What Is Godliness

00:02 I want to give you greetings this morning in the name of Jesus. And it's good to be here. It's good to see each one of you here this morning, visitors alike. Earl and Rebecca, you're back home again, but your children don't know it. But it's good to have you and others here this morning. 00:21 And we invite you this morning to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to 1 Timothy 4, continuing our series in the book of 1 Timothy. Several weeks ago, when I preached the last time, I preached from the first part of the chapter about departing from the faith and asked the question, 00:43 "Is our faith a result of some things that we add to it or some things we take away from it?" And according to 4:1-5, we are not godly because we added something to our life or godly because we took something away. So what is godliness? Godliness, we'll define this morning, we'll look at. 01:03 And the idea in verse 7 was that we should exercise ourselves unto godliness, exercise ourselves unto godliness. That implies that you can increase in it. You increase in it. If you exercise yourself in godliness, you're going to increase in it. 01:23 And it takes a certain amount of stress. Doctors will tell you that our bodies, when they have a fever, it is an attempt of the body, the immune system, to try to fight something off that shouldn't be there, something in the bloodstream, something in the system that needs fighting off. 01:44 It's foreign. It's a disease. It's a sickness. It's a bacteria. It's a virus or whatever. And so the body develops a temperature, and the body comes under stress to eliminate that. And they say that exercise is similar to that. You work your body into a fever, as it were, 02:03 into heating it up and exercising and getting it stressed in an appropriate way so that you can have that same effect of eliminating things out of your system that would be unhealthy. And so it is the picture of exercising ourselves unto godliness. We need food. 02:23 We need rest. We need work. We need water. We need exercise. And so it is spiritually, we need all those things. We need spiritual food. But if we have no work, spiritual work to do, we end up getting spiritually fat and lazy. And so we need a spiritual work to do. We need water of life to ingest and to cleanse our system. 02:44 We need the washing of water by the Word. And we need exercise. We need to exercise our faith so that we develop that temperature for God that eliminates the impurities in our lives so we can increase in godliness. Now, how do you do that? How do you increase in godliness? 03:05 Well, in order to understand this, we should define what godliness is. Godliness, in this word here, has the idea of piety and devotion to God. And how many of you need to increase in that? I do. Piety and devotion to God, a worshipful attitude, 03:25 a God Word attitude, an attitude of becoming more godly, more reverent, more holy, more worshipful in our actions, in our reactions, in our responses, and to grow in that and to increase in godliness. The Scriptures talk a lot about godliness, 03:46 especially here in the pastoral epistles. If you look in 1 Timothy 2:2, "We are to pray for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." That's something that we're supposed to build into our lives. 4:7, we've already referred to that. 04:08 6:1 Timothy 3 says, "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, into the doctrine which accords with godliness." So our doctrine is to build godliness and be in accord with godliness. 6:6 says, 04:29 "Now godliness with contentment is great gain." And so we exercise it. We increase it, and we gain in it. We are godly and content with that. And then 6:11, "But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, 04:49 godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness." And so godliness is an important part of the Christian life. Titus 2:12 says, Paul writing to Pastor Titus, "If we endure..." Let's see. 05:07 No, that's the wrong verse that I have down. But 1 Peter 3:11, "Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conduct and godliness?" So how do we develop godliness? 05:26 How does godliness increase in our lives and mature? And what then is it if it's not adding to our lives things to enhance our spiritual life, which sometimes it's important, but that does not make us godly? 05:44 It is a means of cutting out distractions so that we can develop that inner world of godliness. And if it's not a matter of eliminating things out of our lives necessarily, that suddenly just automatically makes us godly, how do we develop godliness? 06:04 Well, let's unpack this passage this morning. Begin at verse 11, where he says, "These things command and teach. 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. 06:26 Till 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. 06:49 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." Now, the immediate context of this is to discuss what the man of God, the leader in God's house, is to be. He's speaking to Timothy. He's speaking to Timothy. 07:07 And so there's an immediate message to Timothy. There's a broader message, audience, to Christian leaders. And then there's the broad instruction to all of us that these are the things that we need to do as Christians, to become godly. 07:25 So he says, "I want you to command these things and teach." The word command there means to tell or declare or announce, to charge, to give instruction. And teaching has the idea of admonishing and setting the mind right. And when the word teaching has to do with the mind, 07:46 it has to do with setting the mind right, helping us to think right. And so to do that, we need both instruction and admonition, instruction and admonition. And so when we come to the Assembly of Saints, we instruct one another, 08:06 and we admonish one another, and we exhort one another to be faithful, to be an example. He says here in verse 12, "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers." An example has the idea to strike something and to make an impression, 08:26 a mark, a pattern to be imitated and followed. And so, young Timothy, as you're pastoring this church, "Let no man despise your youth." Well, how do you do that? Do you just stand up and tell everybody in your congregation, "Now I know I'm young, but Paul says not to despise me." And is that how you answer this, 08:49 fulfill this instruction? No, he gives us the instruction on how to fulfill it so that people don't despise your youth. And by the way, a youth could be considered a youth all the way up to 40 years old, between 35 and 40 years old. And so how do you let no man despise your youth? 09:08 Well, in verse 12, he says, "But be an example, be an example. Have the kind of life and godliness, the kind of walk with God in word, in conduct, conduct, and manner of life, in your finances, in your marriage, as you raise your children, as you love others." He says, 09:28 "In charity, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity, increasing in faith as a challenge to others, as they look on your life and see not an old man serving the Lord, but a young man serving the Lord as an example believer." The idea is not only to be an example to the believers, but an example of a believer. 09:50 And so we want to be an example of a believer so that we can be an example to others about the life of a believer. 10:00 So he says, "I want you to build godly character, a reverence for the Word, a reverence for your Christian life, a reverence for the call that God has placed on your life." And then in verse 13, he says, "Till I come, give attention, give it attention in the assembling together, 10:22 that you would pay attention to the public reading of Scriptures." Now, it is important to read. Someone has said, "If you stop growing today and you stop learning today, you stop teaching tomorrow. And if you stop learning, you'll be able to coast for a little bit as a teacher or as a preacher, but you will ultimately fail. 10:44 You'll stop leading. You'll stop growing. You'll stop being effective because we need to be a learning pastor, a learning leader, so that we can learn all we can about Scripture and about leading people and so on." But he's saying specifically that, 11:03 "I want you to pay attention to public reading and specifically the public reading of the Scriptures." One of the things that we have begun to do, and it's been quite some time now here at Living Water, is to take time in our service, in our Sunday morning service, for the public reading of Scripture without comment. 11:24 Now, preaching is to take the reading of Scripture and comment, explain it, unpack it. But we also need to hear God's Word spoken without commentary at times and to just let God's Word soak into us and to hear it. Say, "Well, isn't it just enough to read it at home by myself?" Well, 11:44 there's something that happens as we hear the Word of God, and especially then as we follow along with our own copies of the Scripture because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And so this comes to... 12:00 We understand that this took place in a time and place where they would receive a letter from the apostles or something, and they would read that publicly. No Xerox machines, no copy machines. They would read it publicly. They would take the Old Testament scrolls and read it publicly. They would take the Gospels that were being written and read them publicly. 12:19 But I think it's an example and instruction for us today to hear the Word of God being read, to give the Word of God its proper place in our public worship. Now, he also says, "I want you to pay attention to exhortation and to doctrine, the preaching of the Word, 12:39 the preaching, exhortation, and preaching and teaching doctrine." Now, it's interesting, at least twice in this passage of Scripture, in these few verses here, he refers to doctrine. Some people will say, "Well, doctrine's not important. We don't want to teach doctrine. We want to have a relationship with Christ." Well, this is true. 12:59 But we have a relationship with Christ that is real, that is meaningful, and that is authentic and grounded and rooted when it is taught with doctrine so that we know, not just knowing someone, but knowing about them. Oftentimes, I hear this statement, "Well, excuse me, we just... 13:19 It's not important that you know about God. It's more important that you know God." Well, of course. Of course, you could know about all things about George Washington, but if you didn't know George Washington, it's just academic. But let me tell you, if you were in that time and place and you knew George Washington personally, you would say, 13:38 "I want to learn some things about George Washington so I can have a meaningful relationship with George Washington or whoever." And so the point is it takes doctrine and experience. And so we need a relationship with Christ, of course. Nobody's arguing or saying that we don't need a relationship with Christ, 13:57 but there are plenty of people who say, "Well, just have a relationship and I don't have to understand doctrine." That's not what the apostle Paul is teaching Timothy. Do it, the relationship with your people. Help them to have a relationship with God that is based on reality and truth and sound doctrine. So you get both. 14:17 Now, oftentimes, I use this illustration that I know my wife, but if I never knew anything about her, and I know our home, but if I never knew anything about it, and I knew my children, but if I never entered into their lives in a meaningful way according to knowledge, the Bible says, 14:34 "Dwell with your wives according to knowledge," my relationship would become shallow and distant and simply an emotional response that is there sometimes and not others. And so we learn about and we learn to know and to know about. 14:53 And so he says, "I want you to pay attention to the preaching of doctrine, exhortation, public reading of Scripture." And then verse 14, he says, "There is a gift that is given to you, Timothy, by the laying on of hands of the eldership, by prophecy, with the laying on of hands of the eldership. 15:14 Do not neglect that gift." And other place in Timothy, one of the Timothys, he said, "Stir up the gift, stir it up and use it, use the gift, 15:27 pay attention to the gift." It is something that happened when the hands of the eldership were laid on the head of Timothy and his ordination. Something happened as they conferred upon him the authority of the office of pastor, that God gave him a gift, 15:48 a charisma is the term in the Greek. It means a grace gift, a gift of grace. God's grace was given to him to fulfill the ministry that God had laid upon him. And that's what we need. We need to have God's grace upon us to fulfill what God has called us to do. 16:07 Now, as we said, this has a limited scope in Timothy. It has a little broader scope with the people in leadership. 16:15 It has the broadest scope in all of our lives as God also has called us to function in the body of Christ and has given each one of us a gift that we need to stir up and use for His glory. Don't be careless about it. Don't be careless about it. 16:34 Don't neglect it. To neglect is to become careless about what God has given to you. You realize that when we get to God, when we get to glory, when we stand before the Lord, we're going to have to give an account for how we use the gifts that He gave us. Amen? 16:50 One day, He will ask us, "What did you do with the gift I gave you?" What gift? Well, I was in prison. You came into me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was all these things. I was hungry and you fed me. 17:07 Whatever gift God has given to us, whether it be prophecy or teaching or administration or serving or giving or exhortation or all of whatever gift God has given, use it, stir it up. And you don't have to wait until you've been given the position to use it. Just use it. I love to see the body using their gifts, 17:28 the brotherhood, entering into people's lives and into meaningful interaction with the congregation here, even though they've not at that time or maybe ever been given an office by which to function the gift. But you continue to use whatever gift God has given you. 17:48 So moving on here, then he says, "I want you to meditate on these things, and I want you to be diligent about this. 17:57 Meditate on it, be absorbed in them, and give yourself completely to this teaching, entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all." Be absorbed in what we're talking about here. Give yourself completely to the work. And I want you to notice, 18:16 just skim through this chapter with me and see all the action words. There's plenty of things to do here. In verse 6, you instruct the brethren. Verse 7, reject profane and old wives' fables. Exercise yourself to godliness. Verse 10, 18:36 labor, suffer reproach. Verse 11, command and teach the things of God's Word. Verse 12, let no man despise your youth, but be an example. Verse 13, give attention to reading. Do not neglect the gift that is given to you. Meditate on these things. 18:56 Give yourself to these things. Take heed and continue in them. Verse 16, those are all action words, all verbs. It's something that every one of us can do with a position or without a position. We are in a position to serve the Lord. Now, he says in verse 16, 19:17 take heed and continue. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. In other words, pay attention to what's going on inside in your heart and pay attention to what's going on in your head. 19:29 So believing the proper things, embracing the proper things, having a relationship with Jesus Christ that is based on reality and truth and is meaningful and life-giving and life-changing. And then you'll be able to save yourself and those who hear. 19:49 Now, it would be a tragedy to save yourself and not those who hear. It would be a bigger tragedy to save those who hear and you don't save yourself. And it would be a horrific tragedy to save neither. 20:04 But it is the greatest of blessings when we can both save ourselves and those who hear us. So at the end of the road, we'll all be saved. Now, what does this have to do with exercising ourself under godliness? 20:22 I want to take the rest of the time here this morning to unpack the way that we exercise godliness. How we exercise godliness. The first thing that we do in exercising godliness is to walk. Walk. I saw a sign some time ago that said, 20:44 "Exercise with the Lord daily. Walk with Him." I like that. Walk with Him. It's good exercise. In fact, they'd say that for the heart, walking can be almost as good or better than running. It's easier on your system than running. 21:00 Running, you got, especially on pavement, you're mashing your bones and your muscles and your ligaments together every time you hit the pavement. Walking, they say, can do a lot to help those of us that don't run much anymore. And so walk with God. Walk with God. 21:20 Scripture talks about walking. The Bible says in Romans chapter 6 that we also should walk in newness of life. Walk as a new person in Christ. Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans chapter 12. Galatians says, 21:39 "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." The Bible says that we walk by faith and not by sight. The Bible says that we are to walk in good works which God has ordained that we should walk in them. That's exercising our faith, exercising our faith by walking with the Lord. 22:02 Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. Walk in the light. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. 22:21 That you walk honestly, the Bible says, toward them that are without, that you should walk in truth. Second John, verse 6 says that you should walk according to His commandments. And Psalm 26, verse 11 says that we should walk in integrity. Walking, walking with God, walking with the Lord. 22:43 How that we build godliness into our life is to walk with Him in these ways. Then we're to run with the Lord, run the race. We are to run the race, run with endurance, Hebrews says, the race that is set before us. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah, 23:04 "Let us run and not be weary. Let us walk and not faint. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall run with... They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. 23:17 They shall walk and not faint." And then he says in the epistles, "Flee, flee fornication." There's a time to hightail it out of there. Don't think you can stand in the midst of sexual temptation. Flee, flee, youthful lust. It has the idea of running away, 23:38 not being strong enough to stand in the face of those extreme temptations. And then exercising to godliness, we're to fight the good fight of faith. Fight. A songwriter said years ago, "It's a battle for you, brother, not a recreation field. It's a fight. It's a good fight." Why is it a good fight? 23:57 Because we win. But nevertheless, it is a fight. Paul says in Second Timothy, "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Endure hardness. That stress, the stressing the body through a fever or through exercise, 24:19 similar to stressing the soul and spirit, which will eliminate the impurities of the flesh out of our lives. Fight the good fight of faith. 24:29 And then Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 5 says, "If any competes in athletics, you will not be crowned unless you compete according to the rules of the game." And so there are some standards. There are some rules that God's Word sets forth. And if you want to be crowned in the end and receive the crown of righteousness, 24:48 which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to them at that day, who love is appearing and all those who love is appearing, if you want that, you're going to have to exercise yourself according to the rules of the Christian life, the standards, the practices, the disciplines of the Christian life. 25:09 And therefore, Paul said in Second Timothy 2:10, "Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect." It's a fight. It's a battle. It takes exercise. It takes walking with God, running the race, fighting the faith, the good fight of faith, and working in the field. 25:27 Another 25:30 analogy is working in the field. Paul said to Timothy that the hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops, the hardworking farmer. And so you work, you work. Farmers used to work from sun up to sundown. They still do during times of planting and harvest. 25:50 Work. There's nothing else that's important but that job of getting the crop out and getting the crop in. And then we enjoy the benefits of that work. And so it is in the Christian life. If we're going to enjoy the benefits of the work, we will work until Jesus comes. And then the night is coming, Jesus said, when no man can work. 26:11 So that's exercising. That's one of the ways that we build godliness into our lives. And then beyond that, we see in verse 16 that we build godliness by being in the Word, in the Word, staying in the Word. 26:32 Verse 16, "Take heed, continue in them." In what? What's the them? Continue in them. That is the things that you have been taught, yourself, your heart, and your doctrine. Continue in those, and you will be saved and be able to bring others with you. And so James 1:22 says, 26:52 "But be doers of the Word and not hearers only." So while faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, and then it must be acted upon and do the work of God, follow through because James says that you are deceiving yourselves or we are deceiving ourselves if we hear and don't do. 27:12 We're like a man that looks in the mirror, sees the imperfection of his face, of his image in the mirror, and then doesn't do anything about it. He just goes on his merry way and forgets what manner of man he is. So don't do that. Don't do that. But receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls, and be a doer of the Word. 27:34 We meditate on the Word, verse 16 or verse 15. Meditate on the Word. Meditate on these things. Joshua 1:8 says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein both day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is in it. 27:55 And for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Psalm 1:2 says, "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he what? Meditate day and night." What's the first thing you think about in the morning when you get up? What's the last thing you think about in the evening when you go to bed? 28:16 Is it the Word of God, or is it some event, some happening, some desire, some dream that you have, some lofty goal that you have, or some problem that you have? 28:28 We can be training our minds to think about the Word of God and to meditate on the Word of God and have a scripture handy every day that we can just insert there when the trials come and when the mind is tempted to wonder and to distract. Then we can just come back to that meditation. The word meditate in the Bible, 28:49 in the Old Testament, in the book of Psalms, literally means to chew the cud, chew the cud, take it in, eat it, bring it back up, chew it again, bring it back up again, chew it again so that it digests like a cow chewing the cud. 29:09 And so when we stay in the Word, it means we're doing the Word. It means we're meditating on the Word. And then we should be sharing the Word. Verse 12 and 13, "Let no man despise you, but be an example in Word, in conduct, sharing the Word." Till I come give attention to the Word, 29:30 the Word, exhortation, doctrine, to give your testimony, to give your testimony of what God is doing in your life, to give your testimony through baptism, to give your testimony through confession, to give your testimony of what God has done for us. 29:52 We had testimony time this morning. I love to hear people confess scripture, to confess sin, yes, to confess what goodness of God has been in their lives, but also to confess the truths of the faith and to profess them, to confess them. 30:12 And if there is no knowledge of your faith, is there real faith? Do we have something to confess and to profess? Sharing that reality is part of building godliness into our lives, part of the process and proper doctrine. 30:31 We've already talked about that. But I think I would say go so far as to say that you really can't ever get to heaven without some kind of proper doctrine. We talked about it in our Sunday school class this morning. We must at least know that we're sinners and that Christ is the Savior. If you don't know that, you're not getting to heaven. 30:54 But there's a whole lot more to know too. 30:56 And as we grow in grace and godliness, we build into our lives, into our belief system, proper doctrine, which is able to strengthen us. You see, if we don't know... 31:10 Well, I remember hearing somebody say that they just preached for a year on God and the attributes of God and the truths of God and the realities of God and the 31:27 verities of God and how that builds faith, how that builds faith. You can't talk about God enough. So we need to know who He is in His reality. And then we've talked about exercise. We've talked about staying in the Word. 31:48 Now we talk about spiritual gifts, serving. Serving is a way of building godliness, of exercising godliness, serving. Do not neglect that gift. Use the gift you have been given. God has given you a gift. We are responsible for that gift. 32:07 We're responsible for what we do with it. So stir up the gift that God has given to you. And then in verse 16, we have another one. That is commitment. Continue, continue, be committed to. 32:26 The idea here is of total abandonment. Let me ask you a question. Is the Christian faith worth taking a risk over? Is it worth taking a risk? Well, maybe Christianity isn't worth taking a risk. But is Jesus worth taking a risk over? 32:47 Is the kingdom of God worth taking a risk over? And of course, it is. Of course, it is. Jesus talked about this in the Pearl of Great Price, man finding a pearl of great price. 33:03 And He risked His whole fortune and sold all that He had so He could buy that pearl. He took a risk. What if you sell out and you don't have any... And you get swindled? What if you sell out and find out that that was a fake pearl? 33:19 What if you sell out and you find out that you were deceived somehow in the process and then you got nothing left to show for it? You spent all your money on a false pearl? No, there's some sort of risk involved. But when you know the real deal, you sell out total abandonment. 33:37 And I believe that the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ as the King is worth taking a risk over. Walking by faith is a risk. 33:48 It comes with a certain amount of uncertainty and a certain amount of trepidation maybe at times. It's like the guy who... I shared this at one of our men's meetings. 34:03 If you've seen the skit years ago, I remember seeing it where this guy has fallen over a cliff and he grabbed a hold of a tree growing out of the rock. And so he's asking for help. And then the voice comes from heaven, 34:24 "God help me." And so God comes back with a voice and says, "Let go of the branch. Let go of the tree and I'll help you." Well, now that's a risk. That's a risk. And so they dialogue back and forth for a bit. And finally, the man with the tree ends up asking, "Is there anybody else out there that can help me? 34:46 Anybody else out there I can talk to?" Well, no, there isn't. We take that risk. We let go of the tree. And sometimes it is in letting go that we find out we were only a foot from the ground. There's a certain amount of risk, abandonment. Jesus said it like this, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, 35:06 wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple." That speaks of a risk. But the kingdom of God, 35:25 the Lord Jesus Christ, all of the riches of heaven, being a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, it's worth everything, even letting go of the security of our comforts. And then I want to finish this morning with this last point. 35:41 And that is we form godliness or godliness is formed in us by suffering, by suffering. Verse 10, "For this end we both labor and suffer reproach." Now this is where we can handle the idea of being in the scripture. 36:02 We can handle the idea of walking with God. We can handle even the idea of fighting the good fight, staying in the Word. But can we handle the idea that there is a certain amount of suffering that goes along with building godliness into our lives? There is. Paul experienced it. Take heed for yourself. 36:22 Take heed for others. Pay attention and be willing to suffer and labor and suffer reproach. Jacob became the godly man that God wanted to make him as he wrestled with the angel. He wrestled with God. 36:43 Well, he was wrestling with Laban. That didn't make him a godly man. He was wrestling probably with his boys and his family, his wives and his concubines. And that didn't make him a godly man. But when he came face to face with God and wrestled with the angel of the Lord, that's when he broke. 37:02 That's when godliness was infused into his life. And that's when Jacob became not the deceiver and the supplanter, but the prince with God was when he wrestled with God. And there's no shortcut for this. 37:21 Randy Alcorn in his book, the book called Your Suffering Can Be the Pathway to Greater Godliness, wrote this. He said, "God could create scientists, mathematicians, athletes, and musicians. He doesn't. He creates children who take on those roles over a long process. 37:42 God doesn't make us fully Christ-like the moment we're born again. He conforms us to the image of Christ gradually. Mountain climbers could save time and energy if they reached the summit by helicopter. But that's not a challenge. The challenge is through conquest, 38:02 not efficiency, through deepening of character and discipline and resolve and testing." I have already in this digital age thought, "Boy, I see somebody that I consider really, really a man of God and having great knowledge." And sometimes I think, 38:21 "I wish there was a way to take a USB port in the brain and then transport it to my USB port and download some of that information." I guess you'd call that artificial intelligence because it wouldn't be my intelligence, it'd be somebody else's. Man, we could short-circuit a lot of knowledge and learning if you could do that. 38:42 But you can't. And there's a reason you can't. Because if you had all that instantaneously given to you, there would be no struggle and no maturing into knowing how to use that information. And there'd be no character which comes through the trials and the struggles by which we respond to the information that we have. 39:03 And so suffering, suffering, difficulties. Gordon McDonald said when his lifelong mentor passed away, he said, "He was there when many years later my life fell apart because of a failure for which I was totally responsible. 39:25 In the worst moments of shame and humiliation, he came and lived in our home for a week and helped us do a searing examination of our lives. We will always remember his words, 'You are both momentarily in a great darkness. You have a choice to make. 39:44 You can, as do so many, deny this terrible pain or blame it on others or run away from it. Or you can embrace this pain together and let it do its purifying work as you hear the things God means to whisper into your hearts during this process. If you choose the latter, 40:06 I expect you will have an adventurous future modeling what true repentance and grace is all about. You can't just download information and get character. 40:19 Character is formed in the crucible of life, not in a test tube, but in the stress and strain of exercising ourselves to godliness." So we have a decision to make today. Not just Timothy who took these messages to heart, not just leaders who need to take these messages to heart, 40:40 but to all of us, to stay in the Word, to walk with God, to exercise our faith, to use our gifts, to commit and totally abandon ourselves to the cause and to embrace laboring and suffering reproach for the glory of God. 41:01 Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this very practical instruction from scripture this morning. You knew what we needed. You know what we need. We need someone to admonish us, to instruct us, to challenge us, to urge us forward. 41:23 And that's what this text does. 41:26 Father, I pray that you will help us in our exercise program spiritually, building faith and building virtue and knowledge and wisdom and 41:46 perseverance and agape love and brotherly kindness and above all things, a love for God and for others, 41:57 that we might take on the qualities of devotion and a Godword attitude and an attitude of worship and of reverence toward you. May this become reality in our lives in Jesus' name. Amen.