Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / God-Breathed Truth Msg 10 14

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God-Breathed Truth Msg 10 14 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Jesus placed a high priority on children. In fact, he said,
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Speaker 1: allow them to come to me because such is the
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Speaker 1: kingdom of heaven. In fact, a very special place on
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Speaker 1: even special needs children in as much as you have
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Speaker 1: done it to the least of these. My brothers and sisters,
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Speaker 1: you've done it unto me. Let me say before we
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Speaker 1: continue with the reading of scripture, how seriously we take
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Speaker 1: the commitment to your children at our church. First off,
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Speaker 1: we want you to know that they are safe here.
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Speaker 1: We watch over their security with a great deal of
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Speaker 1: attention and concern. We know there are predators who would
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Speaker 1: hurt them. And therefore we screen all of those who
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Speaker 1: work with our children with a great deal of care
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Speaker 1: and concern for their safety. We also want you to
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Speaker 1: know that when it comes to the training and the
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Speaker 1: things of God, we teach them the scriptures, and we
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Speaker 1: do so deliberately, consistently, and carefully. We shape the words
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Speaker 1: that we teach them to their age level, but all
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Speaker 1: the while, we see it as our responsibility to supplement
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Speaker 1: the commitment you have for your children and their spiritual growth.
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Speaker 1: We look at these children up here singing and we
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Speaker 1: realize they really are the future, not only of our church,
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Speaker 1: but of our society. And we find great delight and
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Speaker 1: a deep sense of responsibility in that. So thank you
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Speaker 1: for your trusting us with them. We care about that.
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Speaker 1: Words I can hardly... put before you. So thank you
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Speaker 1: for your trust. You'll find an outline. Oh, my goodness. Well,
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Speaker 1: you'll find it. You never know when folks are going
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Speaker 1: to applaud, do we? Have a friend who says, if
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Speaker 1: we can applaud things, can we also boo them, the
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Speaker 1: things we don't like? There's an outline you'll find. I've
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Speaker 1: filled mine in already because I know what's coming. But
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Speaker 1: you may want to follow along in the message in
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Speaker 1: a few moments by having the outline on your lap.
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Speaker 1: Please take the time to locate it. And when you do,
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Speaker 1: find in your Bible 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy
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Speaker 1: chapter 3. Begin reading at verse 14 down to the
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Speaker 1: end of the chapter. May we stand together for the
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Speaker 1: reading of the scriptures. 2 Timothy 3.14. You, however, continue
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Speaker 1: in the things you have learned and become convinced of,
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Speaker 1: knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from
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Speaker 1: childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able
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Speaker 1: to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith,
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Speaker 1: which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God.
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Speaker 1: and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training
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Speaker 1: in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate,
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Speaker 1: equipped for every good work. Our hope is that our
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Speaker 1: eyes will be opened and our hearts as well to
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Speaker 1: the print that appears before us on the sacred page
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Speaker 1: And as we live it out, that the Lord will
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Speaker 1: be honored in our doing so. Please be seated. Bow
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Speaker 1: with me as we pray. Every gift comes from above
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Speaker 1: and it comes from you, the Father of lights with
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Speaker 1: whom there is no shadow caused by our turning. Whether
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Speaker 1: we are faithless or faithful, You shine brightly. As bright
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Speaker 1: as the morning sun, your compassions are new. Thank you, Father.
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Speaker 1: And how good you are to give us, in our
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Speaker 1: own language, our own copies of the Bible. Thank you
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Speaker 1: for living truth, ancient words that give life and meaning
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Speaker 1: to life on this old planet. Thank you for meeting
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Speaker 1: our every need and for deliberately not meeting our every want.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for teaching us the difference between price and value.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for the commitment of your people who have
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Speaker 1: sustained the work over the years, guard us from any
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Speaker 1: worry knowing that this ministry will be sustained by your
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Speaker 1: faithful prompting in the lives of your faithful people. We
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Speaker 1: pray especially today on this cool morning for those who
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Speaker 1: are long ways away from home, our men and women
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Speaker 1: who serve in the armed forces. Take good care of them, Father.
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Speaker 1: take care of their families, place protection around them, the
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Speaker 1: shield of your care, the bulwark of your presence. And
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Speaker 1: accept our gifts, Father, as we give them today while
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Speaker 1: surveying the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died.
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Speaker 1: It's in his name we pray and because of his
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Speaker 1: death we live and give. And everyone said, Amen. Not
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Speaker 1: enough is said about finishing well. We all appreciate and
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Speaker 1: admire a strong start. And of course, we admire people who,
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Speaker 1: in the words of one who put it this way,
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Speaker 1: have a long obedience in the same direction who sustain,
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Speaker 1: who maintain through those difficult mid-years of life. But there's
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Speaker 1: something about finishing well that is just off the chart.
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Speaker 1: You remember the Summer Olympics where the woman who had
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Speaker 1: run that long, oh, Marathon, so many meters, I can't
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Speaker 1: remember how long it is. It's too long. And she
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Speaker 1: came around the corner on her way in for that
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Speaker 1: last lap, and she couldn't make it. And she literally fell, stumbled,
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Speaker 1: and some ran out on the track to help her,
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Speaker 1: and she held them back. No, no, no, she's going
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Speaker 1: to finish well. And she tried to get up and
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Speaker 1: couldn't get up. She tried again to get up and
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Speaker 1: couldn't get up. And finally, she just crawled. and finally
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Speaker 1: made it across the line. I remember in our home,
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Speaker 1: I stood up and applauded. You know you're getting old
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Speaker 1: when you applaud at television, but I'll tell you, it
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Speaker 1: was a great moment when I saw that woman committed
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Speaker 1: to finishing well. Cynthia and I have a friend who
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Speaker 1: was a decathlete in the Summer Olympics when the Olympics
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Speaker 1: were held in Los Angeles. He tells the true story
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Speaker 1: as he qualified as a decathlete And as he was
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Speaker 1: going through those 10 grueling events to finish it, he
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Speaker 1: realizes about halfway through there is no way he would
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Speaker 1: ever win. And he lost heart. And he literally pulled
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Speaker 1: out of the event. He went to his car, he
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Speaker 1: left the stadium, and he's on his way home on
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Speaker 1: the freeway. And suddenly he remembers the words of his father.
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Speaker 1: Whatever you start, son, always finish. Trust me on this.
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Speaker 1: He took a U-turn, went back to the stadium, got
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Speaker 1: back in his sweaty gear and got back into it.
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Speaker 1: And he, of course, did not win, but he finished well.
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Speaker 1: He finished the decathlon. This is Paul's concern as he
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Speaker 1: writes this letter to Timothy saying, in his final words
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Speaker 1: that are written in the Holy Scriptures. Paul is writing
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Speaker 1: to Timothy, and he's saying to him in so many words,
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Speaker 1: finish strong, finish well. But before you rush to the
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Speaker 1: conclusion that this is a message for those who are
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Speaker 1: over 80 or into their 90s, understand you don't learn
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Speaker 1: to finish strong late in life. Finishing well doesn't start
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Speaker 1: when you're on the track. It starts years before you
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Speaker 1: ever make it to the track. It starts when you're little.
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Speaker 1: It starts when you're an adolescent, when you're a young adult.
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Speaker 1: Something grips you and you realize what life is about,
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Speaker 1: why it's significant, that its greatest dimensions are eternal, and
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Speaker 1: you're determined to go all the way strong. I don't
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Speaker 1: know of a better epitaph than the simple words, she
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Speaker 1: finished strong, or he ended well. That was Paul's hope
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Speaker 1: for Timothy when he wrote this last letter to him.
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Speaker 1: If you have your Bible open to chapter 1, for example,
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Speaker 1: he tells him right out of the chute, you need
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Speaker 1: to guard this treasure, verse 14. Chapter 1, verse 14.
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Speaker 1: Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the
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Speaker 1: treasure which has been entrusted to you. Timothy, finish well
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Speaker 1: guarding the treasure. It isn't just another scroll that you
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Speaker 1: have under your arm. You have God's written word. You
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Speaker 1: have his truth. Guard it as a spokesman for him, Timothy,
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Speaker 1: as you minister there in Ephesus. When you get to
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Speaker 1: chapter 2, he's still at it. Verse 3, suffer hardship
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Speaker 1: with me. as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. In fact,
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Speaker 1: he even refers to athletics in verse 5. If anyone
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Speaker 1: competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize
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Speaker 1: unless he competes according to the rules. Stay at it, Timothy,
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Speaker 1: like a good athlete, well-conditioned, fitted for the race. When
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Speaker 1: you get to chapter 3, he's still saying the same thing.
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Speaker 1: Chapter 3, verse 12. Indeed, all who desire to live
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Speaker 1: godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Don't toss in
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Speaker 1: the towel because things get going against you. Don't give
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Speaker 1: up because a few people criticize you. As a matter
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Speaker 1: of fact, verse 13, evil men and women and imposters
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Speaker 1: will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
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Speaker 1: Stay at it. Finish the task. Run the race. Don't
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Speaker 1: back off. I don't know how many parents are listening
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Speaker 1: to me right now, but there's a bunch of you
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Speaker 1: out there. And you remember the knot in your throat
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Speaker 1: when you said goodbye to your adult child for the
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Speaker 1: first time? Either they were stepping into the ranks of
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Speaker 1: the military and they'd be gone, away from your surveillance,
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Speaker 1: your presence, your word, your counsel, gone. Or how about
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Speaker 1: the time they moved off to college? Isn't it amazing
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Speaker 1: how grown people can cry? We leave them in college,
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Speaker 1: and they're all excited about it. We drive away thinking, oh,
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Speaker 1: how is he going to make it without me? We're
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Speaker 1: all worried about them in college. Why? Because we're not there.
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Speaker 1: Why are we concerned? We want them to finish well.
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Speaker 1: We'd like them to get through school to start with,
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Speaker 1: and then we want them to finish life well. Or
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Speaker 1: even that feeling when we say goodbye to them, and
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Speaker 1: they're blending their hearts with a spouse at the altar,
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Speaker 1: and they're going to be married, and they're going to
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Speaker 1: go off and live their lives, maybe in another state,
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Speaker 1: perhaps another country. Your heart for them says one thing,
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Speaker 1: stay strong, be faithful, finish well. So when we get
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Speaker 1: to these last verses of chapter three, the apostle is
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Speaker 1: saying these words to younger Timothy because he knows Timothy
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Speaker 1: has years left and the apostle only has hours left.
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Speaker 1: If you were on your deathbed and you were passing
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Speaker 1: along some information, it would be the same kind of thing.
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Speaker 1: You're breathing your last. These are your words. And if
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Speaker 1: our final words are our most significant, then Timothy, 2
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Speaker 1: Timothy is among Paul's most significant words. But let's do
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Speaker 1: something here for a change. Rather than leaving this in
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Speaker 1: Timothy's court, let's leave it in our court. These are
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Speaker 1: words to you and me. Let's take Paul's words as
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Speaker 1: counsel from the Lord God to us personally. Let's ask
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Speaker 1: the question and answer it four different times and fill
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Speaker 1: in the blanks, if you will. How can I finish well?
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Speaker 1: What's necessary for me to run the race and go
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Speaker 1: all the way to the tape even if I have
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Speaker 1: to crawl across it? If I'm so physically spent and
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Speaker 1: weak I can't run it, how can I cross the
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Speaker 1: line and say as I look back that life was
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Speaker 1: well lived? Four answers come to us from these four verses,
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Speaker 1: and I want you to notice them one by one.
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Speaker 1: We've given you an outline for you to follow. First
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Speaker 1: of all, by continuing in what we have learned. See
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Speaker 1: verse 14 again, chapter 3. You, however, so this has
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Speaker 1: your name all over it. You, however, continue in the
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Speaker 1: things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from
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Speaker 1: whom you have learned them. We'll get to that part
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Speaker 1: in a moment. Look at the first part. James Moffat,
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Speaker 1: the Scot, renders this, hold to what you have been taught,
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Speaker 1: hold to your convictions. Mark it down. Those who finish
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Speaker 1: well do so because they don't forget what they have
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Speaker 1: been taught. Reliable, trustworthy, accurate information, nor do they fail
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Speaker 1: to form their own bone deep convictions. So the good
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Speaker 1: question is, do you know what you believe? Do you
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Speaker 1: know what your belief system is? Can you defend it
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Speaker 1: in a room full of people who aren't believers? Are
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Speaker 1: your convictions such that when you're outnumbered, you don't yield?
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Speaker 1: When everybody else in the company goes off to get
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Speaker 1: smashed or to find another woman for the night, do
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Speaker 1: you have the kind of conviction that says, I'm not
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Speaker 1: going there. I'm not going to be that unfaithful to
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Speaker 1: my family. I'm going back to the hotel and turning in.
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Speaker 1: How do I do that? What's the secret? Well, go
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Speaker 1: back to the verse. We continue in the things we
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Speaker 1: have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom we
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Speaker 1: have learned them. So let's fill in the blank. Number one,
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Speaker 1: we continue in the things we have learned by going
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Speaker 1: back to our original parents and grandparents and family teachings.
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Speaker 1: We go back to our original parents and grandparents and
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Speaker 1: family teaching. Our earliest impressions are our most longstanding truths.
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Speaker 1: We can trace them back, I certainly can in my life,
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Speaker 1: to our original homes. Lincoln said, though he lost his
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Speaker 1: mother young in life, even before he was a teenager,
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Speaker 1: later in life said, no man is poor who has
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Speaker 1: had a godly mother. If your life has been blessed
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Speaker 1: with a godly mother, and even better than that, a
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Speaker 1: godly mother and father, you're miles ahead of the runners.
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Speaker 1: We learn from them the rudiments of the faith and
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Speaker 1: of a walk with God. And I would say next,
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Speaker 1: from our teachers and mentors and close friends, We stay
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Speaker 1: with what we have learned by remembering what our teachers
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Speaker 1: taught us, what our mentors modeled before us, and this
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Speaker 1: is true for Timothy. In his own life, he could
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Speaker 1: remember back to the things he saw in Paul's life.
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Speaker 1: We can only imagine what went on those years that
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Speaker 1: they traveled together, the hard places that they came to.
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Speaker 1: The criticism and attacks that came against Paul and Timothy
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Speaker 1: must have watched in the shadows or in the wings
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Speaker 1: watching Paul as he stood firm. Hopefully you have had
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Speaker 1: in your life a few mentors who have modeled for
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Speaker 1: you the life worth living. It will help you finish well.
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Speaker 1: Back to Timothy and we'll use this by application. Look
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Speaker 1: at verse 15. And so the sentence continues, and that
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Speaker 1: from childhood... You have known the sacred writings. Before I
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Speaker 1: go any further, look at the word childhood. It's an
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Speaker 1: interesting Greek word, brephos, sounds like the word breakfast, B-R-E-P-H-O-S.
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Speaker 1: Brephos refers to an unborn fetus. Luke 1.41, it's used
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Speaker 1: of The baby leaping in the womb when Mary and
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth meet, that word for baby, which is the fetus
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Speaker 1: in the womb of the mother, is leaping, that's brephos.
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Speaker 1: It's used for a newborn in Luke 2 when the
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Speaker 1: shepherds came to see the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.
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Speaker 1: It's the word for a brand newborn. It's used for
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Speaker 1: a baby in 1 Peter 2, 2 as baby. Newborn
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Speaker 1: babes desire the sincere milk of the word. So it's
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Speaker 1: used for the very, very young child. The reason I
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Speaker 1: go there is because from our earliest years, even months,
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Speaker 1: we are forming impressions regarding things that matter. Now, go
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Speaker 1: to this 15th verse and let's ask the question again,
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Speaker 1: how can I finish well? The second answer we give
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Speaker 1: is by becoming convinced of what we know. Verse 15.
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Speaker 1: And how does that happen? First, by cultivating our own convictions.
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Speaker 1: my parents convictions were strong I can assure you they
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Speaker 1: were very opinionated my father was unmoved by the people
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Speaker 1: around him he knew the direction he ought to be
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Speaker 1: going and he went in that direction When the union
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Speaker 1: chose to strike, my father went against the union and
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Speaker 1: he crossed the picket line because he had family with
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Speaker 1: needs at home and the family needs were greater to
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Speaker 1: him than the union demands. I'll never forget when he
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Speaker 1: came home from work and the windshield was smashed and
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Speaker 1: his face was bloody and I asked him, how did
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Speaker 1: all of that happen? It looked like he'd been in
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Speaker 1: a wreck. He said, I just crossed the picket line.
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Speaker 1: Why'd you do that, daddy? He said, because I love you.
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Speaker 1: Because I care about the needs of my family more
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Speaker 1: than the desires of a union. That's conviction. Maybe you
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Speaker 1: don't agree with that. I don't care whether you agree
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Speaker 1: with that or not. And more importantly, my father would
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Speaker 1: not care. Why? Because they were his convictions. When you
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Speaker 1: form your own convictions, you cultivate them on your own
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Speaker 1: and you do not care what other people say or
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Speaker 1: think or do. I remember as if it were yesterday
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Speaker 1: when I dropped my sea bag on Okinawa and I
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Speaker 1: was 8,000 miles away from wife, mom and dad, sister, brother, family,
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Speaker 1: and friends. It was time to sow wild oats if
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Speaker 1: I wanted to. And I remember thinking if I don't
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Speaker 1: take care of this right now, I'm going to yield
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Speaker 1: And I'll be in some other woman's bed before the
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Speaker 1: next week is over, as most of the Marines in
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Speaker 1: my outfit were. 93% either had had or had venereal
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Speaker 1: disease when I got there. They were shot through with
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Speaker 1: syphilis and gonorrhea and social diseases. Why? Because they cheated
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Speaker 1: on their wives. Because they had sex outside of marriage.
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Speaker 1: They didn't have any convictions. So we're not talking about
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Speaker 1: some ethereal truth that applies to Timothy in the first century. Folks,
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Speaker 1: we're talking about that which we have known from childhood,
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Speaker 1: and thank God for rearing like I enjoyed, and I
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Speaker 1: hope your mother also did this, and your father as well.
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Speaker 1: In fact, let me show you Timothy's, for example. Go
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Speaker 1: back to chapter 1, verse 5. Love this verse. 2
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Speaker 1: Timothy 1, 5.' I am mindful,' writes Paul, of the
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Speaker 1: sincere faith within you, that's singular, that's Timothy, but it
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Speaker 1: first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice,
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Speaker 1: and I'm sure that it is in you as well.
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Speaker 1: From his earliest days, Timothy was drinking in God's truth
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Speaker 1: right along with his mother's milk. As she nursed him,
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Speaker 1: she taught him, and what she didn't say, the grandmother
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Speaker 1: did say. And as she sang to him the songs
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Speaker 1: of Zion from the Psalms, the grandmother harmonized. And as
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Speaker 1: she prayed prayers over this little boy, the grandmother said, amen.
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Speaker 1: Mom and grandmother, mom and grandmother faithfully pouring their lives
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Speaker 1: into this little, little brephos, this little boy. By the way,
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Speaker 1: you may not appreciate that if you don't know that
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Speaker 1: Timothy had an unbelieving father. Acts 16.1 tells us he
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Speaker 1: was a Greek, and you never see him mentioned in
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Speaker 1: the spiritual life of Timothy, quite likely had no deposit
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Speaker 1: into Timothy's spiritual life. So think of the dichotomy. Maybe
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Speaker 1: you were reared in a family like that. Maybe your
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Speaker 1: mother didn't know the Lord, but your father did, or
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Speaker 1: vice versa. And one told you one thing and another
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Speaker 1: told you another. One told you to keep yourself pure
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Speaker 1: and clean until you're married. And the other one says, oh,
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Speaker 1: everybody's going to wild oats. Go ahead. You'll learn a
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Speaker 1: lot by going through the stuff of that. You know,
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Speaker 1: go ahead and have your fling. And you've got these
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Speaker 1: two things to deal with. Timothy's in a divided home.
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Speaker 1: John Phillips picks up that picture in his book on
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Speaker 1: the pastoral letters. And he writes this. Timothy's father was
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Speaker 1: a Greek. Likely enough, he had told his little boy
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Speaker 1: stories about the greatness of Greece and her gods and
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Speaker 1: how Mount Olympus was their home. There were many gods,
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Speaker 1: such as Zeus, the father of the gods, Hermes, the
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Speaker 1: messenger of the gods, and Neptune, the god of the sea.
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Speaker 1: Timothy's mother told him that the imaginary, lawless, lustful gods
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Speaker 1: of Greek mythology were really imaginary gods made in the
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Speaker 1: image of fallen man. Timothy's father probably told his boy
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Speaker 1: Homer's tales about Ulysses, Helen of Troy, the Cyclops, Medusa,
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Speaker 1: and the Minotaur. Once upon a time, stories full of adventure, excitement,
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Speaker 1: and narrow escapes. He also told him of historical accounts
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Speaker 1: of Philip of Macedon and Alexander, of Thermopylae, Salamis, the Spartans,
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Speaker 1: and the wars with Persia, of Athens and Mars Hill,
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Speaker 1: of the golden age of Greece and of Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Archimedes,
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Speaker 1: and Herodotus, and little Timothy, no doubt, listened with wide-eyed wonder.
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Speaker 1: But Timothy's mother and grandmother were Jewish. They had other
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Speaker 1: tales to tell Timothy. They told Timothy about Adam and Eve,
25:26
Speaker 1: Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, David and Goliath,
25:31
Speaker 1: Samson and Delilah, Moses and Pharaoh, Joseph, Jonathan, Jeremiah, Jonah,
25:37
Speaker 1: and Job. These were the stories that captured the mind
25:41
Speaker 1: and heart of Timothy. After all, what was Mount Olympus
25:45
Speaker 1: compared to Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai, Mount Zion? What was
25:53
Speaker 1: Hercules compared with Samson? What were the gods of Greece
25:57
Speaker 1: compared with Elohim, the God of the Jewish people, who
26:02
Speaker 1: could settle for human reasoning when he could have divine revelation?
26:06
Speaker 1: Love that kind of writing. That's Timothy's childhood. Maybe it
26:11
Speaker 1: was yours. Thank the Lord he listened to the right source. Timothy,
26:17
Speaker 1: listen to me, son. When you're a little older, you're
26:20
Speaker 1: going to have to remember this because you'll be surrounded
26:23
Speaker 1: in your education by children who will not believe these convictions.
26:27
Speaker 1: Listen closely. Form these convictions yourself. So when we cultivate
26:32
Speaker 1: our own convictions, we begin to end well. We begin
26:39
Speaker 1: to finish our lives well. Here's another one. By gleaning
26:42
Speaker 1: wisdom through our own faith. See the end of verse 15?
26:47
Speaker 1: These things are able to give you the wisdom which
26:50
Speaker 1: leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
26:54
Speaker 1: Remember this simple statement. God has no grandchildren. He only
27:00
Speaker 1: has children. Every generation must hammer out for himself or
27:07
Speaker 1: herself the truths of what we believe and where we stand.
27:11
Speaker 1: That's what makes us fearful regarding this current generation. A
27:17
Speaker 1: nation that leaves the Lord leaves a people in that
27:20
Speaker 1: direction that has its own fallout. When it affects families
27:25
Speaker 1: that leave the Lord, it affects the children of that
27:28
Speaker 1: family and those families. There comes a time when each
27:34
Speaker 1: one of us realizes This is for me. Let me
27:40
Speaker 1: let you in a little coffee time Cynthia and I
27:42
Speaker 1: had together. It was early this morning, around 6 o'clock.
27:48
Speaker 1: I let her sleep in until 5 today, and we
27:50
Speaker 1: were having coffee at 6. And so we were sitting
27:53
Speaker 1: there together, and we got on the subject of the
27:56
Speaker 1: Billy Graham crusade in Houston, 1952. The reason we got
28:02
Speaker 1: there is I was telling her about what I was
28:04
Speaker 1: going to be preaching on today. She said, it reminds
28:06
Speaker 1: me of when my faith became real to me. She said,
28:09
Speaker 1: I'd been converted as a little girl, but she said,
28:12
Speaker 1: I remember when Billy Graham came in 52. A lady
28:15
Speaker 1: in our church said to me, have you ever thought
28:18
Speaker 1: about being a counselor in the upcoming Billy Graham crusade? Cynthia,
28:22
Speaker 1: age 15, still in high school, said, but I'd like
28:28
Speaker 1: to do that. She said, well, you'll have to go
28:30
Speaker 1: to Four sessions, one a week for the next four
28:33
Speaker 1: weeks before in a month from now the crusade begins. Okay.
28:38
Speaker 1: So she hopped in the car with these other people.
28:40
Speaker 1: I'm sure most of them older than she. They go
28:43
Speaker 1: to the church where they're being taught by Lauren Sani
28:46
Speaker 1: with the navigators. Sani teaches all of these people, first
28:50
Speaker 1: of all, how to know Christ. Because Sani told her
28:52
Speaker 1: later when we were at a conference at Glen Eyrie,
28:55
Speaker 1: he said, you know, I've learned over the years that
28:56
Speaker 1: many people come to be counselors and they don't even
28:58
Speaker 1: know the Lord. So I began by giving the gospel.
29:02
Speaker 1: She said, I sat there and I listened and I
29:04
Speaker 1: knew that I'd believed, but I was hearing things about
29:07
Speaker 1: leading people to Christ. And the next time they met
29:09
Speaker 1: and the next, she said, in one of those sessions
29:11
Speaker 1: on our way home, I'm sitting in the middle of
29:13
Speaker 1: the backseat. Even told me where she was sitting. She said,
29:17
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, this is for me. This is real
29:23
Speaker 1: to me. And I commit myself, she says in her heart,
29:27
Speaker 1: I commit myself to serving Christ and in whatever ministry
29:31
Speaker 1: he has for me. We had not even met. By
29:34
Speaker 1: the end of 1953, we were engaged. Sixteen. It's not
29:41
Speaker 1: illegal in Arkansas, but it is here. It's a joke, okay?
29:46
Speaker 1: It's a joke. Relax. So she sits there and she says,
29:50
Speaker 1: this is real to me. And she said, that was
29:54
Speaker 1: a turning point. From that moment on, my whole life
29:58
Speaker 1: was different. Isn't that interesting? This was a turning point
30:02
Speaker 1: in her life. I think mine came in the military,
30:07
Speaker 1: so far removed from home and family and even my wife.
30:11
Speaker 1: We had no children then. But I remember in the
30:14
Speaker 1: aloneness of those weeks and months away, and because of,
30:21
Speaker 1: thank God for the navigators and the contribution they made
30:26
Speaker 1: to my spiritual life, I remember coming to terms with that.
30:29
Speaker 1: and thinking, this is my faith. These are my convictions.
30:36
Speaker 1: I'm going to stand on them. I remember, like it
30:39
Speaker 1: was yesterday, thinking ministry. I've never thought about being in ministry.
30:49
Speaker 1: I was going to go back to a job in
30:51
Speaker 1: a machine shop. Can you picture me in a machine shop?
30:56
Speaker 1: Neither could the other machinists. They were probably thrilled that
31:00
Speaker 1: I wouldn't return. I remember standing on the flatbed doing
31:04
Speaker 1: a street meeting with my buddy Bob Newkirk with the Navigators,
31:07
Speaker 1: and he's preaching his heart out. I'm leading the singing.
31:09
Speaker 1: We got hundreds of people, Asians all around us, and
31:13
Speaker 1: we're giving them the gospel. We have a translator there,
31:16
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting there going, man, this is so good.
31:20
Speaker 1: I want to do this. Never dawned on me before
31:25
Speaker 1: In fact, I said to Bob after the meeting, hey, Bob,
31:26
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about ministry. He goes, why not? I said,
31:31
Speaker 1: I really am kind of leaning in that direction. He goes, duh.
31:34
Speaker 1: And I said, but that means I got to go
31:36
Speaker 1: back to school. He goes, double duh. So I come back.
31:41
Speaker 1: I tell Cynthia, something happened to me while I was overseas.
31:45
Speaker 1: She said, what is it? And I tell her, and
31:47
Speaker 1: she said, oh, that's great. So we go to Dallas Seminary.
31:51
Speaker 1: I'm allowed to go there on probation. So I get
31:58
Speaker 1: into ministry, and I go back to my high school. Oh,
32:02
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you didn't know me in my high
32:03
Speaker 1: school years. And I meet up with Eugene Seastrand, my
32:08
Speaker 1: old high school band teacher. And he says, what are
32:11
Speaker 1: you doing for a living? I said, well, I'm in ministry.
32:13
Speaker 1: He goes, a few words, and then he says, you're kidding.
32:20
Speaker 1: I said, no. He said, I thought you'd be in
32:22
Speaker 1: prison by now. I probably should be, but. You know
32:28
Speaker 1: what happened? Faith became real, all on my own. She's
32:36
Speaker 1: nothing special. I'm nothing special. You're nothing special. Just every
32:40
Speaker 1: one of us before God is something special, each one
32:45
Speaker 1: of us. I'd venture to say many of you have
32:49
Speaker 1: never come to that place in your life. You're walking along,
32:53
Speaker 1: coming to church, singing the song, carrying your Bible, talking
32:57
Speaker 1: about Jesus every once in a while, not very often.
33:01
Speaker 1: But you read this from childhood, you have known the
33:04
Speaker 1: sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom.
33:07
Speaker 1: The wisdom. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by a
33:13
Speaker 1: word concerning Christ. Suddenly, something snaps. And you go, that's
33:22
Speaker 1: for me. Doesn't mean you have to enter the ministry.
33:26
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean you have to go into vocational Christian service.
33:29
Speaker 1: It means suddenly your faith jumps off the page of
33:32
Speaker 1: a Bible and takes up residence in your life. And
33:35
Speaker 1: it begins to change the way you think, the way
33:38
Speaker 1: you act, the way you rear your children, the way
33:43
Speaker 1: you live your life. It just changes you. That's part
33:47
Speaker 1: of the wisdom that comes through faith, which is in Christ. Now,
33:51
Speaker 1: how can I finish well? Let's keep going here. by
33:54
Speaker 1: placing value on what God revealed. Now, I'm about to
34:01
Speaker 1: get into verse 16, which is the single most significant
34:03
Speaker 1: verse in all the New Testament regarding the scriptures. So
34:06
Speaker 1: I want your undivided attention. You will rarely hear teaching
34:11
Speaker 1: like this in any church today. I don't say that
34:14
Speaker 1: to be self-serving or proud. I say it with a
34:17
Speaker 1: broken heart. When I was growing up, you'd hear it
34:19
Speaker 1: in a lot of evangelical churches. But the kind of
34:23
Speaker 1: teaching I'm going to give you in verse 16 is
34:25
Speaker 1: unusual teaching. We're going to analyze the verse because it's
34:28
Speaker 1: so significant, and I spend time on it because it
34:32
Speaker 1: is the watershed issue of faith. What you believe about
34:35
Speaker 1: the Bible has everything to do with how you live
34:38
Speaker 1: your life based on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
34:43
Speaker 1: Now look closely. Look closely. How can I finish well?
34:48
Speaker 1: By placing value on what God revealed. To begin with,
34:54
Speaker 1: by trusting its supernatural origin. By trusting its supernatural origin.
35:03
Speaker 1: We're going to dig deeply here, so get your thinking
35:05
Speaker 1: caps on. All scripture is the same thought as the
35:11
Speaker 1: sacred writings in verse 15. All of the sacred writings,
35:15
Speaker 1: all scripture is... Theopneustos. Theop, T-H-E-O, is God. Neustos is
35:27
Speaker 1: from the word pneuma, which is air, wind. When I
35:32
Speaker 1: was going to get out of the Marine Corps and
35:33
Speaker 1: come back to the machine shop, I would be involved
35:36
Speaker 1: in building pneumatic tools, air-driven paving breakers, impact wrenches, Screwdrivers,
35:44
Speaker 1: all driven by an air compressor, a hose connected to
35:48
Speaker 1: the tool. They are pneuma, pneumatic tools. This is God pneuma,
35:56
Speaker 1: God breathed. Stay with me. All scripture is God breathed.
36:06
Speaker 1: Now put that on hold for a moment and listen closely.
36:10
Speaker 1: When it comes to the Bible, there are three great doctrines.
36:13
Speaker 1: You may want to turn your sheet over and write
36:15
Speaker 1: them down. Three great doctrines you'll need to know about.
36:18
Speaker 1: Number one is revelation. All three are supernatural. Revelation is
36:25
Speaker 1: God's giving his truth to humans supernaturally. He reveals it.
36:30
Speaker 1: That's why it's called revelation. God reveals his truth. That
36:35
Speaker 1: happened in a period of about 1500 years. God revealed
36:40
Speaker 1: his truth. Revelation was received. The next is inspiration. That is,
36:49
Speaker 1: individuals received and recorded his truth without error. Revelation is
36:59
Speaker 1: God's giving his truth supernaturally. Inspiration is Individuals writing and
37:06
Speaker 1: recording the truth supernaturally. And third is illumination. That's the
37:12
Speaker 1: supernatural work of the Holy Spirit whereby he takes the
37:15
Speaker 1: truth and makes us aware of what it means and
37:19
Speaker 1: how it applies. In other words, the supernatural work of
37:23
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit in giving us understanding of the sacred writings.
37:28
Speaker 1: Now stay with this. Revelation is over. God is no
37:32
Speaker 1: longer supernaturally revealing his word. Don't let anybody tell you
37:36
Speaker 1: that they heard this from God and it's over and
37:39
Speaker 1: above what scripture says. God's not doing that. His word
37:43
Speaker 1: is complete. Inspiration is over. It's complete. Shakespeare was inspired
37:49
Speaker 1: when he wrote his poetry, not inspired like the Bible.
37:52
Speaker 1: Mendelssohn was inspired when he wrote his music, not inspired
37:55
Speaker 1: like the Bible. This is a supernatural inspiration in that
38:00
Speaker 1: it is God-made. breathed, okay? The origin of scripture, that is,
38:06
Speaker 1: where it comes from, is from God as he breathes
38:10
Speaker 1: out his word. I carry in my Bible, I carry
38:14
Speaker 1: as a Bible the Ryrie Study Bible, the New American
38:18
Speaker 1: Standard Version. I quote now from Ryrie's footnote, the Bible
38:24
Speaker 1: came from God through the men who wrote it. God
38:27
Speaker 1: superintended these human authors and so that using their individual personalities,
38:33
Speaker 1: they composed and recorded without error God's word to man.
38:41
Speaker 1: Inspiration does not involve mechanical dictation, but the accurate recording
38:47
Speaker 1: of God's words. Inspiration does not extend beyond the original manuscripts,
38:54
Speaker 1: though the texts we possess today have been transmitted with
38:58
Speaker 1: high accuracy. You can rely on your Bible. There are
39:02
Speaker 1: a few places where the translation isn't done well or
39:06
Speaker 1: isn't accurate, but in the original text, the Bible was
39:10
Speaker 1: originally inspired and miraculously kept without error. It God breathed.
39:17
Speaker 1: Let me put it this way. When you speak, your
39:20
Speaker 1: words are you breath. Okay? A mixture of your breath,
39:28
Speaker 1: air coming from your lungs, through the vocal cords, terms
39:33
Speaker 1: that have been shaped and conditioned in your mind, come
39:36
Speaker 1: out of your mouth in a message called speech. Today's
39:43
Speaker 1: message that I'm delivering is a Chuck-breathed message. Got it?
39:48
Speaker 1: It isn't your message, it's My message originating from within
39:53
Speaker 1: my lungs and brain, coming out of my vocal cords,
39:57
Speaker 1: and I'm transmitting it to you. God's word is God-breathed truth. Supernaturally,
40:06
Speaker 1: God superintended the transfer of his mind, his thoughts, into
40:11
Speaker 1: human writers so that they composed and recorded his word
40:15
Speaker 1: without error. Sometimes they knew what they were writing, sometimes
40:19
Speaker 1: they didn't. The last word of 2 Peter 1 tells
40:24
Speaker 1: us that they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
40:27
Speaker 1: That means they operated out of their own power. It's
40:31
Speaker 1: the word used for a ship that's lost its rudder.
40:34
Speaker 1: It's at the mercy of the swells and the waves
40:36
Speaker 1: of the sea. That's the way the writers of scripture were.
40:39
Speaker 1: They were moved along as God breathed his word to them. Okay?
40:45
Speaker 1: Why do I take so much time and go to
40:48
Speaker 1: such tedious trouble? because it is the watershed issue of faith.
40:54
Speaker 1: Every generation must stand firm anew on its position on inspiration.
41:01
Speaker 1: Every new generation of believers must stand firm on where
41:06
Speaker 1: we are regarding the supernatural receiving and recording of God's word.
41:13
Speaker 1: We don't worship the Bible, we worship the God of
41:16
Speaker 1: the Bible. But the print on the page leads us
41:20
Speaker 1: to an understanding of our God. If it is inaccurate,
41:24
Speaker 1: then our understanding of God is inaccurate. If the truths
41:28
Speaker 1: that are given here are not truth, but are falsehood,
41:30
Speaker 1: then our understanding of life is false. So this is
41:35
Speaker 1: the launching pad into living, into faith, if you will,
41:40
Speaker 1: into preaching, into teaching. Now, the second thing I want
41:43
Speaker 1: to say about verse 16 is the purpose. we understand
41:50
Speaker 1: that its spiritual purpose is fourfold. Look at the verse.
41:58
Speaker 1: All scripture is profitable, look at the list, for teaching,
42:04
Speaker 1: for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. First of all,
42:13
Speaker 1: God's word teaches. Didaskalia is the basic word for teaching.
42:17
Speaker 1: It's the crucial ingredient for growth toward maturity. You have
42:21
Speaker 1: no teaching, you will never become mature. Simple as that.
42:26
Speaker 1: If you are not taught in a school or by
42:28
Speaker 1: parents in home training or some way, you remain ignorant
42:32
Speaker 1: in life. You can't write, you cannot read. You must
42:36
Speaker 1: be taught so that you can use the tools in
42:40
Speaker 1: an intelligent way. God's word gives you the tools for life.
42:44
Speaker 1: Your growth will remain stunted if you are in a
42:47
Speaker 1: church that entertains you but doesn't teach you. If your
42:52
Speaker 1: children are only playing Red Rover through Sunday school, those
42:55
Speaker 1: children are not growing spiritually. If they are being taught
42:58
Speaker 1: the scriptures, they are beginning their process of finishing well.
43:05
Speaker 1: They're learning the truth of the scriptures. The Bible teaches
43:08
Speaker 1: us what air is to our brains, what nutrition is
43:12
Speaker 1: to our bodies, The truth of the scriptures is to life.
43:17
Speaker 1: So the Bible comes to teach us. It also reproves us.
43:22
Speaker 1: The Bible convinces us by rebuking us, revealing areas that
43:28
Speaker 1: others may not see or we may prefer to ignore.
43:33
Speaker 1: It is a critic of the thoughts and the intentions
43:35
Speaker 1: of the heart, Hebrews 4, verse 12. It looks into
43:39
Speaker 1: the heart and cuts where no surgeon's scalpel can ever reach.
43:43
Speaker 1: A surgeon can never go home in the evening and
43:45
Speaker 1: say today I did surgery on her soul. You can't
43:50
Speaker 1: do surgery on the soul. Only the Bible can do that.
43:53
Speaker 1: As the Spirit of God takes the Word of God
43:56
Speaker 1: and drills it into your life and shows you areas
43:59
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't want to admit even to your closest friend.
44:03
Speaker 1: That's why we often feel convicted by it. I know
44:06
Speaker 1: I do frequently. So the Bible reproves us, but it
44:10
Speaker 1: doesn't leave us to wallow in our wrong. Look at
44:13
Speaker 1: the next word. It corrects us. This is the only
44:17
Speaker 1: time in the New Testament the original word is used
44:19
Speaker 1: that's translated correction. I like the New Living Translation. It
44:24
Speaker 1: straightens us out. It straightens us out. Why? Because we're crooked.
44:32
Speaker 1: It cleans us up. Why? Because we're dirty. It shows
44:37
Speaker 1: us righteousness. Why? Because we're depraved. We aren't born right
44:41
Speaker 1: with God. We're born wrong with God. And the gospel,
44:45
Speaker 1: the good news that comes out of the Bible reveals
44:47
Speaker 1: the death of Christ and his resurrection that can free
44:51
Speaker 1: me from the sin that has controlled me all my life.
44:53
Speaker 1: And the Bible reveals all of that. And therefore, it
44:56
Speaker 1: trains me in righteousness. See how it ends? Training us
45:00
Speaker 1: in righteousness. It covers what I would call the disciplines
45:05
Speaker 1: of spiritual formation. It enables us to cultivate a mind
45:10
Speaker 1: that knows God, a heart that loves God, and a
45:12
Speaker 1: will that obeys God. All of that in this book.
45:17
Speaker 1: All of that from this book. Now you know why
45:21
Speaker 1: I hammer away at it. Now you know why I
45:22
Speaker 1: spend my time in it. You know why now I
45:25
Speaker 1: urge you to read it. A lady stopped me right
45:27
Speaker 1: after the first service this morning and she said with tears,
45:30
Speaker 1: I want you to know I'm reading through the Bible
45:32
Speaker 1: this year and I am that far from being through it.
45:35
Speaker 1: She couldn't finish her sentence. Her husband standing there had
45:37
Speaker 1: his arm around her and she said, I cannot tell
45:41
Speaker 1: you what it's meant to be. She said, I'm changed.
45:45
Speaker 1: She just read it. If I could just get people
45:49
Speaker 1: to read the Bible as a starting point, you would
45:53
Speaker 1: never be the same. Your worries would fly away. Your
45:59
Speaker 1: self-preoccupation would depart. Most of your conflicts would end. If
46:06
Speaker 1: you just let the truth of the scriptures come in,
46:09
Speaker 1: teach you, reprove you, correct you, and train you in righteousness.
46:14
Speaker 1: And it's good this applies to any age. It applies
46:17
Speaker 1: to a teenager. It applies to somebody turning 90 today.
46:22
Speaker 1: It applies to the single and the married, to the
46:24
Speaker 1: divorcee or to the multiple divorcee. It applies to teenagers.
46:31
Speaker 1: It applies to the retired. It applies to the broken,
46:34
Speaker 1: to the weary. No other book on earth addresses the
46:39
Speaker 1: heart and the will and the life of people like
46:42
Speaker 1: the Bible. No other book on earth is alive and
46:46
Speaker 1: active and continually sharper than a double-edged sword. You tuck
46:51
Speaker 1: a verse of the Bible in a bottle, you pop
46:54
Speaker 1: a cork on it, you toss that bottle in the
46:56
Speaker 1: middle of the ocean and it finally finds its way
46:58
Speaker 1: to the shore of some island, When you pull out
47:01
Speaker 1: the cork and you lift out that verse of scripture,
47:04
Speaker 1: it is alive, it is active, and it is enough
47:07
Speaker 1: to bring conviction to the heart. If it may be
47:10
Speaker 1: a gospel message or a message of hope to the
47:12
Speaker 1: one who is in anguish. The Bible is alive and
47:16
Speaker 1: active and sharp. No other book on earth is like that.
47:18
Speaker 1: You can read Shakespeare until you're blue in the face.
47:21
Speaker 1: It won't take you long. But you can read it
47:23
Speaker 1: until you're blue in the face and you'll never have
47:25
Speaker 1: your life transformed. You read the Bible and apply it
47:29
Speaker 1: and you will not remain the same. which brings us
47:32
Speaker 1: to the fourth. How can I finish well? By allowing
47:37
Speaker 1: the truth to change my life. See the verse 17,
47:42
Speaker 1: so that the man could be the woman, the people
47:45
Speaker 1: of God may be adequate. That's an unhappy rendering, I think,
47:49
Speaker 1: of the word. Becoming mature means allowing the scriptures to
47:54
Speaker 1: fit into each part of our lives. You become mature
48:02
Speaker 1: you are in the process of becoming mature when you
48:04
Speaker 1: allow the scriptures to fit into each part of your life.
48:12
Speaker 1: This says adequate, I think it might be better rendered
48:17
Speaker 1: that the man or woman of God may be fitted.
48:21
Speaker 1: I think the old rendering handled it like that. In fact,
48:25
Speaker 1: see the word equip for every good work, being equipped includes,
48:30
Speaker 1: Having all we need to accomplish all God expects. That's
48:34
Speaker 1: what that means. Being equipped is having all we need
48:37
Speaker 1: to accomplish all that God expects. You need strength to
48:42
Speaker 1: go on? You need the Bible. You need to face
48:46
Speaker 1: some challenges this week? You need the Bible. You're telling
48:51
Speaker 1: me your heart is breaking? You need the Bible. You're
48:55
Speaker 1: not sure what to do? You need the Bible. You
48:59
Speaker 1: feel distant, lost, and away from God? You need the Bible. Fearful, confused,
49:07
Speaker 1: uneasy about what the new week may bring? You need
49:09
Speaker 1: the Bible. You've been abandoned, forgotten, cast aside? You need
49:17
Speaker 1: the Bible. It will thoroughly fit you for every good work.
49:23
Speaker 1: And I guarantee you this, you will finish well. Mature
49:29
Speaker 1: and equipped, you will have what you need regardless of
49:32
Speaker 1: your financial status, marital status, age, or physical condition. You
49:38
Speaker 1: will have what you need to finish well. How good
49:42
Speaker 1: is that? How good is that? Never doubted that the
49:48
Speaker 1: man or woman of God may be well-fitted, perfectly equipped.
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Speaker 1: Some of you are thinking, well, I think you can
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Speaker 1: kind of go overboard in this, Chuck. Well, most of
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Speaker 1: you are a long ways from going overboard in this.
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Speaker 1: Truth be told. Listen to one man's life. He was
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Speaker 1: a theologian. He was a Frenchman. He lived in the
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Speaker 1: 16th century and died at age 55. His name is
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Speaker 1: John Calvin. On Sunday, he took always the New Testament
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Speaker 1: and taught it, except for a few Psalms on Sunday afternoons.
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Speaker 1: During the week, it was always the Old Testament. He
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Speaker 1: took five years to complete the Book of Acts. He
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Speaker 1: preached 46 sermons on Thessalonians, 186 sermons on Corinthians, 86
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Speaker 1: on the pastoral letters, 43 on Galatians, 48 on Ephesians.
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Speaker 1: He spent five years on the harmony of the gospels,
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Speaker 1: and that was just Sunday work. During the weekdays in
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Speaker 1: those five years, he preached 159 sermons on Job. You rascals.
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Speaker 1: What did I preach, 42, and you thought you were martyrs?
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Speaker 1: 159 on Job, 200 on Deuteronomy, 353 on Isaiah, 123
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Speaker 1: on Genesis, and he was still preaching when he died.
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Speaker 1: Is it any wonder he led the French Reformation? Any
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Speaker 1: wonder that he worked alongside Luther and Zwingli and Savonarola,
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Speaker 1: those great minds like the reformers? Why? Because he believed
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Speaker 1: and taught and loved the Bible. That's how you finish well.
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Speaker 1: There's no magic here. You can't just sit next to
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Speaker 1: it and it's going to rub off. I mean, that's
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Speaker 1: like saying I'd spend all week in the garage and
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Speaker 1: I'd be like a car. You're not going to be
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Speaker 1: like a car because you're in a garage all week long.
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Speaker 1: And it's not by osmosis. You put those words in
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Speaker 1: your mind by reading them. Pouring over them, making a
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Speaker 1: study of them, memorizing them, meditating on them. It is
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Speaker 1: remarkable what it will do to your maturity, to your age,
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Speaker 1: to your temperament, to your attitude. Well, who knows? Some
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Speaker 1: of you might become easy to live with. Some of
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Speaker 1: you are getting pretty crotchety, by the way, so that's
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Speaker 1: another subject. I guarantee you, you do what you've been
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Speaker 1: told today, you will finish well. Let's bow together. I
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Speaker 1: don't know where you are in this journey, but I
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Speaker 1: know some of you have never met the Lord. I
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Speaker 1: know a group this size cannot be filled with only believers.
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Speaker 1: If you're one of those who is distant from God
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Speaker 1: and you've never been able to figure out why everybody's
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Speaker 1: all excited about the Bible or why people spend this
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Speaker 1: much time going to church and dealing with spiritual things, well,
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Speaker 1: now you know. You've been on the outside. like trying
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Speaker 1: to fly without wings, trying to sing without having a
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Speaker 1: sense of music. You've got to have help inside. That's
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Speaker 1: why Christ died, to give you help. If you've never
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Speaker 1: trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you've heard of him today,
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Speaker 1: and you must know that that song that was played
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Speaker 1: earlier by our orchestra is a true song. It had
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Speaker 1: to do with the cross. At the cross, the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ paid the complete penalty for our sins. And
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Speaker 1: as a result, he is able to forgive us all
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Speaker 1: our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But
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Speaker 1: it isn't automatic because you sit through a church service.
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Speaker 1: It's a decision that must be made by each individual.
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Speaker 1: And you do that by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ.
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Speaker 1: He'll forgive you of your sins. He'll change your whole direction.
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Speaker 1: And when you die, he'll take you to his heaven.
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Speaker 1: I guarantee it. He promises that. What in the world
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Speaker 1: are you waiting for? Trust him today. If we can
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Speaker 1: help you in the journey, that's why we're here. That's
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Speaker 1: why we're here. Father, thank you for the name of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: All hail the power of Jesus' name. Even angels prostrate fall.
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Speaker 1: We worship you, our God, today, and we love you
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Speaker 1: in Christ, and we praise you for your written word
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Speaker 1: that lives and abides forever. The grass withers, the flowers fade,
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Speaker 1: but the word of our God endures forever. Keep us
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Speaker 1: in it. Help us to live it. To model it
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Speaker 1: even better than we read it. And turn our lives
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Speaker 1: around so that we not only live well, but finish well.
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Speaker 1: For Jesus' sake, I pray. Everybody sit. Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message is God Breathed Truth was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: 2009 and 2015, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: 2015 by Charles R.
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Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc.
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Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
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Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.