Exercise Towards Godliness — 1 Timothy 1

0:01 Good morning. Good morning. We're gonna continue with our study in first Timothy. So if you wanna flip there, that's fine. I'm gonna open a word to prayer.

0:15 Father, we're very thankful that you've given us this opportunity to meet together. Lord, we thank you for the freedom to do so. We thank you that you brought each and every one of us here for a purpose. Lord, we pray now, Lord, that you will speak today and that you will carry the day and and firm up those thoughts that are yours and let those that are not yours go. We pray these things in your son's precious name.

0:39 Amen. So let's see if this works. Here it is. You hit the b. Good job, Timothy.

0:47 Thanks for your help. So I thought I'd just start off with this easy question. Right? The first question that we all ask. Right?

0:54 Why? And in our case today, it's why am I here today? Right? You may be saying, well, I have an answer to that. My mom and dad made me come.

1:08 I got no place else to go. I can't ride my motorcycle. It's raining. Right? Sorry.

1:12 I didn't mean to pick on you, brother. Whatever it is, I I would submit that the Lord has a reason for you to be here today. And I can also tell you that I asked the same question. Why am I here today? And if if you only knew what it took for me...

1:27 Get me here on a Sunday when I have to speak, you'd wonder why do I go through it? I just don't understand it. You know, there's so many things that block my way or want to block the way, and particularly that inferno printer. I can't get that printer to work right. So we did get it right finally.

1:45 So but but the point is, we have a reason to be here today, and it should be that the Lord has called us to be here today. He's speaking to you some way. I hope it's through some of the words I say today. Maybe it'll be something... Somebody that you talk to otherwise today, but he has a purpose for us today.

2:03 And one of the nice things I appreciate about our tradition is that we have a different face up here every week. Now now sometimes that's, you know, like, you know, not that guy again, or I hope that's not your thought today. But still, here's the best part from my point of view. I know some of these guys. Matter of fact, I know most of them.

2:29 And and I know a little bit about where they're at in life. And that adds to the message that they're delivering today or to me. And that means something, to get a perspective on a man's life and to hear what he says, and then say, oh, I know where he's going. And and and if he can say that, there... The Lord must be real to him.

2:52 I I know what he's been through, and if he is teaching that, he understands it better. I better pay attention. So I thought, you know, I might wanna give you a little bit of a... An overview, and we're gonna do this in sports center style. It's gonna go real quick.

3:08 I wanted you to catch up where I've been recently so you can get a little bit of a perspective. Some of you know a little bit more. Some of you may not know any of this, but to get a little perspective of where I'm at and where I'm coming from today. So let's just kick it off here. This is the way my head looks.

3:26 Right? It's full of numbers. It's all over the place, and and they're just jumbled around in there, but but they all mean something, like this one. That's the day we had a fire in our house, 2017, 06/30/2017. Right?

3:41 And that's the day we moved out. This is the day we moved back in, 01/10/2018. I tell you these things because a lot of you ask me, are you back in the house? How's it going? So I want...

3:52 I just want you to know where we've been for the last sixteen months, and, oh, what a sixteen months it's been. We have learned a lot, you know, how to live in a motor home among other things. So... But it should not be confused with the sixteen years that my daughter turned just two days ago, and we got to celebrate yesterday. So that's a wonderful occasion, isn't it?

4:14 06/30/2019 is probably the day, because it's the day we have to reach by, when we'll have the insurance claim finished for this fire that we had. And it's it's a struggle. I'm telling you. It's amazing. May fifth of this year was the last day I came home from The UK.

4:34 Right? After spending eighty six days there in six months, I was working on a project, and many of you have... You may have heard of it or thinking, where is that guy? You know? Well, that's where I was, and that's how long I was gone.

4:48 And October twenty first of this year is probably the day I'll be back. So I'm going back, and these things just keep on giving. I don't understand why. But three days is the number of days since I got off an airplane, and two is the number I'm going to get back on one because I got to go someplace else. Who can guess what this one is?

5:11 You in the corner there, right in the back. That's right. The day... I wasn't gonna say it that way, but I am a grandpa. Right?

5:22 So Sebastian Leo Boss arrived on that day just a couple months ago, so we're so thankful for him and the joy he's brought to our family. We have 20 sheep at home right now and six pigs, believe it or not. And that's the number, plus or minus, 300 people a year that we contract to get ready to go and serve at camp. Thank you for all the volunteers that go up there. We're grateful for that.

5:47 But that's a big number, you know, that that we've put together in the last three years, and I'm 54 years old. The only thing you should take from that is I can't believe it's taken him this long to learn some of these lessons. Right? So don't feel bad if you're still coming along the path, but I can tell you this number is one of the most important. This is how much I got to give that's good without help.

6:16 I got nothing without the Lord's help. And if there's anything a busy life person could learn in the past year or so, this was one of the best ones for me to learn. 77 times is the number of times that my wife has had to forgive me in the last week. So pray for her. Two is the number of knees that the lord has taught me to humble myself on to pray to him just in the past year.

6:51 How come it took me so long to really understand that? But I can assure you that he appreciates a humble heart. This is just how big God is. I don't know. I'm still trying to look, still trying to figure it out.

7:08 He loves me. He cares for me. He loves you, and he cares for you beyond measure. So let's get to first Timothy. Okay?

7:40 The letter for... From Paul... Excuse me, from Paul to Timothy. It's more than that, though. Okay?

7:52 It represents a relationship, a very close relationship to the point where Paul calls Timothy his son in in the Lord. He he he has this tight bond and intimacy that if you read through first and second Timothy and even in other parts of the scriptures, you... You'll see just how much he cared for Timothy, and so he sent him this letter. Let... This is what I want you to know.

8:16 Okay? So let's keep that in mind as we're reading through this portion. Okay? This is a portion that is written to Timothy, a very special portion of of of first Timothy that is based on the relationship that Paul has with him. Okay?

8:35 So let's... Let me just start. I'm gonna start with first Timothy chapter one and read just two verses, and then we'll skip to our portion for today. Okay? So first Timothy chapter one verse one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our savior and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope, to Timothy, a true son in the faith, Grace, mercy, and peace from God our father and Jesus Christ our lord.

9:03 And we might put in there dot dot dot because there's been a whole bunch of teaching up to this point, but it's still in that spirit that we're hearing Paul talk to Timothy, and we're gonna pick it up here chapter four verse six. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and the Lord and of the good, excuse me, of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. But reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.

9:52 For to this end, we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach. Verse 12. Let no one despise your youth, but he... But be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

10:15 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.

10:36 Continue in them. For in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. So now we... We've come all this way, and we get to the point where he's been teaching about the church and elders and, you know, watch out for this. And now he he...

10:51 This little section in here, he's saying, I wanna talk to you, Timothy. So let's put that in that context. Timothy, this is what... This is for you. Okay?

10:59 Right here in the middle, Timothy, this is for you. And and I think I'm gonna make the case. I'm gonna make my attempt to make the case. It's for you. It's for me.

11:08 It's for you. It's for me. It's for all of us today. Now what's the number one thing that you see when you read that portion? I see action.

11:19 There's a lot of action words in there. Do this. Do that. Do this. Think that.

11:26 Okay? Some of these actions are private. Okay? Timothy, this is what you should do yourself. Okay?

11:33 Some of them are public. Timothy, this is what I want you to do when you're in the presence of others. Okay? And and some of them come with an outcome or maybe a reward, something where you can say, oh, you know, that's why I should do it. Alright?

11:50 So so we'll we'll develop that a little bit more, and let's let's just move on with it and think about this for a second. You remember, was it a couple weeks ago when Chris was here? Right? Chris told us about, you know, some that have drifted away from the faith and some that are gonna start speaking lies, and and and we have to do what? Watch out.

12:10 That's something that each one of us need to do privately. Okay? We need to watch out to make sure that what we're being taught today and every day, I hope you brought your bible. Okay? Look at it.

12:23 Don't let me don't let me carry you away just because I wave my hands around or I keep hitting this thing. So does that help? So watch out. That's really the thing. And I don't wanna belabor what Chris said.

12:38 He did a good job of it. We'll move on. But then he goes on to say, Timothy, not only are you to watch out, but you're also to instruct. So watch out, and then instruct those around you on how to watch out. Okay?

12:54 So it's more of a public issue. Right? And then there's a good good reason for it. Right? This is the outcome.

13:00 If you do this, if you watch out, and then you instruct, then you're gonna see that you would be a good minister. I'm telling you this. This is important for you to do, and you'll be nourished in the faith if you do these things. So, again, that's just an example for you. I wanna develop a little bit more as we go forward.

13:37 Reject old wives fables. Those stories that are made up, the ones that go kinda like, it it must be because of this, or it makes sense to me, or I thought maybe this is a good idea. No. No. No.

13:52 No. He's saying stick to the doctrine. Stick to what the apostles' doctrine was, that that the Lord Jesus Christ came, that he lived among men, he was crucified for our sins, he was buried, and rose again on the third day according to what was prophesied in the scripture. Stick to that. Okay?

14:13 Reject that other stuff. Reject it. And then not only reject, but exercise towards godliness. I wanna park here for a little bit because this this sort of stuck out at me and say, exercise towards godliness. Okay?

14:31 Keep those words in mind. Godliness. Now now what is godliness? Right? It's it's it's to to be like God or to to be like the person God would have us be.

14:41 Right? Some... Somehow, we're reaching towards that which he has for us out there. It's an exercise towards godliness. Well, okay, that's that's a little bit helpful, Denzel, but you gotta do a little better than that.

14:55 So it's the opposite of exercising yourself towards sinfulness. Right? Those things that are not of God, those things that that that the Lord has said don't do, those things that don't glorify him, those things that don't improve upon us. So it's also a directional thing. Right?

15:16 We're... You know, if if we're going towards godliness this way, right, we're we're facing that direction as opposed to towards sinfulness facing this rest... Direction. And I'd like to make the argument that it's a direction. It's not a destination.

15:34 Godliness is not a destination that we achieve. Okay? And and let's just talk about that a little bit. I'd like to think about it on on the way of a spectrum. Okay?

15:46 Do you know what a spectrum is? Everybody everybody know what a spectrum is? Right? We we know about the spectrum of light, ROY g biv. Right?

15:53 It goes from red to violet. At least, that's the way it used to go, and now it's changed, I guess. But all this new math and stuff, they figured new things out. But it's a spectrum. Okay?

16:03 And here's the spectrum we're gonna look at today. On one side, we've got godliness. The other side, sinfulness. Right? And we might start putting people up there and saying, well, now who do we know that's godly?

16:16 Right? We might say, David. Right? David of the bible. How can we argue with that?

16:21 He's a man after God's own heart. That that must be godly. Right? And then on the other end of that spectrum is the axe murderer. Nobody likes that guy.

16:29 Right? Of course, you know, that... That's just a spectrum that we look at, one end and the other end. Okay? And and, you know, we try to, all of a sudden, see those actions, see what's happened, and and and hear that little tidbit and say, oh, okay.

16:43 Well, that must mean that his heart, whoever's on that end of the spectrum, is pointing towards God or is in that direction, and and his is the opposite. Right? That's that's sort of the way we kinda think of things, aren't we? We put... This is the way I think about it at least, so hopefully, you can relate to this a little bit.

17:00 And there's me. Right? Right in the middle. I mean, I'm not always a man after God's own heart. David was was Superman.

17:08 Right? And and I'm certainly not an axe murderer, at least, I hope not. Right? And and so this is the way we do look at godliness, I think, sometimes as positional or a destination that we found. This is where I'm at, and maybe I can do a little bit better.

17:25 Maybe I'm not quite as bad as that guy, and we start rationalizing and pulling it in a little bit. Well, if David was a man after God's own heart, Billy Graham was a man that went out and and took so many people and and and and witnessed to so many people and so many got saved. And and there might be somebody here. I'm a little better than that guy because he doesn't even go to church. Right?

17:47 Now we're starting to step on some toes. You bring it in a little bit, and I can say, well, you know, Dave Bingham, I wish he was here. I I I thought he would be the only one that I could really throw out there, and he he would chuckle at it. So... But you you you would all agree with me that that I'm not as godly as Dave Bingham, and I'm certainly more godly than the guy that wears a suit.

18:15 Did you notice I don't have a coat on today? So... But I think this is where we find ourselves, but it's not hard to peel back the onion a little bit. Peel back those layers a little bit and really wonder, is this right? I mean, let's look at David, a man after God's own heart.

18:34 He was guilty, not just accused, but guilty of adultery and murder. Some people go to prison because the society's laws say you must go to prison if you murder somebody, but you know what? There's a lot of people, Christian, is... Am I right? Coming to the Lord in prison.

18:55 The Lord needed to take them to that point before they met the Lord the Lord Jesus Christ. So so which one's right? Some people would criticize Billy Graham, I think himself included, okay, for being a a a... Having trouble as a father and a parent at one time. Okay?

19:16 And you could you could do what you want with that, and I'd just say that's a possibility. You know, we might make an assumption that just because they aren't in church means they're not saved. Doesn't wear a suit. That's a social tradition. Let's face it.

19:34 Come on. I mean, we... I wanna dress up nice because I represent the Lord when I'm here, but if we can't or there's some problem or... Does... Can we judge based on that?

19:44 I don't think so. And and really, I I love this brother with all my heart, but who who really knows what's in that man's heart too? We don't know. We don't know. We need a little bit of perspective here.

19:59 If we narrow that down just a little bit, you know, and find what's God's perspective? What does he look at? Right? Just a little bit at a time. Right?

20:10 He's not in the picture yet, is he? Maybe if you can get it way down here, can you see that little bitty spectrum right there? That's our spectrum, right? And here's God way over here and you know what, that's not even... It's just limited by this screen, it should be way, way out there.

20:29 Where we are versus where he is is just not even close. We're aiming that direction, but we're not gonna get there. Right? How big a difference is there between me and the axe murderer on this chart? Not very much.

20:46 From God's perspective, sin is sin. Godliness is us looking towards him and saying, it's a long hill to travel. Right? It's one that we have to work at. Paul says we labor at it.

21:17 Me either. Right? So we all know that because it's hard work. We have to labor at it. In order to get better, in order to be the best, we have to work hard at it, don't we?

21:30 Fellas, you know about that. We have to exercise. We have to get stronger. We have to do... This is an exercise towards godliness.

21:38 This is the direction we should be headed. Okay? And he says we will suffer reproach. You know, as we labor along and we're marching up this hill and we try to be like God, there are people along the way that are gonna say, look at that guy. Why is he doing that?

21:54 Who does he think he is? Other things, we're gonna suffer because of it. So now we're back to this question again. Do you always ask this question like I do? Why?

22:05 Why do I labor? Why would I suffer reproach? Paul says, because we trust. Because we trust in the living God, and we believe that that exercise is good, not just for the future, but in this life too. It's good in this life for us to strive to be like God, and it is good in the future life, it says, to to be like God.

22:33 And and the point is that we trust him. We trust that he has a plan for us. If I walk in this way and I suffer reproach, I'm gonna trust. Yes, Lord. I trust it.

22:48 I I can keep going because you have a plan for this. I trust it. If I keep... If it'll be better tomorrow than it is today, and if it's not, I still trust you. That's something I've been trying to learn in the past many months.

23:05 So now we're back to this list, this action list. Okay? This is this is a list you can take with you. Right? Reject those fables.

23:16 Exercise towards God's. Labor. Suffer. Trust. And then command and teach.

23:26 Do you see a pattern here? It was watch out and instruct. Now it's reject, command and teach. Do these things. Don't just do them yourself, Timothy, but go out and teach others to do the same.

23:43 So the thing I like about this is it gives us a direction. Do do do you ever walk through life thinking, I don't have a direction? Well, this is a direction. Be like God. Seek what he would have for you.

23:56 He's given us a direction. Seek that direction. Next, we go on, and he tells Timothy, let no one despise your youth. And that's encouraging, isn't it? We we we assume Timothy is a young guy, and he's probably getting kicked around a bit because, you know, these old timers say, no.

24:19 You're just a young guy. You haven't really experienced life yet. How many of you young guys have heard that and hated it every time? Let... There's a young guy back there.

24:28 There's a young guy there. So we we all hate it. Okay? But in some ways, it's true, yet don't let that be an excuse. That's what Paul's saying.

24:40 Don't let that be an excuse. Instead of letting them get you down about this, turn around and do this. Okay? Turn around and be an example. You know what?

24:51 If you're young or if you're old, if you're left or you're right or if you're good or you're bad, if you do this, you'd be an example to others, nobody can nobody can knock you for that. If you're a good example in word, my words are encouraging, my words are coming from the right place, my words are correct, and follow it up with a conduct, the way I act, the way that I do with my life means something. I have a loving attitude. I put others before myself. If I do that, nobody's gonna knock you for thinking they're more important than you are.

25:36 Have a spirit deep down inside. That's what comes out. Right? What we really believe, what we have faith in comes through our spirit, and it shows. I mean, have you ever seen somebody that that in word, in conduct, in their outward appearance of love is fake?

25:56 You know they're just doing it because. Right? But the one that has a spirit that is loving and has a deep faith in the Lord, it comes differently, doesn't it? You feel it differently. It comes across as special and purity.

26:12 Keep your mind, your heart, your actions. Those things that you do are pure, clean. Don't don't listen to the excuses. Be an example. Okay.

26:28 So now Timothy continues on. He's not done yet. I mean, there's a lot up here already, isn't there? It's too much for me to do today. I know that.

26:49 We know that was written down. Here, Paul is now laying down a letter here, and then we know there was other letters starting to circulate, and histories of the the gospels were starting to be circulated as well. He's saying, read these things. Read them. Don't just think you knew it.

27:06 Read it again. Reading. Exhortation, that's a big word that we don't use very much in our language, and it usually means me getting down on you. Right? But I I I like to think of it better as a challenge.

27:21 Challenge others to be an example. Command and teach others to labor and suffer. Okay? Challenge. Challenge yourself.

27:31 I put this in the private column, and I think that's what it means. Challenge yourself. Timothy, challenge yourself, Denzel, to do better. And finally, doctrine. Doctrine is a big word for those fundamental truths that we believe.

27:49 That's the way I I like to think of it. And in this case, I think it's the truths that the apostles were teaching, the truths that that Paul had brought to the Ephesians in this particular case, and you need to know these things, what Jesus did, who he is, what's important. It's important. Doctrine is important, and we should stick to it and know it and understand it. And he's sort of saying, stick to your knitting here.

28:18 Challenge yourself. Make sure you got it right. Do not neglect your gift. A gift. That's some place I wanna park for a minute to.

28:28 Now I apologize for my pictures. This, again, the way my mind thinks, this is my best rendition of a gift box. Right? Can you see the lid on the top and the little bow at the at the very top there too? That's that's a gift.

28:41 Okay? It's something that somebody has been given. And now we're challenged to think, what is Timothy's gift? I'll just let you let you simmer on that one a little bit and then say, what is a gift? Right?

28:54 That's the first question. What is a gift? Well, here's my definition. It is a a skill or an ability to be used for God's purposes. Okay?

29:04 That's what I'm considering a gift. Okay? It's in my words, so you can look it up in the dictionary and it's gonna be something different. You could probably ask anyone of number of people, and it might be just a little different, but that's the purpose I think we're here. And and I take that from other places, but also Romans twelve six.

29:24 So what is the source of a gift? In this particular case, it's given freely by God. It's something that God has given you or I for the specific purpose. Okay? And what is that purpose, or what's his motivation, if you will, in giving that gift?

29:45 Ephesians would tell us that the purpose is for equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, edifying the body of Christ. Okay? Every one of us has been given a gift by the Lord. Okay? And it's for the purpose of edifying the entire body.

30:03 So what that means is I need you. I need you. I need you to edify me. I need you to make sure that we are equipping the body of Christ. If if you're...

30:19 If I'm unwilling to exercise my gift, something is being missed. If somebody doesn't look like the person I wish they were, that doesn't mean that isn't... They aren't being used to edify me or to equip the body. Maybe it's used to challenge us, I don't know. But use, that's the reason for the gift.

30:42 You should be using it. Where is it given, or what's the distribution of gifts? It's to everybody. As I've already said, the Lord has given you and you and you a gift. Some might be the same as mine.

30:54 Some might be a little different. It might look just a little bit different, but be the same gift. It is still given to everybody. How do you know? Well, we should be searching that out.

31:07 Okay? And we should realize what our gift is. We should be exercising our gift, but it's also important to not just have it recognized in my eyes, but recognized amongst the body. Okay? In this particular case, he says the eldership recognized it.

31:26 Right? And they laid his hands on him, and this is the way I understand this, or the way I take this, laid his hands on him and said, Timothy, we see this in you. Okay? We've done done similar things as a body. We've seen this in Todd, and Miriam.

31:42 You have a gift that you can use for the Lord someplace else. Right? We do that as mentors. Right? Paul, said in in...

31:52 Or goes on in second Timothy to say, hey, Timothy, do you remember when I recognized it in you? You have a gift. I'm seeing it. And and then there's acts chapter six, search from among you, those who have the skill and ability. You...

32:07 We should all be looking around and recognizing the gift that somebody is not only has, but is exercising. And we should we should grow in confidence when somebody recognized that gift. We should not take it as just in my mind, but this whole body that we have here is important that we all work together to to realize that. It's not just of mine own making. How does it finally manifest itself?

32:34 Well, ultimately, in love. God loved us so much that he gave us his son, but he gave us a gift to use amongst the body so that we can encourage other believers with our gift, so that maybe we can encourage somebody who still yet has not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to an unbeliever. We show love when we exercise our gift as well. So if you want a little extra credit today, you can go over here to first Corinthians chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter four. There's a whole lot there we could spend, and and there have been many weeks spent on talking about gifts, and you can search them out and and do a little extra credit work this afternoon if you like.

33:23 But we're back to Timothy's gift. What do you think Timothy's gift was? I cheated. I'm I'm ahead of you. So I think it was teaching, maybe among other things.

33:33 Exhortation might be another one. But for this reason... For... Listen to Paul. For this reason, I left you in Ephesus.

33:43 Teach, command, exhort. Okay? I think that's that's part of why Timothy was there and the gift that he was exercising when he was in Ephesus. Okay? So now here's the real question that you need to answer.

34:00 What do you think your gift is? Ask yourself that question, and don't leave without an answer. What is your gift? Because the Lord has need of that gift. Strike that.

34:14 The Lord can do without your gift. However, the body has need of your gift, and he's put you here to exercise it and use it. Okay? I mean, let's face it. The Lord said, if these didn't cry out, the stones would cry out.

34:32 Right? And and when I go look at some of the stones I've seen across the the world, they're beautiful and they cry out to a creator. That's that's my opinion. Okay? But they could shout at the top of their lungs if they needed to, but he's left us here to cry out on his behalf.

34:51 And so the body needs your gift. So not only have we, we don't want to neglect our gift, he says to meditate on these things. Give ourselves entirely. That's a big, big request. Give yourself entirely to exercising that gift.

35:14 But he's given us a capability, hasn't he? I'm sorry. I went too fast. He's he's not only given us a direction, but now he's given us a capability on which to serve him. Okay?

35:42 Take heed to yourself. Take care of yourself. Timothy, before he says, hey, you know, have a little wine for your stomach. Right? He's he's worried about him personally.

35:53 This is like... Who's ridden on the airplane recently, and what did they tell you? Put your own oxygen mask on first before you assist your husband next to you, right, that needs help. So that... That's that's important.

36:08 Take heed to yourself and to this doctrine again. Know what you know and stick to those truths. K? How well should we do this? Or how well should we do all of this?

36:22 At what standard do we need to achieve? Or should we shoot for, maybe a better way of putting it, so that it's evident to all? It shouldn't just be evident to me. Yeah. You know, I did twenty minutes on the bike yesterday.

36:37 But, you know, it should be evident I did more than twenty minutes on the bike. It should be evident to all without me having to tell you. Right? Make it evident to all. That's a goal, a standard with which we should try to move towards, so that it's evident to all that these things are being done.

36:57 If you do that, you will save yourself and those who hear. It's gonna be important not only to you, but to others. We could get into a lot... A big theological debate about that statement. I'm not going there today.

37:09 But it should be evident to all, and we should... It'll be a benefit to all as well. So this is where we started. Right? This is the letter that was written.

37:21 It was written from Paul to Timothy. It doesn't just represent a letter, it represents a relationship, and a relationship to the point where Paul was willing and desired the opportunity to pour into Timothy. Right? He poured into Timothy that which he knew, that which he knew Timothy needed, that which he realized was important to not only Timothy, but the the Ephesians as well. But but we should didn't stop there.

37:50 You know, Paul's got this relationship where he was poured into as well. Right? The Lord poured into him. He says, I received that which I was given. I got it straight from the Lord, not from those guys.

38:01 The Lord talked to me directly. He poured into him, and now Paul is pouring into Timothy. And what is Paul exhorting Timothy to do? To continue, to pour into the Ephesians. Right?

38:17 Command, teach, instruct, be an example to. So you see how this is sort of cascading down? It's a progression. It's something that happens and should be natural. It's something that we are called to do.

38:32 Okay? I'm sure that because this letter didn't just stay in Timothy's pocket, did it? It was a personal letter that... I mean, how many... Have you ever got a personal letter?

38:45 Maybe from your your wife before you're married or your your son at his birthday or something like that. And we we we hold those things very closely. Well, Timothy, I'm sure, held it real closely when he got it from Paul, but he took... He thought it was more important than that, and many others after him thought it was more important than that to the point where we have it today, to where we have the letter to Timothy, the private letter that became public and is now something that can help instruct us today. It can in the scripture even, we could say.

39:18 They didn't stop with the Ephesians, did they? I mean, Paul was off in Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Rome, other places. He went around and and he did this and and I gotta believe and I think there's evidence that says that Timothy did the same. Right? At some point, through many years and and through many channels, it got down to me and it got down to you.

39:42 Now did did did somebody in Ephesus witness to somebody that finally witnessed to me? I don't know. Or or did did Timothy witness to somebody who finally witnessed to you? This is gonna be one of the fun games in heaven. Okay?

40:00 We do this all the time when we're putting the, we're putting the the staff together for Camp La La Lai. It's really fun to say, who's this? Oh, didn't... She got married. She's the daughter of this person.

40:16 Who's the cousin of that person? Who's the aunt over here? Who's... Do you remember grandpa is this one? And, Laura, thanks for helping me connect some of those dots.

40:26 It's really an amazing thing to do that, and and I'm I'm looking forward to seeing how these paths came down the way to where it got to me. I'm so thankful for that path, and it and it speaks to the miracle that the witness of the Lord really is. So it's more than just a progression. He's saying command, teach. Okay?

40:56 If we believe this, that the lord poured into Paul, who poured into Timothy, who poured into the Ephesians because Paul exhorted him to do it, who poured into us, it's up to us to pour into somebody else. So do you have a Paul? This is time where you could start getting a little bitter and say, well, no. Nobody really pulled me aside and said, come on. Let's let's go.

41:24 Nobody wrote me a letter, but but but now wait a minute. Think back. Think back about the Sunday school teacher who who who trickled or dripped a few things in there. Right? Or or the Iwana leader who who who told you for the first time you you understood a few things.

41:39 Right? Or or what about the elder who said, you know, I I appreciate what you said yesterday, or or or the piano teacher that said, here, let me show you how to do that. There... There's so many things that people have done in your life, in my life, that we could be thankful for and remember back that somebody poured into my life. Now if you have that special relationship where somebody's pouring into your life right now, eat it up.

42:13 Who have you said, you know what? I see the gift in you, brother. Sister, you have encouraged so many with your gift. Let me let me help you out. You may not know everything, but you need to understand.

42:29 Hold on. You know what? Sit down with me. Have a cup of coffee. Hold on.

42:33 Let's let's open the scriptures. Let's let's take some time to know how the lord is working in your life. I submit to you that it's based on a relationship. It's a relationship with the Lord and those around us amongst the body. It's a progression, a natural progression that once you've been poured into, you wanna pour out into somebody else.

43:10 Older women, teach those younger women. It it is littered throughout the throughout the scriptures for us to do just that. Those that are doing it, great. Those that can do it better, great. Let's do that.

43:24 It's a command. So what do I teach, I mean, how do I do it? Where do I go? What do I use? Well, how about this?

43:35 You know, Timothy got this handed to him from Paul. Paul put it in a good way. There's some things you need to do yourself. There's other things that you need to do in public and I'm not gonna tell you all the benefit, but believe me, it's worth it to do these things. Let's pray.

44:00 Father, we're so thankful, so thankful that you've given us your word and and that which teaches us in so many ways. Lord, we pray that as you've as you've moved here, we we pray that you would help it to continue, Lord. We know that in many ways, you have poured into our lives, and we have the opportunity to do the same for others. So, Lord, we are grateful, and now we hope that we can express that gratitude in a way that is, honoring to you. We pray these things in your son's precious name.

44:34 Amen.