Stay On Target | November 16, 2025

Hey, thanks worship team.

I couldn't have you guys actually play

that because you would've done it.

With way too much heart.

You know what I'm saying?

We're not gonna take, actually

I was thinking about this.

How crazy.

A contrast from all hail king

Jesus to we're not gonna take it.

Nope.

We're not gonna take it.

Right.

Don't even try.

It's our life.

It's our song.

Right.

Crazy.

Crazy.

I don't think there's a more iconic.

Rock anthem that captures the heart of

man's rebellion better than this song.

You know, we're not gonna take it.

We're just gonna do what we want to do.

The powers that be.

Yeah.

We'll fight the powers that be

right, and that's God himself.

We're not gonna take it well.

Hey listen, I was super excited today to

walk through the big finale of the classic

rock series that we've been going through.

I keep wanting, say we've been

rocking through, uh, I had my

AC DC Jesus shirt ready to go.

I was gonna impress Mike.

It was gonna be awesome.

He's gonna be like Jesus.

He was gonna be super good today.

Uh, and then I had to yield a

little bit, I think, to the Lord

of heaven and earth because.

I'm telling you, man, it was so fun

listening to like 30 classic rock

songs and Satan does an amazing

job of perverting the truth, right?

And my plan was, while Jamie

was next door rocking the teen

preteen class, I was gonna pervert

the other stuff for good, right?

I was gonna take what Satan had given

us maybe and pervert it for God's glory.

But uh, she just thought I was

ridiculous, which is pretty normal.

And I get that a lot, right?

Actually, I worked on this a lot all

week and kept building it out, kept

building it out, and I was like, this

is, this is, uh, this is gonna be cool.

It's gonna be great.

And then God just kind of kept saying no.

And uh, I just kept hitting that.

And then I was thinking about

this song and how perfectly.

Perfectly pictured it is that

here I am saying, God, this

is what I wanna preach on.

This is what I wanna do.

I'm really excited to do this fun thing.

And he's like, that's

not your church, bro.

I'm, I'm the lead, I'm the head

pastor at White Rock, right?

Uh, I'm the head of the church.

And so, uh, I can't do that today.

I really want to just know that deep in

my heart are a bunch of lame eighties

tunes rocking around, bouncing around.

I don't want you to.

To stop believing, you know what I mean?

And hold onto that feeling.

There's so many things

I wanna share with you.

Uh, and maybe if God is really

gracious, he'll let me do this

knuckleheaded thing down the road.

But today I gotta take you over second

Timothy chapter four, verse five.

And, uh, I don't really know why

other than I spent some time in this

passage in Timothy lately, and this

passage just sort of grabbed me in

a, in a way that it wouldn't let go.

And, uh.

We could spend some time talking through

in this classic rock series, the, the

whole, whole story, right, of God's

dealing with mankind and our rebellion.

That's where I wanted to start and talk

about our sin and all these things.

Uh, but in two Timothy chapter four, verse

five, there's really this interesting

call to the church and how we're

gonna engage and how we're gonna live.

And I don't know who it's for, and

I don't know why I gotta do it, but.

God wouldn't let me let this go.

So if it's for you, I just want you to

know, I blame you for ruining my fun

rock and roll Sunday I had planned.

Um, but I'll bet it's way better

than my lame attempts at some fun.

So let's jump over to second

Timothy chapter four, verse five.

Put on the screen for you

so you can track with it.

It says this, but as for

you always be sober minded.

Endure suffering.

Do the work of an evangelist,

fulfill your ministry.

Now Paul is talking to Timothy and

Timothy's, this young dude, right,

who's leading the church and this

letter of Timothy as well as a

letter of Titus that follows it are

sort of these instructions, right?

And some guidance on being

a leader in the church.

And so honestly, part of my

wrestling was like, Lord, are you

sure I should talk about this?

I mean, they're not all a room

full of pastors out here or

young leaders in the church.

And it's really directed, right,

this phrase, but as for you, it's

definitely directed to Timothy, right?

So if your name's Tim, sorry,

Tim, you gotta pay attention.

One, one guy.

This is for you, Tim.

You ruined my rock and roll Sunday.

Um, if your name's Timothy, I guess

you could make the application.

Uh, but the more I prayed about

this, the more I wrestled with this

and the more I kind of struggle

with the Holy Spirit on this.

Like, what do you wanna say

to your people on this Lord?

Um, I couldn't get away

from the reality that.

I talk a lot about how

God calls us aos, right?

In the New Testament we're all those

who are believers in Jesus Christ are

called aos in the Greek right saints,

not sinners, not different tiered,

but actually saints in Christ Jesus.

And then late last night I was.

In a debate with the guy like 1130

last night we were doing carpet

next door and this Spanish guy

has become a really good friend.

He wanted to argue Catholicism

for like an hour at 1130 at

night, and it was so interesting.

But see, here's the thing.

God calls us saints, he calls me a saint,

and Jamie doesn't, but he does, right?

And he calls those of you who

are followers of Jesus Christ.

Aos Holy One Saints to the AOS

in Philippi, right to the AOS

in Ephesus, to the church, to

the followers of Jesus Christ.

We're saints.

And sometimes we do this thing in the

church where if we can do it, and I

would do it if I were you, if you could

find sections of scripture that you

could say, ah, doesn't apply to me.

I don't have to listen,

that's super fun and nice.

Don't get me wrong, right?

But I'm not so sure that this is

something that doesn't resonate.

Through most of the call to the church

through most of the New Testament.

And in fact, if you go into Titus some

of the stuff he's gonna say to the

older men and call the younger men

to some self-control in these areas.

So I'm gonna just stretch out here

and say, I don't think this only can

exclusively apply to a guy named Timothy

who was helping as a leader in the church.

And I wanna encourage you that

God has called you to be a leader.

In the church, in your house, the church

in your heart, the church, in your school,

in your workplace, in your environment.

God's called you to be

a leader in that space.

And so instead of maybe just saying, Hey,

none of this stuff applies to me, maybe

say, Lord, how does this apply to me?

I get the privilege of speaking

during the week to a bunch of what

I'm gonna call young leaders in the

church, and a lot of 'em don't know

it yet or don't want to own it yet.

But that's really what they are, man,

young people who are getting filled with

what God's truth looks like and going into

a world where God's calling them to lead.

And instead of maybe backing off that

we should maybe embrace it a little bit.

So if you'll permit

me, let's dive in here.

As for you Timothy, as for you.

Aos.

Holy one set apart.

One Follower.

Jesus Christ.

Always be sober minded.

Always be sober.

Minded, this word, um, FAOs in the

fao in the Greek means to watch.

It's a really cool picture.

We think of sober as, uh, sobriety

from alcohol or substance abuse,

and it absolutely has that tie in.

A hundred percent does, but it

also has this image of watch.

To be able to be attentive and

engaged and to see, and to watch.

And I guess if you're not sober,

it's really hard to watch, right?

It's really hard to pay attention

and engage, but that's really

what this scripture ties to.

I was, I was thinking to myself like, I

feel like I talked about this recently

and I looked back and, uh, I'm gonna

take you on a little 2023 flashback.

Now, here's what I wanna say really quick.

So, you know, if.

You remember this sermon in 2023

and if you've mastered the content

from God's word and like you're

like, dude, I already got this,

you can just get up, take a break.

Totally cool.

I just wanna walk back into

Thessalonians a minute and remind

you of what maybe you already know.

And if for the sake of those around you

and you're like, I got this mastered.

I already remember it.

This is so boring for me.

For the sake of those around you,

if you wanna pretend like it's stuff

you didn't remember, that's cool.

Just being gracious to

one another in love.

Uh, or you could be like me, the guy who

preached it and be like, dude, there's a

lot of stuff in here I didn't remember.

This is cool.

Uh, okay, moving on first says, Romanians

chapter five, six, and seven says this.

So then let us not be like others who are

asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night,

those who get drunk get drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, let us be.

Sober and we see an

interesting contrast here.

Sober.

Sober, drunk, drunk.

There's definitely some substance

abusing versus being awake and alert

and engaged right in this scripture.

But I think more than just

that, there's this sense of

this spiritual sobriety, right?

This being spiritually sober.

Scripture says here in this passage,

others, they're asleep, right?

Other people, people who aren't in

relationship with Jesus Christ, who

aren't trying to walk with him in

alertness and engaged, they're asleep.

Right?

They're passed out.

They're completely unaware

of what's going on.

They don't know what's happening.

They don't see what's happening.

It's part of why people

get led astray, right?

And there's a warning to the

followers of Jesus Christ in the

end, right in the final countdown,

the end of the world as we know it.

Sorry, more of those songs popping

in, uh, at the end of time.

Followers of Jesus Christ are

cautioned that they not be led astray.

You know how you get led astray?

You're not paying attention.

You're passed out.

You're checked out, you're asleep.

You're not aware.

But let us be people who are

different than those who are asleep.

Let us be awake and let us be sober awake.

Sober.

This idea of aware, of alert, right on

guard, that we're not numbed out, that

we're not medicated, and just simply just

me through life, just not paying attention

because we're so consumed with substances

or stuff we're watching, or stuff we're

pouring into our hearts to just make the

pain go away, make the reality go away.

Right.

We're just numbing out.

Instead, we gotta be people

who aren't caught off guard

by what's going on, right?

And here's why.

Because I dunno what's up here.

Let's see.

This has been a long time.

Those who sleep, they sleep at night.

And those who get drunk get drunk

at night and Jesus says, Hey, we're

a little bit different than that.

We belong to the day.

We're not children of darkness.

Who numb out, who check out,

who do all these things that

the world around us does.

We engage and we live differently, right?

We are light.

We are children of our father in

heaven who is light right in him.

There is no darkness at all.

So we stay away from the deeds of

darkness and we walk in the light.

So let us be sober, right,

right-minded, present, engaged.

What else?

Ready on guard.

So that we're feeling, so that we are

knowing and so that we are seeing that's

what spiritual sobriety looks like,

that we know, that we see and that we

feel, I mean, I don't know if you like

me, but there's Sure a lot of times

where like, I would really like to

not feel Jamie and I always have this

conversation, like, how do you feel like.

That's a terrible question because

I don't want to answer how I feel.

I feel ready to rip my hair out.

I don't have any left to pull on, so

it's just not gonna be good, right?

Like we have a lot of feelings and we

try to sometimes mask those and hide

from those and get away from those.

But God calls us to be people who are

engaged and who are present so that

we can feel it's part of what we do

in our sharing time is feel where

each other are at and hear where each

other are at, and give honest space.

For vulnerability and safety and

sensitivity and prayer and encouragement,

and even fears and worries and

anxieties to be presented and shared

so that we can build each other up.

Right?

Amen.

There's this really important space where

we need to feel and we need to sometimes

feel together rather than maybe going and

feel with people you shouldn't feel with.

I guess that should be

like a lesson in school.

Don't feel with people

you shouldn't feel with.

Hmm.

That sounds, yeah, and here's

what I don't like about this.

It says always.

You know what I mean?

Always.

I was really hoping it was

like sporadically, randomly.

When it's convenient, be sober minded.

Right?

Or when things aren't

stressful, be sober minded.

Or when things aren't hard,

when it's easy, be sober minded.

Right?

We have a really hard time doing this.

You know why?

'cause we have an ED problem.

Um, lemme explain Escapism.

Distraction.

And lemme just say, uh, if escapism and

distraction is like endless pornography,

that's currently becoming an EDA

epidemic in our culture, especially

amongst young people, which is crazy.

So I just wanna get your

attention with the ED comment.

Thought I would.

So let's talk for just a second about

these two ideas, escapism and distraction.

Right?

What's, what's escapism?

Well, escapism is I just

want to get out, right?

I just gotta get out.

And all too often, as followers of

Jesus, we're put in environments and

situations where we're supposed to grow,

bring impact, honor him, show people

something they haven't seen before.

All kinds of things.

And we worship escapism.

There is a move within our

culture to just get out.

Out of our circumstances, out of our

situations, out of hard things, outta

difficult things, we avoid it like

crazy and we spiritualize it too, right?

We're like, if it's hard, god's not in it.

That's like the opposite

of what God does, right?

Like he lets us walk through hard

things for our growth and for

all kinds of important eternal

things that really matter.

Do you know who greases the slides and

lets you walk down this big wide easy road

where people are hitting beach balls in

the air and having a good time the wide.

Wide road.

You know where it leads

death and destruction.

Jesus warned us about that.

Do you know what he said?

Come walk the narrow road.

It's tricky.

It's hard to navigate.

It's difficult.

Few find it.

It's tough.

It's not easy.

And somehow in our modern Christian

world, we're like, easy equals God.

Hard equals mm. Devil

don't do hard things.

And I would challenge you, man.

It's probably the

flip-flop inverse of that.

The harder it is, maybe

the more god's in it.

The easier it is.

Maybe you need to be like one of those

westerns, right, where you're like,

seems a little too easy.

I'm just kidding.

That's stupid.

All right, moving on.

Uh, escapism.

Just get out and then

distraction what distraction is.

Do anything else?

Do anything else.

Right.

We love to escape.

We love to get out and if we can't

get out, we love to do anything else.

Right.

Besides what we should be doing, um,

Jamie thinks I have undiagnosed adult.

A DHD.

I don't see it.

I don't see it at all.

Stop nodding your heads.

This is not an amen moment.

I'm just saying, uh, I'm super

good at finding all the other elses

that could be attended to besides

the thing I need to be doing.

Right.

That's pretty easy for me.

Anything else?

Jamie and I were talking yesterday,

uh, she was reading a little

article from a lady who was in

Iran doing some mission work.

And she came home and it was really

intense where, you know, fearing for your

life, a lot of persecution and having

to be super careful, all this stuff.

And, uh, she was talking and the

interviewer was talking to her, that man,

doesn't it feel good to be here where it's

safe and kind of outta that environment

and you can kind of just breathe.

And she said, act actually,

no, uh, I hate it here.

This is way harder.

She said, there are way

too many distractions here.

To try to serve the Lord.

I don't know.

This is too hard.

And I thought, poof.

That's legit.

Huh?

I don't know.

Um, I, I don't know if you're

like me, I feel like I have to

have my phone on like twenty four

seven 'cause I'm a pastor, right?

What if somebody needs me?

Unfortunately, or fortunately I

don't get calls 24 7 of MI of Crisis.

Do you know what I do get?

I get ESPN updates 24 7 and MMA fights

that I don't even know why they're there.

'cause I don't like MMA, right?

I don't even know what's going.

My phone comes after me all the time.

I don't know how many conversations

I've started with my wife about how

to maybe adjust some things in our

life to be a better husband and to

create a better environment and.

Dude, I turn and look

and she's on her phone.

'cause there's been an important text.

I mean, I wasn't on my phone, right?

Or wait, no, maybe, I can't remember.

Anyways, we're all distracted.

Distraction, distraction, distraction.

I've been talking about like, hey,

maybe I need to do like a phone fast,

or maybe I lock in my phone for a

certain time of day and then people

are like, Hey, we're in the hospital.

We're dying.

Could you pray with us?

I'm like, sorry bro.

I didn't get my, didn't get the message.

You know?

That's what the devil tells me,

so I better keep my phone on.

Right?

It's crazy.

Jamie and I were talking about,

Hey, what if we looked at an hour

and we said like, God gets 10%.

So maybe what we should do is start

relegating percentages of hour, maybe

the first 10 minutes of every hour, my

phone's active and on, and the rest of

the time it's silenced and put away.

And I check it every top

of the hour for 10 minutes.

That's it.

Boom.

And that's what that space gets,

so that the rest of my life

gets to the other 50 minutes.

Now, I don't know if that's a

good idea somebody came up with

or if it's a terrible idea.

I'm just broadcasting.

I don't really know.

I'm just saying the struggle is real.

The distractions are everywhere.

I mean, right now you guys are sitting

here trying to talk about some really

important stuff from God's word, and you

got phones that are buzzing and jiggling

and you got, you know, a thought that

pops in your head about a really cool

marketing campaign that Keynes is doing

where you can get some free chicken.

Like there's just stuff, right?

It's just everywhere.

Josh.

Stop thinking about that, bro.

Alright.

Everywhere.

Everywhere, right?

Lemme just encourage you that if

you're trying to follow Jesus.

Do you know who even more

than your own sinful flesh

wants you to do anything else?

Man, the devil does, doesn't he?

Remember we talked about living on a

prayer a couple weeks ago and the idea

that it's really hard to pray in large

part because the devil would rather

you get distracted with anything else

than go to the epic source of power.

That can change all of eternity in

people's lives, in the situations

and circumstances that are hard

and we're just trying to get

out of, 'cause we wanna escape.

Now, I'm not saying we don't

live with some balance.

I'm not saying there's not Sabbath,

there is, but man, be careful and if you

need to go see a somebody about your ED

problem, get that taken care of because

we're supposed to be always sober minded.

And then just to make sure we didn't miss

it, Paul's really gracious to say, oh,

hey, and by the way, endure suffering.

Right?

I'm like, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Sober minded, always watchful.

What about when it's hard?

Oh yeah.

Endure suffering.

This is actually, if you go to

those, um, special workshops that

help you grow a church, this is how

you build an amazing megachurch.

You just talk about suffering and

you preach about it endlessly.

And how Jesus said, take up

your cross and follow me.

And in this life you will have

trouble and you're gonna suffer.

People cannot get enough of it.

I'm just saying.

Sarcasm.

Those sarcasm.

And if you guys like that, that

makes me a little concerned.

I don't like to suffer.

I don't want to suffer.

Jesus is getting ready to go to the

cross and he's praying, God, father,

is there any way out of this thing?

Right?

Because I don't wanna go through it.

Nobody wants to suffer, right?

But when we try to suffer or when we walk

through suffering, God has purpose in it.

I'm sure you've heard this.

Romans five, three through four

helps very clearly lay out sort of

a strategy to it all that God maybe

lets us look behind the curtain.

Not only that, but we

rejoice in our sufferings.

We celebrate, yay, yay.

I tried this when I was doing

construction in college.

I started like when

I'd hit my hand with a.

A hammer, you know, which was more often

than probably should have been the case.

I would say Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you.

Thank you that I hit my hand.

Thank you.

It was a total lie, but I was

trying really hard to make myself

have a good attitude and rejoice

even when things were hard, right?

I also hoped it would translate

into me not hitting myself.

It didn't work.

It just kept happening.

So maybe God was like, this is good, Andy.

Let's build on this, right?

It's hard to celebrate in our

sufferings, but here's the purpose in it.

We celebrate because we know

God's at work, because suffering.

See, we know, right?

We know.

We don't guess.

We're not wondering.

We're not hoping.

We know that that suffering that God's

allowing us to walk through is producing

something in us called endurance or

perseverance, so that we can keep stay.

Because here's the deal, guys.

Jesus said, in this life

you're gonna have trouble.

Life is hard.

There's gonna be hard things that happen.

There's gonna be cancer,

there's gonna be death.

Everybody's gonna experience it.

And we've been fed this line that, man,

if you come to Jesus, you get abundant

life here in a fallen world without any

pain, suffering, difficulty, or hardship.

It's just not what the Bible teaches.

Now, is there an eternity that's

epic and ridiculous and beyond

comprehension that makes everything.

Totally just pale in comparison to that.

Yes.

That's the only reason we can keep going.

Right?

But the truth is, life is hard

and difficult, and sometimes

we wanna avoid that, right?

But as we press into that space and say,

I trust God in the midst of it, he's

building muscle memory and strength and

stamina to keep standing when it's hard.

And that is critical, right?

It's critical not only for your

own spiritual life so that you

don't fall away and give up and

throw in the talent and quit.

That other people around you can see.

Nobody is impressed when a Christian

drives in with a super epic car and

smoking hot wife and amazing kids that

listen and they wave and people are

like, man, it's so good to follow Jesus.

No, people are not impressed with that.

People are impressed with everybody

who's trying to, trying to make it and

facing hard things and difficult things,

but still says, Hey, God is good, and

I trust him even in the hard stuff.

That's where the power is of

the gospel man and our witness.

And we gotta lean into that space.

'cause God needs us to

be people who endure.

And this world's gonna get darker.

And it's gonna get harder.

And if God's people can't stand and now

if God can stand it, sorry, I was lame.

Alright.

And that endurance is

produced in character in us.

Right.

It's not just actions of pers.

I'm not just somebody who

occasionally perseveres.

I'm not just an endurer sometimes.

This is, this is the character of my life.

I'm somebody who doesn't quit.

I'm somebody who stands.

I'm somebody who endures.

I'm somebody who does not give way.

That's character.

And God is building that in us, and

as he does that, it produces hope.

Like legit hope, like it's gonna be okay.

'cause no matter what comes, God has

built me to be able to stand and his

goodness is greater than whatever

this world is thrown at me, right?

He has purpose in enduring suffering.

So watch, pay attention, be

engaged, endure, persevere.

And then this one is interesting,

do the work of an evangelist.

Hey, Becca, come here real quick.

Would you, uh, I love bringing my

family up here and giving them a

chance to just be part of the fun.

And you might've been here a few

months ago when Josiah and Becca's

relationship was on the rocks

and I brought her up because.

If you're gonna be in my family, yes.

I love you.

Okay?

If you're gonna be in my family,

you just gotta be part of the fun.

And you thought announcements

was enough, but you did such a

great job with the announcements.

I was like, she wants more.

Did you guys feel that too?

She wants more.

See, see, they know it.

They know too.

Okay.

I may or may not have, uh, thrown

you under the bus about pronouncing

some Greek words, but this word

evangelist in the Greek is this.

And we'll give it a shot for us, please.

Well, I know the beginning.

Which is you and Kelly.

Stu would be my guess at the end.

Yeah.

Lease days least.

Sure.

Team it up together.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Hey.

All right.

Dip around.

Plus my future daughter-in-law.

Thank you.

Good job.

Good job.

Gotta find a new bit.

No, no, I like it.

I'm gonna run that one into the ground.

Um.

Plus, Becca told me I'm not invited

to the wedding anyhow, so that's cool.

It's gonna be great.

Hey, this is a crazy big word and I

thought of you the minute I saw it, Becca.

'cause Josiah and Becca like to get

into the Greek and have some fun SOEs.

I don't really know if that's the

Indiana pronunciation or what,

but this word evangelist has this

idea of being a Proclaimer, right?

A herald.

Harolds of salvation through Christ.

Harolds you.

Anybody name Harold here?

No.

Okay.

Hey, uh, a Harold, you might

recognize it's this time of year

where we talk about these guys Hark.

You remember him?

He was one of the Herald angels.

Har the Harold.

Angel sings Harold.

What do they do?

They proclaim right?

And Jesus has called his people

to be Harold's and Proclaimers.

Would you just turn the person

next to you and say, hi, Harold.

Go ahead.

Be good.

Hi Harold.

Ken, why did you just glare your husband?

That's weird, right?

That that was good.

Dan, I appreciate you, Dan.

Just committed right off the bat.

That's, that's beautiful.

I am not Harold, and if you

call me Harold, you'll be, yeah.

Anyways.

Alright, so God has called us

to do the work of an evangelist,

and what is that message?

It's.

To be someone who's a proclaimer of

the gospel, who shares the good news

of Jesus, who teaches, who speaks,

who shares, who proclaims, right?

And it got me thinking about this

question, what are you proclaiming

when you look at your life?

You look at what you're doing.

What are you proclaiming with your mouth?

What are you proclaiming?

You might be proclaiming that

it's time for, uh, running

back to win the MVP award.

I don't know.

Maybe that's what you're proclaiming.

You might be proclaiming that

the stuff of this world is really

valuable and matters, and I need to

chase after it with all my heart.

You might be proclaiming

injustice and victimization.

You might be proclaiming

just how miserable life is

and the circumstances stink.

You might be broke.

I mean, there's a billion

things fill in the blank.

What are you proclaiming?

Oh, and just in case you were like,

well, I don't really say a lot

of negative stuff, that's cool.

Uh, what are you proclaiming

with your life, your actions?

Because here's the little

secret about heralds.

I dunno if you know a lot about

heralds, but here's the secret.

Your heralding something, everybody

is the words of your mouth.

The actions of your life are proclaiming

what matters, what's important.

What you value, what you think

truth is, you're a proclaimer Jen.

Even if you don't like

it, you're a herald.

And I'm sorry.

We are all heralds and this

scripture calls us to be people.

Thanks to my daughter-in-law's

Greek breakdown that herald

the gospel of Jesus Christ, the

truth of salvation through Jesus.

So I don't know what you're

proclaiming, but I would encourage

you that as a follower of Jesus.

Some of the words from your mouth and

some of the actions of your life need

to be saying to the world around you.

Jesus is, Lord Jesus

offers us hope and life.

I wanna talk to you in my words and my

actions about salvation through Jesus.

And then this cool phrase, fulfill

your ministry, this word fulfill.

It's, it's really, it's cute and it's

little and it's sweet and it just means.

To carry through to the end,

to carry through to the end.

God has called his people to fulfill,

to carry through to the end their

ministry, and you'd be like, sweet.

Another spot I don't have to pay

attention to, not a minister.

Oh, but here's the problem.

This word ministry is really

just about service and God has

called you to be a minister.

In your family, in your friend groups,

in your communities, he's called you

to serve the least of these, to serve

those who are sick and in prison, who are

poor, who are marginalized, the people

who are cruel and mean your enemies.

He's called you to serve them all,

to be a minister to them all, and

as a follower of Jesus Christ, we're

called to carry out through the end.

This service, this loving our neighbor,

this ministry that God's called us to.

We gotta endure.

We gotta stand and we gotta carry on.

Paul wraps up this thought with this

cool phrase that we all probably have

heard the, I'm sorry for, I'm already

being poured out like a drink offering,

and the time of my departure has come.

He says, man, I've been emptied.

Poured out for the sake of the gospel.

And you know Paul's not a bitter old

man saying, dang it, I'm all used up.

He said, woo hoo, bout empty.

This is the one time you can

be like glass half empty.

Let's go Paul.

Good job.

Right?

Because he was allowing himself to be

poured out for purpose and for meaning.

And he says, I've fought the good fight.

I've finished the race.

I've kept the faith.

And there is now stored

up for me in heaven.

Pretty epic treasure, right crown of

righteousness, and it's available for you.

But as for you, always be sober minded.

Lock in, engage, watch.

No numbing out, no escapism.

No distraction is lock in.

Work hard at it.

Build things into your life that

help you walk in that way and

be prepared and continue in hard

things and difficult circumstances.

'cause God is not abandoning you.

He is at work and he is building

significant things for eternity that

we can't see in their fullness now.

But he has great purpose in it.

And be a proclaimer of the good news.

You got a mouth.

You got body parts, put 'em to use,

sharing the love of Jesus with the

people around you and don't quit.

Carry it through to the end.

God has called you to ministry and to

service in his kingdom and to the world

around us, in your family, and everywhere.

So carry on.

You don't have to keep

calm, just carry on.

'cause God's at work and the

attorney's gonna look different.

If we become people who walk this way

through whatever he calls us to walk in.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for hijacking a lame

classic rock sermon to share your eternal

truth and encourage our hearts, Lord,

you know where people are walking.

You know the circumstances, the things

people want to avoid and escape from,

you know, the distractions in our life.

You know, how badly we would

prefer not to endure hard things.

Please help us, give us perspective and

give us courage to keep pressing on and to

not abandon our post, and not to give up,

but to fulfill what you've called us to.

And part of that calling God is to be

a proclaimer who shares the eternal

hope of Jesus with people around us.

So help us to do that in love

and in gentleness and respect,

but help us not shrink back.

We wanna be able, at the end of our

days, like Paul did say, we got poured

out for something greater than us.

We got used up for the, the beauty of

eternal impact in the kingdom of God.

And we finish the race well

and we receive.

Great joy, great reward

more than all that Lord.

Just the great hope of

eternal relationship with you.

Lord, help us as we navigate

this crazy world around us.

Thank you for my friends here today

and the chance to just share together

a little bit and be in your presence.

Please go with us from this place and help

us be impactful as your proclaimers who

stand even when it's hard in Jesus' name.

Amen.