When Brooks says we lightly knew each other that's actually false He didn't know me from a hole in the wall but I knew everything about him because Eddie Passmore had had Brad Buser and then Brooks come to be speakers and I was a I Think I was newly converted. I think I would argue that I was sort of saved or I guess you can't be sort of saved I was I was newly saved but still allowed to be in the ministry as a youth worker at our church because they were making changes too and there's this speaker there and he's telling this story and all of it resonated with me and so years later I was privileged to get the opportunity to speak at the TMAI conference and I met Brooks and Chad as well in the back during a lunch and Brooks came up and said, hey, brother, just want to introduce myself. I'm Brooks. I said, I know who you are. He said, what are you talking about? I said, you're Brooks Buser. Your wife's name is Nina. Your son's name is Bo. You reach the Yembe tribe. There's a little Bible. It says God, Lo-O-Bisam on it. And he's like, what are you talking? I said, you had to kill a boar, I think, at night or a pig with a spear or something like this. He's like, who in the world, how do you know all of this? And I was like, Eddie Passmore. He's like, how in the world do you know Eddie? And I said, man, thank God you guys don't vet the people that come to Mexico Caravan Ministries as youth leaders, because I may not have made it in. Just, I think they do good vetting, by the way. they allow you to come and learn. And so for years now, I've been really grateful, inspired, and spurred onward by Radius, by Brooks, and so many of you. And so thank you for your faithfulness and for letting me serve here. If you'll turn in your Bible to 1 Timothy chapter six, my assignment in this session is to speak to you about the one true gospel throughout the world, and how we might cherish it and protect it. And as I was praying and thinking through the right text for highlighting this, I was thinking about the pastorals, and in particular, 1 Timothy, and what Paul guides Timothy through as he shapes his understanding and his preparation for ministry there. at Ephesus, there are many false gospels that are wreaking havoc in our world today. There were many false teachers wreaking havoc in Ephesus and surrounding the early church as well, and so we have a tall task. The early church had a tall task, and yet the gospel has power, and it is unstoppable and unparalleled power. The gospel is always enough. to deal with and overcome even the worst deceptions in the most difficult contexts that you would ever serve in. And no matter how popular a particular deception becomes, where you may feel like you're hiking a mountain that has avalanche after avalanche coming down at you in your ministry, the gospel is still enough to preserve you, and to do what God has intended it to do. And so this session will speak to the true gospel and how to protect and cherish it across all time. I wanna pray for our time and then I'll introduce the topic more further and then the text as well and then we'll jump into 1 Timothy 6 and spend the majority of our time meditating on verse 20. If you'll pray with me, I'd be grateful. Let's ask for the Lord's blessing on our time. Father, thank you for the privilege of being saved. Not a single person in this room contributed anything to their salvation as we've long heard throughout history, and in particular, Jonathan Edwards saying, except for the sin that made it necessary. That's what we bring and brought to the table. And so even though we're saved now and we are called saints and chosen ones and we're called holy and we are consecrated and we know that you love us and you've called us and you know us and have known us, we still desire with a heart of humility to come before you as beggars, knowing that without you, We are spiritually hopeless. We are the poorest of the poor. That no matter what riches someone has, no matter what gifts we bring, we are still and always will be those who remember our state before you came into the picture. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for its power. Thank you for the humbling reminder that it is faith alone that saves and the gospel is the one message that can save. We pray that you would bless our time continually as you already have in the first session through Brooks. Would you please help me to be a faithful servant to my brothers and my sisters here and now? to preach your word with clarity and with conviction that I would exhort them faithfully but also live these things in my own life and that together we would be a fragrant aroma unto you and for your glory to the nations. Teach us now and help us to be faithful in proclaiming and preserving your incredible gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. In 2019, I got the joyous privilege of traveling to India on my first trip since being saved out of the Prosperity Gospel. Now, it's another story for another time, and I don't know if they have the book here, if you wanted to get it and kind of figure out why in the world Brooks would let me preach here. There's a book I wrote called God, Greed, and the Prosperity Gospel. And in a way, it was meant to try to help people that are in the prosperity gospel. But if I had to be honest with you, and I will be, I would say maybe a secondary or a tertiary reason was so that people in the body of Christ would know, as of right now, still, though I hope it doesn't stay this way, I'm mainly the only hymn that won't come and preach heresy to you. There are some serious challenges within my family because of a certain uncle who for now needs to just remain nameless because we've already named him and all of you probably have as well and deal with his problems that he's caused on the mission field. But overall, in 2019, I get asked to go to India and I think this is amazing because the last time I was there, I was there as part of the Benny Hinn entourage. We flew in on a private plane, stayed in a very nice hotel, drove in, drove out, big crusade. We at least land to hold the crusade. And there was, and I'm not exaggerating, you can look this up on YouTube, over a million people that attended. Now, I remember getting into a golf cart one particular night and driving with security. I wanted to see the end of the crowd. I was a younger guy working in the ministry. I was a catcher. I caught the people that kept falling. And again, another story for another time. But that was my job. So before the falling action began, I just wanted to see the crowd. I was fascinated that this many people would gather in one place. And by the time we got to the end of the crowd, you look and the choir, which was hundreds of choir members in blue robes, they were like a little blue speck. And you couldn't even see the guy in the white suit that was on the platform, but you could hear it because there were these audio visual stations throughout the grounds with giant screens and their own separate sound systems. And I had not been back since then. And so when I got the chance to go, I jumped at it, not by some way of asceticism, like I gotta go kind of pay it back because of what we caused around the world. Now I need to go and make amends, but more so because I was excited to go somewhere and actually preach the true gospel and meet brothers and sisters in the faith. And when it got to India, we had traveled about 34 hours from LA and then deep into these villages, traveling around and preaching. We met beautiful people there and met with pastors who were under the constant assault of local persecution from the Hindus that really have an anti-conversion attitude and a violent anti-conversion attitude at that. And then also talking to these pastors that were expressing it's not just Hinduism, but even perhaps more than Hinduism as an issue, the prosperity gospel is so prevalent in their region. And one night we had met together with about 15 pastors, and it was arranged, and they were from different varieties of backgrounds. You had Baptist and Lutheran guys, you had some non-denominational guys, you had some Pentecostal guys in the mix as well. We're all together there, and there was a few reformed types as well. Some were well-educated, some not as formally educated. And as I was talking to them, I was asking them about their greatest challenges. And nearly to a man, they all said the same, think that there are challenges with the locals who would be violently driven and very anti-Christian Hindus. That was definitely an issue, but nearly to a man, they all said the same thing, that one of the great challenges they face is not necessarily from the outside, but from the inside of the professing church as the prosperity gospel makes its way. which is reminiscent of what Paul says, right? In Acts chapter 20, when he's saying farewell to the elders there, he says, savage wolves will come in from among you, that at times, yes, we face pressure from the outside, but most often, the greatest challenge that we face is false gospels and leaders who are doing harm from the inside. And so as we begin to talk, I asked what they're doing or what their strategies are for dealing with these issues, and one of the brothers, who I'm grateful for his honesty, though it was troubling what he said, confessed to his strategy. He said, if I don't preach at least a little bit of the prosperity gospel, just enough, then I'll lose people. They will leave my church and they will go somewhere else because that is really all the people here within the church want to listen to from the pulpit. If I don't preach at least a little bit of the prosperity gospel, I will have no church. The churches that are thriving there, are preaching the prosperity gospel. And that's really just a microcosm, isn't it, of what is happening around the world. Talk to friends and brothers and sisters in South America, and they'll tell you the prosperity gospel is king down there. And in many other places around the world, that is the challenge. When you analyze the global church, You can look and it can be discouraging. As you see, sound doctrine is in short supply. Seems that the most popular preachers and the most popular movements are all filled with blasphemous heretics and faithful missionaries like you have an uphill climb, no doubt. And yet, maybe equal to the challenge of false doctrine is the challenge for you and I not to lose perspective and lose hope and to lose the motivation and the drive. See, we can't forget the promises of God in all of this. We have to remember that even though it may look like we're quote-unquote losing, we're on the winning side in the end, that it is a narrow way, that suffering and persecution is normal, that you weren't gonna win the popularity vote. You weren't going to see some wholesale revival in which an entire country becomes some utopian Christian society because you took it over by force. It is a narrow way wherever you are. Even some of the greatest movements you might see today are still in the minority. Challenges are normal. Darkness, yes, for now, seems to be winning, but we know that God has promised victory. And so in the midst of all the false doctrine, perhaps you experience great moments of despair and discouragement, thinking, is anything I'm doing working? Does it even matter? Does anyone know? Does anyone see? And in that, I think we find, and it would be the same in the American church, the temptation to alter the message or to soften the blow or to lean a little bit into pragmatism and think, if I just compromise at least on these things, and maybe, just maybe, and this is a lie we maybe tell ourselves, I am just being like Paul, all things to all men. I'm just trying to win some more and save some. It's very important that you and I tread carefully when it comes to the gospel message and sound doctrine. There are so many wonderful things that you and I can do in different contexts to relate to people. Some of you tall 220 pound white men need to paddle canoes. Some of you need to get remarried The way of the locals. Yes, you need to learn languages. Yes, you need to be like the people you're trying to reach in a lot of ways, but there is one way in which the Christian mission worker never compromises, and we know that is when it comes to the message of the gospel. In that, there can be no ground given. To put our text in its context, when Paul the Apostle wrote to his dear son in the faith, Timothy, he's giving him some of the best advice we ever find for missionaries and Christian leaders and pastors, those who are ambassadors for the gospel. In 1 and 2 Timothy, we find him calling Timothy to preach the truth and to refute error, not to tolerate error in doctrine, error in the gospel, error in lifestyles, and that in the midst of his calling to preach the word, there's going to be a lot of people who turn away to myths. They will want the false stuff. They will be deceived and be deceiving. And yet, the gospel goes forth and it keeps saving people. And in one of the great illustrations that he uses his own life, Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1 15, it's a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among who I am for most of all. I love the way Paul the Apostle reminds Timothy, hey, the same gospel you preach is the same gospel that saved you. The grace for others is the grace for you. The power at work in them is the power at work And isn't that a great reminder, even as a side principle, that you and I can never forget the gospel. You say, what do you mean I never forget the gospel? I'm a missionary, I'm always preaching the gospel. I understand that, but not to forget what the gospel has done to you. You know when you're first converted, it's like everybody is your next target. And then along the way, whether it's discouragement or distraction, maybe even disillusionment, you start just slowing down. The zeal lowers to sort of a somber plodding. And I know that ministry beats us down. It is God's great humbling mechanism for all of us. That and having a lot of kids will do that too. And so remembering the gospel and what it's done in your life is a way that God renews our zeal once again. If He could save you, if He could save me, He could save them. If He would use you, if He would use me, then He would use them. And in that, Paul reminds Timothy. that the gospel of grace calls men out of darkness who then go and become his heralds of light in the darkness. That is the cycle again and again and again. In 2 Timothy or 1 Timothy 2 rather, he calls for prayer on behalf of all men and so there's this heart of evangelism in the prayer life of the Christian missions worker. That holiness and unity should be present in the church. Paul tells Timothy who should and shouldn't be doing the preaching. In 1 Timothy 3, he sets the stage for qualified church leadership. In chapter 4, he prepares Timothy for the coming apostasy, reminding him again and again and again that what he is called to do is not at all going to be popular. And yet in the midst of all of that, let no one look down on your youth, but prove to be, show yourself to be an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and in purity. There's this contrast throughout the pastorals. Here's what's gonna happen. Yep, it's not great. Yeah, it's pretty dark. Sure, it seems bleak, but you, but you, but you. You do this, you live this way, you preach this way, you serve this way. In chapter five, he outlines how Timothy can be winsome with how he deals with older men and older women and fellow younger men and younger sisters in the faith and how to care for widows. And then finally in chapter six, it seems as though Paul puts a finger in Timothy's chest to say to him, you need to call believers. to live out their faith. You can't be afraid, you can't be timid. You need to tell the people preaching false doctrine, enough is enough. You need to tell the people that love money that it's gonna skewer them. You need to look the rich in the eye, not with intimidation, but with confidence and remind them there's no U-Haul behind the hearse. You ain't taking it with you. If you're a wealthy Christian, you have been blessed to be a blessing for the gospel's advancement. Timothy, instruct the rich in this world to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, to have their minds on the things that are eternal, that a person's net worth does not dictate their spiritual identity, and then to our text. He says in verse 20, oh Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoiding worldly and empty chatter and opposing, the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. I want to give you three applications from this particular text. that will help you not only proclaim the gospel faithfully, but protect it in your context. Number one, put on the mindset of a steward. Put on the mindset of a steward. Oh, Timothy, guard what? Then look at it there, has been entrusted to you. He begins with a passionate plea. Honor God as a steward. In fact, Timothy's name literally means honoring God or God honoring. He may not be saying it directly, but he's essentially painting this picture for Timothy. Hey, live up to your name, we might say, by way of application. Honor God, be a steward. Guard what has been entrusted to you." The idea here is to be very careful with what's been handed down or handed over to you. It's the ministry of proclaiming the truth, that is the gospel, that is sound doctrine, and refuting error, pointing out the things that will lead people into damnation. And it's serious work. There's something Timothy must do. There's so many imperatives in the pastorals because Paul isn't playing around. He's saying this is what you have to do. You sign up for this, you say I aspire to it, you say yes to obeying God in this, then it's yes, sir, all the way, this is the way you do it, and isn't that true about a steward? You have no power. to alter your management. You are to take what you've been given and do what the owner or the master has called you to do. This is what ambassadors do as well. You have no right to change the message. And so Paul tells Timothy, oh, guard, guard it and be careful. In Ephesians 4, 14, he says, or sorry, rather, in Ephesus, he gets left there, and he's been commissioned, and in chapter four, verse 14, Paul says, do not neglect the spiritual gift that is within you, which was bestowed on you through the laying on of hands by the presbytery. In other words, there's more than just Timothy. There are others in Ephesus dependent on his stewardship, others who have endorsed him for ministry and his stewardship. And so he should be humbled by that, but also very confident to know that he's not alone. Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, I think when it comes to missions or even in ministry, local first world pastors go through this too, it's a bit of a pity party. I'm the only one. Nobody has it as rough as I do. Now that's especially laughable, and I'm not demeaning real problems, especially laughable in the first world. Because those on the mission field have it far worse and far greater challenges. But in the same way, even those in the most difficult circumstances must never alone, never forget that they are not alone. They are stewards and you are part of a heritage of faith that has gone before you. This is why it's so important to read church history. and to read the biographies of missionaries who have gone before you. They shouldn't be weird to us. They should be normal to us, because that is what faithful, obedient Christians do. We are stewards. Paul invites Timothy into suffering as a steward. In 2 Timothy 1 verse 12, he reminds him, for this reason I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I'm convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. He's talking about the Lord. And then he tells Timothy, retain the standard of sound words which you've heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. And then he says, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. That's how we should view the sacred stewardship we've been given. To preach the gospel, to be on the mission field, to be an ambassador for Christ is a treasured privilege. We are stewards. In 1 Corinthians 4, verses one and two, Paul says, this is how one should regard us. We're servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. If you want to protect the gospel, if you want to preserve the gospel message and cherish it for all that it is, start by viewing yourself in the right way. You're a steward. I'm a steward. It's good to be referred to as that we are but servants who are supposed to be found faithful simply doing what we ought to do. I love what Jesus says in Luke 17 10 the mindset of stewardship. He's telling his disciples is so helpful for us. He says so you too when you do all the things which are commanded you say we are unworthy slaves, we have done only that which we ought to have done. The ought to mentality, it's good for me, it's good for you, it reminds us that we aren't that special even when we're faithful. We're stewards. Put on the stewardship mindset. that even the greatest things you might accomplish, God is really accomplishing through you. It's all for his glory. You're just the manager. You don't own it. You didn't start it. You didn't do anything to earn it and deserve it. You're just going to be faithful. That is the mindset that you and I must have. And I know that most of us, rightfully so, lose sleep over souls. I know that many of you, and rightfully so, have calloused knees, if you will, from praying for the lost. That is good, and that is right. I know that there is much blood, sweat, and tears that goes into reaching people for the gospel, but even in all of the great pains we go through to advance the gospel, we must remember we are still merely stewards. It's not our gospel, it's His. We don't offer salvation, He does. You actually can be in the most difficult situations still filled with joy, filled with confidence and at ease. Why? Your life doesn't belong to you, it belongs to Him. Your gospel doesn't belong to you, it is His. Salvation of those people in those language groups, Doesn't necessarily depend on you willing them to believe, but rather being a faithful mouthpiece so that they might hear and believe he is still the one who takes the dead heart and brings it to new life. That stewardship mentality will help you remember. You will answer to him for how you steward the gospel. Second, Protect the purity of the gospel, then, if you're a steward. If you're an ambassador, you protect the purity of the gospel. Oh, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Guard what has been entrusted. Literally the picture here of what has been deposited into the bank, like a bank, You are to protect and utilize and preserve what has been deposited into you. In this particular case, Timothy is to have a bit of a sheepdog mentality, protecting the gospel, guarding the deposit that has been placed in his life. It is the purity of the gospel. It's the glorious doctrine of scripture and the truths that build up and edify the church. There are many, and there were many, for him, distractions and deceptions that threatened the gospel in Ephesus. The details change, but the idea's all the same. For him, it was paganism. The Temple of Artemis, society in Ephesus filled with people who give into the lust of their flesh, Pagan ideologies, many, of course, in total ignorance. And then they get saved. And you know how newly saved people are a little messy. They don't know all the lingo. Maybe they think communion is a potluck. Maybe they don't know how they're supposed to dress, apparently. How they're supposed to talk. They need to be taught. You think about children. They come out of the womb, kind of cute, but needing to be fed and changed and nurtured and developed. Just recently, we're on a bit of a road trip with my five kiddos. And for a brief moment, I was almost shocked when they started to act like a bunch of kids. My wife and I looked at each other and we're thankful for summertime road trips and ministry because it reminds us, oh yeah, that five-year-old needs to be taught. They don't know always how they're supposed to be. You gotta teach things and then you gotta teach new things. And then they have questions that you're not really ready for. And you gotta teach them more new things. This is the state of new believers all the time in our churches. And what happens then when you have new believers in churches, in pagan nations? Well, sometimes they bring in weird theology. And you have a job to do in protecting the purity of the gospel and the purity of the message and the doctrine that is then taught. But then there's another issue, and this one's a little less light or humorous in that we all understand new believers need help. It's serious work, but we can sometimes laugh off just some of the things that they thought and then bring them out of their ignorance. But there is this temptation to then still borrow from our old way of life. This was the great challenge for the Judaizers, for Paul. Oh sure, take a little Christ, but make sure you're circumcised, make sure you eat this way, make sure you still do these things because then you're really spiritual. You know the prosperity gospel is a very similar kind of works-based ideology? Hey, you want healing? Just have enough faith, just believe, just declare, just decree, or just give all of your money. If you want God to do something for you, you better do something for him. He can't work with what you don't give him. God is painted to be a puppet on the puppet strings of humanity. The faithful missionary is called to correct that error and to protect the purity of the gospel from things that sound good and look good and that make us feel like we're really doing something. I think if you go into any culture, you will find that as a common theme. Mankind loves to feel like they're contributing to it. Hey, look at me, I helped. A faithful missionary says, no you didn't, neither did I. The purity of the gospel is that it is a gospel of grace, not works. It is a gospel for all nations, tribes, and tongues. It is a gospel that will be under the assault of deceivers who lure people from within. Ephesus was very vulnerable. It had a great need for qualified leadership that would be like sheepdogs protecting the purity of the message and preaching sound doctrine without compromise. And just the verses prior to the verses we're meditating on here in verse 20. Verses 11 and 12, Paul says, but flee from these things. He's referring to false teachers and the highlight of their life being the pursuit of money, They love it. They've been given over to a depraved mind. He says, you, Timothy, you flee from these things, you man of God, and you pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and love and perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. There's this protectiveness. that you and I should have within our ministries. We don't need to take ourselves too seriously all the time, but we ought to take the message of the gospel and the purity of the gospel very seriously. You'll have pragmatic temptations like more money or more people if you just soften the blow of the gospel. You'll have others. Let's say if you just mix in a tad of universalism or maybe take it easy on the doctrine of hell. Maybe approach it a certain way and you'll win them. Not by way of winsomeness, but by way of altering the message. Maybe you'll gain more acceptance if you avoid hard topics like gender and sexuality. There are so many lures that shine But they are leading to a deadly consequence in the end. Just several months ago I was in a conversation with a local pastor in Phoenix. I do love him dearly and we had a private conversation. I won't name him but he was insisting that Roman Catholics were not outside the faith, and that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And I had, at that time, been in a string of messages where, you ever get in those seasons where I didn't mean to pick on anything, I was just reading a lot about it, and people were getting saved in our church out of Roman Catholicism, so it seemed like every other sermon was like, and by the way, if you're a Roman Catholic, and I would lay it out, and people kept getting saved, so I thought, I like this, I'm just gonna keep doing it, the gospel works, and so we did that. Well, I get a phone call one day, and he's a little upset, And he's getting involved with what's called the John 17 movement, very big in the Phoenix area, the valley where I serve, in which the Catholics are saying, hey, we all need to come together. We're gonna be the answer to Jesus's John 17 prayer, that they be one, Father, even as we are one. And so they're shooting for this oneness. And so we all gotta kind of get together and sing kumbaya. And their idea from their founder is we need to lay aside doctrine and come together in unity. I would bet that for some people on the mission field it can be so lonely that maybe this idea of syncretism and joining hands with, at least relationally in some ways, with others who are involved in false religions, it may meet this human need we all have to just be loved and be accepted after being beaten up by people on the mission field and tossed out of places or tossed by the wayside. It sometimes should just feel good just to be liked for at least a little while. And the temptation to alter the message or to lay aside doctrine, to lay aside gospel truth is something that you and I have to outright reject. We cannot have unity without truth. And I would go as far as saying the devil loves when you and I pursue unity that disregards the truth. It is better to stand alone. Better to be persecuted. Better to die a martyr's death. Better to watch your loved ones time after time after time die on the mission field. Better to be a man of sorrows like Adoniram Judson watching after every single one of your children comes out of the womb and thinking, will they live or not? Better to bury spouse after spouse, biblically remarrying the next one. Better to end your days, having never compromised the gospel, even if it means you are alone in much sorrow. The purity of the gospel always matters. And you remember why, we need to remember why. You won't face the world when you die. You won't even face your sending church when you die. Oh, you want to be a good steward, but in the end, you'll face one. You'll face Christ. And in every temptation that may pollute your stewardship, You need to think on Christ that one day I'll be standing face to face with the one who called me saved me bought me gifted me sent me gave me the message I preach enlisted me and then returned for me or called me home. You'll face him. And I don't know how it'll work. If there's a kind of a movie montage of sorts, supernaturally, you see it all in a flash your whole life, but I guarantee even now as we prepare for the day when we meet Christ at his judgment seat, isn't there only one thing you and I really want to flash forward? Faithfulness. that you did all that you were supposed to do for an audience of one, that you never compromised His gospel with your stewardship. We need to protect the purity of the gospel. And then finally, prioritize the truth and avoid error. This is really how we do these things. We prioritize the truth and we avoid error. And verse 20 continues, avoiding worldly and empty chatter. and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. This is one of the great challenges for the Christian missionary worker. There are ideologies that say they are the truth, and you have to be prepared to disentangle those. to have an apologetic nature about your ministry and to understand you need to preach the truth and avoid the error. You need to be able to point out what the errors are and then prioritize the truth in your ministry. You need to ensure that people who you are pouring into and training and preparing are versed in the truth, that they prioritize it. In the plainest way, Paul is basically saying, look, stay away from worldly teaching, stay away from the argumentative and worldly ideologies Stay away from the fakery that sets itself up as some higher knowledge. It's harming people. You know what works in any context? Prioritizing the truth and avoiding error. May only be a few that you reach. Maybe a tough life. Maybe not. Maybe you see great revival. People say, what'd you do? How did you do it? They come to you for advice. What's your strategy? The Lord determines the outcomes. He decides how many fish are coming into your boat. But our answer is always the same. What'd you do? I prioritized the truth and we avoided error. I proclaimed the gospel and sound doctrine and I pointed out everything that was damning people to hell. I was never afraid to call a spade a spade. I was never afraid to just say it like it needed to be said and even when we were gonna lose people or when they'd be frustrated or when you get the angry emails or the angry spears, whatever the outcome, you just did the same thing. And throughout Paul's pastoral epistles, this is what he models for Timothy, and then this is what he calls Timothy to do. Preach the truth, avoid error. In 1 Corinthians 2, verses one and two. To the church at Corinth, who had all sorts of spiritual pride, and they were abusing spiritual gifts, and they had sexual sin and issues that were just being allowed to carry on, Paul, in his rebuke to them, reminds them, and when I came to you, brethren, I didn't come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what he did in Corinth, and then in Ephesus, and in all of the other churches, Paul had one cadence. He preached the truth, refuted error. Preached the truth, refuted error. Preached the truth, refuted error. Time and time again, he drew the battle lines with those two things. Calls Timothy to do that in Ephesus. Even names, Himenaeus and Alexander and Philetus. Himenaeus gets named twice. He must have been extra blasphemous. Maybe that's his osteen or verdict. Or if you're in South America, Cash Luna, prosperity gospel preacher named Cash. How unoriginal, by the way. They're identified as men who have gone away from the truth. You know, sometimes we try to get real clever to win people. Instead of just saying, friend, I love you. I want the best for you, I want God's best for you. I care about your soul. And there are many who will say, if you do this, if you believe this, this will be the outcome. They lure you in with false ideas about health and wealth and this American dream lifestyle and that if you do all these things, let me tell you, you will only end up bankrupt financially and spiritually. The way that we follow is more narrow than that on this side of eternity, but it leads to great joy, great riches, and great abundance in all the ways you truly need in heaven on the other side of this life. I want that for you. The truth is It's a free gift of grace, that the gospel will save you, that God will bless you and favor you in all the ways you need, not necessarily materially, but spiritually, that you could have everything on this earth, but not have Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ whom I preach to you, and you truly then have nothing in the end, but if you have nothing in this life, but you have Jesus Christ, you have everything you need for that which is life indeed. That works according to the will of God in two ways. Number one, he will save his people in those moments of your faithfulness. But number two, you are accomplishing your mission here. Whatever the outcome, you have been faithful to prioritize the truth and avoid error. It's so simple that it tempts us to think, I don't know if that's enough. It seems too easy. It is foolishness to the perishing. But to us who believe, who are being saved, it's the power of God. You know, this is what the opponents of Paul mocked him with. Remember in Galatians 1, he's getting called a people pleaser because he's offering a free gift of grace. You don't have to do anything extra. And he says very strong words to these opponents of the true gospel and then says there, now are my people pleasing? They were so frustrated, they said the gospel's too easy, what do you do? Nothing, have faith, just believe. Yeah, but what do you bring? What do you add? Nothing, just have faith, believe. Come as a beggar, that's what you can do. Forsake your own life, that's what you can do. Stop trying to help. That's what you can do. Just believe. It is the simple message of the gospel that God has chosen to confound the wise, really to make a mockery of this world and every single ideology that raises itself up against the knowledge of God, every idea that man can come up with to climb the ladder rungs to heaven, God lays to waste with the simple beauty of the gospel. That is what you and I need to prioritize every single day of our ministry lives. Compromise is a constant threat. It's not just us who need to be careful, but it's those that we train and raise up. You think of 2 Timothy 2 where Paul says to Timothy, entrust these truths to faithful men who in turn will teach others. There's a stewardship that you pass on and while you want to mirror the recipient, Timothy, I'm gonna do this. I'm the recipient of these instructions. You also gotta put on the mindset of Paul that one day you and I will call others to do the same and we'll say, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And you will train and raise up others to do the same thing. This is what you call them to. And when they in turn say, that's it? Seems kinda easy. You might say, friend, thank God he made the message easy, because the mission is not. There are difficult days, there are challenges, there are distractions. It's a lot like the picture of Pilgrim's Progress. Seems that every single turn there's another thing placed in the path of the faithful pilgrim seeking to lure you off the simple march towards the celestial kingdom. One of the most sobering realities on this in the church is how you get them is how you keep them. I'll tell you right now, you probably would agree it's so much more work to come up with clever strategies and lure people in with something other than the gospel because you have to spend the rest of your life coming up with new ways to keep them coming. You know what happens when people are drawn by the power of the gospel and the simplicity of the gospel? You only ever have to preach the truth. And that's enough. I love what Spurgeon said. He said, I do believe we slander Christ when we think we are to draw the people by something else but the preaching of Christ crucified. Many who Paul warned about and mentioned were those who fell away to myths. They abandoned the truth. but not Timothy on his watch. He was called to follow his example, to be unashamed of the gospel, knowing it was the power of God unto salvation for those who would believe. And for us today, we face the constant barrage of false teaching. And in addition, the media-driven age, where just after you have shared the true and simple gospel, some false teacher on some Facebook video has polluted the mind of your missionary target. Don't give up hope. Don't forget that he who began the good work will complete it. That he who is faithful will enable your work to endure even when distraction and deception come. We serve a God who is holy. He has always been holy. We serve a God who punishes sin and the standard that he has set is perfection. Sin misses that standard. Nothing has ever changed and so we serve and believe in a God who has always set his wrath against sin that has not changed and it never will change. And we serve a God and believe in a God who is loving. And he's always been a God of love. It's one of his attributes. And because of his great love and his mercy with which he's loved us, he sent his son, Jesus Christ. That has not changed, never will change. He lived the perfect life. You could never live. He paid the penalty for the sin that you committed and paid that penalty you could never pay for. He took the wrath that was yours upon himself. He satisfied the wrath of God completely and wholly, and you would never have to pay penance for your sin. You would never be condemned. Why? Because he took it all. He paid it completely. There was nothing left to do. He didn't leave anything extra that is now your part. He paid it all. That's never changed. Mankind is stained by sin that has never changed. You and I and all mankind are helpless, unrighteous sinners. That has never changed. It never will unless we place our faith in Christ alone. And then what happens, which has never changed and never will change? It's the idea of the blood of Christ washing away our sins. No good works will ever earn you a place in heaven. Only faith in Christ will save you, that is how it has always been. It has always been this truth that while we were still dead in our trespasses and sins, when we were unlovable, not ever gonna be good enough, Christ died for the ungodly. that even yet when we were still sinners, he died for us. Paul says in Romans 5, 6 through 9, for while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood. We shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. That is still the only message that has the power to save. And so we call all men to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We call all men to turn from their sin and turn to Christ in faith. Our job has never changed. Our message has never changed. And God's power to work through the gospel has never changed and it never will change. And so we call on this world. to count everything as loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. You wanna protect the gospel? Preach the gospel. That's what we do. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the Holy Spirit's work in our hearts, his regenerate work, his empowering work, and also his correcting work. That even though we're people who claim to hold to sound doctrine, and we might even think, well, never me, never us, there are these small temptations that come throughout our lives. And perhaps if we never waver in doctrine, there is still the wavering of distraction as we forget why we are still here. Help us to live the way the cloud of witnesses before us have long lived. Help us to proclaim the gospel. Help us to use every gift and every resource for your gospel. And help us to die well, wherever we take our final breath, that we would be able to say, like Paul, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. That we would look forward to the reward of meeting you face to face and hearing the words, well done, good and faithful servant. We long for that. And so help us to be faithful and humble and teachable and useful to you as vessels for your glory and the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.