I'm sure it was an email, because I don't answer the phone. And I don't read letters. So it had to be an email about coming. It was like, sure, the dates work. Let's do this. Kind of a no-brainer. And then a bit after that, then, hearing what the theme of the conference would be, that really was like, whoa. Like, good whoa. Not like I know a lot, but it's like, I know I need it a lot, so I'm an expert in needing sanctification. And so over the summer months, I thought about it quite a bit. I mean, I think about my own sanctification daily. So do you, don't you? It's an ever-present concern. It's a compelling truth, a scary truth. It was just beautifully sung, whatever. And there's a part of my heart that says, whatever. And then there's a part of my heart that says, like, whoa. I've seen some whatever, you know? And the answer still would have to be whatever, but not with like, yeah, whatever. And you're like, yeah, whatever. Whatever. How the Lord worked in my heart about this then was having me remember or think through, I'm going to think agents, aspects, factors. I'm going to go with the common things. Things that God has used in my life to do his work. To whatever degree it's been done so far, we've got miles and miles to go. But what has God used? And clearly, sanctification is a divine cooperation. When it's all said and done, it's done by God. And yet he says, you're responsible, sanctify yourselves. You have skin in the game, you have responsibility. Don't understand that, never will till heaven. So we'll get over that part of it. and focus tonight on understanding as a framework that whatever Christ-likeness is ever in me, the full credit of that is completely to Christ for real, not false humility, it's the truth. But, that being true, we're still commanded to be involved, to engage in disciplines and with agencies and influences and choices that foster rather than hinder work of God making me like himself. And so I thought about that and then the text of scripture that kind of personified those elements in my life. And one of them is, I was going to preach one tonight, but you guys are studying James. So I was like, it's a good thing I got the tip off. Hey, probably wouldn't want to do James tonight because they just had it by somebody who could really preach it. And so, and I wouldn't want to be sitting here all night with you guys going like, that's not right. We were just told that's not the right thing. And so we'll do that tomorrow. So one of the things, and this is where we're going to focus on, one of the things clearly God uses in our life are our incredibly excruciating crucible experiences, without which we would never be more like Christ. I wish there was just a class you could take, but there's, I'm sure there's a class you could take, but that's not gonna produce the sanctification. So we'll talk about that tomorrow. Another thing, and it's kind of related, is relationships, iron sharpening iron. And clearly, having people speak into your life with loving candor, the sole purpose being their love for God and their love for you. You don't get that every day. You may in a good marriage. You should in a good marriage. Hopefully, you don't get the candor every day. That would be a little hard to take every day. You have to go hunting or something or go to Detroit or something. But the other thing, so there's relationships. And Dave referenced it in our own lives. It's why I love coming here. And it's because we get to hang out. And it's been that somebody's got to be able to look you in the eyeballs and say, I love you, so I'm going to tell you this. And when that happens, it's such a glorious, painful thing. It's like, well, that's going to hurt. But like, wow, you did it. Wow. All right, but it hurt, man. I'll get you next time. In love, I'll help you with your sanctification later. So those were two things, but I'm gonna do the crucible stuff tomorrow. But the other thing that clearly in my life that God has used in my personal sanctification since I have been in the ministry is the preaching of God's word. When I'm not preaching at home, because we have other guys and, you know, you got to share a little bit. And so I do. A couple of months a year, it's theirs. And probably another month a year, I'm somewhere else. But I'm not good when I'm not preaching. And not just the preaching part, but the preparation. There are some of you, I'm sure, that will study just to know, because you just like to know. I don't like to know, unless I need to know. Do I need to know this? I don't. Then why are you telling me? There's only so much life. Go away. If I need to know, tell me. If I don't need to know, don't tell me. So I don't like to study. I don't like just to study. Now, study God's word to prepare God's word is such a powerful thing. I'm not saying it's just me, but it is in my life. So I go preach other places when I'm not preaching in Calvary. It's like missing something big in my life, in my personal life. It's not that I don't enjoy hearing somebody else preach, because I do. And it's not like if I'm not the one preaching, then I'm not happy. I'm just not going to study to preach if I'm not going to preach. that would be studying to do something else and be studying to preach. It's been very powerful in my life. And so that's what I want to speak to tonight from 1 Peter chapter 4 and try to challenge you to think about. Now, obviously the target group tonight is pastors, preacher, teacher types. Um, clearly if you're a mom or dad, you have some preaching and teaching to do in your own family or in the Sunday school or in the small group you may lead or Bible study you might run. So you can make those applications, but primarily, and I'm going to try to stay primarily focused on the job at hand. And, uh, so you can just write it down and remind your preachers of it later if you're not one that this is what they ought to be thinking about. But first Timothy chapter four, I'm going to begin reading in verse six. All right. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourselves for godliness, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance for to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. but no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity until I come. Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Devote yourself to them. so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. My personal captivation with this text came a long time ago, just reading through scripture, and I've preached through 1 Timothy a couple, three times in all the years. There are certain verses that when you get to the end, there's this statement that's kind of, it's kind of an if-then, and going, yeah, yeah, yeah, but the then is so significant, it backs me up to the if, The passage scripture that comes to my mind on this is Psalm 1. Okay, blessed is man, blessed, blessed, he doesn't do this, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it gets to the end and it says, and whatsoever he does will prosper. So it's like, well, then I should have read the first verses a little slower, paid a little more attention, because that's an amazing statement. And so in this chapter, Paul ends with an amazing statement to me, which was my focus for some time and made me pay more attention to the rest of the chapter. And that is, if you persist in this, persist in this, for by doing so, you will save, sozo, you will save. We understand he's not, but he's talking here about you will be effective in the sanctification of your life. You will save yourself and those that hear you. So it's like, okay, so what else do I want? Well, a nice buck on opening day would be nice, but really, that's like it. When it's all said and done, if in my life, God, by his grace, somehow with this piece of dirt, is able to save me and those that would hear me, family, friends, church, neighbors, well then, Anything else? No, I'm good. That would be good. That would be a wonderful description of a life. That he was saved and those that heard him were saved. So this chapter's become important to me. So we're gonna talk about preaching a little bit, about preaching itself. Sorry for the non-preachers. But then talk about What is not so evident in the text the first time you read it, and that is who is, I can't say the primary, oh, that's what I think, I can't prove that, but I with certainty can say a primary beneficiary of preaching is the preacher. And so it has an enormous play in our lives if we do it right. I'm not talking about a particular framework, but if we preach it as God intends us to preach, it has an enormous benefit to us, a sanctifying benefit to our lives. And so it's not the only aspect of sanctification that we should be talking about, but it's one we should not neglect as preachers in particular. Preaching, Paul speaks to it more explicitly in his second epistle. He commands us to be preaching God's word in 2 Timothy 4.2. In connection with that, in connection, there's a definition that I came across a long time ago when I was reading a book, studying, and it has always captivated me. It was in T.D. and T.E., just a definition of that word, to preach. The definition is this, of the preacher. Apart from the predominant question of voice, certain qualities of character were required. This is for the secular guy. Preachers existed before us, taking the name. These were a public address system with legs. That's what preachers were. So apart from the predominant question of voice, certain qualities of character were required. In many cases, heralds, or preachers, are very garrulous and inclined to exaggerate. They are thus in danger of giving false news. It is demanded then that they deliver their message as it is given to them. The essential point about the report which they give is that it does not originate with them. Behind it stands a higher power. The herald does not express his own views, he is the spokesman for the master. I just find that incredibly powerful and clarifying of what we're supposed to be doing. That is our task. That task is described to me in another very concise way in the MIAA. So they read distinctly from the book of the law and the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. So they read it, they explained it, and they applied it to their life. There you go. So when I spoke earlier of expository preaching. I'm not talking about a fine-tuned, multifaceted, tight, precise, structured procedure. I'm talking about an essence, a heart, a true identity, which is, this is God's word, so we read it. We accurately, the best we can, for understanding, not to make it better, but to make it clearer, We explain it. And then we, the King James, cause them to understand the reading. We use illustrations, we apply, we say this, so this is what God said, this is what it means, and so this is what you should do next. And how you craft it and whether you do a little drama thing or whatever you do with it, that's your business. But that's the essence of this, and that's what he's saying. And so he's saying, Timothy, this is something you need to be given yourself to, because it is transformational. Now, we know it pleases God, it glorifies God, that's his call, that's his word, so it's going to be heard. We know it, done correctly, can be used by God and is used by God to change the listeners. In Jeremiah 23, 32, it says this, but if they had, speaking of the bad shepherds, the bad prophets, If they had stood in my counsel, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds. Instead of just, I'll tell you, you tell me, we'll tell people who are thinking and pulling dreams out of their ear and just sharing that with the people. If they had just come and learned from me and stood by me, And in that personal audience with God and His word, if they would have let me give them the message of my word, then they would have told them my word. And if they would have told them my word, then they could be changed. There is a purpose in God's word for life. There's many purposes, but clearly one of them is that it's proclaimed clearly so that when people hear it, they hear what God says, and God's word, which when he said, let there be and there was, is the same word with the same power. I think that, I know that slips my mind for long periods of time, and then every now and then just pops back in there. It's the same word, the same power. And so if we understand our task, then we will tell them, we will devote ourselves to study God's word, so when we say God said, it's the truth. So, what I wanna do is run through this text quickly, looking at the commands about what we're supposed to be doing, and then go back. and look at who is benefited by that. Because I think that just naturally, maybe you never lost it. Maybe you got it and you're saying like, it's about time you got it. Okay, that could be true. But it took me a while to get this. So I'm assuming there's a couple other people like me in the room, okay? So, let's go back now and looking at this text that I read, let's look at the way God speaks to Timothy from Hall about his preaching tasks, okay? In verse six, if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ. So he's saying, here's something you should be doing, these truths. And he's referencing some specific teaching earlier on, but it can obviously include by application all the teaching that Timothy was doing, passing on the word of God, referenced later in the second epistle, the things you've heard of me, the same commitment of faithful men. He's passing this on. So it says, So if you put these things for the brothers, the idea there is to keep placing the teachings of God's Word in front of them, and the imagery is laying stones in front of them so they can walk on them. That's the picture of the Word. So Timothy, if that's what you're doing, that's a wonderful thing. He commends it. That's what you should be doing, Timothy. You should be laying out these stepping stones, these truths for them to live on, to walk on. Down in verse 11, he says, command and teach these things. And he speaks about all those things, but specifically, then he goes on, he says in verse 13, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Don't neglect the gift. Do not neglect the gift that you have, which was given you by prophecy. He's saying so, he commands them to keep on teaching. It's that present imperative, commanding, giving, preaching. I mean, it can be done in a very shallow and arrogant way, but we can also recoil away from that and lose its authority because preaching really is telling people what they're supposed to do. It's like saying, this is it. This is who God is. We might want to say it in a nice way. This is who God is. Well, can't we talk about who God is? No, actually, we can talk about it afterwards. You want to discuss it, you have some questions, but this is who he is. We don't prove it. We tell it. We're just the public address system. This is who he is. This is what he wants. This is what he meant. This is how it's lived. So he says, keep on commanding and teaching these things. Do these things. Keep it up in your life. In verse 15, he says, practice these things. Devote yourself to them. The word devote, literally, be in them. Be in this. Getting people the word of God, what God has said, not what you think, not what you just read. Getting people what God has said. That's the only thing, that's the only thing that can change their heart and mind. God's spirit taking his word and changing their mind. They need to hear God's word. So he says, so you keep on doing this, Be in this. It should be your soul, your life. It's something you don't do once in a while. It's kind of like if somebody asked me if I'm a golfer. It's like, I go golfing. That would be an honest thing. But nobody who goes golfing with me would say, he's a golfer. They would have some other words, I am. They wouldn't say he's a golfer, but he goes. Okay, so it's something that we are supposed to be in, it's to characterize us, not something that we just visit and play with once in a while. This proclamation, reading scripture, explaining it and teaching it, we're to devote ourselves to it. And then he goes on down there, and the last verse here in the chapter, 16, keep close, watch on yourself, and on the teaching. So keep on paying very close attention to your life, Timothy, and to the teaching. And the emphasis here in the word teaching is the act of teaching rather than the content of teaching. Paul emphasizes the content in many other places, so he's not careless about content. But he's saying give yourself to these things. So we know that. But what I didn't notice, well, I noticed it once I got to verse 16, but I didn't notice it earlier in the text was the benefit, the impact of being devoted to the study of God's word. So that whether it's a small group of people around breakfast in the morning, or a crowd on Sunday, or a bunch of teens sitting on a bunch of hay somewhere on a Friday night. But be committed to the study of God's word so that I can tell them I can be the herald. I'm just the messenger boy. This is in fact what the God of the universe, the savior of the world, this is what he said. And he said it to you. And this is what it means. And this is what you should do about it. I mean, I can't replace the Holy Spirit, obviously, but that's what he wants me to do. So if I do that, okay, okay, if we go back up to verse six, okay, so you're a good servant. Okay, that's true. So I'm a good boy if I do that. And hey, There's nothing shoddy about God saying, you're a good servant. What else do you want to hear? Well done now, good and faithful servant. That's what you want to hear. So clearly God says, yes, if you're doing this, you're going to beat, this is exactly what I told you to do. Week in, week out, no matter what your venue is, whether it's sixth grade boys or a church full of people. being genuinely committed in my life with my skills and my opportunities, my gifts, whatever ones you have. using those to make sure that when I open this scripture and share it with these kids or adults, that this is in fact what God said, and this is what it means, and this is how you should live it. If I commit myself to that process, yes, I'm a good servant, but what's interesting here, go back to verse six. You will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, being trained in the words of faith and of good doctrine. That word trained. And obviously the action in the word is, this is something that is happening. So he says, if you do this, Timothy, this is what's going to happen to you. See that? That's literally what he's saying. You're going to be trained, or the word is nourished, fed, matured. There's this personal impact. So if I'm in there really trying to get what God said, he says, you're going to be changed by that. You're going to be nourished by that. You're going to be taught by that. You're going to be matured by that. Spiritual health, spiritual growth, spiritual satisfaction. Okay, there's a lot of wonderful joys in serving Christ. Okay, and it's hard to compare like which one's better. So we'll just say of the best level. You get in, wherever it is you study, whether it's for a Sunday school lesson or for a message on Sunday, And you open the book, and you're in there, and you're looking at it, and trying to work with any tools you have, whether it's classes you've had, training you've had, or tools or whatever, computer stuff. You got it, and you're working, and you're trying to unlock this, trying to figure this out. And it comes, it unlocks. And sometimes that's quick. And sometimes it's like, this is driving me crazy. And so you read 10 other guys, it's just like, that was worth the time. I don't understand one word they said. And all I know is they didn't like each other. But then somehow, God in his grace, working with our brains, these tiny little things that we have in our hearts, it just opens up. And this is what it means. I will never be the preacher, the person, the husband, the Christian that God wants me to be if there's a step that I think we miss. This is what it means to God And then we know we've got to say, this is what it means to the people in the pew. But the primary audience of this text, what God is saying, has to be me. I mean, I've often been asked by guys, younger guys, like, hey, so how do you know? How did you know? How do you know? How did you know it was me that I was living that way? I wouldn't even thanks for telling me I didn't know it was you. I wasn't thinking to you, but I will now. I is I wasn't thinking to you. I was thinking to me. I might not have the exact expression of the sin that you're struggling with, but I have some form of it, I'll tell you that. And when this, if this isn't transformed, God says, it'll nourish you, it will change you. So if you're skipping from what did this text say to what do they need, you've missed an enormously significant, not just because if you skip you, you're going to distort what it means to them. But let's, okay, let's just set that aside a minute. If you miss you, you missed it, man, because that's why God's got you there. Yeah, he's going to use you for them, but he wants to change you. You're the human shepherd of his sheep. He needs to change you of the people in the church. You have the most influence on them. He needs to change you. It's for you. So pastor, when's the last time you had to stop because it absolutely broke your heart? Not like, it breaks my heart, my people, they're so, well, they're number one, they're not your people. They're His. And if I'm skipping to them, I'm skipping the most important part, humanly speaking. And that is letting it, it's a weird joy, isn't it? This is something only Christians would understand. the glorious joy of God crushing your heart. Try explaining that to an unbeliever. Yeah, I went there and it just crushed me. You going back, you bet. Of course I'm going back, it was great. But it is because, I don't mean it, I mean this in as close to a charismatic way, without being charismatic I can say, There is nothing to compare with hearing God's voice through his word, where you have no doubt of what he said and who he said it to because you're the only guy in the room. And you have to stop. because you can't see the words anymore on the page. You got to stop because you're just so jazzed. It's just like, what? What? It's sanctifying. It's powerful. It's nourishing. It's transforming. That's what God wants. He doesn't want to just get to you to go change his people. He wants to change you through your preparation and preaching of God's word. Another thing, you get down to verse 15 on the things you didn't expect to get from preaching. One was that it was about you nourishing you, not nourishing the people. I've got to feed these sheep. Yes, you do. We're actually commanded to feed my sheep, right? but if I devote myself to a genuine process of studying and knowing God's word before I pass it on, I will be fed first. I will be fed most, straight up, because I need it most, to be quite honest with you. But in verse 15, he says this, okay, get down here and look, okay, practice these things, devote yourself to them so that all may see whose progress, Whose progress? Yours. They will see, I mean that word progress is advancement. It's used when it talks about these things have happened unto me for the furtherance of the gospel, for the advancement of the gospel. It means to blaze a new trail, to get to a new place in your spiritual progress. When is the last time you got to a new place? And you got to a new place in such a way that somebody says, what, what? What is it with you? What's going on? Well, you know, I'm thinking about, what are you thinking? Something's different. He's like, I'm telling you to be in this. Yeah, so then you can see their progress. Yeah, that's true, but that's not the point that he's making, is it? He's saying, Timothy, if you are in these things, if you are in the word for what the word will do to you first, then what people will see, not as like, so you need to do this so you can be a good testimony, so they can say good, nice things about you and they can follow you. No, but he says the deal is they're gonna say, like, what happened to you? You're different. You're not acting different. You're not trying to be better. Does that really work for you, trying to be better? I'm going to be better. Lots of luck with that. There's trying to be better, and there's being made better by the power of God's Word that said, let there be, and there was. When God's Word changes you, It makes you different, not just a better version of yourself. It makes you different than yourself in a way that's noticeable. So he says, so are you really? I mean, talking about sanctification, there are a lot of ways to describe it, but being in a new place, being in a better place, genuine progress that is observable to everybody around you, that would be in the same realm as defining a practical explanation of what sanctification might look like. And he says, that's what happens if you are, not if you visit this task, if this task, if you are in it. It's where I live in this task. So when do you think about preaching? If you're a preacher, when do you think about it? Which days of the week do you think about it? You can say something now, pretend you're awake. Literally. It's in your head all the time. Thinking it through, thinking it through. That's stupid, don't say that. It'd be fun to say, no, don't say that, don't say that. What did it mean? I don't know. I can't figure it out. How am I going to explain this on Sunday? I still can't figure it out myself. But it consumes us. And if it consumes us just as a mere intellectual pursuit so that we can produce a wonderful piece of public oratory, that's all flesh. But if we get back to the simplicity, not as easy, because simple and easy are not the same thing. Simplicity is not a lot of moving parts. Easy, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man into the kingdom of God. It's not easy for a self-righteous, self-sufficient person to become a believer. It still is simple. It's still the same gospel for a child, right? You don't get a more complicated version of the gospel for the smart guy. So it's simple. I have to figure out what it is God said. Read the book of the law. And I have to be able to explain it to him, what this actually means. Not what I thought it meant. What does this really mean? And then I have to help them understand this so they can live it because the goal of revelation is not knowledge. The goal of God's revelation is obedience. He doesn't tell you about salvation so you can know how to go to heaven. Yeah, just wanted you to know. Okay, good, got that. You know how to go to heaven? Yep. That's not like we give somebody the gospel so they can know it. We give them the gospel so they can obey it, they can receive it, they can trust it. That's God's intention. And then you get down to the last verse here, which was the part that was the other two, the nourishing and the progress thing. I had just read a bunch of times and never really sat on and let it get a hold of my heart. The last verse has, Keep a close watch on yourself, Timothy, and on the teaching. Persist in this. For by so doing, and what he's saying, he's not saying you then are going to somehow mechanically sanctify yourself. He's saying if you are committed to this process of paying attention to your life, and you're teaching the way, the integrity, the skill, the way you teach this truth, then the end result of that is you will be saved. Not redeemed. You're already redeemed, I trust. But you will be being saved by God. Real change made by God in my life. And the grand benefit, the prize in the box, is anybody who listens to you will be too, which grandly includes your family and the people you minister to. I'm not saying you need to find a different way to prepare messages. Maybe you do, but I don't know that. I have not heard you preach. And I'm not an expert anyway, so I couldn't tell you. Unless everybody in church says, we don't know what he's saying. Then I can say, okay, you probably need a little help with that, okay? But apart from that, that's not what you need. I need to see pulpit ministry. and all the preparation for it as a powerful means of sanctification in my own life. Because it is. That's what God intends. So, when is the last time? in your study of God's word to preach whatever, or teach the lesson next Sunday for your ABF or whatever, it just crushed you in a glorious way. Or made you just shook the Coke bottle of joy in your life, just like, just, it doesn't happen every time. But if it's not happening at all, something's really wrong. Because God's word is alive. It's powerful. It's transformational. It will change you. And so, I know myself, in a sincere way, it has an enormous, not that I'm anywhere even in, in the correct hemisphere of the earth of being as sanctified as I should be by now. I always thought I'd be better than this by now, and I'm not. But to whatever degree, certainly I know that God has used this glorious calling that he's entrusted to your care and mine to nourish me, to Have me blaze a new trail so I'm not just like walking in circles. So I'm actually in a new place in my relationship with Christ. And save me. Sanctify me. That's what he does. That's just this, I don't even know if it's right to say byproduct, but I'll just use that as a, I'll just use it. It is a glorious byproduct of being committed to the calling that God has given you. I'm not saying that sermon preparation should replace your private devotional reading of God's Word. I really am not saying that. I would never say that. You should be devotionally engaged in many ways every day, reading God's Word, sacred music, Christian friends, all of that. But you really need to look at the pastoral task of preparing God's Word as a glorious gift from God to change you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your word. It unleashes the very power of God that made the universe in our lives, at our address, where we live. It's crazy good. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege you've given to us as parents to teach our children your word. as Sunday school teachers to teach children and adults and teens, you were, but me in a meeting of pastor types. Lord, we marvel that you would use such instruments, the weak things, the foolish things, the things that are nothing, to bring to naught the things that are, that you would choose us to be your tools is just amazing. Father, please thrill us with your Word. Change us by your Word. Help us to embrace this process as a part of our own sanctification, as a primary goal not a glorious accidental occurrence. Please change each teacher and preacher of your word this week by the very word that they studied to preach or teach. Please change me. We ask these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.