Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - Equipping Leaders for a Declining Church

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - Equipping Leaders for a Declining Church · Voddie Baucham Sermons

0:00
Speaker 1: It is good to be with you this morning. My assignment,
0:05
Speaker 1: as was said, was to address the issue of seminaries
0:08
Speaker 1: training men in the midst of a declining church, a
0:14
Speaker 1: declining age, a declining society. And to do this, I
0:21
Speaker 1: want to focus on a And there are a lot
0:30
Speaker 1: of ideas and phrases that have been helpful from that world.
0:35
Speaker 1: And one of them is this idea that hard men
0:42
Speaker 1: bring good times. Good times make soft men. And soft
0:52
Speaker 1: men bring bad times. Let me say that again. Hard
0:59
Speaker 1: men bring good times. Good times make soft men. And
1:09
Speaker 1: soft men make bad times. They say this in relation
1:17
Speaker 1: to the world and its conflicts. And we can think
1:22
Speaker 1: about that in those terms, right? But it's also true
1:27
Speaker 1: in terms of the church and her conflict. We think about,
1:34
Speaker 1: for example, the great revivals and the men that God
1:38
Speaker 1: has used over the course of history. And if you
1:41
Speaker 1: read Christian biography, one of the things that you're struck with,
1:47
Speaker 1: we heard a lot about Adoniram Judson at the conference
1:50
Speaker 1: in Melbourne. One of the things that you're struck with
1:53
Speaker 1: is these were hard men. The things that they had
1:56
Speaker 1: to endure were almost unimaginable for us, right? We talk
2:03
Speaker 1: about Dr. Jonas coming and spending all those hours to
2:08
Speaker 1: get here. If this was 100 years ago, it wouldn't
2:14
Speaker 1: have been hours. It would have been months or years
2:20
Speaker 1: if he ever made it to this part of the
2:21
Speaker 1: world at all, right? We think about the persecution that
2:27
Speaker 1: these men endured. We think about the sickness that they
2:29
Speaker 1: had to endure. We think about the lack of modern
2:32
Speaker 1: medicine that they didn't have. Not only that, we think
2:36
Speaker 1: about what their ministry was about. We think about the
2:38
Speaker 1: ministry of men who went to places and spent their
2:42
Speaker 1: first couple of years just learning the language. Those are
2:50
Speaker 1: hard men, right? So that they could then translate the Bible.
2:57
Speaker 1: hope that they didn't die from some disease in a
3:01
Speaker 1: foreign land, hope that they weren't killed because they were
3:07
Speaker 1: bringing that message, and then begin to translate the scriptures
3:11
Speaker 1: and take several more years in order to do that.
3:18
Speaker 1: But what do men like that produce? Good times. The
3:24
Speaker 1: gospel prospers We see fruit. We see the gospel around
3:30
Speaker 1: the world. Amen? And then there's a generation of men
3:37
Speaker 1: who grow up in the shadow of that. And those
3:41
Speaker 1: good times have a tendency to make them soft. And
3:50
Speaker 1: we've been, I believe, in a season of that. I think,
3:54
Speaker 1: for example, of my own training and in my own
4:00
Speaker 1: training I went to seminary in 92 and when I
4:07
Speaker 1: think about my training through my MDiv and my doctoral
4:10
Speaker 1: work the most popular voices during that time were Bill
4:18
Speaker 1: Hybels Rick Warren and George Barna those were the most
4:26
Speaker 1: popular voices Ministry was all about finding out what people wanted,
4:34
Speaker 1: what flavor of music they liked, what flavor of communication
4:39
Speaker 1: they liked, and then giving them that. These men were
4:46
Speaker 1: coasting on the backs of the hard men who brought
4:51
Speaker 1: good times where people were not in opposition to the gospel,
4:56
Speaker 1: where churches were flourishing, because of the predisposition that people
5:00
Speaker 1: had as a result of this fruit of the gospel,
5:03
Speaker 1: and we had mega churches that were growing around the world.
5:09
Speaker 1: I remember, and I'm going to look at 2 Timothy
5:14
Speaker 1: chapter 4 here in a moment, but just bear with
5:17
Speaker 1: me while I lay this out for you. I remember
5:21
Speaker 1: as a young minister, I was at the end of
5:24
Speaker 1: my seminary training, I believe, and I was on staff
5:27
Speaker 1: at a church. that was flirting with this sort of
5:32
Speaker 1: seeker-sensitive model. Back then, it was the seeker-driven model, and
5:37
Speaker 1: that was full-on, all-out, pedal-to-the-metal. Everything that we do is
5:42
Speaker 1: geared toward seekers, which is a term I reject because
5:48
Speaker 1: the Bible rejects it. There is none who seek God. Amen?
5:53
Speaker 1: But anyway, I digress. And then there was the seeker-sensitive model. Like,
5:58
Speaker 1: we're not going to go all out, but we'll adopt
6:02
Speaker 1: what we need to in order to be more sensitive
6:04
Speaker 1: to this. And so our whole staff went to the
6:09
Speaker 1: Willow Creek Conference. Our whole staff. And we spent several
6:15
Speaker 1: days there at Willow Creek. And it was basically, it
6:20
Speaker 1: was a sales and marketing conference. We left with this
6:24
Speaker 1: big folder, right? with everything that they were teaching us
6:31
Speaker 1: about how to operate within this model. Of course, they
6:38
Speaker 1: were constantly saying, we don't want you to just go
6:40
Speaker 1: and reproduce this. But everybody there was just going to
6:44
Speaker 1: reproduce this. Those were weak men theologically. Weak men biblically.
6:58
Speaker 1: Weak men missiologically. And that era, not just those men
7:06
Speaker 1: that I named, but that whole era, they were the
7:09
Speaker 1: most popular names, and I believe that they're sort of
7:13
Speaker 1: the personifications of that era, if you'll allow me that.
7:18
Speaker 1: But the weak men of that era have led to
7:21
Speaker 1: some bad times for the church. Seminaries. Seminaries. changed their focus.
7:32
Speaker 1: Multiplied the kind of degrees that you could go and get.
7:37
Speaker 1: Churches multiplied, you know, staff positions. Because again, when you've
7:43
Speaker 1: got 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, 10,000 people, you need a lot
7:44
Speaker 1: of people on staff to manage that. Yet people who
7:47
Speaker 1: had no sense of of a divine calling to gospel
7:58
Speaker 1: ministry whatsoever who were getting jobs on staff at church
8:07
Speaker 1: in order to be goat wranglers. Amen? Not shepherds, goat
8:11
Speaker 1: wranglers is what they were. And that led to some
8:16
Speaker 1: bad times inside and outside the church. I think we're
8:24
Speaker 1: moving beyond that now. And I think those bad times
8:29
Speaker 1: have led to some hard men. And when I say
8:35
Speaker 1: hard men, I mean men. My family and I spent
8:41
Speaker 1: the last decade in Lusaka, Zambia. We're in the process
8:44
Speaker 1: of moving back to the U.S., moving to South Central
8:47
Speaker 1: Florida to help start a seminary, Founders Seminary. And here's
8:55
Speaker 1: our motto or one of our mottoes. sharp minds, warm hearts,
9:02
Speaker 1: steel spines. That's our motto. And one of the reasons
9:10
Speaker 1: that's our motto is because we've watched how men have
9:14
Speaker 1: absolutely collapsed in recent days when they needed to stand firm.
9:23
Speaker 1: But God is raising up some hard men. Whereas When
9:27
Speaker 1: my generation was going through seminary, those names that you
9:31
Speaker 1: heard were, again, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, George Barna. Now
9:42
Speaker 1: it's names like John MacArthur. John MacArthur's not seeker-sensitive. Paul Washer.
9:55
Speaker 1: He's less seeker-sensitive than John McArthur. The conferences that they
10:01
Speaker 1: go to are not the Willow Creek Conference or the
10:05
Speaker 1: Saddleback Conference. They're going to the Shepherds Conference. They're going
10:08
Speaker 1: to G3. They're going to places where they are going
10:11
Speaker 1: to hear hard men speak hard truth. Because It's what
10:21
Speaker 1: our bad times have produced in response. Does that make sense?
10:28
Speaker 1: That is our backdrop. Look with me at 2 Timothy
10:32
Speaker 1: chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. And as we look
10:47
Speaker 1: at 2 Timothy chapter 4, Let me give you this.
10:50
Speaker 1: Paul is writing this at the end of his ministry,
10:52
Speaker 1: at the end of his life. We know he's at
10:55
Speaker 1: the end of his life because of what we see here.
10:58
Speaker 1: We're looking at that first paragraph, but look at that
11:00
Speaker 1: second paragraph. I'm already being poured out as a drink offering,
11:04
Speaker 1: and the time of my departure has come. I fought
11:06
Speaker 1: the good fight. I have finished the race. I've kept
11:08
Speaker 1: the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a
11:10
Speaker 1: crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will
11:13
Speaker 1: award to me on that day, not only to me,
11:16
Speaker 1: but also to all who have loved his appearing. Paul
11:20
Speaker 1: knows that he's at the end of his life. He's
11:23
Speaker 1: at the end of his ministry. There are brothers whom
11:27
Speaker 1: he wants to see. He wants to see Timothy. He
11:28
Speaker 1: wants Timothy to come soon. He doesn't feel like he
11:31
Speaker 1: has long. And so he pens this letter to young
11:35
Speaker 1: Timothy at the end of his life and at the
11:37
Speaker 1: end of his ministry. And the theme of this letter
11:41
Speaker 1: is twofold. If you've ever heard me talk about any
11:45
Speaker 1: passage from this book, You've heard me talk about this
11:49
Speaker 1: twofold thing. And this twofold theme is seen in every
11:53
Speaker 1: chapter of the letter. Let me give you the theme
11:55
Speaker 1: and then we'll look at it and then apply this
11:59
Speaker 1: paragraph to the idea of training men. Here's the twofold thing.
12:05
Speaker 1: Preserve and proclaim the truth of the gospel. That's what
12:12
Speaker 1: he's saying to Timothy. Preserve and proclaim the truth of
12:15
Speaker 1: the gospel. That's the one side of it. The other thing,
12:23
Speaker 1: endure the suffering that will follow inevitably as a result.
12:29
Speaker 1: Those are the two things. Preserve and proclaim the truth
12:33
Speaker 1: of the gospel, number one. And number two, endure the
12:37
Speaker 1: suffering that will inevitably follow as a result. Okay? Here's
12:45
Speaker 1: another way that you can put it. Paul takes pen
12:49
Speaker 1: to paper and he writes a letter. And in this letter, again,
12:53
Speaker 1: he's imprisoned again, knows that this may be his last time,
12:58
Speaker 1: his life is coming to an end, he's going to die.
13:01
Speaker 1: If I'm in prison and I feel like they're about
13:03
Speaker 1: to kill me, the letter that I write goes something
13:06
Speaker 1: like this. Bodhi to Timothy, my beloved brother, Grace and peace.
13:20
Speaker 1: But let me get to it. You remember when Peter
13:24
Speaker 1: was in prison and those brothers got together and had
13:27
Speaker 1: a prayer meeting and the Lord got him out? Call them. Amen? Like,
13:38
Speaker 1: that's my letter. Okay. Call them. But that's not his letter.
13:45
Speaker 1: He never once mentions even the possibility of his release
13:49
Speaker 1: and freedom. He doesn't even mention it. Why? Because that
13:56
Speaker 1: would be inconsistent with the theme of the letter. Because
14:04
Speaker 1: if you put it plainly, here's 2 Timothy. Timothy, they're
14:12
Speaker 1: about to kill me for preaching the gospel. When they do,
14:17
Speaker 1: preach the gospel. You can't write that and write, please
14:27
Speaker 1: pray that I get out of here. Amen? He's calling
14:32
Speaker 1: this man to faith. So let's quickly, let's look at this.
14:39
Speaker 1: In every chapter, let's look at the first thing. First,
14:46
Speaker 1: preserve and proclaim the gospel. Look at chapter 1, beginning
14:48
Speaker 1: verse 13. Follow the pattern of the sound words that
14:52
Speaker 1: you have heard from me in the faith and love
14:55
Speaker 1: that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who
14:57
Speaker 1: dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
15:03
Speaker 1: Look at chapter 2, verse 1. You then, my child,
15:08
Speaker 1: be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus
15:10
Speaker 1: and what you have heard from me in the presence
15:12
Speaker 1: of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be
15:16
Speaker 1: able to teach others also. Look there in chapter 3,
15:25
Speaker 1: beginning of 14. But as for you, continue in what
15:28
Speaker 1: you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom
15:32
Speaker 1: you learned it, and how from childhood you have been
15:34
Speaker 1: acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make
15:37
Speaker 1: you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus. All scriptures
15:42
Speaker 1: breathe out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
15:45
Speaker 1: for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of
15:48
Speaker 1: God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And
15:51
Speaker 1: then in chapter 4, once again, preach the word. Verse 2,
15:56
Speaker 1: be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort
16:00
Speaker 1: with complete patience and teaching. In every chapter, he calls
16:06
Speaker 1: Timothy to preserve and proclaim the truth of the gospel.
16:12
Speaker 1: This is incredibly important. Remember, we don't have the New
16:15
Speaker 1: Testament written yet. The apostles are laying down their lives.
16:23
Speaker 1: Paul is about to lay down his life. So the
16:28
Speaker 1: future of the message of the gospel, the future of
16:31
Speaker 1: the church, the future of Christ's ministry rests with the
16:39
Speaker 1: next generation preserving and proclaiming the truth of the gospel.
16:47
Speaker 1: So before he dies, he tells Timothy to do that.
16:52
Speaker 1: But remember, I said there was a second truth, and
16:55
Speaker 1: that second one is to endure the suffering that will
16:59
Speaker 1: inevitably follow as a result. Look in chapter 1, beginning
17:03
Speaker 1: of verse 8. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the
17:09
Speaker 1: testimony about our Lord, or be his prisoner. but share
17:13
Speaker 1: in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.
17:17
Speaker 1: Look at chapter 2, verse 3. Share in suffering as
17:21
Speaker 1: a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Look at chapter 3,
17:27
Speaker 1: beginning at verse 10. You, however, have followed my teaching,
17:31
Speaker 1: my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience,
17:34
Speaker 1: my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened
17:39
Speaker 1: to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, Which persecutions
17:43
Speaker 1: I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed,
17:47
Speaker 1: all who desire to live a godly life in Christ
17:49
Speaker 1: Jesus shall be persecuted. While evil men and imposters go
17:55
Speaker 1: from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And then finally,
17:59
Speaker 1: in chapter 4, look at verse 5. As for you,
18:03
Speaker 1: always be sober-minded. Endure suffering. To the work of an evangelist,
18:09
Speaker 1: fulfill your needs. That two-sided message, I believe, must be
18:21
Speaker 1: at the core of the training of men for gospel ministry, especially,
18:28
Speaker 1: especially in times like these. Especially in times when the
18:35
Speaker 1: church is responding to and coming out of a time
18:41
Speaker 1: of great weakness where she needs hard men. So what
18:48
Speaker 1: does that look like? All right, let's look at the
18:50
Speaker 1: passage now. All that to introduce this. 2 Timothy chapter 4,
18:56
Speaker 1: beginning in verse 1. First of all, this training... has
19:10
Speaker 1: to be understood as a solemn charge. Look at verse 1.
19:14
Speaker 1: I charge you in the presence of God and of
19:15
Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead,
19:18
Speaker 1: and by his appearing and by his kingdom, preach the word.
19:23
Speaker 1: It's a solemn charge. By the way, that comes into
19:28
Speaker 1: sharp relief when you recognize that 2 Timothy is, not
19:33
Speaker 1: just arguably, there's no argument. This is Paul's most intimate letter.
19:40
Speaker 1: When you go back to chapter one, he's talking about
19:43
Speaker 1: his beloved child. He's talking about the tears that they've
19:48
Speaker 1: shed together. This is an intimate letter. And yet, in
19:56
Speaker 1: the midst of this intimate letter, the apostle says, I
20:02
Speaker 1: charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
20:07
Speaker 1: who's to judge the living and the dead. He recognizes
20:12
Speaker 1: that even though we have an intimate relationship, this is
20:15
Speaker 1: a solemn charge. The way I like to illustrate this, again,
20:20
Speaker 1: borrowing from the military, there is a tradition in the military,
20:29
Speaker 1: in most of the world, right? If a young man
20:33
Speaker 1: comes and he's commissioned and he's going to be commissioned
20:36
Speaker 1: as an officer and he's going to have his insignia
20:38
Speaker 1: pinned on him, if he has a father or a
20:41
Speaker 1: grandfather who is a senior officer, that father or that
20:46
Speaker 1: grandfather has the privilege of coming and pinning that insignia
20:52
Speaker 1: on his son or grandson. It's a beautiful thing. But
20:59
Speaker 1: sometimes it happens during wartime. Where essentially that father or
21:09
Speaker 1: or that grandfather is pinning on the insignia to his
21:14
Speaker 1: grandson who is about to go off and put his
21:17
Speaker 1: life on the line in war. At that moment, it's
21:24
Speaker 1: not just a great photo op. And that's what this is.
21:33
Speaker 1: This is solemn. I know you. I love you. You're
21:38
Speaker 1: like a son to me. We've ministered together. We've lived
21:43
Speaker 1: life together. We've shed tears together. But right now, I'm
21:48
Speaker 1: not your friend and I'm not your father in the faith.
21:52
Speaker 1: I'm an apostle under the authority of God Almighty and
21:57
Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't do this because you
22:01
Speaker 1: love me. It's a solemn charge. And I have to
22:12
Speaker 1: tell you, during that period, that season where everything was
22:19
Speaker 1: secret sensitive and secret driven and there was no solemnity.
22:27
Speaker 1: It just wasn't solemn. It was sales and marketing. There
22:41
Speaker 1: was not this sense of when Christ calls a man,
22:46
Speaker 1: he bids him come and die. To lay down his
22:51
Speaker 1: life in service to the kingdom. There was, it just
22:57
Speaker 1: wasn't there. And today, there needs to be that solemnity.
23:07
Speaker 1: In the midst of a culture that has completely gone astray,
23:12
Speaker 1: in the midst of a church that is completely, in
23:15
Speaker 1: many instances, gone astray. We need to restore solemnity. Secondly,
23:25
Speaker 1: we need to major on proclamation. Verse 2, preach the word,
23:33
Speaker 1: be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke,
23:36
Speaker 1: and exhort with complete patience and teaching. I remember when
23:42
Speaker 1: I was... When I got my license. Became a licensed preacher, right?
23:51
Speaker 1: It was... I mean, I got the official paper, you know.
23:56
Speaker 1: I was licensed to the gospel ministry. I was ordained
24:02
Speaker 1: to the gospel ministry. Not to... Some profession. My favorite
24:11
Speaker 1: book title, by the way, my favorite Christian book title,
24:16
Speaker 1: John Piper, Brethren, We Are Not Professionals. I love that.
24:22
Speaker 1: Just buy that one so you can put it face
24:25
Speaker 1: out and read the title every day, right? Brethren, We
24:29
Speaker 1: Are Not Professionals. We're not. We're not CEOs and CFOs
24:38
Speaker 1: and We are gospel ministers. And ultimately, I remember the
24:50
Speaker 1: first time that I officiated in a funeral as a pastor,
24:55
Speaker 1: and it just dawned on me at that moment, this
25:00
Speaker 1: is the job. This is the job. We're preparing people
25:06
Speaker 1: to die and meet God. Amen? At the end of
25:11
Speaker 1: the day, that's the job. Everything else that we do
25:15
Speaker 1: in between all points to preparing men to die and
25:19
Speaker 1: meet God. And what they need for that is the
25:23
Speaker 1: Word of God. And we've been doing everything else. When
25:31
Speaker 1: we're training men for ministry, what are we doing? We're
25:34
Speaker 1: training them in the ministry of the Word. Why do
25:36
Speaker 1: we teach them Greek and Hebrew So that they can
25:41
Speaker 1: read and understand the scriptures. Period. Why do we do
25:46
Speaker 1: New Testament and Old Testament? Again, so they can read
25:49
Speaker 1: and understand the scripture. Why do we do biblical backgrounds
25:53
Speaker 1: and the history of Israel and the history of the
25:56
Speaker 1: ancient Near East so that they can understand and put
26:00
Speaker 1: into context the scriptures? Why do we teach them biblical
26:06
Speaker 1: theology and systematic theology? so that they can understand and
26:09
Speaker 1: categorize the scriptures. Why do we teach them church history?
26:16
Speaker 1: This one messed me up. Church history is hard. I
26:20
Speaker 1: don't know about the other brothers in here. That was
26:22
Speaker 1: my hardest, like, that class right there. Like, you know
26:27
Speaker 1: how they say drinking through a fire hose? They're just
26:31
Speaker 1: so much. Why? Just why? Felt like a teenager again. Why? Right?
26:39
Speaker 1: Here's why. How have people handled the scriptures throughout the
26:46
Speaker 1: history of the church? And what have the results been?
26:51
Speaker 1: How have people handled the scriptures well? And how has
26:55
Speaker 1: God honored that? How have people handled the scriptures poorly?
26:59
Speaker 1: And what have been the consequences of that? Even when
27:05
Speaker 1: we're looking at the history of the church, At the
27:09
Speaker 1: end of the day, it's about the proclamation of the scriptures.
27:19
Speaker 1: Everything else that we're doing. When we're talking about preaching.
27:23
Speaker 1: Preaching what? The scriptures. When we're talking about pastoral care
27:27
Speaker 1: and counseling. Again, we've come through a generation where that
27:31
Speaker 1: hasn't been scriptural. It's been, we're going to do psychology
27:35
Speaker 1: and pray before and after. But when you're doing that
27:38
Speaker 1: the right way, what are you doing? You're applying the
27:41
Speaker 1: scriptures to every area and avenue of life. And in
27:48
Speaker 1: this day and age where we are tempted to move
27:51
Speaker 1: away from that, it's more important than ever that we're
27:56
Speaker 1: training men in the scriptures without apology. Why? Verse 3.
28:06
Speaker 1: For the time is coming when people will not endure
28:08
Speaker 1: sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for
28:12
Speaker 1: themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn
28:16
Speaker 1: away from listening to the truth and will wander off
28:19
Speaker 1: into myths. This answers a question that people ask me
28:21
Speaker 1: all the time. Before we moved to Lusaka, we were
28:25
Speaker 1: in Houston. And in Houston, everybody's familiar with Smiling Joel, right?
28:33
Speaker 1: Joel Osteen and People often ask, you know, especially when,
28:37
Speaker 1: I remember when they bought the stadium that the Houston
28:41
Speaker 1: Rockets used to play in. That's where they meet now,
28:43
Speaker 1: by the way. It used to be the stadium for
28:46
Speaker 1: the NBA team in Houston. And they fill it up,
28:50
Speaker 1: multiple services on Sunday. And so when that happened, many
28:55
Speaker 1: people were asking, why? Why do churches like that grow
29:00
Speaker 1: and flourish? Why? Why? Because, I mean, you know, implied
29:08
Speaker 1: there is, if I was God, there'd be fire and
29:12
Speaker 1: brimstone so everybody knew, you know, not there. But why?
29:17
Speaker 1: Why do they flourish? My answer to that question is
29:20
Speaker 1: and always has been because the Bible is true. Joel
29:27
Speaker 1: Osteen is the validation of this text. For the time
29:34
Speaker 1: is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but
29:37
Speaker 1: having itching ears, they will accumulate for the time. themselves
29:40
Speaker 1: teachers to suit their own passions. We'll turn away from
29:44
Speaker 1: listening to the truth and we'll wander off into myths.
29:47
Speaker 1: That's true. But why does Paul put it here? Don't
29:56
Speaker 1: miss this. You have a solemn charge to preach the word.
30:03
Speaker 1: In season, out of season. In the Greek, eukairos, eikairos, right?
30:09
Speaker 1: Good times, bad times. In the times where people just
30:13
Speaker 1: lap it up and they just want to hear preaching,
30:15
Speaker 1: and in the times when people are like, don't preach
30:18
Speaker 1: to me. You have a solemn charge to do it.
30:24
Speaker 1: And you need to see it as a solemn charge. Why?
30:28
Speaker 1: Because You, like every other preacher, want to be liked.
30:36
Speaker 1: And if you don't see it as a solemn charge,
30:38
Speaker 1: what you'll do is you'll watch the church down the
30:41
Speaker 1: street that is growing because of their compromise, and you'll
30:44
Speaker 1: try to figure out what you can shave off so
30:47
Speaker 1: that you can grow like them. And Paul is saying,
30:53
Speaker 1: don't you dare. Don't you dare. What do you do instead?
31:02
Speaker 1: Verse 5. Here's the steel spines. Remember, sharp minds, warm hearts,
31:09
Speaker 1: steel spines. As for you. That's them. As for you.
31:17
Speaker 1: And this echoes what he says earlier. For the second time,
31:20
Speaker 1: we won't look at it, but read through chapter 3
31:23
Speaker 1: and look at the as for you statements there in
31:25
Speaker 1: chapter 3 when you get a chance. Verse 5. As
31:28
Speaker 1: for you. always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work
31:35
Speaker 1: of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. There's the steel spine.
31:44
Speaker 1: Don't cave. We need that more than ever in these
31:52
Speaker 1: days as this decline has occurred. Part of the reason
31:59
Speaker 1: we need it is because, again, those places not only
32:04
Speaker 1: flourish numerically, but they also flourish in this way. The
32:11
Speaker 1: culture looks at them and embraces them. The culture looks
32:21
Speaker 1: at them and says, this Christianity, yeah, Joe gets to
32:29
Speaker 1: go on Oprah. Right? The Hillsong guys. Carl Lynch was everywhere.
32:44
Speaker 1: They love him. They love him. Because he tickles their
32:49
Speaker 1: itching ears. And so here's what we have a tendency
32:57
Speaker 1: to do. We have a tendency today to say, okay,
33:00
Speaker 1: what I'll do is I will do that, but just
33:05
Speaker 1: so that I can get that audience and then let
33:13
Speaker 1: it fly. Listen, if you compromise enough to be allowed
33:21
Speaker 1: to sit on the couch with Oprah, it will... it
33:28
Speaker 1: wasn't a compromise. It was who you really were. If
33:32
Speaker 1: it was, and you're able to lie like that for
33:34
Speaker 1: that long, you don't belong to God anyway. Better to
33:46
Speaker 1: just serve the Lord faithfully, going along, being kicked out
33:51
Speaker 1: of or run out of one place after another, find
33:55
Speaker 1: yourself in the marketplace, preaching of Jesus and the resurrection,
34:02
Speaker 1: and having the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers come up to you.
34:07
Speaker 1: What does Ido Babler have to say? By the way,
34:09
Speaker 1: that was an insult. I think our folks would like
34:13
Speaker 1: to hear from this idiot. And then just going when
34:22
Speaker 1: there's a providential shot. And when you get your providential shot,
34:27
Speaker 1: put steel in your spine and stand up before the
34:31
Speaker 1: Oprah's of the world and say, hey, as I was
34:34
Speaker 1: looking around, I saw what you worship. Stop it. Because
34:42
Speaker 1: that doesn't please God. That's not God. There is a
34:47
Speaker 1: God who made the world and everything in it and
34:50
Speaker 1: he calls everyone everywhere to repent. Knowing all the while
34:58
Speaker 1: you will never be invited back. Amen? Or as someone said,
35:08
Speaker 1: I'm not throwing away my shot. Okay, all right. Listen,
35:13
Speaker 1: my time, I've gone over my time, but I hope
35:18
Speaker 1: that was beneficial to you, and I hope it helps
35:21
Speaker 1: to get us started in the right direction as we
35:24
Speaker 1: move think more deeply about this topic and its importance.