Not Done Yet | Part 4

Because today, what I wanna look at in this big idea of how we're not done yet because God's not done yet, the big idea for today is simply this. When I surrender to the love God has for me, I will seek the life he asks of me. In other words, when I realize that God

loves me the most, loves me the best, he wants the best for me, that empowers me and enables me to give my best back to him.

And that's kind of of of how the gospel works, as we're gonna see today. That's how it works. And so in this time of of crazy world happenings where it seems like life is we're struggling, I wanna I wanna take this this this idea apart and show it in the life of a man named Paul. We're gonna be in Acts chapter nine.

Acts chapter nine. And and we're gonna look at the the story of a guy named Paul, which many of you have heard of. He's called Saul at the time. He gets his name changed.

And and he wrote a whole bunch of the New Testament. Many of you know that. But this is where his journey kinda begins as he comes to know Christ, and he he learns to surrender to the love that God has for him in order to then seek the life that God asks of him.

And what we're gonna see in Paul's life is he kinda has that backwards. He kinda thinks that I have to seek a certain life that I I I'm the best. I'm the best in the room. I I I do the best job, and then I have this contractual kinda relationship with God where when I do the best, then that buys me by contract

the blessing I want from God. I gotta go earn it. And and and it doesn't work that way. It's backwards as we're gonna see. So we're gonna go into chapter nine. I just wanna read the story. And this is the story about how he ends up meeting Jesus. In chapter nine, it says, meanwhile,

Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he's he who he's wanting to kill the Christians, the people that are following Jesus at this time when the church is exploding and starting to grow. And Paul is is a very smart, well connected,

a Pharisee in the in the Jewish religion at the time. He's he's he's a he's a big shot. And he is highly offended by this new movement called the way, which is people following Jesus. And he doesn't get what they're doing. And so he honestly thinks he is serving God zealously by trying to literally kill followers of Jesus.

So he's he's he's out there doing the threats. And so it says, so he went to the high priest.

He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus asking for their cooperation and the arrest of any followers of the way that he found there. That's what Christians were called at time, the way. And he says, so he wanted no way. Okay. I was dumb. But anyways,

he wanted to bring them, both men and women, back to the Jerusalem in chains. Listen to what happens. As he was approaching Damascus

on his mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. And the voice replied, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone's voice, but saw no one. Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand of Damascus.

He remained there blind for three days, and did not eat or drink.

So Saul, you know, is is is running around. He's persecuting Christians. He thinks he's actually performing an act of service to protect God. He's protecting the kingdom of God in his sense by doing this right thing. Because he was of the the order of the Pharisees,

and and he believed in in his really kind of this contractual idea. It was called, this idea of legalism, that your works is what saved you before God. He he strongly leaned into this and he felt like I'm really good at the rules and I don't think this group is about the rules. So I need to get rid of them.

But along the way, he meets Jesus And he learns something very significant in his journey.

And that's my first point I wanna make, is simply this. It's about relationship, not religion. It's relationship, not religion. If I'm gonna surrender to the love that God has for me, so I can then seek the life that he asks of me, I have got to understand that it's relationship, not religion. See, Paul

was very good at religion. Matter of fact, the whole system that that that God was getting mad at because they had this sacrificial system. They went to the temple. They they had the rules. God gave the commandments. Now, don't get me wrong. God wants us to listen to his principles and and and follow his commands.

But what the difference between religion and a relationship with Jesus is, is religion says, I do these things. Therefore, then God gives me these things.

It's it's it's prideful is what it is. And what I mean by prideful is it doesn't mean you're just beating your chest. It means it's about you. It it comes from you. It's about you. You control it, and you make it happen. So the idea is, I work basically for God's love,

where a relationship with God shows that, no, no, no, no. I follow God from his love, not for his love. And Paul was caught up in this whole idea, this prideful religion, this idea that you go earn it, you go make it happen. And and and here's the problem. If you view faith and your relationship with God as religion,

as a set of rules, a set of things that I go do it, and then I win. And I'm the best, and I get so then I get blessed. If I'm the best, I get blessed, kind of this idea. And if that's how I can live, here's the problem with that. It still, in the end, is about you and from you, and it doesn't work.

And and here's what happens when I do that. If I live by these religious rules alone, in this contractual view of how it works, if I'm successful at obeying the rules, but I still feel like in my life I'm suffering, then I'm gonna be done with God. I'm gonna get

frustrated because I'm gonna feel like, hey. I did my end of the bargain. Why did God not do His?

I I've been faithful. I've done the things I was supposed to do. I've followed the rules. I've gone to church. Why is this still happening in my life? Why is there still a pandemic? Why am I still out of work? Why and and so the problem is with religion is with if I act successful, but I still suffer,

I'm gonna get really, really unsatisfied and be done with God. But on the flip side, if I think that it's about religion and the rules and it's what I do first, and I keep failing, I feel like, man, why do I keep doing the knuckleheaded things? I can't get this, I can't, I can't seem to do it right.

Then I'm gonna become convinced that God is done with me, and then I'm done.

That's where it fails. So what does it mean to to flip that script? What does that look like? Because it it doesn't mean that we don't live by God's principles. We don't want to live the life he asks of me. It just means that the order has changed. It's I live that life from his love. I I embrace and surrender

to this love of who Jesus is. I have a relationship with God through Jesus. And what does that look like? I I wanna show you what what I really mean here about the difference between practicing religion versus having a personal relationship.

And if you go to the book of Romans chapter eight, I think it'll pop up on the screen here, This is Paul writing this later on in his life. Later on, he's already come to know Jesus, and and he's following him. And and in Romans chapter eight, the book of Romans was he always wanted to go to Rome.

He he wanted to be able to go preach in Rome, and and he finally gets there, but he's he's he's basically when he finally got there, he was arrested. But he wrote this this book of of Romans ahead of when he was thinking he was gonna go there. And it's a really deep theological explanation of how

a relationship with God works. And it gets really deep, and and, Paul is an incredibly bright person, and he uses a lot of,

technical terms. He uses a lot of, judiciary, legal terms to try to explain things. And what's interesting is in Romans seven, he's talking about how we're no longer bound to the law. The law was the rules.

And and he says the law's not bad. The law actually revealed God and his his his what was right, what was wrong. And he's saying, the problem wasn't with the law, it's with us. You see, we don't have the ability to live out the law to the perfection that it would take to basically earn

the love of God. Because we'd have to be perfect.

So we wrestle with this this imperfection. So we try to build up by the rules, but then we fail. And then we don't do the things we wanna do. And then end up doing the things we think we shouldn't do. And we're always wrestling, and that's been the hardest part. And we can never have satisfied. We're always feeling either I'm done with God or God's done with me. And how do you get past this wretched life where you just wanna be done with with God or anything? And that's where he goes into the very end of of of chapter seven. He talks about how it it's thankful that the answer is Jesus.

And then in chapter eight, he explains what this looks like. I just wanna read the first four verses of chapter eight. He says, so now, when you understand that you know Jesus, he goes, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

So there's no condemnation. That's a legal term. He's like, you're not condemned. Meaning, God doesn't love you because of what you do. God loves you because of who he is. And if I know Jesus, if I put my faith in what Jesus did to die on the cross for me, I am not condemned.

I am not condemned. And if I try to live without Jesus, I already am condemned. He goes, there's no condemnation.

And because you belong to him, the power of the life giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. That's what we talked about last week. If you missed last week, go back and watch it. We talked about the power of the holy spirit. How the Holy Spirit makes this work. It's Jesus. It's God in us,

the Holy Spirit. But verse three, the law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our own sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have,

and in that body, declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit.

That's really deep, and it's really technical, and it's really awesome.

Because what Paul is describing is this idea that I had it wrong. I thought I was the smartest man in the room. I was the best. He Paul goes on in all of his writings. He writes about two thirds of the New And as he's writing, he he kinda deconstructs

and and looks at how his faith was wired before, this legalistic faith, this faith of I do in order to get from God, this contractual idea.

And he realized he had it so wrong that it was really, I need I need to accept God's love, and when I accept his love, I have that forgiveness. I have the power of the Holy Spirit, and then that power of the spirit and his love then propels me and and and and empowers

me to actually go live the life that God wants for me. And he had to learn that and he embraced that. And here he's explaining it. And what's really crazy is the bottom line is because I'm, you know, I don't wanna get, you know, I like getting a little bit deeper here. But

the seminary word, the the the the big ticket dollar word here of what he's describing is, is this idea of of imputation. Is that God, when Jesus died on the cross for us, that God put our sin onto Jesus and then therefore took Jesus' righteousness and imputed it onto us. Meaning, he placed it onto us.

The best way to describe it is, if I know Jesus, when God looks at me, if you know Jesus, when God looks at you, he doesn't see your sin. He sees his son.

That's what it means. It's that simple. When God looks at us, once we know because that's what that's what Paul's saying here is he he learned that it's not about religion, about relationship with Jesus because that's the only way I can have a relationship with God. That's the only way life will work. That's the only way I can ever have the power to then go live the life that he wants me to live, and it's this imputation, this idea that God says, hey, hey, hey, hey.

I'm not looking at you and seeing your sin anymore. All I see is my son. So now, I give you the power to go be what I see. To live like Jesus. That's what Paul is saying here. And he's he's he's reminded of, and this is where he first begins that journey. That it's it's, hey, I saw it wrong.

I saw it wrong. You know what's interesting though? It says when he got up off the ground, he was blinded. That's kinda what I love about how God just works with such cool irony in our stories and in the story through scripture is, here's a guy that thought he saw everything right and God had to knock him off his donkey

and onto his donkey in order to make him blind. And when he made him blind, that's when he could see.

Now this whole idea of legalism, it sounds so technical and and weird, but it's real simple. I think that's the biggest struggle with every person on this planet when it comes to thinking about things beyond this life, beyond this world, and if there is a God, how does it work?

And we get caught up in these these these ideas, and almost every religion that's ever existed on this planet is some form of legalism. You work for it. The problem is what Paul realized is that'll never work.

Because you try to work for it from works, it won't work, and you just end up working people over that are all around you. You end fighting. You end up being judgmental. You gotta be better than them. You gotta prove yourself. So how about you? How do you think God sees you?

Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?

Or do you just practice a religion? That's the question. Because that's the first step. That's the first step. Now, what's next? What happens next in this story? And it brings up the second thing. So it's relationship, not religion. But secondly,

it's people over programs. People over programs. Look at verse 10. Says, now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord spoke to him in a vision calling Ananias. Yes, Lord, he replied. The Lord said, go over to Straight Street to the house of Judas.

When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. Now catch this. This is this is crazy. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible because it is so cool. He goes so he tells him he's talking to this guy and giving him a vision. He tells him to go find a guy where Saul gives him very specific instructions where to go. And then he says, he is praying to me right now. I mean, think about how cool that is. He's he's having a vision. Ananias is God speaking to him, he goes, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna go find this guy. And by the way, I'm talking to that guy right now too.

That is how cool God is. So he's having a conversation with both of them. And he says look what he says in verse 12. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again. So I'm giving you the vision of who he is. I'm telling you go talk to him. But right now, he's talking to me, and I'm giving him a vision of you. I'm gonna connect you guys together. And here's what's interesting.

God, right after Paul meets Jesus, he didn't send him to a program. He sent a person. And if I am ever gonna truly be able to get to surrender to the love that God has for me, to the level where I will seek the life he asks of me, it's gonna involve people in my life in real community.

People that help me. People that challenge me. And here's what's crazy.

Verse 13, but Lord, exclaimed Ananias, I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to believers in Jerusalem. And he is authorized by the leading priest to arrest everyone who calls upon your name. So Anais is the guy. I don't know if I wanna do this. This guy's kind of a jerk.

So even Anais, as a believer, doesn't know if he wants to reach out to this guy. But then look what it says in in verse 14 15. But the Lord said, go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.

So he's saying, hey, he's my he's a guy. I already have this plan. This life he's gonna live. And he is the one that basically, if you go to chapter 13, which is, you know, we're gonna look at what happens in between, he grows to this point where where God sends him and he's the guy that ends up starting to fulfill

the last part of Acts one eight, which is the the whole outline of this book, what he's saying, hey, the gospel's gonna spread from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. Paul is the guy that God uses to take

the love of Jesus to the ends of the earth. Meaning outside of the Jews, to the Gentiles, to the whole world out there. And he says, he's my guy. But then look what it says in verse 16. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. Wait, what?

See, if you have this contractual religious approach to faith and how God works, verse 16 terrifies, confuses you, and might even make you a little bit angry. Because he's saying, I love this guy so much, I'm gonna, his life is gonna be something that I'm gonna use, that I've always wanted

to have him live out this life. This is the life I'm gonna ask of him, and guess what? This life's gonna involve suffering. If you have a religion contractual based view of God and how it works, that's not how you want it to work.

But what did God do to help grow him? He sent him people. Because verse 17 then says, so Ananias went and found Saul.

He laid his hands on him. Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the holy spirit. Instantly, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

Afterwards, he ate some food and regained his strength. It goes on to say, Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. And look at this, and immediately, he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues,

saying he's indeed the son of God. You see, he got right on mission with God right away. He's like, boom. He's he's on mission. He starts using his gifts. He was a good communicator. He was a good, you know, theologian. He he started standing up and telling people about Jesus. I'm telling you, if you have a relationship with Jesus,

you will tell other people about Jesus. He the Holy Spirit starts working in his life right away. And look at verse 21, all who heard him were amazed.

Isn't this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus' followers in Jerusalem? They asked. And didn't he come here to arrest them? To take them in chains to the leading priests? They are totally baffled by the change in his life. And it says Saul, verse 22, Saul's preaching became more and more powerful.

Meaning, he got more and more throat punchy. That's how I kinda read it. And the Jews in Damascus couldn't refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

He used that brain that God had gave him and started applying it to the idea of who Jesus was. He knew the Old Testament. He knew the scriptures, and the power of the Holy Spirit put two and two together for him. And now he is defending who Jesus is, and no one can refute it. And so verse 23, after a while, some of the Jews plotted together to kill him, because they're just like he was. They're the legalistic followers. Like, now he's acting like them. Now we gotta stop him.

They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him. But Saul told, was told about their plot. So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall. So first he has this guy Ananias, comes prays over him, he starts to see again. Then he starts to grow in his faith. He gets baptized. He he learns. He's with the Christians. He starts using his gifts. He starts preaching. And all of sudden, now people wanna kill him. He's so bold that now this church now helps him. So now he has a group of people, a community of people that help save his life. Literally, they they take care of him.

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him. They didn't believe he had truly become a believer. Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus,

and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them what that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus. So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. So now,

he has Ananias that God sent him. Then he's with these the the Christians in Damascus. They save him. And then he tries to go connect in Jerusalem, and the apostles are afraid of him, and a guy named Bartimaeus comes along

and and and and and vouches for him and brings him in. And if you go back into the rest of of of Acts, go back to chapter 13. When you go go just go read that. You'll see that it's chapter 13 where these disciples, the apostles, finally commissioned him to be this this this missionary to go out into the world.

And it happens because Barnabas vouched for him. Well, it's Barnabas and Paul, they originally go out as partners. But what is so crazy is if you read through Acts, it's like it says first it says Barnabas and Paul. Almost immediately, the very next chapter, it changes it and it starts saying Paul and Barnabas.

Paul becomes the leader, and Barnabas was okay with that. This guy Barnabas had this gift of encouragement, and he discipled him, and he saw how Paul was gifted. He knew he was a leader. He knew he was an evangelist, and so he went with him, and then he kinda let him lead. Barnabas was a guy that knew how

to bring the best out of people. You see, God doesn't send us programs. We use programs. Programs are our way to get people together so they can meet. You come, you gather. We have programs, but church programs are not what transform us. God we we we we use programs, but we love people, not the other way around.

A lot of us, we love programs, and we try to use people, and and and God used people in his life. That's the only way he got from being a guy that was sitting on the ground blinded on the roadside meeting Jesus to actually being that person and living that life that God said, this is my plan for him. He sent him people.

It says, so Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around. I already said that. Verse 29. He debated with some Greek speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him. Paul was probably he was man,

I think I'm kinda throat punchy. This guy seems like everyone he was preaching to wanted to kill him by the time he was done preaching to him. And he goes, when the believers heard about this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus, his hometown.

Says, then the church had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers. See, people over programs. And if you go about people over programs, you end up with more people.

And and and Paul had people that God put in his life. How about you?

Do you have people in your life?

Do you have people that you grow with? In other words, let me ask you this. Do you grow with people or do you just go to programs?

Think about your your your connection to a church. Is it all about just the programs Or have you connected to people? That's why we push to not just sit in rows or sit on couches and lazy boys, but to sit in circles,

to have other people in your life. During this pandemic and during where we can't come to as many of the programs, I honestly believe the programs we do are powerful, and they help us connect, and they are necessary. And I can't wait till we get back to them. But I do think some of us are struggling more with this, not

necessarily because we miss the program so much, it's because we don't really have people. And if we had connection to people, we could probably be going through this a little bit better than we are. Maybe this is one of those moments where God is blinding you in order to see that it's time to get

not just a relationship with God and the connections to programs, but a relationship with Jesus and a connection to others in order to grow, in order to be developed, in order to be saved, in order to be challenged, in order to be known, accepted, supported, and developed. Do you have people or just programs?

Because in the end, you know what that leads us to is the last step of this, of how God works this out. How does God help us understand that when I surrender to the love God has for me, I will seek the life he asks of me. It's a relationship with Jesus, not a religion. It's people over programs,

and then the final step is, it's mission over myself.

That's what you see right away in Paul's life. He chooses mission over himself. It's mission over myself, meaning I'm gonna get on mission with God. I'm gonna embrace the life he asks of me.

Because that's what it says here in in back in verse 15. I wanna go read that again. When the Lord said to this guy, Ananias, who was afraid of going to talk to Paul, he said, Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles, the kings, as well as the people of Israel. People like having a cool mission. What we don't like is embracing the suck part of it. And that is, and I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. So what's he saying? He's saying, hey, he he's gonna choose mission over myself. I'm gonna choose mission over myself that I that when I really embrace the love god has for me, I understand what it means to have the imputed righteousness of Christ, that I am made right with a god who loves me, that gave his all for me, that he came and be and came into a body of a of a man and lived his perfect life and then died specifically for me. I can trust him.

You see, the problem with religion is religion instead of a relationship

basically is about me, and it's basically about I trust me more than I trust God. So I'm gonna do this stuff, and then I'm hoping God will give me this stuff. You realize that when we act in a religious way instead of a relational way, we are acting and falling for the same sin, the same lie that tricked Adam and Eve in the garden. When Satan came and said, you know what? You can't fully trust God. He doesn't really want the best for you. He's trying to keep stuff from you, and so you gotta go figure this out yourself.

And we have to get past that original lie, and that's only through a relationship with Jesus. And when we have that relationship with him, and we see and embrace how much he loves us, and we get into relationship with other people that see it too, and we can actually grow together, and we start to experiencing that, we have this ability to understand that it's about the mission, it's not about myself.

And that is when I become God's chosen instrument in my life. And you know what? When I know that I'm living that way, I am not controlled by my circumstances. Christ comes out in them through me. And that's what he was saying. And Paul did have to suffer, and he was willing to.

He was willing to do it. Like, what did he go through for this? If you just turn over, I wanna read something out of second Corinthians.

He wrote in a church he started in in Corinth, and in first Corinthians, he was challenging the people to to to you know what? You gotta have this discipline. You gotta go all in with God. When you know how much he loves you, you should absolutely be able to trust him with your life.

And, yeah, it might be tough. Well, in second Corinthians, he found out that they weren't really listening to him. They were trying to say, oh, I believe in Jesus and do the religious thing, but then keep living their life however they wanted to. And then it was causing all kinds of problems. So in second Corinthians, he writes back, says, you guys gotta learn to love and accept and trust me. And you need to lean into the love of God. And he goes, trust me because here's what I've gone through

to bring the gospel to you. And I just wanna read. Look what what look what he did. When it says God said he would suffer, he really did make it mission not about himself. As God's partners in chapter six, he he talks about how I beg you. He says, you need to accept the love of Christ. That's the first couple verses.

And he goes, you need to to lean into your salvation, and and then look at the love Jesus has for you. Because then in verse three, he says this, we live in such a way, he's talking about himself and his missionary partners, that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry.

In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food.

Think about that. Look at what he's saying. He's been beaten, put into prison, faced angry mobs, worked past exhaustion,

endured nights where he didn't sleep. He's even had times where he didn't even eat. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the holy spirit within us, by our sincere love. In other words, when you really know Jesus' love, you will then be empowered to show Jesus' love.

We faithfully preach the truth. God's power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for our defense. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, yet they call us impostors. We are ignored even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we will not be killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.

We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. And he's encouraging them to say, you don't get it? He's talking to a group of people that are religious, but still about themselves. And he's saying, I learned to suffer and it's okay. Cause I did that because it's about mission,

not myself. At what point will you embrace the mission of the church, the mission that God has given you and I. We have to embrace that. And if you have a hard time embracing it, you need to go all the way back to where's your relationship with Jesus? Because you might just be being religious, legalistic, trying to be the best,

trying to have a contractual relationship with God. Whereas when you fully understand the love of God, will choose a mission over myself. You know what's crazy about all that suffering? What did he think about near the end of his life?

What did he think about it? I wanna read one last little passage. And if you go to it's second Timothy. This is the last thing that Paul wrote why he was still alive. He was in jail, and when he wrote to Timothy the second letter to him, he knew he was going to die. He knew that his his time was up. And chapter four

in in second Timothy, this is the last chapter of scripture we think he wrote. He knew he was gonna die.

He's at the end of his life, and he's trying to encourage this younger pastor, Timothy, who's a young man, who's he's basically been like a father to him, and he wants to encourage him. And this is so this is kind of his final words of what he thought about the life he had lived. You gotta understand why he was a Pharisee. When he was persecuting the church, he had power. He had prestige.

He had an office of of of of influence. He had wealth. He was doing great. Once he started following Jesus, life got tough. But look at the end of his life, what he says to this younger guy.

In verse three, he says, for a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears wanna hear. That's a bias confirmation, I think we call it today. We go and look around for people that are just gonna say exactly what we already think we wanna hear, and it's happening in the church too. People wanna be surrounded in churches where just tell me what I believe

God is. Tell me what I wanna know. And he says, you're gonna have that moment. They will reject truth and chase after myths,

but you should keep a clear mind in every situation. As a young leader, he's saying, keep a clear mind. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. I say it again. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the good news and fully care out the ministry God has given you. It's mission over myself.

He goes, as for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness,

which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on the day of his return. And this prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. So he's not saying it's something I went and earned by my great works. I got that because I got Christ's righteousness imputed on me, and I got the privilege of living about this mission. I got to have a front row seat in what God's doing. And I'm telling you, Timmy, don't give up. Don't surrender to that. Hang on. Have a clear mind. Keep pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. Don't tell people what they wanna hear. Tell them what they desperately need to hear. Don't surrender and don't worry about suffering

Because it was worth it. Because I know that my God imputed Jesus' righteousness onto me and when he sees me, he doesn't see my sin. He sees his son. And because of that, I wanna choose to give my best, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to look like Jesus.

That's how it works. It's funny. I started off talking about a dream I had that woke me up. But this passage is powerful to me because the other day, with everything going crazy, we had to go back online, and you know, it's a big wait,

and and me wrestling, you know, this is this time that I feel like what Timothy is struggling with. I feel like we're living in a time, especially in our culture, where people just wanna hear what they wanna hear and and and fight with everybody. And it's really difficult to be a pastor and a leader and someone like me that has no problem throat punching. I feel like I'm Paul. I'm the guy that can speak to an audience and make you either really love it or you wanna kill me.

And it's, and my wife has watched how I've had to lead in our home and lead, and it was leading up to my birthday. And she gave me one of the greatest compliments when she just asked as we were going to bed, how do you sleep?

Because she's always the one that can be asleep by the time her pillow hits the bed. I read a little bit and do stuff. But what she was saying is she's having a hard time sleeping. She'll fall asleep. She wakes up. Her mind's racing. She feels the heaviness of everything going on. And she goes, I go, what do mean? She goes, well, I feel the heaviness, but what you do,

I've watched you for all these years. And it's just, I don't know how you handle that and go to sleep at night.

In other words, she was complimenting it. I mean, she goes, how do you do that? And I go, well, it's kinda simple. Basically, I explained what this message is about. I embraced that. But I said, if you really wanna know that in the simplest way I make myself just relax when I start to go and get worried about everything,

I go, I think about my dad.

And I think about, wow, there's people that aren't happy with our opinions. There's people that are angry about that. And I think about how he he reminds me of Paul in his journey of life and his willingness to fight for what's right and and suffer. And and And then when I think that people aren't happy with me, I think about how he spent about five years of his life in combat

with people not even a mile away that literally just not were not happy with his opinions. They wanted to kill him. And he slept intense in freezing, burning hot weather, freezing weather. He grew up in the great depression was his childhood. His teenage years was World War II. He spent three years in Korea,

and then he ended his military career in Vietnam. And he comes home a war hero. And after all that service, people call him a baby killer. And he still went to sleep at night because he fought the good fight. He was proud of what he did. He stayed the course.

But what he really encouraged me is when Jesus got ahold of his life, because he was like Paul, one of those guys that just tried to be the best in the room. And then he surrendered to the love of Jesus. He had a road to Damascus experience in his life when I was a kid. And he started fighting another fight,

even more boldly than he ever did as a soldier.

And he stuck to it. And he had a conversation with me as bright the day before he died. That was basically this conversation Paul had with Timothy. He said, Son, you're fighting in a war that's even worse than any war I fought physically.

There's more at stake. It means more. It's it's more powerful. And he goes, you have got to understand. That idea of when people wanna listen and hear just what they wanna hear and all that.

My dad encouraged me one last time. He said, son, the one thing I gotta tell you, I've never really told you how to be a pastor, but I'll tell you this about being a leader. You have got to stick to this idea that if people don't like your peaches, they don't got to shake your tree.

And what he meant by that is if you know the right way to go, you have got to keep leading people that way. And it doesn't matter what it costs you. You just keep going because Jesus loves you. And you know where my dad got that attitude from? He loved the book of Romans.

It was his favorite book in the Bible, and his favorite chapter was Romans chapter eight. He loved, there is now no condemnation for those who have Jesus.

He said, son, fight the good fight. Stay faithful. Trust Jesus. In other words, what he was saying was when you surrender to the love that Jesus has for you, you are now willing and able to seek the life He asks of you.

That's how I go to sleep. How about you? I can roll over and sleep and then dream of robot zombies and zombies.

But it starts with embracing the love Jesus has for you.

Let's have a let's let our closing prayer be a song. We praise God that when we surrender to his love, that he transforms our hearts and our desires, that we would wanna seek the life that he asks of us. And we got to see that in the life of Paul. And we take hope and encouragement

knowing that if God can transform the life of Paul, he can transform our life. That our God is the God who makes alive those who are dead. He's that same God today in this moment. So we're gonna sing this song and declare that our God is the God who turns graves into gardens.

We're

and to

We're do be power of our savior, Jesus Christ. Make us more able like you, we pray. Have your way in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We pray that you would have a blessed week, that you would go and you would surrender

to him in every way and that you would see God's work in your life. God bless you. We can't wait to see you again.