Motivations to be a Man of God - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

First Timothy chapter six. Please meet me in your Bibles. And First Timothy chapter six. And we are together in verse 13, as we read what God has to say to us this morning. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commitment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

He who is blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Father, we need you to expound the scriptures. You were the great expositor. And Lord, we see you teaching even in that road to Emmaus, those two disciples, and the result was that their hearts were burning within their bosoms.

This is what we desire. We want our hearts to burn. Do everything you need to do to make sure that occurs this morning. In every single heart, we ask humbly, Lord, Please, Lord, we want you, yes, to open our minds to understand, but we need you to touch the throne of our affections. And so today, we we pray that your voice would be so heard.

It would be so clear. It'd be so obvious. As though you were speaking directly to each of us. And so Lord, we know that apart from your Holy Spirit, this is not possible. So we desperately seek him together as a church because we don't want to just go through this morning without leaving changed.

Help us arrive there today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Last week, you and I heard what it means to be a man of God, what it means to be a woman of God. And we hopefully are encouraged to realize that it has nothing to do with ability, nothing to do with popularity, nothing to do with position, and everything to do with and everything to do with what you choose to reject, what you choose to pursue, and what you really fight for in this life.

And this is the glorious thing about being a man or a woman of God. That is something that we all have access to. Every single one of us in this place can bear the badge of such an honorable title in this generation especially. But the reality is that as Christians, true Christians, we can hear this inspirational kind of message and we realize that that's what we should aspire to as true Christians. But we can lose motivation the moment we step into our cars and drive off to the rest of our schedules after hearing a convicting word like we did last week.

It can fade, can't it? Maybe it faded for you. Maybe it didn't even touch you last week. That's possible. But here's the reality.

The bible realizes that temptation. Because the pursuit of being a man of God will not go unchallenged. You know that. You know that with your flesh. You know that with this world.

You know that with the devil who will do everything in his power to make sure that you settle exactly where you are, and that you do not imitate the Lord that you adore and worship. And therefore, we should expect that on the path of effective testimony for Christ that there will be a fight. It'll be a fight. You probably fought this morning. You probably fought your thoughts last night.

It's a battle and the Bible is realistic about it. It's a lifelong decision to stand your ground in faithfulness to God. It is your choosing to resist seductions. It is a decision for you to remain faithful when it's easier to just give in and give up. And it's your choice even in those difficult seasons where you have to move forward even when others that were walking with you choose to turn back.

There's a cost to being a man of God. There's a price to being a woman of God and Paul knew this for Timothy. Paul himself understood the difficulties of such a journey and a mission. And it's not just in embracing that call, it's in persisting in that call. I've seen so many people excited about being a man of God or a woman of God but that's not the challenge.

It's it's to remain, it's to stand your ground, it's to stay on the path. And we see here that Paul wants to provide his young pastor, this young disciple, his child in the faith some motivation. And the motivations that are prescribed to young pastor Timothy are yours and mine as well. Are yours and mine as well. And so what does he choose to to glean from?

What does he choose to tap into? What does he want Timothy to receive strength in? We can summarize it in this, a multi dimensional understanding of who God is. What you believe about God will determine how you live for God, plain and simple. What you believe about God will determine how you live for God.

There's no way around it. And the solution for our strength is not very complicated, because the stronger our knowledge of God, who he is, what he has done, what he can do, what he will do, will permeate and provide a strength to endure. And so it's in direct correlation of your pursuit of who God is. And the more you embed it, the more you compact it, the more you rehearse it, you will know a surging of strength. Even when days that you experience, you feel like you can collapse.

There is something that will support you. And we can go into great detail about these different things, but let's summarize these verses in three understandings of who God is that will help you remain as a man of God. This will not interest you if you do not want to be such a man, but it will help you if you've set your heart on such a goal. Primarily, he's gonna talk about the preserving power of God, the preserving power of God. Secondly, the example of God in Christ Jesus, And lastly, the return of God.

And so we read here in verse 13, I charge you in the presence of God. What is he saying? I'm trying to get you to understand how important this is. And so I'm exhorting you with this authority of God who gives life to all things. Who gives life to all things.

That means more than just God being the author and the creator of everything that you know in this life including yourself. What this means is that Timothy, God did not just create you, which means that you have to give him your life since he owns your life, but he is the sustainer and preserver of all things. That's what it means here. He continually gives life to all things. And so it is God who suspends the planets and the canvas of space down to preserving every single molecule that vibrates to the unseen eye.

That's God's authority. And that's God's power with his word. And the reality is when we read that we go, well that's true. I understand that. I believe that.

But how does that help me as a man of God? To pursue that. To remain in that. And here's how you understand it. If God sustains all things, then surely he will preserve his own with a peculiar and special care.

If he provides life to all things that live, how much more will he provide you when you've set your heart after his own heart? That's what he's trying to say to him. Yes, he created you, Timothy. He can sustain you and he will raise you from the dead one day. And I want you to know that as a man of God, this will help you.

The preserving power of God, which is not detached from the love of God. He preserves, he sustains, he supplies, because his heart throbs with adoration for you and I individually. Now for people who love to glorify God and make all doctrine about the glory of God, this can make you feel uncomfortable. Right? Because we don't want that.

We don't want to think that God actually loves me and cares about me. This is not about me. This is about the glory of God. Right? You're gonna have a lot of trouble with a lot of scriptures then brother.

You're gonna have a lot of trouble with a lot of Psalms brother. Where David directs his praise in the knowledge of him receiving personal attention from God. I want you to think about somebody that you love with all your heart. Somebody that you consider a gift from God. Somebody that you would do anything for.

And as those names are popping to your head, I want you to ask yourself this, have you ever been so consumed with love for them that you took the time to count the number of their hair on their head? I doubt it. I doubt it. If you have, please approach me. I would like to know how that process was.

But what's the point? The point is this, is that the Holy Spirit goes out of his way to make sure that we understand through the lips of Jesus that God knows and has numbered every single one of your hairs on your head. What does that mean? That doesn't just mean that God loves us, it means that he cares about every aspect of who we are. What an incredible thought.

And we might think, well, if he is the one who's able to give life to all things, then why doesn't he give me the life that I desire? Right? For the same reason that a father does not give everything that his child believes is best for him. Because a good father operates with a revelation, a perception, and a comprehension of what's best for you even though you are convinced that you know what's best for you. A father would not be good if he always says yes to his children.

What makes a father good is he knows when to say no and he knows when to say yes, and that's exactly how God, our father operates. Therefore, every delay, every closed door, every allowance for affliction, every turn of event that seems to catch us off guard and cause us to gasp in the soul, is filtered through a heart of love toward you. Turn to Hebrews thirteen six, and look what the author of Hebrews says. So we can confidently say Hebrews thirteen six. So we can confidently say, confidently with boldness, with assurance, with no reason to doubt, what does he say?

The Lord is my helper. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Now you know what's incredible about this is that he quotes Psalm one eighteen verse six.

He quotes the psalmist David. In the new covenant, the Holy Spirit gives you permission to have the same confidence of God's personal intervening hand that David experienced to be your own. And this is why reading the Old Testament is very important. When you read the life of David, you can see God being his helper. In fact, Psalm one eighteen says it this way, the Lord is on my side.

Not just my helper, he's on my side. That's very personable. That's very intimate. That's very subjective though it's an objective truth. He's with me and you see that when Saul chases him down like an animal.

You see that when the nations, in the same psalmist says, the nations surrounded me but through the Lord I cut them off. And so David operated with this wonderful revelation that helped him endure it. Surely God is on my side. And one reason, one reason for a verse like this not to stir you this morning Christian, is because you don't know who the Lord is. And you don't know what He is capable of when a man or a woman pledges their allegiance to Him.

And like David says, I will know him with everything within me. That is my desire. Only when you have that kind of comprehension will you rejoice at the thought that he is actually on my side. Not just me being on his side, but he chooses to be on my side? And that's what essentially Timothy is being told here.

Timothy, I charge you in the presence of the God that you represent. He gives life to all things. And then when you come back to first Timothy, he begins to describe who this God is. And I don't even need to explain it. It's glorious just being read.

He breaks out and prays in verse 15 of chapter six of first Timothy. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, who no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. That's who's on your side. That's who's with you.

The only sovereign. No one can thwart his plans. No one can tell him not to do something, and this God is with you. I've had the privilege of sitting with a very intimate and real way. And I hesitate to share testimonies because those are experiences they had, and I want to stick to the word of God.

But I've never been more amazed than to hear how God has personally intervened in people's lives. Scary ways. In scary ways. In ways that would make you rejoice in his provision, and in ways that would make you tremble when he protects his own. When he protects his own.

I've heard the stories of men who have prayed prayers for God to step in and to defend them. And when he does, it shocks them to the core and and leaves them undone for weeks. We serve our living God who actually intervenes in this life. That's why this verse is so profound because here's the result of what we learn in Hebrews. What's the result of that?

He says, I will not fear. The more you believe that, the more you actually spell anxiety and fear of man and fear of any circumstance for that reason. Fear of the days unknown ahead. Fear of my reputation being tarnished by the slander of others. Fear of what?

Persecution for making a stance for righteousness. There's no reason to fear and that's the mindset that Paul wants because if you're gonna be a man of God, you inherit something guaranteed persecution. Those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, not maybe, will be persecuted in one form or another. And the fearlessness here is what Timothy needed on that path. When you're a man of God or woman of God, you will make sacrifices for God and that can make you fearful.

Lord, is this is this really where you want me to go? Is this really what you want me to give up? Is this really what you want me to reject so that I can embrace your purpose for my life? Timothy, the one who gives life to all things is with you. He's on your side.

This point is not just inspirational. Okay? This is crucial. This is so important for you to grasp in order for you to be able to endure. Please hear me.

If you don't believe this, how will you endure those times when you are an apparent lack for doing the will of God? If you don't believe this, how will you be able to persevere when you are abandoned by those you thought would not abandon you? How will you be able to endure when you have threats coming toward you because you just want to love and obey Jesus? How will you? You won't be able to.

You have to understand who this God is and that he's on your side and that he can intervene and he will in his perfect wisdom. I want you to understand something. If there is fear in your life, any type of fear, it will cripple you. The fear of man lays a snare, the Bible says. It's a trap.

It keeps you in place from advancing forward in the will of God. And I can't help but think about the Israelites when when Moses sent 12 spies, 10 of them come back and they give a report for their brethren. And the report was this. Right? What did they say?

They said many things and this is one thing that's worth noting. They said, we seem in our own eyes and to them like grasshoppers. We're like little bugs in comparison to the stature and the strength of these giants in the land. God told us to go in there but we face something that we didn't realize we would face. And so he says, we're finished.

Those 10 spies says, we're done. There's no way that we can go in there. Fear. Fear came in. Unbelief came in.

And what did it do? It sabotage their experience of the promises of God. The fear that you experience will do the same. It will rob you. It will detour you.

It will hinder you. And so what did they need? They needed God's perspective. They didn't need their own estimation of themselves or what other people esteemed them as. They saw themselves as grasshoppers, but you know what Isaiah 40 verse 22 says?

Listen to what it says about God in Isaiah 40 verse 22. It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Isn't that interesting? God in heaven looks on the inhabitants of the earth. And what does he see?

Everyone is a grasshopper. They didn't see the way God saw. They saw themselves as grasshoppers, but not in God's viewpoint, from the enemy's standpoint, and they feared, not knowing that it's God who saw those giants like grasshoppers, and God was on their side. Do you see? Do you see what happens when we fail to have God's perspective on every issue no matter what you're fearful of?

And so it's important to understand the preserving power, the intervening power, the loving power of God for you personally in this life. If you set your heart on living for him, you obtain a special privilege and protection and grace and peculiar attention from God himself. That's scriptural. Read Psalm 91, because he has made me his dwelling place, Because he has held on to me. And then the blessings oh, it's not just for everybody.

It's not just for everybody. I'm sorry to say that. It's for those who have a special love for the Lord, a dedication to the Lord, a complete consecration to the Lord. And Timothy need to be reminded, because you're a man of God, this is your inheritance. He's on your side.

He gives life to all things and he has the power to continue life or to cease life. And you're in his hands. But not just that, we come here to the second part of verse 13. Another motivation to remain steadfast as a man of God is to be motivated by this next truth, and that's the example of Jesus Christ and his earthly ministry as a man himself. In verse 12 of first Timothy six, remember that?

We heard this. That Timothy was to hold on to eternal life and the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. You made a confession. Listen. You made a confession before at least one person that you would surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of your days.

You know that. Right? Some did it last week. Some of you did it years ago. Some of you done it many years ago.

But you made that confession. And he's trying to tell him, look, I want you to see an example of someone who did the same and how he did it. And he points to the Lord Jesus Christ who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate. Why is he saying that? What he was trying to say is that Jesus held on to his confession.

The truth that he proclaimed about God and himself until the very end. This provides the timeline of how long you should endure as a man of God. Till you die, till you give your final breath. And he points to the Lord, and again, I argue that this verse may not stir many Christians as much as it should. You know why?

Because it doesn't cost us very much to be Christians in America. That's why. So we can sit there and be like, that's stirring, that's encouraging, yeah, that's what I never thought of it like that. But this verse would mean so much more to somebody who every single week had to go to a different undisclosed area to worship God. It'd mean a lot more to realize that, oh, we lost another elder.

He's in prison for probably the next ten, fifteen years and being tortured throughout those years. But that's gonna change very quickly in America. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I just believe the bible. And the bible tells us to prepare ourselves spiritually, because what you may think is not possible, the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the undreamable, can all for a sudden become reality.

If you read the nature of persecution in the scriptures, there's an idea of, yes, Satan suddenly creeps in, but even in that subtlety, in the midst of that subtlety, all for a sudden there's a there's just an acceleration that comes, and things just turn around all for a sudden. And I want you to think about the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25. A lot of debate about that parable by the way. What does it mean? And and the thing is people wanna get into the details.

Right? Who are the virgins? Are they all saved? What about this? What about that?

What does the oil represent? All these different things. But there is one thing that is not debatable about that parable and here it is. It's a call for action to be prepared spiritually for a future event, namely the second coming of Jesus Christ. You can't argue that.

That's why Jesus is teaching it. Now here's my question to you and I today. What divided the foolish and the wise virgins? There's 10 of them. What was the dividing line?

What put five of them? What put 50% of them in one category and 50% in another category? And it's very clear. The wise ones brought oil with them, and the foolish ones didn't. The wise ones came with a mentality of being prepared for a event that it's it's unannounced, will be a surprise, and just in case it happens at night, we'll have some light to be able to be let out of this place into the direction of the bridegroom and the wedding.

And the foolish ones? Careless. The foolish ones, they didn't they didn't prepare themselves and perhaps they've conjured up an idea that when it comes, then we'll be ready. In fact, it's even more significant than that. They had a plan and this was their plan that when the bridegroom comes, unannounced, in the middle of the night, and they all take out their lamps and they try to light it up with oil, we realize the foolish ones didn't have oil.

They can't see. They can't direct themselves. And so they make this plea with those who are prepared. And you know what they say? In Matthew twenty five eight, and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.

Give us some of your oil. And you know what they said? We can't. Not that they didn't want to, but they only had enough for themselves. They says, you have to go and purchase it for yourself.

We can't transfer this to you. This is something that you must obtain for yourself. And here's the reality about the foolish virgins. Pay very close attention. The foolish virgins had an apparent display in demonstration of devotion and religious piety.

They were waiting supposedly for the bridegroom just like the wise ones. These aren't wicked people that want nothing to do with the bridegroom. They're apparently showing interest in the wedding to come. They're apparently showing some desire, but it's a surface level kind of pursuit. And what happens?

They did not have the spiritual depth in the moment when they needed it. They didn't have the substance, the the the relationship, the connection with God that they truly needed from the start and they were shocked to realize that it was not enough when Jesus came. And in their desperation, they crowd to those who are ready for this moment. They said, help us. Thinking that the substance of genuine relationship with God can be transferred.

Or by association, we have access to Christ like many people think today. And I I wanna tell you today, if this is you, you have to you have to be shocked into reality this morning. You only knew Christianity your whole life, doesn't mean you yourself are ready for his return. Just because you grew up with Christian friends, that's all you've known, and Christian school, And just because you've heard the things that you know and you can rehearse. This is just like the foolish virgins.

They didn't have the true substance though. They were relying on association only from a Christian family, Christian parents, even serving. They looked to everything else except one thing, a direct reception of oil from God. And that's why they say, you have to go get it for yourself and that's a call for everybody else. Every single one of us needs to have that personal understanding of God.

And if you're careless about that, if you're not shook by that now, it will come as a surprise. And this parable is in part a correction to those who have a dependency, an over dependency on someone else's walk with the Lord as a source of spiritual security. So why am I bringing this up? Because although this is a teaching about the second coming of Christ, the principle lies true for our lives today. And here's the principle.

You and I are called to be ready for unexpected events that require spiritual substance to be found faithful. You and I are called to be prepared in advance for something that would come to test our spiritual standing with God. Turbulence here in America over the past year, two years, five years. We're still not seeing the necessity of acquiring oil for ourselves. We're not reading the signs.

We're not seeing what can potentially be a reality here. And I know I say this week after week after week, but that's my duty. I would fail you if I fail to come up here with an urgency. I would fail you if I don't come up in here and say, guys, be ready. It can happen.

And here's my concern, even today with everything that's happening, you still have people that are spiritually asleep. Spiritually asleep. They nothing has changed in their intensity of their seriousness. Nothing has changed about, if this comes, how will I be ready? How will I respond?

And we almost have this sense of invincibility. It's almost like how we think about death. We know the statistics about death. Every single day, a hundred and fifty thousand people die, and we never think that number can include us. It's always outside.

It's always those around us, not knowing that that number can reach us one day. And that's how we think about spiritual persecution and threats and challenges to our devotion to the Lord. And some of you know this because we announced this on a Wednesday night prayer meeting that just West Chicago, just not too far from us here. The top rated deli in Chicago for a few years was shut down by Black Lives Matter because they would not agree to Black Lives Matter in the movement. That's they stand for.

And I thought about that because they came out with a documentary about it, it's open. And when they gave the in-depth understanding of what took place behind the scenes, I was shocked. And here's what I was shocked about, a couple points. Number one, it happened so fast. It happened so fast.

Is anybody here not familiar with what I'm talking about? Everybody here is familiar with what I'm talking about? The deli that got shut down. Right? The thing that just struck me was how quickly things turned for them.

You went from having business deals with Nike, with Adidas, with the soccer club in Chicago, things planned for months ahead. You were being interviewed for TED Talks and and with Apple about all these different things. And listen, all it took was a few people from the community to message that business and say, where do you stand with the Black Lives Matter movement? And because of the pressure, they put out a statement, and when they put out a statement that lined up with the scriptures, obviously agreeing that we do not condone racism, but we we don't agree with that movement and what they stand for, Within a few days they lost everything. Everything.

They're out of state. They're not even living in this state anymore. But they were spiritually prepared. They were spiritually prepared. But this is what I didn't know, re watching that.

What I didn't know was that when the church came to support this business, the church that was standing for this business. The man was a part of that local assembly. Somebody announced that 20 to 25 people of that local church walked away from the church for fear. And they said, why didn't you just stay quiet? You could have avoided all of this.

We could have avoided this. Now we're threatened. Now our church is on the radar, and they walked away. And they said half of those people were actually the leaders of the church. And here's what I took out of that.

There are some people who didn't have oil in their lamps. There are some people who did not have oil in their lamps. What would happen here? What would happen here if we got emails saying, where do you stand with our movement? Why aren't you supporting financially our movement?

And we give them a biblical response, and by next Friday bible study, we have 50 to a 100 people protesting outside of our church. Because that would never happen, right? Because that can't happen, right? I'm sure that business that had a long standing presence in a community that had reviews for being the one of the top 100 places to eat in America did not expect it either. Where's the oil in your lamp today?

Are you ready? Have you already determined, if this happens, this is how I will stand? And what's amazing is that Paul tells Timothy, I charge you in the name of Christ Jesus who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate, look to your Lord and see how he stood for what he believed and the truth that he proclaimed. And it's not just about him making that stand, he made it in a difficult circumstance. And here's one of the difficulties, he was abandoned by everybody.

By the ones that boasted, we will die with you. Well, where were you at the trial? Here's my question, where were all the people that Jesus healed throughout his three years? Where was blind Bartimaeus? Where was the woman who was healed of the issue of blood?

Where were all those thousands that saw miracles? Where were they at his trial to stand up and say, he is who he says he is. He is operating in divine power. He is the son of God. Where were they?

And there's the Lord only doing good, only radiating light and perfection, standing alone, friendless without a voice to at least speak up and say, you guys are in the wrong here. This is an unjust trial. Nothing. He still made the good confession. He did not deny who he was, what he preached, what he did, and he was nailed on the cross for it.

Paul says, I want you to see him as your example. And do you know why Jesus could do that? Do you know why Jesus was able to do that? I'm sure you can give many philosophical theological reasons for it. But I had one verse in mind and one thought in mind because he already knew it was gonna happen.

He prepared himself to be abandoned. John sixteen thirty two, Jesus says, behold the hours coming, Indeed it has come when you will be scattered each one to his own home and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the father is with me. Spurgeon gave a wonderful illustration of Abraham and Isaac. When Isaac was going to be offered up on that mountain as a picture of Christ, Abraham went with him.

And when Christ was going to Calvary, the father was with him. You have to determine today as a man or a woman of God if you're willing to stand alone. You'll be shocked to know who will raise the white flag when there's a price to this Christianity. Look to Jesus. If Christ could remain faithful to face a death that no torture, no betrayal can compare to in our life, in these bodies, surely, by his grace, we can receive the strength from his example to endure ourselves.

He will supply the strength. No reason to fear. No reason to tremble. In fact, we have an awesome opportunity to stand for our Lord in a way that perhaps we haven't been able to for many years in this nation. Strength, the example of God in Christ Jesus.

And lastly, in verse 14, he says, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the final motivation for this young pastor. Here's the final thing to stir him and to keep him in that place, in that lane of bearing the testimony of a man of God, the return of Christ. Plain and simple. Why is this inspiring?

Because this is the culmination of all human history. This is the climax of mankind. This is the final destination of all men that ever existed, And it will be the event when Christ will claim all things to himself. He will return and not one thing will be able to be held by any man and not one person will be able to tell him, what are you doing? He will claim it.

He will receive it, and he will plant the flag of his name on every hilltop that this world has known. And for the unbeliever listen. For the unbeliever, this world is as close to heaven as they will ever experience because God is merciful to the just and the unjust. But for the believer, this is the closest thing to hell that you'll ever know. And so the man of God must be inspired with the eternality of his faith, with the realization that Christ physically will return and I will have a face to face encounter with him.

For what? To deliver me and to make me whole and to glorify my body and to never know tears or hunger or pain. So what's a little pain now? And what's a little rejection now? And what's a little bit of temptation now?

It does not compare to the weight of glory that's coming. And what does this return entail? Just to stay on this thought. Yes, my deliverance. Yes, my rescue.

Yes, the embrace that I've been waiting for my entire life. Yes, the unfiltered experience of his love showering over me for all eternity where I'll never know a doubt for a thousand years on end. But it's also gonna include my evaluation. As a Christian, yes. My evaluation.

Your evaluation. Every single person here that's a born again believer, we have an evaluation that awaits us. And what does that evaluation entail? It's not about your salvation. Praise God that's dealt with, but how we handled that foundation, that foundation of Christ in which we built our lives on.

And some of you in here have known the mercy of a school teacher that has given you the exact questions that you need to study because those questions will be exactly what you will see on your test. Right? You've experienced that and you've praised them for that. It helped you avoid wasting all this time and energy on things that you won't even be tested on. Can I tell you something wonderful?

Jesus did the same for us. Jesus has already given us exactly what we will be tested for when we stand before him, when he evaluates our life. Would you like to know the questions? Would you like to know what he will examine? Would you like to know what he will focus on?

Well, if you're a man of God, you would wanna know. If you're a woman of God, you would wanna care. So let's go there in first Corinthians chapter four and see what Christ will look for when we stand before him. One verse, really, that summarizes it, and you'll be prepared for the exam. First Corinthians chapter four verse five.

We are told, therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and listen, will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. What's being said here? That as believers, our lives will be scanned, they will be evaluated, they will be questioned. And the thing that will determine our commendation, God praising us, It's not what we did, but why we did it.

Now think about that. How much of believers spend most of their energy on the external? On how people perceive me, on how they see me, on my reputation, on how I present my apparent zeal and consistency in the things of God. See, if if all of our focus is on the external, we are in danger of being no better than the Pharisees. Because that's what the Pharisees did.

You know, Jesus, when he criticized the Pharisees, it's amazing. He criticized them for only focusing on the external, on cleaning the outside of the cup, while the inside was filthy. And what's amazing is that we are told here that Christ, what is he gonna focus on? On the inside. On the inside more than anything else.

Now think about that. If that is true, then where should my energy and focus and prayers and attention be in my sanctification? The inside. The inner attitudes and my motives of why I do what I do. Ain't that amazing?

Ain't that incredible? It's as though on that day, Christ will somehow have our hearts and it's veiled, then he will just remove the veil. Remove the veil. And the veil could be all the things that we've done for the Lord. All the money that you've given to church, all the sermons you've ever preached, all the things that you've done when the church needed some practical service, all those things is the veil.

And it looks great. Some of our veils look wonderful. They're adorned beautifully. But on that day, Christ is going to remove the veil. And the heart, the motive behind it is what's going to be evaluated.

To me, that's encouraging. I think that's wonderful. Because now I know how to pray. And now I know how to communicate with my God, and now I know how to ask him to cleanse me. You say, well, isn't the external important?

Well, if you deal with the internal, the external will be beautiful. It'll be perfect. It'll be exactly the way it needs to be. And I think this is a gracious reminder to all of us who strive to be men and women of God. The Lord is concerned about our motives more than anything else.

With that in mind, I'm encouraged to continue this consecrated course. Not just because I will stand before him one day, but because I know that the the end of it all, it won't be the pastor, it won't be the congregation, it won't be my friends and family who have the final word. It will be Christ over my life. That helps you make decisions. That helps you stay grounded when you are being tossed back and forth by the opinions of even good hearted people when you know that God told you to do something.

Yeah, but at the end, the Lord will commend me and he will look at my heart and I wanna obey him and live for him. And Paul tells Timothy, stay faithful because you're gonna meet him one day. Stay faithful because he's gonna appear one day and he's gonna look at you and he's gonna evaluate your life. Don't worry about the threats. Don't worry about the disappointments.

Don't worry about the people walking out. Don't worry about it, Timothy. Stay as you were when you said you would be a man of God and Christ will reward you for it. And that's my charge to you this morning. If you need some motivation, know this.

God's preserving love and powers over your life. Know this. You have an example to look to, that Christ took on flesh, and he made the good confession before a judge that can determine his life or his execution. And Jesus is coming again, And he will evaluate your life and mine, and he will get the final say. Let's pray.

No. It's okay. Let's pray together in our hearts before the Lord. Before we pray, may I say something? I wanna speak to those who have been in this church for longer than others, and I say this in a heart of love.

Here's my question to you today. Have you allowed familiarity to dampen your flame for God? Have you allowed familiarity to dampen your flame for God? You you got comfortable and you've reduced your pursuit of God and your walk with God now down to attendance. And things are different now with your walk with Lord, and you know it.

You know it. You've stopped bringing your bible. You stopped singing with passion. You're numb. Even what I just said this past forty five minutes, like you're happy that it was faithful to the word but it did nothing to your heart.

You made a confession before God. You said some things before people. You've made some posts on social media. And my charge to you is to imitate your Lord and stay that way, the way that you were until the end. Don't give in.

Don't let yourself stay there. Fight to be a man of God. Fight to be a woman of God. Let's pray. Lord, in this place, we thank you that you invite us to be like the men of old.

As we heard last week, we can be servants like Elisha was, pouring water over the hands of Elijah and still be known as men of God. Lord, this is our desire. And if we've lost that desire, forgive us. Restore us. Help us know that this is the path of great joy, of delight.

That like Moses, we've only begun to see the things that you do for your people. And so Lord, in this place, expel all false condemnation and replace it with a wooing. Say, Lord Jesus, I wanna live for you. I really wanna live for you. I wanna I wanna be ready.

I want oil in my lamp for whatever is to come. So that I won't depend on others and their devotion and their sacrifice and zeal for Christ, but I can stand by your grace even if I stand alone. Lord, bring each of us there. Bring each of us there. And protect us from being foolish for thinking that these things can't happen or won't happen.

We don't wanna be foolish. Help us be wise. Help us be wise. Lord, we trust you with the testimony of this assembly. We trust that you have this future set for us to shine bright for Christ, and we wouldn't want it any other way no matter what the cost is.

In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen. Amen. Amen.