back to indexSunday 11-30-14 P Peter Kim 2 Tim 3 (10-13) Following the Footsteps of the Master
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Gracious and loving Father, we thank you, Lord God, for this day. 00:00:11.900 |
And I know that there are so many people, Lord, especially in our area that has been 00:00:16.680 |
praying, the farmers, Lord God, who are in desperate need for this. 00:00:23.640 |
We thank you, Lord God, for just your goodness of all the things, Lord, that you pour onto 00:00:32.560 |
Help us, Lord God, to be men and women who recognize your gift, that every single day 00:00:39.880 |
that we live, that we may know and appreciate that it's only by your grace, Lord God, we 00:00:47.280 |
Help us, Lord, as we come to worship you and spend time in your word and to praise and 00:00:51.400 |
to give that all of these things, Lord, would simply be a reflection of the true worship 00:01:03.200 |
As you guys know, again, I was only gone for about seven or eight days, but again, whenever 00:01:08.120 |
I leave and I get to see so many things, there's a sensory overload. 00:01:12.680 |
And so those of you who've been out to missions, you know what I'm talking about. 00:01:15.400 |
To me, it felt like I've been gone for a month, but even though I've only missed two Sundays 00:01:21.780 |
Pastor Peter Chung, who used to be our education pastor here, and then he was sent out as a 00:01:26.640 |
missionary and then now he's serving as a vision coordinator for Compassion International. 00:01:32.200 |
And he invited me to come to Philippines to participate in a vision trip to see what Compassion 00:01:39.000 |
And I was thoroughly impressed with how they're running their organization, how the money's 00:01:45.560 |
And the thing that I was mostly impressed with is how they're working through the local 00:01:48.840 |
church and how the money is not only being used to get children out of poverty, but how 00:01:53.640 |
they're working through the local church and how many of these children and their parents 00:01:58.600 |
and their siblings end up coming to Christ as a result of their work. 00:02:01.880 |
And so we were able to visit different parts of the Philippines and different churches 00:02:06.280 |
and see the gospel ministry really, even though it's presented as, you know, getting children 00:02:13.320 |
out of poverty, the bigger work really is the gospel ministry. 00:02:17.040 |
And I was able to see that and I was really encouraged. 00:02:20.380 |
And again, we asked him that when he's going to come here in February because his wife 00:02:24.180 |
is pregnant with twins and she's going to be here from February to October, I think. 00:02:31.000 |
And then so she's going to prepare, deliver and then recover all of that while here. 00:02:35.840 |
Because Peter, Peter Chang, he's actually travels quite a bit, so he won't be able to 00:02:41.440 |
So it'd be a good idea for him to, for them to be here. 00:02:44.240 |
But he's going to come in February and I asked him, again, I have to talk to the elders, 00:02:48.640 |
but again, so he'll give a little bit more presentation of what's going on. 00:02:52.100 |
Maybe it's something that we can pray about getting involved with, about maybe supporting 00:02:59.200 |
Going out to the Philippines obviously was a tremendous blessing for me. 00:03:03.680 |
And I knew that I was going to be able to see a lot of things and they deliberately 00:03:07.360 |
took us to what they call extreme poverty, not just poverty, but extreme poverty. 00:03:12.560 |
So we were taken to different homes in different places in parts of Philippines where they're 00:03:18.820 |
struggling and none of that really surprised me because I went there expecting that. 00:03:23.260 |
You know, I've been to different parts of the world where I've seen poverty, I've seen 00:03:29.000 |
And so none of that stuff really was shocking to me. 00:03:32.140 |
But what was shocking, what I didn't expect is to run into so many of the sex trafficking 00:03:39.860 |
And again, it wasn't happening in front of us, but we ended up staying in a Western hotel 00:03:44.180 |
because we were in areas, visiting areas where there was a lot of poverty and a lot of churches 00:03:50.300 |
But because we were in a Western hotel, we saw a lot of Westerners coming in and it didn't 00:03:56.260 |
And I was there with about 10 other pastors and it didn't hit any of us until about the 00:04:02.100 |
And we started noticing a lot of old men, 50s, 60s, maybe even 70 year old men with 00:04:09.700 |
And they must have been, if they were old, they must know more than maybe about 18, 19 00:04:13.660 |
years old, young, maybe as young as 15 or 14. 00:04:21.660 |
We were running into them in the elevator, in the lounge. 00:04:29.940 |
In fact, one of the guys actually joked with us because we were sitting around a bunch 00:04:36.260 |
One guy came in and he said, "Hey, you guys want to go and have fun with us?" 00:04:41.100 |
And so we just kind of laughed it off and a bunch of pastors sitting around talking 00:04:45.580 |
And then they were coming trying to get us to go with them. 00:04:49.460 |
The next thing we see is two young, very young Filipino girls walking and going out with 00:04:56.060 |
And that's when it kind of hit us what was happening. 00:04:59.340 |
And again, all of this stuff is happening because of poverty. 00:05:05.860 |
It's happening because a lot of the families don't have any other options. 00:05:10.480 |
So a lot of times a young girl will go and sell herself to these older men to get enough 00:05:16.980 |
And they're not going to using this money to buy better cars or live in a nice house. 00:05:24.220 |
That somebody has pneumonia and they don't have enough money for medicine. 00:05:28.500 |
The only way to get enough money to pay for this is for one of the girls to go sell themselves. 00:05:34.060 |
And I didn't hear this myself, but Pastor Peter said in his previous trips, he had one 00:05:40.340 |
And every church we went to, they were giving testimonies of what was happening and how 00:05:45.620 |
And he said one man stood up and gave a testimony of how before he met the Lord, he took his 00:05:50.620 |
13 year old daughter and basically gave her to a Russian man to have sex with her. 00:05:56.980 |
And then he took that money and he basically went drinking with it. 00:06:01.000 |
And he was confessing how filthy and dirty he was and how God forgave his sins. 00:06:04.780 |
And again, he was crying and he was sharing this story. 00:06:07.820 |
And he shared another story about a young girl who was part of the program and she dropped 00:06:16.100 |
So they went and found the parents and found out that the parents ended up selling her 00:06:21.500 |
to a Middle Eastern man and took her basically as a slave. 00:06:24.700 |
And the parents did that because they felt like that was the only way that the rest of 00:06:30.140 |
Now this is again heart wrenching stories, but these things are happening routinely all 00:06:37.780 |
You and I happen to be living in an area of the world where it's just shocking to hear 00:06:43.060 |
But when you're in the midst of this, to them it's everyday life. 00:06:45.520 |
That's the only way that they know how to survive. 00:06:51.380 |
But again, ultimately the problem is not poverty in itself. 00:06:56.220 |
We can get sidetracked and think, well, here's these problems. 00:06:59.940 |
We can put some money into that and we can fix this problem. 00:07:06.300 |
Whether it's sex trafficking or whether it's pornography or extreme poverty, whatever it 00:07:13.580 |
Wars, rumors of wars, all of these things are symptoms of what the scripture says about 00:07:21.940 |
And that's why Paul is telling Timothy, he said, yes, you may end up forfeiting your 00:07:28.860 |
And there's tremendous consequence of being a light in the dark world. 00:07:36.020 |
And he tells Timothy, he said, watch out because these men who have gone before you, they're 00:07:42.420 |
They're producing false gospels, maybe even false miracles to divide the church, to confuse 00:07:47.580 |
the church because our enemy knows that the church loses its strength once we are confused. 00:07:54.140 |
So he tells Timothy, these people in chapter 2, 2 Timothy 3.13, these people are imposters. 00:08:02.300 |
They will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 00:08:06.380 |
And Jesus continues to tell us to remain, continue steadfastly. 00:08:11.500 |
And he tells Timothy, that's not you, Timothy. 00:08:15.040 |
Sometimes we can get so caught up in our little world and we get so entangled with our immediate 00:08:22.100 |
And of course, if you can't pay your bills and if you're having a hard time taking care 00:08:25.820 |
of your family, it's understandable that that becomes our primary focus. 00:08:31.620 |
But sometimes when that's all we see and we don't see the larger picture of why we are 00:08:42.900 |
You're not at a church that's teaching you that if you believe in Jesus and if you pray 00:08:47.420 |
enough, and if you do the right things enough, that God's going to bless your business, he's 00:08:51.420 |
going to make you healthy, he's going to give you many, many children. 00:08:57.780 |
And I don't think any of you are here for that reason. 00:09:00.940 |
You are, you're hearing the truth because you're, you're hearing and seeing and studying 00:09:06.700 |
But sometimes we can get so caught up in our little concerns and our little business that 00:09:11.180 |
we're, that we get so entangled with, that we don't see the larger picture of why Christ 00:09:17.700 |
came and why we worship him and why we are constantly reminded to proclaim him. 00:09:26.300 |
Not simply because that's the right thing to do. 00:09:29.300 |
It's not simply because that's what a good Christian does or because God, we want God 00:09:39.960 |
If we truly believe that the answer to all the suffering of mankind is Christ crucified, 00:09:50.160 |
then the natural response would be to proclaim him, to cling to him, to make sure that other 00:09:56.100 |
people know of him, and to be constantly reminded week after week, day after day, this is why 00:10:08.640 |
And this is what I want to do when I raise children. 00:10:10.520 |
I don't want my children to be raised and think like, if you grow up and have a nice 00:10:14.520 |
job and get a great job and pay bills and able to have a great vacation, I've done my 00:10:20.400 |
Because that's not my goal and neither should it be yours. 00:10:25.320 |
If we are genuine followers of Jesus Christ, and he tells Timothy, "Timothy, that is not 00:10:32.640 |
And he's been telling Timothy to follow my example. 00:10:36.360 |
And Paul repeatedly says it over and over again, "Follow me as I follow Christ. 00:10:45.760 |
You know, one of the things that I feel bad for my children being raised in California 00:10:53.400 |
You know, the closest that they've ever seen snow was when we were driving to Victorville, 00:10:58.240 |
going to their uncle's house, and there's snow falling on the freeway. 00:11:01.800 |
And we've gone, of course, we've gone to the mountains to see snow. 00:11:04.080 |
But after it's fallen and all the dirt and junk is on there and they're trying to make 00:11:14.560 |
That's the closest they've gotten to see snow. 00:11:15.960 |
But I remember whether it was when I was younger in Korea or living in Philadelphia, we had 00:11:23.320 |
And I probably, in history, they'll probably say that was one of the worst snow storms 00:11:27.360 |
ever and how all the adults had such a hard time. 00:11:33.880 |
And maybe for them it was bad memories, but for me it was great memories. 00:11:38.160 |
One because the school was closed down for a whole month. 00:11:41.640 |
But secondly, seeing a lot of snow when you're a young kid, you know, that's fun. 00:11:46.280 |
And I remember when I was a young kid, after the snow fell, you know, you try to go outside 00:11:52.040 |
And again, when you're too small, obviously, you have to be very careful. 00:11:55.280 |
So, the way we would walk on the snow is to see where the adults went and stepped. 00:12:00.640 |
Because they're heavier and they know where they're going. 00:12:04.600 |
So in order for us to be able to function in the snow, we'd have to find the footsteps 00:12:10.160 |
And we would step on those places because if we step on anywhere else, we may slip and 00:12:14.400 |
Well, that's the kind of image that I see when Paul is telling Timothy. 00:12:18.360 |
He says, where the steps that Jesus took was the steps that the apostles were taking. 00:12:24.120 |
The steps that the apostles were taking, he was telling Timothy. 00:12:29.040 |
Things you heard from me, commit to other men who will be able to teach others. 00:12:33.760 |
In other words, the steps that I'm taking, you come after me so that the others who are 00:12:40.000 |
And the older and older I get, it's not something that I'm trying to do, but the older and older 00:12:46.120 |
I get, it's hard for me not to think about how my behavior affects my children. 00:12:54.520 |
And so the reality of my behavior affecting the church, and that's always been obvious, 00:13:01.200 |
But now that I have children, I have one who is preparing to go to college, and I'm thinking 00:13:05.480 |
to myself, the footprints that I have left behind for my kids. 00:13:10.160 |
And I'm starting to think even for our church, what will the next generation of Christians 00:13:14.800 |
How will the things that we do today, what kind of impact will it make on them? 00:13:18.360 |
Now, I'm not a grandparent, so I can't go beyond that. 00:13:24.680 |
But our thinking, our application, the things that, not just what I said, but how I lived, 00:13:32.240 |
what I valued, what I did when I didn't have to prepare sermons. 00:13:39.120 |
What are the footsteps, what are the footprints am I leaving behind? 00:13:46.760 |
And that's why he was able to say with a clear conscience to Timothy, he says in verse 10, 00:13:51.680 |
however have followed, you however, Timothy, were not like those people. 00:13:59.000 |
My teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 00:14:05.680 |
my persecutions and suffering have happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. 00:14:11.320 |
On the surface, it may sound like arrogance, but in reality, that's what discipleship ultimately 00:14:19.760 |
You have nine months, and if you teach them this, this, this, and this, that they're going 00:14:23.040 |
to be discipled and they're going to be followers of Jesus Christ. 00:14:27.160 |
Discipleship ultimately is an imitation of the one that is being discipled. 00:14:33.000 |
That they're just going to follow you and they're going to do what you do. 00:14:39.360 |
We can't be a teacher if we're not living like a teacher. 00:14:43.960 |
We can't tell them what the scripture says if the scripture is not being manifested in 00:14:59.640 |
If you have children, no matter how much you tell them God is important, if they don't 00:15:05.360 |
see it in your life, that's not what they're going to learn. 00:15:10.040 |
No matter how much you tell them how important your walk with God is, if they don't see it, 00:15:16.720 |
if they don't see you taking the steps before them, that's not what they're going to learn. 00:15:22.360 |
It's important for us to live day to day knowing not only for our children, but for the next 00:15:29.140 |
When I am gone, when you are gone, what will the children, what will the kids in our nursery, 00:15:37.980 |
When they are adults in this church in 20, 30 years from now, what kind of decisions 00:15:46.640 |
It's important for us as a church to be able to say in every generation, look at the footprints 00:15:53.920 |
You know, I'm so thankful that as a young believer, I was surrounded by committed Christians. 00:16:00.960 |
Now theologically they were all over the place. 00:16:03.120 |
I had charismatic Presbyterians, Armenians, I mean all over the place. 00:16:06.840 |
In fact, one of the first pastors I really respected and loved to hear was a woman pastor. 00:16:11.400 |
I used to drive down to Northridge to hear her speak. 00:16:14.360 |
And so when I came to Biola and I started wrestling with this, you know, complementarianism, 00:16:19.000 |
I really struggled with it for about two years, you know. 00:16:22.840 |
I mean, but I had people in my life that set an example in their life, in their conduct, 00:16:30.300 |
And I'm so thankful for them because even now, as I look and think about my walk with 00:16:35.120 |
God, I have visible examples of people, "I wish I could pray like that person prayed." 00:16:42.120 |
You know, "I wish I could be an evangelist like that guy." 00:16:45.840 |
You know, we used to be in a small group and we would share about how he would go to the 00:16:49.080 |
coin laundry at night after work and he would stay there hoping that he would run into a 00:16:55.880 |
You know, and I actually knew a guy who fasted 30 days, once a year, you know. 00:17:02.440 |
And so God allowed me to be in the presence of these godly men and women who I can think 00:17:10.320 |
about as, "That's the kind of person I want to be. 00:17:12.240 |
That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ." 00:17:14.560 |
And I'm trying very hard to follow in their footsteps. 00:17:19.200 |
Everything that we do leaves an imprint, good or bad. 00:17:24.760 |
Our children are going to follow those steps. 00:17:27.080 |
The people that you are influencing, the younger ones, the next generation, are following those 00:17:32.140 |
And I pray with all my heart that we can say the same thing that Paul is saying. 00:17:36.440 |
To imitate me in my teaching, in my conduct, in my aim of life. 00:17:46.080 |
In Acts 20.24, as he was rounding out his second or third missionary journey and people 00:17:53.120 |
were telling him, prophets were coming and telling him, "Don't go to Jerusalem because 00:18:01.280 |
And so they were pleading with him, crying, hoping that he would turn his path. 00:18:06.980 |
But Paul says in Acts 20.24 to the elders of Ephesus, "I do not count my life of any 00:18:16.220 |
If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify 00:18:24.580 |
Now again, you know, we can't say this is Paul's life verse because this is, Paul said 00:18:29.940 |
This is supposed to be our life verse, but I'm pretty sure this pretty much sums up his 00:18:33.820 |
That he's already, when he met Christ, when Christ called him to the gospel ministry, 00:18:43.620 |
Now the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself 00:18:50.900 |
And I, when he comes in his glory, we will also be glorified with him. 00:18:59.920 |
And so what he's saying here is basically what he's living out. 00:19:05.640 |
So if I go to Jerusalem and preach in the gospel and if I die, so be it. 00:19:12.640 |
When Paul said, "Here am I, send me," he meant it. 00:19:20.960 |
You've already committed your life to a full-time ministry." 00:19:29.200 |
But I realized that this is something that keeps creeping back in over and over. 00:19:37.360 |
There was a period in our church, the first maybe about six, seven years, where every 00:19:41.440 |
week I came home discouraged and thinking, "Do I want to keep doing this? 00:19:50.360 |
But the last seven, eight, nine years, it's been comfortable. 00:19:56.640 |
We have a church filled with people that I care about. 00:20:05.480 |
As we have a lot of college students coming in, coming in from all over. 00:20:10.240 |
We have a lot of foreign students coming in town that we have an opportunity to share 00:20:16.920 |
We have men and women who are willing to pack up their bags and go out to China and plant 00:20:34.640 |
In fact, most of my pastor friends look at our church and they're envious of me. 00:20:49.920 |
Because I have to ask myself, when Paul says, "I do not account my life of any value, nor 00:20:57.240 |
If only I may finish my course and ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus Christ." 00:21:06.320 |
Or am I laboring and working so hard to protect what we have? 00:21:13.480 |
Are you making decisions, being concerned that where we've come, that somehow God's 00:21:19.400 |
not going to shake this up and go back to where we were? 00:21:33.840 |
I look at what's happening all over the world, and in particular because I just came back 00:21:39.680 |
And a question that I am convicted with, whether I'm in China, whether I'm in India, whether 00:21:46.160 |
I'm in Philippines or anywhere else in the world, the question that I come back with, 00:22:07.860 |
But there's a stirring in my heart, whether you want to call that just my emotions or 00:22:12.960 |
Holy Spirit conviction, there's a stirring in my heart that we're not there. 00:22:27.120 |
You have everything that 99% of the world wishes that they had. 00:22:35.140 |
So the next question is, "What are you going to do?" 00:22:53.480 |
What imprint, what footprints are we going to leave behind for our children and for our 00:23:00.200 |
Are we going to simply say, "I saved up this money and I give it to you as an inheritance. 00:23:09.920 |
Are we going to leave behind imprints so that they can work for eternal things? 00:23:16.700 |
They can labor in value and be broken for the lost. 00:23:22.440 |
And Paul says to Timothy, "Timothy, you're not on the wrong path. 00:23:38.480 |
And so he says, again, "Follow my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life." 00:23:43.620 |
And then the part where we left off when it says, "My faith." 00:23:47.320 |
The faith that he's talking about is not talking about creed. 00:23:55.060 |
Faithfulness, maybe that's a better way to put it. 00:24:02.300 |
Despite what we hear in our generation, faith is something you feel. 00:24:06.060 |
And no one judge you because it's something in here you can't see. 00:24:12.820 |
Because logically, everything you do, you do because you believe something. 00:24:19.360 |
Somebody tells me, if I watch the news and they say it's going to rain today, and if 00:24:22.780 |
I believe what they tell me, I would grab a raincoat or an umbrella. 00:24:27.780 |
And say, "Well, it may not rain, so I don't believe." 00:24:30.380 |
If I don't believe what they're saying, I'm not going to grab it. 00:24:35.580 |
Every time you get in your car and you drive by a light and it's green. 00:24:40.220 |
And every time you go through that intersection, you're living by faith. 00:24:43.620 |
You believe that because it's green, you're safe. 00:24:46.700 |
And that other one is red, so it's going to stop the other car. 00:24:51.540 |
If you were going through an intersection, going 50 miles per hour, and another car is 00:24:55.140 |
coming 50 miles per hour, and you didn't believe that that car was going to stop, would you 00:25:02.020 |
Because the consequence is you're going to get in an accident. 00:25:04.180 |
That car coming 50 miles per hour, you going 50 miles per hour, you have a collision, you're 00:25:11.300 |
If you don't believe it, you're not going to go through that intersection. 00:25:15.500 |
Every day, every decision that we make is an out-product of what we believe. 00:25:27.180 |
Obviously, there are times when people cross red light and tragedy happens. 00:25:32.100 |
But every day, I'm living because I believe in something. 00:25:37.500 |
So when it comes to our faith in Christ, it is only logical that our faith in Christ would 00:25:42.980 |
have tangible evidence in the way that we live. 00:25:46.620 |
Paul sends Timothy back to the Thessalonians because he's afraid that these false prophets 00:25:51.940 |
are going to come in and destroy their faith. 00:25:53.940 |
Timothy comes back to Paul and he says, "Not only did they not fault, but they're thriving 00:26:01.060 |
Timothy comes back to Paul and he reports it, "For not only has the word of the Lord 00:26:06.180 |
sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere 00:26:18.940 |
If faith is intangible, it's just deeply inside here, and this is how I feel, what does it 00:26:26.020 |
See, Timothy went to Thessalonica and he observed their life. 00:26:30.820 |
He saw the out-product of what they believed. 00:26:33.900 |
And so, when Timothy says that their faith is going out, he's talking about the response 00:26:44.980 |
If you believe that Jesus Christ is the only answer to the greatest problem of this world. 00:26:51.900 |
If you look at something like that, if you look at these young children being taken advantage 00:26:56.340 |
of because they don't have money by people who have money, and that doesn't somehow cause 00:27:00.900 |
you to cringe, something has gone wrong in our heart. 00:27:03.820 |
I think you don't have to be a Christian to feel compassion for them. 00:27:08.180 |
When you see a mother and children who may die simply because they don't have enough 00:27:12.580 |
medicine for a simple fix for us, and we're not moved at all, there's something deeply 00:27:21.500 |
I don't know if I'm Christian or not Christian. 00:27:26.820 |
But if we believe something and it has absolutely no effect in our lives other than the fact 00:27:30.380 |
that we come to church, can that be genuine faith? 00:27:36.220 |
You know, Paul says, not Paul, but John says in 1 John 1, 9, and again, this is a verse 00:27:44.220 |
that probably many of you have memorized, have repeated over and over, and I've repeated 00:27:50.400 |
But this is a verse that if you, at the surface, doesn't make any sense. 00:27:54.380 |
And that's 1 John 1, 9, it says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 00:28:00.080 |
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 00:28:07.220 |
And how many of you refuse to raise your hand? 00:28:10.500 |
I know a lot more of you have memorized this verse. 00:28:14.180 |
But if you really think about it, if you confess your sins, He is faithful and He is just to 00:28:23.040 |
If you came into the court of law and you come and say, "I confess, I did it, I'm guilty." 00:28:29.040 |
If that judge is faithful and just, He will convict him. 00:28:33.880 |
If you are the lawbreaker and you just confessed it, and you saved us all this time and money 00:28:43.860 |
It requires that you get a minimum sentence of 5 years, 10 years, depending on what you 00:28:48.580 |
But we would never say, "That judge is faithful and just, and so he forgave him and he pardoned 00:28:59.860 |
Why does His faithfulness and His justice lead to our forgiveness? 00:29:06.880 |
Sometimes we read these verses and we don't really put much thought into it because we 00:29:14.660 |
That verse would only make sense if His faithfulness and justice is referring to something else. 00:29:30.020 |
That because God does not delight in punishing the wicked. 00:29:34.620 |
Because He has promised that one day, that through His Son, that all our sins are going 00:29:39.660 |
to be washed away and that He would never remember it anymore. 00:29:43.420 |
And because He allowed His Son to be crucified and absorb your sins and my sins, past, present, 00:29:50.420 |
and future, that it is only faithful for Him because He said He would do it. 00:29:56.340 |
And the just thing for Him to do is to not punish us twice because His Son took the punishment 00:30:04.620 |
And that's why when that verse says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to what He 00:30:11.500 |
And He is just because He's already done it unto His Son. 00:30:16.220 |
That He will cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. 00:30:19.740 |
That's what the word means when He says He is faithful. 00:30:27.420 |
For us to confess that we have been forgiven. 00:30:30.860 |
For us to confess that Jesus Christ is the only way. 00:30:35.820 |
And then to not have the evidence of that in our life? 00:30:44.100 |
It's inconsistent to confess and not have the byproduct of our confession to be true. 00:30:52.500 |
That's why Paul said in Philippians 4, 12, 13, "I know how to be brought low and I know 00:30:58.300 |
In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance 00:31:03.600 |
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." 00:31:07.700 |
He didn't come there and he just meditated on it. 00:31:09.580 |
It's like all of a sudden, you know, all of a sudden, "Oh, now I got it. 00:31:14.180 |
He was some greater enlightenment that he didn't have before. 00:31:17.580 |
When he says, "I have learned how to be brought low," how did he learn it? 00:31:28.060 |
He's an apostle of God and sometimes he had to make tents. 00:31:37.000 |
And in those circumstances, he learned how to be brought low. 00:31:44.800 |
He knew even when he was plenty, when people were giving him money and giving him honor, 00:31:53.680 |
That even in abundance, even in honor, that ultimately his treasure is Christ. 00:31:59.500 |
He didn't just learn this sitting in meditation because he heard some teaching. 00:32:05.220 |
His faith in Christ carried him through these things and kept him centered on Christ. 00:32:12.480 |
He said, "Follow me in my example, in my faith, in my perseverance." 00:32:17.800 |
Next thing he says, "In patience, macrothermia." 00:32:21.100 |
Let me read you exactly what it says in the Bible dictionary. 00:32:24.100 |
Macrothermia, which is translated "patience" in some of your Bible's long-suffering, 00:32:28.680 |
it says, "The quality of a person who is able to avenge himself and yet refrains from doing so." 00:32:37.240 |
"The quality of a person who is able to avenge himself and yet refrains from doing so." 00:32:43.360 |
It's talking specifically about being slandered. 00:32:50.260 |
Because our natural reaction when somebody slanders us is to, like, "Wow, that was unfair." 00:32:58.000 |
If they slammed us, somebody needs to expose that. 00:33:00.180 |
We can't possibly let them get away with that. 00:33:07.900 |
He's not talking about patience as in, you know, refraining yourself from slashing their tires. 00:33:14.240 |
He's saying, "You have the ability to do that. 00:33:16.740 |
I can open my mouth and say all of these things." 00:33:40.260 |
You know, the best way to undermine somebody's teaching is to nullify the guy. 00:33:46.160 |
And that's what he was afraid of when he went to Thessalonica. 00:33:48.660 |
These false teachers came in and said, "All that guy, he wants money. 00:33:52.760 |
He's like any other false prophet that comes in, and he's trying to take advantage of you. 00:33:56.300 |
In the end, all he wants is honor and money." 00:33:58.540 |
And that's why when he writes 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he defends himself. 00:34:05.300 |
We set an example for you to work hard with your hands. 00:34:12.960 |
But despite that, Paul says, remember at the end of chapter 2, Paul tells Timothy, "Who 00:34:23.620 |
He said, "Here's this pressure, and people are questioning you." 00:34:26.860 |
And he says, "Don't worry about them, because that's what Christ did for us." 00:34:32.140 |
See, the cross does not point us to fairness. 00:34:45.240 |
If at work you worked hard, somebody else comes in and they get an advanced position, 00:34:53.520 |
If you're going on the highway and you're going 75 miles per hour, and the next guy's 00:34:56.620 |
going 80, but you're the one who gets pulled over, even though you both broke the law, 00:35:00.660 |
you say, "That guy went… he's worse than I am." 00:35:04.580 |
Something inside of us is always crying out, "Fairness, fairness." 00:35:09.260 |
But when we look at the cross, the cross does not yell out, "Fairness." 00:35:14.260 |
The greatest injustice, according to your definition and my definition, happened at 00:35:21.420 |
Because the only person that was absolutely innocent was Jesus. 00:35:27.360 |
And all of sin, your sins, my sins, have been placed, and He absorbed that all upon Himself. 00:35:40.860 |
So there is no one who is affected by the cross who can yell out, "Fairness." 00:35:51.540 |
You and I would not be here if it was fairness that we received. 00:35:56.000 |
You and I would not be here to be able to understand His Word if God treated us justly 00:36:04.980 |
And He had every power and every right to condemn us, and yet He demonstrated His own 00:36:11.620 |
love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, He died for us. 00:36:14.380 |
And that's why He says, "To follow my faith as I follow Christ. 00:36:27.320 |
And again, you know, if you don't know the importance of love in the church, you haven't 00:36:34.200 |
Because love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians chapter 00:36:40.520 |
Of the three virtues, love, faith, and hope, the greatest is love. 00:36:51.160 |
And as great as these things are, He said, without love, it means nothing. 00:36:58.200 |
If our laboring in the Gospels, if our laboring in the Word of God, and study of theology, 00:37:03.840 |
and spreading of the Gospel, and doing mission work, and helping the poor, if that doesn't 00:37:08.080 |
ultimately lead us to a greater love for God, and greater love for His people, He says, 00:37:15.400 |
And that's why Paul says, and reminds Timothy, he says that the aim of this command is love. 00:37:26.720 |
Why are we gathered here together this morning to worship? 00:37:28.880 |
It's not simply, "Oh, okay, I know why Timothy wrote this letter." 00:37:31.440 |
You know, and then leave at the end of today and say, "Oh, okay, I know what it is. 00:37:38.920 |
You can know everything about the Bible and miss the whole point if our goal is not to 00:37:45.440 |
If every text doesn't lead us to loving God and loving others, you've missed the whole 00:37:55.980 |
And then he says, "My steadfastness in perseverance." 00:37:59.600 |
And this is, again, it sounds the same as the word patience, but it actually has a different 00:38:06.720 |
Again, I'm going to read you exactly what it says in the Bible dictionary. 00:38:11.000 |
The word translated for steadfastness, it says, "is associated with hope and refers 00:38:15.400 |
to that quality of character which does not allow one to surrender to circumstances or 00:38:23.600 |
"This is in direct contrast to macrothermia, long-suffering, or endurance toward people." 00:38:30.240 |
So the first word, patience, is about people. 00:38:33.800 |
How people are treating you and people slandering you and how you react toward that. 00:38:41.180 |
It may not have happened because somebody else did it to you, but God allows you to 00:38:47.040 |
And in those trials, recognizing and trusting that our God is a sovereign God. 00:39:04.200 |
But in that context, he tells him to persevere. 00:39:08.740 |
Persevering isn't telling Timothy to now, you know, we've done great using this technique, 00:39:22.620 |
And again, we have a tendency to think that only if we train people a certain way, or 00:39:27.920 |
if we had a program, and if we did, you know, step one to step two, if we had a two-year 00:39:31.560 |
program of this and three-year program of that, maybe we need to go. 00:39:34.800 |
So we have people studying, writing dissertations, PhD papers all over the world trying to figure 00:39:42.320 |
out maybe this generation needs something different. 00:39:46.220 |
So every day, PhD papers are being defended in seminaries trying to figure out how to 00:39:53.760 |
do ministry differently in this new generation. 00:39:57.280 |
But the warning and the encouragement that we constantly get is to continue. 00:40:17.600 |
We don't have to be the next scholar, or the smartest, or most articulate. 00:40:24.120 |
That's why Jesus said when he was leaving them, what did he say? 00:40:34.640 |
When the Holy Spirit comes, he's going to remind you of what I said, so you don't forget. 00:40:41.160 |
He didn't say the Holy Spirit was going to come. 00:40:42.840 |
He's going to take you to the next level, and everything that I forgot to teach you, 00:40:48.440 |
He's going to come, and he's going to remind you of everything that I said. 00:40:52.600 |
And he's going to be the one who convicts the world of sin. 00:41:02.000 |
No one can bear fruit if he doesn't abide in me." 00:41:11.320 |
Didn't the Scripture say in 1 Peter, "Everything that you need for a life of godliness, you 00:41:16.040 |
have been given in the knowledge of his Son, Jesus Christ." 00:41:23.000 |
That's also to the North Koreans who don't have a church building, who don't have the 00:41:32.560 |
Yes, it's great to have different things and different translations. 00:41:38.080 |
But we keep missing the point when we keep thinking like, "Oh, we need something different. 00:41:45.160 |
When all he kept on telling us is to keep continuing. 00:41:57.680 |
It almost sounds lazy to say, "Just abide in Christ." 00:42:25.480 |
You know, we have a tendency to think that if I don't go to seminary, I can't teach. 00:42:30.440 |
If I didn't get gospel training, I can't share the gospel. 00:42:33.880 |
If I didn't receive small group training, I can't lead small group. 00:42:37.240 |
I didn't get missionary training, so I can't go to missions. 00:42:49.840 |
Wait before you go, because I have level 2 training of discipleship that I didn't finish. 00:42:56.520 |
So when you finish level 2, and then when you're done with that, you go to level 3, 00:43:01.800 |
And then when we establish the seminary, and then we have educated people who can educate 00:43:06.280 |
you, and then after about 12, 13 years of training, now you can go and share the gospel." 00:43:25.120 |
These people are going to go from worse, bad to worse, but what does he say in verse 14? 00:43:28.880 |
"But for you, continue in what you have learned." 00:43:38.040 |
Why do you think the Bible says in Revelation, "You have forsaken your first love to restore." 00:43:44.760 |
Remember the height from which you had fallen. 00:43:47.720 |
He didn't say, "Go out and look for new groups, new techniques, new strategies, cutting edge." 00:43:56.360 |
He said, "No, go back to what gave you power in the first place." 00:44:02.040 |
When you met Christ, did somebody argue you into the kingdom? 00:44:08.160 |
Did somebody present to you all the logical reasons why you should meet Christ, and you 00:44:12.520 |
said, "I have no answer for this, and therefore you change your life and follow Christ." 00:44:20.680 |
What may have been foolishness to you at one point, but it was the power of God. 00:44:33.000 |
And he says, "That power that you've encountered, don't stray from it. 00:44:46.360 |
And he says, "Even in persecution, even in my suffering, follow me in this path, because 00:44:51.760 |
the path that you are on is going to lead you to this." 00:44:57.720 |
And he reminds Timothy, "Remember when you first followed me, I never promised you an 00:45:02.080 |
Paul, as soon as he was called, remember what Jesus said about Paul? 00:45:06.120 |
"I'm going to show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake." 00:45:09.160 |
So from the day that he was called, he was called to suffer. 00:45:17.480 |
This is a guy who was stoned, dragged out, walks right back in, in Lystra. 00:45:24.160 |
His grandmother, his mother, came to Christ at that city. 00:45:28.080 |
So imagine, persecution and the threat of death was real to them. 00:45:32.400 |
So he's reminding Timothy, "Timothy, when you first followed me, that's who I was, and 00:45:39.420 |
And now that it's getting intense, don't think that you made a mistake. 00:45:45.220 |
In fact, not only did God call me to this, not only did God call you to this, what does 00:45:50.780 |
"All who desire to live godly lives will be persecuted." 00:45:55.660 |
Now that word "all," is that only referring to the first century, referring to people 00:46:12.380 |
All means you, me, first century, second century, and to come. 00:46:20.660 |
All who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted. 00:46:26.460 |
When we think of godliness, we think of not doing this. 00:46:36.620 |
When Paul talks about godliness, he's not simply talking about not doing certain things. 00:46:41.980 |
There's a sin of commission, and there's a sin of omission. 00:46:44.700 |
Things that we know we ought to do and not to do. 00:46:53.140 |
If they gathered together in their homes, and they had Bible study, and they had VBS, 00:46:57.820 |
and they raised their children in their home, not bothering anybody, they wouldn't have 00:47:08.780 |
And they have their temples, and you have your temple. 00:47:14.620 |
When you go to India, one of the hardest things about India is when you preach the gospel, 00:47:19.540 |
when you share about Christ, they're very receptive initially. 00:47:26.620 |
But after a while, you realize that they're not accepting Christ. 00:47:30.340 |
They're just adding Jesus to the other idols that they have. 00:47:35.460 |
When you go to India, you'll see shrines, temples, and different idols, hideous stuff. 00:47:40.500 |
And right in the middle of that, you see the Catholic cathedral, and you'll see the different 00:47:50.860 |
People come out of one and enter that one, and there's no difference. 00:47:54.340 |
See, but that's not what the scripture talks about. 00:48:03.460 |
Not only were they saying that Jesus Christ is somebody that they adore, they were beginning 00:48:08.980 |
to tell other people, "In fact, this is the only way for you to live. 00:48:20.580 |
In fact, for the very reason why you worship those idols," he said, "the judgment of God, 00:48:24.500 |
the wrath of God is being revealed against all of these things." 00:48:30.500 |
Have you ever heard anybody say to you, "Oh, that's great. 00:48:34.740 |
As long as you're not one of those Jesus freaks who try to shove religion down my throat. 00:48:45.500 |
We get persecuted not because we try to live a righteous life in our own homes, taking 00:48:49.180 |
care of our children, and actively involved at church. 00:48:53.100 |
Persecution comes as a result of pushing against the darkness. 00:48:58.420 |
Because we're encroaching upon enemy territory. 00:49:01.540 |
The battle is not inside of our home, protecting our kids so that they don't see bad things. 00:49:07.580 |
But he said, "We are the light of the world." 00:49:09.740 |
You don't light a lamp and put it under a desk. 00:49:12.140 |
So you light a lamp and you put it on a desk so that the whole room can be lit. 00:49:17.120 |
And when you light the room, people who have been accustomed to darkness doesn't want you 00:49:27.180 |
Just like if you've ever, when you're young, you know, you shared a room with your brother 00:49:30.420 |
or sister, and it's time for you to go to school, and your brother doesn't want to go 00:49:39.060 |
You know, it's classes at 8 o'clock, and it's 8.15, they're not getting up, and you're concerned 00:49:43.060 |
for them, and you, you know, open the curtain, bright light comes in, you flip the light 00:49:57.420 |
Persecution comes as a result of advancing the Gospel. 00:50:08.420 |
See, the way we avoid persecution is one, through isolation. 00:50:13.900 |
If we isolate ourselves, and we don't contact the world, we're not with people that are 00:50:18.340 |
uncomfortable, we're not with people that are going to question us, and cause us to 00:50:21.440 |
question our faith, then we don't need to worry. 00:50:24.260 |
Just raise my kids, good Sunday school, and go to church, and have fellowship, then yeah, 00:50:35.220 |
If they stayed home in their nice, comfortable room, raised their kids, and worshipped God, 00:50:39.060 |
and had their, you know, grape juice and bread, and whatever they had, they wouldn't have 00:50:44.820 |
They got persecuted because Paul recruited people, went from town to town to town to 00:50:51.300 |
In fact, he was so effective, he was ruining their economy. 00:51:03.460 |
I mean, he would get stoned in one synagogue, and leave, and go to the next city, and go 00:51:08.900 |
At some point, you would think, "Maybe we should stop going to synagogues." 00:51:19.380 |
And even if they reject me, that would be the best place to start. 00:51:22.420 |
So he would first go to the synagogues and preach the Gospel. 00:51:25.220 |
If he didn't go to the synagogues, there would have been less persecution. 00:51:29.940 |
If he didn't go to the marketplaces, there would have been even less persecution. 00:51:33.820 |
If he stayed at home, if he stayed in Antioch, and just built a nice, healthy church, we 00:51:41.980 |
either live in isolation, or another way that we avoid persecution is assimilation. 00:51:49.880 |
We live our lives and speak so much like the world, that they don't see any difference. 00:51:55.620 |
It's like, "Well, you go to church, but I don't." 00:52:01.180 |
And that's about the only difference that they see. 00:52:03.320 |
And so we've assimilated so well, that there is no offense. 00:52:09.900 |
The Gospel basically says, "Jesus Christ is the only way." 00:52:14.860 |
There's no name under heaven which has been given, other than man, Jesus Christ, by which 00:52:38.600 |
But if we've assimilated in such a way that they don't see any difference, of course we're 00:52:46.980 |
Bible never tells us to look for persecution. 00:52:49.780 |
Go look for, "Oh, now I've got to be persecuted." 00:52:58.420 |
It's like, no, that's not what the Bible's calling us to do. 00:53:01.860 |
But it says, "Everyone who strives to live a godly life will be persecuted. 00:53:14.360 |
Just like if you flip on the light and they say, "Oh my gosh, what is that?" 00:53:17.500 |
And then they realize, "Oh shoot, if I miss today, I'm going to get dropped." 00:53:22.820 |
And once they realize that, they're going to thank you. 00:53:32.260 |
But those who don't recognize the danger that they're in, that you've been trying to warn 00:53:37.060 |
them, and the hope that we have in Christ, they're not going to thank you. 00:53:40.780 |
They're going to say, "You're one of those guys." 00:53:44.540 |
And they're not going to invite you to lunch, because you're going to make them feel uncomfortable. 00:53:58.020 |
You know, years ago, when we went to Romania, you know, we were preparing, and again, there's 00:54:04.380 |
a lot of, there's a big story behind that, but we're going to Romania, and we were on 00:54:07.860 |
the road for 44 hours, because we got the cheapest flight you can possibly get from 00:54:13.420 |
So, we went to Atlanta, to New York, to Paris, to Bucharest, and we got off at Bucharest, 00:54:19.220 |
and it was another eight hour drive to where we were going. 00:54:22.660 |
So, we said, "You know, let's make the best of this, since we're on the road so long, 00:54:27.180 |
let's try to share the Gospel while we're on the airplane." 00:54:30.380 |
So, we're telling them, "So, we're all praying, and we're trying to share the Gospel, and 00:54:36.460 |
But Pastor Mark happened to always sit next to non-Christians, and sometimes he would 00:54:41.860 |
be in the middle, sometimes he would be at the end, but he was always with non-Christians. 00:54:44.540 |
So, first leg, you know, we're going to Atlanta, and he got engaged in a conversation, and 00:54:49.660 |
I turned around, and I said, "Oh, yeah, you know, Mark is sharing the Gospel, that's great." 00:54:53.500 |
And then, it's about halfway through the trip, we look over, and you could totally tell he 00:54:56.900 |
got rejected, because the guy was looking through the window, and Pastor Mark was looking 00:55:04.780 |
Sure enough, we get to Atlanta, and I said, "Did you share the Gospel?" 00:55:12.740 |
So, the second leg, he goes in, and says, "Okay, let's pray, and let's do it." 00:55:17.380 |
Right off the bat, we see him sharing the Gospel. 00:55:19.460 |
You know, I said, "Great, you know, he's sharing the Gospel." 00:55:21.260 |
Halfway through the trip, we look over, and you could tell they're looking the other direction. 00:55:26.420 |
And I was kind of like, "Oh, man, it didn't work," you know. 00:55:29.140 |
So, sure enough, we get off, and we tell him, "So, what happened?" 00:55:36.980 |
And so, the rest of the trip was very awkward. 00:55:39.540 |
So, the second, this is a long trip over to Paris, and I said, "This time, let's wait 00:55:45.660 |
So, there wouldn't be, you know, like 10 hours of awkwardness, maybe a couple hours of awkwardness. 00:55:51.580 |
So, we waited and waited, and sure enough, you know, halfway through, he was sharing 00:56:01.100 |
We looked, and you could tell, and he was sitting in the window. 00:56:04.860 |
The whole trip, he was looking out the window. 00:56:08.140 |
And the guy, you could tell, he was just annoyed, you know. 00:56:12.020 |
Now, I share this because I know that many of you are avoiding this because of that at 00:56:36.020 |
But the reality is, if they don't know Jesus, they won't live. 00:56:55.900 |
So we can put that toward bringing more people to Christ. 00:57:04.060 |
That's why we have fellowships, so we can stir up one another to remind each other, 00:57:14.180 |
I mean, you know, we don't say it much, but Pastor Alex and Jen and Hatton are going to 00:57:23.220 |
a country, and then again, I know there's others going, but are going to a country permanently 00:57:27.460 |
where everybody's telling you to don't go in. 00:57:30.860 |
The air quality itself will keep the majority of the people away. 00:57:35.940 |
I mean, they're going to leave behind their friends. 00:57:38.100 |
They're going to leave behind their comfort, In-N-Out Burger, Mexican food. 00:57:42.580 |
Seems like that's what everybody misses when they go abroad. 00:57:46.260 |
They have boba, so they're not going to miss boba. 00:58:01.380 |
Because they're living consistently what you and I profess every single Sunday, that there's 00:58:13.420 |
And I know some of them live up north, and you know, Pastor Aaron, I know, went for the 00:58:30.700 |
Because you and I have been convinced that life is found in Christ, and Christ alone. 00:58:40.180 |
And that's what we're going to continue to do. 00:58:43.200 |
And that's what I hope, as I wrestle with this, as we see the world, and what it is, 00:58:49.020 |
and how the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few, and as I'm wrestling with 00:58:52.860 |
this, I'm praying that you would wrestle with me. 00:58:58.380 |
What do we do with all that God has given us? 00:59:01.220 |
And hopefully, we, together, can figure this out, and live a life truly worthy of the gospel 00:59:08.540 |
We take a few minutes to come before the Lord. 00:59:23.220 |
I want to be a man that's consistent with the things that I profess. 00:59:28.420 |
To take a few minutes to pray, say, "God, I don't want to be a cultural Christian. 00:59:34.020 |
I want to be a worshiper who will worship you."