Commitments of the Man of God

I want to ask you to turn in your copy of God's word to 1 Timothy chapter 6. Turn in your Bibles, please, to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We are continuing our study in this epistle. And just by way of backdrop, briefly, we know that the apostle Paul is the one writing to Timothy.

Timothy is a young pastor, in this Ephesian church. He is one of the overseers, one of the elders, one of the pastors of this church, and the apostle Paul himself is concerned. About Timothy, the apostle Paul in his concern for Timothy decides to, to write to him because he wants to build this man of God up into the faith. He wants to buttress him in the faith.

He wants him to be strong in the faith, and this is strategic too because the apostle Paul knows that Timothy is a pastor in this church and the apostle Paul knows that so as the pastor goes, there goes the church as well and so he has a, a double concern for Timothy himself and for those over whom Timothy ministers and the apostle Paul wants Timothy to be built up so that he in turn can build up the body of Christ in this particular local church there at Ephesus and so clearly Paul is Concerned about what is going on.

he, he's writing to these Ephesian people. He's writing to Timothy in particular so that he would be instructed in terms of how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the pillar and support of the truth. We read that before, in a prior sermon as we worked as we have been working our way through.

First Timothy, there's a number of things that Paul says to Timothy and we're not going to take the time to review all of those things. You can go back and, read through chapters 1 through chapter 6 and verse 9 and you can get a sense of, of the ways in which Paul exhorts and encourages and, and builds Timothy up and instructs him so that he understands his role as a pastor and that he can do his ministry with excellence. In this passage that we're gonna be reading here this morning, Paul is gonna strongly exhort Timothy, and I think that in the process, we will discover some key commitments of the man of God.

We will be discovering some key commitments, some things that the man of God ought to be committed to.

Some things that the apostle or, or, or the pastor Timothy himself ought to be committed to and as he is committed to these things, he can, he can have, impact on the church. But let's read the passage, read with me please. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 11. But flee, flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

Fight, fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about. At the proper time, he who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see, to him the honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. as, as we take a look at the passage, brothers and sisters, I'm not going to necessarily take us into all of the detail here. I'm going to paint some broad strokes, basically. I'm just looking at some broad strokes here in an attempt to get the bigger picture, if you will, and so we're not so much looking at the trees as as we're perhaps looking at maybe a clump of the trees or even a bigger step backwards looking at the forest, right, and so please keep that in mind.

I'm not going to, if I were to do that I'd just stick with one verse, but I'm, taking, taking a few verses here in an attempt to present the message here, but at any rate. In this passage, we find a description of what the man of God should be like, and Paul's exhortation to Timothy helps us to determine some of those things that ought to be true about the man of God. And so this morning, we're gonna focus our attention on commitments of the man of God. What are the commitments that mark a man of God, what are those things that the man of God, in this case it's Timothy, the pastor of this church, but brothers and sisters, this pastor of the church is called to be the model of what we are all to be like anyway and so this does not just apply to the pastor himself but it applies to all of us as all of us are called to emulate, this pastor.

all of us are called to follow, the, the, the elder, the pastor here as he follows the Lord. So there is application here for all and so though the title says commitments of the man of God, we could just as easily say commitments of the people of God. And so this applies, I think, to everyone. Well, the first commitment is this the man of God, the person of God is committed to fleeing from sin.

The person of God is committed to fleeing from sin. Read again with me verse 11. He says, but flee from these things, you man of God. Flee from these things, you men.

God, let me just take a moment to underscore the fact that he refers to Timothy as a man of God. He is referring, in fact, this in the Greek is in the prominent position. This is basically the first thing that we see. We see men, we see you, but men of God flee from these things.

And so he is drawing attention to the pastor himself, to Timothy, and he's saying, Timothy, you man of God. You are a man of God. Take note, Timothy, of what it is that you are. You are a man of God.

This phrase is used some 70 times in the Old Testament, and it always is used in reference to someone who was a spokesperson for God. And so I think that in part what is what Paul is saying to Timothy is that you as a spokesperson for God. But I also think there's a little bit more going on here too. Paul is wanting Timothy to understand who he is and to whom he belongs, man of God.

You are a man belonging to God. You are one for whom the blood of Jesus Christ was shed. He purchased you. He, he owns you, he bought you, he laid down his life for you, his blood was shed so that you would belong to him.

Oh, Timothy, you man of God. So there is a sense of God's possession of Timothy. There's a sense of position as well. You belong to him.

You are his man. You belong to God, and I think this would serve as an encouraging reminder. To this young pastor. who was dealing with some stuff in the church.

I am. God's man, I am. A man of God. And I think what Paul wants from Timothy is for Timothy to continue on in acting like this man of God, a man of God.

What does he say to the man of God? Again, this is, this represents our first point. Basically he says flee from these things, flee from what? Will you just go back a little bit in the same chapter and you come to discover, that he has to flee from the love of money.

And all of the sin that flows from this love of money, flee from that. He is to flee from, false doctrine and the influence that false doctrine might have on people. There are a number of things that he has to flee from and at the end of the day, brothers and sisters, the bottom line is this, this is simply a way of saying flee from sin, flee from sin, you man of God, flee from it. Do not be like those in the world.

I want you to be different from those in the world. I want you, and he uses that contrast, right? The contrasting conjunction, but as opposed to those worldly folks out there, I want you to be one who would flee. Flee from the love of money and the sin that flows from it, flee from materialism, flee from, from, the, the world and its efforts to suck you into its mold, to shape you into its mold, just flee from that, you man of God, flee from sin.

Brothers and sisters, if we want to be people of God, God in His word tells us that we are to flee from sin. And so it would behoove me to ask you as a spokesperson for God, are we fleeing? Are you fleeing? Am I fleeing from sin?

Or do I find myself dabbling with sin? Do I find myself yielding way to sin and yielding way to the ways of the world? Do I find myself giving myself over? To the sin that I ought to be fleeing from.

Think about this word fleeing with me for a minute and let me dig into my BC days in order to provide an illustration for you. To my shame. Back in my BC days, one of the things that I did as a high school guy is I used to always go to the, the, the local parties on the weekends, and there at the parties they would have, the kegs of beer and the DJ and whatnot and just a bunch of, young dumb people partying is what it was all about doing things that we ought not to be doing. But I was at this one particular party and I was there ready to pay my whatever it was 2 or 3 $4 to get in.

And I'm there at the gate and I noticed that coming alongside the street right next to the driveway there was this Cadillac looking car with tinted windows and I noticed that and I just turned my head and I proceeded to turn wait in line until I had my chance to pay my money and get in the backyard and, and next thing I know I hear this gunfire. I hear this pop, pop, pop, pop. And so gunfire and people are beginning to scatter all over the place and and and what I did. I'll tell you what I did not do.

I did not just stand there. I did not just like, hey, this sounds cool. I want to check it. I wonder what's going on.

Oh no, as soon as I heard the gunfire, I was gone. I was running really fast. I was fleeing from the danger. And likewise, the people of God, men of God are called by God to flee from sin.

Don't even mess around with it. The minute sin is seeking to lay a hold of you, just flee from it. Do what Joseph did when Potiphar's wife sought to make sport of her. As soon as she sought to make sport of him, as soon as wanted to engage in this physical relationship with him.

What does he do? He flees. He flees. Elsewhere.

The apostle Paul says flee immorality, flee sexual sin. OK. And so I don't know what it is that the Lord may be calling you all to flee from. I don't know what particular sins you may need to flee from, but God in His word is telling us today that if we want to be a strong man of God, one of the things that we need to do is be committed to fleeing from sin.

One of the things that you'll note about Paul though, and this is, this is helpful to know is that he's not a guy that's running around saying flee, flee, flee, flee, stop, stop, stop, stop. And then he walks away as if he had nothing more to say. That's not his approach, right? He's not just telling, the people he writes to the things that they're not supposed to be doing.

He's not just giving them this message of flee, stop sinning, but, but, but he also, in addition to that, his pattern is to tell them not just what to flee from, but if you will, to tell them what to flee towards. He doesn't just tell them to, take off sin, but he essentially tells them to put on Christ. He never just leaves a person with all of the things that they're not supposed to be doing, but the apostle Paul's approach is to always give to the person of God what it is that they are supposed to be, what it is that they're supposed to be doing, because, that serves as an antidote for the sin we might struggle with.

In some cases, a person struggling with sin, no matter what it is, maybe one of the things that they need to do is, is not so much focus in on fleeing from the sin as much as they need to focus in on knowing what to flee towards, knowing what to run towards.

And the apostle Paul is gonna give us a glimpse of some of the things that the man of God needs to flee towards, bringing us to the second point here. The man of God is committed to following Christian virtue. The man of God is committed to following Christian virtue. There may have been a better way of saying it than saying it this way.

I understand that, but when you stop to think about it, Christian virtue is embodied perfectly in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He is the epitome of Christian virtue. And so in a sense, what you can say is that Paul wants the man of God to pursue Christian virtue, to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the embodiment of that Christian virtue, so that we would, as we pursue him, we would emulate the virtue that he calls us to emulate. And so the question becomes then what is the Christian virtue?

What, what kinds of Christian virtue can you give me some examples of Christian virtue that we need to emulate? And he gives us a list of six of them right here in the passage. Read, read it with me. 1 Timothy 6:11, he says, but flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue.

give yourself to, go after, seek diligently, if you will, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. This word pursue, this, this thing that we are, this word pursuit means to follow after with the idea of running. And so, in contrast to running into the way of sin, run in the opposite direction here. Pursue these things, pursue.

This word is used in other passages written by Paul Romans 14:19, for example, so then, let us pursue. Let us run after, let us give ourselves towards the things which make for peace and building up of one another. 1 Corinthians 14:1 we read, pursue, pursue love. 2 Timothy 2:22, the apostle Paul to Timothy says now flee from youthful lusts and pursue, pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

And so some of these things that he's calling people to pursue are duplicated in Passage here this morning, then, the 6 things he's telling Paul or Timothy and by way of extension the people of God to be pursuing those 6 things are again, number 1 here, righteousness, righteousness, pursue righteousness. This is the condition of being acceptable to God. It speaks of conduct that is in accord with God's will and pleasing to him. Seek to live a life that is in accord with His will.

Seek to live in such a way that you bring pleasure to your Creator. This word righteousness points to moral correctness, and it, and this word righteousness when used elsewhere is always based upon the standard of God. God is the ultimate standard of righteousness. He is the embodiment, Christ Himself is the embodiment of this righteousness, and we are called to be like him and so therefore, this is a sobering thought.

Pursue righteousness. But does not scripture elsewhere tell us that there is no one righteous? And so does it not seem as if we're called to be something that we cannot be? And if you are seeking to be what God calls you to be in the power of the flesh apart from faith in Christ, you will never get there.

And to pursue righteousness in that sense would be a vain, a futile effort, it will never happen. But the way in which we pursue righteousness is through faith. Another passage that may help us here is Philippians 3:8. Listen to what Paul in Philippians 3:8 says in regard to righteousness.

He says, more than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and may be found. In him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law. The righteousness that we are called to seek is not a righteousness derived from the law. It is a righteousness according to the apostle Paul, which is through faith in Christ.

And so we are to pursue righteousness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and as we are, are having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the net effect of that ought to be that we grow in our righteousness. And Paul here is not talking about the imputation of righteousness. You understand what by that, don't you? You see, when we came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness was imputed to us.

When we came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it was credited to us as righteousness. We are in God's eyes righteous, we are, if you will, holy, righteous and without blame, positionally speaking. But see, Paul's concern for Timothy and by way of extension, all of us is that we would experience the impartation of righteousness. He wants us to be righteous in the practical sense of the word.

He wants our lives to be lives that emulate the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Moving on to the next., quality here that would be godliness, as quickly, godliness, what, what is godliness? We are to pursue godliness.

What is this? Basically, godliness speaks of a god word orientation. It speaks of a godward orientation. It speaks of the man of God who and, and, and, and no matter what he does and all that he does, whether he eats or drinks, he's doing all things what, for the glory of God.

Godliness, in part, involves man orienting his life away from himself and towards God to where what he does, he does with God in mind for the glory of God. He wants his life to mean something. He wants his life to make a difference in terms of pointing people to and directing to this great God. Godly people live in such a way that there is no doubt they love God.

Their lives are oriented to God and that in part is what it means to be godly and we are called to pursue this godliness, pursue righteousness, pursue godliness, pursue faith, faith. Brothers and sisters, this faith that we are called to pursue goes beyond the mere intellectual. It, it's not enough really to intellectually assent to the Christian faith. It is not really enough to say I believe in God.

It is not enough to say that, I believe Jesus died on the cross, was buried, raised again, ascended to the right hand of the Father. Those are all good things, but faith here speaks of trusting in Him. The person who has faith in this sense, the person who has faithfulness in this sense, they trust God. With all of the details of their life.

This is the type of person who, when the difficulties of life come their way, they can point to God as the one who is sovereign and who is good, and they can say with total confidence, with full assurance that I know that God intends this for good in my life. You see, this is the person who banks on the promises of God. He embraces the promises of God. He fully believes in the promises of God.

For example, where the Bible says that he causes everything to work together for good. The person who is, who is demonstrating faith is one who says, what? I've just lost my job, but I know that the Lord is gonna provide. This is the type of person who perhaps has lost their fortune.

Like Job lost his fortune, but they can say, the Lord gives and he takes away, and blessed is the name of the Lord. I know that my Redeemer lives, and I know that he cares for me, and I know he will take care of me, and I know that despite the pain and the heartache, That he will cause me to come forth as gold. I know it because this is what he tells me in his words. He is committed to me.

I believe it and I will not allow these circumstances to affect me in such a way to where I was to where I respond in sin. I will believe and I will trust and I will allow my life by His grace to be a testimony of His power in and through me as I rise above the ashes and I praise Him and people all around look at my life and they say, what in the world is going on here? If it were me, I would crack, but this person is not cracking. Praise be to the Lord, to God, because it is only by His grace, as I trust in Him and have faith in him, he upholds me by his power, by His grace, and by his goodness.

This is in part what it means to pursue faith. The next word that we have before us is love, love for God, and of course included in the idea, I would say is love for people. This love involves a self-sacrificing commitment. Such a commitment, such a commitment of self-sacrifice is embodied in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who he himself laid down his life in loving service to us that we might be redeemed and that we might have hope and that we might have, be able to look at the future and smile because we know it's nothing but good down the road when we exit this world and enter into eternity future.

So, so love. It's a love that expresses itself in love for God and love for others. And to pursue love is to pursue, I would say, self-denial. Again, like Christ, we would be committed to laying down our lives for the benefit of others.

This is what the Tuy family did. Some of you may have heard of this family, the Tuy family. They took in a 340 pound homeless teenager named Michael Orr. He was a teenager who was homeless.

He was a, a, a black man, a, a 340 pound man, and this white Anglo-Saxon family saw this man and had a heart for him and wanted to reach out to him. And so they did and they took him into their own home and they made him a part of their family. They loved this man. And they did all that they could to see to it that this man would be able to be successful at some point in his future.

And along the way they enrolled him in Christian school and he learned about the Lord. And as it turned out, because of his size, he happened to be pretty good potential for football. And this day, he is a professional football player who plays for the Baltimore Ravens. But you see the love that was expressed by this family to this man.

This is the type of love that I believe brings glory to God. We are to pursue love, and we are to pursue perseverance, perseverance, never give up, never. Never throw in the towel. No matter how difficult things may get.

And no matter how how tempted you are to say forget it, I give up. Pursue perseverance, pursue not going in the towel, and you may get beaten down and you may be hurt, you may feel like you can't get up, but the bottom line is, through the power of God and by His grace, we can get up and we can continue to walk, we can continue to fight this Christian fight of faith. And so we've got these, these virtues. There's another one here, and that would be the virtue of, of gentleness.

This speaks of calmness of spirit. And even in the midst of difficulty where one is, is marked by a calm spirit. And so these are Christian virtues that the man of God follows after. Such virtues are embodied in the person of Jesus Christ and thus we can say that the man of God pursues or he follows Christ and seeks to emulate the virtues of Christ.

Let us hasten on to the next point number 3. The man of God is committed to fighting the good fight of faith. And so we've talked about how, what he flees and what he pursues, but in the midst of it all, he is a man who is fighting. And this to me is encouraging just to be reminded of the fact that Christianity is described as a fight.

It is a fight. It is a battle. It is pictured here as, as a boxer who, who is, who is in, in the boxing ring during, during one of the Olympic Games and, and, and having trained for, for many months in order to win this fight, he, he's just giving it his all. He's fighting.

He's fighting, he's, he's, there, there, there, there is blood, sweat, and tears involved in this fight. There is pain. There is agony. In fact, that the Greek word is from where we get the word agony from here.

He is, he is agonizing. He is fighting this good fight of faith. He is committed to it. He won't stop, he won't let up.

And this word fight here is, is present and active. So right now, Timothy, as I'm writing to you and as you're reading this right now and just continuing on to do this fight, just fight, fight, fight, fight, fight the good fight of faith and notice he describes it as a good fight. There are many fights out there that we can engage in, many fights that are not worthwhile fighting. And the question is, is what fight are you fighting?

Are you fighting the good fight of faith? Are you fighting for the purpose that the gospel is being lived out in your life and that the gospel is being proclaimed from you? This is what Paul wanted from Timothy. Paul wanted Timothy to be a man who would fight the fight, to be a man who would stand strong in the gospel, to be a man who would proclaim the gospel and who would have a positive effect in the lives of people around him as a result of his gospel ministry.

And Paul wants Timothy to fight this good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I believe he's hearkening back to his salvation and to me this is very interesting. See, the apostle Paul seeks to motivate, seeks to encourage, seeks to build him up on the basis of his salvation, OK?

He, he's, he's taken him back to the day in which he was saved and in light of his salvation fight the good fight of faith. But I think there's a little bit more going on here too because he talks about this eternal life and there is this sense as if Timothy doesn't have it yet, right? He doesn't quite have it yet. The scripture tells us Jesus says, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes in Him who sinning, he has eternal life.

He has it, will not be condemned, but there is a sense in which we don't have it too, brothers and sisters, and I think what, what Paul is trying to encourage Timothy with is the fact that not only do you think about the fact that you have it, but you need to fight this good fight of faith, in, in, in an effort to lay hold of that which is yours. And so I think he's pointing him into the future as far as eternal life is concerned. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.

There's this tension here, I think, of the already and the not yet.

He already has it, but he doesn't yet have it thing is what's going on. And so he's fighting this fight of faith and he's taken hold of this eternal life to which he was called when he made his good confession in the presence of many witnesses. There were many, there were many who were there to observe God's work in your life when you came to faith in him. Just keep that in mind, Tim, if you just remember, remember your salvation.

Don't ever forget it. And let that motivate you in your fight. Let the grace of God, as he expressed, as it expressed itself in your life and you got, let that motivate you to continue on. So the man of God is committed to fighting the good fight of faith.

Let's move on to the fourth commitments. The man of God is committed to faithful obedience to God's commands, faithful obedience to God's commands. Look at the verse with me, verse 13. I charge you in the presence of God.

You see, he, he's exercising some authority here, but I, I, as the apostle Paul, I charge you. I am charging you as an apostle in the presence of God. God is here. God is present.

He sees, he hears, he knows. I am charging you in the presence of Almighty God Himself who gives life to all things. He is the source of all of life. Remember that, Timothy.

I charge you in the presence of the one who has given to you life, and I charge you in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate. What was that good confession? It's where the Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the fact that he was the Son of God. And where that got him, don't you?

It got him to the cross. And so on the basis of his good confession, he entered into a life of sac, well, he entered into a place of suffering where he would die on the cross for the sins of humanity. But that good confession was, it is as you say, Pontius Pilate. It is as you say.

he testified of the fact that he were the Son of God. And consequently, He was nailed to the cross, and Paul says, charger in the presence of God gives life to all things in Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach, that you keep the commandment in such a way that no one can look at your life. And, and, and, and reproach the name of Christ because of it. Keep the commandment with, now the question is, is, is what exactly is the commandment?

There's a lot of answers that are put forth and I'm not going to get into all of those, but at the very least, here's what everyone would agree on. He received the commandment. Right? And that commandment was given to him ultimately from God.

It was a God-given. Now whether or not God gave it to him directly or God gave it to him, through, through elders of a church or however, through a human instrument, the fact is this, is Timothy had been on the receiving end of instructions from God. God gave him a command, God told him to do something. And, and Paul's point to Timothy is, keep the commandments.

Maybe it has something to do with when God called him into ministry and God says, I want you to be a minister of the gospel. Maybe that's the commandment he's referring to. I don't know. But I do know that God gave to him a commandment and he was called to keep it and, and the faithful man of God is committed to keeping the command of God.

When God tells you to do something, you do it. And we, we don't have to go any further than the scripture to know that there's a lot of stuff he calls us to do, right? There's a lot in there. He calls me, he says, he says, Carlos, I want you to love your wife as Christ loves the church.

That's not optional, that's a command. He says, I want you to bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That's a command from the Lord. And, and I am called by God to be committed to being faithful in obedience to his commands in my life.

And so that's the point that I am making here is that the man of God is faithful to the commands of God. In essence, he is faithful to what God has to say as he reveals his will for the man through His word. And that's how this would apply itself in our day. But let us move on then to the final commitments of the man of God.

The final commitment. The man of God is committed to finishing strong. OK. He sees the future.

Look at verse 14, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the proper time. Timothy, I want you to be keeping the command. I want you to be keeping what God told you to do, I want you to be walking in obedience to the Lord until the day in which the Lord Jesus Christ himself appears, until that day. I want you to be keeping the command.

And so the man of God is committed to keeping the command all the way until then, in other words, this is just another way of saying, I want the man, I want you, Timothy, as a man of God to finish strong, finish strong. And so, man of God, woman of God, child of God. Finish strong. Realize that the day is coming.

in which every single one of us, we will stand before the Lord, or kneel or fall prostrate or whatever, but we will be before the Lord. We will behold the Lord. And, and the million dollar question here I guess is, is when that day happens, will we have reason to shrink back in fear? Will we have reason to step back in shame?

Or will we, because we have fleed sin, we have followed after the virtues, the Christian virtues, we have fought the good fight, we have remained true and faithful to God's commands in our lives, and we have lived our life in light of the fact we will face him again someday. Will we, because of that, therefore not shrink back in fear? We're going to give an account for every idle word. The the videotape of our life.

will be on display before the Lord. Figuratively speaking, what I'm saying. And the question is, Are we ready for that? I think Timothy, Paul wanted to to exhort Timothy with this with this thought.

With this thought of the appearing. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so We have observed 5 commitments of the man of God, 5 commitments, and no doubt there's much more you can garner from the, from the text and what I have shared with you, but at the very least we would agree that as we look at the text, we can see these things that the man of God is committed to fleeing from sin. Are you fleeing from sin?

The man of God is committed to following after Christian virtue. Can it be said that you are hot on the trail of Christian virtue? Are you seeking to, to live a life that, that, that models Christlikeness? The man of God is committed to fighting the good fight of faith.

He is faithfully obedient to God's commands. When God tells him to do something, he will do it and he is. committed to finishing strong in light of the fact that he is going to face the Lord someday. He is therefore motivated to live his life for the glory of God and brothers and sisters, I think that's it.

At the end of the day, this is what Paul wants for Timothy, for the church, this is what God wants for it, this is what he wants for us. He wants us to be a people of God who live our lives for his glory because after all, he is great. He is great and I believe that Paul touches upon this and some of the final things that he says concerning God as he writes here to Timothy. Listen to what he says at the very end here.

He who is the blessed, he is the blessed and only sovereign, the only sovereign there is no other. The King of kings. He is the King of all kings. He is the Lord of all lords who alone, He alone possesses immortality.

There is no one immortal in the sense that God is without beginning, without ends. He alone possesses immortality, and he, and he dwells in unapproachable light. whom no man has seen or can see. Timothy, I just want to leave you with some things to think about.

I want to leave you with, with the reality of who God is. And I want you to understand. That to him the honor. and eternal dominion.

Amen. To him be honored. And that is what it is all about. As men of God, as people of God, being challenged with these commitments.

It's about the glory of God, the honor of God, after all. He, he laid down his life for us. You may be here, and you may not know the Lord Jesus Christ. There may be someone here who has yet to be, as the Bible says, born again.

You have never crossed over from death into life, from darkness into light, you have never come to the place of having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if that is you here this morning today, I want you to know, hear me out, that Christ died on the cross for sinners. He says, I came not for the righteous but the unrighteous. I came not for the healthy but the sick.

I came to give life to those who needed it. And the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to take your place at the cross, we deserved punishment, but Jesus Christ decided to be punished in our place. That is what the cross is all about. The cross is all about the Lord Jesus Christ saying, I will die.

So that lost sinners can be forgiven and enter into a relationship with Almighty God and have the confidence that they will be in God's kingdom throughout all of eternity future. And if you have yet to come to Christ in faith, I would encourage you. Even now, to repent of your sin. Lord, I am wrong, I have sinned against you, I have violated you, and I am worthy of judgment, I deserve hell.

But I am hearing this pastor say that Jesus died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven. I need that. I want that. Oh Lord, forgive me and transform me and take ownership of me that I might be a man of God.

If you have any questions about how to come to a relationship, into a relationship with Christ, let us know on your information slip which is inside the bulletin communicate with us, let us know. Tell us I need to know more about how I can have a relationship with Christ. We'll call you, we'll talk to you. Come to us now, come to myself, Pastor Milton Vincent, Pastor Mike Berry, who led us in worship and ask us what must I do to be saved?

Help me. I need Christ, and we would be more than happy to sit down and to take whatever time is necessary to talk to you. Would you pray with me, please? Lord, we just thank you so much for your word.

Lord, we thank you for, just these commitments of the man of God, we pray that you might help us, Lord. To be committed and Lord as the ushers come forward and as we prepare to give to you our offerings, whatever they might be, we would ask that you would multiply the offering and that Lord you would use what we give that you would be glorified and that your kingdom would be advanced. And so Lord, we give to you, Lord, as men of God, as people of God, asking that you might derive pleasure.

From this From this humble offering in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.