Good morning. We will have a little bit of a diversion this week. If you will turn to the book of 2nd Timothy, 2nd Timothy chapter 4, as you see there in your outline. And I'll explain this in just a few moments, but 2nd Timothy chapter 4 we're going to be reading verses 1 through 8 And I want to speak to you on the subject of the fullness of a life poured out the fullness of a life poured out 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 thus says the word of the Lord, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, 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 is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day and not only to me, and not only, excuse me, and not to me only, but also to all who loved his appearing. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we come this morning not to somehow grapple with the events of this week in our own understanding, but we have come to the Word of the living God. We have come to hear from you this morning. Lord, would you speak to us through your word?

Would you teach us and instruct us and shepherd us, oh God? Lord, may your spirit just do his great and glorious work of helping us to understand the scriptures and to apply these scriptures to our lives so that we would not only know what to believe but Lord that we would know how to live that we would live for your glory that we would stop living for our kingdom but that we would live for the kingdom of Christ that we would see the kingdom of Christ as our greatest desire to see not our names lifted up but the name of Jesus Christ. So Lord I pray today that you would help us to see clearly the battle lines that are so so clearly drawn this week. Lord that you would help us to understand that we are not on a playground. Lord this is a battleground, this is the battle between spiritual forces, between good and evil, between the powers of light and the powers of darkness.

And I pray oh God that you would help us to see clearly and, Lord, that you would bless our time this morning. That the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, would be exalted. That we would see him where he actually is, seated at the right hand of God, to whom all power and authority has been given not only in heaven but on earth and we ask it in Jesus name amen you may be seated The fullness of a life poured out. This weekend, as my family and I were having family devotion, I read this text. This was our normal Bible reading we were just working through 1st and 2nd Timothy.

As I read it I could not help but think of how this passage related to the awful events of this past week regarding the assassination of a brother in Christ, Charlie Kirk. I believe I would be remiss if I remained silent and it would be somewhat awkward even if this was not mentioned because of the importance of it and because I believe that it reveals to us and is showing us the stark divide not only in our nation but really around the world and in the kingdom that we not only see physically but in the kingdom of our God between the kingdom of righteousness and the kingdom of darkness. My plan was to preach in Acts chapter 13, but in light of what I believe to be on every heart in mind this week, I believe that we will be greatly helped to turn our attention to this text in 2nd Timothy chapter 4. As I'm sure as has been for each one of you this week, there has been a deep sorrow, there has been quiet reflection, and much prayer. The death of Charlie Kirk has entered into my heart and mind and calls me as I am sure as it has caused you to reflect upon my own Christian life and how I am living out my faith on a daily basis and of those things of which I am giving priority.

Tragedy and death often does this very thing. It causes you to stop, it causes you to reflect upon your own life, it causes you to reflect upon what you actually believe, and it causes you to reflect upon your own death. I didn't know Charlie Kirk, I'd never met him, but it seems as if I knew him when I heard and have seen many videos of him in the past, but also this week just watching this man's testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ecclesiastes gives us instruction in this in chapter 7. It says, a good name is better than precious ointment in the day of death than the day of one's birth.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. My desire and my prayer is is that as we consider the events of this week and this passage especially this passage that our hearts are made better, that we are more eager and more zealous for the things of God than we were yesterday and even this morning. I pray that this passage of scripture will help us and it would better us in the sense that we all consider and take the time to think, how am I living out my Christian faith?

Am I living it simply in words or am I living it in deed and in truth? I do not want to be, brothers and sisters, a hearer of the Word. I want to be a doer of the Word of God. I don't only want to come and sit in this place and hear preaching and singing and be able to participate in the fellowship of the body of Christ, I actually want to leave this place and do what Christ has told me to do. Because Christianity is not only lived here, but it's actually lived in your home.

It's actually lived in your workplace and it's actually lived in everything that you put your hand to do. It infects all of life. It is not something that we put inside four walls like the world wants us to do. Your Christian faith is who you are. It is your being and it should influence and affect everything that you do.

I do not think that we should just move on from this tragedy. It's the tendency of typical American culture. Something tragic happens, we talk about it for three days, and then we forget about it and move on to the next tragedy comes along. The proper response is not just anger, it's not just grief, and then move on. Rather, we should learn and grow from the terrible events of this week.

We should consider that a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ was assassinated this week in America, the United States of America, simply for the fact that he said things that people did not like. It was not simply the act of an evil man with a gun, But this act was actually in the secret will of God and his providence ordained by God for God's glory. It was done for the advancement of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and it was done for the good of his people. How do you explain that? I don't need to.

God says that's what it is. It is for our good. So here are the questions that I have been asking myself. I just want to tell you what I've been thinking. Maybe some of these things you have thought and Maybe you've thought more things than this, but here's some of the things that I've been thinking.

Number one, what did Charlie experience immediately upon his death? I can tell you this, it was not the response that we had. Number two, what was it like for his wife and his children? His children so young, not even knowing the weight of the world upon our shoulders. Number three, how is it possible that anyone could be so evil?

How much more evil is God restraining? How much longer will he restrain? If our nation does not turn from our sins and our churches wake up and begin using the liberties that we have been given for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Number four, what would be my regrets if I died today? Would I hear well done, good and faithful servant?

Or would I hear why did you hold so much back? You hold so much back. Why did you bury your talent in the ground? Number five, I asked myself what am I spending my life for? What am I giving my energies to?

Number six, what does my love for the Lord motivate me to do for him? We come and we sing, Lord I love you. We sing of the goodness of God. What does that motivate me to do? As Paul mentioned in Corinthians, we'll look at later in the Lord's Supper, but he was compelled by the love of Christ.

Number seven, why do I not love the lost enough to tell more of them about Christ. When I see those who are so unlike me, why do I not love them enough to rescue them? Number eight, what will I be remembered for? Not that we should live to be remembered, That's not my point. But when I am gone, will the living know that I'm gone?

Will Christ be glorified by the life that I've lived? Because I want all of my life, brothers and sisters, I want it to be for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want you to remember my name, I just want you to remember this. That man, I don't remember his name, but he loved Jesus and he loved the lost. I believe that this tragedy will be a turning point.

We as the church in America will either turn from our sin of apathy and slumber and awaken to the spiritual battle all around us, or if we don't, I believe that we are about to see the forces of hell unleashed upon our nation. Not simply because they are greater than the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but simply because we sat silent and apathetic to the battleground. All the demonic and godless education of the younger generation will be on full display as it is lived out through a reign of terror. From all reporting, it seems as if this young man came from a normal, somewhat normal family and in a very short time was radicalized to the point in which he would be willing to murder another man Simply because of what he thought he believed The death of Charlie Kirk was a martyr's death He was murdered because of his Christian faith and because of the logical outworkings of his faith into his life. You see faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and believing the doctrine of the Word of God does that very thing.

If it does not change the way you live, you don't really believe it. If you can just continue on your normal way and say you believe these things and never actually do them, you don't believe it. You have a dead fate. You have a fate that will not save you. You will be one of those who say in that day, Lord, Lord, did I not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And he will say, depart from me, I never knew you. Terrifying. I believe that the events of this week have been a great revealer of what is actually going on in the hearts and the minds of the people and the young people especially of this nation and even in the whole world this this impact has influenced the world. It's drawing these lines, it is showing us where the battle of the soul is raging. I have heard and seen some of the most disturbing and despicable comments about Charlie Kirk and his family that I cannot even fathom it would enter into the heart of a human being.

I cannot compute that kind of evil. Not because I'm better than them, but because I have been saved by the grace of God. He has made a new creation in me. He has changed me from death to life, from darkness to light. I cannot understand how a human being created in the image of God could go and do such a horrible act upon another person created in the image of God.

I cannot compute it. They do not value life or liberty. They are consumed with the God made in their own image and that image is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They want to worship that God until the very end. And don't you dare tell them that it is not a God.

They are consumed with it. But This was a manifestation of the spiritual battle that we are all in, but too often forget that we are in. In 2 Corinthians 10, 3-5, The Bible says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. This is a war that is a spiritual battle. Our great problem is that we are so comfortable in this nation with all of our affluence that we have just forgotten that we're actually living and sleeping in the middle of a battlefield.

People are being killed around us and I don't just mean physically but I mean spiritual death is happening everywhere around us and we sleep. And I'm not judging everyone I'm talking to myself this morning. How many people do I walk by in a day in a week that are spiritually dead and on the cusp of eternity and they will fall into the flames of hell forever and I say nothing. My lips are stopped because My lips are stopped because of some weird, foolish pride that someone would think that I am strange. Because I do not love Christ enough and I do not love that person enough to rescue them.

God help me. It's amazing to me how God has used the death of one man to show us and to awaken us to this spiritual warfare. I don't know of another tragedy that is so clearly pinpointed the issues of our day and to find the boundaries of this spiritual battlefield that a majority of evangelical Christians are sleeping on. Romans 13, our brother Scott will be here in a few weeks, says this, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light." He says, now it is high time to awake out of sleep.

Wake up church that We are in the midst of a battlefield. Eternal souls are hanging in the balance from our perspective of things and we are the ones who God has given the ministry of reconciliation. We have a treasure that they need and we're scared to tell them about the treasure of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. That thing that could rescue them and help them. I believe that God has just given us a wake-up call.

The bugle has sounded and it is time to engage in the enemy. It is time to wake up and get off our cots to put on our spiritual armor and that we would engage the enemy. How could it be any clearer? This man was killed for what he said. A Christian assassinated in the United States of America as the crowd looked on.

I saw a most disturbing video of one man immediately upon the shot turning and cheering. If the worst enemy that I could imagine that I have that happened to I could not imagine cheering. The sober reality that that soul would have entered into hell would have kept me from doing anything like that. I don't think we realize we hear so often that people are really good at heart. No, they're not.

We are all evil at heart. The heart is desperately wicked. The only thing that restrains is the gracious hand of God. What is restraining even now? It is only God that is restraining.

But this is nothing new. Jesus' own neighbors tried to do the same thing to him in Luke 4 after he read from the prophet Isaiah and when he had said to them things that they did not want to hear. You remember he read from the book of Isaiah and he said today this has been fulfilled in your hearing and he goes on and he speaks to them about the widow how she was but she wasn't an Israelite and how Naaman was healed from his leprosy but it wasn't an Israelite and then this in verse 28 so all those in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city and they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built that they might throw him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them he went his way. The only thing that spared the life of Jesus Christ that day was that he was God, is God.

He passed through the midst of them. They were willing to murder the Lord Jesus Christ, a perfect man, because of what he said. Because of his hate speech. Because they didn't like it, they were offended. We used to battle, Brothers and sisters, the church used to battle against truth and logic and reason and now we are battling against feelings.

They're slimy, swirly, hard to nail down type things. They're all over the place and God forbid that you say that someone's feeling is wrong. But we come, we come with the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come with the gospel, we come to tell them that they can be delivered from the bondage of feelings. We come to tell them that there is a Redeemer who can redeem them from their sins. Ultimately though, in God's perfect plan, they did murder Jesus simply because of whom he claimed to be and because he had such sway among the people and was turning them away from the religious leaders false religion to the way of truth.

Remember that there were many who spoke evil of Jesus of what he said and even said that he had a demon when in fact he was and is the very Son of God. And this is the way it's been throughout history, especially in the New Testament. You will know that it was always because of something that was said that someone did not like. I went back and just wrote down a few of these and just in the New Testament, Why were these people martyred? These are some of the early martyrs of the church beginning with John the Baptist.

Why was he martyred? He told Herod that your marriage is sinful. For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had said to him, here's what he said, it's not lawful for you to have her. And that woman was so angry that she manipulated and connived her way to have his head brought to her on a platter. That his head, does this shock anybody anymore?

His head, a woman asked for the head, a decapitated head to be brought to her on a food platter. You ever stop and think about that for a moment? That's what's in the heart of man apart from grace. What about Jesus? Of course Jesus was crucified and that is where all of our hope is and that he died and was buried as we just quoted a few moments ago from the Apostles Creed and we believe in the resurrection from the dead and that is our hope.

Why was he crucified? Well he was accused of perverting the nation, he was accused of forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar. They said in Luke 23 we found this fellow perverting the nation. We found him saying don't pay taxes to Caesar. We found him saying that he himself is Christ the King.

What about Stephen the martyr? We read just recently about him. He was martyred for preaching Jesus Christ for what he said. What about James the brother of John? We know that James was murdered by Herod.

He killed him for political expediency. The Apostle Paul was often thrown into prison, was beaten, stoned, and left for dead because of the things in which he said and because the people believe that his preaching did harm to their business of selling idols. He was accused of sedition. There was always some connection with these martyrs between not only the theology that they believe but the effect of their theology upon their living and upon the government. They would tell them what was right and what was wrong.

It's unlawful for you to have your brother's life. What about Peter? Peter arrested for preaching Jesus Christ. Whether is it right in the sight of God to obey you rather than God. John, exiled to the Isle of Patmos for preaching Christ because it was seen as a political threat.

My point in all of this is just, and we could go on and martyrs throughout the church history, that the Christian faith is always a threat to godless political governments and godless ideologies and to godless people. Isn't it amazing some of the most meekest mild people in the world who we just want to love people and tell them that they can be rescued from their sins and that they can be delivered from hell. And we are seen as the most evil people. Mean-spirited because you want to rescue me from the love of my sin. This is the gospel that Charlie Kirk preached that I have heard.

I've listened obviously not to everything he said but to much and many things that he has said. He preached the gospel and the logical implications of that gospel upon daily living and upon our society. He pointed out the destructive nature of transgenderism and all the other isms and all of the sin of people and the wrong workings of government that brought actually harm upon the people through financial institutions and all sorts of things. He applied the scriptures to all of life. How dare he?

He encouraged godly lifestyles, he encouraged biblical families, he encouraged women to be keepers at home and to raise their children in the fear of the Lord. I want to tell you I was encouraged and convicted as I saw and heard the things that he said. I saw a man courageous. I saw a man willing to engage with people so unlike him and who hated him so passionately that they would do harm to him and throw things at him and pour stuff on him and ultimately shoot him. And it seemed to me that he did not hold anything back.

Brothers and sisters, this is where I want to get to. I know this is a long introduction. He did not leave his glass half full, but he poured it all out. He poured it out. Josh read this morning about those that we can imitate.

We need to mark those we can imitate. This is not a perfect man that I speak of today, but I want you to know there are some things that I can imitate. There are things I should imitate. There are things that we should all imitate. He stood on issues based upon the Word of God.

He didn't tip toe around the tulips, but he looked people square in the face and asked them, prove me wrong. He wanted to logically speak to people about the Word of God and the implications of the Word of God and about the truth of the Word of God. He did not apologize for what he believed but rather he defended it and he strove to show respect and love for the lost without compromising the truth. This is not to say that the dialogue never got heated at times, but it seems clear that he did not hate people, but rather love them enough to tell them the truth. This was not a perfect man again but I think that we can all agree that this was a bold man, this was a courageous man, this was a man who was willing to stand up before thousands of people and have things thrown at him and have evil, vileness spoken to him and he would smile and he would keep pointing them back to the truth of the word of God.

Praise God for men like this. I hope that each of us will strive with the same boldness and courage to do the same. And now I want to get to the text. Now I know that this passage is directed towards the young man Timothy in regards to the work of ministry that God had called him to, that they had laid their hands on him and commissioned him to the work and ordained him to the work that God had called him to. However, I believe that we have strong application here for each of us.

There are four things I want to challenge us with this morning. I wrote them in your outline. Those are the four things I want to challenge you with. And the first of that is the charge of the gospel. We look at that in verses 1 & 2 and then in verse 5.

Let's read it. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. And verse 5, but you be watchful in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. This charge therefore is really a word that is better understood as a command.

This is something that I am commanding you to do Timothy. This is something that God has commanded us to do. That before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead, we are to proclaim and to preach the gospel to every creature. This is not a minister's vocation only, this is a Christian vocation. Every believer is to proclaim the word of God as they go.

It doesn't mean that we should all set up tables and sit on college campuses, although I pray there will be some here today that do that. But it does mean that every one of us are to be proclaimers of the Word of God. It is not a suggestion. Paul commands it. Why does he give such a charge as this?

Look at what he says. Because God is coming to judge the living and the dead. God is coming. We are commanded to proclaim the word of God in any and every season. That's what he says, preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season. Whether the season is favorable or unfavorable. When is there not a good season to preach the word? Well I want to tell you if you looked at the natural inclinations of the people in our communities and in our nation we would probably say this is an out of season time to proclaim the word. Well guess what we're supposed to proclaim it in season and we're to proclaim it out of season.

This is the season, tis the season to preach the Word of God. It's always the season to preach the Word of God. And let us go forth proclaiming the truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. He can rescue them from their ways. He says that through the preaching of the Word of God we are to convince people.

This is the idea of cross-examination, of questioning for the purpose of disproving or reproving to censor or to accuse, to show them through logical means of the Word of God that they are either wrong or right and that they need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and turn from the error of their ways. Convince them with the Word of God. Remember the Word of God is not weak but powerful. It is as a two-edged sword. I think and fear that one of our biggest problems is that we doubt and disbelieve the power of the Word of God.

When I stand up here brothers and sisters I hold this book in my hands it's not like anything else there's nothing like this this is the word of the living God this is the word of the living God and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and we have the word of God in our hands and we are to take it to the ears of all creation. And we are to proclaim it to them. We are to convince them of it. We are to be ready in season and out of season. We are to convince them and the Bible says rebuke, denounce them, expresses strong disapproval of something.

I was really struck by that back in and we'll get to this next week in my passage in Acts chapter 13. I just want to read real quickly just to whet your appetite for back in Acts chapter 13. But look at Paul. We think of Paul and man we should always as Christians just be really gentle. Don't ever say anything that would hurt someone's feelings.

But listen to what Paul says when he comes to the man in Acts 13. In verse 10, and he said to this Alimus, he said, Oh full of all deceit and all fraud you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness will you not cease perverting the straight way of the Lord and now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind not seeing the Sun for a time and immediately a darkness dark mist fell upon him." He'd be arrested for hate speech. That wasn't very gentle, Paul, But it was because of love. I believe that there is a way that you deal with those who are leading people astray and those who have been led astray. With many and most I would say we are rescuing them, snatching them out of the flames and with others we deal with them as what they are, sons of the devil who are leading them to hell.

There is a difference and we need God's wisdom to know it. He goes on in Timothy that we are to exhort. This simply means to call to one side, to aid. It is preaching that is intended to produce an intended effect. We want to call you to live in obedience to the Word of God and I want to aid you in this.

I want to help you in this. I want you to come along with me and let's follow Christ. That we would preach in such a way that we would exhort them. And we are to do all of these things with long suffering and with teaching or very specifically with doctrine. We are not to grow weary in this work.

We are called to suffer long and to stay at the work until the very end. We are called to know the doctrine of the Word of God that we can convincingly and rebukingly and exhortingly be able to preach the Word of God based upon what God has told us and not our own opinions. We don't really need the wisdom of man. We need the wisdom and power of God. You're not going to rhetorically and by your own wisdom somehow manipulate somebody into making a decision and following the Lord Jesus Christ.

You are to stand boldly and to proclaim the gospel to them and only God can save them. It is the power of the word of God by the spirit of God upon that soul of man. That is what will break through. But we have the weapon. Too often we leave the weapon in the sheath and we pull out other things.

We pull out carnal things. We need to pull out the sword of the Spirit, the word of God that divides even to the division of bone and marrow and soul and spirit. That's what we need to pull out. And here in verse five is another charge and command that goes along with this. But you be watchful in all things.

This is a grave problem in our time. Too many of us, brothers and sisters, too many in the evangelical church are just asleep and they don't even recognize the spiritual battleground that we are on. They walk through life doing their thing, going on vacations and nothing wrong with vacations, going on vacations and seeing lost souls, going to places and not recognizing. They are just walking around and there are land mines everywhere and there are dead bodies everywhere and there is a battle everywhere. And it's as if we have these spiritual blinders on and we don't see the bullets and the arrows flying all around us.

We need to wake up and we need to be watchful, we need to see, we need to be careful in all things and endure afflictions. Brothers and sisters, if anything is true, it is this, Christians will be afflicted. We will, we will be afflicted, especially if you're going to live like this. If you're going to do what God has said, you will be afflicted. In some form or fashion there will be an affliction and we are to endure it.

Notice what Peter says in 1st Peter 4 he says, beloved do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you but rejoice to the extent that you are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when he is but that when his glory is revealed You may also be glad with exceeding joy if you were reproached for the name of Christ. Blessed are you for the spirit of the glory and of God rest upon you. Rejoice when you are afflicted. Endure affliction. Do the work of an evangelist.

Does this need explaining? Take the gospel to people. Open the mouth, Let the Word of God come out and tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Everywhere you go. Who's worthy of it?

Who's worthy of the gospel? Everyone is worthy of the gospel. Is Christ worthy for you to tell everyone? Christ is worthy for us to tell every living soul of his glorious work to redeem humankind. That's why he came.

He came to save souls. He came to save sinners and fulfill your ministry. He tells Timothy this, fulfill your ministry. Don't grow weary in well doing. Each of us has a service or a ministry to fulfill.

Brothers and sisters, you all have an area and a sphere in which God has given you influence. He has given you the opportunities and the people and the places that He exactly wants you to be to proclaim the Word of God. It may be as a wife and mother, it may be right there in your home with your children, as a husband and father, it may be at work, it may be... There's all sorts of places that you need to tell the gospel. And then there's some places that you need to plan to go and tell the gospel that might not be on your normal trip.

And you go and you proclaim the word of God. Secondly, it is time for the gospel. This sounds odd. I've already told you in season and out of season. Of course it's time for the gospel.

But what I mean by this is not to seem odd to you. It is the time for the gospel in this way. It's always time for the gospel and I would say yes it's always time for the gospel but I would also say that there is no time like this time for the time for the gospel. Right now is the day of salvation. It's time for the gospel.

And I can prove that. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Is that today? Yep. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers is that today that is today and they will turn their ear away from the truth and be turned aside to fables is that today We are living in a culture and a generation that they believe fables.

They believe things that are not true. Reality is not reality to them. And they believe it. Their faith in fables is stronger than the profession of most professing believers. They believe what they believe almost more than I think we believe what we say we believe.

Can you imagine if we believed to the extent that they believed, What would we be doing? They're willing to go out and march around looking like absolute ridiculous things in public and we are not willing to go with the very word of the living God and tell them of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What does that tell us about ourselves? Who has greater faith? Theirs is just misplaced, But they believe it with all of their heart.

Do we? Do we believe it with all of our heart? Brothers and sisters, we cannot preach today what we should have preached yesterday. And we cannot preach tomorrow what we should preach today. And what I mean by that is, I'm not trying to be pithy and funny, but what I mean by that is right now is the time to preach the gospel today.

Today is the day of salvation. I do not want you living your life as if you're storing up for some time in the future when you may preach the gospel. There is actually a gospel that needs to be preached today because today is the day of salvation. We need to go forth to those today and we need to preach the gospel to them because they are lost today and as Charlie Kirk he did not think that Wednesday would have been his last day. There are millions of people out there today that Today is their last day.

You will not have an opportunity to preach to them tomorrow. You cannot preach tomorrow's gospel yesterday. You must preach today's gospel today. Today is the day that we must proclaim the Word of God. They will not endure sound doctrine.

Yes, I know that, but that's why we must proclaim it today. They will gather themselves teachers and they won't hear what we're saying. Yes, I know this, But faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It is God's word that penetrates to the very division of soul and spirit. Today is the day.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and reject the truth and call you all kinds of names and tell you that you are ridiculous and like little children point their fingers at you and plug their ears and cover their eyes saying I can't see and I can't hear and what do you do you proclaim louder and clearer today is the day of salvation They will be turned aside to fables and believe fantasy over reality. It amazes me how people could reject plain and sound biblical logic and embrace utter foolishness. Even small children know the foolishness of it. If they've not been indoctrinated, they know. The Supreme Court justice might not know, but children know.

You know it reminds me of a poem, I don't know if you've, I'm sure you've heard of it, it's very famous, but it's entitled The Gods of the Copybook Heading by Rudyard Kipling. He makes a statement in the fourth stanza and he speaks about how the gods of the copybook heading, aka reason and logic, was out of touch with what progressive ideas of the marketplace were presenting and this is what he says in this fourth stanza, with the hopes that our world is built with the hopes that our world is built on they were utterly out of touch They denied that the moon was Stilton, they denied she was even Dutch. They denied that wishes were horses, they denied that a pig had wings. So we worship the gods of the market who promised these beautiful things." Now that sounds a little funny but go back and read that again and what he's saying is is that the gods of the marketplace that means the progressive ideas of the world that are rejecting reason and logic they are saying that reason and logic are telling us that the moon is not made out of cheese.

They're telling us that pigs don't have wings. They're telling us that wishes are not horses and we're going to reject that wisdom and logic and we're going to try to ride on these wishes and these pigs. But in the end of this poem what we find is this, the poem declaring the reality that will come back with terror and slaughter. Reality always comes back. God's truth never fails.

God's truth cannot fail because it is founded upon the very nature of who God is and the truth of God's reality will come crashing back upon them. But it will come, listen brothers and sisters, this is where it gets really serious. What you saw on Wednesday, what you saw on Wednesday is part of the terror that comes. When a people begin to believe the lies and they begin to believe fables and They're willing to kill you because of what you say The terror of God's reality will come crashing back down Revolutions have been started over things that are going on in our nation right now. Millions of people have died throughout history because of the things that are being taught in the colleges and in education facilities all over this country and all over the world.

Communism and socialism and all of these things have murdered millions of people because of what they believe. What you believe matters. You need to believe the Word of God. You need to stand on his truth. For there's coming a day when all of us will stand before truth and we must give an account.

Thirdly, the cost of the gospel. Paul writes, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. One of the things that has been rolling over and over and over in my mind is this part of Paul's words, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering. This is where I really want to exhort you, because I am exhorting me.

The cost of believing the gospel and the cost of being a follower of Jesus Christ is this. Jesus said it in Luke 9, Then he said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it if a man gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him, the Son of Man, will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his Father's and of the Holy Angels." This is what it means to be poured out as a drink offering.

It means to take up your cross daily and lose your life for Jesus Christ. It means to deny yourself. It means, brothers and sisters, I do not want to live a life where I am leaving anything in the cup. I don't want to live as if I need to reserve some of my life for a tomorrow that may never come. We are not promised tomorrow.

You know the temptation is to think it would not be good to burn out in the service of Christ. But I want you to know I would rather burn out than rust out. I would rather be spent for Christ than to be sitting back on my lease not doing anything thinking that I'm going to live to 80 or 90 or 100. What if the end of my days are this Wednesday? Have I poured it all out on the altar for Jesus Christ?

Have you poured it all out today? Are you willing to pour it all out for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the laws for the glory of Christ? You are living today. Are you living today as if you were going to live another 25 or 30 or 50 years. Young person, don't bet on it.

I'll serve Christ when I get older. I'll serve Christ when I get older. I'll serve Christ when I get married. I'll serve Christ when I'm settled down. I'll serve Christ when I'm old and have retirement wages.

Serve Christ today. Serve him with all that you are. If you knew that this Wednesday was your last Wednesday, what would you do today? What would you do today? I tried this week to put myself in Charlie's shoes and to consider what would be my regrets.

What would I wish I had done and not done? I think one of the things that struck me as we read this passage yesterday in our family time is that like the Apostle Paul, Charlie seemed to have lived his life not only with a full cup but also with an empty cup. And what I mean by that is his cup was full in the sense of the grace of God upon his life but it was also a cup that was empty because every morning he kept pouring out his life for the sake of the gospel. And that's this Christian paradox that we live in. We live in such a spiritual realm that we can pour out everything that we have, all of the grace of God that has been poured into us.

We pour it out into others and to the body of Christ, we pour it out to the lost, we pour it out to our neighbors, we pour it out to our families, we pour it out, we pour it out, we pour it out. And then when we wake up in the morning, we find that Jesus Christ by his grace has filled us up again but the fallacy is thinking well the oil might run out I better save some of this for later And in fact what happens is the more you pour out the more he fills you up. The more you give of yourself, the more you lay it all out on the line, the more the grace of God and the love of God and the joy of God fills your hearts and lives. And it gives you more to pour out. And I think that this man was he understood this from an early age.

He just poured and poured and poured and God kept filling and filling and filling. I think about that widow go get all the vessels that you can find and the oil just kept flowing. That's the spirit of the living God at work in every believer that when we give of ourselves God's spirit just keeps filling and filling and filling and we need to keep giving and giving and giving and pour it all out on the altar. Give of your life. Give it all.

That's why Paul could say this, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. I don't want to stand before my Savior with a full reserve tank. I want to be full of grace and at the same time I want to be pouring out my grace-filled life. I want this to be my testimony at the end of my life. I want to be able to say that I have fought the good fight.

I want to be able to say that I have finished the race, that I did not give up. I did not forsake. I did not quit. I did not grow weary in well-doing, but I continued with perseverance to the very end. I don't want it to be said that he disqualified himself.

I want to keep the faith and persevere. I want to have strength until the very end of my days, and by God's grace may that be the prayer of us all. Keep us, oh Lord. The words of this song come to mind, Am I a soldier of the cross? Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the lamb, and shall I fear to own his calls or blush to speak his name?

Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sail through troubled, excuse me, through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend of grace to help me on to God? Sure I might fight if I would reign.

Increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain supported by the word and the refrain goes and when the battles over we shall wear a crown yes we shall wear a crown and when the battles over we shall wear a crown in the New Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown and when the battle's over we shall wear a crown. Which leads me to the final point, the reward of the gospel. This is the fullness of the life that is poured out.

Finally in verse 8 there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing. To all. There's a reward for those who love the Lord. Are you looking forward to that day? I am.

That day when sin and death will be no more and every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and a crown of righteousness in that day will be given to his saints. I don't know necessarily that we're going to go around with our crowns and saying look at my crown. It's a crown of righteousness brothers and sisters. There will be no boasting. The crown will be this, we have finally and fully been made into the image of Christ.

And the righteousness which is Christ will be ours. We are accounted righteous now, but guess what? Live with me just for a day and you'll know that I'm not righteous. But then you will say, I never get tired of being around Mr. Moody.

He is as righteous as his Savior and that will be my crown of righteousness that God will give to me on that day. Do not faint. Do not lose heart. Persevere to the end. Fight the good fight.

Pour your life out. And for application I just want you to think practically just for a moment. How do you do this? It doesn't necessarily mean that every person here, every Christian needs to go out and do exactly what Charlie Kirk did. Praise God for Charlie Kirk's.

Praise God for mama's who stay at home, raise their family, love their husbands, teach their children the Word of God. Teach those children to love Jesus with all their heart. And you shall wear a crown. And you shall wear a crown. Praise God for the fathers who get up and go and go to work and support their families, love their wives and their children, do the work that they're supposed to do to support their family.

You shall wear a crown, you shall wear a crown. And praise God for you singles and you young people who have such energy and zeal. And God has given you great opportunity. Don't think that I'll serve the Lord when I'm married that's when my life will begin you're full in yourself life has already begun the day you were born again is the day that you should be living for Jesus and you pour it out every day you get up you're maybe still living in your home, pour it out. Pour it out, pour that life out over and over again and you will find that God keeps filling you and filling you and filling you.

Pour it out and you young person shall wear a crown. You shall wear a crown. So give your life, take my life and let it be consecrated unto thee. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, O God we pray, Lord that your word would settle upon our hearts, that it would so encourage us to go and pour out our lives for the cause of Jesus Christ and everything we put our hands to do.

Help us Lord not to think, boy I'm getting low and think to ourselves of what we are lacking but Lord let us just keep pouring out the grace that you have poured in. And Lord I believe that when we are faithful to pour it out, you are more than faithful to fill it up. Help us to live for the glory of God. Encourage Lord these mamas here today. Their work is the greatest work I do believe as they raise these children to be little warriors for Jesus Christ.

Lord, I pray for these fathers here today. God bless them. Keep them. Lord, do not let them stumble. And Lord, all of these single folks here today and children, Lord, oh God, and still in the end the zeal and the passion to preach the gospel everywhere they go, may they not be fearful, may they be bold and courageous like a lion because they have the spirit or the sword of the spirit, the Word of God.

And so Lord help us today to go from this place not thinking to ourselves, I'm glad I heard that, But Lord help us leave this building today Asking ourselves Lord. How do you want me to apply that? Give me opportunity Oh Lord to do it to do the Word of God and Where I know that you will give the grace we needed to accomplish all your holy will and I ask these things in Christ's name.