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This is a lesson about the Pastoral Epistles of Paul to Timothy. Dr. Terry taught these books to his students and emphasizes the importance of understanding what Paul is doing in these epistles. Paul uses a specific rhetorical device to grab the attention of his readers and deliver important theological information. The first part of 1 Timothy chapter 4 focuses on the heresies and challenges faced by the church in Ephesus. Jack highlights the simplicity, sanity, and power of the gospel and encourages Timothy to embody these qualities in his ministry. This particular lesson that we're teaching, the Pastoral Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus, when I was teaching at Hardin Simmons University, they were one of the wonderful, exciting books that I taught to my students, to my New Testament students. I was teaching all young pastors, and so it was a wonderful experience to be able to teach them the Pastoral Epistles. And there's some things in this Epistle that if you are not aware of what Paul is doing, you don't have an idea of what he's doing. And he does it all through all five of these Epistles. I mean, all three of them. First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus. And in those Epistles, he does it five times, and before we finish today, I'm going to show you what he did. Now, the thing you've got to remember about the Apostle Paul, he was a magnificent teacher. He probably, according to the Scripture, says that when he did come to Jerusalem, after he had graduated from college in Asia Minor, Paul's father was Greek, his mother was Jewish, you remember Lois and Eunice, his grandmother and his mother. We'll talk about them in this lesson today, although their names do not appear, their intention appears, and we'll show you what it is. You all remember that I said one of my major desires when I began to teach the Biblical text to the students at Hardin-Simmons and then to students at Southwestern, and to you, for the last 30 years, I wanted to help you read this book better. You remember that? I said, I want to help you so that the next time you come to study the Pastoral Epistles, there are some things that you will know ahead of time that will help you to read them better. And one of those things is what the Apostle Paul does in here. And his rabbinical training, he does it five times. And unless you know what I'm talking about, you don't have a clue what I'm talking about. But before the day is over, I'm going to show you what the clue is. And the Apostle Paul did it because it was a thing that the rabbis used to get their students to perk up and listen carefully. Now, Brother Jim and I had many, many wonderful professors at Southwestern Seminary. I had Dr. McGorman, Jack McGorman, New Testament and Greek. I had David Garland in Old Testament and Hebrew. I had some wonderful teachers, a lot of history professors who were there. So we had some wonderful teachers at Southwestern. But each of them had a way in class, when they said something, you grabbed your pencils because you didn't want to break a lead on one of them. Because if you broke a lead on one of them, you would miss about half of what he said. And when he said a certain word in class, everybody perked up, Jim. And everybody listened because he was coming forth with a magnificent piece of intellectual and spiritual information that you needed to know as a young minister. And when they would say those words, and I have those words too and I teach, I do it the same way. And when I say that word, I see pencils pop up and everybody's ready because they know a spiritual activity is coming. Paul does that five times in 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. And when he says it, these two young pastors perk up and listen. Because what he's getting ready to give them is the most wonderful information about what a pastor does in the entirety of the scriptural text. And before we finish today, I'm going to show it to you. And then you will be aware of it and the next time you run into it, you'll say, hey, I need to listen up. This is what the Apostle Paul said. Now, chapter 4 in the book of 1st Timothy is a chapter that has two parts. It has 16 verses and it has a first 8 verse and it has the last 8 verses with a verse in the middle. There's a swing verse in the middle. 1 to 9 is the first verses. 10 to 16 are the next verses. And there are two sets of verses. And both of these verses are of different context. But both of them have instructional information to these young pastors about what you need to be aware about. How you need to be understanding that it's coming. Don't be surprised when it gets there. And don't be surprised when it begins to give you a lot of trouble because it's going to. Or don't be surprised when spiritually you pick up on this kind of attitude that I'm teaching about and you need to pick up and perk up and get with the attitude of spirituality that I'm talking about. Now, in this particular chapter, verses 1 through 8 is the first part. Verses 10 through 16 is the second part. And the swing verse is verse 9. And verse 9 is a statement that says, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Now, to us Gentile minds, that doesn't mean a thing. But to a Jewish mind, it meant everything. It meant perk up, get your head out of your book, listen to what I'm going to say, write down what I'm saying, and then begin to practice it. Because I want you to know what I'm getting ready to say is very important. And when a Jewish rabbinical teacher said, This is a faithful saying. Now, most of them carry the other part. And worthy of all acceptation. But sometimes you only get this is a faithful saying. And you don't get the other part. And this is acceptable. But they come together. Most of the time they're together, but sometimes they only have one. In fact, in chapter 3.1 of 1 Timothy, the only thing he says is, This is a faithful statement. He doesn't say, and worthy of expectation. But now in chapter 4 he says, This is a faithful statement and worthy of expectation. Now, that's the key to the epistles. Because what Paul's going to do, when he says these words, He is going to come forth with great theological information that every young pastor needs to know. Some of it will be very practical from his background in Ephesus. Now, you remember, Timothy is the pastor at the church in Ephesus. And you also remember that Paul pastored the church in Ephesus for nearly three years. So, Paul knew the people in Ephesus very well. He knew the heretical activities of Ephesus. He knew where the heretics were. He knew where the heresy was. He knew all the coiners and the crooks and the bins. And he's trying to help young Timothy to get prepared to understand that what he faced when he was in Ephesus, He likewise, Timothy, is going to face now. In fact, that's what these first eight verses are about. They're about Ephesus. And what was happening when Paul was in Ephesus, And what he is instructing young Timothy to be aware about, In order that he might be prepared to minister to these people who are being attacked on every side by a heresy. And this heresy was very prevalent in Ephesus. It was extremely prevalent in Galatia. Do you all remember the Nicolaitans? Do you remember them? They were in Galatia. And the book of Galatians is to that heresy. In the little country of Galatia. Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, where Timothy was from. And so, these heresies were in all the places. And Paul's getting ready to start. Now, I want to read you something. I want to read you something because I wrote it into the first paragraph of my lesson today. And I want you to hear me. It starts in, Paul was persuaded that there will arise in the church at Ephesus, those who will corrupt the simplicity of the gospel, pervert its preaching to personal advantage, burden its power with human tradition, rules, and prohibitions, which will make its doctrine irrelevant to life and extremely difficult to understand. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you something. The gospel is very simple. And you let a human being get hold of the gospel. And they're not in tune with the eternal person of the gospel. They will make that gospel very complicated. It's kind of interesting. When you can see gospel in a church being complicated, difficult to understand, not hearing the truth of the word, you can figure out that some human being's been tampering with it. Because when we start tampering with the gospel, then we make it difficult. You see, the gospel to Jesus was this way. It was plain. It was sane. And it was potent. That's all you need. The gospel is plain. You understand it. What do you not understand about, whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely. What do you not understand? He that be in Christ is a new creation. What do you not understand? It's very plain. Also, it is a work of sanity. It's very sane. The gospel is the most sane piece of work in the entire world. Because it helps us to move out of insanity into sanity. And the interesting thing is, not only is it plain and sane, but it in its own power is extremely potent. And that's what Paul was. Now, Paul was a legalist. He was Pharisee of Pharisees. The scripture says when he came from Asia Minor, where he graduated from college, with a Greek father and a Jewish mother, and came to Jerusalem after college, when he was probably in his late 18, 19 year age, and began to study with all of these young men who were wanting to be rabbis, wanting to be very active in Jewish faith, when he started studying with all of those young men who had been in Jerusalem since they were baby boys, and grew up in the temple, and grew up under the leadership and teaching of all the great teachers of the temple, when Paul came there, the scripture says that Paul excelled more than all of them. Paul was very intellectual. And Paul was a magnificent legalist Pharisee. In fact, they called him Pharisee of Pharisees. He was the one who had documents to go and get the Christians. And he was headed for Damascus. He'd already had some killed. He'd already had some put in jail. He's going to get some more. And on the way to Damascus, you know what happened. He became an apostle out of due season. Now, that's the Paul we're talking about. And that was the Paul who was at Ephesus. And that's who Paul is telling Timothy he has to be like. Timothy, you need to be plain. You need to be sane. And you need, under the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, to be potent with the gospel. And so, since Paul was that, he wrote these words. Let them offer inexperience with their manner of living and magnetism, uprightness of character, and let them serve in relationship to their gifts, think as well as act, and live devotedly, because the gospel is pure. And that's what Paul wanted Timothy to understand. So, with that background, and knowing that Paul was plain, he was sane, and because of the spirit he was potent, he's now telling Timothy, Timothy, here's some things you need to expect in Ephesus. And he starts talking about false teachers in verse 1. In verse 1 he says, Now the Spirit expressively says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with hot irons, likewise forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth, for every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of good doctrine which you have carefully followed, but reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself rather in godliness, for bodily exercise profits little. Yay! Aren't you happy? The scripture says it ain't much to work out, folks. Physical exercise profits little. The scripture says that. But godliness is profitable in all things, having promise of the life and now is of that which is to come. Now Paul is saying to Timothy, here's what you've got to look out for, and I know since I have been there that they're there, and they're going to be raising their ugly heads in this heresy. Now, the heresy was a very unusually simple heresy. It was an apostate heresy. To apostatize means to turn away from that which you know is the truth. You become apostate. It means that that which you were believing, you now have done 180, and you're no longer believing it. To do that 180, you become apostate, and you move away from the gospel. In fact, Jesus, on many occasions, called the scribes and the Pharisees hypocrites. And if you notice in this particular second verse, he says speaking lies in hypocrisy. And what the Apostle Paul knew was that these false teachers were spelling lies, they were speaking lies, they were using old wives' tales. Gossip is old wives' tales. They were teaching a lot of gossip. Not only were they teaching a lot of gossip and old wives' tales, but they also were teaching the untruthfulness of the word of God. These men, these heresies, all believed that material activity in the world is bad. Anything that is matter is bad. The Nicolaeans believed the same thing. These particular heretics in Ephesus believed the same thing. Therefore, they're going to say that there are certain foods that you should not eat. And they're going to come down on foods, as he said in this passage, and they're going to come down on what you do not need to be eating. And Paul calls these people hypocrites. Do you know that in Matthew, the 26th chapter, when Jesus was giving one of his last discourses, talking to his disciples and to the scribes and Pharisees, that he called the scribes and the Pharisees in Jerusalem six times in chapter 26 of the book of Matthew, hypocrites. Do you know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite is a person who plays like. He's a person who pretends. He's a person who wants you to think he is something or she is something, which she is not. That's what the word hypocrite means. It means that you are a play like. You are a pretense. You are a lie. You're not true. And Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem, just before they crucified him, in chapter 26 of the book of Matthew, he called them hypocrites six times to their faces and told them what he thought about this word hypocrisy. Now, Paul is saying to Timothy, Timothy, these people are going to try to get your members in your church. They're going to try to confuse them. They're going to try to help them understand that what they're believing is not the truth. The plainness of what they're believing, the saneness of what they're believing, and the potentness of what they're believing is not true. They're going to lie. They're going to cheat. They're going to tell you wives tales, old gossip, about who you are and who you ought not be. And they are going to tell you the untruth. And they're going to try to tell you that you don't need to marry. In fact, this scripture says, even forbidding to marry, in verse 3. And not only forbidding to marry, but commanding them to abstain from certain foods. Ladies and gentlemen, in the book of Genesis, when God, in chapter 1, created everything, and when he created all food, when he did the grounds, and he did the vegetables, and he did the bushes, and he did the trees, and he did everything that was there for Adam and Eve to have in the Garden of Eden. Everything which was wonderful to eat in the Garden of Eden. And after he created every one of them, he said, every one of these is good. Don't you call what I say good. Bad. And if God says it's good, then it is good. And don't you call it bad. And so these particular heresies, these heretics, were saying that there are a lot of foods that are bad. Interestingly, the foods that are bad, they were saying, were the foods that God said specifically were good. And so they were in direct opposition of what God was saying. They were teaching that foods were bad. Now, it's kind of interesting. If they're teaching that all foods are bad, how are they living? What are they eating? Grass? How are they staying alive? Well, this is the hypocrisy of their life. They would accuse and condemn all of the foods in public, and eat vociferously all of the foods in private. And the people knew it. They were liars. They were hypocrites. They were play-likes. They were pretenders. They were telling you something that they themselves did not do. In fact, they even said, you don't need to get married. Because the pleasure of sexual intimacy is material. That's matter. And matter is evil. And since matter is evil, even the intimacy of sexual activity is evil. But they had children. They had progenitors. They had little boys and girls. How did they come by? Did they get them from Sears and Roebuck? But, in public, they condemned marriage. In public, they condemned sexual intimacy. In public, they condemned the foods that God said were good. In public, they were doing everything that was not plain and sane, as was the gospel. And so the apostle says, what you need to understand, Timothy, you need to understand that these people are still there. They were there when I was there. I heard their fables. I heard their genealogies. Oh, by the way, some people can hardly wait to get the newspaper and look at their horoscope. I know some people who cannot live a day without looking at a horoscope. Ladies and gentlemen, that's just a genealogy. That's a lie. That's a hypocrisy. That's not true. Who in the world ever told you that that horoscope is what you were going to do? Have you ever read one and figured out that you were going to do that that day? And then went through the whole day and you didn't do it? And then you say, you know, somebody's lying to me. Yeah, they are. They're lying in the horoscope. That's genealogies. That's the play-likes. That's the hypocrisy. And these people were doing it vociferously with the members of the church. And they were trying to let them understand that what they were believing Timothy was preaching, the gospel of the Lord Christ in all of its plainness, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in how to live in all of its saneness, and the gospel of Jesus Christ as the Spirit of God came into them with all of His potency and became powerful in them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. He said, Timothy, you've got to watch these people. I know them. They attacked me three years, and they're going to attack you. So, Timothy, be sure that you understand how you're going to work with these people. I'm going to tell you, as he says, for every creature of God is good. Timothy, no matter what they say about what God has said, no matter what they said about what... Now, remember, there's no New Testament. The only Testament is the Old Testament. The New Testament is being written. The Old Testament is there. The Old Testament has said God said everything was good. Was there anything that God said was not good? Not that I understand from the book of Genesis. Everything was good. He said, Now, Timothy, I want you to understand that these people are going to try to convince your church members to come over to their side and to be heretics with them and to not enjoy what is matter now. If you understand Greek life, there were a number of Greek philosophers who were heretics who believed that all matter was evil. And so, if you can do away with matter, you can do away with evil. That's kind of interesting. Jesus, who was with the Father, came to the earth, took on the form of man, took on matter. Did Jesus, when He came down from the Father in the first advent, did Jesus take on evil when He took on a body like yours and like mine? Your body is matter. My body is matter. And our bodies are matter which are approved and blessed and said of God when He created man, it's good. So now Paul stops for a moment and says, do you know what you're going to face? Now, Timothy, it's going to be important to you in verse 6 that you instruct all of the brethren of these things. Timothy, nobody else will know these things. Nobody else has gotten a handle on what I've just shared with you and what I'm telling you about these people who are heretics. And Timothy, if you don't take the time to share this with the brethren, with all of the members of the church, if you don't take time to share with the brethren in these things, if you do that, you will be a good minister. It's imperative that you share that. That's why our pastors always share with congregations those things which are important that we practice, that we do, and that we are and become. And they share it with us so that they might be created in good. So share these things with the brethren. Christ will nourish you with the words and he will also give you good doctrine. Now, the doctrine of heresy was exactly opposite to the doctrine of faith. And he's saying, share the doctrine of faith with your people. But, in the meantime, reject. Don't accept. Verse 7. Don't accept all of this gossip that you hear. And, Timothy, it's going to sound pretty good. And it's going to sound like there might be some rationality in it. And it's going to sound like you might be able to use it in some of your ministry. But, Timothy, reject gossip. Whatever you hear, and it's called, kind of interesting, old wives tales. The gossipers in the church. Reject this gossip, Timothy. And, rather than you listening to the gossip that you hear, exercise yourself in godliness. Now, this word exercise. Interesting word. Do you know what it comes from? I'm going to give you a Greek word. And then I'm going to let you tell me what this word comes from. The Greek word that's here for exercise is homagion. Homagion. Gymnasium. That's where we get the English word gymnasium. In fact, Timothy is saying here, but reject profane old wives tales and homagion. What do you do in a gymnasium? How many of us have been put on the rack in a gymnasium? Homagion. That's the word. And he's saying exercise. Now, I'm going to tell you something about one of our faculty members. Jimmy, you'll remember him. We had a wonderful professor named David Garland. Jim, you remember David. David was professor of Old Testament and Hebrew. I took Old Testament and I took Introductory Hebrew with David. David was the most fastidious particular person I have ever met. Every day, when he came to the seminary, he was meticulously dressed. He wore a suit, he wore a tie, new crisp white shirt, just a picture of epitome beautifulness. He cut his yard in a suit and tie. True. I've seen it. He trimmed his sidewalks with a pair of scissors. Okay? Now, that was my dear friend. He was a good friend of mine. David Garland. Wonderful professor. Wonderful teacher. One day, we were in the faculty lounge. This would have been about 1984-85. If you can remember back to 84-85, that's when all of us were on the street running trying to stay healthy, Wayne. Remember that? You'd go down to the football stadium at 5 o'clock in the morning, meet 4 or 5 of your friends, run around the track 18 or 20 times, get out on the street and follow 2 or 3 of your friends to get on the street. Every morning, you'd run 4 or 5 miles trying to get healthy. But it was the period of time when all of us were on the street running trying to get healthy. We were having coffee in the faculty lounge one day and David was there. And everybody was talking about, I ran 2 miles this morning. I ran 8 laps around the football field this morning. I mean, they were bragging about what they'd been doing on the street. And David stood up and said, Gentlemen, would you please hear me? If I can walk instead of run, I'm going to walk. And if I can stand instead of walk, I'm going to stand. And if I can sit instead of stand, I'm going to sit. And if I can lay instead of sit, I'm going to lay. Do you understand? And if you see me out there on that street running any morning, you will know one thing. Something is after me. And that was my friend David Garland. And this verse 8 was his favorite verse in the entire Word of God. For bodily exercise profits little. It was his favorite verse. And every time we talk about the gymnasium, or the humosium, or the gymnasium, or exercising, he would always say, Go look at 1 Timothy 4a. For bodily exercise profits little. But godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that is now and the promise of life that is to come. Now the key. He comes to verse 9. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. I want you to go back with me to chapter 1. I want you to look at verse 15 in chapter 1. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Look at chapter 3, verse 1. This is a faithful saying. Look at chapter 4, verse 9. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Go to 2 Timothy and go to chapter 2, and verse 11. This is a faithful saying. Go to chapter 3 in Titus, verse 8. This is a faithful saying. Why? Why in the epistles to his pastoral boys would this old teacher this Pharisee of Pharisees why would he use that phrase five times? Three in 1 Timothy. One in 2 Timothy. One in Titus. There's a very strong reason. The word is antecedent. It was called rabbinical antecedence. It was a teaching method that the Jewish rabbis used. And every time they would say this particular set of words I told you what the young students would do. They'd sit up, perk up, grab their pencils, grab their papers because they knew what was either preceding or was going to follow was going to be super duper. And that's what Paul does here in this chapter. You see, he had eight verses that he told Timothy about heresy and how to fight heresy and how to maintain with heresy and how to destroy heresy. Now he's going to have eight verses after this verse that he's going to tell Timothy something else. And the something else that he's going to tell Timothy is what we're going to study next week. Now, here's the deal. I put in your paper all of these five passages that have this particular statement. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Between now and next week I'm going to give you an assignment. By the way, when I was teaching this at Hardin & Simmons this was one of my favorite test questions. And I put on your paper this is a test. I want you to go back and read each of these passages. I want you to read the verses that precede the statement and the verses that follow the statement. And I would like for you in your own activity and recognizance to determine which of the two preceding or following passages have the greatest activity as emphasized by this word. This is a faithful statement. For there are some words that are not as valuable as other words. Now I'm going to give you a hint. In chapter 1 where he says this all of the most important words follow the statement. What precedes it is immaterial interesting necessary but not important. Look at verse 15. This is a faithful saving and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. How good is that? Well, go to the words above it. Verse 13 Although I was formerly a blasphemer and persecuted and insolent man but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorant. That's Paul telling you how bad he was before he got saved. Now here's the word. On which side of this is a faithful statement is the most important pieces of scripture. That which follows. Number 2. In chapter 3. This is a faithful statement. Now, you've got to remember when Paul wrote there there were no chapters and verses. So in chapter 3 you've got to go up to the top of the 4 you've got to go up to the end of chapter 2 and at the end of chapter 2 he starts talking about Adam being formed he talks about faith, love and holiness and he talks about like manner but here he says this is a faithful saving. If a man desires the position of bishop he desires a good work. And then he starts giving him all of the necessary indication about what it means to be a pastor of a church. Which is more important? About Adam being born? Or being the pastor of a church? It's what follows. I'm not going to tell you about 4. That's what you're going to find out. Get on chapter 2. Timothy 2. And you see this one in verse in chapter 2 verse 11. This is a faithful saving. For if we die with him we also shall live with him. If we endure we shall also reign with him. If we deny him he shall also deny us. If we are faithless he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Remind them of these things. Go above. For which I suffer trouble as an evildoer even as a part of chains. Which is more important? Paul suffering in chains? Or if we died with him? It's what follows. Now it's kind of interesting. Go to Titus. Titus changes it. In Titus he says this is a faithful saving and these things I want you to affirm constantly. Oh wait a minute. Go up above. Go back to verse 5. In Titus. But when the kindness of the love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness as we have done but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing and the regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful service. Now is that more important than these things I want you to affirm? Look. In three places in four places he used what followed. In Titus he used what preceded. Now your test. I want you to read chapter 4 and I want you to read 10 through 16 and go back and review 1 through 8 and then Sunday when we come together I want you to tell me which of these two verses of Scripture this particular word this is a faithful saving and worthy of all acceptation really refers to. It's a little key of the word of God. Now let me tell you what you will never forget. When you come back later to read the book of Timothy and the book of Titus you will always say the most important verses are the ones that follow or precede this is a faithful. Ladies and gentlemen that's the key of studying the word of God. Little bitty keys. Little bitty indicators. They just kind of float by. We never see them. Oh, we read the word of God. We read it very generously. We read it very thoroughly. But do we really understand what Paul is saying? When you look at 4 Paul says to this end we both labor and suffer report. Don't let any man despise you. Don't neglect the living. Meditate on these things. Take heed to yourself. How does that square with gossip and wives tales and untruths So, next Sunday we will look at all of these that follow this particular verse. Interesting? Very much so. And it's the key to reading and understanding the word of God. I love teaching this to my young preachers at Hardin Simmons. Because they would come out of there saying Wow! That's great! I never saw that. And ladies and gentlemen I didn't either. Until a man by the name of Jack McCorman professor of New Testament and Greek sat me down and said Jack Terry, I want you to look at these words. He was a good He taught me these things. He was my Greek professor. He taught me these things. That's what pastors are required to do. That's what this man does well. That's why people love this man so much. He not only tells you what's a mystery He shows you what's important. That's what makes a great preacher. And I want to tell you, my dear friend Jimmy Traper is a great preacher. And he will tell you what's important. And again, Carol Ann, happy birthday! Now if you haven't voted you still have a day to early vote Go vote early and often! Just be sure you go vote, okay? Now and also assure your heart as I've been trying to assure my sweet wife God's in control. All's right with the world. On Tuesday God is going to give us who we need. May not be who we want but God is going to give us who we need. He's still on His throne. He's still in charge. He still moves activity. He's going to give us who we need. And when He does, you raise your heads and trust God. And do what Paul told this young man Timothy. Timothy, pray for the king that is over you. It is better that that king be a despot than you live in anarchy. It's better to pray for a Nero than to live in anarchy. In lawlessness and in criminality. It's better to live under a despot. Pray for him or her whom God puts over you. Amen? Heavenly Father, Your word is like mine. With jewels rich and fair and all of those who seek will find a lovely bundle there. Your word is like a garden with flowers bright and fair and all those who seek may pluck a wonderful bouquet. God, Your word is miraculous. It's alive. It is full of the Spirit. And it tells us the way of Christ and the world. And for that we give you great praise and love. And thank you and may we have a wonderful celebration of our wonderful United States of America. One people under God, indivisible with all of us together. And we thank you for that Father. And we thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen. See you next Sunday.
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