They're just grown in a cooler climate, that's all. Okay, put the durian away, here we go. Pay. Mouth. Blow. Scatter. Edge. Your statutes are wonderful, therefore I obey them. The unfolding of your word gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. Turn to me and have mercy on me, for you have always, as you always do, to those who love your name. Direct my footsteps according to your word. Let no sin overrule me. Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your decrees. Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed. Yep, yep, yep, good stuff there. Okay, next week will be Saudi, and let's see. All right, the only prayer request that I have is marking Colorado is gonna have his first hormone treatments for cancer next week, and then obviously we got the people in California. You know, I mean, I turned on the news this morning at three o'clock and was watching some of the fire videos and I said to Hedico, what happened to us on Siesta Key was literally nothing. What happened to them in the past couple days is like what happened to Fort Myers and with the last storm. I mean, there are foundations that are just nothing on them, just swept clean. And that's what's happened out in California as well. So keep the people out there in prayer. We got some people that attend online from that area that so far have not been affected, but man, I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen pictures like that. You know, you see it in forests, that's one thing, but to see it in communities where thousands of houses are just completely gone, just completely gone, unbelievable. Keep those folks in prayer. Very sad to see. Today must be the ninth, I think, is what we decided. So, let's see here. Ninth. The Peculiar Preacher. The Lord gives each of us a unique personality, and His choice of servants have sometimes been, well, peculiar. Uncle Bob Sheffrey was among them. or Sheffy. Sheffy was born on Independence Day 1820 when his mother died and aunt in Abingdon, Virginia took him in. There over Greenway Store, he was converted on January 9th, 1839. He was 19. Feeling the call to preach, he dropped out of college and started through the Virginia hills to a Methodist circus rider preaching the gospel. He did it oddly. For example, one day he called to a cabin on Wolf Creek. He was called to a cabin. He had previously tried to win this family to Christ, but without success. As he rode up this time, things were different. A member had been bitten by a rattlesnake. They seemed little hope. Entering the house, Sheffy sank to his knees and prayed, Oh Lord, we do thank thee for rattlesnakes. If it had not been for a rattlesnake, they would not have called on you. Send a rattlesnake to bite Bill, one to bite John, and send a great big one to bite the old man. He is well remembered for prayers like that. An acquaintance said, Brother Sheffy was the most powerful man in prayer I ever heard. but he couldn't preach a lick. Once encountering moonshiners in the mountains, he dismounted and out and offered a long prayer to God for us to smash the still into smithereens. He rose, smoothed his trousers and continued his journey. A heavy tree fell on the still wrecking it. And let's see here, the continued wrecking it, the owner rebuilt it and Sheffy prayed again. This time a flash flood did the job. His prayers were honest, down to earth and plain spoken, even routine prayers like grace at meals. Once being entertained in a neighborhood home, he was asked to offer thanks. Sheffy, who loved chicken and dumplings, said, Lord, we thank thee for this good woman. We thank thee for this good dinner, but we have been better if the chicken and dumplings had the chicken and dumplings in it. Amen. I'm not sure what that means. Anyway, Robert Sheffy's unorthodox prayers and sermons ushered many Mountaineers into the kingdom and earned him the title, the Peculiar Preacher. 1 Peter 4, each of you has been blessed with one of God's many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well. You have the gift of speaking, preach God's message. If you have the gift of helping others, do it with the strength that God supplies. Okay, well I'm glad we don't have any peculiar preachers here. That's good news. Let's see here. Okay, we are going to be in today to Timothy. to Timothy 1 verse 5, and if we move steadily, we could finish the whole book today. We could. We'll see if that's going to happen. It's a possibility. Okay, I want to start at the paragraph where it begins. Oh yeah, thank you. We didn't do that last week and always get sidetracked. Heavenly Father, we certainly thank you for the many blessings of this life. We thank you for the chance to come into your presence and to pray for others. Lord, the people in California need your hand of blessing at this point. Things are not going well for many of them. And above all, whatever happens, we just pray that you will be glorified through it. Can't even imagine what's happening out there right now. And we also lift up Mark and his situation on Monday. And Lord, we ask that you bless this time here together in this class and that the people that attend either now, online, or later, would be blessed by it, but if there's anything that is incorrect, that that would be figured out and corrected so that we would not have inappropriate doctrine. We pray this to your glory. Amen. Amen. Could have said a peculiar prayer about California. Oh yeah, peculiar. Well, that was, you know, people might think that's peculiar. I mean, if I say you be glorified above all else, I mean, if it means, you know, I was listening to a preacher one time and he, he said, do you love your children enough to pray? that whatever it takes, Lord, I mean, if it means them going to jail, if it means, he went through, and he's right. I mean, what's more important? What happens to them now or what happens to them in eternity? And whatever it takes, Lord, that's what I pray. And if that's what would hopefully bring people in California back to you. You know what Justin Trudeau posted about California? We're thinking about the people in California. That's nice. What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything. It means it's appropriate. Yeah. Exactly him. Yeah, exactly. It doesn't mean anything. I said, you know, if you believed in a God, you'd at least have a point to your tweet here. But he is, they're all pathetic when they get into that type of thing. He's gone in the next few. He'd be gone soon. Yeah. Anyway, just very sad that people can't just simply say, we pray that God will guide you. I'm thinking about you. It doesn't mean anything. Gee whiz. Okay. I thank God whom I serve as my forefathers did with a clear conscience. As night and day, I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. Five, that I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also. You know, that one says, I was reminded. I have been reminded. I have been, so that would be passive. It's like he has been, somebody reminded him. This one says, when I call to remembrance. Now, I don't have the Greek in front of me, but one of them is clearly wrong. Yeah, it says, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which do, excuse me, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, which I believe is Eunike in Greek, then I am persuaded is in you also. Okay, I'm learning to speak today apparently. Okay, got some comments on this. 1-5. The words here now take us back to verse 3. Paul had said, I thank God. Now he continues that thought with, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you. I thank God when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you. You can see how the rest, as I said a week ago, is probably parenthetical. Paul's gratitude to God is found in Timothy's sincere faith. He calls it to remembrance as if the most cherished of memories. And, you know, if you think about the people that you have personally either been with when they were converted or seen them grow, maybe they were ordained, maybe whatever, and you think about how they've continued, that ought to make you just as happy as anything else. You know, I was out one time at the projects. I remember the exact road, I remember the exact house we were in front of, and I told Tom here that one of the preachers that we both knew was being investigated for a very serious crime. And his knees almost buckled. He looked like somebody had punched him. And so you think how sad you feel for somebody that you care about and that you would hope progress. But at the same time, if somebody is sticking with the Lord, if they're progressing in the Lord, and they're not with you now, but you hear that they're doing well, you ought to thank God for it. I mean, because we're all prone to falling. Every single one of us is prone to falling. And so, you know, when the bad times come, you may take it as a shock and pray for the person You know, whatever it takes. And if the person is doing well, then you want to just, in your heart, you probably do. You just feel so good about it that that person is now a professor, that person is now whatever. He's gone from being a youth minister to being a full-time head pastor, whatever. And that's what Paul is doing. Now I thank God. I thank God when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you. for a true and sound believer, the faith steadfast and deep-rooted is truly a source of rejoicing. This is because when we think of our beloved brother or sister, we know that when they face a time of great trial, sadness, or disappointment, it will not be a reason for that person to be in utter despair. You know, I know a lady, I saw her at the bank recently. I haven't seen her in about 12, 15 years, but she was the wife of a, they both worked together. They owned a business in the mall that I take care of. And I stopped one time and I asked her about Jesus. And she said, oh, well, my mother was a woman of great faith. And I said, what is that supposed to get you to heaven? You know what I mean? Why would you even say something like that? And that's why I said, well, What happened to you? And so, when things go bad in her life, where is her grounding? If her mother was a woman of great faith and she was grounded and something bad happened in her life, you'd know that she'd tell people about it. It's okay, the Lord's got this. But when somebody says something like that, it makes me question, you saw that in your mother. Doesn't that even interest you? Anyway, I just, so there you go. Read it again, when they face a time of great trial, sadness, or disappointment, it will not be a reason for that person to be in utter despair. Whereas somebody that doesn't have that hope or that faith in Christ, the obvious connection is that they are going to be in despair. A classic example of this, and you know, We had a tough time and I'm not going to try to diminish it last year with the hurricane but through it I didn't lose my faith as a matter of fact I think it probably made it stronger even though there were times where I was so physically tired that I just was okay but I was looking at the mail online over the past three days or two days with this fire and one of the pictures that keeps coming to my mind is there's a Actor I guess he's pretty famous as Ben Affleck. I think I've seen one of his moves anyway, and he's sitting in his car and he's watching his house burned down. And it looked like utter desperation on his face. And I thought, I mean, this guy's worth millions and millions of dollars. The house alone was I think like $50 million. So he's obviously got a lot of money. And I understand, I'm not trying to diminish his pain. I mean, I feel it. I could feel it in his face, but he's looking at that as the end of, everything. I mean that's what it looked like and I thought you know on CSDK I know some people they had real bad times and they were just totally beaten up by it and I know one over there and myself our houses were flooded and it was like well it's terrible to go through But it's not the end of our faith. It's just something that we have to live through. And we're very thankful to the Lord that it wasn't worse. So it just depends on your perspective. But I don't know how people, Justin Trudeau, how does he get through life telling people he's thinking about them when they're losing everything? I don't mean to keep bringing that up, but I just, it's hard to process how human beings can live without faith in God. I don't even understand it. In the past couple days, you know, I've thought this through because of the utter devastation of those people out there. I can't even imagine what some of them are going through, and yet if they are people of faith and they really believe in the Lord, they're going to say this isn't the end of everything, it's just a very miserable time to go through. So anyway, there's just a difference that I find it hard to understand, and that's why I say I hope that these people will obtain faith, or they'll want to seek something more because of what's happening to them now. And if that happens, then all of the devastation is worth it in their life. Anyway, so genuine faith does not mean, here it is, that they will not feel the pains of life, but that they will be able to endure them without losing all heart. As I said, this guy back here owns a house on the quay, and he probably got worse damage than I did simply He's got a house that was built to standards, though, but in other words, he's closer to the beach. I'm on the bay side, he's on the beach side, so he probably got the brunt of, you know, whatever. I haven't seen your house. I haven't been down to the north end of the island yet, but he never came in and said, oh, my life is over. And it was just, you know, life goes on. We have the Lord, and that's a lot more important than what happened here. But it doesn't mean we don't feel the pains of going through those things. want to keep that separate, but that they will be able to endure them without losing all heart. Faith in Christ will ultimately be their rock of stability. In this we can truly give thanks to God. Okay, and that's, I know that's how Hedeko feels, and I know that's how several other Christians I know feel that have gone through this in the past year, and if My friends who are Christians in California have to face this. I know, I know them as human beings that they will endure through it. Even though it'll be difficult, I know that they will endure through it. That's assuming they lived. In other words, if somebody, you know, gets out and with fires, you can see it coming and it's time to leave. So you would assume that they would. But the people around them that don't have the same hope, there's just going to be a huge difference in their lives. So Paul next notes that Timothy's faith dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois. Here is a word used only once in all of the Bible, mommy, mommy, M-A-M-M-E, mommy with a hard E, or grandmother. It is comparable to saying mama to a grandmother as a term of endearment. When I say, you know, my neighbors, they would call their grandmother Nana. Okay, I remember that. And other people have terms of endearment. My grandmother I called Gigi because she's a Garrett and she's her grandma so we just made it short and called her Gigi. So that it just saved the trouble but mommy or grandmother is comparable to saying mama to a grandmother is a term of endearment. The word dwelt is in the past tense, implying that Louis is now dead. But while alive, faith resided in her as if as in a bode. She was the first in the line of Timothy to possess saving faith. and it resided in her in a way obvious to those around her. Hence Paul's note of it now. I mean, and that's like me talking about that lady that I know that used to own the sports shop, and she said, my mother was a woman of great faith. That was her answer to me asking about Jesus in her life. Well, anyway, thank goodness that Lois was able to get Timothy to have the same like faith that she had, okay, or maybe her grandmother, not mother, whatever. Let's see here. She was the first in the line of Timothy. I read that. Likewise, he adds in, and your mother, Eunice. So Lois was the grandmother. Eunice is the mother. The same thoughts apply to her as to Lois. They were both now dead, apparently by the verb. But while alive, they were women of great faith. Eunice was a Jewess. Jewess. This is learned from the book of Acts. I'll take you to chapter 16. and we'll see that here in just a second. Acts chapter 16 and it says there, then he came to Derby and Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed but her father was Greek. So we know that she was Jewish, she married a Jew, probably not a believer, he was well spoken of, Timothy was not the father, by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region for all they all knew that his father was Greek. Okay you know that's one of the points that I was talking to somebody about this this past week I can't remember who but you know people will take the circumcision of Timothy these Hebrew roots people and did I say that during a sermon? Okay, so I don't need to repeat it then. I remember saying that. I remember saying that recently. And yeah, people take these things and they pull them completely out of context and they say, see, you're required to be circumcised. Never mind the fact that Paul says exactly the opposite and he explains why in 1 Corinthians and then he says the opposite in Galatians chapter 5. 100% the opposite. He did it for a reason. As long as we understand that, then we won't get led astray by these people that have no good intent for you. They want to put you back under bondage. They want to put you under the law that Gentiles were never under, ever in the history of the universe. The only people that were ever under the law of Moses was Israel, who the law was given to. So, nonsense. Anyway, It doesn't bode well for the father with this sentence here. Oh yeah. He never came to Christ. Yeah, it doesn't look like the father ever became a believer. Here it is, exactly. It is implied that the father was not a believer, but the mother had received her Messiah at some point during her life. As only Eunice is mentioned, but not by name in Acts, and as both are mentioned now, it is a note which truly displays the authenticity of this epistle. The two accounts beautifully aligned to comprise a united picture of this family of Bates. Paul, finally Paul speaking of these women's faith says, I am persuaded is in you also. He was confident of it. He'd been with Timothy all over the place. They had traveled together. They had worshiped together. Paul is the one that circumcised him and they went in and they talked to Jews openly about Jesus. He knew it. Timothy Paul knew this was true, but by saying it in this way, it is given as an encouragement to Timothy. When you say something like that to somebody, you say, I know that faith is in you too. It's not intended to say, I question it or, you know, I'm kind of sure about it. It's a way of complimenting that person and bolstering the confidence in them. So Timothy, this face, it was given as encouragement to Timothy that his faith is one of a noble tradition that looked to Christ Jesus. In this, Paul was stirring up Timothy to continue in that tradition and build upon it. So there you go with that. That's just what's going on with that verse and Paul's words to Timothy and he's setting up, you know, as he does in his letters, he's setting up, you know, the informal before giving the formal. And this is part of the informal, but it's just, you know, encouraging Timothy and it's getting ready to give him the instruction that he needs. So, life application. There are times when reminding someone about their family's faith is an appropriate thing to do. If Franklin Graham were to seem overwhelmed with the challenges of his ministry, patting him on the back and saying, you are from a great line of faithful people, would be a great encouragement to him. It would remind him of the things his father had done and it would then spur him on to even greater things. We should remember this, be aware of the line of faith in others, and use that in an appropriate manner when needed. Because, you know, people have tough times. People get down. You know, am I making a difference in my ministry? All those kind of things. And so you want to be able to find something to encourage them with. If you know that it comes from a line in the family, encourage them with that. One of the things I heard once, and you know, you hear things in sermons and you can't always know if it's true or not. One of the things that Pastor Ross said years and years ago was he knew a guy that, maybe I read this in a commentary, might not have been Pastor Ross. Anyway, somewhere along the line I heard this guy had a I think it was D.L. Moody was coming to visit, some important visiting dignitary. And so he's coming to the church. That day it was raining so badly that nobody showed up. There were a couple people that showed up at the church with this really important dignitary. And he said, I'm so sorry. I apologize that you're here for just a couple people. And he said, listen, if Jesus can change the whole world, starting with 12 people, then I can talk to a small church. Yeah, exactly. You know, so it's encouraging somebody about the situation at hand with the resources that are currently available. And if that's all he had, so be it. Okay. I mean, that's just the way it is. kind of it was so long ago I don't remember exactly if I read that or heard that but anyway good point made you know sometimes people say things that are uh they passed on and passed on and you don't know if it's actually true or not but at least you get the point from it so anyway um one six we're already in one six for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands fan into flame. That's kind of like a tough thing to talk about today for California. Oh man, this one doesn't even say that. This one says, therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Yeah, wow. The guys on the radio, I turned on the radio going to the mall this morning and The Bible app wasn't working which happens sometimes it just doesn't work and so I'm on the way to the mall and the guys were like Coming up next to earth wind and fire, but we don't want to talk about that today So we'll say earth and wind and and they said wait We don't want wind too because that's stirring up the fire. So you had this little problem with this But I mean, I don't mean to be consumed by this but I it's such a tragedy. I mean like I think there's Christians out there. Oh yeah, I know. And even if they're not Christians, it's just such a calamity that's happening to those poor people. You know, we've seen this. We've had three hurricanes in just a couple months here in Sarasota, and the amount of devastation going on around us. Are there places, I passed one today, the Ashton Post Office. still has trees down, branches all over the place, and this has been now five months. So, you know, and this is just wind. This isn't everything gone. So, very, very disturbing to me today just to wake up and first thing go through and see what's going on out there. Anyway, okay, the word therefore that Paul just said, therefore, is given to confirm what he has just said concerning the genuine faith that is in Timothy. Paul knew it to be so, and he is giving strong encouragement based on this. He knew Timothy as a father knows a son. As a matter of fact, he uses that terminology a couple times there, and Timothy surely looked to Paul as a father. In this, there is the heartbreaking thought that Paul was in prison, probably on his way to execution. Along with that were the troubles within the church itself, which Paul has already noted, and which he will continue to refer to, such as 1 Timothy 1, excuse me, verses 18 through 20, and in 2 Timothy 2, verses 17 and 18. And as fast as we're going today, we may actually make it there. Go ahead and read those if you haven't. Okay, 16. Avoid godless chatter because because those who indulge in it will become more and more unguided. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection had already taken place and they destroy the faith of some. Yeah, unbelievable. So, there you go. As a matter of fact, I got a sermon coming up where I'm going to cite that verse right there. Isn't that funny? Okay. From Malachi? No, no, no. This is a later one. Malachi, I've already typed all of Malachi. Oh, we've only got another week. We got this one this Sunday and then one more in Malachi and we're done. So, we're moving right along. I mean, Malachi is 10 sermons long and I gotta tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed going through that book. I would agree with you. But it was funny, it's like every time I read through the Bible, it was like when I would get to Malachi, I would just like let the speed read through. Yes, I didn't get to Matthew. You want to get in the New Testament and Jesus. I know. Well, I've really been enjoying the Malachi sermons. I mean, there's just lots of little treasures in there. Okay, so that's the verses there. And then instead of being downcast, Because of such things, Paul gives him positive exhortation by reminding him to stir up the gift of God. That's Paul's words, to stir up the gift of God. The word that translates into stir up is found only here in the Bible, okay? It refers to being fanned, there it goes, fanned into flames. So yours is a better, probably a better rendering of that. Paul is then encouraging Timothy to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in him, as he then says, through the laying on of my hands. Okay, this is probably referring to the same thing as was seen in 1 Timothy 4, verse 14. Okay, we saw that just a couple weeks ago, and 4.14 says Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership." Well, obviously Paul would have been there during that, so he's saying that with the gift that was from my hands. It's probably the same instance there. Through the laying on of, oh I'm sorry, though the laying on of hands was done by a group of men, Paul is using the singular here to make his participation in it personal to Timothy now because he's writing the letter from him to Timothy. So he doesn't need to include the whole thing and we do that all the time in our own writings. Paul laid his hands on Timothy. In this act, Paul and the others made an acknowledgement that the Spirit resided in Timothy and that he was now being set apart for service to the Lord based on the gift that he possessed as a leader. It is this gift that Paul is imploring him to fan into flames. This is reminiscent of the words of 1 Thessalonians 5 19 which says, do not quench the Spirit Instead of stating it in a negative, he is stating it as a positive. Rather than quenching, he is admonished to fan. And, you know, it can go either way. Some people don't like when you speak in a negative. I've got a person that analyzes my sermons and will quite often change a negative into a positive. And, you know, I like to say things in the negative, like do not quench the spirit, but some people would rather say, well, you know, fan the flames. You know, that's kind of stylistic there, but sometimes saying things in the negative is, you know, a different way of coming at the same thing. I don't know, anyway. So, life application. Despite the many trials of our lives, we can and should stir up the flame of the Spirit in us by not quenching the Spirit. In doing so, we will be able to overcome the trials and difficulties we face. But the only way to do this is to act in accord with the Spirit, meaning reading the Word, praying to the Lord, praising God, joining with other believers in fellowship, and the like. In doing these things, we will stir up the flame, and we will then be able to press on with far less difficulty as we continue down life's path. Once again, you know, now people, I get this question a lot. I get it a lot more than you would expect. People will email me, they don't have a church, and they'll say, you know, I'm looking for a church, and I found you online, and I just don't know if it's okay to be a part of a church that's online. What do you think? I say, we got people. Well, I mean, I don't care if they, I mean, I do care if they're part of this church, then I want them to obviously have what I believe is proper doctrine and so forth. But if they go to another church, I would say the same thing. In other words, the answer isn't because of me, it's because And I always try to say the same thing. We got people that attend online that literally don't have any church at all in the area they live, none. Or they have 10 churches that are all completely bad, okay? What am I gonna tell them? Go to a bad church or go online with a church that is going to at least teach proper doctrine. And once again, I'm not saying this church, I'm saying a church, whether it's, you know, whatever, this guy here or that. The point is that I don't see anything wrong with attending online. I mentioned it last week is that we've got people in Sarasota that attend online for the Bible studies. They do not come to church, and that doesn't bother me. They are attending. They're a part of the church, and for whatever reason, whether they're, you know, they get home late or they've had a long day or, you know, Dr. and Mabel won't drive in the dark, and so unless they come with somebody, they won't come when it gets dark before the end of class and so forth. Those things, that's just the way it is. But, you know, I would rather have somebody attend a good church online than to go to a bad church simply to say, oh, I'm fellowshipping because the Bible says to fellowship. What kind of fellowship are you getting if you're going to a church that's teaching a bad message? Okay, so anyway, the answer will always be the same with me. you are fellowshipping. Let me read the list again so you can see this. The things that are in accord with the Spirit. The first one I put is reading the Word. You can't fellowship with the Spirit unless you know the Word, okay? It's impossible. Unless you know the Word that tells of Jesus and you accept Jesus, you won't have the Spirit, okay? Plus, not only that, but it is the Spirit who gave us the Word, right? All scriptures inspired by, okay, and holy men of God were carried along by the Holy Spirit, et cetera. Okay, so these verses tell us that the Spirit inspired people to write the Word. Okay, so that's the first one, reading the Word. Praying to the Lord. Okay, that's a way of fellowshipping with the Lord, but you got to make sure that you are praying to the right Lord. Okay, because if you don't know the Bible, then you may be praying to the God of Islam or the God of, you know, whatever you would call Buddha. I mean, Anyway, or you may be attending a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon church, which are not true churches. Because the Jesus in their book is not. That's right. He's another Jesus, according to Paul, and the gospel is another gospel, which is no gospel. It's false. So, you have to get things in the right order. When we did the doctrine sermons, Okay I did about 10 or 12 doctrine sermons and since then I've added in three or four more. Somebody emails me with a question and I think I'm going to make a sermon out of this because it's a question I get all the time. People always get it wrong and so I'm going to present this as a sermon and hopefully the next time I'm asked I'll remember I did that sermon and just send them the link and that takes care of the problem. I don't have to answer the question ever again. But when we did the first doctrine sermons, the first 10 which I was asked to do, And there was, I wasn't asked to do them in that order or anything or any specific doctrine. somebody just kept harping on me for about five or six years, please do a series on doctrine. What is the first one I did? The Word of God. The Word of God. Why would you try to come at it any other way? Once you know the Word, once you know that Jesus is the one portrayed in the Word, then you can talk about Jesus. But until you have established that this Word is reliable about Jesus, you're hearing something and you may believe it, but it doesn't mean that what you believe is true. Hence Jehovah's Witnesses, hence Mormons, because people walk up and knock on doors and they say, I want to tell you about Jesus. And it's not that Jesus is in the Bible. It is not. So you start with the word. Get people confident that what you have given them is appropriate. Okay? And then from there, you can tell them about Jesus. Tell them about the Trinity. Tell them about the Holy Spirit. Tell them about God the Father. Tell them about salvation. Tell them about all of the core doctrines that need to be told about. But start with the Word. That's how I, that's just how I see it. You know, other people may disagree, but unless you know what is appropriate about Jesus, you may not have the right Jesus. Okay, so reading the word, praying to the Lord, now you have the right Lord. You know that it's the God of the Bible that entered into the stream of humanity in the person of Jesus, not somebody that was a man who became a God or, you know, somebody that isn't God in any way, shape, or form. He's just an angel that God created to die on a cross, right? No. You've got the right Jesus. You've got the right formula. Okay? Then you can praise God. You're not just praying to Him. You're also praising God. All of these things you can do right in your own home. You don't need to do it with other people. Joining with other believers in fellowship. Once again, you can come to a church, you can do it online. When you're online, I see the people do it every single week. If they want to fellowship, what do they do? The first thing they do before the church really gets going is they all greet each other. You know, hello, hello, hello. And they all know each other and they're saying hi. That's fellowshipping. And they would not have any of that. their community, some of them. And so, it's like this is their fellowship, okay? Things like that. When you have all of that, you're doing those things. You will stir up the flame and then from there you are able to press on with the far less difficulty in life's path, okay? I a lady emailed me this morning and I won't say where from because it's a country where maybe only four or five people attend online and they all know each other I believe they're in different areas but they know each other and so somebody emailed me this morning and Because of certain things that have come up in her life, she has just spent a lot of time in the Word. And so she's been getting her doctrine from the church. Her son is on fire for the Lord. He's out telling everybody about Jesus. And I can't tell you how uplifting an email like that is, when they're in a place that really has no church that is worth going to, okay? that blesses me beyond anything else I can think of, is that they are adamant about learning the Word. They're not there to play in church and listen to good music or any of that kind of stuff. They're not there for all of the other reasons that people often go to churches. They are there because they want to know the Word. And by knowing the Word, the son is just on fire. He's telling everybody about Jesus. It's just wonderful. I could not have gotten a happier email today. First thing, I turn on the email, do my Bible commentary, then I get into, yeah, turn on my computer, get into the Bible commentary, and then check emails, and there's this email. And it just, I'm so thankful for things like that. Okay, so we're in 1-7. 1-7. For God did not give us a spirit of commitment, but a spirit of prayer, of love, and of self-discipline. Okay, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. So you've got self-discipline, I've got sound. Timidity. Yeah, timidity. Timothy is timidity. Timothy has no timidity. Whereas mine says he's got no fear. No fear here, right? Okay, Paul now explains the previous statement he made to Timothy which said, therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you. The word translated here as fear is, oh listen, you're going to laugh when you hear this. It's a noun found only this once in the Bible. It signifies timidity. or cowardice, so there you go. It's just funny how that happens. Anyway, I could even be cowardice. You know, sometimes they'll take in one paragraph, I was translating something for a sermon coming up soon, yesterday, and they have one It's not even a paragraph. It was three verses out of a paragraph of probably five or six verses. And one of the verses uses one word and they translate it differently in each and yet the context is exactly the same. And so that's maddening because now you think that there are different concepts that are being presented. and it's not a small it's this is not a small issue this is something that people are all confused about because of the mistranslation in that verse okay if they had stuck with one thought it probably would not be the case but then you get people that will take two words that and will translate them the same when they have different meanings and they're not the same okay and so That's why I keep saying keep reading different versions of the Bible. Listen to the Bible in different versions because you keep getting the same thing, you're going to think that it's correct. If you read one version of the Bible your whole life and you keep reading it, that's going to be so drummed into your head that you're going to think that what it says there is correct. And it's not. and so you know here they said fear but there are lots of words that can be translated as fear and they are in the greek so this word rather than saying fear which makes you think of like afraid timidity shows you that it's not just a fear like you know, something's coming at you, but it's an internal. I am the one that is timid. I'm the one that's fearing, not something that's coming at me that's making me fear. Okay, so, or even cowardice. All right, anyway, its corresponding adjectives signify someone who would be faint-hearted, and thus falling short in following Jesus as the Lord. You know, I... I know a person that is never fainthearted about what she says. If she's got something on her mind, it comes out, okay? That's just how it is. And sometimes, you know, that can be kind of a hindrance because people might take offense at it. But if you truly believe what you believe, You know, I mean, why be fainthearted about it? You can work around it, maybe, to get them to accept your way without being direct. But at the same time, there's no timidity in this person. So, let's see here. And thus falling short in following Jesus as Lord. You're fainthearted. And when you're fainthearted, you're not willing to speak out about the Lord. Obviously, you know, our friend over in Pakistan, the first time that he did a Jesus film meeting, and I read all the things to the congregation, he said, please don't say my name online. He had timidity. He was even fainthearted because he could have gotten in big trouble in Pakistan. After about three months or even less than that, maybe three, yeah, about three months probably, because it was three Jesus film meetings, didn't care. He sends his name. He sends his wife's name. He doesn't care. So there's no timidity there. He developed out of that to the point where he's not worried about it. Yeah, absolutely. So Paul is encouraging Timothy not rebuking him. He is, in essence, saying God hasn't given us a spirit of cowardice. You will face many challenges, great challenges in your duties, but he has given you a spirit of the ability to handle them, okay? If he's put you in the position, he has certainly known that you are capable of handling that position. Now, you may have decided to get into a position apart from his will, and that happens, and people get in over their heads. People, you know, that aren't qualified get into jobs. People that should not be, you know, they're just, they're not morally qualified get into jobs. And so things like that happen, but you know, if you are selected as a pastor, and you've done everything that the Lord intends, and you've talked to the Lord about it, it's on your heart and everything else, obviously He's put you in the position for a reason, and you shouldn't be timid about it when you're in that job. Anyway, the same thought must transfer to all Christians. When we have a fear of displeasing others, we are not demonstrating that which is of God. Okay, and that's for certain. You know what? There are so many churches. I keep reading week after week. I get, you know, things sent to me in the email from various ministries that monitor things, monitor churches and stuff like that, and quite often you will see that a pastor doesn't want to preach on this issue because it might offend the congregation, right? Or this issue. And I read these all the time. And they just give an analysis of why somebody left a church or something. And quite often it's eschatology, meaning the study of end times things. I don't want to talk about that because it's going to get people upset. you know, they won't talk about the rapture. They won't talk about the sequence of it. Well, you know what that probably means? It probably means that the pastor hasn't studied it, he hasn't thought it through, and he doesn't know what he believes, and he doesn't want to have to look like a dummy when somebody comes and says, well, what about this? That's probably the case. But it may just be that the guy just He just doesn't have the internal fortitude to say, the Bible says that there will be a rapture. This is what I believe and, you know, I stand on that. But there are other issues that I read about all the time that people won't speak on. Moral issues. You know, how should we vote morally? How should we do this morally? What should be our stand on abortion? And they won't talk about those things at all. And I think that's a real crime that somebody can't simply stand up and say abortion is the taking of a human life. If you're not willing to do that, you shouldn't be in the pulpit. And if you're going to say that abortion is okay and we should support that, you're not even qualified to me as a human being. I mean, it's just, how could somebody think that? I mentioned a few of the people here don't come on Sunday. So they didn't hear this, but on Sunday morning, I read an article about a woman, I've been reading about an NICU unit. It's the unit where children go when they're premature. And they have been having children with broken limbs, little babies in this NICU unit, and somebody was breaking their limbs. And so they closed down the unit because they wanted to find out what was going on. They found the nurse that was doing this. She was breaking little children's limbs, okay? And I went to Twitter where I've got an account there and I put on Twitter, I said, you know, I want somebody to tell me the difference between a baby that isn't yet born but is older in time in the womb of the woman than this premature baby and that baby. And the same people will say how terrible it is what this nurse was doing, breaking these little baby's bones, right? But they say it's okay to kill the baby that's actually older in the womb than the little baby she's breaking the bones of. Where is the thought process, the cognitive thinking and the moral decency in that stand. And I don't understand. And there are pastors that will not address that issue. They will not say, this is morally wrong and here's why. And I don't understand that. If something is wrong, it is wrong, and you should. That's your job. That's your job as a pastor is to call out immorality. And so, anyway, this lady's in trouble now. And they found out this morning, I read an article for the people that listen on Sundays and know this. I might as well complete what I read this morning. They found out there was one common denominator among all of the babies that had their broken bones. They're all males. Some were black, some were white, whatever. There are all these different traits, but the only common denominator among all of them that they can find is they are all male babies. I don't know, she's crazy, whatever. Anybody that could do that to another human being in the first place is a defenseless human being. There's something wrong with that person, but if a pastor isn't willing to speak up about that, you shouldn't be in that church anyway. He should not be listened to. I just can't understand that kind of thinking. we got that God, he hasn't given us a spirit of cowardice. Okay, yeah, the same thought must transfer to all Christians. When we have a fear of displeasing others, we are not demonstrating that which is of God. That's why I got into this thing about pastors not wanting to displease people. That's a morally weak stand. If there is, for example, a moral issue which is presented for the Christian to stand on, and not just the pastor. They go to church, they should be educated by him, and then they should say, I stand on what he said, because I agree with what he said. He is right in this moral issue. They are to stand on that without wavering. There should be no wavering. This is morally wrong, because the Bible is black and white. if we are handling it properly and we are reading it correctly, here we go, I'll read you this, just, you know, people may not know that this exists, but I think it's Exodus, if I don't find it quickly, then we'll move on, but I think it's Exodus 26, and I could be wrong, it might be 12, but I think it's Exodus 26, and it says there, Oh, it's certainly not that, Exodus 12. Let's see here, 12, 26, 26, 12. Let's see here if I can find this. No, okay, anyway, it's the one that says, why can't I remember where that is? Anyway, it's the one that says that the lex talionis, you know, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. And while he's talking about that, he says that if a man strikes a woman when she is pregnant and there is no harm to the child, then there'll be, you know, this. But if the child dies, it is life for life, okay? In other words, that human being, just because it isn't out of the birth canal, is as important as any other person. And you have taken that human's life, and now your life is forfeit. That's right in the Bible. There are many other verses like this that tell us that humanity in the womb is humanity. 21, 24. 21-24. Why didn't I get that? Okay, have you got it there? Read it if you do. Yeah, pretty much. Let's see. If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury or You are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. There you go. And that's not speaking of the woman, because if it was, it wouldn't have just, it wouldn't have mentioned the pregnancy. It is directed to the pregnancy. You know, another perfect example. I mean, you can take verse like Jeremiah, I've known you since, you know, you were in, I formed you in the womb and all that. You know, and the Lord could say, well, I made you special. And people could argue against that. It's a good verse, but people could argue against it. But when Mary walks up to Elizabeth, and the baby in her womb leaps for joy, that tells you there is a cognitive human being in there, understanding that there is another human being that's greater than him that just showed up, okay? So these kind of things are obvious. If people aren't willing to stand on that, I really don't have any respect for them at all. I cannot have respect for people that are not willing to say, this is morally wrong. We should not be doing this. But we're in that type of world, and it's been that type of world for 6,000 years, and one of these days it's all going to be behind us. Let's see here. Next, Paul contrasts spirit of fear with one, his words, of power. The word is closely connected to having a sense of boldness. So you've got timidity and then you've got boldness. It reflects the ability to overcome difficulties and obstacles which one is bound to face, such as persecution and confrontation. And that goes back to the guy in Pakistan, okay? He understands that he is going to face persecution and confrontation. at some point. He knows that's going to happen, and yet he's to the point now where he says, it's going to happen. I belong to the Lord. I am going to do this. I'm going to tell people about Jesus, and he's consistently bringing people to the Lord. It's wonderful. It's wonderful that he's willing to do that. He's just one example of how many people around the world that are out there putting their lives at risk constantly to tell people about Jesus. I've got other friends, a friend in the UK that has a friend in Pakistan that also does this, and he's just bringing people to the Lord. Man, that's a dangerous place to be willing to talk about Jesus, and yet they will do it. Okay, so let's see here. Paul further defines the Spirit we have been given as of love. Okay, so he had spirit of fear, and then he had of power. Contrasting that, now he's spirit of love. In 1 John 4, it says there is no fear in love. but perfect love casts out fear. Rather than fearing, we have the love of God and that for the lost. This should be such a love that fear is cast out. We should be willing to say, as so many faithful witnesses of the past have, that our love for the gospel is so strong that we will fearlessly proclaim it. Now, there is a difference between being suddenly accosted by somebody and, you know, that happens you got fear in you when that happens we have been given fear for a reason is to protect us as humans I mean animals have it everything has this instinctive fear of death it has an instinctive fear of being hurt it's natural okay I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the process of being willing to put that aside saying, I can overcome this. And I'm not talking about the immediate, the very, you know, like I said, what's the word, flight or fright? Fight or flight. Thank you. You know, that's something that just comes up in people. And like I say, that's as natural as you know, rain. It's just something that is instilled in us. And you can see that, you know, if you watch videos where people are, you know, you see them all the time, like you turn on YouTube and there's accidents and stuff, and you will see people, they'll put it in slow motion and they'll react so quickly. that their brain didn't have time to even evaluate what was happening, but they know something is happening. And that's happened to all of us. We've closed our eyes and a rock has hit us on the eyelid and we didn't even know something was coming at it. But somehow our mind grabbed that and had us close our eyes, you know, and we go like this. Our body even jerks. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you being a person that is willing to go out and do things and not have that spirit of fear. The fear that our bodies face at times, is different than what Paul is speaking of. He's speaking of the spirit of fear, not the state of fear, okay? Anyway, so let's see here. Where am I? Oh yeah, okay. Jesus, speaking to the disciples, showed them this when he said, let not your hearts be troubled. Your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. There should be a calming peace in us as we face the unknown. Because in reality, our end is unknown. We have no idea, okay? But at the same time, our end is known. Okay? We don't know when it's going to happen, but we know it's going to happen, and when we get there, we know exactly what the state will be. We will be with Jesus. That is as sure as it can be if you believe in Jesus and if you truly believe, have faith in the gospel. I mean, why would you come to church and believe in Jesus if you don't believe that that's really what's going to happen? So why would you have fear in the process? You don't know when it's coming, but you know that it is coming. So there's an unknown, but there's also a known. Whatever we face is simply leading us to the glory that is promised to the saints. Okay, we're on that road. It's not something that's going to be taken away from us. You know, there's, I keep seeing these people show up on my Twitter feed, and one of them, a Catholic guy today, just posted a question. These Catholics are so into their Catholicism. He said, praying the rosary is bad, as Protestants say, then why do prayers keep getting answered by people that pray the rosary? Well, there's all kinds of things I could have said. Like, you know, people pray and things happen. And quite often it's because the circumstances were set in motion for it to happen anyway. You could ask the exact same question from him, what about the Buddhists that the same thing happens to? Or what about the Muslims? Is God responding to their prayers or is it the circumstances bringing in it? But the way I approached it was, you need to go read, I think it's Jeremiah 41 or 44, whatever. It's where the people in Israel The exile has happened, but there are still some people in the land, and they go to Jeremiah, and they say, you know, what should we do? We will do whatever the Lord tells us to do from you. And then he told them, and they didn't do it. And so, they were saying, well, when we were praying to the Queen of Heaven, everything was going well, okay? But when we stopped praying to the Queen of Heaven, things didn't go well, okay? Now, think about that. Who brings ill on your life? Who brings ill on your life? What is the Lord trying to teach you about that? Because the Lord has already called Israel. He's already said, I am your Lord. He has proven himself for these thousand or so years in our history. Every time the people have come back to me, things have gone well for them, okay? And so I am going to test you, which the Lord will test the people throughout Scripture. Where is your faithfulness? And so he kind of withdraws a little bit and they decide we're going to pray to the Queen of Heaven and everything goes well. And then when they stop praying to the Queen of Heaven, they blame it on stop praying to the Queen of Heaven. Well, do the same thing with the rosary and you'll find out. I said, the Lord has given us the word. It's already written. Okay, we don't need to question like you are whether what you are doing is right or not. The Word says that what you are doing is wrong, and therefore your question is already wrong. Your logic building up to that question is already flawed because the Lord has already told you what to do. You're not to pray to Mary, you're not to do those type of things, and yet you are doing it. You have to decide, are you going to follow the Lord even if it doesn't seem like You're getting the same benefits, but are you willing to follow the Lord who has revealed Himself? And if you're not, then you are the one that will ultimately suffer. So, anyway... My point is that, okay, so I'm doing something contrary to the Lord and probably leading other people to do things contrary to the Lord. Satan's not gonna give me any crap whatsoever. He's just like, oh, you go right ahead. You keep going. In fact, I'll protect you as best I can. That's what he wants. Right. That's exactly what he wants. So it's a bad, the whole thing is, okay, Mary is not God. No. And like, you know, I know that's a disappointing thing to a lot of Catholics, but she's not. You're doing the wrong thing. The word has told you what is right. You are being disobedient. he's going to let you do what you want to do, and you are not doing what he wants. Okay, it's that simple. But when you put the church above the Word, which is what Roman Catholicism does, everything with Roman Catholicism is plus. Okay, you've got the Word, plus the church's doctrine. They put it on the same level. You've got Jesus, but you've got plus Mary. You've got grace plus works. They tell you in their doctrine that you have to do works in order to keep being saved, okay? Everything is plus with Roman Catholicism, okay? That's not what the Word teaches. And that takes us right back to what we were talking about earlier. Why would you start with the Word? It's because if you get the Word wrong, everything else follows after incorrectly. When the church deviated from the Word and started to go into church doctrine, whenever it was, 300 AD, 200 AD, whenever it was, error crept in and it has not gone away since. Hence, we have the words, THE REFORMATION. People said, we're not doing this. God has spoken. Now, people get down on the Reformation because, well, you know, Calvin got it wrong and Luther got it. Listen, they were in the process of getting away from something. It takes a lot of theology, a lot of time to go through the Word and to develop a proper systematic theology. He kind of bent his beliefs a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. So those things admittedly happened, but that does not mean that the Reformation was the wrong thing. It was exactly the right thing, and it was what led to people getting back into the Word. word started to be translated into German, and then into English, and all these other languages. That is what is going to establish people in their faith. The word first, okay? The church later, and only if it adheres to the word, okay? That's as simple as one plus one equals two. I mean, Jesus is called in John 1-1 what? The word, okay? The word came and dwelt among us." It's saying that He embodies what this is telling us. He's the embodiment of it. That's not to put the Word, meaning the Word of God, on a level where we idolatry. We don't worship it. We worship the one revealed in the Word. But the Word is what reveals to us the one in the Word. So we've got to be careful with that as well. We don't want to make the Word itself a point of idolatry. we want to look to it to find the one who gave us that word in the first place. Okay, so finally Paul says that the spirit we have received is of sound mind. So he said, you know, you got timidity here and then you've got the opposite, boldness and all that, of love. Well, now it's of sound mind. It is another word unique to scripture which carries the idea of self-control. Helps word study says that it is safe-minded issuing and prudent meaning sensible behavior that fits a situation. Safe-minded issuing and prudent behavior that fits a situation. Self-control. Now, what is your say? Self-discipline. So it's basically very well said there. Okay, self of a sound mind is more rightly translated, self-control. Okay, so instead of being fearful and unable to meet the challenges we will face, if we rightly apply God's instruction to our lives, and you can't do that unless you know God's instruction, we will be able to meet whatever comes our way in a wise and sensible manner. Okay, we will. This is the Word of God. If we're going to face, okay, Next week I go to the doctor, I'm making a hypothetical because I'm not going to the doctor next week, so don't, but next week I'm going to the doctor and I find out that I have got terminal cancer and I'm going to die in three months, okay, and there's nothing that can be done about it. It's completely gone through my body and they say you'll be lucky if you make three months. Am I going to be upset about that to the point where I'm going to lose my faith? No. It's part of life. You're going to die of something. I may go out today and get my truck and die on the way home, right? I mean, Mark's got a Mustang. He might run me over. I don't know. Anyway, so... Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, why would you allow your life, why would you allow your life to be swayed by the things that you are facing? And I'm talking about the negative things. Once again, I said this earlier, it stinks going through them. I will be the first one to admit that. I know people that have cancer. I know people that have all kinds of physical problems. They have family problems, and those stink. There's no way around that, but we will be able to meet whatever comes our way in a wise and sensible manner. I'm going to die. I'm going to die anyway, whether it's next week or whether it's a year from now or whether it's 10 years from now. Charlie Garrett is going to die unless the Lord comes first. Why would I say, oh, it's a fact that's going to happen. That's wise and sensible, and it's wise and sensible because I know Jesus. I know it's going to happen and I know where I'm going so life right over it okay. I'm not talking about the next three months where I'm going to be absolutely miserable dying of this cancer that's not what I'm talking about okay. I have a right to be miserable. We got people in this church like 92 percent of them got sick over the past three weeks or four weeks probably three weeks and four okay and It was not nice for those that went through it. I know I went through it myself. I missed my first Bible study probably in my life because of that. I didn't like it happening, but that's part of the human condition. That's what we go through. What you want to do is keep Jesus on your mind and your focus on him through those things. He's with you. That's a great comfort, okay? Finally, I already said that. Life application. As we look at Christians around us, many who do not demonstrate even nearly the qualities that are mentioned in this verse, we might question whether the words here are true or not. We may not even fit the words of the verse very well ourselves. And sometimes I think, Lord, I don't fit what you have said in your word. I just feel that way. And so where is the disconnect? It is not in the word. It's in us. It is we who have to follow through with our salvation by applying God's Word to our lives. In reading it, remembering it, heeding it, meditating on it, contemplating it, we will have the spirit that Paul now describes. He's telling us this. We're not going to remember this and we're not going to remember all of the other things that we need to remember if we are not reading the Word, okay? If we don't, we cannot blame God, all right? And there are so many, you know. You get into the New Testament, and you read about the grace of Jesus. And it's so relieving. It's so wonderful. And you think, ah, I've got it all behind me now. I've got all of life's troubles behind me. I love the fact that Jesus has saved me. Nothing can thwart me from that. And then you finish the book of Revelation. It says, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. Amen. You go back. You flip open the Old Testament, and you start reading again. And you get to the Law of Moses, and it's you know, don't kill, don't do this, don't do this. Anybody that does this is going to be killed. Anybody who does this is to be executed. Anybody who does this is to be stoned. And all of a sudden you realize, thank goodness for the grace that I read about a couple weeks ago. But the reason why you go back and you read the Old Testament is to remind you that that could be you. If it wasn't for Jesus' grace, that would be you. And if you forget that, the grace, I'm not saying that it's any less, but your appreciation of it will be. It will be less. And that's why it's always good to go back and remind yourself, when you forget what Jesus took us out of, the wrath of God, the things we deserve, and the law is just simply a, you know, it's a structure given to Israel to show us what we all deserve. If you forget that, you will forget an important lesson in your life, okay? So thank you very much. That's very wonderful of you. Now bring her up here. I better see her before you go. Yeah, bring her up here. I've got to make a point about this. I've got to make a point about this. Tom just watched that video before we started. He was laughing and laughing. Okay, we're gonna take just a 30-second break from Bible class because I got it. This is my granddaughter. If you did not see the video that I did, it's on the Superior Word website right now. Well, that's because she loves to do this to me. She knows I'm here and she will come to me all the time, but she has to do that. Anyway, we did a video. of her, a test video. A lot of people will dismiss durian as a disgusting fruit, and they'll say, oh, I've heard it's the worst thing in the world. So we did a, you better take her now, because, anyway, we did a completely unbiased video on the durian fruit. And the way we did it was our test subject right there. You know, she's never been around durian, she's never smelled it, she's never heard of it, nothing. And so what I did is I had her bring, my daughter bring her to the house, we got a durian and we opened it without any smiles without any nummy noises or oh this is good nothing we just took it she took a bite and then she put some in her my daughter's mouth and that child loved durian okay She absolutely loved it, and she ate the whole plate afterwards. She ate hers, and she got into Grandma's plate, too. Okay, so the point is that I have an incredibly intelligent granddaughter. That was the whole point of what I wanted to say, is I wanted to compliment my daughter for raising and having a very, very intelligent granddaughter. She hasn't got developed taste buds at this point. Well now she's got taste buds that will they'll never be the same. She will always cherish the durian. My mother said that it was child abuse and she was going to report me to social services. But that's okay. My granddaughter loved durian. So there you go. Back to class. We can't blame God. Don't blame God. we only have ourselves to blame if we are not reading the word, remembering it, and applying it to our lives. And like I said, don't just read the New Testament. The New Testament is absolutely wonderful. It is God's grace. It is instruction on what God did for us in the person of Jesus and so forth. But if you don't understand the magnitude of what it means to have Jesus by knowing what you actually deserve and what Israel has received in In an example of what God expects, I don't know how people can really fully appreciate what God has done. I mean, the Old Testament just, it brings it home. Every time I get there, I think, thank God for Jesus. I mean, I read through the Old Testament and it happens every time. It's like, I just kind of forget. And I do this two, three, four times a year. It's not like I don't do it very often. but every time I go back through the law, it makes everything fresh and new in my mind. It's wonderful. So, read the whole Bible. Take it in its proper context, Tom. God has given us what is necessary for this to occur. And further, this verse is often cited by people almost as a talisman. Go ahead and read it again now. God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, of self-discipline. They claim that they have a supernatural spirit which will allow them to do anything. I've heard this in churches many, many times. In carrying this verse around as a catch-all for possessing power, they set themselves up a fall. Let us be grounded in our doctrine and rely on what we are given in Scripture as a source of our boldness, power, love, and sound thinking. A couple of us have been going to the same place every Saturday for 20 years now. 20 years as of next month, February, or is it this month? February is the 20th year. I was one year later, so it's 19 years for me. For the first two or three, I don't remember how many years, we went to a church and met there, and then we would walk to where we go now. We don't do that anymore because the church isn't there anymore. But you would hear verses like this stated they try to give you a little motivation and they claim it like a talisman. God hasn't given you a spirit and that church is no longer there because they were doing, they were taking scripture and they were mishandling it. They were using it inappropriately. Not only that, there were other reasons why I closed, but what I'm saying is that they were relying on the word almost as a talisman, almost as something they can claim. These individual verses completely out of their intended context And all that does is it sets you up for a fall. You are not spiritually prepared to handle the issues of life when you do that. So when you hear people making these claims out of the Bible, we talked about one of them last week with Malachi 3, the tithing in Israel, and people taking those verses out of their intended context, claiming blessings from heaven. You see Paula White do it all the time, and all she's doing is deceiving people. send me your money and God will send you the blessings of heaven. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse." They use this to the detriment of the people they're talking to, they lie to their people, or they purposefully mishandle scripture. And what does that do? It sets people up for a fall. That's all it does. So be sure to take things in their intended context. Where is it? Catch all they think they possess power? Let us be grounded in our doctrine and rely on what we are given in Scripture as our source of boldness, power, love, and sound thinking. Okay, 1-8. So, do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God." They're kind of close. So, therefore, the word therefore that started this one or so in that one is based on what was just stated in verse 7. Paul reassured Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. With this understanding, the exhortation now for him, for Timothy, is do not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. That's our Lord. That's Paul's words. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Okay, people that are ashamed of the testimony of Jesus and won't speak about it for whatever reason, are either very poor Christians in their faith, I'm talking about, they might be great people and they might do good things for the church, but I'm talking about in their walk with the Lord, they are hindered in their walk with the Lord, and pastors that are not promoting. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. They're ashamed of promoting the life and the truth about Jesus should not be in the pulpit at all. These people that preach right out of Matthew all the time, maybe they'll take the parables of Luke. I was asked by somebody to give a synopsis of one of Jesus parables from Luke. Okay. And anyway, it's somebody that she knows, and he asked for it. And so I didn't want to make it very deep because he's going to present it to some people he lives around. And so I thought, you know, it's not my nature. If I'm going to do an analysis of the book or one of Luke's parables, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to spend probably 30 or 40 hours just for one of the parables. And I'm going to give every detail possible. I want it to be right. And I didn't want to do that because that's not the forum that is needed for this presentation. It's just a bunch of old people sitting there talking about Luke. But what I did, is I went to one of the AI. It's perplexity. You've got all kind of chat GPT and all that. I went to perplexity and I typed in, you know, give me just a quick rundown of this parable of Jesus. And I picked the rich man and Lazarus, okay? And it came out. And you know, all it's doing, all that AI does is it grabs from sources And it pulls out like sermons and commentaries on that, and it weaves them together. That's all the AI does, is it just grabs information and it puts it in a form that's its own form. So it's not plagiarism, okay? And when it came to me, it was so bad, I had to take all this stuff out. And I'm like, you know, they made it into a social gospel. And finally, I thought, why am I doing this? I went back to the AI and I said, you have presented this saying that this is a lesson to teach us that we need to be socially conscious. I said, this passage doesn't say anything about that. And the AI came back and it said, you are absolutely right. I have reanalyzed it and it doesn't say anything about that. All it was doing was taking information from these sources and I said, redo this without that nonsense in there. Why am I doing this when I, you know, they want to have a program that's properly developed. tell the thing where it's wrong and so it came back and it doesn't say this it doesn't say all the points that it had put out all it had done is taken this information and so it's presenting that's all it can do it all it can do is present what it is fed into it okay and that's like us as human beings we're human beings we are a product of what goes into us and we process it and out it goes again in a different manner if we have junk in junk comes out and so now it has something proper to think about. You were evangelizing to AI. It's amazing. Yeah and it came back and it said absolutely this is. Think of that. Well whatever I don't. I can't either. Well you know what as I said and I say this every week and so many people take offense at it. I don't understand this. Technology is It's just a tool. Neutral. What you do with technology is what makes it good or bad. A TV is a TV. You can turn on, you know, something that's uplifting. You can turn on something Japanese that you don't even understand and watch, you know, people in Japan. Or you can turn on porn. The technology is neutral. It's what you do with it. When you go to the internet and you search on the internet, what you search is neutral. What is searchable is neutral. What you search for is where your priorities lie, okay? So, what you do with technology, how you use it, is either right or wrong. It's not, technology is nothing. It's just neutral. That chair is neutral. What I do with that chair may have an effect on somebody's life if I pick it up and beat him over the head with it. Actually, though, it's a cushioned chair, so that wouldn't happen unless I get him with the leg. But you see what I'm saying? It's just a thing. It's what we do with things that matter. When you're getting information from an AI, whatever it's called, all you're doing is you're getting information, and then you have to evaluate it. If it's wrong, you are the one that's responsible for what you present. Anyway, so I just wanted to give that as a lesson. Okay, we have that here. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, and that leads into that. Okay, as there is a guarantee of eternal life, we got seven minutes, so are we gonna have time? Man, this is a long one. Dang it, we'll try. I'll just read, and I'm sorry about that. As there is a guarantee of eternal life, no matter what happens in this life, there should be no true fear. In having no fear, one should then be animated about the testimony of Christ Jesus. I'm not, it's like, again, the guy in Pakistan. He's overcome his fear, and now he just is out there telling about Jesus. He doesn't care anymore. Why should a minister of the gospel ever be ashamed of the one message of peace and reconciliation with God? Why would he be? Okay, it would be contradictory. The testimony of Jesus is laid out carefully for us in his words, in his word. Though there may have only been a few books written down and kept at that time, the message was well transmitted by mouth. It was well studied by those who had copies of the Old Testament. With these sure teachings, and with any books that were written and available, the words of Jesus and the life he lived were already a sound and reliable testimony. And this is at the time of Paul. It's only 30 or 40 years later, right? It seems that maybe Timothy's character may have led Paul to assume that he might shrink back at times of difficulty or persecution. Paul would know that. He traveled with him. Maybe that was his, I don't know. And so his words are given as an encouragement that this should not be the case. This is then bolstered by his words, nor of me his prisoner. Don't be ashamed of that. Don't be ashamed of that. I know who I am. I know who I am in Christ, and I know what Christ has promised me. Don't be ashamed of that. It is a note of Paul that Paul is in a Roman prison, and yet he is a prisoner of Jesus. his prisoner. This means that Paul fully understood that he was in prison because that is where the Lord allowed him the honor of being. It is where the glory of Christ would shine through him the most radiantly at this point in his life. If that wasn't the case, he wouldn't be in prison. That's all there is to it. As Paul has understood this and acknowledged it to Timothy, then it is intended that Timothy would understand this and be willing to follow in the same avenue if he is so called. Timothy, if you end up in jail, that is where the Lord wanted you. Keep talking about Jesus. Because of this, instead of fearing, he encourages Timothy to share with me in the sufferings for the gospel. That's Paul's words. Share with me in the sufferings for the gospel. Fear? Timothy? Not at all. Instead of fearing, I desire you to share with me in these sufferings. The idea here is that should you be persecuted, it will be because the Lord has allowed that persecution. Should you be beaten, it is because the Lord saw that such a beating would ultimately bring him glory. If he's doing it, in the capacity as a minister of Jesus. Okay, there are other times you get beatings and it may be for different reasons. Should you follow him in crucifixion, then that is the Lord's ultimate sign of approval for your life. Suffering for the gospel is not a source of shame, but it is a point of honor. Though it may be hard to process it as such, this is what Paul is telling Timothy and thus us concerning the matter. Finally, he says that such suffering for the gospel is, Paul's words, according to the power of God. The power of God is that which will enable Timothy, as it has for Paul, to endure the trials and difficulties which suffering for the gospel entails. One plus one will go to two always in that. If you are willing to speak out about Jesus, especially in certain areas where it's not a friendly thing, you are going to suffer for it. In the UK right now, if you go out and you evangelize on the streets, the cops are bound to arrest you. Okay, that's just the way it's becoming over there. All right, so finally he says that, oh I read that, No. Finally, he says that such suffering for the gospel is according to the power of God. I did read that, didn't I? Trials and difficulties. One is to remember that Christ was also persecuted and he was crucified. However, he also resurrected. In following him, this too is guaranteed for those who likewise suffer. No matter what we are to face, even in death itself, the power of God is evident and it will be evident. This is what Paul is conveying to Timothy and likewise to all who follow Christ. Life application work will be done right on time. Yep, without Jesus there is a complete lack of purpose in one's life. We live, we experience, We die. In the end, it is a futile thing. But in Christ, everything takes on purpose and meaning. Everything. Even our sufferings. God has allowed us to suffer for reasons known to Him. In giving Him the glory in our sufferings, there will be a great reward indeed. Let us be faithful to remember this and to glorify God through good times and bad. I've got a friend that is basically a missionary. He's a missionary every week. and he suffers through cancer, emphysema, three or four other debilitating things in his life, and yet he does it constantly. And he may not know it, but he is spoken about all the time to other people, and other people speak about him because of his willingness to continue ministering to others when he is low, and it probably should be ministered to. And when he kicks off, if it's before I kick off, I'll be using him as an example forever, okay? Until my end, that is. And so, in other words, God is using you in your position, whether you realize it or not, to glorify him. And if you're doing that, if you're living in that way, you are glorifying God. and other people will be affected by it. Okay, so remember that. There are things that we may not understand. There are things we certainly might not like. Okay, but if we can keep a chipper attitude through them, present it as such to other people, we're going to be helping people, whether we actually realize the outcome of it or not. Okay, so there you go. We've got to close right now. Heavenly Father, Thank you for the chance to come into your presence and to share in your word. What a wonderful word it is and what an encouraging book we're in right now so far in 2 Timothy with the lessons that we're learning just in a couple of addresses from Paul to his protege, Timothy. It's such a wonderful thing to see this interaction and know that it actually applies to all of us if we're willing to apply these things to our life. So, Lord, thank you, and we just pray for everybody here that they'll be happy, safe, and blessed in the days ahead, and that it'll be a good weekend for them, and that you'll safely carry us through it, whether in life or in death, we know you will. Thank you, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's say goodbye to the foliage online. It was like a morgolium when I got here today. It was so cold in this building. It's unbelievable. Wait, break. How many of these seats we put back? Just those two. In the back. All right, we're getting there. We only got a couple people in class today, but we all love you. Take care, be good, be blessed, and we'll see you here, hopefully, Sunday. Bye-bye. Okay, live is off and recording is off. Oh, thank you. We've got this. This can stay. This goes over here. All right. This goes here. Okay, we got, oh, that fell over. There you go. Okay, I did not open this, so back it goes. Back it goes. Back it goes. I wonder who that is. Somebody