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morning going to read verses 14- 16 though we will be looking at the whole chapter this morning I'd like to ask Tim failer to pray for the ministry of the word 1 Timothy chapter 4 beginning in verse
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14 do not neglect the spiritual gift within you which was bestowed upon you through prophetic urance with the laying on of the Hands by the presbyter take pains with these things be absorbed in them so
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that your progress may be evident to all pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching persevere in these things for as you do this you will ensure
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salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you let us pray
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Heavenly Father we ask that you allow us to hear your word to hunger for your word to open our eyes and ears so that we might be satisfied at least in part
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that we can know you better to love you better to fear you better and to obey allow us to persevere and we ask you
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teach us these things so we might lift each other up in the body and be a
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amen when we have the opportunity to fill in for one another as I'm filling in for Mark this morning it um gives an opportunity to
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reflect since when we are preaching in our sermon series we are going through books of the Bible exegetically verse by verse we have the opportunity to to
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reflect on things and share from the pulpit those pulpit those Reflections and as I Was preparing I've known of Mark strip for quite some time as he was entering a a bike race up in
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um aatiq Island so we knew about this for quite a while thinking about what to bring before you this morning it's
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somewhat self-reflecting as well as reflecting on Fellowship Bible Church 2022 was
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a difficult year for me not outwardly not in the terms of health or job or anything like that but more Milestones
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2022 marked my 60th year on this planet but at the same time the 30th year as a pastoring Elder of Fellowship Bible
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Church we've all had those milestones and you look ahead to them you think ah that won't be anything no big deal turn 30 brush it off until you turn
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30 and not every decade has the same impact but you know at a certain point that more lies behind then than ahead and it causes you to reflect both on the past but even more
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so on what does remain by God's grace on the future and so I want to ask the the question today what lies in the future for Fellowship Bible
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Church and by Future I I don't mean the the eschatological future the you know what people talk about with the prophecy and what's going on in the Middle East
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and all of that but Fellowship Bible Church reflecting on the previous 30 years our church has traveled a
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difficult path in fact uh if any of you were to go back in time and some of you can um and think of the early 90s um and where we are as a church we've gone from
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a senior pastor to pastoring elders that was not an easy hurdle to jump over we've gone from dispensational to
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dispensational to reformed Armenian to calvinist committed to sound Doctrine but not but not confessional and that has been an
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ongoing uh struggle encouraging the gifts of the holy spirit within the congregation but not charismatic speaking to other one
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another in Psalms hymns and spiritual songs looking back is um a cause of
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Joy though it was difficult and though the path has not been smooth or
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straight I know Mark shares with me the joy of seeing God working in his people and seeing his word being um focus upon and devoted to but what
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can we expect in the future well Paul starts out this chapter to Timothy by saying the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall
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away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of Demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron men who forbid
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marriage and Advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe and know the truth what can we
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expect apostasy now Paul wrote to Timothy while Timothy was pastoring in Ephesus and it was to Ephesus that Paul called the elders to him when he was
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traveling back to Jerusalem knowing that he would never see them again because his path LED toward Rome and eventual execution he said to the Ephesian elders
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I know that after my departure Savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will men will arise speaking
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perverse things to draw away the disciples after them so we have the time frame here in Acts chapter
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Acts chapter 20 of the admonition from 1 Timothy 4 after my departure Paul Paul says so Timothy the spirit explicitly
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tells me that the church will apostatize that they will no longer abide sound Doctrine he writes in his second letter to Timothy for the time
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will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own
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their own desires again I don't think Paul is thinking this is off somewhere in the tribulation before the Rapture or whatever after the Rapture I think he's saying this is what
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you can expect Timothy because that is alone what makes sense of his exhortation to exhortation to Timothy to persist and persevere and
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take pains in the doctrines that Paul had taught him and in 2 Timothy Chapter 2 to pass these doctrines on to other men who will then Faithfully
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then Faithfully continue the continue the process Paul is looking at his immediate departure and what will be the the
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effect of that and so you know we live in a very optimistic country optimism is somewhat stereotypically characteristic
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of Americans but when we read the word and when we apply that word to the hearts of Sinners there isn't a whole lot of room for optimism for optimism but that doesn't make it
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inevitable that the bad will come I don't think Paul is saying that this is unavoidable because if he were saying that you know the spirit says this is what's going to happen he would not continue to tell
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Timothy what to do about it he doesn't say well Timothy you know just hang it up just throw up your hands and give up
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because this is what's going to happen the spirit told me this is what's going to happen to happen no he exhorts Timothy to exercise vigorously in sound Doctrine to do so
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publicly because as he says a very enigmatic statement that I closed with you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you
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there's the church at Ephesus starting with a negative Paul ends with an encouraging word but in between there's something
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that needs to be done it's not going to happen simply because you want it to Fellowship Bible Church is unique we
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are non-denominational but that's not so unique anymore in fact within denominations most individual churches are non- are non- denominational just ask their denominational management okay so
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non-denominational no longer has the cache it did 50 years years ago but what's different about Fellowship Bible Church is that we are devoted to the
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word of God in all its teaching and we are devoted to one another as the scriptures teach us but can Fellowship Bible Church
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survive now don't worry the rent is paid the mortgage you know we talking about our finances God has blessed there that's not the point in fact there are many churches that have
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survived but not Ephesus we read that Ephesus was one of the churches to whom the letters of Revelation were written and it's the one
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in which the Lord specifically says that if you do not return to your first love I will remove your lampstand which was the symbol of his
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spirit's presence Ephesus is no longer a church there's no longer a lampstand named named Ephesus and so you might still have the building and you might still have the
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congregation but do you have the Holy Spirit because if you do not you're not a church so it's in that sense that I ask can Fellowship Bible Church survive
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our church is growing both in families and in and in families it it is a Haven to many who have wandered the Wasteland of modern
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evangelicalism it's also a state home to many who have been sitting under the ministry of the word here for many
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years it's a comfortable place it's a welcoming place I rarely get to meet visitors because of the mass of people that are greeting them it is a very warm place I think and I do think
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that God is honored by his people here but he was also honored by his people in Ephesus and yet Ephesus lost its lampstand because it left its first
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love Paul realized the danger that Timothy was facing that Ephesus was facing but he also knew the defense and so the verses that I read
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are really the focus of the message as we're going to look at the passage as a whole persevere in these things for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear
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you Paul had I'm sure never heard of the thermodynamic law of entropy many of you remember that from high school it is however the the science as
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it were of man's fall a definition of the law of entropy is that it is the tendency of all things toward greater disorder things left to
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themselves go bad they don't go good this governs the law of nature in the
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laboratory and in the world but it also governs the law of men Human Society men left to themselves do not
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get better they get worse Paul uses here the the example of bodily discipline he says bodily discipline verse 8 is only
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of little profit he lived in a time when the Greek games were very popular again and men would exercise for those games that were held every four years they
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were not only held in Athens but also in Corinth and in Ephesus the major Greek cities would have their own games and this was something that everybody just like today they had their own teams that
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they rooted for and bodily exercise was as important to the Greeks of Paul's day as it is to Americans today and so he uses this metaphor quite
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frequently and it shows the law of entropy in Reverse we understand from the law of entropy that the only way to slow it down or even temporarily reverse it is
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if we put energy into the system we have to exert Force to slow down the process of dissolution we have to put lunch meat
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in the in the refrigerator he put it just that's as simple as it gets right there CU if you don't it will go bad and that only slows things down the same thing is true as
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Paul is saying with our bodies left to themselves we do not get stronger we must exercise we must put forward effort and energy in order to
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slow down the dissolution of time and time and the disintegration of Life of you years
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energy there's a corresponding law in the moral the moral sphere godliness does not just happen and it's not
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contagious we don't pick it up by osmosis or by rubbing elbows with people we think are Godly it doesn't work that way Paul says for bodily discipline is only of little
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profit The Profit there is that we die healthier but godliness he says is prophit able for all things since it holds promise for the present life and
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also for the life to come he's comparing two things here bodily discipline that was part of the culture around him as much as it is our culture billions upon
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billions of dollars are spent every year on bodily discipline we have an obsession with exercise well I don't but in our country I am free of that
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possession many labor and strive in the intensity of their activity in physical exertion and now we have things called Extreme Sports things that crazy people
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do but that is simply the inevitable extension of the obsession toward physical exercise that we have in our culture in the west and this is one of
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Paul's favorite analogies exercise so what he says even though it was written 2,000 years ago it should resonate with the world in which we live listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians 9 do you
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not know that the one who runs in a race they all run but only one receives the prize run in such a way that you may win and everyone who competes in the games
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exercises selfcontrol in all things they then do it to receive a perishable wreath but we imperishable therefore I run in such a
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way as not without aim I box in such a way as not beating the air but I Buffet my body and make it my slave lest possibly after I have preached to others
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I myself should be disqualified we see the exercising Obsession around
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Obsession around us but do we apply that to our own lives do we apply that to our own exercising in godliness and in Doctrine we exercise the body that will
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pass away should we not give at least as much effort to the Mind than to our soul the things that we know from reading the scripture will
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abide that we know Paul exhorts Us in Romans 12 to to transform ourselves through the renewing of the Mind the things that we know even those of us who are older the mind is still
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strong we say that about our our elderly parents and grandparents yeah their mind is still sharp yeah in fact it might even be sharper
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now than it was 50 years ago but their body isn't and yet our culture tells us that's what matters what matters is how you appear not how you think no it
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doesn't matter it is of little profit don't get me wrong it is of some profit Paul does not say it's of no profit your
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profit your body is the Tabernacle the tent that God has providentially given you for this life and just as we take care of our homes we take care of our bodies when
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our homes are falling apart we are distracted when our bodies are falling apart we are distracted but they are not our temples they are not our end they will
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die and be transformed to dust our minds however will be transformed to Glory as we imitate God and as we learn
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from him it reminded me of the famous line by the sixf figured man if you haven't got your health you haven't got anything Princess
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anything Princess Bride now if you haven't got your mind if you haven't got your soul you haven't got anything for what profits a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his
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soul so keep that in mind as you read Paul the metaphor applies but he takes it he says look at what the world is doing this is what you must do with your
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soul with your mind he says for it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed Our Hope in the Living God who is the savior of all men especially
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of believers for this we labor and strive he says in verse 10 that word labor and strive those two words are words of the athletic games they words
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of exercise similar to what he says in Philippians when he says work out your salvation with fear and trembling those two words are unique they have to do
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with the physical impact or effect on a runner's body after a marathon the muscles twitching uncontrol ably because of the exertion of that
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race that is how he says we are to work out our Salvation that is how he says we are to hold fast and persevere in sound Doctrine as the world obsesses with
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physical exercise we should obsess with spiritual exercise and what is our exercise regimen well two things
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Doctrine there are many who have thought that in many things they can be self-taught as a homeschooling parent and also an instructor at Milton Academy I have
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encountered many people who think that they can self- te in things like the US Constitution or history or even chemistry there are some things that
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cannot be self-taught many things and to say that I can teach myself something is sometimes the height of arrogance to say that no one has gone before me smarter
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than me who could shed light on a subject for me well Paul didn't have that problem he knew he had received what he had received from the Lord and
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he knew it was his responsibility to pass it on to men like Timothy and then it was his responsibility Timothy's to pass it on to further Men 2 Timothy
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2:2 is a key verse for the Elders of Fellowship Bible Church and have been has been for 30 years and the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses these entrust
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to Faithful Men Who will be able to teach others teach others also this is true Apostolic succession not some spiritual mumbo jumbo whereby
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the bishop of Rome is spiritually detend from Peter no this is the teaching of the Apostles passing in succession to the Next Generation and then the next
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generation and down down through the history of the church until the Lord returns when this process is broken the next generation of the church
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perishes again when the sound teaching of a denomination or of an individual church or of a Pulpit degenerates in the Next Generation to something else
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political commentary social action but not the not the gospel and before long the church has lost its lamp stand it remains but it is
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no longer a Church of Jesus Christ the pattern of the Apostles was to appoint to appoint Elders from among the flock that's what we read in Acts
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primarily Paul and his sidekick Barnabas going around appointing Elders within the churches that they started in the various communities what we do not see
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in the Bible is a pastoral search committee we do not see pastors coming in from in from outside to Pastor churches after the
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apostolic leats the men like Timothy and Silas and Luke left the scene the elders were mandated to remain in the congregations
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over which they pastured Clement was an elder in Rome the Roman Catholic Church thinks he became the pope but we know from scripture that he was an elder in the
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Church of Rome he wrote a letter to the church at Corinth he did not write it as a pope but rather as a fellow Elder similar to what Peter did fellow Elders
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the problem in Corinth at that time late first century was that the Corinthians had dismissed some of their Elders without cause and Clement was writing as an elder of another church saying you can't
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do that so strong was this held that at the first ecumenical council in 325 in NAA one of the Cannons was that any man who left his
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position as an elder was immediately excommunicated and any church that hired him away was entirely
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excommunicated the Elder was raised up from among the flock Acts chapter 20 so what will
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happen when the current Elders are no longer able for whatever reason to Pastor will there be a pastoral search
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lunch in do it the way the churches do or will 2 Timothy 2:2 succeed at least one more generation it hasn't actually succeeded a
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generation yet okay we're we're kind of the first the first generation so the the question here for someone like me and Mark is what about the next
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the next generation will there be men ready to Pastor the flock at Fellowship Bible Church well certainly the exposure to
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sound Doctrine has been there Fellowship Bible Church has e has focused on biblical preaching with a solidly Reformed
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Theological framework we have an emphasis on scripture reading in all parts of the Bible we give attention to the public reading of scripture to exhortation and
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to teaching we have focused teaching on various aspects of Theology and in history in Sunday school and also systematic and biblical theology in the
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plum line series on Thursday evenings there been a great deal of exposure to sound Doctrine but again we do not grow by
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osmosis simply being exposed though exposed though necessary is not sufficient and and this is perhaps what
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psychological um malady that we all have when we meet somebody we tend to snapshot them as they are when we meet them we have no
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knowledge of the journey that they have made to get to where we see them we just see them where they are we may see that they are devoted to
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God's word to executing it to studying it and to presenting it but what we do not see is the years and years and years
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of effort that lie before and continue with exposure there must be effort again entropy energy is is out
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there but until we harness it and direct it we do not impact the process of entropy we do not halt the
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disintegration the same is true in the church great deal of exposure and that is true of much of reformed theology exposure to sound
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Doctrine but no effort in applying it and this is where everything moves from up here to out there where is the effort in godliness
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where is the discipline in sound Doctrine Timothy learned theology from Paul Mark and I we're not
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Paul he was not only getting it from an apostle he was getting it from the Apostle of Christian doctrine he was getting with it from a brain with two
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legs he's this is a small smart guy and yet it wasn't enough Paul had to say to him take pains
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with these things do not neglect now we we often are told that Timothy was a a timid man and and somewhat lazy and
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that's why Paul had to exhort him no Timothy suffered from the malady of being a human being and when even with Paul
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late in life second Timothy he says to Timothy bring me the parchments bring me the Scrolls you know my life is being poured out I'm about to die but you know
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that book second one from the top I bring it never it never stopping even to the end of his days again Paul's one of those people we read
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about him we think wow God must just Zapped him with Brilliance no he sat at the feet of gel we read okay he he was learned in philosophy in Judaism Mosaic law and he
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sat at the feet of the greatest Rabbi and he learned as a disciple and that word disciple is one of the most common words we find in scripture in the New Testament referring
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to Believers what is a disciple the word learner learner learning that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you is not the end of
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the lesson it goes on and on and on and I think for eternity we will still be learning and as much as we know of God
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as job says these are but the fringes of his ways the depths who can fathom effort Paul says persevere take pains in
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these things be absorbed in them pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching this is very vibrant language of intense activity and focus like an
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athlete which I never have been an athlete but I did play sports and in order to play sports you don't just play the
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sport in order to play tennis for example we didn't just go out and hit tennis balls around now most of the time was running was running Sprints and steps
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stairs and the Sprints weren't always straightforward they were sometimes side to side because that's what you do on a tennis court so there's a great deal of athleticism you see the product when you
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watch the game right but you do not see everything that went in to making that person a professional athlete all the effort that went into
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that you see the sermon but you don't see what went into it the effort that has gone into to it is what Paul is exhorting Timothy he's not exhorting
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everybody God will place his call on Those whom he wishes to be the pastoring Elders of Fellowship Bible Church but nonetheless that call must be
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answered we have had many other Elders at Fellowship Bible Church over the past 30 years and
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not everyone worked hard in preaching and teaching not everyone exercised and took pains in these things and the lack of that preparation
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and effort was apparent in both the sermons and the steadfastness of their
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Ministry so it is a challenge if it may not be for everyone but if Fellowship Bible Church is to
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continue as a church with a lampstand it must apply for someone and it must apply for someone's if the plurality of eldership
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is a true biblical model which we believe it believe it is and considering the age of your elders now and the amount of
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effort that has gone into being Where We Are are we can only hope that the some ones are already are already here the question is will you put forth
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the effort for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you and that is the healthy continuation of true worship at
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Fellowship Bible Fellowship Bible Church let us pray father we thank you for your word it is indeed a light to our path a lamp to our
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feet and the unfolding of your word is what does truly bring light and the light that we are given through the news media and the social media of our day is
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not light but Darkness so we ask father that you would Shine Your Shine Your Light and father I ask even more
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personally that you would raise up men who will not only expose themselves to the sound doctrine of your word but to put forth the effort to take pains in
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these things to persevere that the ministry of your word in this building and among this congregation would continue generation
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after generation father you have blessed us with a generational Church children grandchildren great grandchildren children we pray that you would do so
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also in this pulpit in the Teaching Ministry of this church that as Paul exhorted Timothy we would also hand down
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the words of sound Doctrine from one generation to another and by your grace to another and by your grace to another until the Lord himself returns
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for we ask this for his glory and in his name amen and please stand for the
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benediction from Paul's letter to the Ephesians now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us to him be the glory
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in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever
