that's about to come, and it'll be, it'll be hours.It'll be s- like 6 to 8 hours of training every single day, and they're lifting heavy weights.They're going full contact, and it's, it's intense.It's really intense.A lot of the time in that process, they get injured, or they get gassed out, and they get a little tired, and so when they show up for the fight, they may only be, like, 70 to 80% at strength, but they're definitely stronger.They put on weight.You know, they're, they're, they're ready to go.But with these Eastern guys, with the, the Russians and the Uzbeks and all the things, they train every single day for maybe, like, 2 to 3 hours a day, and it's all, like, easy touch.You know?It's never full contact, because they don't wanna get hurt in the process.It's just a few hours every single day, and they're working on their technique.They're doing all the right moves.And so when they show up to fight against an American, against one of these Western guys, and you compare the hours of time spent in training, the Russians and the Uzbek guys, they've got hundreds of hours more in training than these American and, and South American guys.So what matters more, the hours of time in training or the intensity of the workout that you're doing?Because for them, like, their technique is flawless because they'veThey're not hurt, they're practicing all the different things, and it's just that daily repetition over and over again.That consistency builds stamina, muscle memory, and compounded discipline.Let me just hit you with this really quick.This is, this is Franklin High School math, so if this is wrongI went to public school, all right?If I read my Bible, if I read my Bible for an hour a day every single day, and I go to church on Wednesday and Sunday 48 to maybe 50 times a year, and I'm hearing the Word of God, I'm studying the Word, that's roughly 452 hours a year that I'm spending time with God.It's just under, like, 19 24-hour days that I'm spending with the Lord.But if I just come on Sunday 30 weeks, 30 Sundays out of the year, you're actually only getting about 22 hours of the Word in your life if the pastor preaches for 45 minutes.So my question is, how can we say we're following Jesus if we only spend less than a day with Him a year?Yeah.Again, the athlete is daily training, daily, in just small increments, and it begins to add up over time.It's this compound interest.It's a preparation for what's about to take place.I was talking to, to, uh, the, the, the MMA guy here in our church today, or on S- on Wednesday, and he was saying when, when you're training and you're getting ready for the fight that's about to happen, the only voice that matters is the voice of your coach, and it's really the only voice that you hear throughout your entire training experience as you prepare for the fight.But when you get into the fight, everything's loud.Everybody's screaming.There's a crowd, and other coaches are yelling to the other person, and you're like, you're, you're getting ready to fight this guy.And so if the only voice that you know or recognize is the voice of your coach, that's gonna help you stay locked in.But again, if you didn't train with your coach, then you don't know what voice to listen to when you get into the heat of the fight.Are y'all hearing me today?If you know the voice of the Father because you've been spending time in His Word, you're gonna know His voice when you're in the thick of the fight, when calamity strikes and difficulty hits.And then he says, number 3, the farmer.2 Timothy 2:6, "It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops."Think about a farmer.He's encouraging us to have a long view in mind, a diligent, patient life.Realize that the life of a farmer is a life of planting and harvesting in seasons and cycles, planting and waiting, watering and watching, trusting God to, to bring the rain and the sunlight.And I've said this before, oftentimes the mark of a true believer, or I'm sorry, the mark of a mature believer is one who can discern the seasons.John, can you come?I was talking to Brittany about this.Um, I didn't tell you I was actually gonna share this, but- It's all rightwe're gonna do it.We were talking about my message, and she said, "Oh, I have to plan my time with the Lord and my daily schedule around my hormone cycle."All the ladies in the church, can I get an amen?Anybody?We're gonnaI, uh, let me just hit you here for a second because this is, this is really good.Guys, just, like, tune out for a second, okay?The men it.They need to hear it?Okay, cool.This is kinda crazy, but it's also really wise because one part of the month you're super energized, and you're focused, and you get so much stuff done, right, ladies in the house?But then Aunt Flo comes to town.I, I'm going there.Can we go there?We're family.We can be family today.Aunt Flo shows up, and then the shame of not being able to accomplish more things comes in, because your hormones now say, "Sorry, you can only get half done what you got done a couple weeks ago."And it's very interesting, 'cause, you know, that's a, that's a monthly cycle for the ladies here in, in the church, but for, for all of us here in this place, there are seasons of your life, think about a farmer, where you're planting.There's gonna be seasons of your life when you're harvesting.There's gonna be seasons of your life where it becomes easy to spend time with the Lord.It's gonna be easy.It's gonna be beautiful.And then there's gonna be seasons where it's gonna get hard.But when, when you can have the maturity and understanding and go, "You know what?Not every day has to look exactly the same," but it can begin to shift based on all the things that God is doing in this season.Like, you may not be able to get up at 5:00 in the morning every single day and spend time in the Word.You may not be able to have every single evening or every single lunch or all these different points, but if you can just intentionally say, "You know what?Hey, in this season that I'm in right now, that God is calling me to, I'm gonna spend time with Him, at this time, maybe in this place, and I'm not gonna feel ashamed if I, if I miss that time, because I know that God is gonna create an opportunity for me to spend time with Him again, because He wants it, and I want it."Maybe there's some mercy that we need to give ourselves in understanding that there are seasons in our lives.There's, there's gonna be moments where you gotta keep plowing, and it's gonna be difficult.It's gonna be hard.And, but then all the things are planted, and, and now you're just in the waiting season.The farmer is the wise one who understands all the weather and the seasons and the ground and all these different things.So Paul is saying, "You gotta be like a soldier.You gotta be disciplined.You gotta be like, you gotta be like an athlete.You can't cut corners and try to get really intense with your training in one season and then get gassed out in the next.You gotta be repetitive, and you gotta spend more time."It can be small, little moments here and there, but it's this building and this compounding, and it creates that muscle memory.Maybe you gotta be like a farmer, and you gotta understand the season that you're in.And I wanna ask us as we, as we close here today, do any of these analogies look like your faith at all right now?Maybe you feel like an athlete, or you f- you feel like a farmer.You feel like a soldier.Is there diligence and discipline in your walk with Jesus?Some of us are really disciplined in our fitness and our diet or our budget or whatever, but are you disciplined and full of integrity and faithful to the Lord, wise like a farmer, a soldier, an athlete, in your faith in Jesus?If we're gonna spend time with God and be strengthened by Him, we need to begin to have this attitude, these attitudes.And then he says, "Think about what I'm telling you.Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."So 3 things.Can this, this, this coming week, can we commit to praying and spending time with God every single day this week, just for 30 minutes?Can, can, can we, can we do that here today?You may already be doing it, and that's awesome.But what would it look like this week if we spent 30 minutes with the Lord every single day, 20 minutes in the Word, or you go 10 minutes in the Word, 10 minutes in prayer, 10 minutes keeping your mouth shut and letting God speak to you?W- would you think about somebody this week that needs the gospel, that you're gonna pray for, that maybe you'll start sharing the gospel with in your workplace?And the last thing, would you think about what we're preaching about here in this church?Would you take the Word, take, take 2 Timothy chapter 2, the first 7 verses, and just go and review it with the Lord when you go home today?I want you to think about these things.Can we humble ourselves and recognize that we all have room to grow?We all have room to grow.But if we let the enemy come in and shame us and say, "Oh, you should have grown this much already," it just keeps us stagnant.But when we can say, "Man, I'm gonna be strengthened in the Lord.I'm gonna make a decision to, to change my entire life and schedule to be around the Lord," 'cause that's how, that's how it happens.We have to make the decision.We have to make the change.We can't just hear a bunch of teachings on Sunday mornings or on podcasts and think, "Oh yeah, I'm gonna remember all of that."No, you have to make a decision based on what God is showing us to see this change take place.Remember, 4 times a week, and you start to see changes take place.