 building an effective personal ministry, building an effective personal ministry. And we've been working through this paragraph in 1 Timothy chapter four, verses 12 through 16. This is part three in our sermon series on this one text, dealing with what it means in the life of the Christian to build an effective personal ministry. And here the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter four, beginning in verse 12, let no one despise your youth. But be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity, until I come give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Again, by way of reminder, in this passage, Paul is instructing Timothy with the building blocks, if you will, of maintaining, building and maintaining an effective personal ministry in Ephesus. However, the instruction here is valuable as that is for a man who desires the position of a bishop. This is also extremely tremendously valuable for any Christian. Every Christian, all Christians, have been called into the work of the ministry. And here in verses 12 through 16, we see the essentials of building an effective personal ministry. By way of reminder, if you've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, you have been saved into a body, the body of Christ. If you've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, you have been saved into a lost and dying world that needs Christ, of which you are a priest and a prophet. You are to work in your ministry. Ephesians 4 teaches that there are those that God gifts for the equipping of the saints to do the work of the ministry. Every Christian is in ministry, and you're to build an effective personal ministry. Now, the components for doing this are basic, but they are profound. They are basic, but excruciatingly important. Everything is based on these points, taking heed to yourself and to your doctrine. The first point, you have to maintain an exemplary life, a life of holiness, a clear conscience before God, a life bent toward righteousness. You must devote yourself to the Word of God, you must cultivate your God-given gifts, and you must pursue your ministry with an uncompromising devotion. So the first point that we looked at from verse 12, you have to maintain an exemplary life. You have to be an example. Your life has to be worth exemplifying. Now, that life is consistent with the label of Christian. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian, who is claiming the name of Christ, should be living a life that is exemplary for Christ, living a life that is in accord with the Word of God. And in that, you become an example. You become an example to believers, but you certainly become an example of believers, what it means to be a Christian. And by that, you adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. That's the first step of building an effective personal ministry. You do that by maintaining an exemplary, holy, devoted, and faithful life. And in that, you lead by example. But point two on your notes. Now, in verse 13, you must devote yourself to Scripture. Paul tells Timothy, till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. If you're going to minister, if you're going to have an effective personal ministry for God, you're going to be diligent in the Word of God and you must be diligent with the Word of God, diligent in the Word of God and diligent with the Word of God. You must be devoted to Scripture and then you must be devoted to living the Scripture, living the Scripture out. Again, this is another basic, but the battle is won or lost on this basic. This is something that is a necessity and those that claim the name of Christ need to see it as a necessity, a life and death issue. Paul begins, till I come, give attention. And we saw in chapter three that Paul had every intention of returning to Ephesus. He poured his life into these people. He loved the church. He loved the people. He just never made it back. Paul spent a winter in Nicopolis and then afterward was arrested again and carted off to Rome. And so in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, we really have here what are parting words, if you will, from Paul to Timothy to the church in Ephesus. What Paul would want Timothy in his absence to be doing. What Paul now in his absence wants all of us to be doing. We've got to, he says, get in the word. He says give attention to reading. Give attention there is a compound word. Pros, meaning to, and echo, meaning to hold or to have. In other words, when you're going to give attention to reading, you're going to turn and hold your minds toward it. It means to turn and hold your minds toward someone or toward something. It's going to occupy your mind, occupy your effort, occupy your energy. Give attention is in that sense a way of life. It's a present active imperative. It's a command of Paul. Present active means that it's ongoing. This is something that needs to be constantly, consistently, persistently ongoing in your life. Give attention to reading. And for Timothy, this is to be a way of life. It's to be a way of life for us too. Now you can in your own lives become committed or devoted to a lot of things, can't you? Some of those things are worthless. And you have to recognize them and acknowledge them as worthless, reaching the next level on super ninja, seven killer Xbox game, right? That's worthless. You take great pride at 12 o'clock in the morning having worked all day to overcome the next level. Anything that Oprah says is worthless. Don't you don't devote yourself to that stuff? You can devote yourself to things that are worthless. You can also find yourself devoted to things that are negative. As we saw back in chapter three, myths, genealogies, fables, false doctrine, false teaching, anything that comes out of the charismatic movement. You can find yourself devoted to things that are garbage, that are bad for you, that will lead you to shipwreck. But then you can choose, and that's what Paul is commanding here, you can choose to devote yourself to things that are positive. You can hear specifically the word of God. Good, healthy, clean, pure food for your soul, amen? We are to devote ourselves to the word of God. The point here is that you have to devote yourself. You have to be careful what you're devoting yourself to. Now, here, continually, consistently, by command from Paul, we are to devote ourselves to three things specifically. One, to reading. Two, to exhortation. And three, to doctrine. All of these in the Greek here are with the direct article, the. It's not just to reading, it's to the reading, to the exhortation, and to the doctrine. And these were, this phrasing here, the way this is worded, shows that these were common. They were common to congregational life in the church at that time. So the first point he makes here is that we're to give attention, to devote ourselves constantly to the reading, right? And this is the reading is referring in the first century to the Jewish custom that they had of reading the scripture allowed in the synagogue. This was the public reading of scripture. And we've got a great example of how this worked in Acts chapter 13. Turn back there with me, Acts chapter 13. And let's see this in action, okay? The reading, the exhortation, and the doctrine, Acts 13. And look beginning at verse 13. So Acts 13, 13. And this is how it worked. This is what began in the synagogue and then carried over into the New Testament church at the time. Acts chapter 13, verse 13. And here Luke says, Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Panthea. And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch and Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. They're going to church, so to speak, okay? Verse 15. And after the reading, there it is, right? After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying, Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. So they're in verse 15. We see the reading, the reading of the law and the prophets. And then we see the exhortation, the preaching of a sermon. If you will, that was in the synagogue. Now that practice again, carried over into the New Testament church. Paul intended when the church met, met for there to be the reading of the scripture, for there to be a discussion of doctrine, for there to be an exhortation. And we see that explained in many places in scripture. But Paul basically explained that all of his letters in the church were to be read, read aloud and read in church. At the end of Colossians, Paul says this. He says, now when this epistle is read among you, that was assumed, that the epistle that came to the church at Coloss would be read among the brethren. He says, see to it that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So he expected those letters would be read aloud as scripture in the meeting of the church, right? But now listen to Paul in 1 Thessalonians. He charges in chapter 5 verse 27 that that epistle be read to all the holy brethren. Same concept, okay? So now, public reading of scripture. Let me give you a good rule to follow in biblical interpretation if you're going to study your Bible. The first thing that you need to do is take a look at what that passage of scripture, what that verse of scripture meant to that audience at that time. Scripture has a specific audience in their time, at that time. We take the principle from that and we apply it to ourselves in our time. But it's important to understand what the scripture meant to them. So put yourself in the shoes, if you will, of a first-century Jew. You don't have copies of the scripture yourself. They're very expensive. Only certain few have copies of the scripture. You, as a first-century Jew, don't have a kink goes. You can't run down the road and draft off a bunch of copies to give to all your buddies. There is no way to copy. There's no printing press. The society at large at this time was basically illiterate because there weren't a lot of books around to read. And so most folks couldn't read. Their access to the Word of God that is pure converting the soul that is necessary for our lives had to be publicly heard in church. And they valued it so much that the Bible says that they met daily. Many of those believers met daily on Solomon's porch, met daily with the church. And they read the scriptures. There would have been time given to reading, a significant amount of time. And there would have been, if you can imagine, right, an engagement with the reading. You'd have been sitting on the edge of your seat wanting to hear the words of God to you for the salvation of your own soul, for that of your family, for your own spiritual growth, for your Christian life. That would have been extremely valuable. They would have invested themselves in it. Can you imagine? Many of you can't imagine because you have four copies of the scripture in your house and you never read it. Can you see? Back then at that time, at that day, this was life to them. This was life and death. The Word of God being read aloud in the church was a necessity. They didn't have copies for themselves. Back then, there was a problem, if you will, of knowing the Word of God because of a lack of ready availability. What's the problem today? Apathy and indifference. We have the same problem of biblical illiteracy. But those that claim the name of Christ, those that claim to be God's people, don't read it. It sits collecting dust on a shelf. This would have been a great value to them. And let me tell you, the Word of God is of great value to everyone who is a genuine Christian. So examine yourself. If you have no value for the Word of God, consider that you're not a Christian. The Word of God is life and breath. The Word of God is necessary to the life of a Christian. And if you are going to build an effective personal ministry, if you're going to live for Christ, you've got to pour yourself into the Bible. You've got to devote yourself to the reading. It is, it's everything. We've got to learn of Christ. We have to follow the example of Christ. We've got to be able to live our Christian life and we need the Word of God. This is such a rebuke, isn't it? It's a Christianity today, professing Christianity in the sense that the Word of God is so undervalued. We have one excuse after another for why we don't do this. One excuse after another for why you won't pour yourself into the Word of God and learn it, spend time, devote yourself to it. Apathy, indifference, priorities, whatever they may be, ultimately you've got to understand that ultimately the main reason is unbelief, unbelief. If you believe that you will live into eternity and that this life is a vapor, if you believe that the Lord God will sanctify you by His Spirit through the Word, if you believe and take God at His Word, what He says in the Bible, and that if you believe, this is the very revelation of God to you, that you have the very words of God in your hands and your lap, if you believe it, then you'll spend time in it. It will become a devoted part of your life. And there are reasons, right in the flesh, that even a genuine Christian can get themselves messed up in their thinking, messed up in their priorities such that they depart the Word of God, such that they don't prioritize it. Repent of that sin. That's the Lord's Word to you and devote yourself, give attention to the reading. But often as is the case, many will profess Christ, profess to be forgiven by God and yet have absolutely no concern or care whatsoever for His Word. And it is the destruction of many a so-called Christian life. People struggle with sin. Why am I struggling over sin? I don't have any victory over sin. The Bible says how can a young man keep his way pure? How can any Christian keep themselves pure by taking heed according to your Word? And when we don't take heed according to His Word, is when you become defeated in your Christian life. You struggle with how to make decisions, how to raise your family, how to work on the job effectively and be a good testimony for Christ, how to evangelize, how to do whatever. And yet if you're not spending time, commensurate time in the Word of God to allow God by His Spirit to work in you and you're gonna be defeated and stunted and immature and at worst lost must give attention to its basic, right? Very, very basic. We've talked about this many, many times but it is profound and it is necessary. We've got to spend time in the Word of God. We know many, right, that the only reason they use scripture is to make an excuse for their sin or to defend what they're doing with their life. It's like you go to witness to someone and you're taking them through the law. They become a little convicted over their sin and they say, yeah, but what about David? You ever heard that one? Okay, wait a minute. You wanna take a man after God's own heart. The scripture itself testifies that he was blameless in everything except for that instance with Bathsheba in your right. They hit tight and you wanna use him as an excuse for your serial fornication? I'm sorry, that doesn't work that way and that argument is not gonna fly before God on Judgment Day. You can't do it. There is no excuse in scripture for your sin. I'm witnessing to someone else one time and he's like, what's the most important thing that Paul ever said? And I'm like, well, wow, Paul said a lot of really important stuff. I don't know. And he says, you know that bad that you do that you don't wanna do because you do it and you wanna do good but you don't do the good that he's talking about Romans 7, right? And he can't even like articulate, making an excuse for sin. You'll find no excuse for sin in scripture. You'll find no excuse for apathy in scripture. You'll find no excuse for indifference in scripture. You'll find no excuse for living any other life for Christ than the sold out, wholehearted, devoted life to Christ. There is no other life that is described on the pages of God's word. We must give attention, devote ourselves to the Bible, to Christ, the God of the word. We need to be people of the book. Many people approach the scripture in a devastatingly deadly way. And let me explain by way of an analogy you're gonna have to forgive that will break down if you take it too far, okay? But let's say that you walk into your house and there is a nuclear bomb in your house. A nuclear bomb, okay? And there's a little timer on it. And the timer's like, tink, tink, tink. Obviously, this thing is going off, okay? So you, like, look at this thing and by God's grace and mercy, there is a nuclear bomb defusing manual sitting right there next to the nuclear bomb. And you're like, wow, this is a nuclear bomb defusing manual. I'm going to read and learn how to defuse the nuclear bomb that is currently about to go off in my house. So you pick up the nuclear bomb defusing manual. You open to the introduction. The nuclear bomb will require the removal of certain wires. And you say, I got this. And you go about to, oh, wait a minute. Where are the wires? What wires is he talking about? In what order do I remove them? How do I cut, right? We need to know a little bit more about the nuclear bomb in order to defuse it. And most people approach their reading of God's word the same way, right? The same way. There is a nuclear bomb, you understand, of God's judgment. And your timer is chung, chung, chung, counting down. So someone comes along to you and they say to you, hey, buddy, I don't know if you realize this or not, but you have a nuclear bomb of God's judgment and the timer is going down. And they turn to you and say, who are you to tell me that I have a nuclear bomb? And that's your interpretation of the nuclear bomb defusing manual anyway. So why should I listen to you, right? So you go back to your house, most professing Christians, right? They do this. They go to the honey, where was that nuclear bomb defusing manual again? Where did I put that thing? You know, and they wipe the dust off it. And so they open the nuclear bomb defusing manual of God's judgment and they read, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes, I got this. I believe in Jesus Christ. Like I believe in Abraham Lincoln or believe in Fred Astaire or whoever. So, and they go about living their life and that, wait a minute, what about belief? What is scripturally God define as genuine saving faith? What about repentance? What is biblical repentance? What about that person that comes along to you and says that your nuclear bomb is about to explode? How do you diffuse the nuclear bomb? Don't take the analogy too far, did you get my point? Most people approach the Word of God that way. How do you believe exactly? What does the Christian life look like? When God saves a person, it isn't on your terms. It's on God's terms and God has very specific way in which he saves and a very specific way in which that looks and you having a deceitful and wicked heart can be deceived. Our lifeblood is the Word of God. The spirit of God applying the Word of God to our otherwise very unrighteous, very wicked and very deceptive deceiving hearts. Not just deceiving, deceiving above all things. Deceiving above the devil himself. You have that enemy in your own chest. Listen, the battle is won or lost on these basics. What will you do? What will you do? Will you invest yourself in the Word of God? Will you pour yourself into it to learn of the truth of God that you as the Bible says can save yourself and those who hear you? It takes that kind of effort. John Owen said this, if the Word does not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us. We talk about building an effective personal ministry. The Word of God must dwell in you richly, as Paul says. But if it doesn't dwell with power in you, you can't have an effective personal ministry. You have no ministry. The Word of God must dwell with power in you such that it will pass from you with power. He goes on to say the want of this experience of the power of gospel truth on their own souls is that which gives us so many lifeless, sapless preachers. He says orations, but that's what it is. In words and dead as the power, instead of preaching the gospel in the demonstration of the Spirit, you want to have an effective personal ministry? Get yourself in the Word of God and allow the Spirit of God to apply those truths, to learn those truths. The Spirit of God will guide you into truth and then you take that power that is within you and you send it out. You push it out and the Lord will work through that. Having the knowledge of God's Word in this way is that key, if you will. You're looking for a silver bullet. You're looking for a key. Having the Word of God in you that way under the applying work of the Holy Spirit is the key to holy living, to righteous living, to having that exemplary life that will be an example to believers, certainly an example of what a believer should look like. Are you living your daily life out of the treasure of God's Word? Hosea chapter four verse six says this, my people, God says, are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. First Corinthians chapter 14 verse 20, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature. Do not be children in your thinking. If you don't know the Word of God, you claim Christ, you're a child at best in your thinking, okay? Ephesians chapter four verse 14, the lack of biblical understanding produces immature children that are in danger. If you have a lack of biblical understanding, there's a danger with that. They are these children tossed to and fro by waves. They're carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. There's a danger if you don't give attention to the reading, okay? Verse 18 Ephesians four goes on to say, describing unbelievers, they have their understanding darkened. You want your understanding enlightened? Get in the Word of God. They have their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Ultimately, it is ignorance, right? Do you want to gain understanding? Do you want to walk in the light? Do you want to seek wisdom? Then depend on the Holy Spirit and give attention to the reading of Scripture. Give attention to study. And when you read it, live it, obey it. The Israelites many, many times failed to heed the words of the prophets, failed to heed God's word. So what did God do? What did God do? God took away his word. God took away understanding. Listen to Amos, Amos chapter 8 verse 11. Behold, God says, the days are coming that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water. That would be better, right? But of hearing the words of the Lord. It's a famine of the word of God. He says, they shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord but shall not find it. That is the judgment of God on those that did not honor his word through his prophets. People today do not honor his word. They are given over to every form of disgusting false teaching and they'll fight tooth and nail for a lie. They're given over to easy believism. Given over to, it's a lie. That is a lie. They're given over to Catholicism. Lies, lies, lies. Given over to the garbage that pours out of, the filth that pours out of the charismatic movement. More lies given over to them. Given over to the lies that come out of the mouths of those TV preachers, most of them. Given over to lies. Given over to baptismal regeneration. Given over to whatever. Because they don't honor the word of God. They don't value the word of God in their own lives. You want to be safe. You want to be saved. You want to be secure in Christ. You've got to know the word of God. These are all products of not heeding the word of God. Not valuing the word of God. The liberalism that is flooding through the church today is an abomination because people don't value and honor the word of God. They don't read it. The way to avoid error is to be precise with the word of God. But people don't value it that much. Let me give you an example. If you will turn with me to Job chapter 28. I, you know, I love hymns. I love the theology of the old hymns. I love Puritan, the Puritan prayers, some poems. I don't think I can imagine a more poetic treatment of value for the word of God than what Job does here in Job chapter 28. The value of the word of God. Even that, love to hear the flipping of pages. The word of God, right? Bring your Bibles. How many people don't take their Bible to church in churches today? I remember we were one time out of town a while back several years ago and going into a church and look around and we're the only ones with a Bible. That is a travesty. It's a tragedy. Here, Job chapter 28. Listen to this. Speaking of wisdom, wisdom that comes from God, wisdom that comes from the word of God, okay? Chapter 28 verse 1. Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth and copper is smelted from ore, valuable metals, right? Highly valuable. They would have treasured these at this time. They were extremely valuable. So verse 3. Man puts an end to darkness. He searches every recess for ore in the darkness and in the shadow of death. He breaks open a shaft away from people in places forgotten by feet. They hang far away from men and they swing to and fro. In other words, people don't even go there. In dark places that people have never been. They search for them and they pine away for them, right? They work at them to mine these precious metals. Look at verse 5. As for the earth, from it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. It's stones are the source of sapphires and it contains gold dust. Again, look at the distance to which men will go. The paths that they will track to search out and to find this almost unreachable treasure. The path that no bird knows. Nor has the falcons eyes even seen it. The proud lions have not trodden it. Nor has the fierce lion even passed over it. But he puts his hand, man does, on the flint. He overturns the mountains at their roots to get to this. He cuts out channels in the rocks and his eyes sees every precious thing and he damns up the streams from trickling. What is hidden, he brings forth the light and by really hard, diligent work, right? Put yourself in the shoes of this. You, you know, for me and that boat. Wow, I just, you know, that next car, that next, whatever it is. I'm going to mine the depths of my effort to produce that wealth for me, to produce that possession for me to get what I want. And you'll go to any lengths to get it. I'll work an 80-hour week and I'll neglect my wife and neglect my kids and I'll do what I have to do to get to that thing, whatever that thing is, right? Just like man here with precious metals. Look at what is said in verse 12. But where can wisdom be found? That's the question you need to ask and answer. Where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value. If man knew its value, he would search far and wide for it just like he does for precious metals, right? Nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says it's not in me and the sea says it's not with me either. 15, it cannot be purchased for gold nor can silver be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of offer in precious onyx or sapphire. Neither gold nor crystal can equal it. Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or quartz for the price of wisdom is above rubies. Do you believe it? Before you answer that question, you say you believe it. Does your life look like it's in a cord with what you just said you believe? Do you believe that the word of God, wisdom from God is more valuable to you than rubies? And what if I told you, listen, there's a swamp and you're going to have to trek to get there several days on, but if you go, you do what you got to do. You got to kill some alligators. You got to run over some people to get there. You get there and you dig and you dig and you dig and you dig. There's a big fat pile of rubies. Would you do it? Is the word of God more precious to you than rubies? And what does your life reflect that? Your investment in scripture is going to reflect your belief in that very thing. How you view scripture, how you live your life in a cord with scripture is going to reflect your faith in the God of scripture, your faith in the Christ of scripture that has given it to you. It's going to tell you how you think. So examine yourself. How much do you value the word of God? If you're not studying it at all, you're not reading it, don't be the hypocrite and lie to your own profession. Examine yourself honestly before God. Repent of that sin and do something about it. Verse 19, he continues, the topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden, verse 21 says, from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Destruction and death say, we've heard a report about it with our ears, but God understands its way and he knows its place. And praise God, he has revealed it to us in his word. Amen. For he looks to the ends of the earth and he sees unto the whole heavens to establish a weight for the wind and a portion, the waters by measure. When he made a law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt, then he saw wisdom and declared it. Praise God. He prepared it indeed. He searched it out. And to man he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. Wisdom is knowledge. Not just knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge applied. You learn from the word of God and you apply the word of God and you have wisdom. You must learn. So to fear the Lord being wisdom means to submit to the Lord. The Lord reveals himself to you in his word. You learn the word. You apply the word, fearing God. And in that, there's wisdom. And in all that, there is understanding. That's valuing the word of God. Back in 1st Timothy chapter 4. We're to devote ourselves to give attention to the reading of Scripture, the study of Scripture. We're to live according to it. But then he says, secondly in verse 13, that we're to give attention or to devote ourselves to the exhortation. To the exhortation. We need to be diligent in the word of God and diligent with the word of God. The word here for exhortation carries a wide semantic range. Anything from comfort, to encouragement, to rebuke. And we are to give attention to the exhortation. Here, and again in context, it's the public preaching of the word of God in Scripture, in the service, in the congregation. There's a wonderful example. Remember, we won't turn there for lack of time, but we'll talk about it. The wonderful example of this in Nehemiah chapter 8. Have the word of God. Ezra the scribe comes in. He's going to read the word of God. They built a platform for Ezra to stand on. Ezra gets up on the platform and it says, he reads the word of God from morning till midday. The public reading of Scripture. People, it says, lifted their hands saying, amen, amen. There were times when the word of God read by Ezra the scribe caused the people of God to weep when Ezra was going through the law of God. And they had to remind them, don't weep. This is a time for rejoicing. But they read the word of God from morning till midday. And then it says, the men stood up and explained it and gave the sense of it. That's the exhortation. There is a meaning. There is an explanation given. And then there's an application of that. That's wrapped up in this idea of the exhortation in the congregational services of Christ's church. It's the public exhortation of Scripture. And it says in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8, listen to this. They read distinctly from the book in the law of God and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. It's a part of the exhortation here. This word, however, doesn't stop at explanation. With that, you just get knowledge. It's just instruction. Which the instruction is to be from the word of God and that's good. But it doesn't stop at explanation. It moves on to application. It moves on to exhortation. An exhortation, basically, is to warn the people of God to obey the word of God with a view towards judgment if you don't. There's also a view towards blessing if you do. But it's to warn the people of God to obey the word of God with a view towards judgment. Listen, if there's so-called preaching that only is explanation, but it has no pressing of the word of God onto the people such that they are exhorted to obey the Lord with a view towards judgment if they don't, then it's not preaching. It's not biblical exhortation. This is an exhorting you to do something. It's not just an explanation. You understand? It's an exhortation. Now, this has a use in the public services of the church, but also there's an intensely personal aspect to this word as well. Parakaleo, to pull along to your side has an intensely personal aspect as well. We're familiar with this passage, but listen to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24 and 25. There, the Bible says, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. That word for stir up there? Basically that word means a sharp disagreement. It means a disagreement. So in other words, if you're going to consider one another to stir one another up to love and good works, that stir up means that, okay, there's a brother over here not where they need to be. And I'm concerned about them. They're not serving the way they need to serve. Maybe they don't understand something that they need to understand. They're not living the way they need to live. And so it's the responsibility of a loving brother, a loving sister to go over and, what may be a disagreement because one person's living one way, another person seeing it as needing, correcting. That's where that word comes from. It is we are to stir one another up, reminding one another to live fervently for the Lord, to obey him. And it goes on to say verse 25, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is a manner of some, but exhorting. Same word, Parakaleo. It's the, in light of that circumstance, exhort. You press upon them the importance of doing what the Word of God says with a view towards judgment if we don't. It's a pressing of the Word of God upon another. It says exhort one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. We need brothers and sisters in the church who are faithful with that. Right? We all need accountability. We need, when we're in difficulty having trouble, we need a faithful brother, a faithful sister to come alongside us and say, listen, I'm concerned about you. What can I do to help? It doesn't look like things are going well over here. And the Word of God says this, what seems to be the trouble? How can I help? We need brothers and sisters faithful to do that. There's going to be a time. There's been times in my life where I've needed it. There's times in your life too when you need it. We all need that. The Word of God tells us to do it. Be devoted to. Give attention to the exhortation. If you're going to have an effective, personal ministry, you've got to be devoted to the Word of God. Be diligent with the Word of God. Then you've got to be devoted to the exhortation, to applying that Word of God, helping your brothers and sisters. Paul just got done explaining right in verse 12 that we're to be a good example. Examples in the church are there. They are gifts to the church for them to pull alongside, Parakaleo, those brothers and sisters with them. Paul says, Philippians 3 again, note those who have the same mind that he does, the same mind that Christ does who are walking according to that mind. Note those because you have them for an example. They Parakaleo you. They exhort you there to pull you along to their side. And if you're going to have an effective, personal ministry, you'll be doing that. Now, that pulling to your side, mind you, is into the work of the ministry. If all you are doing is pulling to your side someone into your pet theology, that's not biblical exhortation. This is, we're here to do the work of the ministry. Pull someone alongside you in faithfulness to the Lord, in evangelizing the lost, in edifying the saints, in exhorting a brother or sister. All you're doing is just pulling someone alongside to your view of super lapsarianism. There's a, there's a problem. Okay. But lastly, we're to give ourselves to the reading. We're to devote ourselves to the exhortation. And lastly, we're to give attention or devote ourselves to the doctrine, to the doctrine. Now here, the doctrine, this could mean teaching or that which is taught. Those two things are inseparable. It certainly means both. Okay. To the teaching to that which is taught, you must devote yourself to both of those. Devoting yourself to the doctrine, you're devoting yourself to that which is taught. But you're also as a Christian in order to have a, an effective personal ministry to devote yourself to teaching. You stand at the door and witness to someone you're teaching. You go alongside another brother and sister to exhort them from the Word of God. What are you doing? You're teaching. You want to edify, serve the body of Christ. And so you disciple someone. What are you doing? You're teaching. You're devoting yourself to that which is taught the Word of God. But you're also devoting yourself to teaching. Both are critical. You cannot separate them. All of our teaching, all of our instruction is to be representative of and controlled by the Word of God. Those things go together. And it requires very diligent, hard work. It's several brothers in this room right now that have preached many times before. Would you say amen to that? Amen. It is many of you, probably more of you in this room, have come out of churches where the sermon is 20 minutes with a joke on either end, story in the middle so God's truth is boiled down to about 12 that someone prepared two hours for on the day before, before he preached it. And that is a tragedy and a travesty. The Word of God teaching, preaching, you building an effective personal ministry for the Lord, it takes hard, diligent work. The Bible exhorts you, commands you to be a diligent worker. Not to be ashamed, but rightly handling the Word of truth. It takes hard work. It takes perseverance over the text. How many of you have taught a Sunday school class? Taught a small group? It takes perseverance over the text of scripture to be faithful to the Word of God in doing that. It takes meticulous and faithful study. It takes precision. You're going to keep yourself out of error. If you're going to, at some point, know the Word of God for yourself, you've got to be precise with the text of scripture. Not being necessarily precise with someone else told you. You have to take responsibility and be precise with the text of scripture. It takes hard work. We've got to be precise with the text to avoid error. Very important to note here that the exhortation rests on the previous command to give attention to reading. You're going to be giving your attention to exhortation. You must first be giving yourself, devoting yourself to the reading and to the doctrine. Exhortation flows from that attention. You must faithfully read and then faithfully expound the scripture. Faithfully read and then faithfully press the scripture upon the people both to believe what the Word of God says and to do what the Word of God says. We're not entitled in that sense to our own opinions, right? What the Word of God says, the Word of God says, and that's what I'm to believe and that's what I'm to do. We are doing this on God's terms, not our own. Paul says to Timothy later in this chapter and this letter in verse chapter 5 verse 17, that the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and doctrine. In other words, for all of us in building an effective personal ministry, honor comes with hard work in the Word of God. You want to be effective for the Lord. You want to honor the Lord. You want to be honored in that sense. Give yourself hard work in the scripture. Labor over the Word of God. And this must be continuous. It is a present active imperative, a continuous command. Got to be continuously at this. One of the commentators mentions an analogy. It's used by Puritan, the Puritan John Flaville. This presses the importance of that issue of being continuous. Okay. He said it is not with those who labor with the Word as it is with other laborers. And that's very true. And he uses the example of a cabinet maker. He says a cabinet maker can leave his work at the end of the day and he'll come back to it the next day and find it in exactly the same condition that he left it in. Right? That's a cabinet maker. Those that labor with the Word of God. If you're going to be giving yourself to the exhortation, being diligent with the Word of God to minister to the saints and to share the gospel, it's not like being a cabinet maker. You give yourself, give the exhortation. You leave the night, leave them there and go away for the night. You come back in the next morning and the whole thing is a mess again. Because the world, the flesh and the devil have been busy while you've been gone unraveling everything that you've done. And we fight that unraveling all the time. So to be diligent with exhortation requires that you be consistent, constant in it, laboring constantly and repetitive. That's why Peter says we need to stir one another up by way of reminder. We need to be reminding ourselves constantly of these things because the enemy is at work behind us trying to unravel all of them. Oftentimes, it feels like holding in your hands a pot of cooked spaghetti. Really hard to, you know, really hard to do. We've got to be constantly at work in order to be able to hold it, okay? That takes repetition. So, building an effective personal ministry involves living an exemplary life. That exemplary life fuels your example. And then, building an effective personal ministry requires devoting yourself to scripture, both in it and with it, right? And then scripture is the fabric with which an effective ministry is pieced together. Now, third point on your notes, with all of this, to build an effective personal ministry, you need to cultivate your God-given gifts. Cultivate your God-given gifts. Verse 14, back in 1 Timothy 4, Paul says this, Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. He begins there with a very strong, imperative command. Do not neglect. That which is not to be neglected is the spiritual gift that is within you. If you've been baptized into the body, you've been given a gifting from God. It was the gift that was given to you. That's passive. It means that God has done the giving. You have done the receiving. It's not that you went out and trumped up some gift. You know what? I want to do this. So I'm going to learn everything I can do. Works the opposite direction. It's like God has given you that gift and then as a result of you receiving that gift from the Lord in for the work of the ministry, you go out then and cultivate it and develop it and work laboriously on it. The Lord has given you a gift if you're in the body of Christ. Certainly to edify one another, to minister to the saints, to evangelize lost. Some people try to persuade you that this gift here in verse 14 is the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you come out of charismatic circles, they try to link the giving of the Spirit of God with the laying on of hands. And so certainly here this means that this is the Spirit of God that is more charismatic, misinterpretation. It's not what this passage is saying. Timothy already saved. When he got the commission of the elders to go out and use his gift. So that interpretation is wrong. We see that in Acts 16. Timothy already saved. And then he has hands laid on him commissioning him into the ministry. We also see a similar exhortation in 2 Timothy chapter 1 where Paul says to Timothy again, therefore I remind you, stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. It's a parallel example. Now it says here that this was given through the means or by prophecy. At this time this was in some way possibly in Acts 16 where Timothy received that commission, a direct revelation of God from the Holy Spirit that Timothy was going to go into this work. But then it says with the laying on of hands. In other words, accompanied by, not through the God somehow, you know, with the guy to give him gifts to the ministry, we know that doesn't happen. Those things aren't normative today. The way this works today, the Bible says here in Timothy, if men, you desire the position of a bishop, you desire a good thing. So for those of you who say, I think I'm called the pastoral ministry. First thing that comes is the desire. Desire in your heart. Now let me make the parallel application here. If you're a Christian, do you have a desire in your heart to serve the Lord? Yes, if you're a Christian, do you have a desire in your heart to edify the saints? Yes, okay. So you've been called the ministry. But now for those men that want the pastoral ministry, the office of elder, you desire the position of a bishop. That's the first thing here. Okay. But in the same way that Timothy by the laying on of hands was affirmed by the eldership. That's what that was. It wasn't a through. It wasn't a, it was an affirmation of Timothy's gift. In the same way if you're called into the ministry, you'll be affirmed by the church. If you're not affirmed by the eldership, you're not called the ministry. Right? That's a necessary component of calling. But then thirdly, you are, you have a great desire for it. Then there's affirmation by the people of God, by the church of God, by the elders. And then there is in Timothy's case and in the case of calling today, the providence of God. God works through his providence to give you opportunity to give you a point in time where you're placed into or you have the opportunity. The circumstances arranged him leading and directing such that you go into the ministry. It's often the pride and youthful immaturity of a young man to rush into these things. And they're not to be rushed. You need the unmistakable providence of God. You need the affirmation of the church. You need that desire. Often those that say they desire don't have the gifts. And so what do they do? They go into ministry. And I think the statistic is today that preachers last about three years. That's the ongoing life span of today's pastor. Means they're not gifted. And that's tragic to the church. So it's also tragic to the church now if you have gifts given by God given to you by God which every single Christian does and if you neglect that gift if you neglect it we're not to neglect it. You've got to as Paul says Kindle it up. Stir it up. The old adage goes use it or lose it. You want to avoid neglecting your gift. You want to avoid your gift going into disarray and disuse. You got to use it. You got to employ it. Now you may not know initially what your gift is. Let me exhort you again. You can't steer a parked car. If you want to know what your gift is get moving get serving get working in the church. The Lord through your work through your serving will reveal giftedness to you. That'll become evident to those around you the church or the elders you'll get employed in the use of that gift. You got to get moving. You got to get serving and when you get at the point you're using your gifts don't neglect them. You think about it. If you're neglecting your gift and someone something is being neglected. You're giving you think about it this way is a mosaic all these tiny pieces of colored glass right I'll plaster to a wall and you get this beautiful picture. Well you start neglecting your gift. You're like a little piece of glass falls out. Picture loses some of its brilliance. You're an orchestra right and there are no third violins. The third violin is at home and violin is in the case. Can't make the same music that you'd be able to make if you have the third violinist there right. You're to employ your gifts and in this sense you're to be absorbed with your gift in the work of ministry. If you're neglecting your gift someone or something make no mistake about it is being neglected okay. Think about it this week who has been edified by your gift. Who's been edified by your gift this week. You got to get to work in the body. That's what the Lord Lord has gifted you to do that. If you neglect your gift you're like a part of the body that is cut off. You dry up you turn black you shrivel up you die and you fall off. You've got to get work get to work in the body with your gift. Ministry is hard work amen amen. But Christian don't you take encouragement from the fact that God supplies all the power for that. All the enablement all the strength that God even supplies the opportunity all you got to do is get moving in faith. Trust Christ employ your gifts devote yourself to scripture give yourself to exhortation to reading to doctrine and the Lord in his own strength and his own power will have the victory in employing you in strengthening you in empowering you in giving you opportunity and then by God's grace giving you fruit all comes from God if you just get moving repent of that let lethargy repent of that inactivity repent of neglecting your giftedness repent of not giving yourself to scripture not giving yourself to exhortation and get moving and the Lord will bless if you're here and you're not a Christian all of this is an impossibility for you you don't have a spirit of God Romans 8 says that if he has not the spirit of God he is none of his you need to be born again but listen all that good that you think you do the Lord views it as a filthy rag you understand you may think that you do a good thing the Lord sees it as filthy turn away from the filth of your own life turn away from the filth of doing things your own way turn away from the filth of just gratifying your every lustful desire and turn to Christ in faith Christ in faith will wash you clean will forgive you of your sin will pardon you and then he'll put you to work giving you all the strength you need giving all the power you need all the tools and resources you need and every opportunity that you need he'll put you to work with a freedom to serve him to love him to work for him to glorify him which is the purpose for which you're created and wouldn't it it seems to be no decision at all I'm gonna live for myself for my filth or I'm gonna fulfill the purpose for which God created me by loving and serving working for my creator and praising and worshiping him for all eternity cleansed of your sin pardoned of all that filth right before God with a future inheritance of looking forward to the blessings of heaven forevermore it's an awesome thought, amen turn from your sin put your faith in Christ and then let's all serve the Lord let's pray Father in heaven Lord, thank you for your word God, thank you for this instruction very practical instruction I pray God you would rest in you in this Lord that from the heart this would be our desire to get working a day in your vineyard Lord serving you serving your body worshiping and loving you Lord but doing the work that you've given us to do and employing the gifts that you've given us or that we might walk worthy of the calling with which you've called us and ultimately as it says here in our passage God that we might save both ourselves and those who hear us for your eternal praise and worship in Jesus' name we pray amen