How To Be A Real Man ... Of God

The four pictures on the screen represent men who are considered to be real men. Upper left hand corner, the strong man competition. Strong man. Upper right hand corner, a soldier. Lower left and athlete. Lower right, a farmer. Four men that we would look at and consider to be real men. It's interesting to me that in 2 Timothy 2, Paul uses all four of those word pictures to challenge Timothy on how to be a real man of God. Timothy, here's how to be a real man of God. And he uses all four of those metaphors to describe what a man of God really is. I want to remind you as you find your place in 2 Timothy 2 this morning that we're in this letter that is a very intensely personal and passionate letter from Paul to a young man that he had won the Christ and had mentored and trained and sent out into ministry. It is unlike the first letter that Paul wrote Timothy where Paul is really giving him a church manual, how to run the church, how to conduct himself in the household of God. First Timothy was more like here's how you conduct a worship service Timothy. Here's what you need to watch out for by way of false doctrine. Here's how you should lead prayer in the church. Here's how you should choose leaders in the church. Here are the warnings of false doctrine and false teachers and other warnings. Here's how you should care for elderly people in the church or needy people in the church. Here's how you should protect and care for the pastors in the church. Here's a church manual, how to deal with church business if you will conduct the church. Not so second Timothy although there's some of that second Timothy as an intensely personal letter. As Paul now realizes that his life is at an end that he will die. He says in chapter 4 my race is over. I've fought the fight. I've finished my course. I kept faith and the time of my departure is at hand. I'm ready to go. He knew that the next step after his first defense before Nero which did not go well. In fact everybody deserted him and did not testify in his defense. He knew that he was going to die. And so he pins this personal letter to Timothy and it is a letter that not only comes through the quill and ink on to the papyrus. The paper of the day it also drips with the life blood and the holy sweat of this apostle as he pins his very heart to this young man. And so a few weeks ago when I began this letter I dedicated this letter, this sermon series which I've entitled last words to a son. I dedicated it to 14 young men that God has graciously allowed me to be a part of their lives. Some more than others and some ongoing some more in the past. But God has graciously given me that opportunity. I don't deserve that but he's graciously brought these young men into my life. And I dedicate this series of messages to them. Some of them are in far-flung parts of the United States and I'm encouraging them to listen by way of the internet so that they can receive this challenge from my heart. But this is also to you the church that I love before I leave you I want you to know from my heart what the pastor what the ministry is to be like what you should expect from pastor Dan and others who will serve you well here. And what the church should be and expect this is a very passionate and personal appeal in chapter one after introducing himself to Timothy once again and calling him my dear son. He challenged him. He reminded him of the call of a dear son and the call was to be courageous and to be faithful. Remember he challenged him to be courageous and not be ashamed of Christ or the gospel or of men like Paul who were suffering for the cause of Christ. Don't be ashamed. And then he challenged him to be faithful to that which had been entrusted to him the deposit that had been entrusted to Timothy to guard that deposit the deposit of the faith to hold true to the faith and to communicate it passionately to others. That was chapter one the call of a dear son and chapter two Paul deals with the character of a dear son and what he does in chapter two he describes eight character traits that are needed for ministry and life. Aren't you thankful we're not going to look at all eight of them today we're going to look at four Lord willing and then we'll save the other four for another message or two maybe. But he deals with eight character qualities that are essential for Timothy to have in ministry and this again is very intensely focused on Timothy as a pastor and so I want to be true to the text and give its true meaning and application. So I direct my comments first of all to those who are in ministry and who are training for ministry but also for all of us who live the Christian life because these are character traits that are needed not only for ministry but also for life for living the Christian life and so all of us need this admonition today. First thing he challenges Timothy with is with is this Timothy we must be strong we must be strong here's the figure of the strong man verse one you then my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses in trust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others we must be strong Timothy. He starts by giving him the reason for our strength there is a reason Timothy why you need to be strong particularly in your ministry and it's found in those first two words you then my son so he's encouraging him to be strong based on something he's already told him in chapter one. So we have to go back to get the reason why he's saying now then then Timothy therefore because of this be strong. So let's be reminded of what he challenged Timothy with in chapter one it was to be courageous because there will be opposition and that opposition Paul well knew in his day and he felt Timothy would face it as well. That opposition even in our culture is growing and we saw some examples of it the last time we were together examples even in the questioning of people for office in our country the litmus test has been recently if you are a Christian you are not considered qualified because you are too narrow for our country and that was well documented in a recent interrogation that happened in the United States Senate for someone who was being considered for a hundred years. So we are considered for a high office in our country. So be courageous he says and then be faithful to the truth so that Timothy that's the reason you're going to need strength because you're going to face opposition and you need to be courageous and be faithful so for that reason you then Timothy be strong be strong and it will also be needed for suffering as we'll find later in this chapter. So you need to be strong and be strong and be strong and be strong because you need courage and faithfulness in your life and ministry. Be strong but where do you get that strength Timothy what is the source of our strength notice again the verse. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus the source of our strength is the grace of God in Christ God's grace is his loving favor which he showers upon us we're not worthy of it we don't deserve it but God's grace is loving favor that he showers on us that not only saves us but it also enables us to live and to serve in the way that God would have us to it is a great honor. He's only by God's grace that we can live for him like we should courageously faithfully it's only by God's grace that we can serve him well and I assure you this morning whatever God calls you to do he will give you the grace to do whatever God expects of you whatever life challenges you face whatever ministry he wants you to do witnessing to a neighbor being faithful to him on the job. Serving him in some ministry in this church reaching out to our community whatever whatever God wants you to do he will give you the grace to do he never asks anything of you but what he will give you the measure of grace that is exactly needed for that task or that life challenge the source of our strength is the grace of God in Christ but then I want you to notice the focus of our strength where is our strength. To be focused what are we to be strong for it's in verse two and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses in trust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others this is that chain of passing the truth down to the next generation and then to the next generation and then to the next generation it is that that link those links together of discipleship the focus of the strength that Timothy is to have for ministry he is to be focused on teaching others you see the communication of the faith and the safeguarding of the faith in the next generations is not left up to chance in the work of God. It is not left to chance it is the responsibility of the church it is the responsibility of church leadership of pastors and of every faithful person in the church to find someone else who is faithful and pass the truth along to them build into their lives poor your life into theirs be an example train teach model mentor. So that they can then turn around and do that with someone else this passage has often been used as a text for one on one discipleship and that certainly is a focus here that those who are in ministry and all of us who know and serve Christ are to find someone else or some other folks that we can pour our lives into that we can pass along the things that God has taught us the things we have learned from the scriptures the life lessons we have learned along the way how God's grace has been shown to us and then to pass that along to someone else. I love what Kevin Miller one of the editors of leadership journal wrote and one of his articles in that Christian journal he said this he said when I was a kid Saturday mornings were short day often my dad would say come on son and I hop in the station wagon and we would drive down the street to Hooper Wolfe's hardware store. Hooper Wolfe's hardware store had an old wood door painted white except where the paint was worn off near the handle. You walked in and you could hardly move there were two narrow aisles the counters were filled with merchandise shelves were overflowing and stuff was hanging from the ceiling you'd think no way am I going to find anything in here but you didn't need to as soon as you walked in clearance from behind the counter would say help you today my dad would say something like I want to hang a light out back clearance would come out from behind the counter and ask questions where are you going to hang it over the patio well then and he would start rummaging shelves through shelves until he pulled off just the right light you want to light like this and don't use those bolts there they're good for indoor stuff but for outdoor you want something galvanized your wall is brick isn't it clearance asked Kevin Miller ads in parentheses even though our town was small I was impressed that he knew what our house was made of well to run the conduit through there you want a mason redrill bit at least three quarters of an inch if we don't have that in stock you can get one over at Miller's lumber yard then clearance would pull out a flat computer carpenter's pencil off his ear and get out a little piece of paper and sketch it all out conduit goes here and make sure you don't mount the light too close to the socket today if I have a project on Saturday I head to and he mentions one of the largest establishments that most of us familiar with he says unlike Cooper whoops where you had to parallel park on the street there is an ocean of parking at this place and inside this place is huge the ceilings are 30 feet high this place has 40 times the inventory of hooper whoops it all looks great under bright argon lights there is a guy in an orange apron a block away if you're running down he's likely to say sorry I usually work in paints I'm just covering an electrical because someone called in sick this morning so you're pretty much on your own and then he says this a similar thing has happened in the American church we have programs that are amazing with disney level quality and technological sophistication but something's missing clearance we all need a clearance someone who knows more than we do and who will guide us to grow in Christ throughout the Bible this is the primary way the faith has been passed on Moses trains Joshua and how to lead Eli trains Samuel and how to pray Jesus teaches the apostles Timothy's grandmother Lois trains up her daughter Eunice who trains up her son Timothy Paul calls Titus his son in the faith he calls Timothy his son in the faith when it comes to helping people grow into spiritual maturity the Bible gives us what Kevin Miller calls the Clarence principle the older teach the younger those more mature in the faith guide those who are newer in the faith we all need someone like a Paul who is willing to invest his life in us we all need someone like a Lois or a Eunice who is willing to invest her life in us and then we in turn take what we've learned and invest that in someone else so that that one-on-one the cyphership mentoring yes that's certainly true but that's not all that's in this passage did you notice the wording carefully Paul said to Timothy things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses this is not just one-on-one I think Paul's also including here his public ministry Timothy you heard me say these things in the presence of many witnesses you take the things you learned as you heard me preach as you heard me teach the word of God you take those things you've learned when you've grown and you've gotten a new concept and you understood it and God challenged your heart and life through the word of God you take that you teach it to someone else and in your church in Ephesus Timothy you you teach that to other people and trust that to other reliable people who will be qualified to teach others that is the focus of our strength to pass along the faith to those behind us and so I challenge all of us and also those in ministry we must be strong we must be strong in the face of opposition intimidating challenges personal life challenges we must be strong to focus on passing the faith along to others and giving the next generation the word of God but then Paul picks up another metaphor another word picture this one is the soldier and he says Timothy there's something else I want to challenge you to be and do like a soldier be single-minded we must be single-minded notice verse three he says endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs he wants to please his commanding officer so he picks up this word picture of a soldier and he says Timothy you're not only like the strong man you're also to be like the soldier and each of the things he says about the soldier really can be summarized with that concept of be single-minded because the first thing he says is endure hardness endure hardness Timothy like a soldier endure hardness if we were able to ask the soldiers who suffered through the winter in Pennsylvania Valley forge who had very little hope of even surviving the winter much less surviving the British well-trained army we would know that it's hard to be a soldier we could ask the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day or swept off the boats onto the shores of Okinawa and Iwo Jima and other Pacific islands dying by the thousands if we could ask the young men who struggled through the jungles and crawled through tunnels in Vietnam the men who crossed frozen fields and tried to navigate frozen roads in North Korea if we could ask the young men and we can those who fought in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan we would hear firsthand that soldiering is not easy soldiering is hard and Paul says Timothy you're like a soldier you need to endure hardship what he's saying to young Timothy is Timothy the ministry will not be easy it is not a soft job contrary to what many believe I was in a restaurant the other night with my wife and saw someone that I know new and still know and went over and said hello and talked with him a little bit and this couple had some family members they're not in our church they had some family members with them and he began to tell some jokes about pastors and he was joking I understand that and it was well meaning it was all in fun but it is often the characterization of pastors he said you know they're killing me on my job I just wish I could be a preacher not have to work and then he said I think maybe God's calling me though I woke up this morning and I had a craving for fried chicken and I didn't want to go to work and everybody laughed including me and I told him I can use that one which I'm doing right now in all good nature humor I understand that because I pick on lawyers and doctors and teachers and everyone else from time to time the diamond just good nature humor the ministry is not a soft job and those of you who are listening to me who are in ministry in doer hardship there are struggles there are difficulties there are moments of emotional strain and spiritual strain that will do you in if you don't find your strength in the Lord you will be misunderstood there are times when you will have to deny yourself and your family in order to do what God's called you to do to meet a crisis in the moment there are waves of people problems that will hit you every day it is not easy and to dig the truth out of scripture is hard work there are many who don't understand that even many in ministry who think the real focus of ministry is activity being out in the community and that's a part of it everyone who is a shepherd must be out with people ministering to people but as we've seen in the pastoral epistles the focus that Paul challenges Timothy with over and over and over and over again is you better get it right when it comes to the word of God you better do the spade work and the digging that's needed to get the food out of the word of God to feed the flock and that becomes back breaking at times by straining at times endure hardship but he's also talking about suffering Timothy you're going to suffer for the faith just like I am expect hardship to come Timothy I believe face that hardship there's a little reference at the end of the book of Hebrews Hebrews 13 verse 23 it's on the screen for you where the writer of Hebrew says I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released if he arrives soon I will come with him to see you and we're not sure who the writer to the Hebrews was but Timothy at some point in his life evidently was incarcerated was thrown in prison and is now being released so he knows what it's like to suffer he did have to endure hardship so be single-minded Timothy because you're going to have to endure hardship secondly Timothy avoid entanglements like a soldier avoid entanglements keep your single-minded focus avoid entanglements look at what Paul says to him in verse 4 no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs you see a soldier mind a soldier a single-minded in that way too when it comes to serving in the armed forces military duties take precedence over civilian matters and when the military says you're going to go to boot camp here mom and dad don't have any say in that when the military says you're going to serve here you don't write home and ask permission you go where they tell you to go and civilian affairs are put on the back burner and Paul saying that's the way it is with the ministry as well Timothy you can become so preoccupied with the things of this world that you will become distracted from your duty I think if Paul were speaking today he would say Timothy don't get entangled in politics now we have to speak to issues as pastors yes I did a couple of weeks ago even using a political figure in our country as an illustration but I've known some men who've gotten so entangled and enmeshed in politics they left their first calling of ministering the word of God to people and being a shepherd that feeds the flock because they are so involved in this drive and that drive and that endeavor and that endeavor and this petition and that petition it's all about politics you can get entangled in civilian affairs and lose your focus Timothy be single minded the same thing can happen with business ventures someone in ministry can be so consumed with an outside business that they lose their focus on ministry and I want to back up here and say I don't want you to misunderstand me I deeply respect men who are bivocational and minister who are serving small churches that cannot pay them a livable wage and so they work a full time job and serve I'm not talking about those guys those guys have my ultimate respect I honor them but I'm talking about men who purposely want to get more and so they go into outside business ventures and become so focused on those that they lose their focus their single mind is they get entangled in civilian matters same thing can happen with sports where you're more concerned about tweaking your golf swing than you are about digging in the scriptures and ministering to God's people the same thing can happen with hobbies or today with technology now I'm going to talk like an old man for a couple minutes this is going to be my old man speech I believe in technology I have a smart phone I don't know what to do with it but I've got one it's a lot smarter than I am back I got two of them they're both smarter than I am but I want to say something to younger men in ministry one of the dangers I see with technology is spending so much time keeping up with everybody on Facebook making sure you've caught everybody's tweet reading everybody's blog and producing your own blog and keeping up with everything that's coming across your phone that you spend hours hours with that when you need to be in God's word developing your own life and developing your own character and digging out of the scriptures the truth preparing the meals that you will feed to God's flock and being involved in the lives of God's people face to face life to life hand to hand dealing with people's needs I see some some young guys not here our guys are great but I see some young guys in ministry who are so caught up in all the technology and it is a tool that can be used for the glory of God for sure but just be careful be careful that you become so entangled in that that you lose the focus of being a soldier be single-minded so endure hardship avoid entanglements and then the third thing he says about the single-minded focus is please the commander you see it there at the end of verse four right no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs here it is he wants to please his commanding officer I mean that's what it is in the military right again I've never had the privilege of serving in the military but from what I hear from friends and others who have your desires are totally under the desires of your commanding officer in fact what I understand of the process of boot camp is it is a purposefully intentional process of bringing you into complete subjection to your commanding officer and so when that drill sergeant says you polish your boots you don't say you know I polished him yesterday I think they look pretty good I don't really think they need it today you do that and you'll polish everybody's boots in the whole company when he says you go over here and do this drill you don't say well I've done that I think I'm pretty good at that let me try something else no you are being taught that you must be totally subjected your will your decisions your desires totally under the command of your commanding officer and there's a reason for that obviously in combat if you don't listen and do what you're told to do you risk your life and the lives of everybody else who depends on you same is true in ministry to Timothy Paul says you are to please your commander Timothy you won't be able to please everybody and no one in ministry can't hey we can't even please people with the temperature in the auditorium you know I have some folks come out after the service icicles are dripping from their nose and they're shaking and they're saying it's so cold in here and I want to tell them please don't sit right beside the air conditioning event I've never said that until just now and that's what I want to say and so and then there are other folks that you look on their fanning and they're dripping sweat you know you can't even please everybody with the temperature in the auditorium so certainly you can't please everybody with every decision you make in ministry Timothy so you've got to remember you serve and I love what Jerry said earlier about worship we worship for an audience of one and we serve in ministry for an audience of one if we come if we please our commanding officer that's really what we need to be single minded and our focus on that's even when we please our commanding officer even when when we please our lord Christ our God even when we please him that's not going to please everybody but you have to be single minded in your focus on pleasing the lord and that's true for all of us isn't it because if you have the single minded focus that I want to please my commanding officer I want to please my lord that's going to rub some people at work the wrong way and maybe rub some of the folks in your family the wrong way and it may not be acceptable with other folks that are around you maybe in your neighborhood I don't know but it's not always going to please everybody and so we've got to decide who are we going to please who we're going to live for are we going to please our commanding officer or are we going to live this wishy washy kind of life of trying to please everybody single minded Timothy you've got to be single minded and your hardship avoid entanglements please the commander be single minded but then he picks up another metaphor from the world of his day and that is the metaphor of the athlete and here he tells Timothy in verse 5 we must be strict now he's not talking about being strict with others he's not talking about being a dictator as a pastor to him that you've got to be strict with everybody and make him tow the line he's talking about being strict on yourself and here's what he says in verse 5 similarly if anyone competes as an athlete he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules now for the athlete that means that you prepare according to the rules we've seen a lot of athletes that have in their preparation process in our day have used performance enhancing substances that have disqualified them so as you prepare you've got to you've got to keep the rules as an athlete then when you go into a contest an athletic contest there are rules that govern that contest whether it's basketball ball baseball soccer tennis whatever it is there are rules you have to follow and if you don't follow those rules you'll be disqualified from the competition I mean everybody understands that as an athlete in in pause day if you were going to be involved in the ifs me and games that took place at Corinth or later the Olympic games if you were going to be involved in those games you had to sign on oath that you had trained for 10 months and that was your sole focus for those 10 months you had to prepare according to the rules and you had rules to go by as you competed in those contests that's true that's across the board true and athletics Paul is saying the same thing is true Timothy in ministry and what is it like for the pastor and the believer all of us as we live and serve God what's it like we got to keep the rules we have to prepare and serve according to the rules now the rule book is right here it's this book the Bible and I don't particularly like to refer to it as a rule book that gives kind of the aura of legalism and rule keeping and that's not my point but these are the standards that we are to live and serve by when Paul says okay Timothy it's time to choose men for leadership spiritual leadership in the church he gives a set of standards as to their character what there to be like and so when we are to serve or to live for Christ there are set of standards we are to live by as pastors as believers the way we live for Christ so that we're not this call of Christ you know the Bible talks about all of us standing before the judgment seat of Christ and we'll be judged for the kind of lives we've lived the kinds of things we've been involved in the kinds of things we've done the kind of character we've had and we can we can use two kinds of materials to build our lives things that are temporary focused on this world or things that are eternal focused on the next world and depending on how we build our lives we'll either receive reward or we will be disqualified from reward at the judgment seat of Christ everyone at that judgment is a believer you're in heaven that's not that stake but whether or not you're rewarded is at stake and so keep the rules live by the book live by the Bible in your character and the way you prepare your life and live your life be a good athlete live by the rules and then Paul picks up a fourth metaphor word picture that of the farmer and here his point is this Timothy we must be self motivated the point is says in verse six the hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops again I've never had the privilege of being a farmer at least not as far as a vocation I've grown a few gardens through the years and it's about the extent of my farming but I will tell you I've pastored in areas that were farming areas in North Carolina and Indiana North Carolina basically chicken and pig farmers and Indiana it was corn and soybean and a few cattle farmers so I grew to appreciate the life cycles and seasonal cycles and lifestyles of farmers and a few things I learned about what Paul saying here if you are a farmer you got to be hardworking and you'll receive a share of the crops farmers have to work and they have to work hard the land is not going to produce on its own you're not going to get a crop just by looking at your fields there is work to be done to fill up the soil to do rotation crop farming so that proper nutrients proper nutrients are fed back into the soil there is a need to till the soil to plant the seed to nourish that seed as best you can and those tender young crops to do all that you can to protect them from weeds and insects and forces of nature as best you can there's hard work to be done and when the work has to be done everything else has to wait the farmers work is seasonal when it's time to plant you got a plant you can't wait you can't keep putting it off you got to do it you know the old expression you got to make hay while the sun shines and some of you have experienced that recently haven't you with just a very few days where it wasn't raining and when you got a sunny day you were out in the field getting the hay in because you had to get it done I remember farmers who were not in church on Sunday because that was the one day of the week it was going to be sunny and they needed to get their crop in that's how farmers have to work when the work is there it's seasonal it's cyclical but it has to be done and has to be done hard takes a lot of time and even in the off cycle of farming in the winter there are farm implements and tools and tractors and combines to be repaired and work that needs to be done in the barn to fix things up and there's always work to do a farmer is a hard worker and if you're going to be successful young men in ministry you better work hard if you're going to be successful in the Christian life you've got to be self motivated enough to work hard because nobody's going to be over your shoulder saying you know you really need to read your Bible regularly and you need to be praying and developing your prayer life getting deeper with the Lord and you need to be faithful in reaching out to people with the gospel. Nobody's going to be pushing you to do that if you're not self motivated to do what needs to be done you'll never be successful in your Christian life so farmer has to work hard secondly a farmer needs patience so the example of motivation the farmer is one who works hard but one who also has patience when a farmer has done all he can do he has to wait for the elements of nature which are beyond his control and there are things that can happen that are not good storms I've seen crops absolutely shredded by harsh storms and hail storms in the Midwest tornadoes that shoot up fields there are things you have to wait and wait and trust patients same thing is true in ministry when you've done all you can do to sow in water the seed then it's God's work there are things beyond your control that you can't do and it's dangerous to become a manipulator to try to force what only God can really do in the heart. Third thing about a farmer is he gets to enter into the harvest that's the part that's mentioned in verse 6 there you should be the first to receive a share of the crops you know what I have the blessed privilege every week to be the first to receive the food of the word as I prepare what is going to be the best way to do it. What is going to be delivered on Sunday God is challenging my heart and speaking to my heart and I'm thankful I'm way back in a corner where there's not a lot of noise and I can just be with the Lord at times at least those hours of study and let him till the soil of my own heart and speak to my heart about what the word is saying and I get the fruit first before I ever get to share it with you and then I get to see the joy of the harvest and lives that are changed. That is such a blessing. Two weeks from today, three weeks from today I'll be going back to the church I've pastored in the 70s in North Carolina they're celebrating their hundredth anniversary. I want to remind you not the hundredth anniversary of my ministry there but the hundredth anniversary of the church and they've asked me to come back and be a part of that and I know I'm going to go back and see things that I've seen before on rare occasions when I've been able to go back. And that is some young men that I won to the Lord when they were teenagers and they were in my youth group. And now they're the older men in the church faithfully serving as deacons and I even realize that then I was twenty one when I started there they were only three four five years younger than me. And so now there are guys who are the leaders in that church and I go back and I just look around. I get to see that fruit in October I'm going to do a prophecy conference for a young man that was in my youth group when he was twelve years old in that church. And I got to pour my life into him and he's now pastoring and I get to go serve alongside him and that kind of fruit that kind of entering into the harvest. Such a blessing. Timothy, work hard like a farmer and you get to share the fruit. You get to see some fruit. Now that's what he describes while we have self-motivation. But where does the fuel come from to continue that self-motivation? Again, nobody's looking over your shoulder Timothy telling you to keep a certain schedule, do certain things at certain times. Where does the fuel come from to keep yourself motivated to keep going in ministry? Look at verse seven. He says reflect on what I am saying for the Lord will give you insight into all of this. First of all Timothy, you spend time reflecting on the word and here he's talking about these four figures of speech. The strong man, the soldier, the athlete, the farmer. Think about those things Timothy, you'll see what I'm saying. You'll get it. The Lord will give you insight as to what I'm teaching you from those four figures of speech. Those four people. Those four role models. But then he says, and this is the fuel for our motivation to keep going in Christian life and in ministry. He says in verse eight, remember Jesus Christ. That's a clarion call like remember the Alamo. Remember Pearl Harbor. Remember 9-11. Those calls remind us of our commitment to our country, of our patriotic duty, of our desire to love and serve our country. And that's what Paul is doing here. He's giving that call. Remember, remember Jesus Christ. And he says two things about him. Raised from the dead. That's his deity. He's ascended from David. That's his humanity. So remember Christ and all of who he is. He is God. He is man. He came to die for your sins. He was raised from the dead. That demonstrates his deity. He was a descendant from David. That represents his humanity. Remember Jesus. But remember that he was faithful, courageous. To the end, he didn't give up. That will serve as fuel for your motivation Timothy. Remember Christ. Remember Jesus. And then secondly, he says, remember the gospel. For state, this is my gospel for which I'm suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. I love that. I love Paul in that Memor time prison, that dark damp cell, unlike the house arrest of his first imprisonment. An underground damp prison with one hole in the ceiling for light and air. He's chained in prison, but his perspective is the gospel is not chained. God's word is not chained. So it is today. In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin in the USSR ordered a purge of all Bibles and believers in the town of Stavropoul, Russia. The order was carried out with a vengeance. Thousands of Bibles were confiscated thrown into a warehouse. The multitudes of believers were sent to the Gulags where many died because they were considered enemies of the state. After the fall of communism, the early 1990s, the missionary organization, commission, sent out a team to Stavropoul, Russia. The city's history was not known to this particular team as they went to that town. But when the team experienced difficulty getting Bibles shipped from Moscow, someone mentioned a warehouse outside of town where confiscated Bibles had been stored back in Stalin's day. So after the group prayer together, prayed together, one member got up the courage to go to the warehouse and asked the officials if the Bibles were still there. They were told, well, could we retrieve those Bibles and pass them back out to the people in this city? And they were given permission to do that amazingly. So a truck was obtained. People from the town were recruited to help load up the Bibles. They would be paid a little bit to do that. One of the helpers was a young man, a skeptical, hostile, agnostic college student who had just come because he knew he was going to be paid to the day. As they were loading Bibles, he decided to steal one. Keep it for yourself. So he went into the warehouse to hide it somewhere. After a little while, he didn't come back out. They realized his co-workers realized he was missing and so they started looking for him. They found him in a corner in the warehouse, weeping. When they asked him what was wrong, he was weeping as he had opened that Bible to the front cover page. Inscribed on the front cover page of that Bible was the name of his grandmother. It was his grandmother's Bible. Of all the hundreds of Bibles in that warehouse, the one he chose to steal, he opened up to see what the front page said. It was the inscription of his grandmother. As he sent their weeping about a woman that he knew had told him in his younger years about Jesus and had been sent off to die, but had prayed for her city and prayed for her family. Here he is holding her Bible. God used that divine encounter to bring him to faith in Christ. The Word of God is not chained. The gospel is not chained. So remember the gospel. Remember the gospel. And then Paul says, remember the church. Verse 10, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. For the elect, those who have been chosen by God's grace, called by his spirit that they too might be reached with the gospel. That's what I do this for Paul says. So Paul issues the clarion call. The fuel that will will passion will drive the passion, the motivation to continue to serve God. Remember Christ. Remember the gospel. Remember the church. That is why we do what we do. That's why every pastor should, what every pastor should come back to and get the fuel to continue to be motivated to do the work of God. That's what every Christian should come back to to get the fuel to be self motivated to live faithfully for Christ. Remember Christ. He didn't give up. He died for you. Remember the gospel that is unchained. Let it do its work. Remember the church. That's why we do this. My friend, that's what it takes to be a good pastor and a real man or woman of God. That's what it takes to be a good pastor and a good pastor. And a real man or woman of God. You want to be a real man of God? Then be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Be single-minded. Have that focus of a soldier. Be strict on yourself like an athlete. Follow the rules. And be self motivated like a farmer. Nobody is going to be telling him when he needs to plow, when he needs to plant, when he needs to fix machinery. He knows what it takes to get it done. Be self motivated like a farmer. That's what it takes to be a real man of God. That's what it takes to be a real woman of God. Are you up to it this morning? Are you ready or are you willing? Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the challenge of this old dying man, Paul, to a young man in the ministry, Timothy. I thank you for what he challenges him to be like and to do as a young pastor. But even more as a young man of God. And I pray that those words given so long ago will ring true in our own minds and hearts today. Speak to us through your Word. May we be faithful to you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.