Preach The Word #3

So this week we're going to be returning to our study of 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 1 to 8. Over the past few weeks, we've studied Paul's exhortation to Timothy that he follow Paul's example of faithfulness in preaching the Word in every season. Sometimes it's popular and sometimes it's not. Whatever the case is, Paul exhorts Timothy to preach the Word. Even if it costs him his life, Paul's exhortation, as one who's about to give his life for the preaching of the Word, he requires of Timothy that he be faithful in doing his work. In every circumstance, Paul tells Timothy that his work is to disciple the nations through the preaching of the word. He warns them not to woo them or to try to attract them by hiding God's law or his judgments, but rather through correction, through rebuke, through reproof and exhortation, to press the word upon them, proclaiming the whole counsel of God to them.

And if they refuse, then the responsibility for their refusal, the consequence of it, will be theirs. But if Timothy doesn't do this work, if he pulls his punches, if he doesn't tell them the truth, then it will be Timothy's responsibility. It will be his fault. And so this week, Paul's focus changes from Timothy's work, what he's supposed to be doing, preaching the word. He changes over and talks in verses 3 and 4 about the circumstances that he's supposed to work in. It's already difficult work, and now Paul moves on and tells them that it will be difficult circumstances that he's to perform his work in. Paul describes in these verses what it looks like for God's word to be out of season. Timothy, you're going to go preach, and you have to preach no matter what the recipients are like, in season and out of season, and here's what out of season looks like. What will the people be like when the word is out of season?

This section of Scripture is supposed to prepare Timothy for his work, but it's also supposed to warn us about the temptations that we face. And so my hope is that as we study this passage, we'll see how we've done the very thing Paul warns against and that we'll turn away from those corrupt desires and that we'll grow in our love for the truth, especially when it's costly. If Timothy has to preach and his life may go on the line, then how should we receive that teaching is the question that's before us today. Our text is 2 Timothy 4, verses 1-8. Would you please stand as we read the word of the Lord? This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time 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 desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things. Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also all who have loved his appearing. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So Paul warns that there's a time coming that's not yet upon them, where it will be difficult. What precipitates a time when the word will be out of season, is the first question we want to answer. What comes before a rejection of the truth?

Many things can come before it. Hardship, suffering, stress, sacrifice, personal cost. I recently read an article about, it was entitled The Three Phases or The Three Stages of Evangelicalism this last week. And the author, I thought overall it was a helpful piece. And the author makes the case, just sort of a very quick explanation of our culture's view of Christianity. over the last, back to the early, before the early 90s, mid-90s. So back in the early 90s. So what, 30 years? And he says that Christians are having trouble figuring out how to respond now to a culture that doesn't like them anymore. And then he goes back and he says, well, actually, there was a time when being a Christian was a net positive effect. If you said, I'm a Christian, the world, even if they weren't Christians, would look at you and they'd say, that's a good thing. And then there was a time where it shifted from that's a good thing to that's an indifferent thing.

That's not a good thing. It's neither good nor bad. If you're a Christian, fine. If you're not, that's fine too. And then he says, well, it's shifted to a time where if you say, I'm a Christian, that's seen as a bad thing, a negative thing by our society. They say, oh, you think that homosexuality is a sin or you think abortion is murder or whatever these things are. And they say, that's bad for you to think that. This is what's associated with Christianity. And so the author is just describing how the church in... When Christians were viewed positively, how did the church respond? When the church was viewed neutrally, how did the church respond? And what he says now is, how are we going to respond now that it's a bad thing to be a Christian? That society looks at you and you say, you're a Christian, and they scowl. Inside of them they say, there's something wrong with you. We don't like you. And it's a good question that the author raises. How should we respond?

Because that question is the question, his acknowledgement of the time that we live in is him articulating that the word has gone to be out of season. It is now not popular. It's a negative effect. If you say, I'm a Christian on your job application, and you say, I'm an elder at this church, or I attend, I believe the Bible, it's going to have a negative effect on how you're viewed in most cases. And so when things move, when Paul says, The time will come. He's saying right now, I can tell you that hard times are coming, but it's theoretical. And so Paul goes on in verses 3 and 4, and he explains not exactly down to the T what life's going to be like, but he says it's going to move from being a theoretical difficulty to a very real difficulty. You're not going to be told that people might not like you. You're going to be faced with people who want to kill you. I used to be one of them, speaking of Paul.

And so when the difficulty moves from being theoretical to real, this is when the time will come. What do pastors do? What do churches do to usher in this time? When I was reading this article about the trajectory of Christianity and how the world views it and the things that the church was doing in response, seeker sensitivity, going way back to the moral majority. and then seeker sensitivity and cultural engagement. These have been some of the responses that the church at large has had to how the culture perceives them, how to make peace with them, or how to change it, how to fight culture wars. And I found myself, as I was reading it, going, I don't identify with those people. I'm not a cultural engager. That's not my philosophy of ministry. I don't go, this is what we should do. And yet I do agree that that's how the church has been viewed. And so this question of how do pastors, how does the church,

to behave in the face of opposition or mistrust is a question that's existed since Paul wrote 2 Timothy. How are we going to posture ourselves? And Paul's instruction to Timothy is, whatever circumstance you find yourself in, you need to preach the word, you need to be faithful. Your goal is not to be popular or to be accepted or to be safe, but to be faithful. And yet many times, I think if we look back over our own history, pastors have ushered in this time that we live in now by going along with secular views of the Bible, questioning the things that it teaches. Is the account in Genesis 1 and 2 real or not? Do we believe in creation? Do we believe in the flood? We don't live in a world that I think many of us think we still live in. I was talking to another conversation earlier this week.

we were having a question, you know, the guy I'm talking to, his relative is in a suspected immoral relationship. And most of you know what I mean by an immoral relationship. It means they're fornicating. It means they're probably having sex, but they're not married. And he's like, I'm going to go meet with the guy and I want to talk to him. And I don't know quite what to say to him. What do you think? The questions pastors get asked, we've got to answer them. And I said to him, well, I don't think you should assume that this guy, if he's never been in church, knows that fornication is wrong. I turned 18.

in the year 2000. And I had never set foot in a church and no one had told me it was wrong. And that was over 20 years ago. And so I said, you have to realize the culture that you live in right now. People don't know what you think they know. You don't live in a world where they're like, yeah, we know what the Bible says and we know what God says and we know we should or we shouldn't. You're not talking to someone who understands what scripture says. And so you're going to have to talk to them and care for them. You have to meet their understanding. You can't expect them to make this huge jump.

when no one's ever told him such things? How did we get to a world where a man could grow up into his early adulthood and not know what fornication was or what God had to say about it? Well, it's a pretty simple answer. The church stopped talking about it. That's how. That sort of behavior was acceptable, became acceptable in the church decades and decades and decades ago. No one had anything to say about it. And then the people were like, I guess this is no big deal. And so the Christians went, yeah, it's not as important. And then the world had lost its light. It lost a light or a witness saying, that's not what God says. Here's what God says. And so we come to a day where, as a pastor, I say to them, you may want to start with asking him if he has any idea whether what he's doing is right or wrong, what God thinks about it. And so the church for a long time has failed, not in every instance, but largely, to preach the word, to tell the truth. They've given up discipleship, even as the talk of discipleship has grown.

True discipleship's been scuttled. It's been put on the shelf. It's been left to rot. And you can understand why. Pastors are not above, churches are not above the pressures that you feel as a Christian, as an individual. When you feel the pressure in your workplace of being faithful or saying something or opposing some new policy, you realize if I say something, if I stick my head up right now, I might well get it knocked off. Pastors aren't above feeling that pressure. Churches aren't above wanting to remain relevant. They don't want all of their people to leave because the things they're saying are unpopular, are going to get them into trouble. And so pastors like you read the cultural winds and they position themselves in such a way as to survive. Most recently, the church at large's response to a growing hostility from our society toward Christianity has been to want to be able to engage and provide a Christian perspective. We want a place at the table to be able to speak the truth to you guys. And we want to have a discussion.

We want to participate. And most of the churches said, that's a good way to do it. They're being loving. They're not these hellfire and brimstone preachers that are up there just railing on and on. They've become acclimated to their culture in such a way that they have a seat at the table. They can participate in the discussion. But it's not borne the fruit that I would hope it would have borne. What's happened? As the church and as the pastors have tried to... posture themselves in a place that gives them relevance, what have they been required to do? They've been required to shut up. The points at which there's real conflict, you can come to the table as long as you don't say anything about that. In the article that I was reading, Tim Keller was held up as an example of someone who's very, very good at this type of approach. Tim Keller was a pastor in the PCA, conservative Presbyterian denomination in New York City for years.

when he was there, had a big church in the city. Very good speaker, very dynamic, very popular, very liked by cultural elites. And he, I would say, gave on issues of sexuality. I wouldn't trust him on it. Hell, wouldn't trust him on it. Feminism, don't trust him on it. And as I go through the list, I'm like, these are like the things that, if you have anything to say, these are the things you should talk about. he wouldn't talk about that stuff. He couldn't talk about that stuff. Why couldn't he talk about that stuff? Because they'd take his table, they'd say, I'm sorry, you're needing to get up from the table now. You can't sit here and say that anymore. And so he did his level best to toe the line and have a Christian voice. And it didn't gain him anything. In fact, when he went to, he was supposed to receive a reward from Princeton Seminary. When we think of Princeton, we think of Ivy League, really wealthy, like,

top-notch, really smart people, and really liberal. But Princeton used to be a seminary. It still has a seminary where they train pastors. Super liberal. Wouldn't recommend it, but it used to be, way back in its inception, a good place. And so they have what's called the Abraham Kuyper Award. And Tim Keller was supposed to receive it. And he was supposed to give a talk, and he was supposed to receive this reward. Or not reward, this award. Speak for all of his work and his faithfulness and those kinds of things. So the student body catches wind that he's supposed to receive this reward, and they pitch a big fit because he believes that only men should preach. And you know what the school did? They rescinded the reward. They said, the award, we're not going to give it to you. And he's the best you can ask for. Maybe you don't even know who Tim Keller is, and if you don't, I'm not suggesting you go look him up like this is what you should aspire to, but many of you probably do know the name. And he's probably the top of the heap in terms of a cultural engagement perspective, like he's going to be the best at...

how to nuance and how to posture. He's very good at that kind of stuff. And it didn't gain him any benefit. He's still getting ran on a rail out of Princeton because he believes that only men should preach. At that point, he's broken rank with the secular elites and out he goes. And what did he give up along the way to gain the success that he gained? Now, some of you might think of Tim Keller and you may say, you know, I don't like him. I've read enough and I've seen his failures and I don't like him. And I don't identify with him. And I say, that's fine. But the world doesn't see it that way. You're him. He represents you. He's your voice. And you can spend a lot of time saying, no, no, no, no, no. I don't agree with him. But you do realize that you're going to say, the points I don't agree with him are the points that are going to make me even more of a stench in your nostrils. I don't agree with him in his stance and approach to homosexuality.

Aren't you glad I differentiated myself from him on that and told you what I think? It will not make you any more popular. What did Bill Hybels do to try to accommodate this back in the 70s, going back, back, the secret sensitive movement? Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, what did they do? How did they try to negotiate the sexual revolution and the stuff going on in culture? How did they engage and say, well, we're going to go and we're going to ask all these people who don't come to church, why don't you come to church? What do we need to do to get you through the doors?

And the people said, basically, you need to not be like church. You need to change your music. You need to change the things you say. It needs to become more consumer-based. And if it's entertaining, then we'll come. And so that's what they did. And they got people to come through the door. But they gave up the word to do it. And in doing what they did, and those men are just sort of the big faces of these things, they've ushered in the time that Paul warns about. The time will come and has now come. where they will not endure sound doctrine. What is sound doctrine? I think too often we hear the word doctrine. Some people have a visceral response and they'll say, I don't like doctrine. If you've grown up in mainline evangelicalism, doctrine divides. The whole concept of teaching with hard edges is not attractive. But then there's the other side of it, who people are like, we love doctrine. Doctrine scratches me where I love sound doctrine. I like reading old...

dead guys that are impossible to understand. And I get it. You just love it. Do you endure sound doctrine? I don't think so. I think that there's been a response in the church, and particularly in the Reformed world, of which we're a part of, whether you realize that or not, that has reacted against this doctrine divide. You know, Jesus unites, but doctrine divides. And Reformed people have stood up to their full height and said, we love doctrine. We're going to study a doctrine, and we're going to read doctrine. But that's not what Paul's getting at here. He's not talking about objective truth. He didn't say they will not learn sound doctrine. He says they will not endure sound doctrine. Now, what does it mean to endure good teaching? Well, does that mean good teaching is of necessity boring and you just have to kind of endure it like some opera that makes your eyes want to bleed? No. You don't just come and endure this miserable thing. You don't put up with.

faithful teaching. To endure sound doctrine means to put up, I mean, it doesn't mean to just put up with it being said. It means to put up with it being applied to you. That's what it means to endure sound doctrine, is that you would come into Christ's school of discipleship and you would endure in that training until the end. And it needs to be good training. But too often in the Reformed world, we've reacted to the lack of doctrinal precision or clarity. And we've said, but we need a sound doctrine. We need to preach and teach and be all about these super complex, difficult, heavy, and largely inconsequential doctrines. But we've given up any sort of application to it. And sound doctrine is of no help to you if it's not applied to you. If it doesn't say, because of this, this needs to change in your life. We need to grow in this area. We need to repent over here. The doctrine doesn't do you any good.

other than to cause you to boast and to puff you up with knowledge. And so for my part, I would much rather prefer simple people who are not so doctrinally committed, but who take the truth that they know and they apply it to their lives. And they bring every bit of application out of what they know so that they can do what God says. That's what I would value. That is what I value. And so in the Reformed Church today, there's lots of good teaching. There's lots of good Reformed exposition, but when it comes to application, they're no different than a mainline church. They don't apply it. It turns out that you guys, as a congregation, or me, as a Christian, we will put up with an awful lot of truth-telling. People can tell lots of truth, and we'll even listen to it, and we'll even say, that's right, and amen. But when that truth is no longer just being spoken about, but being applied, we don't have a stomach for it. You can't tell me that. Who do you think you are to say that to me? Your pastor? Your elder? That's who. That's who. And so if you think you'll skirt this time by saying, well, I love sound doctrine, I'd say Paul's not speaking here of how much you love the details of Reformed theology so much as how willing you are to endure having those things applied to you.

We've said since the beginning of our church, and Dan was the one who saw this and articulated it first. He says, listen, in our day, people need help in their marriages, they need help with their children, and they need help with their finances. That's where people are just completely a mess in our society, and those are the areas we need to disciple them. Now, your old Reformed guys that you love to read, and I don't mind you reading them. Do they go on and on and on about you and your marriage, or you and your kids? No, they don't. They talk about the finer points of theology.

But if you come here, what we're going to talk about is your marriage and your kids and your purity and your work ethic and your finances. Because these are the areas where you are most vulnerable. And the question is, will you endure teaching at that point? And that's what people gave up. That's what Paul's warning is. They've given up. The time will come where they will not endure sound doctrine. They won't have you come and say to them directly, this is where you're failing. This is what you're doing. This is not on our God. In Acts 20, verses 20 and 21, Paul says, I didn't shrink back. He's talking to the Ephesian elders. And he's saying goodbye to them. And this is sort of his swan song. And he says to them at the end, he says, I didn't shrink back from declaring to you anything that I thought was profitable. Anything that I thought was profitable. And teaching you publicly and from house to house.

solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So there's a few things to note here about this preaching that he did publicly and privately, house to house. I don't give much credit to people who will sit and listen here and be like, but won't listen in private. And I wouldn't give much credit to a pastor who would stand up or an elders or a church that'll stand up and say all the stuff from the pulpit, but won't say it directly. And so the first is that he taught publicly and privately anything that he thought was profitable. What did he think was profitable? He says, I solemnly testify to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And I can tell you, if I had my way, what I would do is I would get together with the Jews and I would complain about the Gentiles and talk about how they needed to repent. And then I would go over and talk with the Gentiles and I'd say, yeah, those terrible Jews, you know what they need to do?

That is not what Paul's talking about here. When he just delineates between Jews and Gentiles, he's just saying no one was exempt. And when I went to them, I talked to them about their sins. I went to the Jews and talked to the Jews about repentance, about what they needed to repent of. And then I went to the Gentiles and I talked to them about what they needed to repent of. Anything I thought was profitable, publicly, privately, wherever I could get a hearing, I spoke to them. That is sound doctrine. That's an example of sound doctrine. You ever wondered how much longer Paul would have lived if he had just given up some of the hard edges, or John the Baptist? The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Enduring sound doctrine is to persevere in discipleship, and it turns out that we don't like to do that. When push comes to shove, we don't like to do that. When it's theoretical, we'll endure it. When there's a little bit of pressure, we'll go along for a little while.

But when the pressure is intense and unrelenting and persistent, then we find out if we really are those who will endure it or not, who will tolerate the teaching. And I think in our day, we just all decide, you're not allowed to do that. You're the church. You're not allowed to say no. You're not allowed to push. You're not allowed to demand anything. And you know who suffers when that's the case? The people. When difficulty comes, they say, well, there's no one here who understands. There's no one here who knows me. There's no one here who has anything to say to me. And so you and I, we have need of endurance. Many of you are young, which means, Lord willing, you have a long time to endure, a long time to grow. Don't squander it. In Hebrews 10, 35 and following, it says this, Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance.

So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. And so the people Paul describes in this passage as those who would not endure sound doctrine are those who would shrink back. When they were tired or when the cost was too high. Undoubtedly, they had their reasons and their justifications for quitting. Your hand is too heavy on me. It's been too long. It's not fair. When I was young in the faith, I had a pastor once tell me, he says, my view of discipleship is to push people right to the edge of what they think they can tolerate until they start to push back. And you've probably had this in your life where it's like, how much pressure will you absorb from somebody before at some point you push back and go, okay, you've said enough.

You've gone far enough, and you're done now. What I'd say is that the clutch has not been let out in your life until you get to that point. That's when you can finally start having real conversation, and we can start making real progress. As long as you're sitting there in a counseling session, and you're going, okay, yes, I know, I'm so bad. I don't know what to do with you, because I haven't gotten through the mud and gotten down to the bedrock where I can finally get some traction. When you stand up and you say, no, actually, that's not how it is. Then I'm like, oh, you have an opinion. Now we can talk. You don't like what I'm saying. Good. Okay. And so you push people. This is what the old pastor said to me. He says, you push people to the point where they push back. And they say, it's too much and it's too far. And he said, then you push them just a little bit further and stop. Which means that his view of discipleship was to make people perpetually uncomfortable. Perpetually feeling their need to grow.

feeling their failures, feeling their weaknesses and their inadequacies, and you think, well, then they aren't going to be very encouraged people. And I say, that may be true. But if they are encouraged, they won't be encouraged by what they see in the mirror. They'll be encouraged by what they read in the Word. So that after they've done the will of God, they'll receive what was promised to them. But how will they ever persevere to receive what God's promised them unless they've come to the end of themselves and they're no longer impressed with what they see? They will not endure sound doctrine, but they will want to have their ears tickled. Now, do any of you like to have your ears tickled? Do you nuzzle up to your spouse or up to your mom and dad and you say, scratch my ear? None of us do that. It's kind of a strange thing, right? He's not using people as an example of ear tickling, ear scratching. But he sets it up in opposition to enduring sound doctrine. And so Paul uses an illusion here of an animal, a dog, a horse, a pig.

An animal that can't scratch their own ears and therefore loves it when someone else will do it for them. And the truth is, even if they can do it themselves, they still prefer other people to do it. Dogs can get their foot up, you know, and they can kind of whack their ear with the side of their leg. But that doesn't stop them from coming over and walking over to you and nudging your hand with their head until you put your hand on their head and you start scratching behind their ears. And they nuzzle in and they, you know. I had a dog that would smile when you did it.

He wasn't really smiling, but he looked like he was smiling. He'd scratch his ear and he just loved it. Was he ever content with my ear scratching? Never, never, never was my dog like, you know what, you scratched my, thank you. Relentless demand for ear scratching. Wake you up in the middle of the night. This is the imagery that Paul uses. This sort of relentless desire to have good feelings, a sensation. Why do people scratch dogs' ears? You ever wondered, like, why do you scratch a dog's ear? Martin, you've got dogs. Why do you scratch a dog's ear? Because, yeah, that's right, because they like it. It turns out that's enough reason. They like it, so we do it. Because they smile at us. Because they come lay their little head on our knee. And they understand what's going on better than anyone else in the world. So we scratch their ears. We scratch their ears some more, and we scratch their ears some more, and pretty soon that's...

the defining feature of our relationship. Feed me, let me go outside and scratch my ears or my bottom. If you put that same dog in a group of people, let's say it's your dog, and you trained it to come nudge your hand so you'll scratch its ears and you put it in a group of six people, will the dog be content with you scratching his ears? No. What's the dog want? Everybody to scratch his ears. They will accumulate for themselves. Teachers. in accordance with their own desires. They will demand, the people of God will demand, not that one person scratch their ears, but that everybody scratch their ears. In fact, they will demand that nobody does anything but scratch their ears. They won't tolerate it. And in that regard, we're just like dogs. Discontent with anything except perfect accommodation for our desires.

And anyone that provides the slightest bump in the road or difficulty or hardship or hurt feelings or sadness, we say, no, that's not allowed. I won't tolerate it. You can't say that. So what do you feel like if you refuse to scratch a dog's ears? You feel like a terrible person. Here's a poor dog, just wants his ears scratched. It's harmless. We'll teach him to sit later. Stop jumping, you know. Maybe after he jumps on the next kid at small group and scratches their face, we'll teach him. But we've got to scratch his ear. You know, I'm asking the question because, you know, in my mind, I'm just sitting here thinking, why don't pastors just refuse to do this? Why don't they just say, no, I'm not going to scratch your ears? Well, because you'll fire them. You guys, so I'm a pastor, right, obviously. And so I get these things because, you know, on Facebook or wherever. And over the last two years, there's all these resources for pastors. And you know what it's all about, what generally the stuff's about. They're fishing and trying to see if I'm interested in.

all of the content is pastoral burnout. And everyone says, oh, pastors are worn out because COVID's been so hard. And pastors are worn out because of the added stress. They're just all poor pastors. That's all of it, because I'm a pastor, and they're trying to be like, do you feel sorry for yourself? Because if you give us a little bit of money, we can help you not feel sorry for yourself. And I look at the stuff, and I never click on it. I see the ad, and I'm like, why did he send this to me? And then I read this pastor, and I go, why are pastors so depressed? Why won't they say no?

Why are so many pastors quitting the ministry and leaving in droves? You ready? Because of you. Because of their people. That's why. Their people are rebellious. They're unwilling to be discipled. Many men going to the ministry wanting to do good are probably not trained sufficiently for the difficulty that's coming, like what Paul talks about here. And then they run into the buzzsaw of real life as soon as they hit ministry. And they go, this is not what I signed up for. And they quit. And it's because their people pushed them to it. Because they're ungrateful for their ministrations. That's what Paul's warning against here. Don't be those type of people. And I'm not saying that simply because I'm the pastor of this church. I'm saying that because if you don't do that, you will be the ones who are harmed by it. I think we have this idea that pastors somehow don't ever, ever, ever get fed up of people. Everyone else can get fed up with people at their work and think, you know what, I don't like him. He's obnoxious. He never listens. He doesn't come to work on time. He runs his mouth. He's just a jerk and I don't...

I wish he'd just leave. I hope he finds another job. But pastors never, ever have those thoughts. Except they do. We do. What we do with those thoughts is, you know, we run the same risks that everyone else does in our jobs, what we do with those thoughts. If we give in to them and we just say, you know what, why don't you just go away? Then we fail to have great patience, like Paul just talked about. But if you make yourself a stench to your pastors and elders because of how miserable you are, you shouldn't be surprised if they take less interest in you.

That's why Hebrews tells you, submit to your leaders and obey them, for they keep watch over your soul as those who will give an account. And then it says, let them do this with joy and not with sorrow, because it will be unprofitable for you. If you make caring for your soul a miserable endeavor, the quality of your care will suffer. It's true with the doctor, isn't it? Go in and tell your doctor what's wrong with you. Go in and tell your doctor what the treatment should be. Go in and tell him. He's a part of all the conspiracy. And tell me what quality of care you expect to receive after you tell him you know how to do his job better than him. What do you want him to say? Heal thyself. If I was a doctor, that's what I would say. You seem to know. Why are you here? You came here to tell me that you know how to heal yourself. What do you need me for? To write a prescription? Nah, that's not how it works.

Years ago, Dan and I went and counseled a couple that was in a mess financially. We went and sat down and we thought we were going to be able to help them. Like a mess, like they couldn't put gas in their car and they couldn't pay rent and it was just awful. And we went and everything was a mess all the way through this family. And so we go and we want to help them. And we come, we sit down and we have our pleasantries and then we talk and we start going through the particulars and they had an answer for everything. And Dan and I both were like, wanted to tell them, you're wrong, like you are...

You were the ones causing this problem. But they had an answer for every time we were like, well, maybe you can't continue to do that. They're like, no, no, no, we have to be able to do that. And at some point, I don't know what, Dan, 30 minutes into the meeting, maybe 45 minutes, I just sat back and I said, guys, it sounds like you guys have thought through everything in your situation and you have already figured out what you're willing to do. I can't help you. Good luck. We're going to go now. And we left. And they were offended at us. They thought, well, how could you say that? We asked you to come over and help us. You wouldn't receive the help. You can't help people who won't receive help. They accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. They turn away their ears from the truth, and they will turn aside to myths. That's the sum of it all. I know what's best for me. Your job is to tell me what I already know. Your job is simply to be an affirmer. Pastor, church, elders, your job is to affirm me and what I want.

My desires, whatever they are, affirm me. You know, when you set aside God's truth and you start trying to replace it with something else, you of necessity have to replace it with a lie. But you have to treat the lie like it's true, or at least you hope it's true. Maybe this will make me happy. Maybe this will help me not to worry. Maybe this will help me sleep at night. Maybe this will get me a wife or a boyfriend or a better job or more money. But it never crossed your mind that the thing that makes you, that your happiness may not be the same as how God defines happiness. He actually tells us, you know, we should have joy. It's one of the fruits of the Spirit. But he also tells us what will produce our joy. And it's not the comforts of the world. It's not perfect health. It's not lots of money. It's not a big family or a small family or a big house or whatever it is you want. He doesn't say, oh, and that's what will give you your joy. And so if we set aside

what the joy giver says, we are setting aside the joy. And we go searching for it somewhere else, and it turns out we never find it. Not in any lasting way. It is true that if you give yourself to sin, in the moment, you will enjoy yourself. It has its joy, but its joy is fleeting. The scripture describes it as being sweet in your mouth like honey, but bitter like wormwood in your stomach. Okay? Like you enjoyed eating it, but then it makes you puke. when it hits your stomach. That's the joy of sin. That's not the joy you're looking for, but that's the joy you're accepting. And so Satan's goals is to trick you into thinking that the joy of sin is the best joy you can have. That's a lie. That is what it means to turn your ears away from the truth and to turn aside to myths. From the very beginning in the garden when the serpent went up to Eve and said, has God really said?

This is the question we ask every day. Do I trust what God has said is good or do I think I know better? And Satan's goal is to swap out lasting joy for the joy of sin. And the reason is because that joy is gone and then we're miserable. And Satan's goal is not to give you joy but to make you miserable. And then after you've been miserable sufficiently, it's to kill you. That's his goal and that's his aim. Nothing less than that. And on top of all of it, as you go from bad to worse and more miserable, his aim is to get you to blame God for it and not yourself. I'm in a terrible, awful situation. Why'd God let this happen? I don't know. Why'd you resist all of the instruction and counsel that said don't go down that path? You can't blame me for this. It's more likely it's your fault than that God messed up. Micah 6.8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good. He has told you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? To walk humbly with your God is to stay under the discipleship, under the eye, under the care of his ministers. Not because they're perfect. Not because we don't make up mistakes. We do. It feels gross to me to talk about how you should listen to pastors because I think of how much sin I have in me, and I'm like, here I am. I'm the pastor. You're supposed to listen to me. You're supposed to listen to the elders. Not because we're better than you or we're perfect, but because God made us.

gave us the responsibility of watching over you. And if you're a member of this church or you want to be, you're saying you want that care. So here's the thing. Submit to it then. I don't agree with what you're saying. That's okay. You don't have to. Not in the moment. That's what it means to walk humbly with your God, is to listen to and to submit to those who keep watch over your soul. That's one of the best ways you'll keep from becoming the sort of person who wants to have their ears tickled like a dog. And so finally, Here's my application. I've been pushing the whole time at discipleship and the difficulty that it means to grow in grace and to become more like Jesus. Here's my application. Don't give up when it gets hard. Don't give up when it gets hard. Don't give up when you disagree. Don't give up when you think they're wrong. Hebrews 12 says, you've not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. Which is to say, you have more to give.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. And so he's going to tell us what the exhortation is. That all of God's sons, which includes his daughters, get. This is the exhortation. Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. Why shouldn't you quit? So that you can stick around long enough to get more discipline. That's the argument he's making. And you're like, well, I don't want any more of that. And I say, woe to you then. It's for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. What's the other option? How else can God deal with you? If he doesn't deal with you as a son, how else will he deal with you? The answer is not daughter. The answer is a bastard. An illegitimate son.

Someone who has no right and claim to be called one of God's children and as such will be sent to hell. These are our choices. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. So persevere under discipline. And don't seek out teachers who make you feel good. And the times when you're going to want someone to make you feel good, they will come right on the heels of someone making you feel bad. You'll come to church and someone will slap your hand. They'll say, nope, that's nope. And you'll be like, and you'll go away and you'll think, well, I'm going to find that. They don't understand. I'm going to look for some teaching online about this thing they said I'm struggling with. And you'll find someone who says, it's not your fault. You didn't do that. It can't be helped. And that's what it is to want your ears tickled. And that's what it is.

to no longer endure sound doctrine. And I don't want that to be true of any of us. Any of us. Some of us have gone through very difficult seasons. Some of us are going through difficult seasons now of discipline, of the Lord's hand being heavy on us. Endure and don't give up. God will be faithful to you. And in the end, you will receive all that's been promised to you by God himself. And in that day, if you endure, you will not sit here and go, this is all I get. This is what I endured for. Is it anywhere else? You will be satisfied. Let's pray.