Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of being strong in God's grace and living as vessels of honor amidst the escalating spiritual crisis in the world. He reflects on the recent solemn assembly of prayer and fasting, highlighting the growing responsiveness of the body of Christ despite the increasing darkness and challenges faced globally. Bickle draws parallels between the soldier, athlete, and farmer, urging believers to adopt a mindset of endurance, discipline, and hard work in their spiritual journey. He encourages the church to rally together, remain steadfast in faith, and embrace the unique opportunity to express love for God during times of resistance. Ultimately, he reassures that this is a remarkable time to be alive in faith, as the breakthroughs of the kingdom will intensify alongside the challenges.

A few comments about what our gathering last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then we'll look at the notes. We won't get very far in the notes. Most of them are just for you to review on your own, just to kind of give a little extra information to some of the things I'm sharing. But this last week, we had our solemn assembly, and a solemn assembly, that's from the book of Joel. It's a solemn gathering of God's people for prayer and fasting. We met for three days, and I was so grateful for the tremendous response of this spiritual family to those three days. I mean, this room was full most of the time, and engaged, and people giving their heart and their strength to seek the Lord together. And I just looked at that, and I felt such a privilege to be a part of a spiritual family like this, of people that are sincere and devoted to the Lord. And then, just thinking at a bigger picture, there are thousands of groups across the earth that are doing this right now. September, October, November, ministries all over Asia, and Africa, and Latin America, and Europe, all over America, that are having extra times of prayer, and concentrated times of seeking the Lord together. I mean, the Lord's doing it all over the body of Christ, and what a glorious thing to see His leadership bringing forth, clearly, a new level of responsiveness in the body of Christ. Now, I've been pastoring for 40 years, and I've not seen the level of intensity of negative that's escalated like it has in the last two years. But neither have I seen the increased responsiveness of the body of Christ, like I've seen in the last two years. And many leaders would say the same thing, looking over 30, 40, 50 years of ministry. There's a new intensity, there's a crisis in the land. It's not just our land, it's all over the body of Christ, it's globally, I mean. But there's a responsiveness. The church is responding, not fully, not everybody, but many groups, thousands and thousands of groups, are saying yes to the Lord in a new way. Now, we call this three days of fasting and prayer, in light of the escalating crisis in our nation. There's a spiritual crisis in the church, and in our nation. There's a political, economic, there's social dynamics, I mean, you just turn on the news and you can see it, you hear it day after day, so I don't need to go through all of it right now. But in the midst of the crisis, there's a Holy Spirit opportunity for advancement in the kingdom. And it's troubling to see the crisis, but it's encouraging to see the breakthroughs, the responsiveness, the Lord's increase. And we're at the beginning of the beginning of it. Well, after three days of fasting and prayer, and so many of you involved last week, you know, just when it was over, we were tired, and rightfully so, and some different folks said, man, I'm just so glad it's over. And so we did it! And I said, well, you know, this three days, that wasn't the big one, and it wasn't the last one. It was very important what we did, but it's in context of thousands of groups doing it, and where it's going to happen thousands more times before the Lord returns. It matters what we do, but we're in the midst of a battle that is raging. And the battle is intensifying. It's growing. And again, the engagement of the body of Christ is growing. It's a remarkable time to be alive. You know, I think of the line that Winston Churchill said that's quite well known for those that are familiar with his speeches. He had some of the most inspiring, but clever, witty, insightful speeches of any political leader that I know of. He's one of my favorites. And it was right in the middle of World War II, and for those of you that are not up on your history, World War II was a six-year period, 1940s. You know, Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, they're assaulting all of Europe, 50 million people die in a six-year period of time. It's a crisis that's second to none in world history. Fifty million people. Well, England was being assaulted by Nazi Germany. And in this six-year war, at the three-year mark, England has their first decisive victory over Nazi Germany, and that was down in North Africa. And so the whole world's waiting to hear what Churchill's going to say. And of course, all of Britain is listening, and he gets on the radio, and he speaks, and he goes, three years, the first definitive victory over Nazi Germany. I mean, that's, after three long years, you know, it's one beginning. And he made the famous statement, he said, this is not the end. Some of you can remember this quote. He goes, it's not the end. He goes, it's not even the beginning of the end. But perhaps it's the end of the beginning. And you know, everybody laughs. But I want to add one more statement to Churchill. This is not the end. This is not, wait a minute, a three-day fast. Even the body of Christ, all of the world, this isn't the end. This is not the beginning of the end, I'll agree with Churchill. Perhaps he said it's the end of the beginning. No, that's not true either. It's the beginning of the beginning. There is an escalating battle that's going to intensify for many years to come. This is not a time to draw back. It's not a time to look for ways out of the battle. The battle's intensifying. But again, the responsiveness of the body of Christ, the breakthroughs, the advancement of the kingdom will intensify in an unprecedented way as well. So when I look around, it's time to gird ourselves. You know, just using what Churchill said, we've got a great victory. We've had some advancements. But when I look over 40 years, I've never seen the increase of darkness and resistance like I have in the last year or two. And again, many, many leaders in the body of Christ would echo that sentiment. It's unprecedented. But beloved, we're at the beginning of the beginning of the increase of darkness. But we're at the beginning of the beginning of the great advancements of the breakthrough of the kingdom. It's a time to set, to have a mindset, to gird ourselves for a long struggle, but for a victorious and a meaningful struggle, for a victory. It's not a time to draw back in fear. It's not a time to get offended at the Lord. Lord, why are you letting this happen? It's not a time to get snared in compromise. This is a bad time for that. It's a time to rally together the body of Christ, and not just congregations, but the body of Christ in cities and regions and stand together and say, Lord, for such a time as this, we've come into the kingdom. And beloved, this battle is going to go on for a while. But it's worth it. You know, I talked to some young adults, and they were saying, wow, we're in our 20s, and you're saying that this may be this way for some decades or longer. And I go, yeah. They go, wow, you know, how did we, how did we end up getting born in this hour of history? I mean, it's going to be harder and harder. I said, yeah, but the breakthroughs are going to be greater and greater as well. Beloved, I have one statement to say. This is the greatest time in history to be alive. It really is. It's not the easiest time, but it, it will, we, this will look, looking back on this coming generation, it will clearly be one of the greatest times of all of human history to be alive. It's a great time to be in the body of Christ. It's not a good time for Christian couch potatoes. It's not a good time for Christians that want enough of Jesus to get forgiven, to go to heaven, but then to disregard his leadership the rest of their life. This is not a good time for passive, casual Christianity. I mean, that passive, casual Christianity, it's not biblical, by the way. It is popular, but it certainly isn't biblical. And in the last 40 years, there's been so much of that kind of Christianity in the Western world. Well, in the last year or two, the intensity of the battle of the darkness, the resistance, the troubles mounting up everywhere, not just in America, but the body of Christ is responding. And I'm saying, Lord, this, this is a, not a good time for compromising Christianity, but this is a good time for genuine New Testament Christianity to thrive. You know, Alan Hood said the other week here on Sunday morning preaching, he may, he said it very well. He goes, we think of prayer as that which alleviates all the trouble. And there's certainly truth to that. Prayer is answered and alleviates some of the trouble and eventually all the trouble will be removed. But he said, when you look at it from a biblical point of view, prayer actually initiates greater conflict. And when he said that, many of us took a step back and thought, prayer initiates greater conflict? No, no. Prayer alleviates the conflict. It doesn't initiate greater conflict. Well, there's truth in both of them. Because when the church begins to pray, the enemy's attack actually increases against the praying church. It's like my friend Francis Frangipane said, he said this about 30 years ago and it's been quoted many times. He said, new levels, new devils. And what he meant by that statement is quite clever statement, but it's true. When there's new levels of dedication in the body of Christ and there's new levels of breakthrough in the body of Christ, then there's new levels of attack of the enemy. The enemy's policy in part is let sleeping saints lie. The devil's not overly interested in stirring up sleeping Christians. I mean, he hates them nonetheless. He hates them. Matter of fact, the devil is so filled with cruelty, he kills his own loyal worshippers. I mean, the devil kills his own people. How much more the people of God? So he's going to torment Christians no matter what and attack their lives. But when believers awaken to new levels of dedication and there's new levels of breakthrough, the attack intensifies. But we don't respond to it by drawing back. Beloved, we're not going to concede any ground to the enemy. He'll take some ground sometime, but never is there a time that the praying church, the prophetic church of the nations is going to look at the enemy and say, that's okay, you can have that ground. We're going to contend for all the ground and we're not going to give up any ground without taking a stand. And he's trying to bring moral darkness to the nations and disrupt all the economics and break up families and governments and social strife and disorder and all of these things and ambassadors of the kingdom, every believer. We are vessels of the glory of God and the honor of God. We are standing in faith. We are taking the battle to the gates, I mean, right to the front lines. We're not backing up in any way whatsoever. And beloved, many of God's servants across the earth are taking the stand. I mean, thousands and thousands of ministries are awakening with a new resolve and a new determination to stand together. I mean, it's an hour that obedience to the Lord, that we will follow the lamb wherever he will go, that's what's in the heart of the bride of Christ in this hour. Well, somebody said, man, all the intensity, you know, again, just after this three-day fast, a little bit weary, we're leaving, and they're like, oh, man, I'm a little tired. Does the battle ever stop? And of course, I've heard that question. You've heard that question many times over the years, undoubtedly. Does the battle ever stop? Is there ever a reprieve? I mean, does the ever, you know, is there a ceasefire anywhere in this thing? And the answer is no, not until the Lord returns. The battle is not going to let up. It's going to intensify. We have to know that. I want to say it again. In 40 years of ministry, I've never seen such an escalation of darkness as the last one or two years, and many men and women of God are seeing and saying the same thing. Never seen the same level of responsiveness. It's worth it, but it's not going away either one. Both of them are going to intensify. So oh, man, so really, so that's what we're looking forward to. But I mean, what a glorious thing to partner with the Lord at such a time as this. Beloved, there are no combat-free zones in the Spirit. There are no ceasefire zones in the Spirit. You know, where we put up the white flag and tell the devil, can we have a truce, maybe for just a year or two? I won't be overly dedicated, and I won't attack you. You don't attack me. Let me rest a little while, and then I'll let you know what I'm engaging. You know, let's have a gentleman's handshake, an agreement, devil, and let's just relax for a little while. Beloved, that's fantasy. There are no ceasefires. There's no truce. And so one guy says, well, I'm just tired. I'm weary. It's not worth it. I can't keep going. I said, well, you know, the options are really bad of not keeping going. The options are really bad. When you're against a hostile enemy, and giving up means just laying down your weapons and saying, I don't want to fight, he will destroy your life. He knows no mercy. There is no option of giving up. That option is complete unreality. He will destroy you. The only option is to band together, the body of Christ, work together, press into what the Word of God says, look to Jesus, lay hold of Him, have confidence in the finished work of the cross, looking to Jesus, drawing close to Him, drawing close to one another, honoring each other, not just within congregations, but within cities and regions, the whole body of Christ, moving forward, steady, resolved, not conceding to yield any ground to the enemy. That's the hour of which we're living in. People say, oh man, why is it this way? Why is it this way? Why is there this raging battle? Well, there's a good dimension and a good answer. I will give part of the answer to this. You got to take a couple steps back and look at the big picture. And when you look at the big picture, consider that you'll be alive billions and billions of years, right? After you've been alive billions and billions of years, you are at the beginning of the beginning. You have billions more to go. And beloved, the devil can only attack the human race on the earth for a 6,000 year period. That's it. From Adam to the second coming, I'm not trying to get the number down exactly, but that general time frame of Adam to this hour of history and this generation, next generation, whatever, is about 6,000 years. But out of billions of years, 6,000 years is a fraction of 1% of the time human beings will be on the earth. Because heaven's coming down to the earth at the second coming. The new Jerusalem is descending. There'll be a new heaven, new earth that will last forever. Beloved, the saints will be on the earth forever, and the devil will be imprisoned and thrown into the lake of fire, it says in Revelation 20. He can only attack human beings on the earth for a fraction, I mean a small fraction of 1% of our time on the earth. And it's in the presence of resistance against the enemy that our love shines brightest for the Lord. It's a very unique time in your human existence. I mean, if the devil gets 6,000 years to attack the human race, you individually, you have 70 or 80 years, the Bible says in Psalm 90, that God gives men 70 years, 80 due to strength. I mean, he only has 70 to 80 years, some of you longer, some of you shorter. You live billions and billions of years, you have one very small window of time of your entire existence to express your love to Jesus in the face of resistance. Because in the new Jerusalem, again, when it descends down to the earth and you'll be living in heaven on earth, there won't be any devil, there won't be any sinful temptation, there won't be any lack of resource, nobody will be mistreating you, maligning you, accusing you, you won't be tired. You won't be weary, depressed, lacking resource, lustful temptations, enemies attacking, the devil hitting you, sickness, nothing, none of that. And so walking out the Sermon on the Mount in the age to come won't be so challenging. I mean, no devil, no temptation, no weariness, no lack of resource, wow, it's easy to bless everybody. Now, we'll love Jesus in the age to come, but it will be expressed in a different tenor than it is now. But right now, I mean, we have lust that touch our hearts, we have weariness, we have sickness, we have lack of resource, we have people maligning us, mistreating us, believers and unbelievers alike. I mean, everybody does, it's the same story for everyone. So we draw back and we think, Lord, do I really want to obey you? And we say yes, you know, in our interaction with the grace of God and the Holy Spirit, we say, yes, I'm going to say no to lust and all the various forms of lust. I'm going to say no to retaliation and striking back with revenge. I'm going to say yes to your leadership, though I'm tired and I'm weary in my body, but I love you. And the Lord says back to us, in essence, I take this very seriously, I take this personal, the love that you show me in this brief window of time called this age, it's real, and it moves him. And it's not only real, but it lasts forever. What I mean by that is the verse that I quote so often in Matthew 10, where Jesus said, even if you give a cup of cold water, one small deed of obedience to God, you will be obedient. He says this truly, I mean, he emphasized it, Matthew 10, 42, truly, I say to you. I mean, it's like he paused, he looked him right in the eye, he goes, this one really take to heart, you'll not lose your reward. I will give you a reward on that day, and of course, his rewards, he remembers them forever. I mean, and rewards in eternity are about Jesus expressing how he feels about the way we loved him in this age. Eternal rewards are not about strutting in front of people and having more than someone else has. It's about Jesus saying, I want you to know how I feel about the way you loved me. He says, even a cup of cold water, beloved, the smallest acts of obedience in this little window of time, 70 years, a fraction of 1% of your life as a human experience, because you'll live billions and billions of years, and we get to express love to him, a love that moves him, and a love that he remembers. I mean, it's a remarkable thing. In Romans chapter 8, verse 18, Romans 8, verse 18, Paul said, the hardship of this age, the suffering, the hardship, is not worthy to be compared to the glory that you receive in the age to come. It's not worthy. Now, the glory we receive in the age to come, yeah, we get a resurrected body, I love that, that's cool, that's really good. We have a celestial city that's bright as a diamond, the New Jerusalem, yeah, it's good. Like that city, new heaven and new earth, this is really good. That's glory. But beloved, let me tell you there's a greater glory. The glory of knowing our weak labors, our weak responses, I mean our best responses, he's weak, but it moves him. The glory of knowing my weak responses move him, and he will remember them forever, that's a glory that's just indescribable. In that day, it will be so obvious to every believer, it was worth it, it was worth it, it was worth being true Lord. That window of time where we got to show love in the face of resistance, where love shines brightest. But not only does love shine brightest when it's expressed in resistance, again we have temptation, we have weariness, we have lack of resource, and we have all these things attacking us, we're resisting, but we're obeying the Lord, we're doing His word in the midst of that, and the Lord says this is beautiful, your love is shining to me. But it's not only that love shines brightest, but love grows the fastest and the most in those kind of times. When you take a step back and look at church history, it is clear that times of adversity and persecution is where the church grew the most numerically, and grew the deepest spiritually. Now I wish that were not true, I would like it just that everything easy, and we grow numerically and spiritually. But church history says the opposite, that in the face of the battle, people make radical choices and they have a new resolve, and the whole idea of being half and half, half for the Lord and half whatever, that begins to be diminished, that whole argument disappears in the face of trouble and adversity and the battle raging. And so I take a step back and I say Lord, you're right, I mean I don't like this thing, I don't like resistance, I don't like battle, but the glory of me responding and my weakness and you being moved by it, and you remembering it forever, and I only have that opportunity to do that with other believers for one fraction of a time, I mean a fraction of one percent of our time as the family of God. I mean for billions of years we won't be able to do this. Well when Jesus visited Thomas, or you remember when he spoke to Thomas, and Thomas after the resurrection in John 20, that Thomas you know told the apostles, they came back and said, Thomas we saw him, he's resurrected! Thomas goes, come on you guys, let's be real, no physical, he has a physical body Thomas, he's resurrected, he's not just a spirit, he's a man with a physical body, we saw him, he was right there, and Thomas goes, until I put my finger in his hand, the hole in his hand, the nail print, until I put my hand in his side, I mean that's more intense than putting his fingers, I've got to put my hand in his side, he said, I'm not going to believe. Well Thomas, that's a pretty bold statement, John 8, I mean John 20, 8 days go by, they're all sitting around the table talking, suddenly, the doors are shut and locked, right through the wall, a man with a physical body comes walking in. They stop, he walks right up to Thomas, Jesus, Thomas, you said you wanted to put your finger in my hand, the nail print, you wanted to put your hand, your whole hand, to thrust it in my side, Thomas' eyes are big, Peter did you tell him that I said that? Peter goes, no, no, I haven't said a word to him, no, Jesus said, I heard every word you said Thomas, I'm with you, I told you I'd be with you, and Thomas is, so he puts his hand there and then goes, go ahead, put your hand in my side, touch the ribs, go ahead, I mean that's just a picture, I just can't, so he does it. Anyway that's not the real point of the story, the real point of the story, I got too carried away in the drama of that, the real point of the story is, is Jesus pronounced a blessing. He said, Thomas, blessed are those who believe without seeing. That is a blessing that is upon the people of God, only in this very small window of your human life, and that's your 70 years on the earth. What did Jesus mean, blessed are those who believe without seeing, now believing, he meant much more than a one time believing, saying the sinner's prayer, he meant believing in this continual confidence in responding to his leadership, he goes, blessed are the people that will respond to me with confidence, I mean as a lifestyle, not a one time deal, without seeing me face to face, because for billions of years in the resurrection, you will see him face to face. The blessing of responding in the face of resistance without seeing is a blessing you will carry forever, it's a blessing that is beyond anything comparable, Paul said in Romans 8, he goes, the hardships aren't comparable to the blessing of a glory you will see in that day by how you moved him by the way you responded to him. Then we might say, well Lord, if we knew you were that moved, we would have responded more. And beloved, not only is the Lord's heart moved by our response in the presence of resistance, and in the presence of not seeing face to face, not only is the Lord's heart moved, but collectively with our weak labors, I'm talking about the whole body of Christ, history is moved. History is shifted forward and to God's full redemptive purposes by the weak small little contributions that we all make. I mean if I was the Lord, I would look at our dedication, I would say that love's not so impressive, it's pretty weak. But through the Lord's graciousness, I mean the Lord is so gracious, he's gracious to forgive us, he's so generous in his forgiveness. I mean the finished work of the cross is so glorious, so sufficient, it has completely erased all of our failures that we bring before him and confess, they're all released, they're forgiven. I mean his generosity in the grace of God to forgive us. But it doesn't stop with there, the generosity to evaluate my weak heart, my weak dedication as worthy and moving of him. I go, Lord my dedication, my love is small. But the Lord says, I want you to bring your all to the relationship. I know your all is small, but bring it. Our love is weak, our love is frail, but beloved, weak love is not false love. Weak love is not fake, it's still real and it still moves him. His generosity to evaluate us this way is remarkable to me. But not just his generosity to evaluate us, his generosity to use us. I mean look what our obedience is, we say kind words to people, we say some prayers, we serve some people in time of need, we do some good deeds, we say no to lust, you know, we keep resisting it and the Lord says, I'll shift all of history to people who do those little things. Really? Lord, we're not that gifted, we're not, our dedication is not that mature and we're going to shift history through this? And, and again he's talking to the whole body of Christ across the nations and he goes, yeah, beloved, that is what I call generosity. That is generosity in the grace of God. Well, let's look at our handout here. I told you we wouldn't get very far. Let's look at a few points and leave you to, here in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1. I'm going to make just a couple small points and then pray for you and then let you read the notes on your own if you want to. What is happening in 2 Timothy is that Paul is in prison in Rome. This is the very last letter he's going to write, that's going to, his very last letter that he writes and it's in the Bible as well. And he's not writing to a city like to the Corinthians or to the Ephesians at the city of Ephesus. He's writing to his spiritual son Timothy. These are Paul's last words. So 2 Timothy, these four, this little letter, it's only four chapters, very weighty, very, there's an urgency, there's a weightiness, there's a importance to Paul's last words. I mean, what would Paul say if he had his last thing to say? Well, we know, 2 Timothy. Now Paul was undoubtedly one of the most faithful men of God in church history, undoubtedly. And Paul undoubtedly suffered as much as anybody that we know of in church history. I mean, the sufferings that Paul, the hardship this man endured. So here he is at the very end, 2 Timothy, in chapter 4 verse 6, he goes, my departure is near, which means his physical death. Now Paul had been in prison a number of times and got released. But the Lord let Paul know, you're not going to be released this time, this is it, this is your departure, it's near. So he knows somehow from the Lord, he's not getting out of prison and he's writing to Timothy. Many think that Timothy was only in his 30s, he's addressed as a young man on several occasions. Paul's nearly 70 years old, he's writing, dear Timothy, my beloved son, I'm not getting out of prison, in a moment I will be with the Lord, you can read that in chapter 4, I'm all but on the other side of my hardship. I made it, I've endured this thing for 30, 40 years, I'm on the other side of it, I did it, because it's over and I have no regrets. I'm so glad I spent my life this way. I'm glad I didn't back up in fear or compromise. I didn't get offended at the Lord, I didn't get offended at the church, I didn't, because you know many of the, many people in the church in Paul's day, they were against Paul. Can you imagine being against Paul the apostle? Well they didn't know he was the guy that was writing the New Testament. I mean Paul didn't, wasn't received in a great way until after he died. In his day, many in the body of Christ, he writes about it. They said, well you know Paul, he's a little bit off the wall, he's a little unbalanced, he doesn't really get it, I mean gee whiz, how does this work? Paul goes, I didn't get offended. I didn't get better. I didn't yield to the compromise. That doesn't mean Paul never struggled, because we know in Romans 7, he goes, there were times I struggled until I figured out how to make this thing work in the grace of God. But he's looking at Timothy in verse 1, and he says, Timothy, be strong in the grace that's in Christ Jesus. Be strong in the grace of God. And he goes on, now I want you to notice, he's going to highlight three, he's going to mention, Paul, three occupations, and the reason he mentions them, and I'm going to mention them very briefly, because it's the mindset of these three occupations that Timothy needs to have as he approaches growing strong in the grace of God. And many believers pick one of these three mindsets, but it's the collection of the three together that cause us to grow strong in the grace of God most effectively in a most steady way. Let's read the passage, then go back and just make a couple comments about these three occupations, and then again, I want to end and pray for you then. Verse 1, be strong in the grace of God that's in Christ Jesus. Verse 3, endure hardship as a good soldier. Endure hardship as a good soldier. Verse 4, no one engaged in active service, no one that's in active duty in the military, entangles himself like a civilian does in a peacetime situation. He goes, you're a soldier in a wartime setting, and there's true hardship involved. He goes, establish that in your expectations. There is hardship involved. You are a soldier in active duty in a wartime setting. You're not a civilian in a peacetime setting. He goes, let's get that clear, Timothy. Number 1, verse 5 is the second occupation. He goes, consider the athlete. Now he's referring to the Olympics or the type of athletic events of those days. He goes, the athlete, verse 5, is not crowned. They gave crowns in those days. Today they give the gold medal, the silver medal, the bronze medal. They don't receive the gold medal unless they compete according to the rules. They have to know the rules of the event that they're involved in, and they have to uphold and honor those rules. They can't disregard them. They have to know them, and they have to honor them. OK? Then number 3, verse 6, consider the hardworking farmer. He's the first to partake of his crops. Then verse 7, he goes, now Timothy, he goes, I'm going to be, I'm going to die very soon. I'm not going to see you again. So verse 7, he goes, take these three different mindsets of these three occupations and ask the Lord how to apply them in your life in a personal way in each season of your life. Look at verse 7. The Lord will give you understanding. Because the way you will apply these principles, which I haven't laid out the principles, which I will just 1, 2, 3 in just a moment. The way that you apply them, you apply them differently in your 20s than you do in your 30s, because your life circumstances are different. Then in your 40s it's different than your 30s, and on and on and on. Meaning, there's not a one-time application for every season of your life, but there is different applications. And Paul says, you talk to the Lord. He'll help you. He'll give you ideas. He'll give you peace. He'll give you hints on how to walk this out. So let's look at this. Just take a moment on each one of these. First, he says, paragraph B, be strong in the grace of God. Now, nobody is strong in and of themselves. Paul's not telling them to muster up their human strength, like, you know, the power of positive thinking seminar. Like, they go to the seminar, and they sit in the classroom, and the guy says, now think positive. You're amazing. You're gifted. You will have friends. You will make money. You are amazing. You are gifted. You will have friends. You will make money. You are successful. The guy walks out, okay, I'm, any powerful, the power of positive thinking, that's not what Paul's talking about. He's not saying psych yourself up to drum up human strength, because that's not going to get you anywhere. Now, I believe in positive thinking. It really is better than negative thinking, but the real angle is the biblical thinking, the positive thinking that's aligning with the truth, of course. But here's what Paul's saying here. He says, Timothy, you have to engage with the grace of God if you're going to have strength throughout the years. He goes, I'm on the other side of my hardship. I'm going to tell you, the strength you have today won't help you in ten years. In the crisis that's coming, you need to engage with the grace of God regularly. It's just like physical food. You're not strengthened in a year from now by the meal you eat today. You've got to eat regularly. And you've got to, and so Paul's saying, you've got to engage with Jesus. You've got to look to Jesus and draw on the fetish work of the cross and interact with the Holy Spirit, and you will have sufficient strength in that day. And when you meet the different crisis points, when the battle is more intense, he goes, you will be able to not yield to fear. You'll be able not to yield to offense, to compromise, to bitterness. If you'll draw on the grace of God, you're going to be okay. And you'll, the strength will be sufficient for the crisis. Now what a lot of folks do is they're pretty casual about their relationship with God, and they don't draw on the grace of God as a daily part of their lifestyle. And years go by, and they think, oh praise God for the grace of God. I'm going to heaven when I die. And they mostly disregard Jesus' leadership. They don't interact with Him much. And then a day of intensity comes in their life, and they draw back. They yield to fear. They cave in to compromise. Bitterness overcomes them. And Paul's saying, Timothy, you don't want to approach it this way. You really don't. You want to draw on grace. Interact with Jesus. Look to Him. Draw on Him. Stay up to date in your relationship with God, and you'll have strength for that day. He goes, I know. I've done it for 40 years. I'm on the back end of it. I did it. He goes, this will work for you, my beloved son. He goes, now mindset number one is the soldier. Here we have on the notes here, paragraph C. Now the soldier has its own particular mindset. The soldier enlists into the military. Many, I mean, for several reasons, of course. There's not just one. But there's a sense of adventure. I'm in a young 20-year-old man or woman. They say, I'm going to join the army. Venture, you know. I'm going to see the world, go to new frontiers, fight the enemies, save my country. I mean, there's risk, undoubtedly. There's sacrifices. There's real hardships. And it's not just the heavy-duty sergeant. It's when, the hardships is when the enemy captures you. I mean, it's really bad. Or you're wounded, and you're wounded, and in the wound, maybe you have a wound, an injury that lasts for life. And, I mean, the risk of a soldier are real. I mean, they're, it's not make-believe. But he says, you need that wartime mentality. Yeah, the risk, adventure, but the sacrifice, the hardship, buy into that when you're approaching the grace of God. Okay? Then he goes on, paragraph D. He goes, the athlete. Now when the athlete competes in the Olympic games, the athlete has to know the rules of the game, and the athlete has to honor the rules of that particular athletic event. For instance, if, you know, you go to the Olympic finals, and in basketball, one guy on this team can't run to the other team and tackle the guy. That breaks the rules. They'll throw you out of the game. Guy says, well, you know, I'm a courageous soldier. I mean, I'm heroic. I'm, you know, Rambo. I'm adventuresome. I'll tackle that other guy. And the referee would say, no, no, you're out of the game now. You can't win the gold medal if you don't do it according to the rules. Not enough to be a Rambo. You actually got to do it God's way. It's not enough to want adventure and to attack the enemy. God has an order. God has ways in His kingdom. He has practices and principles. It says in Psalm 103, verse 7, Israel saw the power of God. The acts of God. But Moses knew God's ways. He knew how God ordered things and wanted things done. So in our lives, we need to come under God's order in our speech, in our appetites, our sexuality, our time, our money, the way we relate to the body of Christ, the way we relate many ways in the body of Christ, spiritual authority, purpose of God, the building of the church. There's many things God wants done His way. Some believers say, I'm heroic. I'll climb every mountain and climb every jump, every hill. Nothing will, I'll fear nothing. And the Lord says, that's good. That's the soldier. But I want the athlete too. I want you to do it my way. I want your money, your appetites, your speech ordered according to my kingdom. I want you to see what I'm building. I'm building my church. I want you to build the church according to my pattern that's in the word of God. And that's kind of new for some folks. You know, I have written here in the notes, you know, for Americans, it's like, well, we're independent spirit. And that's one of the strengths of America is the independent spirit. But when we overdo that and bring that into the kingdom, Lord, I'll do it my way. I'm heroic. I'm a soldier. That's enough. And the Lord says, no, no, I'm the king. You got to do it my way. The soldier's not enough. You need to do it the way the Lord says to do it. And that's new. I mean, in the whole American culture, that's like, well, I want to do it my way. You know, I want to, I got a different way, Lord. It's the, it's the me generation. And he says, no, no. The Lord says, it's the us generation under the Jesus generation. That's where this thing's going. Well, let's look at the final thing. Paragraph E, it's the hardworking farmer. This is a total different issue. The hardworking farmer. Now, I don't know much about being a farmer, but I have a little experience. I worked on a farm for three months. 1976, 40 years ago. Three months. So I don't know anything about farming, but I do know a few things about how hard the work is. And I know how mundane and routine the work is. I mean, it was quite an experience that the mundaneness, the routine, and just the day in and day outness of the work. Now, without farmers, the world will starve to death. I mean, farmers, without the hard work of the farmer, there is no future for the human race. So I went out there, and I was pastoring a little rural church. I lived on the farm. I said, I'll help you. I was doing some pastoring. I was only 20 years old pastoring a little 50-member church, and it was quite an experience. And so I'm glad they don't have any tapes from those days. So I'm living on the farm for three months before they have a house for me down the road to move into. And so I said, I want to help. So I'm out there baling hay one summer. Horrible. If you've never baled hay, it's horrible. I did it for a summer. It's like 100 degrees out. I think it was 120, personally. It's 100 degrees out. I'm sweating. The hay's going all down everywhere. There's wasps everywhere. They called them mud-dobblers. They looked like wasps to me, man. I was looking around. Then on the ground, there's snakes, rodents, spiders. I'm like baling hay like, whoa, whoa. And the farmer guy goes, hey, Bickle, let's get to work, OK? He goes, don't worry about those guys. Those guys, they're going to be fine. They've been here for years. They don't care about you. I can't even do nothing. I'm just like, damn, hot. It's scratching all day. Tired. Rodents. Spiders. Then we get through the hay and work in the field. Oh, man, that was horrible. Then we do the pig thing. And I don't want to give the details about the pig thing, but you can't get the smell off of you for a long time. There's all this stuff. You do the same thing the next day. 4 o'clock. Get up. Let's go. You've got to be kidding. And I left that farm time. I tell you, I appreciate farmers. Now, it's obviously that I still need a little inner healing from 40 years ago. We have programs for things like this. I need to go through one. But the point is that there's a mundaneness to it. There's a routineness to it. But not only that, there's a delay in terms of seeing the fruit of your labor. Like you plant the seed. You go the next day. No, nothing. You go the next day. You work it. No. No, nothing. Hey, is there anything happening over there, Mr. Farmer? You go a week later. There's nothing happening here. There's no fruitfulness. And then the Scripture says, what's obvious from history, I mean just from life, down the road you get your harvest. So the Lord, Paul's telling Timothy, Timothy, you've got to embrace the hard work, the mundane, routine, delayed response of the farmer. You've got to keep the rules of the athlete. You've got to endure the hardship, but you get the adventure and the risks of the soldiers. Now I find a lot of folks, they sign up for the kind of romantic, heroic, nobility of the soldier. I want to face the devil, take him on, bring Goliath down, you know, defeat the Antichrist, glory to God, freedom! You know, like Mel Gibson kind of thing. And Paul says, that's not enough. We need more than a moment of heroic romanticism about life, because you're going to enter into the mundane routineness with a delayed harvest. You've got to have that mindset, because Timothy, if you don't, you're not going to grow in the grace of God. You're going to end up getting offended, and you're going to be cut short in the process of it. You've got to have all three mindsets. Now it's not like one season you have this mindset, and the next season the other. All the seasons of our life, we bring these three mindsets, but here's the deal. Worship team go ahead and come on up. But here's the deal. If we will do this, and steadily grow, draw in the grace of God, by interacting with the Word, and being involved in the body of Christ, and serving godly relationships, godly choices, little by little, we're getting strengthened in the grace of God. We have the soldier mindset, of adventure but hardship. The athlete mindset, keep, do it God's way. Don't say, I'll talk in my home and marriage the way I want to, because it's my home, and I'll tell her what I want to tell her. The Lord says, no, no. Bring your speech under the ways of my kingdom, like the law abiding athlete. You've got to do it my way. You can't talk the way you want to talk. You can't spend money just any way you want to. You've got to do it my way. And you've got to have the patience, James 5, 7 called it, of the farmer. Steady under the hot sun, no frills and thrills. Because see some people, they come and I've talked to over the years, they, man it's so mundane and routine I must have missed God. I go, no you didn't miss God, that's part of the kingdom. That's part of what the apostle Timothy was urged by Paul to not despise the mundaneness, but see it's part of the kingdom mindset. It all works together. Well, amen and amen.