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This is Undaunted Life Man's Podcast.
0:53
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:55
Let's get into it.
0:56
Welcome back to the forging table.
0:58
The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that
1:01
forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
1:05
At the forging table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience
1:08
by digging into God's word and we're welcoming all of you to come along with that journey
1:11
with us.
1:12
That's Ryan.
1:13
That's Matt.
1:14
That's that guys.
1:15
We are wrapping up Second Timothy this week with our discussion of Second Timothy 4.
1:18
And so again, we started the forging table with First Timothy, which was towards the
1:23
beginning of Paul's ministry.
1:25
Then we have Second Timothy.
1:27
This is at the very, very end.
1:28
He knows he's going to die and this is his last message to his pupil, Timothy, for how
1:34
he should carry out basically the ministry work that he's been training him for this
1:38
entire time.
1:39
And so at the end here, we'll kind of, you know, go over our overall thoughts of this
1:43
letter.
1:44
But right from the beginning, there are just some I've been looking forward to this exact
1:49
moment where we get to finally dig in, especially to the first part of chapter four.
1:54
So Zach, if you would mind reading the first two verses and we'll dig in from there.
1:58
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and
2:03
the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out
2:09
of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort and with complete patience and teaching.
2:17
So the big thing here is I cannot stand apathy.
2:24
I just can't like.
2:27
So I was talking to someone the other day, excuse me, and I was like, there's a pretty
2:31
good hint as to whether or not somebody's serious about a life change that they're going
2:37
to make or discipline that they're going to develop by the language that they use.
2:41
So if someone says something like, yes, I'm trying to get into shape.
2:47
It's like, no, you're not well, well, that's that's really judgmental.
2:52
They said that they're they're trying or they're they're working on it.
2:54
It's like, well, no, that's not how somebody that's working on it talks about it.
2:59
Someone who's working on it, the way they talk about it goes, Hey, I'm currently in the
3:03
process.
3:04
I'm in my first 90 days of this workout and diet program.
3:07
This is kind of what I'm doing.
3:09
Or I thought running was going to be my thing, but I've started doing rucking instead because
3:14
it's a little bit easier on my back and my knees.
3:16
So that's what I'm doing right now for cardio and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly
3:19
I should do for weight training.
3:21
That's somebody that's in the process of doing it, right?
3:24
They're not thinking about thinking about it.
3:26
Like they're putting the disciplines in place to do it.
3:29
And so this thing right here, it's be ready in season and out of season.
3:34
The very first thing I thought about is people that used to be in shape that got out of shape.
3:39
And now they're in the impossible road of trying to get back into shape.
3:44
That is the hardest thing in the freaking world because you know how you used to be and you're
3:48
trying to get back there.
3:49
And then you have all these doubts about whether or not you'll actually get back there.
3:53
The best pathway is to never get out of shape.
3:56
The easiest way to stay in shape is to never get out of shape.
4:00
Now it's difficult because that requires discipline every day, unfortunately working out has very
4:04
diminishing returns almost immediately.
4:06
You can't work out today and that lasts you for the rest of the week or the rest of the
4:10
month.
4:11
Like there's the law of diminishing returns happening here.
4:14
But the biggest thing here is that there's a lot of work that needs to be done for us
4:18
to be ready in season and out of season.
4:20
And I feel like Paul is telling Timothy, hey, buddy, wake up like daddy's almost gone like
4:27
it's going to be on you and there are going to be times when you're ready and trained
4:31
for the fight.
4:32
And then there's going to be times when you're not and the fight's coming anyway.
4:36
So you got to be ready.
4:38
So I love that from the beginning here.
4:39
Yeah, this is kind of a crescendo to this whole letter, right?
4:42
Like, I mean, he's writing, writing, writing, and then he just like I charge you in the presence
4:47
of God.
4:48
Like he's bringing it hard, but I think in season and out of season, like sometimes it's
4:53
easy, sometimes it's not like you said, but like, I think 400 years later, when it's like
5:02
culturally permissible and encouraged to be a Christian, probably easy to teach the word
5:07
easy to preach the word, but now it's not.
5:10
And then obviously you pick wherever in the world today, it's easier.
5:15
It's easier or not to preach the word.
5:18
So yeah, you've got to be ready to get after it.
5:22
I agree, I look at this letter as a letter of encouragement to Timothy.
5:25
I mean, he's going through some tough times.
5:27
He's worried about persecution.
5:29
And like you said in the last couple of episodes, going up your loins is basically what I'm
5:34
seeing here is like, he's like, I charge you, you know, you know the truth.
5:37
You know what's right.
5:39
You know the gospel and you need to go out there and you need to preach it.
5:41
Nothing should stop you.
5:42
I mean, this is, this is a gift that God has given you.
5:45
I mean, he's basically telling him to go out and shepherd his flock.
5:49
Yeah.
5:50
I mean, just reading it again kind of to myself here.
5:56
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and
6:01
the dead.
6:02
That's an opening.
6:03
Yeah.
6:04
Right.
6:05
That is a sobering.
6:06
This is a serious situation opening.
6:09
Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete
6:16
patience and teaching.
6:18
Those three things, reprove, rebuke and exhort.
6:20
And then with complete patience and teaching, those are extremely difficult.
6:23
But the, but the preamble was talking about how serious that really is.
6:28
And that's, that's definitely a message.
6:30
I think to somebody who's, who's doing this as a pastor, but it's to all of us.
6:34
And that's, that's difficult.
6:35
I think just even the words be ready in this, this isn't just inside the church, but there's
6:41
a malaise across culture, a people that just aren't ready to do anything.
6:47
Our kids aren't ready to read at grade level.
6:49
Like our college students aren't ready to launch and to get that first job.
6:55
Our entrepreneurs aren't ready for a downturn.
6:57
Our government is not ready for an attack on our cyber structure.
7:01
Like there's just this general sense of not readiness on the stuff that we know is coming.
7:08
And just as I watch culture, as I watch families, as I watch things, it's like you, you knew
7:13
this was coming.
7:14
That's one thing for a, a threat to come that you weren't expecting.
7:18
It's another thing entirely for a threat that was surely going to come.
7:21
It came and you're like, Oh, I just had, you treat it like you had no idea.
7:25
It's like, no, you just didn't feel the need to get ready for it.
7:27
Like I just, I don't understand the mindset.
7:30
You took a big deep breath and I was like, yeah, because I was like, I wanted to go into
7:36
something else.
7:37
I think, um, and I was about to respond.
7:40
I didn't want to respond to it and not answer your question.
7:43
Well, I don't know what to do with that.
7:45
So I guess we'll just missed it up.
7:47
I missed it up.
7:48
There was all this momentum.
7:49
And then you just killed it.
7:50
I know I did.
7:51
I do that a lot.
7:52
Can you repeat that?
7:53
I'll try to answer it.
7:54
Just generally I was talking about the malaise of culture and people in all areas of life,
7:59
there are things that are going to befall them that they know are threats.
8:03
So it's like you jump into water with sharks and you're shocked when you get bit.
8:08
It's like I would be shocked if I was playing pickleball in a landlocked state and I got
8:14
bit by a shark, right?
8:15
So it's like, but people are treating these things happening to them as like, who could
8:20
have thought this was going to happen?
8:21
It's like, well, everyone that was paying attention.
8:24
I mean, nowadays people have lost common sense.
8:26
I mean, we don't even know what a woman is.
8:28
So, um, I just comes back down to like, where do we find moral truth?
8:34
Where do we find truth?
8:35
You know, and if I think it's just easy to acquiesce into those things when we, when our
8:41
truth is the truth, you know, it's like, well, I didn't know why I got bit by a shark.
8:44
I thought everything was supposed to be okay.
8:46
If I got in the water with sharks, it's like, no, look back at your past, look back at what's
8:49
been written, look back at this.
8:51
It's not safe to swim with sharks, you know, but people are, don't want to listen.
8:56
They want to live in their own, in their own truth.
8:58
I think some of that is just from the that, well, that'll never happen to me.
9:02
You know, like your son doesn't look both ways before he crosses the street and he gets
9:10
killed by a car.
9:12
Someone that reads that story three states over might go, man, that's really sad.
9:16
But yeah, that would never happen to my kid.
9:18
I think there's a disconnect there.
9:19
And I think that's, you know, as a culture and just as a people in general, we can sometimes
9:23
get there.
9:24
Ah, that wouldn't be me.
9:26
That's we can't, we can't, we can't act like that.
9:28
Paul's very clear.
9:29
Like, we can't act like that here.
9:31
Be ready.
9:33
This is, this is, again, coming from Wiersby, who is a preacher talking about this.
9:38
So I just thought it was interesting.
9:39
He says, God speaker must be patient in preaching the word.
9:43
We will not always see immediate results.
9:45
It must be patient with those who oppose his preaching.
9:49
Above all else, we must preach doctrine.
9:51
We must not simply tell Bible stories, relate interesting illustrations or read a verse and
9:55
then forget it.
9:56
Honestly, true preaching is the explanation and application of Bible doctrine.
10:02
Anything else is just religious speech making.
10:04
So a couple of thoughts would be, I think that it's always important when you're reading
10:08
the Bible or listening that there should be an application element to what you're reading.
10:12
And then secondly, the whole patience thing, it just kind of struck me that so much, like
10:16
think about some of the things that have happened over the last three or four years that have
10:18
kind of faded into the background that were so important, BLM comes to mind.
10:22
I get that still kind of here, but it's not like it was when the riots were happening.
10:27
So if you're that patient person talking with whoever you're talking with and it's consistent
10:32
through all of those ups and downs, you know, I think this is basically saying that that's
10:37
what's going to win the day.
10:39
I like what they bring up the way he says here is reproof, rebuke and exhort.
10:44
And I think that's something that we lack today because of the command.
10:49
And we don't see a lot of reproving and rebuking what we're seeing a lot more is exhorting.
10:56
And we're afraid to reprieve or rebuke because it doesn't seem like the nice thing to do.
10:59
It doesn't seem like the patient thing to do.
11:02
But there's a way to reprieve, reprove and rebuke in a patient pattern.
11:07
And I think we're lacking that nowadays.
11:08
And that's why people think I think it's okay to so much.
11:11
Well, let me ask you though, do you think right now as we speak that the rubber band is kind
11:15
of starting to snap back a little bit in terms of we've pushed really far into the transgender
11:20
thing to the point of children.
11:23
And it's kind of my sense as I'm as I'm seeing things unfold that there's a lot of people
11:27
starting to push back a lot more than they were maybe a year ago.
11:29
We're seeing that maybe in regards to children, but look at, you know, Mike Pence a couple
11:33
of weeks ago or months ago when he said isn't the most neighborly thing for you to do is
11:37
to allow your, your neighbor to have their change.
11:42
So the way I see that Zach is to your point, Ryan, like I agree that when we talk about
11:49
COVID back in 2020, if this were a disease that was killing toddlers at the right that
11:56
it was killing the elderly, we would have shut down every market on the planet.
12:01
We would have purposely taken ourselves back to the stone age in order to protect our children.
12:06
But I say this seems to terse, but thankfully it was the opposite.
12:12
It was killing people that were dying at an age after the age that people typically die
12:16
at.
12:17
Okay.
12:18
So given the available options, I think everybody would have picked that type of pan or pandemic.
12:23
But in this particular aspect, whenever it's like, okay, you want to dress up a woman's
12:29
clothing?
12:30
Great.
12:31
Do that at your house.
12:32
Do that at your parties.
12:33
Don't come onto my street.
12:34
And it evolved within a decade from that to no, we're going to make sure that your kid
12:39
transitions at school and that they can't tell you.
12:43
And then certain states are like, by the way, if you're a parent, and this is already happening
12:47
in Canada, if you're a parent and you are not going along with the gender identity of
12:51
your child, that your child can be taken away from you, your rights to that child can be
12:55
taken away from you.
12:56
Canada has done it.
12:57
California is working on it.
12:59
And so that's the difference is it's the children involved.
13:02
And so I would like to say that the rubber band is snapping back and culture, it's grabbing
13:06
its sanity. I think that the left, the people that are pushing these things, these satanic
13:11
ideologies, they found as far as they can push now.
13:16
Same thing happened during COVID government push, push, push, push. Hey, we get it.
13:20
We don't want to kill grandma.
13:21
We don't want to kill all the stuff.
13:22
And then it got to a point where it's like, you know what?
13:24
No, actually, we're we're not going to fill in, you know, skate parks with sand.
13:29
Like we're not going to do that.
13:30
We're not going to put, you know, we're not going to take the rims off the basketball
13:34
goals, like those types of things.
13:36
But that's how far they pushed now.
13:39
Right now there's a little bit of a cultural moment where the wave is swinging back in
13:42
the opposite direction.
13:43
So I think it's going to cool off for a while.
13:45
And then the people pushing these ideologies are going to regroup and they're going to
13:49
push again, because it's the normalization when you get somebody as milk toast as Mike
13:53
Pence, that basically comes out pro transgenderism for adults.
13:58
It's like, sir, how is that fundamentally different than a child other than just flat
14:02
out legal consent?
14:03
And that's where you reprove and rebuke, you know, and that's, I'm not talking about,
14:07
Hey, I need to go and reprove, reprove, I'm just, I'm just using rebuke.
14:12
I'm not going to go out and rebuke the culture.
14:14
I want to rebuke somebody like Mike Pence, who it's supposedly a brother in Christ, who's
14:20
spewing stupidity, you know, like, I could care, honestly, I could care less what my
14:26
neighbor does, but I'm not going to affirm an ideology because it's supposed to be Christian
14:32
neighborly, you know, I'm like, no, it's not at all.
14:35
I mean, I just, I think that's what we're losing.
14:39
That's where we're losing ground.
14:40
And that's where we're seeing pragmatism rise on the church is because of this milk toast
14:44
thinking of like, well, you know what, I got to, I got to be somewhat, you know, cool
14:51
neutral or well, and I think that really gets into neutral three through five, because
14:58
pastors are giving people exactly what they desire.
15:01
So Matt, if you can read three, four, five, yeah, this is where it gets really fun.
15:04
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching
15:08
ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will
15:12
turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
15:16
You said five, right?
15:18
Yes.
15:19
That's for you.
15:20
Always be so reminded.
15:21
Endure suffering.
15:22
Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
15:25
Just one of my favorite things that Paul ever wrote, but having itchy ears, itching ears,
15:32
there are other translations that say the desire to have their ears tickled, like those
15:38
types of things.
15:39
And it's like, I'm sure it's been that way at a time in memoriam, but especially right
15:44
now, and especially in the American church.
15:47
We want to go into church and we want to have an experience and to leave floating, right?
15:54
We want the rock concert.
15:56
We want the chips and the nice coffee and the cookies or whatever.
15:59
And we want the TED talk sermon that doesn't make us a Christian or doesn't make us a better
16:05
Christian.
16:06
It just makes us better at life, right?
16:09
And everyone's kind of got their style and got the thing that they want to do.
16:13
But it's when the pastors start thinking about their flock and whether or not they're going
16:18
to like what they're saying that I think you're going wrong because as a pastor, it
16:22
should not be about what does my flock want to say so I can make sure that I say that?
16:28
What does God charge me to say to my people and then we're just going to let the chips
16:32
fall where they may?
16:33
I think that's a great point because we as a church are very driven by the consumerist
16:41
model, right?
16:42
Where we look at numbers and we measure by people in butts and seats.
16:47
And when the church went through a decline, you know, you as any other organization or
16:53
company would do would take a step back and go, okay, what can we do to fix this?
16:57
And I was, well, I watched a documentary on worship not too long ago, and I can't remember
17:01
the guy's name.
17:02
I have a note on it somewhere.
17:03
But he said, you know, as a church, we're half right and we're all wrong.
17:06
Like we should go back to the consumer to figure out why there's a decline, but our congregation
17:13
is not the consumer.
17:14
The consumer is God.
17:15
What does God say about worship?
17:16
Does God say about church?
17:18
That's the old cliche.
17:20
We serve an audience of one or we perform for an audience of one, it's true.
17:24
We should be worshiping to the glory of God, not so that we can put butts and seats, but
17:29
also our itching ears can be the sins that are called out in us that we don't want to
17:37
let go of.
17:39
And so we go look for an affirming church.
17:41
Well, this church says it's okay to do what I'm doing, homosexuality comes to mind.
17:46
I'm going to go to a church that says you could be a homosexual.
17:50
And that's okay.
17:51
I'm going to go where I find like my Jesus.
17:55
What does Jesus say that I can do?
17:56
What sin do I want affirmed is the church I'm going to go to.
17:59
That's the issues that I'm looking for.
18:01
There's these memes, the Scooby-Doo meme where it's, you know, they're about to take off
18:06
the mask of the person.
18:07
And before they take the mask off, the quote is I'm deconstructing.
18:11
And then once they take the mask off, it says, I just want to sin sexually.
18:15
Yeah.
18:16
And so it's like people want to live with their girlfriend and have sex with her.
18:20
They want to be in the same sex relationship.
18:22
They want to be in a queer relationship.
18:23
They want to be in a throttle.
18:24
And so they're going to find a church that acquiesces to that.
18:28
And there's no shortage of that regardless of where you are in the country.
18:31
And I feel like it's this, this ears tickled concept.
18:34
It's like, it's like they're, they're wanting their baser instincts to be fulfilled.
18:40
And if you're desiring to have your baser insects, instincts to be fulfilled at all
18:45
times, you're going to be a ruinous person because you're never going to eat broccoli.
18:50
You're always going to eat Doritos because the bait you want, you want that mouth pleasure.
18:54
You want that basic instinct.
18:56
Your basic instinct is to rest, not to get after it, but not to exercise your baser instinct
19:02
is to treat your wife however you feel like treating her as opposed to how a patient loving
19:08
husband with treat her that goes to children, that goes to bosses, that goes to everybody.
19:12
And I just feel like we're catering to people and our entire culture is catering to making
19:17
things easier.
19:18
And so if your entire life is bubble wrapped, like you don't even have to leave your house
19:23
to get the products that you want.
19:25
You're never wearing clothing that is restricting you anymore.
19:28
Like you've got pairs of shoes depending upon the type of exercising you're going to do.
19:33
Like there, there's all kinds of stuff like that.
19:35
And so when we go to church, what do we want that to be?
19:38
Easy button.
19:39
We want easy church.
19:40
We just want to be, you know, we want the church to tell us how good we are.
19:45
And there's no desire for depravity.
19:47
There's no desire for reproof or rebuke or anything.
19:51
And the church has given it to us.
19:53
They're given us by the handful.
19:54
There needs to be conviction.
19:56
It's a Burger King society, have it your way, I can go find it my way, wherever that is.
20:01
And I can play God and I can make a God in my own image and go hundreds of places to
20:08
get that.
20:09
There's no shortage of customization that we can have even inside the church.
20:13
I think we need to recognize though, because I think we can spend a lot of time on that
20:16
side of the fence, right?
20:17
I do believe that there are a lot of people and churches and organizations that are pushing
20:23
back as a result of the type of message that you're talking about there for the last several
20:28
years.
20:29
I mean, I can tell you in my circles and various places, I'm seeing people that are waking
20:32
up that definitely weren't before, especially because of kids and schooling and things like
20:37
that.
20:38
I think certain policies that a, you know, government or investment groups or whatever
20:42
have put on companies, for instance, are starting to be repealed back.
20:45
If you look at ESG and there's nothing wrong with that, but anything that's not aligned
20:50
with the best interest of the organization that it's, you know, purported to be working
20:53
with is a difficult thing.
20:55
And I think people are waking up to that also.
20:57
And there's lots of preachers, I think in churches who are coming out and staying, standing
21:03
against some of this false teaching and their churches are exploding.
21:06
So I think anytime we're talking about this, it's important for us to recognize that there
21:09
are some changes.
21:11
And then also to say, what are we doing about it?
21:13
Yeah.
21:14
Personally, right?
21:15
So I mean, what can I do at home?
21:16
What can I do at church?
21:17
Maybe we have some examples there.
21:18
One, I want to encourage pastors that are listening to this, that are on the fence.
21:22
Cause I've, I've had some discussions with some folks and, you know, some of them are
21:25
worried about being too political from the pulpit, which I understand.
21:29
But you know, even as far as it goes to like saying, Hey, this is the type of candidate
21:34
we'll vote for.
21:35
I brought this up quite a few times on the podcast, but last midterm, our lead pastor
21:39
said, Hey, remember on Tuesday, vote biblical values.
21:42
And it's like that means nothing.
21:44
That doesn't mean anything to most people.
21:46
That means filling the blank by what you mean political values are.
21:50
And again, as I've said before, I don't think it would have been appropriate for him to
21:52
pull up a sample ballot and say, here's who I plan to vote for.
21:56
And by the way, remember Jesus told me this, like, you know, there are places where that
22:00
becomes inappropriate.
22:01
But for a lot of pastors, they're still trying to split the baby.
22:05
They're still trying to be secret sensitive.
22:07
They're still trying to be nice.
22:09
They're still trying to be liked while at the same time try to maybe like urge or just tilt
22:14
towards the direction of godliness, as opposed to just saying no, the answer to this is no,
22:20
we're not going to allow this for our children, our cons our congregation is not going along
22:24
with that.
22:25
I don't care what the culture says.
22:27
I don't care what the governing body of the SBC says, or I don't care when he that says,
22:30
we're not doing that here.
22:31
And guess, and dude, like if this isn't for you and this if this offends you to the point
22:36
that you feel like you need to leave, it's not, Hey, don't let the door kick your, you
22:40
know, hit you on the way out.
22:41
It's just, Hey, it is what it is.
22:43
I'm going to go somewhere else.
22:44
And I don't like that as much because we were in a church that I totally disagreed with
22:49
the pastor on a lot of things.
22:51
And rather than him being like, well, let me see where those disagreements are and let's
22:55
discuss it scripturally.
22:56
It was, yeah, maybe this isn't the place for you, you know, because he wants people to
22:59
have itching ears, they're going to listen to him and he can mold in there in his deviant
23:03
ways, you know, but I think like if it's something like that, like our true shepherd is going
23:09
to sit down with his flock and be like, all right, you think I'm wrong in this area?
23:13
Just let's sit down and discuss it, you know, I just, I just see us, not only like within
23:21
churches, but in the evangelical elites that were platforming individuals who are tearing
23:26
down God's design of everything, you know, God's design for marriage, God's design for
23:32
gender.
23:33
I mean, we've got, you know, the patriarchy is a real big thing right now, it's Kristen
23:37
Coba's Demays, whole book on how bad the patriarchy is, you know, and she's taking God's design
23:43
and she's bastardizing.
23:44
You know, that's like a cuss word to me, I know, because for anyone, don't lose your
23:48
trance out here.
23:49
But for anyone that lost the thread here, like two years ago, Justin Briarley reached
23:54
out to me to see if I would do a debate with Kristen Coba's Demay about her book, Jesus
23:58
and John Wayne.
24:00
And I had to read that bucket of diarrhea filth and get ready for this debate.
24:05
And then lo and behold, Justin releases an interview with her.
24:09
And I emailed Justin and I'm like, wait a tick.
24:12
Like we were supposed to have a debate and you just did an interview.
24:14
This isn't an interview show.
24:15
This is a debate show.
24:16
What in the world happened?
24:17
And he goes, yeah, she refused to debate you.
24:19
She just, she didn't want to do that.
24:21
She just wanted to be, she just wanted to be interviewed.
24:24
And it's like, that's indicative of a worldview that someone like her has.
24:27
They don't want their ideas challenged.
24:29
They want to be validated and said, how smart smart they never want to debate.
24:33
What an example, right?
24:34
I'm getting a D platforming like we talked about.
24:36
Yeah.
24:37
Well, I mean, you should bring them on, right?
24:39
What?
24:40
They say it's Justin Briarley saying, Justin Briarley, but I can't finish my train of
24:45
thought.
24:46
So, but like people in, in the, even Joe, really are platforming this one.
24:51
And she's taking God's design and she's, she's mucking it up.
24:55
You know, she's taking a few bad apples or a couple of bad instances and saying that this
25:00
design doesn't work.
25:01
You know, and it's like, this is God.
25:03
I mean, we, his design does work.
25:05
What's the problem is man and sin.
25:07
That's the problem, you know?
25:09
So if you want to come and discuss how men should be better fathers and better pastors
25:13
and better overseers and, and better husbands, by all means, I'd love to hear your thoughts
25:17
on that.
25:18
But don't come down and say, Hey, because we have more men in power and all this stuff.
25:22
This is why we're running into the issues that we're running into.
25:24
And then we have our elites, the people that we're supposed to look at and they're platforming
25:29
this type of person.
25:30
They're platforming a lot of people like this lately and it's getting pretty bad.
25:33
If we believe what the Bible says, anything at face value that's really popular, we should
25:39
look at that with some cynicism and stop and think, why is that popular?
25:44
It's probably because the world like has bought into it.
25:48
And if we believe the Bible, we know that the things that are popular are pro or maybe
25:53
not probably there's a good chance they're not biblical.
25:56
And I should probably check that out a little bit before I just throw my hat in and go,
26:01
jump straight for it. But then when you, when you believe the idea that it must be God,
26:10
if the numbers say that it is, and butts and seats is what is what your measuring stick
26:14
is. And because I got 30,000 people to come to my conference, that must mean that God's
26:20
at work, like that's a really dangerous place to be.
26:23
I've heard that a lot. I've had people through that, well, God's blessing that church. How
26:28
many people are going there?
26:29
Well, look at verse 13 of chapter three, where it was, you know, going back to their, um,
26:34
while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived,
26:39
the MacArthur commentary was like, look, these ministries are going to get bigger. And so,
26:43
but again, on that way, I will look at these churches and it's like, maybe Joel scenes
26:49
doing it right. That stadium is full every week. Like these people are convinced that
26:55
this is the way to do this whole Christian thing. And then it's like, so you're telling
27:00
me that guy who only has like a thousand followers on Twitter is a better pastor. No way. He's
27:05
not an influencer. Like we were taking the currency of culture and we're applying it
27:10
to biblical doctrine to sizes of churches. And I say this to say, there's nothing wrong
27:14
with big churches either. Right. Like there are big churches that are enormous and they
27:19
are healthy, right? From pillar to post doubled after COVID. I mean, we started going there
27:23
during COVID because we just moved back to Oklahoma and I looked at multiple churches.
27:27
I was, I went Presbyterian for three months. Couldn't get over infant baptism, but I want
27:33
to stay in it. But when we started going to, um, our church and it was like, there wasn't
27:37
a lot of people. And then after COVID, I really think that there's a big jump in expository
27:42
preaching. I mean, people are really wanting that within their church. They're tired of
27:46
this topical TED talk stuff because when you go and you look at the gospel and you look
27:51
at the Bible, it's not all about you. It's about God. It's about Christ. And it's about
27:56
why we need him. Right. And if I'm such a good person and I do all the good things that you
28:00
tell me I do, why do I need Christ? You don't. Well, and don't hear what we're not saying.
28:04
We're not saying that if you're not under expository preaching that you're doing it incorrectly,
28:08
there's nothing wrong with topical series and all those things and there are things that
28:10
are applicable. But I think the point that we're all making is when that's all you're
28:14
getting is milk, baby's milk, week after week after week. Like I talked about my experience
28:21
going to live church for over 10 years. And it's like every couple of years, it's the
28:25
same sermon series just kind of cycle. There's a series about money. There's a series about
28:28
prayer. There's a series about relationships. There's a series about sex and we're going
28:32
to get real transgressive. And then once every 10 years, there's a series about manhood.
28:35
And it's just the same thing over and over. And it's like, you know, that's fine. But
28:41
there's too many people that have been there for too long. It's like that you're not, you're
28:45
not growing and sanctification week after week. You're not growing and you're understanding
28:49
in the Bible and you're not growing and you're understanding about how this doesn't apply
28:53
to you. One of the things that I try to do, and maybe this is wrong, but some when I read
28:57
scripture, sometimes I'm trying to remind myself, this isn't about you. All right, chapter
29:00
four. And then I'm reading chapter four, like this, this can apply to me, but it's not about
29:05
me. And I feel like most churches, most worship songs that are sung, it's all about how Jesus
29:11
feels about me and how everything applies to me and my life and my business and my
29:15
slave queen. And my this, it's like, no, no, like it's different. You bring up the goddess
29:19
for you. It's like, why can't we be for God? You know, like, when, when has anybody gone
29:24
there and been for God at this church? I'm going to go to a church where God is for me.
29:28
It's not untrue that God is for us though. Right. But that, that truth that people say
29:34
God is for you in the half truth. God is so for us that he gave us his son to die for
29:39
our sins on a cross. That is true. God is for you to repent and believe. Yes. But we, yeah,
29:44
you can, you can very easily slip into what God is for you. And that means whatever you're
29:49
doing now, that those people said is not okay is actually okay because God is for you. And
29:54
that's where, how long have you been at your church that you're at now? We've been at our
29:58
church since 2015. And did you, you were at somewhere previously to that or we were at
30:03
life church, a long, long time. And you know, for us, it was kind of similar to Kyle is
30:09
just like, okay, it's kind of seems like the same thing every week. And I'm not going to
30:15
try to sit here and bash on a church. You just, for us, we didn't feel like we were getting
30:21
biblical truth. And I know a lot of people who can get a lot of things out of that church.
30:28
For us, it was time to go. We felt like we're being called somewhere else. And I think though,
30:33
we also weren't in the word. Yeah. And even at crossings, where we go now, we weren't,
30:41
we weren't intentionally in the word. And even going to crossings, it was kind of like,
30:45
well, some of our friends went here. The church service was pretty good. Like it did, it did
30:50
have like they went through a book of the Bible and it was like, okay, this is just kind
30:54
of what we want. But then once you open up the word, you go, man, I believe I ever believed
31:00
that or I can't believe I thought that was a good thing to think is okay. So yeah, it seems
31:06
like most of us have come from some other experience that same kind of surface level.
31:11
And we've arrived at a church where you feel like you're getting the word. Right. So that
31:15
would be a big takeaway for me for anybody that's listening is that's at least been our progression.
31:19
And I know for me, that's been that's paid dividends. And to your point, I mean, I went
31:23
up to our pastor as an example, and our church has gotten bigger. And he's a busy person,
31:28
you know, as a professor and all that stuff. And he scheduled the meeting and we met, you
31:32
know, took a couple weeks, but met with them, sat down, talked through several things. And
31:35
he worked through that with me. And so I think the way that this is meant is not necessarily
31:41
to be paying attention to people that have these massive platforms, but to be engaged
31:45
in your community with the people that are around you. That's where that's where this
31:48
is done.
31:49
When I think I think there's a level of insulation that attaches directly to a level of health
31:55
of the church. So Ryan, you've said it before, and I've said it, the CEO church, where there's
32:00
not an elder board, there's a board of directors and the senior pastor is also the director,
32:06
you know, the leader of the boards. Yeah, the final say on everything, they got two votes
32:09
at the final table, kind of a thing. But there are churches that are enormous, where after
32:14
the services over the lead pastor is down front, along with the elders, along with the other
32:18
staff, because you know, if there's a, you know, if you're in between services and there's
32:23
another service needs to be done, there's 74 people that want to talk to the senior pastor.
32:26
That's a problem. Also, if you have 74 people online to see the senior pastor and 15 of
32:31
them just want to do that so they can get a selfie, well, there's potentially some some
32:35
very fairly nefarious things that want to happen here because a lot of people got selfies
32:38
with Carl Lynch, but they didn't get any discipleship. And so that that's indicative
32:43
of a problem as well. But when you have these big churches and the pastor is whisked away
32:48
from the building, you know, they go through this tunnel to go through a security checkpoint
32:52
to get taken away. Some of that is security. Some of that is so they don't have to be
32:55
a pastor. Yeah, they go up there. They do their, their, their preacher thing. They're
33:00
not holding hands of elderly women while their husband's dying in the hospital. They're, they're
33:04
not showing up to pray over the kid that's got leukemia. That's not just, that's just
33:07
not what they do. They're just teaching. And it's like they've, they've lost the thread
33:10
somewhere to where it's like, that's part of your job. That's not your entire job. Now,
33:15
there are churches that do that correctly. Again, we talk about Joby Martin quite a bit
33:17
because he's, he's a great example of a lot of these things. He's, he is admittedly the
33:22
worst, like person in the world when it comes to counseling for marriages, because he's
33:26
way too blunt. And there's all this pain and all these things that need to be unpacked
33:30
from their past that they brought it in their relationship. He just will say, all right,
33:33
this is what you need to do to fix it. This is what you need to do to fix it. All right,
33:35
y'all don't need to see me anymore. And so when people come up to him and they're like,
33:38
Hey, I need help. He'll ask them, do you need me or do you need help? Because I'm likely
33:45
not the person to help you. But if you want me, we'll figure something else out. But it's
33:49
like, if you want help, I can get you help. I think that goes a long way for a pastor,
33:53
because we had the same predicament in a church that we went to. We had a group that had like
33:58
two people going through, two couples going through a divorce. And I remember my leader,
34:02
the leader of the group kind of reached out to me. He's like, man, I've reached out to him,
34:06
our pastor, and he's basically told me, yeah, that's not my thing. And left it at that.
34:12
That was it. And like, and if you go under this church's website, they're all about marriages,
34:15
building up marriages, you know, I'm like, how's he gonna just leave it at that? Why
34:19
doesn't he get you in touch with people who can handle it? He's like, he told me to go figure that
34:23
out. You know, it's like, that's not shepherding your flock. And he's a CEO pastor, you know,
34:27
he's busy doing sitting on Twitter or something like that, trying to get more people to show up
34:31
to his church. You know, it's just like, we got to get back to this shepherding. I think we need
34:36
to move away from this leadership comp, like this leadership thing that they're doing that
34:40
you're seeing a lot of it now. The leadership guru. Yeah, the leadership stuff, you know,
34:44
it's like, all right, you know what a true leader is a servant leader. And a lot of you guys getting
34:49
up here talking to me about leadership aren't servant leaders. You know, you should be shepherding
34:54
your flock. Yeah, and I remember, I remember probably with the first time I realized how pervasive this
34:58
was. So since we've already talked about life, church, so Craig Rochelle went to a leaders conference,
35:04
which I'm okay. Yeah, you want to speak a leaders conference? That's great. Get paid. I'm fine with
35:08
all that. He was not introduced as a senior pastor of life, church, he was introduced as like,
35:12
the CEO or like leadership, I was like, okay, like that, that's not that's not your job title.
35:19
Like, I understand you're a leadership person. And just because you're a pastor doesn't mean you
35:23
don't have things that you could teach about leadership. But it's like, that is, you're not going to be
35:28
having to give an account someday for how you taught people leadership. Like, you're going to
35:32
have to give an account before God for how you've shepherded his flock. And so again, it's kind of
35:37
the focus is like, are we focusing on clicks? Are we focusing on book sales? Are we focusing on
35:42
impact on individual lives? Like, it really has a lot to do with the direction that you're going.
35:48
Go ahead, Matt. And all comes back to how do we define success? And if it's in, if it's the spread
35:52
sheets, if it's the measurables, the butts in the seats, we can do a lot of pragmatic things that
35:58
get us there. Well, let's define success by the word. It's a lot different. Let's define success
36:02
as you read verses six, seven, and eight, segue, where I'm, I am already already being poured out
36:10
as a drink offering. And the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have
36:14
finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
36:20
which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to
36:26
all who have loved his appearing. There's a metric that we should be able to measure ourselves
36:32
by. Um, again, just as a reminder, for those that maybe miss when we talked about the beginning,
36:38
this was written this letter was written to Tim Timothy after 30 years plus of ministry.
36:44
After being near death multiple times, shipwrecked, stoned snakebit, the whole nine. And here he is
36:52
in a Roman prison, knowing he's not going to leave alive. And he is able to say that. Like,
36:59
that's convicting to me because it's like he's essentially on his deathbed. So think about that
37:04
person in your family had cancer, became stage four. Hey, we got about six weeks to live here.
37:10
And you're doing your final mortal thoughts, right? It's a rough place to be really, really
37:16
rough place to be. But if you, if you get to that point and you can say something with no hint of
37:21
irony, I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. I have kept the faith. And you know
37:27
that because of that, there was a crown of righteousness waiting for you on the other side.
37:30
And he can say that because he knows he's kept the faith of Jesus Christ. Yeah.
37:35
He knows that that crown of righteousness is Christ. And I think it's, I mean, like, yeah,
37:40
we can all fight the good fight. We can all sit here and talk about, you know,
37:44
preaching the right gospel. And but how do we finish the race? Are we even preaching that gospel
37:49
to our neighbors, to our friends? You know, I know I fall short of that a lot.
37:53
And so it's a sobering thing to look at, you know, have I finished the race the way God wants
37:57
me to finish this race? Now I know I've kept the faith. But is that faith? And you know,
38:01
the faith's going to be enough for me to be under his righteousness. But man, when I'm standing
38:06
before God, like, do I want to be able to say what Paul said? Of course I do. Can I? Probably not.
38:11
Kind of reminds me of Tim Keller, because he did the stage four and lots of things that he talked
38:20
about and brought forth as a result of that. And one thing he talked about, same thing as
38:25
Billy Graham and others, they'll say, what was the one thing about life that caught you off guard
38:30
that was surprising? And they'll say the brevity of life. So I think as you come back to this,
38:35
and you think about what he's doing with Timothy, he's really charging him with the deposit that
38:38
he's had going back to the first, you know, sentence of in the presence of God in Christ Jesus,
38:44
to take the time that you have left. Think about it every day and make sure that
38:51
that you're you're running the race the way that it's supposed to be run.
38:55
And you know what I don't get a sense from here. And again, I'm reading something into
38:58
the text that is not there. So I'll be careful. But we're not getting the slightest hint of regret
39:03
here from Paul, which I wouldn't be so bold as to say he had none. I mean, to get to the end of
39:10
your life, I'm sure you're going to have some regrets sometimes when you zigged when you know
39:12
you should have zagged. But you hear, I forget, I'm going to butcher this a little bit. But I remember
39:19
this guy wrote a book where he interviewed a bunch of hospice nurses. And you know, these
39:24
nurses were literally talking to people in the last weeks, days, hours and minutes of their lives
39:31
and having these deep conversations. And it's exactly what you would expect. None of them said,
39:37
"Man, we got on the Fortune 500 list, but it would have been amazing if I got our company to Fortune 100."
39:43
Yeah, you know, I went I went single platinum, but it would have been really cool to go double
39:46
platinum. Yeah, you know, I got that regional sales position, but I wasn't regional sales
39:53
manager of the year because I took a few vacations and I took a little bit of a break because my
39:57
kids got sick. And you never hear people say that. It was either I regret letting my kids be raised
40:06
by my spouse while I was out trying to slay the dragon. Or, man, I'm so glad that I didn't spend
40:12
so much time focusing on the dragon and stayed at home. It's stuff like that. And we've heard
40:18
that our entire lives, guys, we know that. But then what do we do? We leave for another business trip.
40:23
We book another speaking gig. We take another job that's going to take us away from the family
40:28
a little bit more. We say, no, I can't coach my kids team. Like, it's just not in the cards.
40:34
It's not in the schedule. And we keep putting the things that are important. And everything I just
40:40
described, I basically couched in terms of family. And the way that this came up really early in my
40:47
ministry, I had a guy that was, you know, talking about how how busy his family was. And he was
40:52
saying that to give me an excuse of, well, this is why I don't study the Bible that much. And this
40:56
is why I'm not kind of causing my children. And this is why, you know, I can't do this. And this
40:59
why I can't work out on this, why can't he write it was all his schedule. And then he described his
41:04
schedule to me. And it was three kids in year round sports. And I said, have y'all ever
41:10
considered taking a season off? He's like, what do you mean? I was like, and it was some time in
41:16
the spring. And I was like, Hey, how about this fall? Kids don't play sports. They can play winter
41:22
sports. They can play spring ball. They can play summer ball next year. But hey, for three months,
41:27
four months, are our families not doing any activities? Like we're doing family stuff. We're
41:32
doing church stuff. Like all the activities are going to have to do with us being a part of our home,
41:37
right? And I feel like whenever you do stuff like that, you're almost practicing what it is to
41:43
prioritize God and the things of this world. And so I don't know how you guys kind of feel about
41:49
that. But when I look at something like that, I look at that as a challenge, that if I'm 85 and
41:54
I'm on my death bed and something like that, I want to be able to have this level of confidence
41:57
that I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. And I kept the right things, the right things.
42:02
I think that's good. I think that's difficult because
42:06
there's not a sense of urgency because we feel like tomorrow is promised. And I think one thing
42:14
the early church really did well was the urgency they had. Price was coming back pretty quick.
42:22
And they did not want to get caught with their pants down. I got to preach the gospel because
42:29
who knows? Who knows when he's coming back? This is of the utmost importance in his urgent and
42:34
now 2,000 years later is kind of like, all right, hadn't happened yet. What's another day going to
42:39
hurt? You know what I mean? The further away from that event, we are, the less urgency there is.
42:45
Does that make sense? Yeah, but not for your life. Sure. I'm just saying like that's I think
42:49
that's a hundred percent. I mean, having that conversation with people, I always just go back
42:53
to but not for your life right now. Yeah, I agree. Regardless of when he comes back.
42:57
I think that's part of it does that attitude. We've got to done the same thing that you've
43:04
talked about. Like our kids are in sports, dance, gymnastics, but we take a time where they'll take
43:09
time off and we'll have like maybe maybe the fall. And that's where we just spend time as a family.
43:15
You know, I think I think it's you bring up a lot of things. You know, my dad love him dearly.
43:19
Great, man. He traveled a lot. He had five kids. He had a support. He lived a very good life.
43:25
And he was gone a lot. I didn't see my dad. And if I did see him, he was gone on the weekends
43:30
because he spoke at churches. But when he was home during the weekdays, I didn't really see him
43:34
because sometimes he's gone in the evening or I was at school. And so one of the things that I
43:38
kind of wanted to do is just I want to be there for my kids. I don't want to miss those things.
43:42
And my job has me travel, but I try to be there as much as I possibly can. Not because my dad
43:48
wasn't there. It's just because I remember that as a kid. You know, and so like, I think that's
43:54
what we have to remember in life itself is that we just need to be present. And when we're present
44:00
in that moment with either our kids or our friends or that stranger, are we showing that light? Are
44:06
we talking truth in the gospel? And I think that's just something that, you know, we should think
44:13
about, you know, acts is one thing that I wanted to bring up about Paul. In chapter 20 verse 26,
44:20
I declared today that I've been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it's not my fault.
44:25
And the guy was pretty, I don't think he had any regrets. I could be reading into that too.
44:30
But I mean, when he's talking, he doesn't have any regrets on what he did. He probably had regrets
44:34
on the things he did in the past to other Christians. You know, but I think in the end,
44:38
he fulfilled his task. So yeah, I was just going to say the great Keanu Reeves once said half
44:45
a life is showing up. So philosopher Keanu Reeves, he also said, whoa, which is excellent to each
44:55
other. Yeah. So as we wrap up a second Timothy, I just want to get your guys overall thoughts on
45:02
what we've read and kind of what you've learned during this study. I would say urgency, the urgency
45:11
of preaching the gospel to ourselves, to our family, and rightly
45:18
like accurately preaching the word and handling the word correctly. And when Paul talks about
45:31
scripture throughout this letter, like the canon of the New Testament hadn't been established.
45:38
It was being written, but he like he's telling Timothy to use the Old Testament scriptures
45:44
to her to her, you can reprove and to teach. And so you knew a false doctrine.
45:54
If you knew the word, if you don't know the word, you can't know some of the you don't know what
46:01
tickling or itching ears sounds like or looks like because you're not in the word. I think
46:06
that's a big thing that I always get out of this is like get read your Bible. You got to know it.
46:12
What about you guys? I I'm encouraged by this letter. I think he's providing a lot of encouragement
46:20
to Timothy. I think it's encouragement in our time of how we need to be accurate with the gospel
46:26
to be unashamed of it. I also found it convicting in how we should be patient with others.
46:32
And in talking to them, I'm a very brash person. We were talking about elders today at church.
46:38
And Rachel was like, you know, oh, did they mean to do elders today? And I was like, I don't think so,
46:45
but you know, she she was like, you know, is it something everybody's on that path? And I was like,
46:49
I'm not I'm too brash. You know, I need to be able to not be quarrelsome and be patient with how
46:57
people are trying to come to the faith. And that's something that I found convicting. So I found
47:03
that convicting. I was encouraged by what Paul was saying to Timothy and just being there being
47:10
present and preaching the right gospel and shepherding its flock and just giving him the
47:14
encouragement for that. And then also encouraged to don't be afraid to rebuke or reprove false
47:19
teachers. I would say, you know, don't sit here and just discuss false teachers all the time. But,
47:25
you know, if you have a friend who's reading something by somebody, ask some questions,
47:29
ask why they're reading that, and then let them know about certain things that that person's
47:33
talked about, you know, saying, Hey, I want you to read that book, you know, or go ahead and read
47:36
that book. But just remember that this person has said this and done this in the past. Like,
47:40
I think we did it back and forth over the second Timothy thing with Tim Mackey. So, you know, I was
47:46
like, Hey, that's Bible projects. Good. Don't listen anything else to Mackey has to say.
47:50
So, but I mean, and that's the thing is like, we just got to have discernment. I think
47:56
discernment is the big thing that I kind of grew in, grew in the last three years after leading
48:01
the church that we left. And it's just, I'm encouraged by just telling people just have discernment.
48:06
And the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you. You're going to know if you're in the right
48:09
place or the wrong place. And you know, you're in the right place when you feel some conviction
48:13
and that you need to change. I think this last part of it is really interesting. I made this
48:18
comment off air, but the little things that he adds like, please bring me my cloak. So, I don't
48:23
freeze to death in prison. It's so just black and white. I listened to something this week. And it
48:29
was an expert in letters from Oxford, like written letters from antiquity. I didn't know this. He
48:35
said that most letters, almost all letters were essentially one page, whatever could fit on that
48:41
piece of parchment. But Paul's letters were multiple pages, which was kind of unheard of. And they
48:46
were kind of this one to all one to congregation, kind of a letter, which also was not very common.
48:51
Most of them were just one on one. So I think it just continues to talk about the authenticity
48:56
of these letters, which points to what Paul is in prison dying for on a personal level.
49:01
And while he's doing that, he's encouraging you to pass it along, but to do so in a way
49:08
that's loving and true. I would say for me, I'm glad we did first Timothy. And then we
49:17
went around did some other stuff. And then we came back to second Timothy, because you're almost
49:22
getting a masterclass in the different stages of ministry, when that is your entire life. Paul
49:30
wasn't married. Like he was married to his mission, right? And he was called to that, right? So
49:35
singles out there don't don't get me wrong and hear what I'm not saying. But the difference in
49:40
attitude of the first letter to Timothy to the last letter, there are good ideas for how to lead
49:47
yourself, but also good ideas for how to lead other people. There's good ideas for wisdom that
49:52
should direct your steps in the wisdom you should share with others in order to help them direct
49:56
their steps. But also, we can assume that Timothy wasn't made of the same stuff as Paul, because
50:02
there were things that Paul did that were just natural to him that he had to like basically scream
50:09
at Timothy, do this. Like you're getting a little lazy. You're you're not as forceful as you need
50:14
to be like Georgia loins. It's go time. And so you almost get this sense. I'm reading something
50:20
into the text here, but you're getting the sense that Paul and Timothy were not wired the same,
50:23
but they had the same mission. And so Paul had to learn how to be a good manager. And you know,
50:28
Timothy had to learn how to be a good mentee and to accept something from somebody that's wired
50:32
to do something differently. I remember back in the day, Ted Williams, seen as one of the best,
50:38
he's certainly top 10 best baseball players ever. He was a natural hitter, but he had some weird
50:45
stuff that went on with his eyesight. Like he could like see the individual stitches on the
50:49
baseball as it was coming towards him at, you know, that that day between, you know, 80 and 95 miles
50:54
an hour. And the problem was, is he was the worst hitting coach, maybe in existence,
51:00
because he was such a good natural hitter. He was built to hit baseballs. That's what Ted
51:05
Williams was on this planet to do. And when he tried to teach other people to do it,
51:09
imagine him saying, yeah, just, uh, you know, slow the ball down with your vision. And then just
51:15
when it's in the perfect spot, just like hit it, like hit that spherical ball with that round bat
51:20
squarely, just do that. He couldn't do it. And so I get the sense that Paul and Timothy while on
51:27
the same mission, they had some differences. I had, they had to get over. But the level of, you know,
51:33
intimacy between these two, because their mission was so important was so big. But then the level
51:42
of desperation, but also confidence that Timothy has as he's pinning a letter after he's been
51:47
basically, um, you know, abandoned by all the supporters. And knowing that death is on his on
51:54
the doorstep and to be able to say, I finished the race. I've kept the faith. You know, I fought
51:58
the good fight. It's just an incredible thing for us. But I would say too, I would echo what Matt
52:02
said. It's like, you have to be in the word. And so it's one thing, because culturally,
52:09
people can say, I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. I have kept the faith.
52:13
But how many people do you hear? How many times do you hear him say I have something I have
52:16
fought the good fight? Like without even knowing that comes from scripture, you'll hear atheists
52:21
say, yeah, hey, you know, iron sharpens iron. It's like, we get that from somewhere. That's not
52:26
wisdom from the universe. That's wisdom from a particular book that you say is only full of lies
52:31
made up by the spaghetti monster. There's lots of those the writings on the wall. Right. There's
52:36
all kinds. And so for us, it's going to be impossible to use the scripture for direction,
52:43
or reproof, or rebuke, or any of those things, if you're not actually in it yourself.
52:48
And part of the reformation was so that the scripture could get into our hands,
52:53
so that somebody's not reading the Bible for us. And if you're letting your pastor read the Bible
52:59
for you, you're taking away the opportunity to potentially rebuke him and point him in a better
53:05
direction, and to get a deeper level of understanding from their teaching. So that's what I got out
53:11
of this. But guys, there's more that could be said about second Timothy, but we're going to go
53:15
ahead and wrap it up and leave it there. But guys, come back here next week where we're going to be
53:18
digging into Proverbs one. So we're going to be hitting a few Proverbs before we move on to some
53:24
other stuff as we get on into our year. So guys, come back here next week, having read Proverbs one.
53:29
But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost. I have an adulted life,
53:32
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54:20
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