Gracious and loving Father, we thank you, Lord God, for this day. We thank you for the rain. And I know that there are so many people, Lord, especially in our area that has been praying, the farmers, Lord God, who are in desperate need for this. And we thank you for answering prayers.

We thank you, Lord God, for just your goodness of all the things, Lord, that you pour onto us, and many times, Lord, that we overlook. Help us, Lord God, to be men and women who recognize your gift, that every single day that we live, that we may know and appreciate that it's only by your grace, Lord God, we can be sustained.

Help us, Lord, as we come to worship you and spend time in your word and to praise and to give that all of these things, Lord, would simply be a reflection of the true worship taking place in our hearts. So for that end, we pray for your blessing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

As you guys know, again, I was only gone for about seven or eight days, but again, whenever I leave and I get to see so many things, there's a sensory overload. And so those of you who've been out to missions, you know what I'm talking about. To me, it felt like I've been gone for a month, but even though I've only missed two Sundays in about eight days.

Pastor Peter Chung, who used to be our education pastor here, and then he was sent out as a missionary and then now he's serving as a vision coordinator for Compassion International. And he invited me to come to Philippines to participate in a vision trip to see what Compassion is doing and how they are helping.

And I was thoroughly impressed with how they're running their organization, how the money's being used, accountability. And the thing that I was mostly impressed with is how they're working through the local church and how the money is not only being used to get children out of poverty, but how they're working through the local church and how many of these children and their parents and their siblings end up coming to Christ as a result of their work.

And so we were able to visit different parts of the Philippines and different churches and see the gospel ministry really, even though it's presented as, you know, getting children out of poverty, the bigger work really is the gospel ministry. And I was able to see that and I was really encouraged.

And again, we asked him that when he's going to come here in February because his wife is pregnant with twins and she's going to be here from February to October, I think. And then so she's going to prepare, deliver and then recover all of that while here. Because Peter, Peter Chang, he's actually travels quite a bit, so he won't be able to be with her.

So it'd be a good idea for him to, for them to be here. But he's going to come in February and I asked him, again, I have to talk to the elders, but again, so he'll give a little bit more presentation of what's going on. Maybe it's something that we can pray about getting involved with, about maybe supporting children and things like that.

Going out to the Philippines obviously was a tremendous blessing for me. And I knew that I was going to be able to see a lot of things and they deliberately took us to what they call extreme poverty, not just poverty, but extreme poverty. So we were taken to different homes in different places in parts of Philippines where they're struggling and none of that really surprised me because I went there expecting that.

You know, I've been to different parts of the world where I've seen poverty, I've seen extreme poverty. And so none of that stuff really was shocking to me. But what was shocking, what I didn't expect is to run into so many of the sex trafficking that's happening. And again, it wasn't happening in front of us, but we ended up staying in a Western hotel because we were in areas, visiting areas where there was a lot of poverty and a lot of churches reaching out to the children.

But because we were in a Western hotel, we saw a lot of Westerners coming in and it didn't hit any of us. And I was there with about 10 other pastors and it didn't hit any of us until about the second or third day. And we started noticing a lot of old men, 50s, 60s, maybe even 70 year old men with young teenage girls.

And they must have been, if they were old, they must know more than maybe about 18, 19 years old, young, maybe as young as 15 or 14. And it wasn't just one or two. We were running into them in the restaurant. We were running into them in the elevator, in the lounge.

And it was just very open. In fact, one of the guys actually joked with us because we were sitting around a bunch of pastors at late at night talking. One guy came in and he said, "Hey, you guys want to go and have fun with us?" And they were drinking.

And so we just kind of laughed it off and a bunch of pastors sitting around talking about ministry. And then they were coming trying to get us to go with them. And we're just kind of laughing it off. The next thing we see is two young, very young Filipino girls walking and going out with them.

And that's when it kind of hit us what was happening. And again, all of this stuff is happening because of poverty. And they're not there doing this forcefully. It's happening because a lot of the families don't have any other options. So a lot of times a young girl will go and sell herself to these older men to get enough money.

And they're not going to using this money to buy better cars or live in a nice house. A lot of times it's just to buy medicine. That somebody has pneumonia and they don't have enough money for medicine. The only way to get enough money to pay for this is for one of the girls to go sell themselves.

And I didn't hear this myself, but Pastor Peter said in his previous trips, he had one man stand up and give a testimony. And every church we went to, they were giving testimonies of what was happening and how they received the Lord. And he said one man stood up and gave a testimony of how before he met the Lord, he took his 13 year old daughter and basically gave her to a Russian man to have sex with her.

And then he took that money and he basically went drinking with it. And he was confessing how filthy and dirty he was and how God forgave his sins. And again, he was crying and he was sharing this story. And he shared another story about a young girl who was part of the program and she dropped out and didn't show up for a while.

So they were wondering what happened. So they went and found the parents and found out that the parents ended up selling her to a Middle Eastern man and took her basically as a slave. And the parents did that because they felt like that was the only way that the rest of the family could survive.

Now this is again heart wrenching stories, but these things are happening routinely all over the world. You and I happen to be living in an area of the world where it's just shocking to hear this. But when you're in the midst of this, to them it's everyday life. That's the only way that they know how to survive.

And that's the sin of what we see around us. But again, ultimately the problem is not poverty in itself. We can get sidetracked and think, well, here's these problems. We have money. We can put some money into that and we can fix this problem. Those things are only symptoms.

Whether it's sex trafficking or whether it's pornography or extreme poverty, whatever it may be, all of these things, it's not one. Wars, rumors of wars, all of these things are symptoms of what the scripture says about the fallen world. And that's why Paul is telling Timothy, he said, yes, you may end up forfeiting your life.

And there's tremendous consequence of being a light in the dark world. But you are on the right path, Timothy. And he tells Timothy, he said, watch out because these men who have gone before you, they're not speaking the truth. They're producing false gospels, maybe even false miracles to divide the church, to confuse the church because our enemy knows that the church loses its strength once we are confused.

So he tells Timothy, these people in chapter 2, 2 Timothy 3.13, these people are imposters. They will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And Jesus continues to tell us to remain, continue steadfastly. And he tells Timothy, that's not you, Timothy. Sometimes we can get so caught up in our little world and we get so entangled with our immediate problems.

And of course, if you can't pay your bills and if you're having a hard time taking care of your family, it's understandable that that becomes our primary focus. But sometimes when that's all we see and we don't see the larger picture of why we are here this morning to worship this God.

You're not at a church that's teaching you that if you believe in Jesus and if you pray enough, and if you do the right things enough, that God's going to bless your business, he's going to make you healthy, he's going to give you many, many children. That's a lie.

That's not what the scripture says. And I don't think any of you are here for that reason. You are, you're hearing the truth because you're, you're hearing and seeing and studying the word of God. But sometimes we can get so caught up in our little concerns and our little business that we're, that we get so entangled with, that we don't see the larger picture of why Christ came and why we worship him and why we are constantly reminded to proclaim him.

Not simply because that's the right thing to do. It's not simply because that's what a good Christian does or because God, we want God to hear our prayers. Ultimately, because it's just common sense. If we truly believe that the answer to all the suffering of mankind is Christ crucified, then the natural response would be to proclaim him, to cling to him, to make sure that other people know of him, and to be constantly reminded week after week, day after day, this is why I live.

This is why I go to school. This is why I make money. And this is what I want to do when I raise children. I don't want my children to be raised and think like, if you grow up and have a nice job and get a great job and pay bills and able to have a great vacation, I've done my job.

Because that's not my goal and neither should it be yours. If we are genuine followers of Jesus Christ, and he tells Timothy, "Timothy, that is not you." And he's been telling Timothy to follow my example. And Paul repeatedly says it over and over again, "Follow me as I follow Christ.

Follow me as I follow Christ." You know, one of the things that I feel bad for my children being raised in California is that they don't get to see snow. You know, the closest that they've ever seen snow was when we were driving to Victorville, going to their uncle's house, and there's snow falling on the freeway.

And that's about it. And we've gone, of course, we've gone to the mountains to see snow. But after it's fallen and all the dirt and junk is on there and they're trying to make snowman out of half dirt, half snowman. You know what I mean? That's the closest they've gotten to see snow.

But I remember whether it was when I was younger in Korea or living in Philadelphia, we had such bad snow storms. And I probably, in history, they'll probably say that was one of the worst snow storms ever and how all the adults had such a hard time. And our school was closed for a month.

And maybe for them it was bad memories, but for me it was great memories. One because the school was closed down for a whole month. But secondly, seeing a lot of snow when you're a young kid, you know, that's fun. And I remember when I was a young kid, after the snow fell, you know, you try to go outside and you walk.

And again, when you're too small, obviously, you have to be very careful. So, the way we would walk on the snow is to see where the adults went and stepped. Because they're heavier and they know where they're going. So all the steps that they took. So in order for us to be able to function in the snow, we'd have to find the footsteps that have gone before us.

And we would step on those places because if we step on anywhere else, we may slip and fall. Well, that's the kind of image that I see when Paul is telling Timothy. He says, where the steps that Jesus took was the steps that the apostles were taking. The steps that the apostles were taking, he was telling Timothy.

Isn't that exactly what he says in Timothy? Things you heard from me, commit to other men who will be able to teach others. In other words, the steps that I'm taking, you come after me so that the others who are coming come after you as well. And the older and older I get, it's not something that I'm trying to do, but the older and older I get, it's hard for me not to think about how my behavior affects my children.

Now, I've been a pastor for a long time. And so the reality of my behavior affecting the church, and that's always been obvious, even in my early twenties. But now that I have children, I have one who is preparing to go to college, and I'm thinking to myself, the footprints that I have left behind for my kids.

And I'm starting to think even for our church, what will the next generation of Christians look like? How will the things that we do today, what kind of impact will it make on them? Now, I'm not a grandparent, so I can't go beyond that. Because that's as far as I've gone.

But our thinking, our application, the things that, not just what I said, but how I lived, what I valued, what I did when I didn't have to prepare sermons. What will my children remember of me? What are the footsteps, what are the footprints am I leaving behind? Paul says he lived with a clear conscience.

And that's why he was able to say with a clear conscience to Timothy, he says in verse 10, however have followed, you however, Timothy, were not like those people. That's not where you've been going. You've been following me. My teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering have happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra.

On the surface, it may sound like arrogance, but in reality, that's what discipleship ultimately is. Discipleship is not simply a program. You have nine months, and if you teach them this, this, this, and this, that they're going to be discipled and they're going to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Discipleship ultimately is an imitation of the one that is being discipled. That they're just going to follow you and they're going to do what you do. That's what discipleship ultimately is. We can't be a teacher if we're not living like a teacher. We can't tell them what the scripture says if the scripture is not being manifested in my life.

And that's what Paul is saying. Follow me as I follow Christ. What you and I do has consequences. It has consequences. If you have children, no matter how much you tell them God is important, if they don't see it in your life, that's not what they're going to learn.

No matter how much you tell them how important your walk with God is, if they don't see it, if they don't see you taking the steps before them, that's not what they're going to learn. It's important for us to live day to day knowing not only for our children, but for the next generation.

When I am gone, when you are gone, what will the children, what will the kids in our nursery, how will they be running this church? What are the things they are going to value? When they are adults in this church in 20, 30 years from now, what kind of decisions will they make?

What are they going to value? It's important for us as a church to be able to say in every generation, look at the footprints that were left behind. You know, I'm so thankful that as a young believer, I was surrounded by committed Christians. Now theologically they were all over the place.

I had charismatic Presbyterians, Armenians, I mean all over the place. In fact, one of the first pastors I really respected and loved to hear was a woman pastor. I used to drive down to Northridge to hear her speak. And so when I came to Biola and I started wrestling with this, you know, complementarianism, I really struggled with it for about two years, you know.

I mean, but I had people in my life that set an example in their life, in their conduct, in preaching. And I'm so thankful for them because even now, as I look and think about my walk with God, I have visible examples of people, "I wish I could pray like that person prayed." You know, "I wish I could be an evangelist like that guy." I remember him.

You know, we used to be in a small group and we would share about how he would go to the coin laundry at night after work and he would stay there hoping that he would run into a non-Christian to share the gospel. You know, and I actually knew a guy who fasted 30 days, once a year, you know.

And so God allowed me to be in the presence of these godly men and women who I can think about as, "That's the kind of person I want to be. That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ." And I'm trying very hard to follow in their footsteps.

Everything that we do leaves an imprint, good or bad. Our children are going to follow those steps. The people that you are influencing, the younger ones, the next generation, are following those steps. And I pray with all my heart that we can say the same thing that Paul is saying.

To imitate me in my teaching, in my conduct, in my aim of life. With Paul, his aim was pretty clear. In Acts 20.24, as he was rounding out his second or third missionary journey and people were telling him, prophets were coming and telling him, "Don't go to Jerusalem because if you go, you're going to be bound.

You're going to be put into prison." And so they were pleading with him, crying, hoping that he would turn his path. But Paul says in Acts 20.24 to the elders of Ephesus, "I do not count my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Now again, you know, we can't say this is Paul's life verse because this is, Paul said it.

This is supposed to be our life verse, but I'm pretty sure this pretty much sums up his life. That he's already, when he met Christ, when Christ called him to the gospel ministry, he already died. He's dead. It's no longer about him. Now the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

My life is now hidden with Christ. And I, when he comes in his glory, we will also be glorified with him. So Paul was crucified at his baptism. And so what he's saying here is basically what he's living out. This is how he's living. So if I go to Jerusalem and preach in the gospel and if I die, so be it.

This is my calling. When Paul said, "Here am I, send me," he meant it. You know, I wrestle with that. People just assume, "Oh, you're a pastor. You've already committed your life to a full-time ministry." But yes, I did. I did many years ago. But I realized that this is something that keeps creeping back in over and over.

And I'm very comfortable at our church. Very comfortable. There was a period in our church, the first maybe about six, seven years, where every week I came home discouraged and thinking, "Do I want to keep doing this? How long am I going to be able to do this?" And struggling with that.

But the last seven, eight, nine years, it's been comfortable. You know, we have a nice church facility. We have a church filled with people that I care about. Hopefully you care about me too. Hopefully. Knock on wood. Right? As we have a lot of college students coming in, coming in from all over.

We have a lot of foreign students coming in town that we have an opportunity to share the gospel. We have a church plant up north. We have men and women who are willing to pack up their bags and go out to China and plant churches. And so this is a great church in my view.

I love this church. The bills are paid. Our children are taken care of. And so it's not very hard to be here. In fact, most of my pastor friends look at our church and they're envious of me. You know, I wish I was in that situation. So I'm thankful for what we have.

But at the same time, this is a struggle. Because I have to ask myself, when Paul says, "I do not account my life of any value, nor is it precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus Christ." Is that my honest confession?

Is that my confession? Or am I laboring and working so hard to protect what we have? Are you making decisions, being concerned that where we've come, that somehow God's not going to shake this up and go back to where we were? Now, I don't know. Don't worry. I don't have any crazy thoughts.

This is just me just wrestling. Is that my aim in life? I look at what's happening all over the world, and in particular because I just came back from Philippines. And a question that I am convicted with, whether I'm in China, whether I'm in India, whether I'm in Philippines or anywhere else in the world, the question that I come back with, "What are you going to do?" Yes, you saw this.

Yes, you heard this. And you experienced this. Now what are you going to do? My honest answer to you is, "I don't know. I don't know." But there's a stirring in my heart, whether you want to call that just my emotions or Holy Spirit conviction, there's a stirring in my heart that we're not there.

That God has tremendously blessed us. You guys have money. You guys have freedom. You guys have health. You have everything that 99% of the world wishes that they had. You and I have already. So the next question is, "What are you going to do?" Again, "I don't know." And I'm going to be wrestling with this.

I'm going to continue to wrestle with this. I want you to wrestle with me with this. What are we going to do with this? What are we going to do with this blessing? What imprint, what footprints are we going to leave behind for our children and for our next generation?

Are we going to simply say, "I saved up this money and I give it to you as an inheritance. Look at this nice house. If I pass, I'm going to give that to you." Are we going to leave behind imprints so that they can work for eternal things? They can labor in value and be broken for the lost.

And so I wrestle with that. And Paul says to Timothy, "Timothy, you're not on the wrong path. Yes, hardship is coming. Yes, persecution is. Yes, I may die. But Timothy, you're not on the wrong path. You're not like those people. Even if you die, you shall live." And so he says, again, "Follow my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life." And then the part where we left off when it says, "My faith." The faith that he's talking about is not talking about creed.

It's not talking about doctrine. But the outworking of our confession. Faithfulness, maybe that's a better way to put it. Faith is observable. Despite what we hear in our generation, faith is something you feel. It's deep inside. And no one judge you because it's something in here you can't see.

Faith is tangible. Because logically, everything you do, you do because you believe something. Somebody tells me, if I watch the news and they say it's going to rain today, and if I believe what they tell me, I would grab a raincoat or an umbrella. And say, "Well, it may not rain, so I don't believe." If I don't believe what they're saying, I'm not going to grab it.

Right? Every day, you and I live by it. Every time you get in your car and you drive by a light and it's green. And every time you go through that intersection, you're living by faith. You believe that because it's green, you're safe. And that other one is red, so it's going to stop the other car.

Imagine if you didn't believe that. If you were going through an intersection, going 50 miles per hour, and another car is coming 50 miles per hour, and you didn't believe that that car was going to stop, would you go through the intersection? No, you would not. Because the consequence is you're going to get in an accident.

That car coming 50 miles per hour, you going 50 miles per hour, you have a collision, you're going to die. So the consequence is too great. If you don't believe it, you're not going to go through that intersection. Every day, every decision that we make is an out-product of what we believe.

Because I believe it, this is what I do. I believe that I'm going to be safe. Now, it's not 100%. Obviously, there are times when people cross red light and tragedy happens. But every day, I'm living because I believe in something. So when it comes to our faith in Christ, it is only logical that our faith in Christ would have tangible evidence in the way that we live.

Paul sends Timothy back to the Thessalonians because he's afraid that these false prophets are going to come in and destroy their faith. Timothy comes back to Paul and he says, "Not only did they not fault, but they're thriving in their faith." Timothy comes back to Paul and he reports it, "For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything." What does it mean that their faith went out?

What does that mean? If faith is intangible, it's just deeply inside here, and this is how I feel, what does it mean for it to go out? See, Timothy went to Thessalonica and he observed their life. He saw the out-product of what they believed. And so, when Timothy says that their faith is going out, he's talking about the response that they had to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So faith is tangible. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the only answer to the greatest problem of this world. If you look at something like that, if you look at these young children being taken advantage of because they don't have money by people who have money, and that doesn't somehow cause you to cringe, something has gone wrong in our heart.

I think you don't have to be a Christian to feel compassion for them. When you see a mother and children who may die simply because they don't have enough medicine for a simple fix for us, and we're not moved at all, there's something deeply wrong with our humanity. I don't know if I'm Christian or not Christian.

But if we believe something and it has absolutely no effect in our lives other than the fact that we come to church, can that be genuine faith? You know, Paul says, not Paul, but John says in 1 John 1, 9, and again, this is a verse that probably many of you have memorized, have repeated over and over, and I've repeated over and over.

But this is a verse that if you, at the surface, doesn't make any sense. And that's 1 John 1, 9, it says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." How many of you have memorized this verse?

And how many of you refuse to raise your hand? All right. I know a lot more of you have memorized this verse. But if you really think about it, if you confess your sins, He is faithful and He is just to forgive you of your sins. Does that make any sense?

If you came into the court of law and you come and say, "I confess, I did it, I'm guilty." If that judge is faithful and just, He will convict him. If you are the lawbreaker and you just confessed it, and you saved us all this time and money and energy, and you confessed it, done.

This is what the law says. It requires that you get a minimum sentence of 5 years, 10 years, depending on what you did. But we would never say, "That judge is faithful and just, and so he forgave him and he pardoned him." That's what that verse says. So how does this verse make any sense?

Why does His faithfulness and His justice lead to our forgiveness? Sometimes we read these verses and we don't really put much thought into it because we assume we know what it's talking about. But what is He talking about? That verse would only make sense if His faithfulness and justice is referring to something else.

What is He referring to? He's referring to His promise. It's referring to His nature. That because God does not delight in punishing the wicked. Because He has promised that one day, that through His Son, that all our sins are going to be washed away and that He would never remember it anymore.

And because He allowed His Son to be crucified and absorb your sins and my sins, past, present, and future, that it is only faithful for Him because He said He would do it. And the just thing for Him to do is to not punish us twice because His Son took the punishment for us.

And that's why when that verse says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to what He has said." And He is just because He's already done it unto His Son. That He will cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. That's what the word means when He says He is faithful.

To be consistent. And is it any different for us? For us to confess that we have been forgiven. For us to confess that Jesus Christ is the only way. And then to not have the evidence of that in our life? It is illogical. It doesn't make any sense. It's inconsistent to confess and not have the byproduct of our confession to be true.

That's why Paul said in Philippians 4, 12, 13, "I know how to be brought low and I know how to be abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Well, how did Paul come to know this?

He didn't come there and he just meditated on it. It's like all of a sudden, you know, all of a sudden, "Oh, now I got it. Now I get it." He was some greater enlightenment that he didn't have before. When he says, "I have learned how to be brought low," how did he learn it?

Because God brought him low. Because he couldn't pay his bills. He's an apostle of God and sometimes he had to make tents. And sometimes he had to go hungry. And sometimes he had to be beaten. Sometimes he was chained in prison. And in those circumstances, he learned how to be brought low.

He knew how to cling to Christ. And his faith sustained him. He knew even when he was plenty, when people were giving him money and giving him honor, he knows not to cling to that. That that's not his treasure. That even in abundance, even in honor, that ultimately his treasure is Christ.

And that's what he means. He didn't just learn this sitting in meditation because he heard some teaching. He said he was faithful. His faith in Christ carried him through these things and kept him centered on Christ. See, that's what he means. He said, "Follow me in my example, in my faith, in my perseverance." Next thing he says, "In patience, macrothermia." Let me read you exactly what it says in the Bible dictionary.

Macrothermia, which is translated "patience" in some of your Bible's long-suffering, it says, "The quality of a person who is able to avenge himself and yet refrains from doing so." Let me read it again. "The quality of a person who is able to avenge himself and yet refrains from doing so." It's talking specifically about being slandered.

About somebody who wrongs you. Because our natural reaction when somebody slanders us is to, like, "Wow, that was unfair." You know, we want justice. If they slammed us, somebody needs to expose that. We can't possibly let them get away with that. And so we slander. So we talk about them.

He's not talking about patience as in, you know, refraining yourself from slashing their tires. He's saying, "You have the ability to do that. You can easily do that. I can open my mouth and say all of these things." You have the ability, but you don't. Why is Paul saying that?

Because he was constantly under pressure. From the very church that he sacrificed. From Corinthians. From the Galatians. From the church of Ephesus. The people that he loved. People were questioning this guy. You know, the best way to undermine somebody's teaching is to nullify the guy. And that's what he was afraid of when he went to Thessalonica.

These false teachers came in and said, "All that guy, he wants money. He's like any other false prophet that comes in, and he's trying to take advantage of you. In the end, all he wants is honor and money." And that's why when he writes 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he defends himself.

You know how we behave. How we didn't take your money. We set an example for you to work hard with your hands. Paul was constantly under pressure. But despite that, Paul says, remember at the end of chapter 2, Paul tells Timothy, "Who knows, be gentle with them. They may come to Christ as well." So that's what Paul is telling you.

He said, "Here's this pressure, and people are questioning you." And he says, "Don't worry about them, because that's what Christ did for us." See, the cross does not point us to fairness. Every single one of us. We're not asking for more. We're just asking to be treated fairly. If at work you worked hard, somebody else comes in and they get an advanced position, what do we say?

"That's not fair." Right? "That's not fair." If you're going on the highway and you're going 75 miles per hour, and the next guy's going 80, but you're the one who gets pulled over, even though you both broke the law, you say, "That guy went… he's worse than I am." That's not fair.

Something inside of us is always crying out, "Fairness, fairness." But when we look at the cross, the cross does not yell out, "Fairness." The greatest injustice, according to your definition and my definition, happened at the cross. Because the only person that was absolutely innocent was Jesus. And all of sin, your sins, my sins, have been placed, and He absorbed that all upon Himself.

The cross does not shout out, "Fairness." It cries out, "Mercy and grace." So there is no one who is affected by the cross who can yell out, "Fairness." You and I would not be here if it was fairness that we received. You and I would not be here to be able to understand His Word if God treated us justly according to His law.

He was merciful to us. And He had every power and every right to condemn us, and yet He demonstrated His own love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, He died for us. And that's why He says, "To follow my faith as I follow Christ. Follow my patience." Macrothermia.

As He practiced macrothermia on us. And then He says, "To follow my love." And again, you know, if you don't know the importance of love in the church, you haven't been here. You haven't read your Word. Because love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians chapter 6.

Of the three virtues, love, faith, and hope, the greatest is love. Imagine faith is what we're saved by. By faith and faith alone. Hope is what causes us to persevere. And as great as these things are, He said, without love, it means nothing. It means nothing. If our laboring in the Gospels, if our laboring in the Word of God, and study of theology, and spreading of the Gospel, and doing mission work, and helping the poor, if that doesn't ultimately lead us to a greater love for God, and greater love for His people, He says, it means nothing.

You've missed the whole point. And that's why Paul says, and reminds Timothy, he says that the aim of this command is love. That's our aim. That's our ultimate goal. Why are we gathered here together this morning to worship? It's not simply, "Oh, okay, I know why Timothy wrote this letter." You know, and then leave at the end of today and say, "Oh, okay, I know what it is.

I know what Paul means." So follow his steps. And you can miss the whole point. You can know everything about the Bible and miss the whole point if our goal is not to love. If our application isn't love. If every text doesn't lead us to loving God and loving others, you've missed the whole point.

Love is what God desires from us. And then he says, "My steadfastness in perseverance." And this is, again, it sounds the same as the word patience, but it actually has a different nuance to it. Huppamone. Again, I'm going to read you exactly what it says in the Bible dictionary.

The word translated for steadfastness, it says, "is associated with hope and refers to that quality of character which does not allow one to surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial." And then here's the second part. "This is in direct contrast to macrothermia, long-suffering, or endurance toward people." So the first word, patience, is about people.

How people are treating you and people slandering you and how you react toward that. But the second word is about circumstance. It may not have happened because somebody else did it to you, but God allows you to experience various trials. And in those trials, recognizing and trusting that our God is a sovereign God.

Yes, trials are coming. Persecution has intensified. The apostles are being rounded up. Some of them are being killed. And you guys are next. But in that context, he tells him to persevere. Persevering isn't telling Timothy to now, you know, we've done great using this technique, but now this is leading us to prison.

Maybe we should switch it up. And again, we have a tendency to think that only if we train people a certain way, or if we had a program, and if we did, you know, step one to step two, if we had a two-year program of this and three-year program of that, maybe we need to go.

So we have people studying, writing dissertations, PhD papers all over the world trying to figure out maybe this generation needs something different. So every day, PhD papers are being defended in seminaries trying to figure out how to do ministry differently in this new generation. But the warning and the encouragement that we constantly get is to continue.

To continue. It's like, God didn't call us to be clever. God didn't call us to be smart. God called us to obey. We don't have to be a PhD. We don't have to be the next scholar, or the smartest, or most articulate. He says, "Pay attention." That's why Jesus said when he was leaving them, what did he say?

"What are we going to do? We've been following you. If you leave us, where do we go?" He said, "I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to leave you as orphans. When the Holy Spirit comes, he's going to remind you of what I said, so you don't forget.

He's not going to teach you new things. He didn't say the Holy Spirit was going to come. He's going to take you to the next level, and everything that I forgot to teach you, he's going to teach you." He didn't say that. He's going to come, and he's going to remind you of everything that I said.

And he's going to be the one who convicts the world of sin. And you stick to him. That's why he says, "Remain in him. I am the true vine. No one can bear fruit if he doesn't abide in me." So what does he say? "You've been following me up to this point.

Keep following me. Keep following me." Didn't the Scripture say in 1 Peter, "Everything that you need for a life of godliness, you have been given in the knowledge of his Son, Jesus Christ." Everything. That's not just me and you sitting here. That's also to the North Koreans who don't have a church building, who don't have the translation of the Bible.

He says, "Everything has been given to you." Yes, it's great to have small groups. Yes, it's great to have different things and different translations. But we keep missing the point when we keep thinking like, "Oh, we need something different. It's not working. This isn't working, so let's try this." When all he kept on telling us is to keep continuing.

Keep abiding. You know, it doesn't sound smart. It almost sounds lazy to say, "Just abide in Christ." It sounds like, "Oh, okay. Anybody can say that. Anybody can say that." And you're exactly right. And that's why he calls anybody. That's why he called anybody. Fishermen. That's why he called the uneducated.

The people who had no honor. People who had nothing. He called everybody. You know, we have a tendency to think that if I don't go to seminary, I can't teach. If I didn't get gospel training, I can't share the gospel. If I didn't receive small group training, I can't lead small group.

I didn't get missionary training, so I can't go to missions. Where did that come from? Was that taught in the scripture? Is that what he told his disciples? "Wait. Wait before you go, because I have level 2 training of discipleship that I didn't finish. I only got to 1.

So when you finish level 2, and then when you're done with that, you go to level 3, and then maybe about 5, 6 years. And then when we establish the seminary, and then we have educated people who can educate you, and then after about 12, 13 years of training, now you can go and share the gospel." Did he say that?

Where is that in the scripture? You made that. I made that. The church generation has made that. The church made that. That is not in the scripture. He is telling Timothy, what does he say? These people are going to go from worse, bad to worse, but what does he say in verse 14?

"But for you, continue in what you have learned." Continue. What you know about Jesus, continue. Why do you think the Bible says in Revelation, "You have forsaken your first love to restore." How do you restore that? Remember the height from which you had fallen. Remember. He didn't say, "Go out and look for new groups, new techniques, new strategies, cutting edge." He said, "No, go back to what gave you power in the first place." When you met Christ, did somebody argue you into the kingdom?

Did somebody present to you all the logical reasons why you should meet Christ, and you said, "I have no answer for this, and therefore you change your life and follow Christ." No, you encounter the power of the cross. What may have been foolishness to you at one point, but it was the power of God.

And you change your life. You didn't do it. You encountered God's power. And he says, "That power that you've encountered, don't stray from it. What you have learned, continue in it. Continue to cling to Him. Continue to follow in His steps." And that's why he says, "To persevere." And he says, "Even in persecution, even in my suffering, follow me in this path, because the path that you are on is going to lead you to this." In Antioch, in Iconium, and in Lystra.

And he reminds Timothy, "Remember when you first followed me, I never promised you an easy life." Paul, as soon as he was called, remember what Jesus said about Paul? "I'm going to show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake." So from the day that he was called, he was called to suffer.

But here's the catch. Timothy followed this man. This is a guy who was stoned, dragged out, walks right back in, in Lystra. That's where Timothy is from. His grandmother, his mother, came to Christ at that city. So imagine, persecution and the threat of death was real to them. So he's reminding Timothy, "Timothy, when you first followed me, that's who I was, and that's where I was headed.

And you followed me faithfully. And now that it's getting intense, don't think that you made a mistake. In fact, not only did God call me to this, not only did God call you to this, what does he say? "All who desire to live godly lives will be persecuted." Now that word "all," is that only referring to the first century, referring to people at that time?

Or does that "all" mean "all"? It means all. There's nothing hidden in the Greek. There's nothing hidden in the context. All means you, me, first century, second century, and to come. But here's the thing. All who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted. When we think of godliness, we think of not doing this.

Not getting drunk. Not watching certain things. Not going certain places. So we're living a godly life. When Paul talks about godliness, he's not simply talking about not doing certain things. There's a sin of commission, and there's a sin of omission. Things that we know we ought to do and not to do.

That is also sin before God's eyes. Why were they persecuted? If they gathered together in their homes, and they had Bible study, and they had VBS, and they raised their children in their home, not bothering anybody, they wouldn't have been persecuted. For what reason? Because they have thousands of gods.

You just happen to be one of them. And they have their temples, and you have your temple. They have their idols, you have their idols. And that's the thing. When you go to India, one of the hardest things about India is when you preach the gospel, when you share about Christ, they're very receptive initially.

They say, "Yes, that's great." But after a while, you realize that they're not accepting Christ. They're just adding Jesus to the other idols that they have. And that's a freaky thing. When you go to India, you'll see shrines, temples, and different idols, hideous stuff. And right in the middle of that, you see the Catholic cathedral, and you'll see the different statues of Mary and all the saints.

And they're just right in the middle of it. Nobody's bothered by it. People come out of one and enter that one, and there's no difference. See, but that's not what the scripture talks about. Why did they get persecuted? Because they were proselytizing. Not only were they saying that Jesus Christ is somebody that they adore, they were beginning to tell other people, "In fact, this is the only way for you to live.

There is no other God. All your other gods are not real gods. They're fake. They're man-made. In fact, for the very reason why you worship those idols," he said, "the judgment of God, the wrath of God is being revealed against all of these things." That's why they were being persecuted.

Have you ever heard anybody say to you, "Oh, that's great. As long as you believe it. As long as you're not one of those Jesus freaks who try to shove religion down my throat. As long as you keep it to yourself. That's good. Good for you." We get persecuted not because we try to live a righteous life in our own homes, taking care of our children, and actively involved at church.

Persecution comes as a result of pushing against the darkness. Because we're encroaching upon enemy territory. The battle is not inside of our home, protecting our kids so that they don't see bad things. That's part of our battle. But he said, "We are the light of the world." You don't light a lamp and put it under a desk.

So you light a lamp and you put it on a desk so that the whole room can be lit. And when you light the room, people who have been accustomed to darkness doesn't want you to turn the light on. They'll react. Just like if you've ever, when you're young, you know, you shared a room with your brother or sister, and it's time for you to go to school, and your brother doesn't want to go to school, and you flip the light on.

Or maybe one of your roommates, right? You know, it's classes at 8 o'clock, and it's 8.15, they're not getting up, and you're concerned for them, and you, you know, open the curtain, bright light comes in, you flip the light on. When they open their eyes, what do they say?

Thank you so much. Thank you. They say that. What are you doing? Right? I don't have class today, you dummy! Persecution comes as a result of advancing the Gospel. See, the way we avoid persecution is one, through isolation. If we isolate ourselves, and we don't contact the world, we're not with people that are uncomfortable, we're not with people that are going to question us, and cause us to question our faith, then we don't need to worry.

Just raise my kids, good Sunday school, and go to church, and have fellowship, then yeah, what persecution? I don't experience any persecution. They wouldn't have been persecuted either. If they stayed home in their nice, comfortable room, raised their kids, and worshipped God, and had their, you know, grape juice and bread, and whatever they had, they wouldn't have been persecuted.

They got persecuted because Paul recruited people, went from town to town to town to town. In fact, he was so effective, he was ruining their economy. And that's why they were angry with him. That's why they were stoning him. He went into synagogues. I mean, he would get stoned in one synagogue, and leave, and go to the next city, and go to the next synagogue.

At some point, you would think, "Maybe we should stop going to synagogues." But he didn't. Because that was the best place to start. Because they had the Old Testament. And even if they reject me, that would be the best place to start. So he would first go to the synagogues and preach the Gospel.

If he didn't go to the synagogues, there would have been less persecution. If he didn't go to the marketplaces, there would have been even less persecution. If he stayed at home, if he stayed in Antioch, and just built a nice, healthy church, we either live in isolation, or another way that we avoid persecution is assimilation.

We live our lives and speak so much like the world, that they don't see any difference. It's like, "Well, you go to church, but I don't." You go to church Sunday, but I don't. And that's about the only difference that they see. And so we've assimilated so well, that there is no offense.

We've taken away the offense of the Gospel. The Gospel basically says, "Jesus Christ is the only way." There's no name under heaven which has been given, other than man, Jesus Christ, by which we must be saved. Nobody. So if you're a Buddhist, you can't be saved. You're a Muslim, you can't be saved.

You're an atheist, you can't be saved. That's a central message of the Gospel. That Jesus Christ is the only way. But if we've assimilated in such a way that they don't see any difference, of course we're not going to be persecuted. Bible never tells us to look for persecution.

Go look for, "Oh, now I've got to be persecuted." And then you go out and say, "Hey, you!" And we start acting like jerks. It's like, no, that's not what the Bible's calling us to do. But it says, "Everyone who strives to live a godly life will be persecuted.

You will experience pushback. You're not going to be welcome. Some people will thank you. Just like if you flip on the light and they say, "Oh my gosh, what is that?" And then they realize, "Oh shoot, if I miss today, I'm going to get dropped." And once they realize that, they're going to thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for preaching the Gospel to me. Thank you for turning the lights on. But those who don't recognize the danger that they're in, that you've been trying to warn them, and the hope that we have in Christ, they're not going to thank you. They're going to say, "You're one of those guys." And they're not going to invite you to lunch, because you're going to make them feel uncomfortable.

Yes, it's going to be awkward at work. It's going to be very awkward at work. You know, let me finish with this. You know, years ago, when we went to Romania, you know, we were preparing, and again, there's a lot of, there's a big story behind that, but we're going to Romania, and we were on the road for 44 hours, because we got the cheapest flight you can possibly get from here to Romania.

So, we went to Atlanta, to New York, to Paris, to Bucharest, and we got off at Bucharest, and it was another eight hour drive to where we were going. So, we said, "You know, let's make the best of this, since we're on the road so long, let's try to share the Gospel while we're on the airplane." So, we're telling them, "So, we're all praying, and we're trying to share the Gospel, and some of us sat together, so we couldn't." But Pastor Mark happened to always sit next to non-Christians, and sometimes he would be in the middle, sometimes he would be at the end, but he was always with non-Christians.

So, first leg, you know, we're going to Atlanta, and he got engaged in a conversation, and I turned around, and I said, "Oh, yeah, you know, Mark is sharing the Gospel, that's great." And then, it's about halfway through the trip, we look over, and you could totally tell he got rejected, because the guy was looking through the window, and Pastor Mark was looking the other way.

Sure enough, we get to Atlanta, and I said, "Did you share the Gospel?" He said, "Yes." And so, I assumed he wasn't receptive. He's like, "No." So, it was very awkward. He got out, and they got out. So, the second leg, he goes in, and says, "Okay, let's pray, and let's do it." We get in.

Right off the bat, we see him sharing the Gospel. You know, I said, "Great, you know, he's sharing the Gospel." Halfway through the trip, we look over, and you could tell they're looking the other direction. And I was kind of like, "Oh, man, it didn't work," you know. So, sure enough, we get off, and we tell him, "So, what happened?" He's like, "Yeah, I shared the Gospel." He wasn't interested.

In fact, he was kind of upset, you know. And so, the rest of the trip was very awkward. So, the second, this is a long trip over to Paris, and I said, "This time, let's wait a little bit." So, there wouldn't be, you know, like 10 hours of awkwardness, maybe a couple hours of awkwardness.

So, we waited and waited, and sure enough, you know, halfway through, he was sharing the Gospel, and you could tell. And I shouldn't have laughed, but I laughed. We looked, and you could tell, and he was sitting in the window. The whole trip, he was looking out the window.

And the guy, you could tell, he was just annoyed, you know. Now, I share this because I know that many of you are avoiding this because of that at work. And I know. Who wants to be a weirdo? Who wants to be that guy? Right? I mean, naturally, we don't.

And we try so hard to avoid that. But the reality is, if they don't know Jesus, they won't live. They won't live. That's why you and I are here. That's why we're taking your offering. You're hard-earned money. So we can put that toward bringing more people to Christ. That's why we're praying.

That's why we're singing these songs. That's why we have fellowships, so we can stir up one another to remind each other, this is why we're gathered together. This is why we have mission trips. This is why we're sending out people. I mean, you know, we don't say it much, but Pastor Alex and Jen and Hatton are going to a country, and then again, I know there's others going, but are going to a country permanently where everybody's telling you to don't go in.

The air quality itself will keep the majority of the people away. I mean, they're going to leave behind their friends. They're going to leave behind their comfort, In-N-Out Burger, Mexican food. Seems like that's what everybody misses when they go abroad. Mexican food. They have boba, so they're not going to miss boba.

But they're leaving all that behind. They like adventure, because Chinese food. Because they're living consistently what you and I profess every single Sunday, that there's nothing more important than this. Why did all those people go up north? And I know some of them live up north, and you know, Pastor Aaron, I know, went for the gospel, I know that.

Why did they go? Why are people going out to India? Why are we doing this? Because you and I have been convinced that life is found in Christ, and Christ alone. That's why we're doing this. And that's what we're going to continue to do. And that's what I hope, as I wrestle with this, as we see the world, and what it is, and how the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few, and as I'm wrestling with this, I'm praying that you would wrestle with me.

Now what? What do we do with this blessing? What do we do with all that God has given us? And hopefully, we, together, can figure this out, and live a life truly worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me? We take a few minutes to come before the Lord.

Again, just an honest prayer. I believe, help my unbelief. I want to be sincere. I want to be a man that's consistent with the things that I profess. To take a few minutes to pray, say, "God, I don't want to be a cultural Christian. I want to be a worshiper who will worship you."