Transcription
I don't trust a lot of people. I just don't. Do you? You got a lot of people you know? There's this list and list of people you genuinely trust, and you know they're the real thing. Or are you like me and you go, "I got a little list." I mean, there's some people I trust.
Honestly, the older I get, the fewer people I trust. Yet the ones I do trust, I feel like I'm more sure of. And that may sound, "Oh, that sounds very unchristian of you, Francis." You know, like, "Shouldn't we trust everyone?" No, no. Jesus didn't trust everyone.
It says in John 2 about how all these people were telling him that they believed in him, but it says, "But Jesus did not entrust himself to any of them because he knew what was inside of man." I thought, "Wow." So I, oh, I'm a follower. I'm a follower. I know what you're really about.
The truth is, I don't look in this room and go, "Now here's a group of people I can trust." I'm sorry. You know, wow, you came to church. You know, that doesn't mean anything. Anyone can walk inside the doors of a building.
But it's when you see people go through a difficult time in life, and you see the way they respond, you go, "I think she's for real. I think she really believes what she says she believes." Wait, you guys are jumping on a plane tonight? Why would you do that? You must really believe this thing.
It's when we get through these difficult times that you go, "Okay, now I trust." And you guys, that's not a bad thing. The Bible warns us. It warns us, "Look, there are going to be people who will deceive you."
There will be people who, I feel like sometimes Christians are too quick to trust just because someone can speak well. You're going to trust him? I mean, some of you have been too quick to trust me. Honestly, have you even looked at my life? Have you even seen? Have you talked to my kids to see if I'm real at home? Have you looked at my finances and know where I mean? Why do you trust?
Some of you are going to move away from here. I mean, that's what we do in Southern California. We just move out and we go somewhere else, and the housing is cheaper everywhere else in the world. So you move out, and you're going to find a new church, and you're going to find new people that you follow.
But I just got to go, "Okay, why are you going to follow them? Are you going to look into their lives? Look into everything." See, because in this passage when Paul's talking about the end times, and we're just going to go through it real quickly, Paul tells Timothy, "Look, there's all these different people here with all these different teachings."
But Paul says, "But you've seen my life, so you know what I'm about because you watched me." He shows Timothy, "Look, you can trust me." And he explains why. Then he explains to Timothy, "I want you to live in that type of way so that people can trust you and then know that you're not just talking."
Because the Bible says there'll be plenty of people who talk, but when you look at their lives, their lives will refute everything they said. By their actions, you'll know that they weren't the real thing.
So Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:10, he says, "You know what? All these other people you saw, you know what they lived? All these—they did all these things that were against what Scripture teaches." But then he says in verse 10, and I love this because I want to be able to say this at the end of my life, and it's something that you should want to say at the end of your life.
He looks at Timothy and he says, "You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, Lyra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from all of them, the Lord rescued me."
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you've learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
We're going to stay in this passage through next week because I just didn't have time to get through it all. But here's the point: Paul is telling Timothy, "Look at the totality of my life and tell me if you can trust me or not. Look at everything about me."
We live in a world that is skeptical, right? I mean, everyone's skeptical of each other. But at the same time, there's a sense in which I believe we're not skeptical enough. We also live in a world where people don't think, and they just start following people for one reason or another.
I mean, isn't it amazing even now during election time how suddenly if an actor or actress shares their political view, then suddenly it's worth a lot? You ever stop and think about that? "Okay, I'm going to listen to this guy's opinion because he's very good at acting." Does that make sense to you? Or, "She looks great, so she must have a good opinion."
I mean, do you see how quickly we just jump and we go, "Oh, I'm going to follow this view. I'm going to follow." And did you stop and look at this person's life? Did you stop and consider, "Okay, why am I following this person's view or that person's view? Why would I think?"
And here Paul's saying, "No, no, look at my life, Timothy." He goes, "You saw my teaching. Did I ever go away from this book?" You followed. He goes, "You followed my life. It was an open book, and you saw the way I taught all through these years."
He goes, "Not only did you see my teaching, but you saw my conduct. You watched my life. You saw the way I lived for all these years." You see, because so many people will teach this book, but their lives will go completely contrary to this.
Paul goes, "You saw I was the real thing. I didn't just teach you about this book; I lived it out. You saw my conduct." And I love the next word where he says, "And you saw my aim in life." You saw my motives. You saw what I was after.
Paul goes, "Was I really after? Did you see me? Was I trying to get famous? Was I trying to get rich? What was this all for? Was it to make a name for Paul?" He goes, "No, you know that the goal of my life was to bring glory to Jesus Christ. You saw it. You saw it in my teaching. You saw it in my life. You even saw it in my motivation, my aim in life."
He goes, "Not only in that, but you saw it in my faith." You ever watch someone who takes a step of faith where they do something, and you go, "Man, that doesn't make any sense unless he or she really believes in Jesus Christ." That makes no sense.
Like Paul says, "If I'm doing this for my life on Earth, it makes no sense. Then I'm the biggest fool of all." He goes, "But because I have faith in this life to come, my life makes sense."
See, a lot of people I don't trust because their life makes sense whether or not they believe in Jesus Christ. You know, it's like, "Well, I haven't seen you give anything up. It makes too much sense. I haven't seen you really take a step of faith."
I mean, you call yourself a Christian. You told me you got baptized. You told me you cried when you received Jesus in your life, but that's not enough for me. I'm sorry. I can't trust that.
He goes on, and he goes, "You saw my patience." He goes, "You saw my life. Even when life got difficult, I was patient with these people. I just stuck with it even when it got difficult."
He says, "You saw my love." Remember we talked about that a couple of weeks ago about how many of us are far more concerned about our own standard of living than we are about others actually living? But then there are those in their lives that'll say, "You know what? I actually love these people. It drives me crazy that she's walking all night to get water. I'm going to do something about it."
And yes, my standard of living won't be where I wanted to be or where I'm used to. I'll actually drop a little because I love her. I love him. And Paul says, "You saw my love." Not just, "Oh, I love this person. I love that person. Oh, I cried for him or her." But you saw my love in action.
So Timothy goes, "Why would I do this?" He goes on and he says, "You know my steadfastness." Steadfastness means to bear up under. It means there's a pressure on you, but you stand up under that pressure. You don't just cow. You don't just fall.
Paul says, "You saw that when things got difficult. Did I just buckle?" He goes, "No, I didn't let go of my faith. I didn't say, 'Oh, there must not be a God.' No, I kept going. I was steadfast even under the pressure."
And he goes, "And you saw." And I love this part. He goes, "You saw my persecutions and my sufferings." My persecution, my suffering. See, Paul's life made no sense unless he believed in eternity.
I just want to read, you know, when you talk about Paul's suffering and his persecution in 2 Corinthians 11, he kind of lists it out. Second Corinthians 11, people were questioning Paul, and he is he the real thing? And Paul says, "Okay, if I'm not the real thing, then why in the world did I go through this?"
He gives this list in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. He's kind of—it's some of his just sarcasm, and some of it's just like, "Are you kidding me? All these other people are saying they're followers of Jesus."
He goes, "And this sounds crazy, but I'm just going to throw it all out there. He goes, 'Are they servants of Christ?'" Verse 23, "I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman." He goes, "With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, often near death."
"Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one." Okay, that's—they used to believe that if they wanted to take you to the brink of death, they were infamous for their torture. It's like, "Let's take him to 39."
He goes, "Five times I took that. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea."
"On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers."
"In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." And apart from other things, there's a daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Paul's going, "Okay, what am I getting out of this? You're wondering what, you know, hey, what's his motive?" Remember, Paul was doing just fine. He was a person who was looked up to. Everything was going great. Then he fell in love with Jesus Christ.
Then suddenly God tells him to follow him. Jesus asks him to follow him, and he goes, "Man, I gave up that cush, nice, great elevated position, and now everywhere I go, people are beating me up. They're throwing rocks at me. I'm out at sea, you know, holding on to a piece of wood just trying to survive. I'm starving."
You know, then people are beating me everywhere I go. He just goes on and on and on. He goes, "Why do you think I do this? You think I'm faking all of this? He goes, 'I'm faking all. What am I getting out of it? There better be a heaven. If there's no heaven, then I live the stupidest life you could live on this Earth.' He goes, 'This makes no sense.'"
See, so I read the writings of Paul, and I go, "Okay, I trust him. I trust him. If you're going to get beat up that many times, you're probably real."
And it's not like he ended his life, you know, at the end, then he got all his riches and everything, because then you'd go, "Well, maybe he did it for that." No, no. He died as a martyr. That's what all the disciples did. They lost everything.
And that's why I go, "You know what? I believe them when they said they saw a guy rise from the dead." The moment they saw Jesus rise from the dead, everything changed in their lives. Now they're like, "Okay, beat me, kill me, whatever. I don't even care. I just saw God rise from the dead."
So here's all of my money. Here's all of my possessions. I'll give it all to the poor, and let me just go around telling people about Jesus. And if you beat me up, beat me up. I don't really care about—I go, "Okay, I trust those guys."
I mean, isn't it why we believe in the life of Jesus? I mean, so much of it, you go, "Okay, what were his motives then?" Everywhere he goes, he's being rejected and everything else because why? They believed this, and they knew this was true.
He goes, "I am the son of God. Nail me to a cross, and I'm going to rise from the grave." See, it's interesting because at the time of the Pharisees, the people—the Pharisees used to teach, "Hey, look at us. We're believable because we're rich. That means God's blessings on me."
And there's preachers that do that today still, but that's not the way Jesus lived. That's not the way the apostles taught. They didn't say, "Hey, you can believe in us because we live rich, comfortable lives, so God's hand of blessing is on us."
Now, that's why Jesus went to the poor because they were ostracizing the poor and saying, "Well, God must not be blessing you, so I'm going to stay away from you." No, that's the opposite of the Gospel. Jesus says, "No, no, no. You go out and you care for the poor, and then you'll see the blessing in your own life. You care for them."
A true servant of God is one who's willing to give up his comforts and willing to die for this thing, not someone who's loaded and takes everything upon for himself. Those are the people whose motives you should question and go, "Yeah, maybe you believe what you believe, but you sure did benefit from it."
Come on, the Bible says, "You know what? This is the person we need to believe and the type of lives we need to live." Look, I want to be able to say some of these things at the end of my life. You know, don't you? Don't you want to be able to say?
I love what Brad Buer said once. Brad was a missionary that went to Papua New Guinea and was there. He's spoken here a few times, 20 years out in the jungle, leading these people to the Lord and translating the New Testament into their language. First time in history. He's just an amazing man.
But you know, he had been in a coma, had spears in his face, holding his kid, wondering if his kid's going to die. You know, raised all four kids out there in the jungle. This guy, I—you know, he tells me one of the benefits, though. He goes, "Of all of that, as hard as it was, is he goes, 'When my kids turned 18, I could look my kids in the eye and say, "You saw how Mom and Dad gave everything for Jesus Christ. There was nothing we wouldn't hold back, even our very lives. Now you go and live likewise."'"
And I go, "Wow, that's a pretty awesome thing to be able to say." I want to be able to say to my kids, "You saw how Mom and Dad lived. It was all about Jesus. There wasn't anything we held back."
Don't you want to be like the Apostle Paul at the end of your life and say, "I'm not saying to believe in me because I went to church. I'm saying I experienced God in a real way, and I was willing to give it all up for that, and you saw by the way that I lived."
You see, when we talk about baptism in every service, you know, we say, "Hey, you can come get baptized, but make sure you understand, man." Like when people got baptized back then, it was a serious commitment because when they got baptized, Christianity was not popular.
It's like many places in the world today. And once you got baptized, it's the same way in India today. It doesn't matter how high you are on that caste system. The moment you get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, guess what? You're down at the bottom. You're down in the dirt. You've just been reincarnated into dirt.
And my friends, missionaries out there just say, "You know what? The moment they get baptized, man, they lose their job. They lose their families. They lose it all." We told you about what's going on in India. Now it's going even crazier where they're burning the Christians. They're destroying their homes, destroying them, and these guys are running for their lives.
So when they—imagine if you're in India right now, and you get baptized publicly, and yet people are doing it. Why? Because they really believe this thing. I go, "You know what? I think you believe it."
It was a commitment to say, "I'm going to follow this Jesus Christ even if it means everyone rejects me." See, I found something better. It's like the disciples. It's no different. They found something better.
And I love the faith I've seen in this church over the last few weeks. It's made it obvious that many of you have found something better than your whole life, better than your job, better than your career, and even better than family.
And it doesn't mean that life is easy because it certainly wasn't easy for Paul. It certainly wasn't easy for Jesus. But they knew what they were living for. It was the real faith.
I'm going to have the worship team come up, and if any of you say, "You know what? That's what I want, and I know I believe Jesus died on that cross for me, and I want to follow him, and I'll follow through anything," then you can come and get baptized.
Maybe somebody, you just need some prayer. Feel free to just come up during the worship time. Just have someone pray for you. But we're going to sing a song right now.
And this song, Walt Fuller, who isn't with us this morning and is singing in heaven right now, which is a crazy thought to me. I mean, just think about, you know, he's in this room laughing. You know, I think about Paul. His funeral's tomorrow.
I remember I used to speak at Grace Brethren in their chapels, and you know, it's a Christian school, so no one sings. But he was in the back, and just he was in the back. Paul would be the guy, "I don't care if anyone else is singing. I'm going for it."
And I think, "Wow, what's he like in heaven right now?" You know, just that crazy, crazy thought. But this week, if you looked at Walt Fuller's daughter's Facebook—I don't even know how to get on Facebook. Someone forwarded this to me.
You read his daughter's Facebook. She puts the words of this song on her Facebook, "Blessed be the name of the Lord," which is the song that we've sung many times. It's taken out of the Book of Job. When Job lost everything, he looks at his wife and says, "What? We only bless God when things are going well?"
He says, "No, he gives, he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." And when we saw that on our Facebook, we said, "You know what? Let's sing that this week, and let's mean it."
Let's be men and women who don't just praise God when he gives everything you want, but you praise God through the difficult times. And you show, "You know what? I'm a person who can be believed. I'm a person of faith because I don't just bless God when things are good, but during the hard times, I persevere. I love. I sacrifice."
Let's be men and women that are the real thing.