 It makes me nervous with him behind me. I'd like him better out where I can see him. We are going to be in 2 Timothy this evening, if you'll turn there. Chapter 3. I was listening to Garrett before with his demon stories, not in the New Pastors manual. Remember years ago, he had a woman came in to Calvary filling, and she said that she was demon-possessed. So when the pastor sat and talked to her and said, well, are you born again? She said, yes. And he said, well, then you're not demon-possessed. She said, oh, yes, I am. He said, no, you can't be gods. Not in the time sharing. Here's what the scripture says. And she was insistent, I am demon-possessed. Well, are you born again? Yes, well, you're not. Yes, I am. So he said, all right, just stay here. Wait here one second. He went out, and he got on the phone. He called this Pentecostal church down the street. And he said, do you guys believe that Christians could be demon-possessed? They said, well, sure. And he said, is anybody there right now? And they said, yeah. He said, all right, we'll be down in a minute. And he dropped her off there as Philly, you know? And she was happier that way. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace. Thank you for this time, Lord. Thank you for family, Lord. Thank you for family, Lord. We're sitting here this evening, Lord Jesus. If you hadn't died for us, none of our paths would have crossed, Lord. The friendships that are represented in this room, the relationships, the amount of grace, Lord, represented here is immeasurable, Lord, inconceivable, Lord. The calculations, Lord, to take us from the world and from drugs and from insanity and to have our paths guided and meet our spouses and to come together, Lord, and to sit in this room tonight, Lord, is beyond anything we can understand. But Lord, we believe we're here this evening worshiping together because that's what you want, Lord. You've shepherded us to this place. So Lord, speak to us, Lord. Give us our portion from your word this evening. We trust you to do that, Lord. We trust you to do that. Thank you for this day, Lord. Mike and David and Garrett, Lord, and just rob the worship the way things have been flowing, Lord. We just want to remain in the flow of that Father this evening. We pray, Lord, in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen. Second Timothy chapter 3 says, this know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetous is a separate word. It means lovers of silver, lovers of money. Boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection is one word that means with no love for family and what we're seeing that. Truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, affluent, gaffoy, the idea is no love for anything that's good. Traders, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such, turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive, silly women laden with sins. Now I have to stop there because there's girls here and I don't want to lose everybody right up front here as we go through this. It's an interesting phrase, silly women. It's one word. It's neuter. It's not feminine. And it's a diminutive form. Chrysostom translates it womanlings. It's kind of a derogatory. It would be, we would say, wimps today or weaklings. That's the way that the church father kind of saw this. I bailed myself out, gals, haven't I here? So for of this sort are they which creep into houses and leave captive weaklings, wimps laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning, never coming to a knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannies and Jamborees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further. For their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was Jannies and Jamborees. But thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, and patience, persecutions and afflictions, which came to me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But this is where I want to be this evening in verse 14. Continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of. Knowing of whom thou has learned them and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures, which are able, interesting, every Greek scholar admits there, it's insinuating that the holy scriptures have an innate ability in and of themselves to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith, which is in Christ Jesus, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And of course, it goes on from there. This exhortation to continue in the things that you have learned, there's lots of questions. We look at the world. We're talking about the culture earlier today and the things that are going on around us. And there's lots of moms and dads here among us and grandmas and grandpas. And you think, what's going to happen? What world are our kids going to face? The trend of things, where it's going now, what's going to happen? I think of, listen, how much of that is on our shoulders? One of our modern-day prophets, Phil Robertson, from Duck Dynasty, who I love, happened to say, look, the problem with America is this. It's simple. There are more corrupt than there are converted. He said, that's not Washington's fault. That's not Hollywood's fault. That's the church's fault. We need to do what the Lord's called us to do. He said, if there were more converted than there were corrupt, then Washington and Hollywood would be different. I just thought it was Free Duck Dynasty stuff. I thought I'd throw that in. But what kind of world are our kids going to hear? We can genuinely have those concerns if they're in public schools, the things they're hearing now, the things that are being forced to hear. We have an interesting picture because it says there's three imperatives in this passage. First is in verse one, this no, which it's a present imperative. It's not a suggestion. You have to know this. And the present tense is you have to continually keep it in mind. This is something Timothy. This is Paul's swan song. He's a dying man writing to dying men. He says in verse 6 of chapter 4, I'm ready to be offered. When you're ready, when you're facing death, that has a wonderful clarifying factor in your thoughts. It prioritizes. And he says to Timothy, you need to understand this. This is not an option. And you have to keep it in your mind continually that the last days will be perilous or difficult days. And he says for this reason, it will not be intellectual struggles. It is misguided affections that will make the last days perilous. Five times he talks about the love of self, the love of money, no love for family, no love for that's what's good, love of pleasure, more than love of God. He said it is going to be a heart problem. We have great intellectual things going on in our world, in our culture, technology. He said the problem is it's the heart that drives the human being. You guard your heart with all diligence because from it flows the issues of life. He says here, he says that's going to be the problem. And it brings him to the second imperative. He says, Timothy, he says they're going to want to hold the form of godliness but deny the power of it from such, turn away as the second president. You must continually turn away from this kind of thing. The last days are going to be characterized by a powerless church because it wants nothing to do with the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't want to talk about hell. It doesn't want to talk about repentance. Doesn't want to talk about blood. Doesn't want to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It wants something else. It's not offensive. It's friendly. We've been talking about that. And he said it wants this message. And look, the heart of the Lord through Paul is broken because he knows it's the gospel of Jesus Christ that sets people free. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ that would set all those people free who don't want to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he says to Timothy, he says, you have to know this, Timothy, and keep it in your mind. It's not a suggestion. This is the way the last days are going to be. And the hearts of men are going to just turn in the wrong direction. They want to have God speak. They want to play church. They want to have their own religious organizations. But there's nothing to do with godliness. And they're denying the power, which is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform a life and emancipate it from sin and bondage, right? He says, they're not going away. He said, you have to stay away from those kinds of people. And he said, it's just like the deal with Jannies and Jamborees. Moses was there to, say, set my people free. And they withstood them. They withstood them. They didn't want to see the people set free from bondage. And he says, it's going to be the same thing. Now, Timothy, you've known the way I've lived. You know what happened to me in Iconium and Lister and Poseidon and Antioch and all of these things? He said, you understand that. And he said, you know that even men are going to wax worse and worse. This is the way it's going to be. But continue thou. That's our third imperative. And the structure is, but thou, in contrast to all of this, Timothy, and for you guys. But you guys, in contrast to all of that, you must continue in the things that you have learned, knowing and been assured of, knowing of whom you've learned them. You know, that's so simple and so straightforward. I can't think of anything more important for us to just take hold of. What we need to do in this culture, in these last, if this was the last days for Timothy, it's really the last days for us. Jesus said he's going to come like in the thief in the night. But I'm thinking if he waits much longer, everybody's going to be standing around going, you know, what gives? You know, where are you? If there's going to be an element of surprise, it has to be soon. Right? His exhortation is continuance. We're not inventors. We're not discoverers. We're not looking for something new. Our challenge is revival is to bring back the life something used to be alive. That's revive. Restore is to bring the stores of God's grace back to something that used to be stored with those things. You know, renewals to make something new again. It's not ahead of us. It's something that God's given to the church. Jim Symbolus says in his book, Storm, that the church never moves forward without falling back in church history. The church has never moved forward without falling back on the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. It's always been the same. And Paul's exhortation here is you need to continue in the things that you've learned. I don't want to do anything else but that and that you have been assured of. You've been convinced of those things. He says knowing, or either, that's a, you know completely. There's no doubt from whom, and that's a plural word there, because we all have whoms in our lives, from the whoms you have learned them and that from a child, breathos, an embryo, a newborn babe, that from a child, you've learned the Holy Scripture, hyragramata, the holy writings, which are able, in and of themselves, it's innate, the power in God's Word, to make the wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ. And then of course, the great passage, all Scripture is inspired by God. It's every Scripture, pasagrafe fianustos, it's God breathed. Every Scripture, Old New Testament, God breathed. And by this time, they were acknowledging the New Testament. Paul said to the Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, he said, we're just so thankful when we were there, you received the Word that we preached, not as the Word of men, but as the Word of God, which it is, which effectually worketh in you. Second Peter says of Paul's writings, sometimes they're hard to be interpreted as the rest of the Scripture. Acknowledging Paul's writings were part of the Scripture. Then he says, some men wrestle with those things to their own destruction. He says that we should look out, unless we also would fall from our steadfastness. So this then takes the whole Bible into our context. God breathes, that's where we get inspiration. The simple, they're very simple, very fast. Inspiration tells us of origin. The Word of God is from outside the time domain. It's eternal. We were here earlier, we looked at the Scripture, said that the Word of God abides forever. God read us that text in 1 Peter. It abides forever. It's from outside of time. It tells us in 2 Peter chapter one, round verse 21, that holy men of old were carried along. They spake, not they thought, they spake as they were carried along, moved by the Holy Spirit. In the birth of Jesus Christ, you'll name him Jesus, you know, Emmanuel, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken literally through the prophet by the Lord. It was the Lord speaking through the prophet. That's inspiration. This is God breathed. It's the breath of Almighty God. Well, Paul was inspired. Yeah, he was inspired while he had to cool in his hand when he laid it down. He wasn't anymore. But what went to the page still is. This is the breath of Almighty God. Do we really know that? Because I watch and I see people with their antics, their behaviors, trying to help it. You know, that's like watching a nuclear detonation and then you try to help it by going phew, you're a big help. You know, this is God breathed. This is the breath of Almighty God on the page. And if it's inspired, it's origin, that tells us origin outside of time from eternity. If it's inspired, it tells us that is from God. And if he is omnipotent, he's all powerful, then his word is not only inspired, it's infallible. If he's all powerful, infallible means that his word can't be broken. It can't fail. John 10, 35, the word of God cannot be broken. Acts chapter one, they're picking somebody to fulfill, you know, Judas' place. This scripture must needs be fulfilled. There's no way around it. It can't be broken. And if it's infallible because the God who inspired it is all powerful, if he's also omniscient and he's all knowing, then the word of God is inerrant. It can't have any mistakes. If he knows the end, from the beginning. Jesus in John 17, when he prayed, he said, Father, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. He didn't say thy word is true. It certainly is. But it's truth itself. It's truth itself. Paul is languishing in the Mamerteen prison. He's going from there to be decapitated. There's no doubt, once you were there, that's where you went from there. And this is his swan song, his last will and testament. He's preached his last sermon. That's behind him. He's visited his last congregation. And he's writing to Timothy. He calls his own dear son, his own Tecnon, his own born one, his own. It's so warm the terms. Timothy's been with him about 16 years at this point. And he says, Timothy, you must know this about the last days. You must stay away from people that are pulling things in another direction. And you must continue in the things that you have learned and been assured. Knowing of whom, plural, the whoms, there's more than one. We know that because it says in the next verse that from a breath loss, from a babe, from a child you've learned the Holy Spirit, that wasn't Paul. We're told in chapter one here in 2 Timothy, that Paul is thankful. He says, when I bring to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother. Now, grandmas, this is your verse. I think it's your own place in the Bible, grandmas. Now, there's other grandmas in the Bible, but this specifically is for you. First, it was in your grandmother, he says. And Lois, your grandmother, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that it is in thee also. So I put you in remembrance. Stir up the gift of God that's in you. One faith that will definitely be passed along to the next generation is an unfamed faith. It means unhippocritical because every kid has a baloney meter. Every kid has a baloney meter. And they know in the home, we can be one thing in the pulpit, but they know in the home, they watch. And they think, why does he say that on Sunday? And act like this. Why are they yelling at each other in the car on the way to church? And we walk in, people say, how you doing? They say, praise the Lord, I'm doing great. Little kid's thinking, something's wrong with this. He's got a baloney meter, right? But in Lois' grandmother and in his mom, Eunice, there was an unfamed faith. That's contagious because kids are looking for what's genuine, not what's cool. They're looking for what's genuine. You can fake cool, you can't fake genuine. And he said, it was in, and look, mom's grandma's, listen, because this is a context of the last days. This is a context, men loving pleasure more than God. This is a context that describes our culture. And we might think, what am I gonna do with my grandkids? What am I gonna do with my kids? He says here, look, remember that from a child, from a brother, you learned the holy scripture which are able in and of themselves. And Garrett said, you know, the word accomplishes. It does, it effectually works. It's the breath of God. It says here that they're able to make the wise unto salvation. Well, there's all kinds of things to be wise about in the world. I mean, if you're in the tech industry, you should know what you're doing. If you're a surgeon, I hope you know what you're doing. I really pray for an airplane. If you're a pilot, you know what you're doing. You know, just, there are all kinds of things we should be good at. But there's only one thing, one thing, that is able to make people wise unto salvation. And that's the breath of Almighty God. It is the word of God, it is from another world. And it comes to us. We love and serve a God who speaks. Look, I don't get the sense that Timothy had any natural advantages. It seems very clear that his father, we're told, was a Greek, right? And his father forbid circumcision. We know that because we read as we go through. So we have Eunice's mother, Lois's grandmother, and they're teaching him from the time he's little, the Old Testament. There was no New Testament yet. You know, Paul says, I declared unto you the whole counsel of God. There was no New Testament when he said that. He's talking about the Old Testament. These two women in little Timothyus' life, they didn't have veggie tails. They didn't have Bible lessons or coloring books or praise baby, which has saved so many of us. And this, here, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house. When you walk in the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, bind them for a sign upon thine hand. They shall be as frontlets for thine eyes. You shall write them upon the posts of thy house, and so forth. Look, Timothy's raised in Lystra. There's no synagogue there even. Iconium, there was. Paul fled to Lystra. He's raised in a home with a Greek father who's not favorable towards his mother's faith. We don't know if, you know, is Lois, his grandmother there the whole time, or is this after his father passes away that then Lois comes to help Eunice? I can't help it, I think of these things. It seems to me that a Greek who's antagonistic to the Jewish faith is not inviting his Jewish mother-in-law to live there while he's still alive. It's just something, sorry, I think about those things. But Timothy's raised in that, understand? And no doubt the dad would say, Timothy, Mount Olympus is not far from here. The Greek pantheon, you need to understand. And Mom, Eunice, or Lois' grandma was taking them aside saying, no, no, Mount Sinai, not Mount Olympus, Mount Sinai. That's where it happened, that's where it just, no doubt dad was saying, Ulysses, Hercules, you need to understand. These are the great Greek, you need to understand that. And Mom was taking them aside saying, no, no, no, no. Samson, Samson, he killed 1,000 Philistines with a jaw bone of his ass. Samson, dad was saying, you know, Alexander the Great, there was never a time like that, power and might and the kingdom. And she's just the greatest king that ever lived. And Mom and grandma were taking them aside saying, no, no, no, no, King David, King David, the son of David's gonna sit on his throne forever, King David, he killed a giant when he was a boy, King David. And those things were registering. Those things were sitting there, knowing of whom you have learned them. And then somewhere when he's 13 or 14 years old in Acts chapter 14, Paul comes, Iconium fleeing to Lystra. And when he comes there and he preaches, he perceives that a man has faith to be healed, remember? And he tells the man to stand up. Guy had been crippled his whole life and he stands up. And the people say, this is Zeus and Hermes. And Timothy must be thinking, was dad right about the Greek pantheon? This is Zeus and Hermes. And they bring the ox and try to, and they say, no, no, we're just, man, where did Zeus and Hermes stop that? So they say, well, if they're not Zeus and Hermes, let's stone them then, you know, the way people are. So the next day, of course, they stone Paul, they drag, I believe him dead out of the city, throw him there in the trash heap. And Timothy's, Timothyus is 13 years old, he's looking, Lois and Eunice are thinking, what, we finally had a rabbi here from the school of Gamaliel, the tribe of Benjamin, a member of the Sanhedrin, and Paul gets up. He gets up and they look. He doesn't get the next Greyhound out of town, he goes back into Lystra. And this is all registering with Timothy and the message about Christ and the miracle that happened, all of the seeds that had been sown is now ignited and it comes to life. Moms, grandmoms, dads, you have kids, you have grandkids, sit next to them. I got one, the littlest granddaughter now, Jordan, she's two, but when I sit alone, sometimes I whisper in her ear, Jesus loves you. And she, you know, but it's going somewhere. And as she gets older, I want her to remember, grandpa used to say that when I was little, used to say that when I was little. The word, the breath of God, it has power, it can make them wise into salvation. You don't have to be afraid of the last days and the culture, we're from another world, we have another destiny, we're called to be light in a dark place, not to get grace or friendly to a lost world, where we should be completely different. And what we have to give to them is different and their bologna meter will tell them, this is real. This is real. There's an exhortation here for family. From the time he was a child, he says, Timothy, remember the things you've learned and from whom you have learned them. You've learned certain things from them, and then Timothy, you've been with me for 16 years now. You've learned the truth. So there's an exhortation there, family, but now we have, that brings us up to the Timothy's that are here. And we're all Timothy's. His first Stan Rome, 62, 63 AD, remember? He was accused by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. He was there about a year and a half, but they never came from Jerusalem to file official charges and the Romans took that very seriously, so they let Paul go. And they stamped on his record stigma, it was called, which means they took note that he had been accused of sedition and rebellion, but no official charges had been filed. He does his traveling from there, probably to Spain, comes back. This is 68 AD. He's no doubt taken in the winter. Titus gives us the idea in Nicopolis as 67 AD is turning in, and this is spring of 68 AD that he's writing this to Timothy. Four years before this, 64 AD, July 19th, Nero had burned Rome, particularly the poor areas, the wooden structures, and blamed it on the Christians. That was July 19th and 64. Several months later in the fall, Peter was crucified upside down. Peter was where Paul is now in the Mamertine prison. Paul had already made his first appearance after he had captured it again before Nero. He said, all men forsook me, the Lord stood with me, and then they took him from that hearing to the Mamertine. And in the Mamertine prison, there's a long walk called the Walk of Darkness up to the top, to the Tulianum, and there they lowered Paul down into this dungeon. Peter had been in the compartment underneath of it and died four years earlier. Peter was there, and they said he was chained to the post for nine months, knee-deep in human waste. People died there just from the fumes. And when they took him out to crucify him, they took out his wife to crucify her in front of him, and Peter said, remember thou the Lord, o woman. That's just the kind of advice husbands give the wives when they're about to be crucified. Remember thou the Lord, o woman. Then Peter said, I'm not worried to be crucified, so they crucified him upside down. Paul is now there. If you go to the Mamertine today, they'll say Peter and Paul were both there. And Paul knows that he's facing execution. He asked for things. Evidently, Luke is the only one who has access to him because of Luke, oh, excellent Theophilus, cradesty, there were the cradesty, the knights, and the plebes. Luke was owned either by a governor or a senator Theophilus. It was cheaper to own your own doctor than to have medical insurance just like today. And no doubt as he gets saved, Theophilus gets saved, but Luke had to study in Alexandria or Tarsus or Rome, had to do the last two years in Rome in the Collegeium Architorium to get licensure in the Roman Empire. He was a Roman citizen, a Hellenist, and he was licensed to practice medicine anywhere in the Roman world. So that's probably why he had access to Paul when no one else did at the end of Paul's life. And Paul is in that dungeon now, waiting to be put to death. And he's talking to his own dear son. People say that Timothy was weak-spirited or he was afraid, it says God haven't given us a spirit of fear, Timothy, but of power and love and have a sound. So somebody a thousand years ago wrote that Timothy was weak or something and everybody's quoted it since then. I don't believe that. I think Timothy was quite the man. He had been pulled with Paul for 16 years. Paul's in his 60s, Timothy's probably 36, 37 years old, which is considered young. But he is the bishop of the great church in Ephesus and all the surrounding churches. John Chrysostom writing his commentary on first Timothy where it says take a little wine for thy stomach. Chrysostom said Paul is writing as a physician. He's not asking him to feel the freedom to drink socially. And Chrysostom says God had used Timothy so powerfully in Ephesus to do signs and wonders and miracles that God allowed him to have that thorn in the flesh to humble him because he was used so powerfully. The reason is Paul is saying God hasn't given us a spirit of fear is because Rome had burned four years before this. Nero is burning Christians at the stake. He's feeding them to lions in the arena. Vespasian and his armies have surrounded Jerusalem and the Jewish wars have begun and anybody who won't say Caesar is Lord has put to death. In this culture, there's no rock stars. Nobody's striving to get a radio show or get a TV show. You have one show and you're going. There was a cost to it. To me, Timothy was quite the man. In fact, within three years of him receiving this epistle, he's martyred in the streets of Ephesus. It was a parade for the goddess Diana and Timothy stood up and preached the gospel and wouldn't back down and they clubbed him to death. He was quite the man. He was quite the man. And Paul is writing to his own dear son. And the world is unraveling, much like it is today. Edward Gibbons in the decline and the fall of the Roman Empire wrote this, that these were the five main reasons that Rome collapsed. First, the rapid increase of divorce with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society. This is what the Romans, the Roman Republic bragged that in the first 400 years there wasn't a single divorce. Americans couldn't do that in 200 years. Imagine that. This is what's causing Rome to fall. Use your imagination. Rapid increase of divorce, undermining the sanctity of the home. Second, higher and higher taxes. Just use your imagination. Spending of money for bread and celebrations. Third main reason, the mad craze for pleasure. Sports becoming every year more and more exciting and more and more brutal. Fourth, the building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within. It was the decadence of the people. And fifthly, the decay of religion. Not Christianity, just religion. The decay of religion, faith fading into form, losing touch with life, becoming impotent to guide it. Does that sound like the days that we live in? We're in these last days. If Timothy was, you and I certainly are. We need to know that. Says it here. This is a present imperative. You have to continually keep this in mind. Don't teach on prophecy. Are you kidding me? There's never been a time, more than today, that we need to teach on prophecy. If 26% of the scripture, and that's the most conservative scholars, is prophecy, it means one out every four Sundays you're hitting prophecy. How can you not do that? You throw a quarter of the Bible out the window and it's the broadest subject in the New Testament. The return of Jesus Christ. Wouldn't it be if I was coming, if it was my wife and my kids and I was saying to them, wait for me. When you see these things, look up. I'm coming. I love you. It would certainly be the most broadest thing I would talk to my wife, my family about. He's coming. Broad subject. Understand that in this day, before he returns, all of this misguided affection is gonna try to produce a church that wants to deny godliness and power to transform unsafe people. Some phony church system. Stay away from that. You must stay away from that. And lastly, he says, you must. I'm gonna say it to you guys. You must continue in the things that you've learned. I mean, that's kind of a no-brainer, right? I mean, I can't believe I still get to do the things I learned from Chuck. Those things are important to me because they fit in a context of the book of Acts in the New Testament. Cavalry Chapel was a skin that fit over my convictions and Chuck always encouraged me. He never wanted me to be a Chuckite. I'm a Jesusite. I'm a Bibleite. I'm a Holy Ghostite. Not a Chuckite. Right? That's the way he would have it. And what he would say to us is what God is saying to us, the very breath of Almighty God. You don't have to invent anything new. You don't have to be a discoverer. You need to continue in what you already know and what you've learned and what you've been convinced of. Knowing from whom the influence is in your life. That from a child, the Holy Scripture is powerful because every Scripture is God-breathed. I need you guys to do this, you know? I think of Raul, you know? I think of all the craziness in the world, but I would say, but you, Raul, continue, continue. You, Mike, continue in the things that we've learned. Don, David, Jeff, this is what I need. I need you guys to continue in the things that we've learned. Damien, continue Damien. I'm about three weeks behind you in Jeremiah and I'm stealing everything you're doing. I need you to continue. In the things that you have learned, Damien. I love Damien. Look, you guys, you young guys, you know, my grandkids, you young guys, I need you, Bealer Boys, John Randall, you young guys that are here. Please listen to me. Continue in the things that you have learned and been convinced of, knowing of whom you have learned them. Because if the Lord tarries, I'm handing my grandkids to you, you understand me? And if you don't do what's right, even if I'm 90, I've got enough Rambo and me, I'm gonna come and see you. Right? This is not rocket science. In one sense, I can't believe, you know, I can't believe we're kind of in this place where we need to say this to each other. But on the other side, to me, it's an incredible privilege that I get to say it to you. The world's changing fast. It doesn't matter. The breath of God never changes. It abides forever. The breath of God this evening is continue. You must continue. You have been invested with the eternal word of God that a lost world is desperately in need of. That's the breath of God as we're here this evening, amen. That's the breath of God for us. You moms and grandmoms, you speak in the ears of those little ones. The holy scripture which is able to make them wise. It has its own ability, amen. That's the breath of God to us. We mess up. Not here in Philadelphia, but you know. And God speaks to us. The story of the prodigal son is the breath of Almighty God. You know, inspiration, infallibility, the inerrancy, the three ends. It's not complicated, not complicated. The Bible doesn't say, you know, blessed is the theologian. Doesn't say blessed is the rabbi. It says blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly or standeth in the way of sinners or sitteth in the seed of the squander for all. But his delight is in the law of the Lord known as law he doth meditate day and night. He'll be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season. And his leaf also shall not wither. I thought wicked or not so. Blessed is the man. Wherewithal shall a young theologian cleans his way? Then say that. Wherewithal shall a young man, young woman, cleans his way by taking heed thereto unto thy word. Oh Lord, I have hidden your word in my heart. That's the problem in the last days. Not in my brain. I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Look, this is the great heritage of Calvary Chapel. We teach it and we actually believe it. We teach it and we believe it. And what we're to do now that our Paul is passing off the scene. What do we do? Continue, guys. Continue. Isn't that a relief? You don't have to learn anything new. Continue in the things that you've learned. Knowing of whom you've learned them and been assured of, been convinced of. Understanding that the holy writings have power in and of themselves to make you wise unto salvation. That every scripture is God breathe, the very breath of God. Isn't that wonderful? The responsibility then is not ours. We sow it. We give it out. It has its own dynamic. It does its own work. It accomplishes. It produces. It gives light. It cleanses. It gives life. It doesn't need us to be dressed fancy. It doesn't need us to be hopping around doing something crazy. I see people that act like that and they say they believe in inerrancy and I realize they really don't know what they're talking about. They're helping the Bible so much. I can't get the Bible because I can't get them out of the way. Right? Here, let's do this. I'm gonna ask Rob and Alex to come out and let's take a little time and worship and pray. Let's bow our hearts and just commit this time to the Lord Father. I know you've overheard, Lord. And we just, the simplicity of this, Lord, we wanna take it to heart and walk in it, Lord, to just continue, Lord, in the things that we've learned and been assured of, knowing from who we've learned, Lord, your word, your spirit, Lord. And Lord, we pray that you would minister among us, Lord, as we just take this time. You speak of hypocrisy, Lord, and you say it's when people draw close to you with their lips, but their hearts are far away, Lord. We don't want any of that this evening, Lord. We bring our hearts. We bring our voices, Lord. We draw close to you, Lord. We ask that you move among us. Why don't we pray, Father, in Jesus' name. Let's do this. You have kids at home. You're worried about them, grandkids, prodigals. And so often, you know, in the ministry, if we have a prodigal, Satan grinds us to powder. What if you'd have done this? What if you'd have done that? What if you said this? What if you'd have done that? You know, we only know about prodigals because the best father had prodigals. That's the only reason we know about prodigals. Because the best father, God, had prodigal. If that's you this evening and it's weighing on your heart, look, we're here to encourage one another, to exhort one another. As we sing this next song, I'd ask, why don't you just stand? Let the folks, you see somebody standing, you might know their story. They have a prodigal, brooded kids at home, they're worried about, and the things that are grinding on their kids, you're worried about it, Lord. Just to say, Lord, let me be that grandparent, let me be the one who speaks your word to them from the time they're little. Or, Lord, this prodigal, I can hardly sit here and concentrate, Lord, this eats at me every day. Would you retrieve them? And you know, I believe that may happen. I believe before the Lord comes, we may see them all gathered back again. And I'm excited now, let me tell you why, this isn't an aside, but you guys that were here during the Jesus movement, imagine what would happen if we'd had iPhones. We would have turned the world upside down. That would have been after we got saved. If I had an iPad before I got saved, I'd have never come back, you know, the LSD in an iPad, I'd have just been gone. But my point is, we told everybody, we were so excited if we'd had iPhones, all of Facebook, all of Twitter, all that stuff would have been lit up with Jesus. I think we may see a generation gathered in that wants to take Facebook and light it up with the name of Jesus. That's what we need to see. Then we've got the person, we've got the media, we get the whole thing, we may see that. So let's, if you're one of those tonight, you have a prodigal, you have kids that you're tortured about, you just, how am I gonna do this? Doesn't matter, look, here's the culture, here's the last days, this is where we live in. Paul, his advice is, preach the word, continue. Continue what you've learned. Continue.