Paul's Last Words - The Way of the Steadfast

Hello everyone, I'm Dr.

Steve Holt.

I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.

Each week we go into God's Word.

We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

And we are here to build a Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.

So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.

Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker.

I get the pleasure of going over 2 Timothy chapter 4.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

And it's 22 verses.

I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to finish, but the good news is I'm speaking next week also.

So this is a two-parter.

I had like five pages of notes just for the first two verses.

And I got to the first verse, and I was just bawling my guts out.

There's so much here.

And this is probably one of Paul's most solemn chapters that he's written up to this point of time.

And to bring a little balance and a little levity, and if you know me, I like to add a little bit of humor.

So over this past week I looked and I saw all these church bulletin bloopers.

And so I'm going to share some of those this morning.

Now these are actual bloopers.

I didn't make these up.

People had actually put these in bloopers.

And so, you know, I used to love watching Johnny Carson and the tonight's show in the monologue and David Letterman.

I always had his top 10 list.

So I've got the top 10 list of the Church Bolton bloopers of the last week.

So you're ready?

Are you really ready?

Yeah.

Okay.

Number 10.

The Low Self-Esteem Support Group will be meeting on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Please use the back door.

Numero number nine.

The ladies' Bible study will be Thursday at 11.

There will be a lunch in the fellowship hall after the BS is over.

Number eight.

It's drug awareness week, parents.

Get involved in drugs before your kids do.

But who would write these things, you know?

Number seven, this is a good one.

Bertha Belch, our missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight.

Come here, Bertha Belch, all the way from Africa.

Number five, number cinco.

This is a good one.

Ladies, don't forget Saturday's rummage sale.

It's the chance to get rid of those things you don't need anymore.

Feel free to bring your husbands.

Number four.

This morning's sermon is entitled Jesus Walks on Water.

Tonight's sermon is entitled Searching for Jesus.

Number three.

But number two, are you ready?

Tonight's sermon is entitled, What is Hell?

Come early and listen to the choir practice.

And now, number one.

Number one, Logan, can I get a drum roll?

Number one.

The number one church bulletin blooper that I heard over the last week.

There will be an ice cream still show on Tuesday afternoon.

Ladies giving milk, please come early.

I don't know.

I don't care who you are, those are funny.

Well, you know, I feel like I'm in a relay race.

And Pastor Josh and Pastor Ryan, Pastor Andy taught the first three chapters of 2 Timothy.

It's like they each ran a leg of a relay, and they've handed the baton off to me and they're saying, El take it home, and I've got a commanding league.

Just don't blow it out.

Just don't blow it.

You can do it.

And it's really apropos because Paul talks many times about running a race, and he said, I've run the race.

He says this in this chapter.

So it's very appropriate that we think of a relay race.

It's important to note that this is Paul's last chapter of his last book, his last testimony to Timothy.

Matt Rupert said, It's his famous last words.

It's his last chance to do public speaking because he knew the end was near.

He was a Roman citizen, he couldn't be crucified, he knew he'd be beheaded.

And he knew, I mean, he was on death row, he knew it was a very short period period of time.

How many of you know that when you're near the end, you talk a little bit differently, you think a little bit differently.

And I think Paul is more somber, more solemn in this chapter than any other up till this point.

Because he knew he had a very short time to live.

I've had seven near-death episodes in my life.

I survived two car accidents.

One was two weeks before I got saved.

Um, I was crossing a road kind of like Powers, but a little bit busier, Miller Trunk Highway, Duluth, Minnesota.

And I had a green light, and a guy ran a red light, and he hit me in my driver's door going 65 or 70.

It was a Buick, and I looked up and I saw this car right there, and I just I wasn't saved.

I just said, Jesus.

And I woke up in the ditch, I had a little bandage on my head, there was an EMT there.

I said, Thanks for getting me out of the car.

He said, You know, that's just it.

I didn't get you out of the car.

There was a guy dressed all in white that got you out of the car, and I said, Well, where is he?

I want to thank him.

And he says, you know, I turned to say something to him and he was gone.

So I'm pretty sure that was an angel, got me thinking about God.

Another accident like that, real similar, both times there was nothing left of the driver's seat.

It made me start thinking about why am I here?

Um, I've had cancer three times, seven years ago.

They took off my whole left half of my face.

When I say they took off my whole left half of my face, they cut me from here to here to here, down into my chest, rotated all the skin up and over.

This used to be my chest.

Before the surgery, I asked the doctor, Do you think you can maybe, just maybe, make me look like Brad Pitt?

He said, only half your face.

I said, Well, that's the half uh, well, face the cameras.

So, you know, 10 days after the surgery, he took the bandage off and he shook his head for about a minute.

And I thought, oh, here we go.

He made a mistake, I'm gonna look like Frankenstein.

And I said, Tell me what's wrong?

He said, Well, nothing now, just the opposite.

He said, I've been doing this for 22 years.

I've never seen anyone heal that much.

Besides a little bruise I had right about there, you could barely tell.

And I looked in the mirror and said, Man, you do good work.

And I said, You should consider doing this for a living.

You're pretty good at this.

And so, um, and then three years ago, I've had two heart attacks.

One when I was 38, under a lot of stress, working for a company, had a lot of responsibility.

Three years ago, we were up at our men's dance and divide.

We were entering into worship, my chest started feeling heavy, my back started hurting, and I knew I was having a heart attack.

My dad died from a heart condition.

I had one before, I knew it was coming.

Said something to Pastor Ryan and Josh Personius, loaded me in his car, and I mean he flew to Woodland Park, and he was going so fast, I was flopping around like a fish out of water.

And um I wasn't concerned, I wasn't scared.

I was concerned, but I wasn't scared because I knew where I was going.

My thought was, I just want to take as many people as I can with me, you know.

So we get to Woodland Park, they did a couple tests, sure enough, I was having a heart attack.

And um, you know, I I wanted to pray as many people as I could.

I prayed for 17 people.

They were waiting for a room to open up in Colorado Springs about 1.30 in the morning.

This was about 9 o'clock or so when they brought me to Woodland Park.

About 1.30 in the morning, ambulance came down, and I was able to leave the ambulance driver and one of the two EMTs to the Lord on the way down to Colorado Springs.

And uh the other ambulance driver let me, or the other EMT let me pray for him.

I got to my room and um before I left the hospital, I prayed for 39 different people.

It was about 1.30, 2 o'clock when they got me in my room.

I was sharing a room, there's a curtain across the way with another guy, and when they turned the lights on, of course, it woke him up, and every other word out of his mouth was F this, F this, blinkity blink, blink, blink.

He could swear the paint off a barn.

And uh he was yelling at me for waking him up, and how dare him invade his space.

And and um just a side note.

So I was there with him for a while, but everybody that came into the room, I was happy with.

I got to pray for, and and um, as he was leaving the discharge before me, they're wheeling him out, and he said, he said, stop, stop, stop to the to the nurses.

And he looks at me, he says, Young man, I want you to know.

I saw the way you handled all these people coming in, and I want you to know I could never look at people the same way again.

He said, Thank you very much.

And I said, uh, well, you're right, you're welcome.

So um, you know, I prayed for all the nurses, all the staff, all the doctors, the surgeon that was doing the surgery.

I prayed for him.

I said, I've already forgiven you.

He said, Well, for what?

Well, in case you drink too much coffee and your hands are nervous and you slip and I die on the table.

And he says, Man, I wish all patients were like that.

So they rule, they you know, they rolled me out, I'm in my bed, laying down, rolled me out of my room, past the nursery station, nine nurses lined up, and boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, I high-five them all the way in.

I said, ladies, I'll catch you on the flip-flop.

And then we got in there and um they put two stents in, supposed to take two hours.

It took 23 minutes, and I was awake.

They just had a local anesthesia on there, and so I couldn't feel what they were doing, and there was a curtain up here, I couldn't see what they're doing.

There's about 11 people running around in the room, though.

And 23 minutes later, so we're done.

I said, What do you mean we're done?

I thought they were still prepping me up.

And he said, No, everything went clockwork, it was perfect.

And I gathered them together and I said, You know, so many people have gone so much farther than they ever thought they could, because someone else thought they could.

When we believe in people, they end up amazing themselves and us two along the way.

And I said, God believes in you and so do I now.

Give yourselves a round of applause.

And they're all cheering and everything, clapping for themselves.

They wheeled me past the nursing station, and nurses are, go out, go out.

I felt like a celebrity.

I got in my room about an hour later, the doctor came in and did an ultrasound.

He came back in two hours later and says, uh, you know, I'm just baffled.

I said, Well, what's up?

He says, I don't know how to tell you this, but you've had a supernatural accelerated healing recovery.

You now have the heart of a 16-year-old.

You want to go home four hours after heart surgery?

They said, We've never done it before, we'll probably never do it again.

And so I went home, watched, was watching football on TV.

The next day I went back up to the men's advanced.

They thought they saw a ghost.

You know, I went up front, grabbed the mic, and I said, How many of you, by a show of hands, feel your prayers are insignificant?

Half the people raised their hands.

I said, Your prayers are the reason I'm alive.

Your prayers are the reason I'm standing before you today.

Never doubt your prayers.

I said, prayer is like the midwife of the heart of God.

Helps to conceive and deliver and to nurture his manifest purposes.

Never doubt your prayers again.

Years ago, Stephen Covey wrote a book.

It's called The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People.

One of the habits is to begin with the end in mind.

Chinese, Japanese companies do it all the time.

They might have a hundred-year game plan for a company.

Their action steps for their for their 100-year goals are their decade goals.

Their action steps for their decade goals are their yearly goals, and so on.

But there's a congruency between their daily actions and what they want to become because they're beginning with the end in mind.

Last year on Facebook, I saw someone say, you should, everyone should have a countdown timer.

Figure out how long you think you'll live, and have a countdown timer and know you've only got so much time and see if your life changes.

I stopped playing church a long time ago.

The world is so tired of churches that are high on style and low on content, they're so tired of hypocrites.

They're looking for a banner worth marching under.

We have that banner.

His banner over us is love, his name is Jesus Christ.

And when they see authenticity and connection in people, they flock to it.

And when they see people doing unconditional love, Bob Goff is one of my favorite authors, got five bestsellers out there.

But he said, the aroma of every act of loving-kindness that we do rises like the smell of freshly baked bread all the way up to heaven's open windows, beginning with the end in mind.

So I looked up the life expectancy for a man for today, and for a woman, for a man, 75.8 years, for a woman 81.1.

Women live longer than men.

Why?

Because men do stupid things, you know.

I mean, just face it, women are much smarter than men.

And so, um, but my dad died when he was 50, 25 years before his life expectancy.

My mom died at 70, 11 years before her life expectancy.

My birthday is in just like four days, three days, four days.

Um, I'm gonna be 66.

Now that's either nine plus uh or not, a little over nine in dog years, or 18 plus shipping and handling.

I know lots of shipping, lots of handling.

But the point is, the point is, um, I've got a little over nine years if I live to my life expectancy.

Who knows?

I could live to a hundred.

Um, but I want to do what I'm doing.

I want it to make a difference.

I want my life to matter.

I want to change the world one heart at a time.

And so um I'm thinking about things differently.

You know, I'm at an age where I don't want to play church.

I want to be busy about my father's business.

And what does that mean?

There's so much packed into 2 Timothy chapter 4, 22 verses.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Um, I'll maybe get through verse 5 or 6 today.

Uh I practiced and saw how long it was gonna take, but but I'll finish the rest next week.

But it reminds me, you've heard the expression, you can never step into the same river twice.

Because the current's always moving, changes the sand, the stones, the debris floating down the river.

You can never step into the same river twice.

But equally true, you can never read the same Bible twice.

Why?

Hebrews 4 12 says the word of God.

It's alive, it's living, it's more sharper than any two-edged sword.

And so every time I read the Bible, something new comes up.

It's like a multi-faceted gem that I'm turning into the brilliant sunlight.

Every hue, every glimmer, every glisten is different every time I turn around it.

So there's so much packed in here.

You know, I started looking at these verses, and we'll get them into them in just a minute, but I I saw, even after verse 1, the love that Paul had for Timothy and for Luke and for others that he poured his life into.

And I can almost feel how much Timothy felt the love of Paul.

Paul poured his life into them.

And my reasonable service is to pour my life into others because I look at all the people that have poured their life into me.

It seems like during my business career, 45 years in the food business, and my ministry career, people have taken me aside and just saw something in me, maybe I didn't see in myself, and loved on me and poured their life into me.

The least I can do is pour my life into others.

2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.

2 Peter 1:3

If he's given us all things, what's he given us?

Well, he's endowed others or some with characteristics and traits and gifts and talents and assets.

But you know, all those attributes are not for ourselves, they're for the service of others.

But he's given us all these things.

You know, I tell the LGBTQ crowd, if they could just see themselves for one minute, they'd never want to be anyone else.

I say, just be yourself.

Everyone else is already taken.

I wanted to get a t-shirt that said LGTBTQ on it, have a rainbow on there.

I said, I'm all for the LGBTQ movement because it stands for let's get back to God quickly.

Is that good?

LGBTQ, let's get back to God quickly.

I tell them, just be yourself.

Everyone else is already taken.

And you know, no one can be a better you than you.

That's who God created you to be after all.

So just be yourselves.

I like to say, you know, the value of anything is determined by the price you're willing to pay for it.

People will pay millions for a Rembrandt.

Why?

Because it's valuable.

God paid the ultimate price to redeem us back to Himself.

I've been bought with a price.

You've been bought with a price.

I'm not my own anymore.

My reasonable service to God, bare minimum reasonable service, is to give all of myself back to God and to pour my life out into other people.

Having said all that, I haven't even started my sermon.

So let me pray.

Lord, I just thank you for your word.

How we'll learn how you watch over your word.

Father George Stankey said something a while back that I thought was really great.

He said, We're man is created from dust, but when we get on a pulpit, we try to carry the divine.

So, Lord, I pray that more divine comes off than dust today, and anything in and of myself just falls by the wayside.

But if it's of you, Lord, everything of you, would you let it penetrate every heart in this room?

Lord, let it take root and let it bear fruit in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So if you would, if you have your Bibles or your phones, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

And when you get there, look up at me.

When the majority of people are looking at me, I'll continue.

A lot are there already.

So some people go through all the verses.

I'm gonna go through them one at a time, some outlumped together, but in verse 1, it says, 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.

One more time, and this is out of the New King James Version, if you're interested.

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.

Let me make a disclaimer, first of all, there's gonna be a lot of names and words that I'm probably gonna mispronounce.

But my old buddy Mark Twain once said, never trust a man that can't say and write the same word at least two different ways.

And so that word charge is a loaded word.

It's a Greek verb.

And the word diamartomai.

Diamartomai.

Yeah.

And it literally means we should be willing to testify under oath in court.

So who was Paul testifying before?

It says he was testifying before God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was testifying before the courts of heaven, and he's saying to Timothy, son, you better step it up a notch.

You should preach the word with such boldness that you have the whole courts of heaven backing you up in what you're saying.

Can you do that?

And he's telling them, step up a notch.

I charge you.

And then it goes on to say, Who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing?

Paul here is talking about his second coming.

He thought it was right around the corner.

I believe it's right around the corner.

I know, I know, we don't know the time and the day, but we know the season.

If you're interested, I could spend a half hour or half a day with you telling you why I believe this is the season.

I believe we'll see the coming of Jesus in our lifetime.

So I think it's the season.

Who will judge the living and the dead and his appearing and his kingdom.

You know, it was probably ten years before I got saved, before I heard anyone talking about the kingdom of God.

Why is the kingdom of God important even?

Matthew 24, 14 says, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto the nations, and then, and then shall the end come.

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.

So it's pretty important.

Even in the Lord's Prayer.

Matthew 6 10, it says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So, what does that mean?

That means we can have and enjoy the kingdom of God right here, right now, while we're living.

Every time you speak a godly word into someone's life, you're bringing the kingdom of God here on earth.

Every time we do that, we push back the darkness a little more.

The scripture, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us.

I think people have this picture of gates attacking us.

You know, gates have never been an offensive weapon, they're a defensive weapon.

It's us attacking the gates of hell.

The gates of hell are not going to prevail against us because we're pushing back.

One of my favorite things to do is stand at the gates of hell and redirect traffic.

We can do that.

I believe part of the reason we are created is so we could turn chaos back into Eden.

Well, what's here?

What is Paul charging Timothy to do?

Look at verse 2.

It says, preach the word.

That's what he's charging them to do.

He says, be ready in season and out of season.

Convince, rebuke, exhort without long suffering and teaching.

Say, preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season.

Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching.

Be ready in season.

1 Peter 3, 15 says.

Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's within you.

We should always be willing to give an account for the joy that's within us.

Have you ever had someone come up to you and say, How come you're so happy?

How come you're so joyful?

And I love it when they do, because I, well, I'm glad you asked.

Let me tell you about my buddy Jesus.

And so I can share about Jesus.

Psalm 1, talking about being in season.

Psalm 1 says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seed of the scorn, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that what?

It brings forth its fruit in its season.

So everyone ought to be able to bring forth in its season.

If you got any seed in you and it's planted, you're going to bring forth in season.

It's going to happen.

But Paul's saying here to Timothy, be ready in season and out of season.

So keep your finger in 2 Timothy, and I want you to turn to Jeremiah chapter 1.

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

When you get there, I'll look up and I'll continue.

Jeremiah chapter 1 is really Jeremiah's calling.

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

How many of you know that God is equips the called?

He doesn't call the equipped.

God equips the called, he doesn't call the equipped.

God is always calling us to do things we cannot do.

And then he equips us to do it.

And in doing so, he leaves no room for us to boast in what we've done.

Why?

Because I know I couldn't have done it by myself.

A good example is I just graduated last early with a master's at Colorado Christian University.

I was supposed to take a class last summer.

I didn't know about it, so they let me take it in this summer.

I graduate early, but uh get my diploma, I'm taking this class.

I mean, I've got like 19 papers due this week.

I've got about six or seven due by midnight.

And so some of the papers are due by Wednesday at midnight, some are due by Sunday at midnight.

I mean, it's times 1158, 1159.

I'm putting my papers in.

But, you know, I have three or four, sometimes five, big papers and a lot of one-pagers.

But the big papers, every week, every paper I get stuck.

And I just look up to heaven and I say, God, I can't do this.

I'm not that smart.

And about within 15, 20 minutes, I just start writing, and he's giving me all these things.

And I get done and um I do good.

You know, for all my classes, I end up with a 99.3 average.

You know, I could pat mine myself, but I'm patting God on the back because I'm not that smart, guys.

I mean, there's times I might say something smart, but there's times, if you know me, I'm as dumb as a rock.

I mean, let me tell you.

Just one side note.

Years ago when my kids were still at home, I locked my keys in my car three times in the same day.

Really genius, right?

I used a coat hanger to get them out.

Each time I got them out a little bit quicker.

And I was thinking, maybe I gotta do a career move.

I could be a car thief, you know.

And my uh my daughter Hannah says, Dad, you ought to get one of these hide of keys.

It's a little box, put a key in there, it's got a magnetic strip on it, you put it under the undercarriage of the car.

I said, That's a great idea, Hannah.

And I started thinking, I said, Hannah, I think I bought one of those about a year ago.

I looked under my car, sure enough, there's a key there.

I broke in my car three times, I didn't have to.

So he calls the equip or equips the call, doesn't call the equipped.

You know, God wants to take us beyond our wildest dreams, would you agree?

I think the problem is we forget how to dream wildly.

Kids have no problem with that.

My favorite verse in the whole Bible is Matthew 18, 3.

Unless you be converted and become, become like a little child, you'll know wise enter the kingdom of heaven.

That word become, I'll say it again, become means childlikeness is something we can grow into as we get older, not out of.

Not talking about childishness, that's the Peter Pan theory.

I mean, we should grow up, but childlikeness, the attributes are they're full of wonder and awe and hope and expectancy.

So back to Jeremiah.

Let's take up in chapter or verse 4.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Before you were born, I sanctified you, I ordained you as a prophet to the nations.

This before I was even born, when in the womb.

Then said I, Oh Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.

But the Lord said, Do not say, I'm a youth, for you shall go to all whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.

Now jump down to eleven, we're gonna get into the meat of this.

Moreover, the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see?

And he said, I see a branch of an almond tree.

Then the Lord said to me, You've seen well, I'm ready to perform my word.

About, oh, over 30 years ago, at the tail end of the 80s, I wrote a song called Great Numbers for a church I was at for 29 years in Pennsylvania.

And we played it over a number of years on the radio for a couple years, but there's a line in there that says, In the midst of winter cold, I see a budding branch unfold.

It was talking about that verse.

Jeremiah not only saw the branch of an olive tree, he saw a budding branch blooming with fruit in the middle of winter, out of season.

And God said, You've seen well, I will perform my word.

I think God is looking for people who will stand up out of season and declare his word.

Is that gonna be you?

Is that gonna be you?

Shannah?

Is that gonna be you?

Is that gonna be you, Lee?

I want to stand up and declare his word out of season, and God will say, You've seen well, I will perform my word.

2 Chronicles 16, 9 says, the word of the Lord, or the eyes of the Lord search to and fro over the whole earth that he might show himself mighty on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him.

God is actively seeking opportunities to bless us.

He's looking for people that are gonna stand up and say, Declare the word, and he'll perform it.

He'll back us up, he'll watch over his word, waiting to perform it.

I think God's looking for the next Bethlehem.

Places and people again where he can pregnate their hearts with the purposes of God that can change the world.

I want to be a Bethlehem.

I want to change the world.

Does that apply to you?

If you're not getting fired up right now, I'm gonna put electric buzzers in your seats.

Then it goes on and says, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching, be patient.

Isn't that just like Paul to say that?

He said in 1 Corinthians 9 22, I become all things to all men that I might by all means win some.

We need to do whatever it takes.

If you gotta convince people, convince them.

If you gotta rebuke them, rebuke them.

If you gotta be, you know, exhorting them, exhorting them.

If you gotta be patient with exhorting them, how do you know when to do what and where?

By listening and being sensitive to the voice of God.

He's speaking to us all the time.

Listen and obey.

There's a Greek or a Hebrew word Shema.

It means listen and obey.

It's one action.

We should be able to listen and obey.

God will tell us when to convince, rebuke, exhort, or be long-suffering.

There's a time I had to do a little convincing in September, October of 2020, during COVID, 34 people from the road here went to Washington, D.C.

Sean Foyt, how many have heard that name?

Sean, a number of you had a let us worship event on the mall in Washington, D.C.

30 to 35,000 people were there during COVID, no masks, worshiping God.

Um, Leo Goaz and Kathy, his wife, and Nick Schreifels and I went and Ubered around in the same car together.

We led one of our Muslim Uber drivers to the Lord.

But um on the way back, 10 of us were on the same flight.

We're flying United.

Leo got bumped up to first class.

He only got one upgrade, didn't want to go up there without Kathy.

So he gave it to Nick Schreifels, and Nick said, Al, why don't you take it?

I said, Me?

He said, Yeah.

Guys, I've never flown first class in my life.

I didn't know if I was supposed to hold my pinky out when I'm eating something, you know?

So I'm sitting next to a guy and said, uh, hey, my name's Al.

What's yours?

He said, Dave.

He said, Dave, what do you do?

He said, I'm a United Airline pilot, actually, 30 years in the business, and I'm just on a jump flight.

I'm going to Denver to take some classes.

I said, that's great.

Al, what do you do?

He says, I said, I'm a pastor.

Crickets, dead silence for a half hour.

Finally he nudges me.

He says, Al, I gotta tell you, I really got a problem with God.

I said, tell me about it.

He said, Well, there's a lot of gays and lesbians in the airline business.

I said, I know.

My niece is a flight attendant for Delta, and um, she got married, and you know, half the people there are gays and lesbians.

He said, I got a problem with God that hates gays and lesbians.

I said, He doesn't, he loves them.

He says, How do you figure?

I said, You got kids, right?

He said, Yeah.

They're probably older.

He said, You've been in the business 30 years, yeah.

I said, Dave, be honest with me.

Do you love everything your kids do?

He says, No.

But you love your kids.

Oh man, I love my kids.

I said, Why would God be any different with gays and lesbians?

He might not love everything they're doing, but he loves them.

I said, I'm a pastor, I smoke cigars, I drink scotch.

He might not love everything I do, but he loves me.

If God had a refrigerator, I guarantee it, my picture would be on it because I think I'm his favorite.

You can be number two, I'm number one.

So he looked at me, he says, you know, the way you explain that, that makes more sense than anything I've ever heard.

And then he, you know, he looked away and he's kind of chewing on things.

You could tell.

20 minutes later, he says, he says, What about abortion?

I said, What about it?

He said, When does life begin?

I said, Dave, I think it begins with a fertilized egg and sperm.

He says, How do you figure?

I said, Dave, they're finding that bacteria on Mars are calling that life.

I said, It's not gonna be anything but a baby.

It's not gonna be a dog, it's not gonna be a kangaroo, it's not gonna be an apple tree, it's gonna be a baby.

He said, Well, that makes sense too.

So every 20 minutes he had another thing he came at me with.

Five different things total.

The whole time I'm talking, everybody in first class, because it's not a big area, everybody was leaning in.

The flight attendants were peeking around the corner.

They wanted to hear, they wanted to hang on every word.

Finally, I said to Dave, Dave, it looks like you're trying to figure this out.

He said, I am.

I'm an intellectual.

I said, I could I can see that you are.

I said, Dave, what if I'm right?

What if there's a God, what if there's a devil?

What if there's a heaven?

What if there's a hell?

What if God sent his son Jesus to die for your sins?

You could live your whole life, if you don't accept him, you're gonna go to hell.

I said, if I'm wrong, if I'm wrong, Dave, it doesn't matter.

Pardon me on, Garth.

But what if I'm right?

Dave, what if I'm right?

And he looked away for about two minutes.

I thought I lost him.

And you can tell he's chewing on this.

Whole first class is chewing on this.

Finally he grabs my hand and says, Al, you're right.

Let's do this.

So I grabbed his hand and I lead him to the Lord and I said, Dave, you just transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

I said, 30 years in the business.

He said, Yeah.

I says, I bet you're the the senior flight pilot on every plane that you fly.

He said, Well, you know it, 30 years in the business.

I said, Do you know that you're the highest ranking spiritual authority now on every plane you fly, everywhere you go, everywhere in the world, you can affect the spiritual atmosphere of everyone that gets on your plane everywhere you go all over the world.

Dave, you can change the world just by you being you.

And he looked at me, his eyes got like big as saucers.

He said, I really am important, aren't I?

I said, I think so.

So I gave him my card, said call me anytime.

Once he called me at two in the morning, once he called me at three in the morning.

Did I get mad?

No.

Dave, buddy, is that you?

He had simple questions, and so I just talked to him and blessed him.

The point is, sometimes you gotta convince, sometimes you gotta rebuke, sometimes you gotta exhort.

Sometimes you gotta be long-suffering.

Verse 3 and 4, I'm gonna mention it.

I've got a minute and 13 seconds left.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

I think that is the vast majority of the body of Christ.

I hate to say that, but I think that.

I think there's a remnant that hungers for God, that's pressing in.

And um, but I'll just say this.

No, I won't say this because it's gonna take too long.

We're about to enter into worship.

I've walked out of some churches sometimes, and I've heard people say, I didn't get much from the sermon.

I didn't get much out of worship today.

And I'm thinking, that's the wrong attitude.

You shouldn't be coming here to get anything, you should be coming here to give.

Because why?

Because God's given us characteristics, traits, gifts, talents, and assets for the service of others.

We should be giving back to God during worship.

We should be declaring to him the value of his worth, giving back to him.

We should be hanging on every word the pastor is saying, who's ever speaking?

And we should be writing things down and say, God, let this thing bring life to me.

So it's not what you should get during worship.

As Josh and the team lead us into worship, what are you gonna give back to God during this time?

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.

We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.

That's therode.org.