Okay, we're live we are live bet family house in Tent floor. How can a young man? Living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I Praise be to you, O Lord, teach me your decrees. With my lips, I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word. Amen. Okay, let's turn this off. Let's pick this up. All right, let's see here. We've got today's the 27th of February. All right, 27th, you know how I know it's the 27th? How? Because tomorrow's the 28th. Funny how that works. Okay, February 27th, heart palpitations. You can pray when you can do little else. Robert Murray McChain, I guess, taught himself Greek at age four. And we have trouble getting through the day. He taught himself Greek at age four. He rose to the top of his elementary school at five. You think so? He entered high school at eight. Oh, wow, and enrolled in Edinburgh University at 14. At age 18, he began dreaming of ministry and began the lifelong habit of the morning quiet time. His journal for February 23, 1834 reading, rose early to seek God and found him, whom my soul loveth, who would not rise early to meet such company. In 1836, he began pastoring St. Peter's Church in Dundee. not Dundee, Florida, beginning each day reading God's Word and praying. But McChain wasn't well. He experienced violent palpitations of the heart, growing so weak and frail that he took an extended trip seeking to recover. But he missed his church, and on February 27, 1839, he wrote to them these words in a pastoral letter. I wish to be like Epaphras in Colossians 4, always laboring fervently for you in prayer. When hindered by God from laboring for you in any other way, it is my heart's joy to labor for you thus. When Dr. Scott of Greenock, a good and holy minister, was laid aside by old age from preaching some years before his death, he used to say, I can do nothing for my people now but pray for them. This I also feel. McChain only partially recovered, dying in 1843 at age 29. On the day of his death, nothing was heard in the houses of Dundee but weeping. Men meeting each other on the streets burst into sobs. Scottish ministers studied his life and methods for the next hundred years, and his collected letters and sermons are classics. He once said, if the veil of the world's machinery were lifted off, how much we could find is done in answer to the prayers of God's children. How much indeed! We have not stopped praying for you since the first day we heard about you. In fact, we always pray that God will show you everything He wants you to do, and that you may have all wisdom and understanding that His Spirit gives. Then you will live a life that honors the Lord. And we got some prayer requests here. Man! He died young but he died doing more than most people ever do. He was living the life of an adult at the age of four. Less is having surgery tomorrow a.m. for a fib so and I don't know if it's very invasive it didn't sound like it but keep Less in prayer that's Less who does the weekly Lessrics. Sue has diverticulitis and she says it is horrifyingly painful so keep her in prayer. Isabella has a prayer I need to get. What did I do with my iPad? I need to read that because it came in just a minute ago. I want to make sure I say it right. In the meantime, Loretta is not here. She's got painful dry eyes and she doesn't want to drive because it's not wise driving with dry eyes. So we're going to go now see. Here we go. This is what Isabella said. She said Patricia is her name. Her eye doctor sent her to the emergency room because of high blood pressure and possibly a stroke. She's 24 years old. So keep Patricia in prayer and also for my older daughter Stacy who's eight months pregnant that she won't pick up anything in the emergency room because she took Patricia in. So there you go with a couple of prayer requests. Heavenly Father, We do thank you that we can pray for these people. Wow, I can't imagine, 24 years old and maybe facing a possible stroke. So Lord, whatever's going on in that lady's system, we would pray that your hand would be upon her and just bring health and healing, safety for Les tomorrow as he goes into surgery. And the other people I mentioned, Sue with her diverticulitis and Isabella's daughter. Lord, we just lift those people up and anybody else that I'm faithlessly forgetting or that I just don't know about that you would be with them, help them through their times of trouble and affliction and Lord, we thank you that we can pray for people. We know that it's effective because you wouldn't tell us to do it if it wasn't. So we do lift these people up and we also lift up this class that it would be handled properly, conducted respectfully and that your word would be treated honorably. It's a precious word. We thank you for it and we just ask that you bless our time together and sort out anything that is incorrect so that I would not teach something that is wrong. Lord, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we are into the book of 2 Timothy. We're in chapter 2, and I think we're starting in verse 3. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Three, endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Okay, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. One of them got it backwards Okay, let's see here. Oh, oh, oh, I'm sorry. We got to read one more thing before I Before I actually start into the verses what a very important part of it. We've got a request for the Monthly Jesus film meeting. I knew it was going to come out because he's going to do that in just another Few days, it's going to be on the 10th of March he's asking for prayers of success and he Before he even got into what the needs for that are, he says, we have an urgent prayer request from one of our senior new believers. His name is Priyan Chand, who is in the hospital. He has heart and liver problems. He's been suffering from terrible sickness. He needs blood that another believer is donating to him tomorrow, which is I think I got this yesterday, so it would be today. He needs prayer for healing from God, and also requested to pray that God provide him to pay for necessary laboratory tests and a CT scan, and that is going to be $330. I don't want him to be without that, so we need to get that right away if anybody wants to help with the Jesusville meeting, plus that. He's a very godly person. He came to believe in Jesus a year ago, and he has since witnessed to four other people who also believed in Jesus. So he brought five people to the Jesus film meeting also. So he's a guy that met Jesus, and he loves Jesus. He's telling other people about Jesus. He's in the hospital bed right here right now. You can look at that later, and if anybody wants a picture of this guy, I can forward it to you. So we have that need immediate $330 and he needs then a total of $909 we've got a hundred for Brianna 135 for $100 for travel, $135 for Briani. Children's Meeting is $28, New Believers is $30, Jesus Film Meeting is $30, 10 Bibles at $100, and 12 MP3s at $156. And that total comes out to $330. So if anybody wants to help with the Jesus Film this month, and this guy's medical expenses, please let me know as quickly as you can. And we will get that money to him right away. I'd rather send one time, because if I send twice, You know they just add on more charges. It's I don't know what it is, but they always charge like ten or twenty dollars whatever so Let me know if you want to help with that even if I don't get the money immediately I will still send it if I have the commitments And if not, I'll pick it all up it after a Sunday's service Anyway, here we go two three now, and we'll pray for remember to pray for that guy, please two three Within the verse, the words chosen by Paul include the thought of with. In essence, Paul is telling Timothy that he is not alone in the hardships he will endure. What he says conveys the idea of, you therefore must endure hardships along with me. Okay, Paul is in prison and he is suffering privation and loneliness. Along with that, his entire ministry is one which was fraught with troubles. You know that. You've read the book of Acts one time, you know it. If you've read his epistles, you know it. He was always having troubles. He's been in prison again and again, and he's been wrongfully accused of things. He's been arrested for wrong reasons, and it goes on and on. But he's telling Timothy, you're going to have to suffer along with me, basically. So he's privation, loneliness, along with that his entire ministry is one which is fraught with troubles. One good list of them is given in 2 Corinthians 11. I'm going to take you there just so you know some of the things that he went through. 2 Corinthians 11. There's one Corinthians, so we've got to go Corinthians, and then we're going to get to chapter 11, and we're going to go down, let's see here, there we are, 22. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. He's comparing himself to the Judaizers that are coming in and messing up the faith that he had introduced to them in Christ Jesus. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more." And he's not just speaking about Judy. He's also speaking about other apostles and people that have come in, and in labors more abundant, and stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often, meaning his life is facing death. From the Jews, five stripes. Five times I received 40 stripes minus one. That means he was beaten by his own people under judicial authority of the you know, the leaders of Israel. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness. in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily? My deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak and I'm not weak? Who is made to stumble and I don't burn with indignation? If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus, the governor under Aretas, the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me. But I was let down in a basket, through a window, in the wall, and escaped from his hands." So he went through it. Paul was a guy that went through it and, you know, You've got to remember that if somebody is doing something and they're willing to go through that type of a hardship for it, they really believe in what they're doing. It's not even a comparable example, but you look at the person who's in the White House right now and what he went through over the past three years, and he could have said, you know what, I got billions in the bank. I don't have to put up with this. I'm just going to stop running. And he didn't. He wanted to change the way things are run in this nation. He, you know, he was so close to being arrested. He was arrested. He was so close to being, you know, shot a couple times. He could have just said, I don't need this. But, you know, when somebody goes through something like that, it means that they have a passion about what they're doing. Unless Paul's faith was misdirected, then, which it isn't, I'm just making a point, then what he's doing is something that is honorable. He's willing to put himself out like that because he knows who his Lord is. I know in whom I've believed. So, you know, you have to ask your own self, what are you willing to put up for, with, for the sake of XXX? Whatever it is, are you willing to do it? And if you are, great, but if you're not, then get out of the way of other people, okay? Paul was there and he was doing his job and people were coming in and getting in his way constantly. Judaizers and, you know, other people that were maligning him and going on and on. You know, Paul's evangelizing the Gentiles and we can't have that. It just went on. The poor guy. So, there he provides a record of his trials, which we just read, that Timothy would have been fully aware of. He would have known everything that Paul was going through. So, Although Timothy would probably be spared from the majority of these difficulties, Paul is letting him know that his work, Timothy's work by nature, would bring out hardships. And so he was to remember that Paul suffered and he was simply joining him in that honor. At different times throughout church history, people have suffered to various degrees. We were talking earlier about Charles Spurgeon. I don't remember reading anything about him actually suffering anything. Maybe he did and I just didn't get to that page of whatever, you know, commentary somebody was writing about Charles Spurgeon. But, you know, he was a pastor, and I guarantee you that despite maybe not having physical afflictions or, you know, troubles on the wayside as he's trying to get to church and people are stoning him, he might not have had those things, but he still had a congregation full of people that certainly brought him all of their baggage every single week, and they wanted his time, they wanted his, you know, his experience in thinking things through from a biblical perspective, and that'll wear you out. I mean, that will just wear you out. I don't know how big his congregation was, I have no idea, but if he didn't have associate pastors to help counsel these people, then he was carrying a big load by himself. Like I said, I don't know much about Spurgeon other than some of the things that he's written. I don't know anything about him personally, but you know, I mean, there are pastors that have gotten away with not really having difficult lives, and a lot of them are just people that wanted, you know, we got them all over Sarasota. They get I'm going to join the ministry. I'm going to go to seminary and I'm going to be ordained, we'll say, as a Lutheran preacher. Okay, so you go to your church and they have a pastorate so you have a place to live that you don't have to take care of because the church takes care of it. And you don't need to change light bulbs because somebody volunteers from the church to change your light bulbs. You don't have to mow your grass because somebody mows the grass for you. All of that is taken care of. He doesn't have to do anything. The only thing he has to really do is do a sermon on Sunday. And if he, you know, goes to a book about sermons, which, you know, there are millions of them out there, all he has to do is pull a sermon out of there for Sunday, change a couple things to fit the congregation, That's all he has to do. And there are people that are like that out there. They know, they see that a pastor of a church like that doesn't have to do anything and yet he gets a really good paycheck and everything taken care of for him. There are people like that out there. But there are also people that are in little churches in the middle of nowhere that have a couple of part-time jobs that, you know, well, I'm, you know, me, I'm kind of self-inflicted wound, but, you know, I'm saying that you might be in the middle of Virginia, all right, you don't have internet, you don't have people online, it's just a little church, there might be 12 people that show up, he's got to work, and, you know, they're willing to do that because they really care about what they are doing. So you see there's a difference between that. Some people are just opportunists. Some people truly care. Some people are focused on the preaching aspect of their word completely. Some people are focused on, you know, learning more. whatever. But if you are really passionate about what you are doing, the point is you're going to suffer in some capacity. If you're not passionate about it, like the Lutheran example I gave a minute ago, because I've seen Lutheran ministers like that, they know that they're getting an easy path. They just They're not going to suffer anything. They're just going to get their pay. They're going to lead their flock and then they're going to die and that's the end of them. The reason why I know there's a Lutheran pastor here in Sarasota like that is because one of my friends attended a Lutheran church. And he'd come to me and say the church does everything for him. He doesn't do anything at all. He does nothing. All he does is come in on Sunday and he gives a sermon and that's it. And he says they pay him like, you know, $85,000. This is years ago. And they, you know, he's got a house. They give him a car. Everything. He doesn't have to do anything. Well, there you go. I mean, he knew that. There's nobody that is in a job like that that didn't expect it. He probably set himself up with that. You know, I want to be a Lutheran preacher because I don't have to do anything. Anyway, from there Paul tells him to endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The life of a soldier is typically filled with deprivations and difficulties. If you don't believe that, ask a soldier, somebody that was a soldier. If you are a soldier and you're out in the fields, you're eating K rations. You're eating out of a can and it may have been 15 years ago that the stuff was made so They they know that and if you go online and you watch real battle scenes from like Iraq or Vietnam or Korea they've got lots of World War two they've got some of them you watch these guys they're out there with a certain amount of ammunition. That's all they have until they get resupplied. And so they have to think, every time I pull this trigger, I'm one bullet less and I've got all these people out there that are against me. I don't know how many bullets they have and so they have to take care. If they just waste all of their bullets right away, then they're going to get killed. And so, everything that a soldier does is something that is hardship. It's hardship. It's not easy. So, he is telling him, be a good soldier of Christ. Just like they would be willing to eat K-rations, not take a shower for a long time. Are you okay? Okay. All right. Mom's obviously not feeling well. Okay. Well, love you. Sorry. She wasn't at church on Sunday, and so I knew that she wasn't well. I sent her a couple messages, which she didn't respond to, and then she comes in here and she says, I'm not feeling well. She's leaving. So, soldiers don't live easy lives and don't expect to live an easy life as well. There you go. Where did Sergio go? Is he all right? Did he leave? Oh, he's back there. Okay. Okay, so as soldiers of Jesus Christ, I didn't finish this paragraph here. She got me all thrown off. They sleep in rain. They often go without proper food. Speaking of soldiers, they're attacked constantly. I've got a friend that was in Vietnam for three months of his life. During that time, he was shot twice. One time he was shot in the leg. One time he was shot right here. It hit him so hard that it blew him back and it knocked him out. Fortunately, he had his clip or his magazine or whatever you call that thing there and don't send me an email telling me which it is because I'm not going to remember. But it hit him right there. It knocked him out. He then got malaria and he had to be taken to Okinawa. He was in Okinawa and finally they discharged him because he'd been, you know, so shot up in three months. Okay, this is what Paul is trying to tell Timothy is that it's like that. It's just a constant battle for your life Okay, we want to remember that when Paul says something like be a good soldier for Jesus Christ. He's doing it for a reason Okay, we sing the song onward Christian. Okay, right? They're trying to make a point is that you know the person that wrote it probably was now it becomes like I'm a soldier But I don't have to do anything All right, and that's not the idea that's being conveyed here. Okay, so they face extreme physical trials, but more they tend to face these trials, these many trials, without a complaint. Okay, one thing that is not going to work in certain branches of the military is complaining. Now, I know in the past four years that completely changed, but we're going to go back to a military where you don't complain. Now, in the Air Force, it was a little different. I didn't get my steak dinner, and I'd moan, and they'd say, well, make sure we order steaks. The Air Force was completely different. guys out on the ships ate whatever they cooked, and it was a lot of stuff in big pots, right? The guys that are in the field ate K rations. But I tell you, when the soldiers or the Marines or the Navy would come to our base, they could not believe how well we were treated. They couldn't believe it. You want a bag nasty, you just walk up to the window and you say, I want a sandwich with this and that, fries and, you know, it was called the bag nasty because, you know, anyway, so you'd go, whatever you wanted, you know, I'd like a Coke with that and you just pick it up and walk away. It was just like going to McDonald's or you went into the dining hall and I wasn't kidding about steaks. They'd have steaks all over the place. You just go and line up, grab what you want. It was all very good food, and you get all you want, go back and get more. They didn't care, okay? And these soldiers would come in there like, well, I got the wrong service, you know? But they loved what they did, so they didn't mean it. But anyway, they did like coming to the Air Force base because there was always great food. So we don't want to equate what he's saying here to Air Force people, okay? We were treated differently. uh... and we could complain whereas the other guys they wouldn't you know they'd they'd just They did their jobs, and they wouldn't say, well, that's not fair. You wouldn't hear that from a soldier. So as soldiers of Jesus Christ, we are faithful and obedient. If we are, whatever comes our way is because he has allowed it to occur. Paul is telling Timothy, and thus anyone who is faithful in the ministry, that this is what is expected in following after our Commander, with a capital C, Jesus. Okay, this is what we should be going through. Life application. The life of a faithful minister is one which is guaranteed to be quite difficult at times, and almost always very tiring. And this is not a complaint, this isn't looking out for old poor Charlie, but Hedico will tell you, I am always tired at the end of the day. There's never a day where I say, well, I want to stay up later and do more. It doesn't happen. 3 30 in the morning, I get up. I start working. There are days where I won't leave the chair once until 11 o'clock. Okay. I'll get up and I'll go do something for a minute. I'll be back in the chair until six o'clock. And this is all day, every day. And you know, I'd rather be out doing physical stuff, but I do go to the mall though. So I don't want to ignore that. I go and take care of the mall and clean the bathrooms, and do all that kind of stuff. So it gets me out for 20 minutes every day, or an hour and a half if I have to mow. But, you know, it's a really tiring job doing this, if you care. You know, like I say, the guy down at the Lutheran Church He doesn't care. He wouldn't have people catering to him if he cared. He'd say, you know, I can change my own light bulbs. But I know that. I know that there are people that go to jobs like that because they know that they will be catered to. What's that? You will? Oh, I got somebody that says he'll change my light bulbs. Okay, you come on down. I'll call you when I need the bulbs changed and I'll say, Rick, I need to have my light bulbs changed. Oh, talking about light bulbs, you know what happened? We lost power a week and a half ago. I lost the internet for quite a while. I finally got it back, but all week long. Man, lights were flickering. My computer kept shutting off. I'm like, what is going on? And she's saying, well, we got a problem. We need to call an electrician. I said, it's not that. It happened after the power surge. And so finally, I mean, after like five days of this and the live stream, the camera going out, I'm like, Okay, so I called them, actually I sent them a chat and they called back the next morning and they said, what's been going on? I told them and they said, we just had to reset something or flick some switch or something and it should be fine. Have you had a problem since yesterday at nine at night or something? I said, have we had any problems? She said, no. Okay, they got it fixed. Whatever it was, there was something that they failed to do when they turned the power back on. So my recommendation is, not knowing this in the past, if you have a problem like that, if the power goes out and it comes back on and there's problems with your house, call them immediately. Because they probably don't even know that they forgot something until people start calling in. And everybody else was like me. They're like, you know, it'll go away. But the thing is, it would be this room, and then it would be upstairs, and then it would be my computer. It was bizarre. That's why I was like, this cannot be anything but FPL. And so I thought, wait, or maybe something shorted in the box in our house that they have to come in. Yeah, so just remember that. That's something you need to remember, is if that happens after a power outage, there's a problem on their side. It was just bizarre. Anyway, so yeah, where was I? Okay, Paul is telling them that, you know, we need to be faithful to our commander. Life application. Maybe I read this. I don't think I did. The life of a minister is one which is guaranteed to be quite difficult at times. That's when I started whining. Yes. Okay. And almost always very tiring. As the enemy lobs in his spears and shoots his arrows, the minister has to be ready for them. And to put his trust and faith even more in the Lord who is leading. The question for you is, are you acting on the Lord's behalf, or are you acting on the enemy's behalf as you interact with your pastor, preacher, or minister? Because you may be part of the problem that's causing his life grief. You know, so you just have to question that. Sunday, last Sunday, was the most stressful Sunday I can remember in a long time. I was so burned out. By Wednesday, I was still burned out, and the reason why is because I forgot to push the button on the sermon after the break, and so there was no sound, and all of a sudden, I'm five minutes into the sermon, Sergio's walking up, and he's got that worried look on his face, I'm like, what happened? And it was just that everything went bad after that. And she knows by the time I went to bed on Sunday night, I was completely burned out. Nothing went right after that happened. And I just, Monday I got up and, you know, the first thing I did, wow, whoa, whoa, whoa. prayed, Lord, I'm going to get into your word, get my fingers ready for the battle, and I said, Lord, I'm going to have a battle here. Be with me as I engage your word. And I talked to him for a while, and finally I started sermon typing, and man, I'm telling you, my hair is standing up. That passage was unbelievable. The Song of Songs is just getting better and better as we go. I mean, some people really liked one of the sermons I did already, or maybe that sermon they liked, and it touched them in a certain way. That's fine, but I'm talking about just the way that it's developing. I was so excited. I told Sergio, I said, man, this is just unbelievable. Wow, okay, so get ready for, I think it was Song of Songs 7, and if it was, let me tell you, just so you can read that passage. I'm pretty sure it was Song of Songs 7. Give me just one second. So anyway, that went well, but I was still so tired when I got done with it. I couldn't answer any emails. I couldn't do anything. I was just completely burned out. My head was just pounding and so that's the way these things go at times. One little thing leads to all kinds of other problems. But anyway, what I did after the church was over and after everybody left, I refilmed the first five or eight minutes or whatever it was of the the sermon. And so I was able to edit it all back together, so it looks like everything was okay. But man, was I distracted. Song of Songs, I'm pretty sure it was chapter 7, and where are we? Was it chapter 6? No, it was chapter...here, I'll read you this. I think I went down through verse 9. How beautiful are your feet and sandals, O Prince's daughter! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman. Your navel is rounded goblet. It lacks no blended beverage. Your waist is a heap of wheat set about with lilies. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes like the pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bat Rabim. Your nose is like the Tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple. A king is held captive by your dresses. I think that's where I ended. Maybe not. Maybe that's where I ended. I'm going to stop right there, because I don't think... I started going to the verse, and I said that's not going to logically end. So I think I stopped there. Anyway, go back and read that. Think of what the Lord is telling us. It was great. It was just fantastic. And I can tell you this right now, that there are two verses in there, one in particular, that not one single translation, and I look at more than 30 translations, including the Greek translation, which means The Jewish people, the scholars, didn't know it. It was saying, not one translation. Not one got it right. Not one. So you're going to have to wait, and you're going to have to hear the Charlie Garrett translation, and it is correct. I guarantee you. But anyway, and that's not bragging. It's just that they don't understand what is being conveyed, and so they say that doesn't make any sense, and they just translate it some other way to try to make it make sense. And so you have to go line by line, and you have to develop what's going on. Wow. Get ready for that. Oh, I'm so excited. Maybe we'll just skip the rest of it and do that this Sunday. Okay, so here we go. Two-four. When we first started on Sonic Songs, I brought up that passage about the tower in your nose. I said, don't try that nowadays. Oh no, don't do that, yeah. You'll get yourself punched. You know, it's funny, I will give this up. Is Adam Clarke's commentary on that exact same thing? He was like, I'm seeing no practical application in this at all. I can't see anything that's befitting of a woman with a nose like an ivory, whatever, ivory tower. He was like, this makes no sense at all. Yeah, and you know what he is he's a Brit from like 150 years ago or something maybe 200 or some 300 years ago Whatever Adam Clark lived a long time ago He was a Brit and you know British women tend to have very long noses at times. They're not just the short little Things like you see here in America or especially in Asia so even he was astonished that he's like I'm not seeing any redeeming value at all basically and the way that she's being described, but there's a purpose for it and Okay, so get ready. I was looking for it. Wow, okay. Four. Four. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to please his commanding officer. Okay, so I wasn't ready for it, so I gotta find chapter 2, 4, and it says, "...no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier." These are close, but a couple different words. I could never say about my wife, she has a nose like an ivory tower. And being Japanese, you know, they have these small little noses. Don't be embarrassed. I find that the cutest thing in the world. Okay, so here we go. Continuing on with the simile of the previous verse, being as a soldier, Paul next says to Timothy, no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. When people are enlisted in the military, that is their sphere of life. That is absolutely 100% true. We got one person here that was in the military. Tom, when you were in the military, did you spend your life doing a lot of other things or was that your sphere of life? that's it when you're in the military that's it okay now when I was in I could get a second job like on base at the we'll say the I got it they have a little commissary a little like you know what shop what do you call it a 7-eleven type store I did that for a while and that was terrible I quit that you know I know he's in the jungles yeah there's there's no commissaries there's no yeah but i mean even then though i'm in the military i had to have my hair cut a certain way above my ear and if it touched my ear i was in trouble that's all there is to it your shoes had to have a certain amount of shine and if they weren't that certain amount of shine you were in trouble and this is in the air force where you were basically it Yeah eating steak and they really they treated you really well and you were friends with your commanding officer you weren't like some yes sir and yes ma'am I mean you were you're basically one of my very best friends in the world to this day is my commanding officer she pulled me to three different work assignments I went with her and we still call each other every birthday we're she's the most wonderful person so we had a great relationship even but that what isn't the norm okay normally it's a yes or no sir and you can't get to know your first sergeant and all that kind of stuff air force is a little different in that regard but Oh yeah, you don't keep your shoes shined in Vietnam. But when the general officer comes to inspect the ranks, they've got to be clean. They've got to get them clean. So, you know, those things are to be expected. But yeah, boy, going back in my mind, all the things about the military, I could talk all night about that. And I haven't thought about it in all these years, but they're No engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. When people are enlisted in the military, that is their sphere of life. This may appear less so in modern times, unless you're in the jungle of Vietnam, but Paul is writing during the time of the Roman Empire. They lived as soldiers. They trained as soldiers. They served under their commanders as soldiers. And if they, if called to do so, suffered fought and died as soldiers. Even today, those in the military have lives set apart for the call of the service, which is different than those in civilian life. Now, I will say this. My brother retired a couple years ago from the U.S. Air Force. He was a senior master sergeant, and he retired from that, and he went back. This is just three years later. And it had changed so drastically when somebody died that he knew and he went up there. He said that the first sergeant, a chief master sergeant, said, I'll call them in my office for discipline and they'll stand up and they'll say, I don't want to hear this. And they'd walk right out. If you did that when I was in the military, you were gone. That was it. You would be discharged, or you'd go right down to what they called correctional custody or the brig. Yeah, basically, we didn't have a brig, though. They called it like prison or something, whatever, regular term. Brig is more, I think that's Navy, isn't it? Anyway, double secret probation, but they didn't do that, and that is all changing now. As of about 30 days ago, when Hegseth got confirmed, maybe 15 days ago, He's gone in and he has said, this is ending and this is ending now. Oh, I'm telling you, they're not going to take that anymore. They had our military, no respect for anybody. It was just like under Carter in Vietnam. They said that people would just pull out a bong and start smoking pot right in front of the officers and they couldn't do anything, okay? But that's changed. Reagan got it back in order and then we had these people come in and make it ineffective again. So what I'm saying here is a high ideal. It's not what always happens. This is their profession and the affairs of a civilian life are set apart from their conduct as military men. Civilians go to work, they come home to their family, they buy and they sell, and they go on vacations if time and money permit. In a host of other ways as well, the life of a civilian is entirely different than those of a military man. Further, and especially, civilians have a different structure of leadership. The military has a set line of command, and soldiers are dedicated to their commander's authority. Because of this, the soldier does not get involved in regular civilian affairs, okay? That's what Paul's point was to him. They don't meddle. They don't mix the two. Now, I got a question for somebody that was in a foreign military. I won't say which one, but when you were in that military, Did you have a set line of command, or was it, so it was pretty straightforward, you were in the military. Okay, so even in foreign militaries, like the one that he was in, can I tell which, okay, he was in the Israeli Air Force. And one of my favorite photos, I send it to him once in a while, is him carrying a machine gun. I'm like, this guy actually carried a machine gun. I wouldn't trust him to carry a hot dog, okay? I'm kidding, of course, but that's one of my favorite photos and I love to just once every year to just send it off to him so he knows I still have that as incriminating proof that he carried a machine gun. So there you go. Let's see here. The soldier isn't concerned about a civilian boss. He isn't concerned about a company's profit. He was enlisted into the military by an overall military commander and it is to that individual that he is to show his allegiance. In other words, when you are brought into the U.S. military, your final ultimate military commander is actually a civilian. You work for the president. He is all militaries under the executive department of the United States of America. Officers are actually commissioned by the president. Now, normally what they do is they, you know, because there's so many officers, there's like officers are like 10 cents a dozen or whatever, so they get a big list of them. and they put them all on that list and the president signs that one list, okay? General officers will be individual normally, okay? Maybe not. Maybe they'll put him on a list of 15 promotions and he'll sign one thing. But he is in charge of all military and he is your commander and whether you like him or not, you are to respect him as the authority, okay? And that's why I could not have served under the previous president. I couldn't have done it. I would have just gotten out. I would have said, time for me to go because I have no respect for him. Zero. But there you go with that. So he was enlisted in the military by an overall commander and it is to that individual alone that that he holds his allegiance, and that is the point that he is making to Timothy about Jesus. Nothing else matters for a pastor if it doesn't involve Jesus first, okay? That is the point he's making. Paul's words are to be equated to the minister of Christ and to Christ who has chosen him for the ministry. Timothy is being instructed that his allegiance is to be first, foremost, and solely the Lord Jesus. This is certainly true with all Christians. Yes, all Christians owe their allegiance to Him, okay, and we could say that, but Paul is addressing Timothy as a minister. This is not just your Savior. This is your sphere of life. Your life is to be conducted under your commander, is basically what he's saying. Just as one of those, you know, soldiers carrying the spears, and you know, they're guarding the horse as they walk along. They have a term for them. I'm I can't remember, maybe it was Spearman. Anyway, 200 of them surrounding somebody and that guy works for this guy and this guy works, eventually you've got the Supreme Commander, right? And that's who he owes his allegiance to. But he owes it to each step along the way as well. You don't violate the chain of command and in our case, the minister's allegiance. His sphere of life is completely to be dedicated to the ultimate commander. He is ensuring that nothing of worldly entanglement will draw him away from his wholehearted allegiance to serving his commander, Jesus. As an interesting connection to this thought, the Constitution of the state of Tennessee says the following, and I'm going to read you this and you're going to say, what? Now, there are things that are in a Constitution that are removed, but they remain written in the Constitution. In other words, the Constitution of the state of Massachusetts has certain provisions for actually providing for ministers of the gospel. If he wants to be a minister, you will provide him a church, etc. Right in the Constitution. Now that's no longer applicable in Massachusetts, but it is still in their Constitution. And they just put an editing mark by it and saying that this is no longer, this has been voted out of it. But they never take away the Constitution, okay? So in Tennessee, this is written in there. I think it's probably been written out of the Constitution, even though it's still there. And I know all 50 states of the United States of America included something about Jesus or the allegiance we owe to God in particular. every one of the 50. And how do I know that? I read all 50 of the constitutions of the states of the United States before I went and preached at all 50 of the states. Okay, this is what it says in the Constitution of the state of Tennessee. Article 9, disqualifications. People that are disqualified to hold public office. Section one, whereas ministers of the gospel, they're speaking of Jesus, ministers of the gospel, are by their profession dedicated to God in the care of souls and ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions. Their sphere of existence belongs to Jesus. That's what they're saying. Therefore, no minister of the gospel or priest of any denomination whatever shall be eligible to a seat in either house of the legislature." You were forbidden because they understood you would be, they would be robbing God of his ultimate responsibility to God. Okay, so that's the first one. The next disqualification, section two, no person who denies the being of God or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil department of this state. No atheist, you are unqualified. In the Tennessee Constitution, they consider ministers in the light which the Bible proclaims here in 2 Timothy. Their calling is one which, by necessity, should preclude them from becoming entangled in the full-time political affairs of the House of the Legislature. Atheists being morally unqualified because of their lack of belief are also prohibited from holding office, and not just office there, anywhere. No civil office at all. Completely morally unqualified, and they can't hold any civil office. In other words, before they become a civil officer, they must profess an allegiance to God. Okay, that's why I think it's probably not in there anymore is because I'm sure there are a bunch of atheists running the the government in Tennessee, but we don't know that. I mean, I'm just, anyway, if their oaths cannot be trusted, I'm saying that I'm given oath to perform my duties and they don't believe in a supreme being, then their oath can't be trusted. One plus one always equals two, right? So if their oath cannot be trusted, their moral direction is therefore unreliable and perverse. Good job, Tennessee, at least when that was written. Now I don't know, but I don't know, but it was in their original Constitution, and it's still there if you go online and read it, but it may have a mark next to it saying this has been, you know, voted out by whatever procedure they have. Normally it's two-thirds of the House, two-thirds of the Senate, the governor, and then the people in the state have to approve it as well. That's normally. So help me God. That's right. That's the whole point of it. If you can't do that, then you're morally unqualified to serve. That was a great job of those people who ever thought that up. Life application. Atheists in Tennessee are no different than atheists anywhere else. The difference is that their constitution explicitly recognizes what others fail to see. If a person does not believe in a creator, That person acknowledges that there is no afterlife where judgment will be executed on humanity. Because of this, they believe that they are not accountable for immoral decisions, okay? That is something that... Why would you have somebody in public office that is like that? And yet, if you go to the liberal states of the United States of America, 99% of these people don't believe in anything except humanism and perversion. And yet they're running people's lives. What's that? And kickbacks. Yeah, kickbacks. I mean, just unbelievable what's going on with that. Okay, so therefore they identify themselves as wholly unsuited to make decisions on behalf of people who are moral beings. We're all moral beings. They can say, well, I have morality. No, you don't. The only morality that you possess is a morality that is based on yourself. Whatever you believe in yourself, that is your morality and that's not morality. I don't care how moral it is, it is immoral. And so, where does moral come from? That's a big question that they asked in Southern Evangelical when I was there. Okay, what establishes morality? Is it the state? Is it the people? In other words, can the people vote like they did in Greece? pure democracy. Is it this? Is it that? They went through all of the different things that people believe governs morality. And the only one that is tenable, the only one that is tenable is God. If God is not the governor of morality, then morality can change. And if morality can change, then it is immoral. Okay, so Consider this as you place your vote for those in public office. Find out what they believe and base your voting decisions first and foremost on a sound moral and godly standard. People are kind of flipping out about some of the things that Trump has done and I'm so upset about it. He appointed Paula White in charge of his spiritual committee, okay? And she is not qualified to flip hamburgers at McDonald's, but he did it, okay? I don't like that. People seem to think that... I've had people say, well, you need to email him. He's not gonna listen to me. He needs one of two people to talk to him. One of two. Charlie Kirk or Franklin Graham. If you want there to be change in the structure of that committee that Trump did, you need to write Charlie Kirk or Franklin Graham. They're the only two people that have his ear. The rest of the people come and go and a guy like me is going to go nowhere with them because I don't even come and go. I'm just here. But it is a terrible situation that, you know, he doesn't know. He's not a theologian. He doesn't know the Bible doesn't tell you you can't have female pastors, because if he knew that, he wouldn't have gone to that Episcopal church, right? He doesn't know these things, so he has to have somebody that is willing to stand up and say, Mr. President, I want you to know that the Bible doesn't allow this and this and this, and if they're not going to do that, then he is not going to know, because 99% of the people in any church at any given time don't know this. When I tell people a woman shouldn't be preaching, they say, what? These are people that attend church. Yeah you know but the point is that they attend church they go there all the time their whole life and they have no idea because they're not reading the manual. Do you expect Trump to be any different? Okay so you know you have to take into consideration people email me about him in various aspects and I say this guy is a businessman that's what he knows and that's how he is running every single thing that he does. Okay, so you just have to understand his situation to have a little empathy with it, and if you want him to change in the religious aspect, write Charlie Kirk, or Franklin Graham. Those are the only two people that actually have his ear at any given time. They can pick up the phone and say, I'm Charlie Kirk. I would like to talk to President Trump. He's busy. Can you have him call me back? And he will. Those are the two people that can make a change in this. Write them. Paul now changes. Oh, we got to read the verse first. 2-5. Similarly, if anyone wants to athlete, he does not receive the victory crown, the victor's crown, unless he competes according to the rules. Okay, and also yours says similarly. Similarly. If anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Okay. 2-5. Now he's speaking on a different level. He was speaking of soldiers. Now he's going to the Greek games, okay? And that would have been something every person, it's like the Super Bowl. Everybody in America knows, even if you don't watch it, you know what the Super Bowl is. You know what they do and you know the rewards that they get for it, okay? Same thing there with the Greek games. Everybody would know about it, even if they didn't care about it. Paul now changes his comparison from soldiers to an athlete to continue to open Timothy's mind to proper Christian life. He says, and also if anyone competes, in athletics. The word is found only in this verse, and it is found twice. It is athleo. It means to wrestle or to compete as an athlete. One can see the germ of our modern word, athletics, in it. Paul returns to what is an obvious favorite metaphor of his, that of the Grecian games. He uses it elsewhere, such as in 1 Corinthians 9. If you go to verses 24 through 27, you'll see that. For all who compete, Paul notes that he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. How obvious this is in modern Olympics. Doping is not allowed. It is one of the rules of the game. If someone is found to be using steroids or other physically enhancing drugs, they are rejected. Now, lately it's been that if you want to take drugs to make you from a male into a female, then they let you stay in, okay? And sometimes you don't even have to take the drugs. You just say, I am a female today and they participate and they're allowing this and they're defending it. Now that Trump has said, we're not doing that anymore. And if you do that, we're going to take away money from your state. They're suing Trump, like the governor of Maine, right? We're going to continue to allow men to play against women and the women are being slaughtered out there. They're having broken bones and they're having concussions. It just this is the thinking of people in the world today okay so um it's a little different i understand doping isn't allowed but doing other things which is 10 times crazier are you know what one of the things that i heard about maybe you told me somebody told me this um these electric bikes that you see everywhere now everybody's got an electric bike and nobody pedals anymore but um the uh the uh earliest electric bikes, they were using them apparently in races. And people didn't know that, but they, you know, the thing that goes from here down to here, they had it in... Armstrong, okay. Somebody, was that you telling me? No, I didn't know. Okay, somebody told me this, that they know that this person had these things because when they were like going up a hill, he'd suddenly be going faster than everybody else Or, you know, it was just one of those things. So, things like that, people do things like that, and they are being deceitful. If they are caught, then there are repercussions, and that's the point that Paul is making here. Okay, so, if someone is found to be, you know, putting an enhancement in his bike to go faster, then he's rejected. Okay, that's my example there. The same was true in Paul's time. The athletes had certain rules in which to conduct themselves. If they did not compete accordingly, they not only fail to receive a crown, but they would be disqualified completely. But the crown is what all of the years of training was intended to obtain. Okay? That was the goal. Some of that was their whole life. You see that in people today. You know, their whole life is to win an Olympics game. All right? You know, great, great, great actor. I have to admit it. What's his name? Died today. Hackman. Gene Hackman, okay. But, you know, I was thinking about this. Do I want, when I'm dead, to have somebody say, I spent my whole life being somebody else? right I that doesn't interest me he was a great actor I appreciated what he did and so you could equate this with anybody you could equate it with Schwarzenegger or Clint Eastwood or any of these people they do a great job they bring but if that is the soul some of your life he was a great actor and to me that's kind of like a failed that's all they want to do that's all they want to I'd rather be a person that is a nobody that has he was a friend of Jesus on his tombstone than anything else. There's nothing else, I can't think of anything else that I would want written on my tomb except something connecting me with Jesus. And to have all of these accolades during this life and to not have Jesus, it just seems so pointless. But, you know, it's too bad he died today and all that kind of stuff and I hope they figure out what happened because it was him, his wife, and his dog were all dead. I'm not just no foul play involved. Yeah. Well, you know, who knows? Maybe they eat something poisonous together. So I don't know. We'll find out. But, you know, taking out Fido, that doesn't make any sense either. So anyway, they'd be disqualified to crown. what all of those years of training was intended to obtain, and so only a desperate person or a truly deceitful fool would attempt to break the rules. And there are people out there that actually do that. And Paul equating the work of the ministry to the athletes in Greece, excuse me, he is showing that ministers must drive according to the rules set down for them. Scripture. That is where our rules are set down. Okay, I have nothing else to go by but this book. There's nothing else coming in from outside that tells me, okay, Charlie, today I want you to do this or this or this or this or this. This is it, okay? If you're not working according to this book, then you are an ineffective whatever, minister, pastor, preacher, whatever your job in the ministry is, you are ineffective. This is it. This is all the marching orders that I have, and a lot of it is just stuff that's telling me about other things. It's leading me to an understanding of Jesus. The actual rules of my conduct are on just a few pages of the Bible, okay? I mean, if you take all of this and you look at just what is really directly applicable, it's not a lot, but all of that is my instruction. for then instructing the people in a right relationship with the Lord. Okay? This is His Word. We have to live by what it says. We should know it. We shouldn't put our trust in other people. We shouldn't be, you know, I just, every day lately, I've been waking up with the same thought, the same thought. If we don't know the Bible, and I've said it for years, but it just keeps coming back to me all day long. If we don't know the Bible, we are totally at the wiles of whoever is teaching us. 100%. It doesn't make, you know, if I say, okay, I'm going to start going to church. You know, I heard about Jesus on the TV, and I'm going to start going to church. And you walk into the Latter-day Saints over there, which is right down the road, or you go down to the Jehovah's Witnesses, which is down there a few miles, or if you walk into the Superior Word, or if you go to a Lutheran church, That's all you will ever know. That's it. That's all you're ever going to know is what they tell you if you don't read this book. That is not smart. That is not a smart thing to do with your life, is to let somebody else tell you about this book, because that person may be wrong, or he may be purposefully deceiving you, or whatever. If you want, you can go down to Jonestown in Guyana, and you can say, he was a great teacher. Look, he had hundreds of people down here, follow him down here, and then just drink some of the Kool-Aid that they left there on the stand and see if it goes okay with you. That's what you're doing. That is exactly what you're doing when you put your trust in somebody in a church without reading this book. Read this book. It just, it's like consuming my thoughts. I'm up there cutting a tree today or yesterday, and I'm thinking about that. You know, there are people in the world that are trusting me, me, with their theology. You know, I've always told people this, and it's funny, but it's true. If I saw me walking down the road, I'd walk to the other side. I would I mean I look you know it's how I am and I don't care about it but I'm not the kind of guy that you would say oh my gosh that guy's got bare feet he's good here it happened today there's a guy walking in the 7-eleven and I said hi and he kind of said hi to me and I could tell you thinking who is this guy you know I'm picking up cigarette butts and whatever and I was filthy too because I had tree dust all over me I was just gross and so anyway I said hi and I walked away and then I went behind the mall I went through I cleaned the bathroom on the way and then I drove around the mall and by the time I got around which is probably 10 minutes later he must have been in there talking to the people but he's got a coffee cup and he's walking up the front of the mall and he looks at me and I'm in a car and he's like You could see he was shocked. He was completely shocked that that guy actually... He hot-wired it. Yeah. Stole the car. Stole that car. I mean, yeah. So anyway, you could tell he was honestly shocked that that guy... So when I say that, I'm not just being funny. I'm being serious. Okay, so anyway... He's showing that, where was I? Okay, if Paul equating the work of the minister to the athletes in Greece, he is showing that ministers must strive according to the rules set down for them. Scripture, to not follow the manual is to disqualify oneself for the prize. How many preachers, teachers, priests, and pastors think they will receive the inheritance simply because of the title they held, okay? There's a guy that's getting ready to punch his ticket in the Vatican right now, and he thinks he's sweet because he's the Pope of the whole world. That guy, I honestly don't think he's saved. It's not my decision. I'm not going to say he's not, but I don't think he is, and I keep telling him on the Twitter website, make sure you tell this guy about Jesus. He's going to punch his ticket soon. Tell him about Jesus because he is probably not right with the Lord based on the way that he acts and the way that he conducts himself. He may have met the Lord when he was a kid and forgotten it, but he's certainly not living for the Lord in any way, shape, or form. Okay, so they think they're going to receive the inheritance simply because of the title they held. And yet, which of those failed to run their course in faith? For those who do not, there shall be no crown awaiting them." How sad. You spend your whole life as a minister and you get nothing for it because you didn't follow the manual. Life application. The finest manager, the greatest orator, the seemingly wisest counselor, or the most knowledgeable theologian may not even be on the right track while running the race. It is the unwise congregant. Here it is. I just talked about this. It sits in a church only because he appreciates one of these qualities in his minister. There are people that go out to a church in Texas where the guy speaks so eloquently, and that's why they're there. It's because he's a great orator, and yet his theology is so bad. I've never watched one of his sermons. I probably watched 15 of them years ago. Not one of them was in accord with scripture. Not one of them. Hosting? No, I'm not, I'm just, well, it was John Hagee, I'll say that. He's a terrible preacher, but he speaks really well. And so people just follow along and they think, oh yeah, he's a great preacher, because he speaks really well. I would never watch a Joel Osteen sermon. I think I watched two minutes of him one time and I'm like, this guy is, oh. He keeps saying, God, God wants to bless you. God, he never brings up the name Jesus. You just don't hear that, okay? That's ineffective there. A meticulous manager who increases the church's size and budget may be skimming the till in the process. A great orator may be preaching a completely false gospel. A counselor's instruction may not be biblical. And the most noted Bible scholar of all may not actually have faith in what he is teaching. I've seen that personally. Be sure to properly evaluate your leader to ensure that he is running his race according to the rules. Because if he's not, you're in a bad, bad state. Just absolutely the way it is. So now we're moving on to 2-6. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Okay, 2-6, and I'll read that just in case there's something different about it. Whoops, wrong way Charlie. 2-6, the hard-working farmer, yes, must be the first to partake of the crop. So you're right, right line there. Paul now goes to another metaphor. He's gone from the soldier, he's gone over to the Greek games guy, and the GGG, and then he's now gone on to the farmer. So, Paul goes to another metaphor to describe the responsibilities and benefits of being a minister of the Lord. He began with the soldier, then he moved to the athlete, now he speaks of the farmer by saying, the hard-working farmer must be the first to partake of the crops. Speaking of the soldier, he relayed the concept of obedience by ministers to Christ and not mixing in the affairs of the world. In his words about the athlete, he conveyed the message that the minister of the Lord was to conduct his affairs according to the set rules, implying the Word of God. Now, in these words about farmers, he is showing that there are other requirements and also benefits of the ministerial office. When a farmer works his land he takes what is necessary for himself before he sells off the produce to others. He takes enough food. I can guarantee you that's true because we had a mango tree on our property for you know it's been there 77 years but we've been there for 30 some years okay. And even when I was younger, my dad, he was in that house, so I was able to get mangoes in high school. But I guarantee you that we cut and eat the first mangoes. I'd probably lose a finger if I didn't do that. You just chop it right off. So that's That's the way it is. And then after that, you start to give them to your friends, and you bring them into church, and after about three weeks, they say, please don't bring any more mangoes, okay? It's just one of those things where you got all these mangoes, you don't know what to do with them, and so you take them and you put them in a bag, and you hang them on the neighbor's door, and you knock and you run, because he's got mango trees too, right? So, let him handle them. Okay, so, and you know, they're all gone now. They're all gone. There were like 50 mango trees on our end of the island. Somebody planted them all the way down, they're all gone. So, let's see here, where are we? Farmer, yeah, he takes what's necessary for himself before selling his produce to others. He takes enough food for himself and his family. If he has a wife, then he takes a lot extra. If it's mangoes, a Japanese wife, because, you know, she's going to be eating them all day and night. He takes enough to feed his animals. He also sets aside enough to be used for planting the next crops. Okay, all of this happens before he sells his first bushel to other people. It is a laborious, time-consuming process. Nowadays it's a lot different, but it takes a great exertion of energy and dedication in order to come to this state. If he has not cared for his own house first, then he will fail as a farmer in the future. So you'd call him Fred the Failed Farmer or FFF. So we've gone from G to F. All right, so he's not going to be a farmer very long. The same is then true with the minister. In this lesson, there's both a spiritual and a physical aspect to be understood. First, from a spiritual aspect, the minister must feed himself with the Word. If he's not doing that, he is going to be completely ineffective, totally ineffective. It doesn't matter how great his sermons are. We were talking about Spurgeon earlier. They call him the Prince of Preachers or whatever. You know what? If he wasn't feeding himself with the Word, then he was wasn't worth what he did. That's all there is to it. Now, I'm sure he did, but I'm saying he could have been going down to the bookstore and buying sermons from other people and modifying them for, and never reading the Bible. Just an example. I'm not saying he did that, okay? That's just, okay? Just because you're a good preacher does not mean that you are effective in who you are as an individual in Christ, okay? So he, the minister, has to feed himself with the Word. There must be a dedicated effort of growing in the Word, cultivating it, and caring for it. Any minister who has not put this effort into the spiritual growth of his harvest will be a pretty horrible minister. Further, he must ensure that his family is set in the word as well. One of my friends yesterday, I'd love to pick it up and play it for you, but I'm not going to because you probably couldn't see it or hear it, but she sent me a picture of her grandchild. just old enough to literally speak. And already, tell me Genesis 1-1, little kid rattles it off. Tell me John 3-16, rattles it off. Some obscure verse, I can't remember which one, I think it was from Ecclesiastes. This old, just a little older than Isla. She's not speaking yet, but you know what? I thought if my daughter doesn't start doing this with that child right away, there's gonna be a gap in her life already. It's gonna be that quick where there's a gap in her life. If Tangi isn't doing it, I know somebody that has the time to do it. Right? Okay? I will do it too, but right now she's not even speaking. So all you're going to get back is a lot of blah, blah, blah, blah. But you can at least say the Bible to her. You can talk about Jesus to her. As soon as you get a chance, you start telling children about the goodness of the Lord. And if that's not happening, we're just talking about you. Actually your wife, but you're included in it. oh good okay so he's wearing what is that called a blue something or the thing in your ear Bluetooth okay good good all right absolutely It's Leviticus and maybe Numbers as well, but Leviticus mandates the the firstfruits and the but yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, I think the actual instructions for bringing it forward is Numbers now. Yeah, the best goes to the Lord. Good job. Good job Okay, go have some pizza and have a nice night. Okay. Good. Good. Good. All right We're gonna finish this verse and then we're gonna have pizza. There's plenty and there's only a few people here, so everybody has to take some home. There's no choice in that. You're not given a choice. You're going to have to take some home. If you don't, don't ever come here again. Okay, so let's see here. If he hasn't put the word into it. Further, he must ensure his family, there you go, is set in the Word as well. My son-in-law and my daughter are doing that with my granddaughter, and I'm so glad to hear that. You know, I told them to do that, but that doesn't mean that they do it, and so I'm so glad to hear that. He must store up his knowledge of the Word for the future. He must always be ready to apply it to his life and actions. Secondly, the minister must tend to his needs in a physical sense as well. So you've got the spiritual, you've got the physical. He must sow into his crop, tend to it, harvest it, and store up what is needed. Some pastors are known for giving of themselves to the point of having nothing left to give. Okay, I heard a story from one of my friends about a pastor. Somebody came and they needed something and the pastor gave all of the furniture in the house to the family in need. And when the wife got home, she said, what are you doing? And he said, well, we need new furniture. So I gave the old stuff. He was so brilliant about it. But anyway, you know, some people take this to such an extreme that they've got nothing saved up. they get to the point of having nothing left to give. Paul would call this unwise. There must be a store from which one can be willing to give, and it must be accessed with wisdom and prudence, okay? If it is depleted, then it is he who will then be the soul needing other people's help, and he's not supposed to be relying on other people. If it doesn't come, then there will be no ministry at all. Paul speaks of this elsewhere in a general concept which is in 1 Corinthians 9, 9 through 12. I'll take you there and read you that just so you know what he's talking about. We've got, hang on just one second, four, five, Here we are, 9 and then 9 through 12. It says, For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it oxen God has cared about? Or does he say it all together for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt that this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ." Okay, he's saying that a minister needs to be taken care of. That's something that is, it's obligatory. Okay, anyway. life application. The minister's job is one which must be cultivated through hard work, and it is also a job which requires the minister to be wise and careful in how he deals with both his physical and spiritual gain. to allow either to fall into shortage will cause him to be less effective in his ministerial duties. There must be a storehouse which will be accessible for the future to meet the obvious needs which will arise in his own life, in that of his family, and in that of the ministry. Okay, Paul is telling him these things. He's trying to get him to pay attention because it's all coming at him. Young Timothy, it is coming at you and you need to be ready and pay attention to what I'm saying. Okay, we're going to have some pizza. I've got some money from Phil and I got some money from Karen Yokum. I think I took some of the money from Phil for the last one. Anyway, we're going to come out just about even here. There may be a few dollars left, but Phil and Karen Yokum. Karen is a lady I've known since I was this big. I've known her my whole life almost and she lived on She's now living on a bayou in Louisiana, where she was first from, and what a great lady. So anyway, Phil, he's helped us in the past with some pizza, and they're so appreciated. We thank you for that, and so we'll go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, Thank you for the wonderful goodness of Phil and Karen who have given some money for the pizza and we pray for that gentleman that we missed at the beginning who's in Pakistan and who's in need of assistance. So Lord, we ask that you provide according to your wisdom for the Jesus film of this month and for the gentleman who is going through that medical procedure so he can be out there telling people about Jesus still. And we pray that he'll just be doing jumping jacks really soon. We thank you, Lord. We're so grateful to you for what you've done. We ask that you bless the food, bless the people that are listening to this now or into the future. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so let me back that thing up and have everybody wave goodbye, and then we'll go have some pizza. Let's eat here. We've got a break.