We're going to get right into God's Word tonight. Would you take it, your Bible, and open, please, to 2 Timothy. It's been our privilege to study 2 Timothy, a wonderful letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, his last letter, before the Lord called his servant home. And tonight we're going to be looking at chapter 2. We're going to look at verse 3 down to verse 7. 2nd Timothy 2 verse 3. In his book on the grace of God by Justin Holcomb, he talks about a story that happened, something that took place in the life of Abraham Lincoln before his president. He says in the book that Abraham Lincoln went to a slave auction one day and was appalled by what he saw, and he was drawn to a young woman who was on the auction block. And the bidding began, and Lincoln bid until he purchased her. No matter what the cost, he determined to purchase her. And after he paid the auctioneer, he walked over to the woman and said, You're free. You're free to go. She said, What do you mean by that? He says, I mean, you're completely free. She says, Does that mean I can do whatever I want to do? He said, Yes, that's exactly what it means. You're free to do whatever you want to do. And she looked puzzled. That means I'm free to say whatever I want to say. He said, Yes, and you're free to go wherever you want to go. You're absolutely free. And with tears in her eyes, she said, if that's the case, I think that I'll serve you and go with you. And that's a beautiful story, and it illustrates really the grace of God in our life. We are bought with a price. The price, of course, was the life of God's own son. He is our new master. He redeemed us from the old master of sin, and he redeemed us to set us free. The Bible says, if the Son therefore shall make you free, you will be free indeed. And our attitude then should be, since we have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, our attitude should be that if that's the case, that I'm going to serve you, Lord, forever, that I am your servant. We should desire to serve our new master Jesus out of a heart of love for what he did for us. That should be the thing that motivates us. Why do we want to serve the Lord? We want to do it out of a heart of love because of what Jesus did for us. And the Apostle Paul, he certainly understood this. He wrote in another place, the love of Christ constrains me. And the expression that Paul liked to use about himself when he was describing himself and his relationship to Jesus Christ, he called himself the doulos of Jesus Christ. And the word doulos always means slave. I know it's been translated bondservant, it's been translated servant in different versions. But always, and this has been proven in Greek studies, that the word doulos always means slave. And so after Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus and Paul was converted, Paul called himself the slave of Jesus Christ. In fact, on the road to Damascus, he said, Lord, what would you have me to do? What is it that you want me to do with my life for the rest of my life? Because all the rest of Paul's life, he was completely devoted to serving Jesus Christ, his Lord and his master. And now, as we come to the end of Paul's life here in Second Timothy, Let me remind you of the scene of the background, what's going on here when Paul writes this letter. At the time of the writing, Paul is in a dungeon in Rome. He's been incarcerated. This will be the last time he's been incarcerated in a prison, and he had spent years in prison for the sake of his master, the Lord Jesus. Here he's in a Roman prison, and he's writing the last letter of his life. You really could call 2 Timothy the last will and testament of the words of the apostle Paul. In just a little time, he will be executed by the evil emperor Nero. The dungeon he's in is a very dark, unhealthy place occupied by criminals. And yet Paul is not worried about his own circumstances. That's not what he's concerned about. Paul's focused more on Timothy. He knows that his life is going to end, but he knows that the gospel needs to continue on. And he knows that all these things really are now on Timothy. The ministry must go on. And to a great measure, that's in Timothy's hands. Timothy, at this time, he's anywhere from, I would say, 30 to 36 years younger than the Apostle Paul. And he now has to take on the mantle of responsibility, and he now has to carry it on. And as we've talked about before, Timothy was a rather timid type person. We can kind of put that together from some of the things that the Bible says about him. He's not that forceful, dynamic personality that the Apostle Paul was. And so Timothy was really discouraged about several issues. And Paul wants Timothy to be strengthened. He wants him to continue on and serve the Lord faithfully. And so here in chapter 2, what Paul does is he uses really three illustrations designed to motivate Timothy, three illustrations of service. And these three illustrations really represent three aspects of faithful service, but they also were illustrations of common vocations in the Roman world of Paul's day. These are activities that the people at Ephesus would know very well. And he uses, by the way, these illustrations in other letters and other contexts. These seem to be, I say, three go-to illustrations that Paul uses to speak about faithful service. And all these things really apply to us. I don't know about you, I want to be faithful to the Lord. I want to serve Him faithfully until the time when God calls me home. That's the least I can do in gratitude for what Jesus Christ has done for me. And I'm sure you have the same attitude. You want to serve the Lord faithfully. What does that include? Well, notice with me these illustrations that Paul gives here. The first illustration is a heroic soldier. And a heroic soldier desires to please his commander. The qualities that it takes to be a good soldier is the same it takes to be a good faithful servant of Jesus Christ. Look down at verse number three. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now we've talked about this before. I know I've preached on soldiers of Christ before, but I wanted to again mention this in the context of three illustrations that Paul gives here one after another in this context. And we'll just review quickly about what we had said. What does Paul point out about being a soldier of Jesus Christ? What are the things that are necessary to be a good soldier? And the first one we see in verse three is a willingness to suffer hardship. Paul said, you know, we have to be willing to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And the word there means as soon, as we had said, it's a compound Greek word, soon with, kakos, evil, patheo, which is to suffer evil with or to suffer difficulty with. And by using that word, Paul is inviting Timothy to join him in suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, Paul writes this from a Roman prison cell and under very difficult circumstances. He was there because of his faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the idea is if you're going to be faithful to Jesus Christ, it's not always going to be easy. There's going to be hard times that come, hardness we have to endure. But another thing he points out that a good soldier has to have is a separation from the normal life. Look in verse four. The word entangle here, again, an interesting word, has the idea of weaving together. This is the word that was used to speak about weaving together the crown of thorns that was used to mock Jesus in Matthew 27. And it literally means to be intertwined. It's used to describe a runner whose garments had entangled his legs, hindering his ability to run. It's used to describe sheep whose wool was caught in thorns. Figuratively, this is used to point out any interference that might come that would cause a person, that would hinder a person from being a good soldier. A soldier's objective is to separate himself from any activities or anything in normal life that would in any way hinder him from being a good soldier. The Roman code, according to Theodosius, was this, in Roman times, we forbid men engaged on military service to engage in civilian occupations. According to Barnes, Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry or to be engaged in any husbandry or trade. They were forbidden to act as tutors to any person. or curators of any man's estate, or proctor in the cause of any other man, they were to divorce themselves from any of these activities that would hinder them in any way from being a good soldier. And of course, the way that applies to us as believers, we are to separate ourselves from anything in this temporal life that would hinder us from being faithful to our commander, the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't allow ourself to be entangled with those things. But then another thing Paul points out about being a good soldier is an obsession to please the commander. Look again in verse number 4, "'No man that worth entangles himself with the affairs of this life.'" Why? "'That he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.'" This is the final mark of a good soldier, a genuine desire to please the one who enlisted him. And that, of course, is Jesus Christ. He is the one who enlists us. Our obsession should be to please the captain of our salvation. We're not out to please man, we're out to please the Lord Jesus Christ. This should be our greatest desire. We should want to hear one day from our Lord, well done, good and faithful servant. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, 9, wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. That should be our ambition. So in order to be a faithful servant of Christ, you need to have the mindset of a soldier, the military mindset, a heroic soldier. pleases his commander. But here's the second illustration that Paul uses. Number two, an honest athlete who receives his crown. Now, Paul switches to the metaphor of an athlete. And again, this is an illustration that Paul often used in his letters. In 1 Timothy 4, 7, Paul used this image. He wrote, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. This is the advice that Paul gave to Timothy in the first letter. He was encouraging him in his spiritual life, and he said, Timothy, you have to discipline yourself. You have to exercise yourself rather unto godliness, as the King James gives that. The word exercise is the Greek word gymnasio. Does that sound familiar? That's where we get the word gymnasium. And again, this is an athletic metaphor that Paul is using here. And you have to imagine that in Paul's day, sports were a big part of that time. I know in our day today, you know, we live in such a sports-minded generation. You know, we're always thinking about sports. By the way, the Orioles won 5-0 this afternoon. It's always on our mind. It's a part of our life. I heard one man who said to his wife, honey, is there anything you want to say to me before football season starts? Not a good idea to say that. And so if we're a sports-minded generation, I think equally so or even more so during Paul's day. I think I told you before that there were athletic games that were a part of the society back then. There was the Olympic games that started not far away from Thessalonica at a place called Mount Olympus, which supposedly was the residence of the Greek god Zeus. And then there was the Pythian games at Delphi. and the Ithman games at Corinth. And these games were all staggered so that all the wealthy and the elite could be sure to make these games. And they had all types of events. They had boxing and wrestling and chariot racing and the javelin throw and running, short dashes, but also the long marathon. And the heroes of that society, the most popular people, were the athletes that competed and won in competition. Cicero complained, these athletes are ascribed more praise and more fame than a conquering general coming back from war. And every city had its coliseum, had its amphitheater. They were filled with people that were cheering their favorite athletes on. And again, we see in the New Testament where Paul refers to some of these things. He writes in Ephesians, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, drawing upon the analogy of a wrestler in competition. He talks about boxing, 1 Corinthians 9, 26, so fight I, not as one that beat at the air. He said, I'm not shadow boxing, I'm delivering real blows. I think he had in mind team sports in Philippians 1, 27, when he said, we're striving together for the faith of the gospel. the word striving together again is a compound Greek word soon with athleo, athletes together. So there was some kind of team sport evidently back then, and Paul used that word to talk about us, the church, we are striving together for the faith of the gospel. Perhaps the most popular sport in that time was running. It was popular in the Olympic Games. And people love to see runners compete in the race. And Paul, again, talks about this in Philippians 3, 14, At the end of Paul's life, Paul could say, I'm now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I've kept the faith. And so to prepare for these games, athletes would go through rigid training. They would go through rigid discipline. That's where we get the word gymnazo from, or to exercise yourself. It came to mean to discipline yourself. And Paul's point is simply this, that just like an athlete has to discipline himself in order to compete and win in his competition, even so it takes that kind of discipline to be a good servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul is drawing upon this athletic metaphor right here to Timothy. And there are several things he communicates here. First of all, compete earnestly. Look at verse number 5. And if a man also strive for the masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. This is earnest competing. Again, he's talking about an athlete striving. The Greek word here, athleo, expresses continuous action. This is the only time this word is used in itself. In other words, it's not used with any other word. It's not a compound word here. It's just athleo. This is the only time we see this in the New Testament. And of course, this is where we get our word, athlete, from. And it has the idea of striving, continuous action. Straining to win, doing everything you can, giving it all that you can to win. I remember years ago, I coached a football team in a Christian school as a young man, and I had a motto that I had the players repeat, and it was this, do everything to win but sin. Do everything to win but sin. That was our motto. Give it all you got. I mean, leave it out there on the field. You know, you've heard that before. And that's what this word here means. It's also kind of a cousin to the word agonizomize. It's another word that's used in reference to athletic competition, where we get our word agonize. That was used in 1 Timothy 6, 12. Paul uses it there. But the word here refers to the contest in a more general way. Now, the aim of the soldier is to please his commander, but the aim of the athlete is what? To get crowned. He wants to win. And that's what he's talking about here. And if a man also strive for masteries, that is, he's striving for the crown, the victor's crown. In Greek games, it was a garland of flowers placed around the neck of a winner. It's not something you can keep for a long time, you know. It was kind of a fading, corruptible crown, Paul refers to it as. But it was still something that athletes love to get, that crown, that sign or that symbol of their victory. Now, again, the illustration here of an athlete shows us that we can't be godly by accident. We can't be good servants by accident. It's going to require a lot of us. It's going to require all of us, all of our energy. There's no quick remedy for being godly or being a good servant. There's no quick fix that you can get from God. It requires discipline, the same discipline that an athlete needs in competition is what it requires for us to be good soldiers or good athletes for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if we want to compete on a winning level, we have to compete earnestly, and we have to prepare ourselves, and we have to discipline ourselves. And that means enacting spiritual disciplines in our life, the discipline of prayer, and reading God's Word, and faithful worship, and evangelizing, and meditating on Scripture, and all these other things that are so much a part of the Christian life that we need to do. So we are to compete earnestly, but also here's the next thing, compete lawfully. Look again at verse number five, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. Now, being earnest in the games or in your participation is wonderful, and striving and disciplining yourself, that's all great, but it doesn't guarantee the victory. You will not be crowned, Paul said, unless you strive, what? Lawfully. Unless you compete lawfully. And again, the word strive here, this time it's expressed in complete action, kind of an aorist subjunctive, thus Paul's implying that the crown is not given until the game has been complete. When are you going to get your crown? You're not going to get it in this life. All right? If you're striving to get the approval of men, that's not the crown that God has for you. You have your reward. If that's what you want, okay. But that's not why we're in this. We are striving because we want to get the crown from our Lord. And it doesn't come until the end of the competition, until the game is complete. And that also means that when we strive in competition, we have to do it lawfully. We have to be meticulous about following the rules. Judges make certain that athletes play according to the rules. how disappointing it is when a football player gets a touchdown only to turn and see that yellow flag on the field, some of you who know football. That means there was some kind of penalty, something happened that calls it back, no touchdown, you know. We've heard of athletes who won, But they didn't compete according to the rules. We've heard of that, right? I think about the Olympic Games, and I think it was 1988 Seoul Olympics. There was a runner by the name of Ben Johnson. Was that his name? Some of you that know athletics. Yeah, it was Ben Johnson. He was a runner for, not the U.S., but Canada. You guys remember that? And he was considered the fastest man alive, and he beat Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash. No one thought that Carl Lewis could be beaten, but here's this Canadian runner, and he competed and he won, only to find out that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs. and he was stripped of his gold medal. And whereas before he had praise and honor heaped upon him, now he kind of hid away in shame because he had cheated. He didn't compete according to the rules. And as Christians, we have to make sure that we compete in a way that is according to the rules. There will be some Christians who lose their reward one day. One day their works will burn up in fire, as Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 3. Our works will be tried by fire. And what's left over after the fire will be what is work that was done that was pleasing to the Lord. And then Paul also talks about, in 1 Corinthians 9, he says this, "'Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that you may obtain?' And every man that strives for the mastery is tempered in all things, yet they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible crown." And here, again, he's talking about that only one can really win the race. Of course, here in the Christian life, all of us, there's a sense in which all of us can be a winner if we strive according to the rules, as Paul tells us here in 1 Timothy, or excuse me, 2 Timothy right here in verse number five. Yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. Did you know at the games, there were umpires, there were judges? they were called the Helen Odecai. The Helen Odecai is the word that was used there for these judges. They were there to enforce the rules. They were to govern the games. And their word was final. We think that, you know, the umpires and the referees today are pretty harsh. Well, back in the Greek world, these umpires had sticks, they had rods. And they could use those rods against the athlete. I mean, they can hammer them. You know, you get out of line, whack. You know, can you imagine that happening in the athletic world today? That's what it means when they ruled the games. They ruled, you know. You didn't get out of line with a judge because he'd whack you with a rod. That's what Paul meant in Colossians 3.15, let the peace of God, the same word here, umpire, or rule in your heart. You know, when you get out of line, the peace of God will whack you. You say, in what way? Well, the peace will be gone. The peace will not be there. And so in these games, the Olympic games, every athlete had three basic rules that they had to obey when they were competing. For example, in wrestling, kicking your opponent in the stomach was allowed, but gouging out his eyes was not. Standards weren't all that high. Few things you could not do. But if you disobeyed those rules, again, immediately you were disqualified. And there were athletes that violated these rules all the time. One Greek historian tells us that six statues of Zeus at Olympia were made from fines levied at the athletes who did not keep the rules. That's a lot of metal there. And so these umpires were needed at all the games, but essentially they were needed at the race. They had to pay close attention, because if a runner interfered in any way with another runner, they were immediately disqualified, or they caused another runner to stumble. Again, this is what Paul means. An athlete is not crowned except he strive lawfully. And Paul may have been playing upon this analogy in Galatians 5, 7 when Paul said, you were running well, who caused you to stumble? Who hindered you? Who tripped you up? Again, that's the idea there, you were running the race, you were running well, someone came along and someone caused you to stumble. And so our fear should be that we're not disqualified. We don't wanna be disqualified in the race of life in any way. One of my favorite stories is of the Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe. I remember reading his biography as a teenager. He was such a fascinating person to me. And he's one of the, First, I don't know if there's anyone after him that did this, but he was such a great athlete that at that time he was the only athlete to win both the decathlon and the pentathlon. These were events where you had five events you competed in, and then ten events. And he was such a gifted athlete that he won both. I mean, he swept as far as the gold medals. However, this didn't last long. Later on, he was asked to return his medals. And why was that? Well, because he was disqualified by breaking the rule of amateurs. Why? Because you had to be an amateur athlete. You could not be a professional. And because Jim Thorpe received $5 a week for playing baseball during a summer league one time, They stripped him of his gold medals. That was a heartbreaking thing for this great athlete. But he was disqualified because he did not compete according to the rules. And so we are spiritual athletes. We are called to run a different kind of race. And how are we to run the race? We're to run this race according to the word of God. That is our manual. That is our rule book. And we want to make sure that we get a full reward. And so to be a good servant of Jesus Christ, we have to be an honest athlete. Our desire is to receive the crown. A heroic soldier desires to please his commander. An honest athlete wants to receive his crown. But here's the third illustration that Paul gives, a hardworking farmer, and he wants to enjoy his crop. This is the final metaphor that Paul uses here, and that's that of a farmer. Look down at verse number 6, the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. Now, compared to the lives of a soldier and an athlete, the life of a farmer is kind of boring, as for the last illustration. I mean, the soldier, he lives on the battlefield. He lives on the edge of life and death on the battlefield. That's exciting, that's adventurous. The athlete has the thrill of competing in a coliseum with people all around cheering him on. That's a big spotlight there. As he runs towards the goal, he hears the cries of people cheering him on. But think about a farmer. There's nobody out there cheering him on. He's not really living on the verge of life and death. What is his life like? Well, he just, he works long. He works hard. There's plowing. There's planting. And then when you get tired, you go home and you go to bed. About the most exciting thing he can see is, you know, I can just imagine the farmer coming home and the wife saying, how was your day today? Oh, it was great. I think the corn grew another inch. In the field, you know, nothing really exciting happening here. You know, spiritually, there are a few out there that have really exciting, adventurous ministries. They're invited to speak all over the world. They have thousands that flock to hear them and buy their books and that sort of thing. Then there are the rest of us. who are just out in the field, just working the field, waiting for the corn to grow, you know, faithfully sowing the seed of God's Word, sowing that seed into people's hearts, hoping that a bird doesn't come and snatch it away. Sometimes bad storms or pests destroy the plants before they bear fruit. You know, you have to deal with those kind of things. Spiritually speaking, you know, sometimes it's not easy doing ministry work. We, you know, we have to deal with whatever problems come up. And that's just part of the calling. But we keep on sowing, and we keep on trusting God to bring the increase, because if there is an increase, it's God who does it. We just sow the seed, we water it, and we trust God to do the rest. And again, this is part of being a servant of Christ. And Paul will mention right here two aspects of the farmer here. First of all, he works exhaustively. Look again in verse 6, the husbandman that laboreth, The word labor here from the verb form of kopeo, meaning to labor to the point of exhaustion. This is an industrious farmer who starts early and he works all day. It's very demanding. He has to work during the cold, during the heat, during the rain, and in the drought. He plows the soil, whether it's hard or loose. He doesn't wait for his own convenience because, you know, seasons don't wait on him. When the season comes, he's got to get out there. And he's got to get certain things done at a certain time. And he can't wait for things to be perfect. Whatever the conditions are, he's got to get out there. He's got to work. He's got to plant the seed. When the time comes to plant, he plants. When weeds appear, he's got to pull those weeds. He's got to remove them. When the crop is mature, he's got to harvest the crop. It's nothing but tedious, hard work. And that's why Paul uses this word here at Capeo, describing pastors. He uses this word, by the way, in 1 Timothy 5, verse 17, he uses that very word to describe the work of pastors who labor in the Word of God. He commends those in Rome who worked hard in the Lord, Same word, he often mentions, his own labor and toil for the Lord. Christian work is hard. It's hard work mentally. It's hard work emotionally. It's draining. It's hard work physically. Even Jesus was so tired, he could fall asleep in a small boat in the middle of a storm because he was exhausted from the labor. So if you're going to be a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, at times you're going to be tired. And if you've never been tired in serving the Lord, you probably haven't been serving the Lord hard enough, because sometimes it just gets to be wearisome. So we have to work exhaustively But also, we work expectantly. Look again in verse 6, the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. Now, commentators are divided over whether the emphasis is to be placed on the labor or on the fruit. Though both aspects have their significance, I think, here, to be consistent with the other two illustrations already given, the soldier and the athlete, The primary emphasis is really, I think, placed on the reward, the fruit. The soldier seeks to please his commander. The athlete has his eye on the crown. What's the thing that keeps the farmer motivated? What is the thing that he looks to? He's looking to the crop, the harvest, the future. And he gets to enjoy the fruit of that labor. He gets to enjoy the fruit of that crop. He gains that for himself. And by the way, that's how he makes his living. A farmer makes his living by the crop that he himself plants. In New Testament times, farm laborers often were paid with a portion of the crops that they helped to plant and to cultivate and to harvest. but the hardworking farmer received not only a greater share, but also the first fruits, we could say, of the crop. And so it is with ministers. It is hard work to serve the Lord, but I want to tell you the benefits are wonderful. When you see God working in the lives of people, that is the blessing. When you see the fruit of what God is doing through your labor, That is such a joy and it's such fulfillment. That's part of the reward that we have when we are serving the Lord for His glory. That's why Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. He said, what is our hope? joy or crown of rejoicing, are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" Paul said, that's the thing that I labor for, that's the thing that gives me joy, you in the presence of Jesus Christ, to know that I had a part in helping you to know Jesus. and that you're there in that crowd when Jesus Christ appears, you are our glory, you are our joy. In other words, it's when the harvest time comes, in the end, when that harvest comes, that's when we will rejoice to see the fruit of our own labor. The harvest is at the end of the age. Often we really don't know what God is accomplishing through our labors, through our prayers. And we won't know until one day we stand before him. And that will be the time when we will know, and that's when we can rejoice in what the Lord has done through us. And that day is yet to come, beloved. Then we'll meet people who are in heaven, because we sowed the seed, or maybe through our words, through the witness that we gave, There are people that are now believers, maybe through the good deeds that you have done for someone else, which led them to think more about Christ and Christianity, and that ultimately led their salvation. That will be the time of joy when the harvest comes. That will be a time of eternal joy for believers. And so these three illustrations, a heroic soldier, And he wants to please his commander, an honest athlete. He wants to compete for the crown and a hardworking farmer. He wants to enjoy the crop. He wants to enjoy the reward of all the hard labor that he has. Now, after giving these three illustrations, Paul tells Timothy, look at verse number seven, he kind of brings it all together in verse number seven. Consider what I say. and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." Timothy, think about what I have told you, and may God give you understanding. The word for understanding here refers to the ability to comprehend, to judge, to apply this to life. That's what I pray for, that when the Word of God is preached, you'll get understanding from God to understand that and apply what has been said to your own life. I think Paul here is praying for Timothy to have enlightenment in this. It's like the psalmist who prayed and said, open thou mine eyes that I might behold wonderful things out of thy law. Timothy had to engage his brain to think about the implications of what Paul was saying here. And if he gained any insight, it would be the Lord who does it. And I would just like, again, to emphasize that if you're really able to get this, it's because God has given you insight. He's given you enlightenment in your mind to understand the truth of Scripture. And that should be our prayer when we come to God's house. May God help us to see this. May God help us to apply this to our own life so that we can serve the Lord faithfully, who is worthy of all of our service. I want to tell you something, dear friend. There's no small service if it's done for Jesus. It doesn't matter. We might say that it's small, but it's not small if you're doing it unto the Lord. Because again, he is worthy of all of our service, and all of our service is an act of worship to our Savior. It is an act of gratitude. That is our motivation, out of love, because He has saved us. He redeemed us from sin. Therefore, our attitude is, Lord, that I want to serve you for the rest of my life. I want to give you all my days. I want to serve you every day. And again, that's an act of worship unto the Lord. Writer Philip Yancey notes that toward the end of his life, Albert Einstein removed the portraits of two scientists from his wall. One was Newton, and the other was Maxwell. He removed those portraits from his wall, and he replaced those portraits with two other men. He replaced it with Gandhi and Schweitzer, Albert Schweitzer. And then Einstein explained, and someone asked him about that, why did you take those scientists off your, well, put these other two men up. And Einstein said, well, it was time to replace the image of success with the image of service. And I thought, you know what, we need to do that in the church. We're so consumed about success. We need to replace the image of success with the image of service. I just want to faithfully serve my Lord. And if you want to be a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, you know what? Here's three illustrations to draw from. This is what it requires if you want to serve the Lord. You have to have that soldier mentality. You have to be willing to endure hardness, separate yourself from anything that hinders you. You have to have a desire to please your commander. You have to be an honest athlete that competes according to the rules, but you're striving, you're competing in the Christian life. You have to be willing to work hard, exhaustively. and trust God to give the increase. But yet what we do, we do for the honor and glory of the Lord. Let's bow for prayer together tonight. Bow for prayer. Take a moment while you're there. I want you just to think about this. Like Paul said, the Lord give you understanding in these things. Consider what Paul said. And maybe God's speaking to you about an area of service in your own life, or maybe getting involved in serving the Lord. If you're a true believer, He doesn't want you riding the bench, He wants you in the competition. He wants you on the battlefield. He wants you out there in the field working. Are you doing that? Are you serving Him? And we can go a step further. You say, well, I'm serving the Lord. Well, let me ask you, are you doing it out of the right motive? Are you doing it out of a heart of love, gratitude for what Christ has done for you? Not to receive a reward here. Our reward doesn't come until that harvest day, until the crowning day, until the battle is over. Until then, we just faithfully serve. There'll be a day when we'll get our reward. There'll be a day when our commander will express his gratitude. The crown will be given. The fruits will be seen. But until then, we just faithfully serve. Father, again, thank you for the Word of God. The encouragement that Paul gave to Timothy, Lord, that's for us, too. And we need it. We need it, Lord, because sometimes we get complacent. Sometimes we may think that what we do really doesn't matter. But Lord, it does, especially if we're doing it unto you. So Lord, help us to serve faithfully. Help us to do our part for the kingdom, for your honor and for your glory. And we pray all of this in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.