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preach boldly and clearly, Lord, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, amen. We are in 2 Timothy chapter 4, and we're concluding the Book of 2 Timothy tonight. Now, here the Apostle Paul is, as I mentioned, concluding the Book of 2 Timothy by giving one last push of encouragement to stay in the fight. Now, as I mentioned earlier in the earlier chapters, the main theme of 2 Timothy, it's not necessarily like 1 Timothy. 2 Timothy more so focuses on encouraging Timothy to endure afflictions, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It's where he tells him to endure persecutions, be not entangled again with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And so throughout these chapters, you see that theme being driven over and over and over again, telling him, you need to endure, you need to endure. Now, Timothy evidently was very much afraid of persecution. We see that in the first couple chapters, and this is why Paul tells them that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. He encourages them not to be ashamed of Jesus Christ, of the testimony of Jesus Christ, nor of his prisoner, referring to himself, the Apostle Paul, who was in prison at that time. He was in chains, he was in bonds. And so he's exhorting them to stay faithful and do what he's supposed to do, let the chips fall where they may. No matter what happens, just deal with the ramifications and the consequences of serving God, trust the Lord, everything's gonna be okay. And this is what he's telling them here. This is what this book is entirely about. Now, this is also the famous passage in chapter four, where the Apostle Paul is writing basically his section about his departure. He's gonna die soon. He's ready to go home to be with the Lord and to leave this physical realm, go into the spiritual realm. Now, contrary to popular belief, the Apostle Paul was not killed by Romans. You hear that often. And in fact, when I was in Bible college, that was a common thing that they would say. They would say that the Romans beheaded the Apostle Paul, but there's no indication of that in the Bible. Now, you may find an indication of that in historical books, but here's the thing. When it comes to the Bible and historical books, we go with the Bible. Now, I'm not saying that there's not historical books out there that can basically confirm what the Bible's teaching, but when it comes to this, we don't find any indication that he was beheaded, that he was killed. And in fact, it would be contrary to what he's telling Timothy in this book, because we see that Paul served the Lord. He went soul winning. He was an evangelist. He was a missionary. He served God. And he's constantly telling Timothy, you're gonna be delivered. You're gonna be delivered. Jesus Christ will deliver you when you serve God. And then all of a sudden he just gets beheaded. You know, that wouldn't be very encouraging to Timothy to say, well, that didn't work out for you. You know, apparently you're beheaded by the Romans. How am I gonna be delivered from that? No, in fact, what we see in Paul's life is that he walked the walk and he talked the talk, right? He served God. He endured. And in fact, he died in an old age, not at the hands of the Romans, not at the hands of anybody, in my opinion. And in fact, look down at verse 17, it says, Not withstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Now that can be taken literally as in the mouth of the Roman empire, but it's also applicable to say he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. You know, that lion, which is Satan, who walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And we can honestly say, according to this verse, that, you know, he was delivered from those things. He goes on to say in verse 18, And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work. Now, wouldn't you say beheading is an evil work? You know, that's a horrible death to die. But he's saying there that God's gonna deliver him from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So Paul's a great example of someone who suffered persecution, went through difficulties, suffered hardships. And you know what? At the end of his life, at the end of his life, he can say, God delivered me from all those things, from being stoned, shipwrecked, persecuted by false brethren, just going through a lot of catastrophe in his life, a lot of tribulation and trials. God delivered him from all those things. Even when he was at the brink of death at the hands of his enemies, God delivered him from the mouth of the lion. You know, you think of Daniel, for example, the same could be said of Daniel when he literally went into the lion's den. You would think someone going into the lion's den would be completely mauled and eaten and destroyed, but yet we see though he was there in front of the mouth of the lion, God delivered him literally from the mouths of the lions, right? And why is that? Because Daniel served the Lord. Daniel served the Lord. He preached the word of God. He was faithful into his Lord, and because of that, God delivered him. Now, why does God do that? Well, because of the fact that if he delivers you, because you're serving him, he's doing it so you can continue to serve him. So that's an encouragement to us to make sure that we serve God, that we love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that we're constantly preaching the word of God, preaching the gospel, because that's good insurance, amen? You know, if you want insurance on your health, a good way to do it is just serve God. That way, God will preserve you, you know, until the time comes where he can take you home. And we see this in Acts 28 verse 31. It says, preaching the kingdom of God, this is referring to when he's in bonds, he was preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. I mean, what a great way to end his life. He's just like, you know what? I spent my entire life going about, preaching the gospel, being a missionary, seeing people saved. Now he ends his life being in prison, but now people are coming to him. And he gets to preach the kingdom of God to them. He gets to just still preach the word of God and end his life in a great way, okay? So that's what we see there in chapter four is the end, nearing the end of Paul's life. Now, let's review a little bit from chapter three. Look at verse 14 of chapter three. It says there in verse 14, but continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned them. And that from a child that was known the holy scriptures, which are able to make the wise into salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished into all good works. So he's basically telling them, hey, everything that you need that pertains to life and godliness is found right here in the Bible, right? Is found in the scripture. So you can be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Now we get into chapter four verse one. This is why he tells them what he's about to say in verse one and two. He says in verse number one, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. We're going to get into the endurance of the hardships of preaching. He says in verse number two, preach the word, be incensed in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. So he says this, look, now that you're thoroughly furnished into all good works, now you got to preach the word of God, okay? Be incensed in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Now again, one of the main things is what? Enduring. But here's the last thing he's going to tell him to endure, okay? Endure the hardships of preaching. Now make no mistake about it. Preaching comes with hardship. Preaching comes with difficulty. What kind of difficulty? Well, criticisms, persecutions, but how about this? What about pastors who preach the word of God and maybe their church doesn't grow? Maybe they're in an area where it's not very receptive and it's not necessary that they're not right with God and they're not preaching the word of God thoroughly, it's just that they're a lot in life, so to speak, where they're just preaching the word of God, they're preaching it faithfully, but you know what? Their ministry isn't necessarily growing or they're not necessarily dynamic, but you know what? They're still preaching faithfully the precepts and doctrines of the word of God. That's something that a pastor has to endure. And you may not understand it. You may think, well, why do they have to endure that? Well, because if a man is preaching the word of God faithfully and his church ministry doesn't grow, guess what's the temptation for a lot of pastors? To trim down the message, right? To try to water down the message, to try to get in a bigger crowd, to go a little liberal in their practices and doctrine and preaching in order to grow the church. So what does that pastor have to do? He has to endure the hardships of preaching. To preach the word of God and controversial things, preach the things that God says to preach even when it's not popular, right? Even when the big crowds are not there, even when people are not happy with him saying the things that he is saying, et cetera. So he continues with this thought of enduring, but he applies it to the preaching. Now, there's a couple of elements when it comes to biblical preaching that we see here in verse number two. First off, it should have the Bible as its centerpiece, right? He says, preach what? The word, not preach a devotional, not preach a commentary, preach the Bible. And this is one of the stark contrasts between what we would call the old IFB and the new IFB. Old IFB was very dynamic in their preaching. I mean, I knew a lot of dynamic preachers, preachers that would just would wax eloquent, but what they lacked in was doctrine, you know, using Bible content. They would often say, for example, Jack Hiles, who's, you know, one of the greatest preachers, in my opinion, he would often say this, he would read a verse and he would say, now close your Bibles and look up here. You know, that's foreign to us, is it not? But in those days, that's how they ran their preaching. That's how they did it. And you know what? It's not necessarily right to do it that way because of the fact that we see here, we're just supposed to preach the word, talk about the Bible. This is why we go through books of the Bible on the midweek service, even on Sunday nights, because we want to get as much Bible content as we possibly can. You know, our preaching should be saturated with Bible, right? But not only that, it should have the Bible as its centerpiece, but we should also preach with a sense of urgency. He says there, preach the word, be instant. Now, what does it mean to be instant? It means to have some urgency about yourself. You know, no one's going to take you serious if you preach on urgent things, but not urgently with the spirit of urgency, right? Yeah, we got to go preach the gospel and we got to see people saved and get sin out of your life and you know, sin is bad and just, you know, just live for God. You know, no one's going to even balk at that. They're going to, it's not going to inspire anybody. It's not going to move anybody to do anything. And this is why being dynamic when you preach is important because it shows a person is being instant about it. They're being urgent about what they're talking about, right? Preach with urgency as though it's a pressing matter, and it is a pressing matter, but then also preach whether the fruit is right for the picking or not. Now look what it says, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. So what does it say? It says you got to preach and be urgent when it's in season and when it's out of season. Now, what does that mean? Well, when something is in season, it typically means that it's ripe, right? You think about certain fruits, you know, mangoes, for example, they are in season or they're about to be in season, right? Because it's the summer, you know, there's certain fruits that are in season, certain fruits are not in season, they're out of season. And so certain fruits are ripe for the picking at this time because now is their season to be picked, to be eaten, and so on and so forth. Well, in like manner, you know, when we preach, we got to preach when there's an abundance of listeners, but when also there's a scarcity of them as well, right? Now, this means a lot to me because of the fact that, you know, you think of, for example, our types of churches, right? Two things that we emphasize a lot is soul winning and the King James Bible. Now, a lot of people sometimes will think, you know, that we're the movement that came up with it or something, you know, we're the ones that have been just spearheading this King James only-ism, you know, and soul winning, but that's not necessarily the case because this kind of preaching has been around for a long time. And you know what, let me say this is I commend the pastors who preach being King James only and preach preaching the gospel and soul winning when they didn't have any listeners, when they weren't popular, they didn't have a large following, they didn't have subscribers, they probably didn't even have a YouTube channel, but yet they preached it with urgency and I know pastors in the old IFB, so to speak, that would preach these topics and you know what, no one cared what they said, unfortunately, but you know what, they were instant, in season out of season, and we should never get this attitude like, oh us new IFB, we're so much better than any other movement that has ever existed, we came up with this and we do all the soul winning and we're King James only and all these things, that's nonsense folks, there's no new thing under the sun. Now given, maybe in this generation we're spearheading those topics and those doctrines, but folks, you know, just let me give you a news flash here, is that the Posture Pre-Rapture has been preached for, I mean, since here, okay, Replacement Theology has been preached since here, since these times, hey, you know, preaching the King James Bible has been preached for decades on end, preaching about someone has been preached since the Bible times, so it's not like we came up with it, but let me say this, throughout the generations there's always been intervals where people were not interested in hearing this type of preaching, they had itching ears, they heaped to themselves, you know, teachers having itching ears, but yet in the midst of those times and those generations, I guarantee you, there were pastors, men of God and preachers who preached it anyways, they were unknown, yet well known to God, that's what it means to preach in season, out of season, to be instant during those times, you know, I would say we're in a in season type of a time, right, obviously we understand that the preaching of God's Word to the general population is not going to be popular, but you know, there's always a remnant, and within that remnant, we want to make sure that that remnant is listening to the unfiltered Word of God, that they're accepting it, that they're practicing it, that they are adhering to it, but you know, there's times when they won't, but even in the midst of that, and let me talk to the future pastors here, you know, don't have this idea that when you go pastor a church, that your church is going to run 100, 200, 300, 400, 500,000 people, you know, and don't base whether you preach the Word of God off of that, right, because God told you not to build a church, he told you to just preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, he didn't say when your church runs 100, just keep preaching like that, when your church is at 200, you need to tone it down a little bit, no, just be consistent, no matter what the attendance is, okay, we started our church, we started with 30, 25 to 30 people, and I didn't think it was going to grow to the size that it is today, but my thing was just, man, I'm just thankful that I get to preach, because just the week before, I was told that, you know, I was probably never going to preach again, so I was just thankful for the opportunity to just get up and preach the Word of God, and thank God our church has grown, but you know what, I also got to keep in mind that, you know, one day, you know, who knows, God forbid, the church just dwindles down to like five people, it's just my family, by the way, that's why I want to have a lot of babies, amen, so the church attendance is never low, and I always have something to preach to, I know all my kids sin, and my wife sin, so I always have topics to talk about, I'm just kidding, you know, I want to, you know, when the attendance dwindles down, I don't compromise on the Word of God, you know, I'm like, well, maybe I need to be a little nicer in my preaching, no, I got to preach, I got to be instant in season, out of season, I got to preach the whole counsel of God, whether there's one person here, two, a hundred, or five hundred, right, that's what it is to be instant in season, out of season, but here's another application to this principle, because this is great, I love this verse, I'm gonna tell you why, because when you think about the Word of God, it's often, it's often described as what, a seed, right, you plant a seed, and you reap immediately, no you don't, right, you often have to wait for that season, so when you plant, it's like it's out of season, you plant, you see no fruit, but you're still planting those seeds, and you know what, when it's time to sow, it's time to sow, whether you see immediate results or not, in like manner, the next year, when you see the fruits, guess what, it's time to reap, so you got to be instant, you got to be urgent to sow, but you also got to be urgent to reap, right, you got to be urgent to sow seeds when you're out there preaching the gospel, but you also have to be urgent to reap when it's time to reap those souls as well, okay, now here's the great thing about this is that, you know, I mean I think to myself as I was meditating upon this passage, I was thinking to myself, you know, I'm sowing a lot of seeds right now in my church, and I'm probably not going to see a whole lot of fruit as far as maybe even spiritual maturity is concerned until years later, but you know, that's okay, you know, that's what every church goes through, where seeds are being sown, and you know what, you might hear a sermon or a specific topic that's being reiterated over and over again, yeah, I'm sowing that seed, so that in five years, we reap the peaceable fruits of righteousness, right, and so this goes to show us that what we need to do as preachers, as soul winners, is we need to sow when it's in season, we need to sow when it's out, reap when it's out, or excuse me, sow when it's out of season, reap when it's in season, and be urgent in both, you understand, you know, there's seasons when things are good, things are bad, but either way, we just have to have that sense of urgency, and look, how about this, how about this application, now obviously when we're out there soul winning, you're sowing seeds, but you could honestly, you would agree that when it comes to your family, it's a little different, right, like you don't win your family the way you win someone to Christ when you're outdoor knocking, because of the fact that a prophet is now without honor, saving his own country, right, and it's often more difficult to win, it's difficult to win your own family members than just a stranger, a stranger doesn't know who you are, you can be the pastor for all they know, you can be the most scholarly biblical Christian for all they know, you know, whereas your family, they know who you are, and so sometimes it's hard to win those, our family members to the Lord because of the fact that they know who we are, so what do we do, we're supposed to sow during a time when it's out of season, and recognize that there's going to be a time when they're in season, my father-in-law actually would often refer to it as the season of the soul, and what is that, well he would have to say, you know, he used to say, brother Mejia, you have to take advantage when people go through a difficult time, because when they're going through a difficult time, their hearts are softened, you know, they're more open to God and his word, and that's when we want to strike, we want to give them the word of God, we want to get them saved, we want to get them plugged in, because they're more, they're just more open to the gospel, they're more open to the word of God, and so, you know, for those of you who have a hard time, you know, winning your family to Christ, instead of just like, you know, labeling them a reprobate, which they're probably not a reprobate, why don't you just recognize the season is not there yet, I need to keep sowing the seed, and that is watered by a good testimony, that is watered by your love and your charity, your kindness and your patience, and then one day when they're ready, they're ready, and they're going to get saved, okay, water it with prayer, water it with consistency, don't be the kind of Christian that you're in and out of church, in and out of the Bible, just inconsistent in your Christian life to the point where your unsaved family, they see that, one of the worst things you can do for your family is to be inconsistent in the Christian life, because it shows that you're just not serious about it, so if you're not serious about it, they're not going to be serious either, they're going to be like, oh, well, he doesn't take it seriously, she doesn't take it seriously, so why should I, whereas if they see you consistent, I mean, I remember when I first got saved, my mom thought that literally I was going through a phase, ah, Bruce, it was rap and hip-hop with you at one point, and it was this at another point, this is just going to be one of those things where you're just going to, you know, it'll be something else, and I don't think myself, hip-hop, Christianity, I just, no, and here we are, 14 years later, you know, my mom comes to church, she's saved now, you know, I'm thankful for that, but you know what, she's seen consistency in my life, she saw that, you know, I would not use my Sundays for anything else other than church, and that showed her something, you know, and so we need to sow and be instant, preach the Word of God when you see results and when you don't, right? Look down at your Bibles again, it says, preach the Word, be instant, end season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, so here we see that we should preach with the well-balanced diet and delivery, so he says, this is the way your sermon should be, you should reprove, rebuke, exhort, be long-suffering, but also teach doctrine, that's great, but notice that it says reprove and rebuke, so the preaching of God's Word should have a heavy dose of negativity and rebuke, we call it face-ripping, right? Now why is that? Because it says there reprove and rebuke, why does God say we have to reprove and rebuke when we preach? Because we're wrong about stuff, people are involved in sin, they have foolish ideologies, they need their minds to be renewed, and you know what often gets people's attention? Some soft, sissified, soy boy preacher like Joel Osteen, no, you think Joel Osteen has changed anybody's life? If anything, he's made men more queer. Joel Osteen has probably made more faggots than anybody else, because his preaching is soft, it's whipped cream, it's soy, what changes lives? Hard preaching, and when we talk about hard preaching, it's that preaching that's in your face, it's reproving and rebuking. Now not just the individuals, how about just reproving and rebuking false doctrine, false religions, things that are happening in our culture, these are things that we need to talk about, right? You know, we talked about being instant, in season, out of season, that's why I try my best to preach on current events, right, because some of those things are in season, people are thinking about them, we preach on it, and you know what, because it's on people's minds, they're gonna listen to that sermon, it's gonna change their perspective, change their life. But folks, we can't get around the fact that the Bible tells us to reprove and rebuke, so I wanna know what the liberal pastor thinks about this. You know, Josh Tice and Pastor Polkadot, all these guys who go to these liberal churches who they wanna be these cool pastors with skinny jeans, legs like twigs, soft skin, just soft everything, just completely just queer, metrosexual wimps, they've never preached a hard sermon in their life, they've never, I guarantee you there's never been a time in their life where they preach so hard, their eyes are just bulging out of their sockets, I do that every Sunday. Because they're not passionate about anything, you know what they're passionate about, your money, folks. That's what they're passionate about. You know, how do they explain this? Well, yeah, we gotta reprove, but we gotta speak the truth in love. Yeah, I agree with speaking the truth in love, but does that, does speaking the truth in love mean preaching in the absence of rebuke? No. Speaking the truth in love means telling you the truth with the motive of love. And guess what? The truth hurts, folks. Reprove, rebuke, it says there. You know, open rebuke, the Bible says, is better than secret love. And let me say this, folks, is that today in 2020, there's a ton of churches out there that capitalize on secret love. They're all about that secret love. They're not willing to correct their members because they're afraid that they might offend their members. And if they offend their members, they're gonna offend that tither in their church, and they're not gonna get paid. Phooey with that. Who cares? You know, if you're in this for the money, you're in the wrong business. Because the Father's business is not about making money, folks. What is the Father's business about? It's about seeing people save transforming lives and being rewarded in heaven. And that's not to say that a pastor can't earn a salary and sustain his family in order for him to do the work of God. But you know what? We have too many pastors out there that literally go into the vocation of being a pastor in order to earn a paycheck. And what does that do? That causes them to trim down the message, preach these watered-down sermons for 15, 25 minutes, no Bible content, and don't wanna offend anybody. I'm thankful when I offend people in our church and they leave because it shows me like, man, good, that person would have been in trouble later on. If people get offended and they walk out or they don't like my preaching, they go somewhere else, you know what? For me, it's just like, well, thank you, Lord. That fire just purged the congregation, and that person's gone. Because that person might have been in some trouble later on in the future. You know, obviously, I'm broken hearted when people backslide, but when some people just leave because they're offended at me or at my preacher and how I lead, you know what I say? Good riddance. That's what I say because we're proving and rebuking as part of life, and you can't grow without those two elements. You cannot grow without someone correcting you because if you are involved in something wrong and you continue in that road and no one corrects you, you're gonna end up going down the path of destruction. You know, I've said this many times. I remember growing up as a Christian just in my old church, growing up spiritually, and having my pastor just rip my face off. I remember blushing, thinking to myself, he's talking about me. I remember getting my face ripped off, and I'm just like, I know he's talking about me. And you know what? It was embarrassing, but you know what? Good. Amen. Because that helped me to correct it. That helped me to get it right. That helped me to clean up my life in order for me to live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord. No pain, no gain. A well-balanced diet and delivery has rebuke and reproof within its preaching. Not all the time. You know, I don't think I preach sermons all the time where I'm rebuking people and reproving. You know, I preached a sermon a couple weeks ago called, you know, About Hope. That wasn't a very, you know, rebuking sermon. It was a very exhortative type sermon. But this morning, this morning sermon, that was reprove and rebuke all the way. Okay. It's necessary. But then it says exhort. What does that mean? To build up. So I like this because you got to tear down before you build up. You got to destroy false ideologies before you can build up some good doctrine in someone's life, right? In order for someone to believe the right type of doctrine, you need to get the false doctrine out of their life. You need to get the false ideas and ideologies out of their life, tear them down, destroy them, debunk them in order to build up the right type of doctrine, to build them up, exhort them. And then it says here, this is very important. Look what it says. With all long suffering and doctrine. So what does that mean? Well, we don't want to just reprove and rebuke with no doctrine, right? Just like tell you that you're wrong, but don't show you according to the Bible why you're wrong. I've seen a lot of that before. It was just like, you're wrong. I was like, well, why? Well, that's just because you are. But here's the thing. We need to go with the Bible and say, well, this is what the Bible says. But not only that, it says there long suffering. So as a pastor, one of my responsibilities is this, is that I need to make sure that I'm patient with people. Because within our church, within every church, there's different levels of spirituality. Some people are babes in Christ. Some people are mature in the Lord. Some people are right in between. There's different levels. People regress, people backslide, people go forward. They have different levels of spirituality. Therefore, a pastor needs to be long suffering towards everyone and not try to just not get frustrated when someone doesn't meet my expectations or whatever. And you got to take that into account as well. If you're going to be a pastor one day, you can't expect everyone to be just on board with everything that you do and say, you got to give people time to grow. When someone comes within our church and they believe like homeless can be saved, they believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, they believe that the Jews are the apple of God's eye and they're just telling you these things, don't like rebuke them. Because they're probably not even ready to hear that. Let them come in, let them hear the preaching. If you get in the conversation with them, kindly with long suffering, show them what the Bible says. I believe the Jews are God's chosen people. Are you serious? Where's Jesse Wohler? Where's Moses? Where's Adam? Get Adam over here. And just like completely destroy them. That's not long suffering. Long suffering is viewing a person's error and kindly bringing them along. Right? Because here's the thing, a lot of people won't get it right off the bat. And let me just say this, if you're long suffering with them, they end up just catching it just plentifully if you just give them time. But if you try to force it down their throats, that's probably why some of your family members are offended that you don't want to talk about you because you've been cramming the reprobate doctrine down their throat so much. Right? They don't get it. Maybe they are reprobate or something. No, maybe you're just not long suffering. You just got to give them some time to digest that stuff. You know? It could be a hard pill to swallow. For you, it's your daily vitamin. Right? For you, it's your daily multivitamin to talk about and learn about those things. But you know what? To other people, they've never had that in their system. They've eaten madongs their entire life and you're trying to feed them filet mignon. They're going to have a hard time. You know, for someone who's like a vegetarian and a vegan, just eating some hardcore meat right off the bat, you know, you got to give them to them little by little, you know, inch by inch. Why? Because, you know, their spiritual digestive system may not be able to take it all at once. So be kind to them. Okay? Be kind. Be long suffering. And look, I'm telling you, if you're kind and long suffering towards those who don't know or don't believe these doctrines, they'll love you so much more when they do come to the knowledge of those doctrines. Because they'll remember like, man, this guy didn't rebuke me. He didn't correct me. He just showed me and was patient with me. And now I know that the Jews are wicked. And he was just kind to me, you know? That's great. I remember when I went to Faithful Word Baptist Church to go meet Pastor Anderson, and we went out to eat. I remember like talking to him and he was just like, so what do you do at your church? And I was like, well, I'm a student for the Bible College, or a teacher for the Bible College. I teach at the Bible College. Now, mind you, he had just preached the sermon, the Bible College scam, or something similar to that, right? And this is what he said, what? Get out of here. You're done. This is lunch. Check, please. No, he didn't do that. Actually, what he said was, oh, okay, cool. So what do you teach? I was like, Galatians. He's like, really? He's like, do you teach replacement theology? I'm like, oh, yeah. In the college, how can you teach the book of Galatians without teaching replacement theology? And you know what? Him and his wife were very kind, they were very long. And looking back on that, I'm like, man, that made an impact on my life. Because here you have one of the most hardcore preachers who could have easily probably ripped my face off, and I would have taken it because it's Pastor Anderson. But you know what? He was long. She needs to keep looking. What was I saying? That thing threw me off. Long suffering. Yeah, he was long suffering. Okay. You know, and I appreciated that. And you know what? It made an impact to me. And it just reminded me like, you know, we need to make sure that we're like that towards others as well. Because look, in the lifespan of our church, we're going to have a lot of old IFP come to our church. Okay. People who are not in lockstep with every doctrine that we believe, and when they come here, we need to make sure that we are long suffering, that we're patient with them, that we teach them. I have a guy who's an old IFP guy. I just converted him to the replacement theology, to poster. And he had originally told me like, hey, I agree with you about soul winning. I agree with you about salvation. But the Jews are God's chosen people, and the rapture is pre-tribulation. And I was like, whatever. That's on you. That's what you want to believe. But then we got to talking more, and he just asked questions. And I just kind of, you know, just throw those seeds out there out of season. And he's actually my barber, so we have time to talk. So he's cutting my hair, and I just throw some seeds out there. I'm like, yeah, you ever thought about this? You ever thought about that? And then finally, he just texted me. He's like, the Jews are not God's chosen people. You're right about this. America is Babylon. He's all the rapture is between Revelation 6 and 7. He's like, what in the world? I'm like, yeah, good job, man. I'm like, here's something else. Here's another thing. And you know what? Little by little, he's basically won over. Now, what if he told me about this? I'm like, you're pre-trib? That's a stupid man's doctrine. Don't you know that I, you know, that's a dipstick doctrine? Didn't you know that's a dipstick doctrine? You know, and just kind of like, just plow him. You know, he probably would have gotten offended, and the Bible says that a brother offended is harder to be won, that his contentions are like the bars of a castle, the Bible says. So once you offend a brother, it's just like, all right, I'm done with you. I don't want to hear from you anymore, you know? So what we want to do is be long-suffering towards them, okay? And I'm talking about new converts, right? Be long-suffering. If you've been in our church, and you still are struggling with that, then, you know, you need to get some smarts, okay? We just preached the entire book of Revelation. You know, you should probably get that by now. But newer converts, we need to make sure we have those elements of exhorting them with all long-suffering and doctrine. Now, why? Why is he telling them, hey, you need to be urgent when you preach. Why? Because I'm telling you, he's telling them, hey, you need to be urgent when you preach. Why? Because verse 3 says, for the time will come when they will not endorse sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. So what are you saying? Hey, get it while again is good. Preach the word of God while they're willing to listen, because there's going to come a time where they're not willing to listen. Now, you're still supposed to preach even when they reject you, but you know what? It's so much better when you're able to preach when they accept what you're telling them, right? When it's in season, they're ready, they're ripe for the picking, they're willing to listen. Strike while the iron is hot. Sermon that got taken down, one of my sermons that got taken down by YouTube because it was considered hate speech, even though it was a sermon on missions. Hey, but I struck while the iron was hot. I was up there for a couple months, did well. Amen to that. The Bible says in Matthew 13, verse 15, for this people's heart is wax gross and their ears are dull of hearing. You know what that means? There's people, specifically referring to the Jews, they were just bored of hearing the word of God. They were dull of hearing. They heard the message over and over again. And what happened? They became dull of hearing and their eyes, they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them. Folks, this happens today where you have people in church where they just kind of put it in cruise control. They just listen to the preaching. And you know what? At one time being in church was exciting. It was like, you just got a girlfriend. You're just like, I can't stop thinking about church. I love being there with the brethren and singing the songs and the preaching is great, but now you get a year into it, two years into it, and it's just like the newness begins to wear off. And what happens? You begin to grow dull of hearing. Well, I've already heard this message before. Didn't pastor me already preach something like this already? Yeah, and you need to hear it again. Sucker. And the mere fact that you have that attitude shows that you need to hear it again. If anybody has that attitude, I already know this, then you know what? You need it again. You need it again. Because the right attitude to have is like, let's reinforce that belief. Let's reinforce that. Let's hear it again. People's heart is waxed grows, their ears are dull of hearing. Make sure that your heart remains tender towards the preaching of God's word. Make sure your heart remains tender when you read the Bible on a daily basis. Don't just get used to it. The newness will wear off, but here's the thing. When the newness wears off, you should go into the next stage of your Christian life in maturity and say, well, I'm reading out of character, but I can still delight in the law of the Lord. I can still delight in reading the Bible. I delight in the preaching of God's word. I delight in being in church and being with the believers and singing the same songs and hearing the same songs and just doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I delight in these things. The person who says, well, I don't delight in it anymore is because your heart has waxed grows. What does that mean? Your heart has been filled with other things and that's why you get bored of the things of God. Verse five says, but watch that when all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. So what we see here is he's encouraging him to have a well-balanced ministry. Now, a lot of churches, they have different ministries. They'll have bus ministry, nurseries, Sunday school class, parking ministry, choir, and just a myriad of different things that you can get involved in. Some of those aren't really bad, but here's the thing is I'm about that minimalist type church. I like minimalist living, period. You know what I mean? Just keep it minimal, okay? And here we see Paul's telling them, this is how you make full proof of your ministry. Just keep it simple. What is it simple? Watch that when all things, previously he told them, preach the word. Make sure you have all these elements of preaching the word. Watch that when all things, in other words, be vigilant, endure afflictions, and go soul winning. Do the work of an evangelist. So he says, look, this is what you need to do in order to have a good, well-balanced ministry. Preach the Bible, okay? Be vigilant because there's wicked people out there. Make sure that you endure, have some tenacity, have some fortitude, have some grit, and go soul winning. Those are the things right there. You know why a lot of churches get their candlestick removed? Because they become a jack-of-all-trades master of none. Their ministry permeates just every facet of every cultural thing. They just get involved in all types of things, and then they don't master any of them. And in fact, they begin to take emphasis off of soul winning. And what happens is the church dies. Look, just keep it simple. Preach God's word, be vigilant, have tenacity, endure, and do soul winning. That's what we do in our church. Now, do we have extra little ministries? Absolutely, but the emphasis is never placed so heavily on those ministries that soul winning suffers because of it, right? We have ushers, we have the orchestra now. By the way, the orchestra sounded amazing, in my opinion, okay? It's been sounding great. You guys have been doing a great job. We need to get the jug in there and the spoons. I'm just kidding. But at the end of the day, these are the four things that we want to excel at right here. Why? Well, because preaching the word of God is important. That's how people are going to grow. Why should we watch that on all things? Because they're reprobates who are seeking to infiltrate the church, and we need to be vigilant about that. Why should we learn how to endure? Because hardships are going to come. And you know what? If you are living the Christian life, but you have no fortitude or tenacity or grit, as soon as one persecution or affliction comes, you're out of the race. And why should we continue to go soul winning? Because that is our responsibility. We're first works of the church. In order to keep the first love, we got to do the first works, right? So have a well-balanced ministry is what he's telling them there. Verse six says, For I am now ready to be offered in the time when my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is later for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, not to me only, but unto all them also that love is appearing. So he's basically saying, look, the reason I'm telling you this is because I'm going to die. And he's saying you need to take the baton. You need to take the torch and take over after me. I'm already done. I finished my course. Timothy, you need to make sure that you take that. Verse nine says, Do thy diligence to come to me shortly, for Demas hath forsaken me. It stinks to be Demas, guys. His name is eternalized in the Bible as being the man who betrayed Paul. Now, what is he telling him here? Hey, you need to endure betrayal. You know, when people backstab you, you got to be able to endure that, right? You know why? Because it's going to happen. People who are some of your closest friends, closest pastor friends, closest whatever, they're going to backstab you. It's going to happen. It happened to the apostle Paul. There's no new thing under the sun. It always happens. And you know what, as a Christian, you have to endure that. That's very painful to have like a friend of yours turn on you. That's very painful, right? Someone who, you know, you had sweet counsel together. You went into the house of the Lord together. You had great fellowship for that person to turn on you. It's a very painful experience. And Paul is basically telling them, hey, you need to make sure you endure this, endure the betrayal, because Demas forsook me. Having loved this present world and has departed into Thessalonica, Cretans to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. By the way, thank God for the Luke's in this life. Thank God for the Luke's in the ministry. You know, those who just stick around and thank God that I have a bunch of Luke's in here. There's a lot of Luke's in here that basically they just stick around no matter what happens. And I hope to God that many of you still stick around throughout the decades. You know, only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus, the cloth that I left at Troas and with Carpus. When thou comest, bring with thee. And the books, but especially the parchments. Now verse 13, when he talks about the books, I believe he's actually referring to the Bible. Because of the fact, when we think of the Bible, we think of this right here, the canonized version of the Bible. They didn't have this back then. So they had, you know, the books of the Bible were separated. So I believe that's what he's referring to. He's like, bring the books, but then also bring the parchments, which is basically what they would use to write on. We understand the apostle Paul is writing scripture. And so I believe that's what he's referring to there. He's like, bring the books, but also the parchments, the papers, so to speak, in order for him to write more scripture. Verse 14 says, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. You know, I like Paul because he's not ambiguous. We don't have to wonder about who he's talking about. He's like, by the way, that one guy, he didn't mean much evil. He's like, no, Alexander didn't mean much evil. And just in case if there's more than one Alexander, it's the coppersmith. Alexander the coppersmith didn't mean much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. He's just human. And I think about this, not all the time, but sometimes I go through seasons where I'm like, God reward him according to his works. That guy did me much evil. You know, sometimes it's like reprobates online. I'm just like, God destroy that person. Smite him with AIDS. Let him just get brain cancer and die. You're like, I can't believe you say something like that. Well, these wicked people talk about my family, my children all the time. Talk about wicked things about my kids and my wife and my family. I'm only human folks. So, you know, I pray. I pray against them. I pray those imprecatory prayers. David did it. Paul did it. I'm doing it too. Lord, can you open up the earth and just can the earth just swallow that person up? Can you just destroy them right away, please? Makes me feel better. Oh, that's so wicked. I can't believe you. You should, you know, love your enemies. But here's the thing. Someone who violates through words other children and women and innocent people, these people are not just my enemies. They are the enemies of the Lord because that characterizes someone who is an enemy of God. My enemies are those who like, I don't know, they stole from me, steal my van or something, you know, take my property. These aren't necessarily reprobates, just delinquents, you know. Those people, I'm not praying for God to smite them. I'm praying that these people get smitten though. Verse 15 says, of whom be thou, where also for he has greatly withstood our words. This shows you this guy's wicked. So when he says this guy has greatly withstood our words, in other words, Alexander was seeking to hinder the work of God, trying to hinder the word of God. And by the way, all those people, whoever reported our pastor's friend's channel, the Lord reward them according to their works. People think, oh man, you know, his channel's taken down. Yeah, but God's gonna smite those people because they're hindering the word of God from going out. They're trying to hinder the word of God from going out. And look, they're still working at it. They're trying to shut down all our channels. Well, you know what? Let it be anathema. May they be smitten, may the earths open up and swallow them up. May they be just made twice dead, plucked up by the roots. God, may you shut their eyes and their ears, lest they believe and be converted and you should heal them. I pray for those people that God just destroys them. Why not? They're trying to hinder people getting saved. Or they're trying to hinder, save people from getting right with God or learning doctrine. This is wicked. It's evil. He says, of whom be thou where also? Hey, make sure you're aware of this guy. That's why I'm telling you who he is. For he has greatly withstood our words. And my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray, God, that it may not be laid to their charge. And obviously, he's referring to Demas. He forsook him, but he's like, Father, forgive him, for they know not what they do. That's basically what he's saying there. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me, the preaching might be fully known and that all Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. He said, you know what? At the end of the day, people forsook me. I was wrong. There's wicked people out there, but God never left me. He always stood with me. He'll never leave me nor forsake me. And that's very comforting. Amen? Because you can go through seasons in your life when you feel everyone's forsaken you. All they which are in Asia have forsook me, right? But here we see that God still was with Paul. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me into his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Then, of course, he goes into the names there. So what is the book of 2 Timothy about? He's basically telling Timothy, hey, you got the doctrine down, right? You know what the qualifications of a pastor are. You know what you're supposed to do. But here's the last thing, and this is a very important element for you to understand if you're going to go into the ministry. You need to be able to endure. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. What good is it to know everything but not have the heart and the grit to endure hardships so you can continue to propagate the gospel and the word of God in the years to come? You know, it's a sad statement when people who know the word of God well, they just get away. They fall away. They get out of church or they get out of the Bible. That shows you that they did not have endurance. So folks, hey, learn doctrine. Have your core values. Make sure you learn doctrine. But here's the thing. Make sure you also learn how to endure hardship. Extremely important that you learn how to endure until the end, right? So that you can fully preach the word of God. You can see as many people saved as possible. You can be an example to multitudes. You can be an example to your family. Amen. Spire heads are the number one prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the book of 2 Timothy. Help us take heed to these words, Lord. And Lord, before we look down on Timothy, this is something that I think every Christian struggles with. I know I struggle with from time to time. There's times when we don't want to endure. It's difficult. I pray, God, that you'd help us, that you'd strengthen our hearts, help us to wait upon you when we're discouraged, when we go through seasons of depression, of anxiety, of discouragement, times when we feel we can't continue anymore. May you remind us that we just need to endure. And when we feel we can't endure anymore, help us to just wait upon you so that you can renew our strength. But the important thing is help us to be in this thing for the long run, for the long haul, that we would remain preserved until the coming of the Lord. And I pray, God, that you'd help us to do so. Thank you so much for your word. Bless the remainder of our evening. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.