Don't Delay, Do It Now!

[Len Martin] Happy seventh day of the Feast to all of you. I'd like to thank the choir for all their diligent work. For those of us that have family members in the choir, we know they practice for months in advance. I'd like to thank them. I'd like to thank everybody that's provided beautiful special music for us to enjoy as they present those praises to God. We get to witness that. It's a joy. I'd like to thank those that have been accompanying them, as well as our ensemble. If you don't know, we have an ensemble up here that accompanies us as we sing hymns. So I'd like to thank all of them for all their efforts in serving and helping us all to have a wonderful Feast, and do our part as we praise God in song.

I'd like to begin in 2 Timothy, if you'd like to turn over there this afternoon. 2 Timothy—excuse me, I have somebody hunting me down a water bottle because I have a little challenge with my voice today. Give you a little background as you're turning over to 2 Timothy. Paul was first imprisoned in Rome for about two years under what we might call a house arrest. After his release in about 62 A.D., he and Timothy would travel to Ephesus. He would leave Timothy there to look after the churches. And then Paul would write 1 Timothy a couple years later to encourage Timothy to remain diligent, to carry out the work that he was commissioned to do. And then in that same year, about 64 A.D., Nero would set fire to Rome. And some historians say that he did that deliberately to burn it to the ground so he could rebuild. He just wanted a good excuse to rebuild the city. And so this is some of the backdrop to what's going on there.

Excuse me for a second.

And so the people of Rome had suspected Nero, and so to divert attention from himself, he accused the Christians of burning Rome. Halley’s Bible Handbook says that multitudes of Christians were put to death. They were crucified. Or they'd be tied to skins of animals, thrown into the arena to dogs, to wild beasts, simply for the entertainment of the people. They'd be tied to stakes in Nero's gardens. Pitch would be poured over them. They'd be set on fire. They became human torches. And it was in the midst of all of this—excuse me—that Paul writes this letter, this second letter to Timothy, about 67 A.D. I'm not one that wants to argue over dates, but around that time.

As we begin to read this, I'd like for you to put yourself in the place of Timothy. So Paul is writing to you. Because as we've heard multiple times this week, and I'll refer to as well, we've heard about our responsibility to be kings and priests. To be governing people. To be teaching people. And so if you would, consider Paul writing a letter to you.

And let's begin here as we read in 2 Timothy. I'm going to go to chapter four. Excuse me, I'm going to begin in verse one. “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:1). Verse 2: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). We could do an in-depth word study on each and every one of the meanings of those words there. But he's giving a list of things to do. He says: preach, herald, proclaim the coming Kingdom of God. He says: be ready, be earnest, be diligent about this responsibility. He goes on to use words—convincing, rebuking, exhorting. Right, to encourage and to exhort, to console, to comfort, as you share these words.

Let's continue, verse 3: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers” (2 Timothy 4:3). “And they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:4). We see this happening in the church today. You know, the internet—for all of its wonderful things it allows us to do—we have access to all kinds of things in ways that we never did before. I remember—we all, right, we've been around long enough—how did we study our Bibles? We got out our Bible. We got our Strong’s Concordance, and we—that's how we did our Bible study. That's right, that was it. Then you get a Nave’s Bible Topical Dictionary, something like that.

Today, we just moved, and so I got rid of a lot of books. I'm tired of moving books. Everything I need is on my laptop. Even to the point that if the internet goes down, I've got it stored locally. My only caveat is if I lose power, right? But with all the wonderful things the internet provides for us, it also provides us opportunities to see things that aren't true. And some people make some pretty compelling arguments on things that are not true. And if we're not careful, we can go down a rabbit hole. And so we're living in a time when it's easy to come across things and say, oh, that's interesting, I never heard that before. And all of a sudden, we set our Bible aside, and we start studying this thing. And before long, you're so excited, you come to church and you share it with somebody. “Oh, you got to hear what I just heard.” We all can do this if we're not careful. We all have to be very careful.

And then what often happens is we like that person, and so we like, follow, subscribe to the things, and we start listening to everything they're saying. He then tells Timothy here to expect to be persecuted. But to endure to the very end and keep fulfilling your duties. He says in verse 5: “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Timothy 4:6).

And this next verse, I think, is one that we all really think about often. Verse 7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). And verse 8—I love verse 8. I'll just read and I'll comment: “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). He's basically saying, look, we're not racing against each other. First place is taken—that's Jesus Christ. We just got to finish. He says this crown is there for all who finish. So Paul’s encouraging Timothy with these words.

As he begins to close out in verse 9: “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:9-10). And drop down to verse 17: “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion” (2 Timothy 4:17). Depending on which commentary, that could be literal. That may have been figurative. But then notice verse 21: “Do your utmost to come before winter” (2 Timothy 4:21).

You know, if you're paying attention—twice in this chapter Paul said to Timothy: first in verse 9, “Be diligent to come to me quickly”. And in verse 21, “Do your utmost to come before winter”. What happened to Timothy after this letter? What if Timothy waited around for a little while? Did he leave right away? Did he depart right away? Or did he wrap up a few things before he got on the road?

Let me ask you this question. Have you ever been asked to do something, but you didn't do it, and then regretted your decision—or at the very least missed out on something you otherwise would have?

I'm going to give you a couple quick stories of my life. When my wife was pregnant with our twins back in 2006, by then we already had four boys, so she had a certain pattern of delivery. I knew when she was going to go into labor—it was usually going to be a birth in the middle of the night. That's just how it happened. I have a theory. I think she gets really relaxed at night and everything goes to work. She called me at work one day, and she said she thought she was going into labor, and I should probably be prepared because she thought if she went into labor, then there'd be a birth.

At that time, she had suspicions we were going to have twins, but we never had ultrasound, so we didn't know. I guess there's a little background. I thought, okay, I'm going to wrap up some things here at work, because I may not come to work tomorrow. Then 20 minutes later, she called and said, actually, my water broke. I worked an hour away from home, so at that point, I literally just shut my desk and got in the car and started home. When I arrived, I was met at the door by one of our sons, and he says, “Dad, it's a girl, and there's another baby that ain't been born yet.” I'm like, whoa, okay. So I went upstairs. We had home births, and so Nicole had already been born, and our daughter Naomi would come just a little bit later. If I had left immediately when she called the first time, I probably would have been there for Nicole's birth. Just a minor thing. But again, the principle remains. If I'd have gone right then, I probably wouldn't have missed it.

Another event happened in my life in 2014. We were living in New England at the time. I received a call from my sister. My father had always had poor health, but she called me up, and she said, “Dad, this is not going well. He's taking a turn for the worse. Hospice has been called.” And so she said, “I'll let you know how it goes.” And then she called me like a day later and she says, “Yeah, this is not going well.” So I literally drove home, packed a bag, drove 13 hours through the night, got there at eight in the morning. My dad died at 10 in the morning. By the time I got there, he was already—they had him on morphine. He was sedated. I'm not even sure he knew I was there.

So two examples of my life where I've often reflected on, you know, how quickly you respond to something you're asked to do. But so here in this letter to Timothy, at the end of his life, as his life is drawing to a close, Paul is again thinking about these relationships he's had. But he wanted Timothy to come and see him. He wanted to see his—earlier in the chapter, he called him his beloved son. And if Timothy didn't come before winter, he probably wouldn't be able to make it. Depending on how you calculate his trip, it would have taken him quite a bit of time to get there. He was probably in Ephesus, hundreds of miles away. It's not like you and I catch a flight and be there in an hour or two.

You and I have just spent seven days together reflecting upon a time in the future when Jesus Christ returns, and those of us who are baptized will reign with Jesus Christ. We've heard many messages about that. This is what this seven days pictures. We will be ruling and teaching, right? We're not going to be sitting around. When I was a child, I used to think about the millennium and being in the millennium and thinking about just enjoying all the things that we read about. Then all of a sudden, as I got to be an adult, I realized, wait a minute, I'm not going to be sitting around enjoying all those things. You're converted. When you become Spirit being at that point, you're the ones making it happen. You're ruling. You're teaching. You're helping to bring that about.

And so we need to be thinking much bigger than being in the Kingdom of God. We need to think about what we're going to be doing in the Kingdom of God, because if we focus on what we're going to be doing, then it'll help us understand what we should be doing now. As I said, it's been mentioned several times this week—we're going to be kings and priests. Said differently, we're going to be governing people and teaching people. Ask yourself, are you prepared to do that? If right now change comes, time to govern, time to teach—can you do it? It's kind of a scary thing to think about. There's still a lot of things I don't know. I think the more you study your Bible, the more you realize there's things you don't know.

In Isaiah 30, there's a familiar passage I was trying to remember if somebody mentioned this already. Maybe in passing, I don't know if we turned there, but let's go there. Isaiah 30:20-21: “Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:20-21). Who's going to be speaking those words? It'll be us! Spirit beings—we're going to be helping these people. “Don't go that way. Walk this way.”

And so we bring it back to today. Am I ready to do that? Am I ready to teach these principles and guide and direct people's lives? Because in reality, the people that will be doing this are those that are deemed worthy when Jesus Christ returns. If I say that slightly differently, it means that not everybody that's here may be there. We have to be found worthy when Christ returns. There's no guarantee. There's no guarantee at all. So Paul told Timothy, in essence, don't delay. So let's ask ourselves today: what part of your life that you know needs to be corrected have you put off until later?

I've titled the sermon, if you like titles: Don't delay, do it now. Don't delay, do it now. In essence, that's what he said to Timothy. Don't delay. Come now. Come right away.

In Matthew 8:18, we have another instance where Jesus Christ makes a statement. I appreciated Mr. Britz' explanation of one of those examples. Here's another one where, on the surface, it might look kind of callous, a bit harsh. “And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side” (Matthew 8:18).

"When Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, 'Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go'" (Matthew 8:18-19). I'm sure there's many of us that when we were called had that mindset: “I will follow You wherever You go.” And then some trial comes and we're like, well, now wait a minute, I wasn't sure I signed up for that.

"And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head'" (Matthew 8:20). Then another of His disciples, verse 21, said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead'" (Matthew 8:21-22).

Wait a minute. I can't go bury my father and then come follow You? And when you study into the context here and you understand some of the cultural background, let me read from Barclay's Daily Study Bible. It says, “The father is very much alive, but the son has a duty and obligation to his parents and to his relatives.” This ties into what Mr. Britt brought up. Right? What are you going to put first—Me or them? So much so that he can't leave home until after his father's death, which might not happen for many years. This wasn't like, “My dad just died and we're burying him next week.” It wasn't that at all. Barclay goes on to say in Matthew 8:21, the young man is basically saying, “I will follow You someday, when my father is dead and when I am free to go, but I can't go now.” That's why Jesus said, look, if you're not willing to put Me first, if you don't do it now, you're not going to do it.

How many of us have ever met people—you could tell God was calling them—and they weighed it out and said, “No, can't do it now, but maybe later.” And later never comes. Later never comes. So what excuses might we have to put off something we know that we should do? Again, don't delay. Do it now.

I'll share one more example from my life, because this one just happened to me recently. Leading up to the Days of Unleavened Bread, I had been having some issues that I narrowed down to my gallbladder. So I'm going to give you a real short version of it here. Days of Unleavened Bread—got through Passover, first day of Unleavened Bread—I get up and my wife looks at me and she goes, “Man, you are yellow.” I went and looked in the mirror. I was yellow. The whites of my eyes—it was bad. And I felt okay. And then, so I went and got anointed right away. I got through the holy day. We drove home the next day—we were out of town. And then the day after that, I doubled over in pain and it was bad. So I went to the ER, got rushed in there. And they're like, “Oh yeah, this is bad. Your gallbladder looks like a sack of marbles, and you’ve got three stones in your bile duct. You're heading straight to surgery.”

So I had a surgery one day—bile duct cleared. The next day they put me in, removed my gallbladder. Four hours after my surgery, I felt great, went home. Never thought about it. So I've usually been pretty healthy. It's the only time I've had surgery. Never thought twice about it. A few months later, one of our pastors, Mr. Dan Taylor from Lubbock, Texas—same surgery. He died from a complication as a result. And my wife looked at me and she goes, “That could have been you.” And of course, part of me is like, “Nah, nah.” But it's true. Nothing is routine. It may be routine—they do enough of them—but it's not a guarantee. I try to just kind of let it go, but it's true. Same scenario, same surgery. By the grace of God, I'm still here.

Barclay says, “The tragedy of our life is that so often it is a tragedy of an unseized moment. We're moved to some fine action. We're moved to the abandoning of some weakness or a habit. We're moved to say something to someone—some word of encouragement. But the moment passes. The thing is never done. The evil thing is never conquered. The word is never spoken. In the best of us,” he says, “there's a certain lethargy and inertia. There's a certain habit of procrastination. Oh, we want to do it. The truth is we don't do it.” Whatever that may be.

How many of us are going to leave here tomorrow after sunset, or maybe the day following, on what we often call that a spiritual, emotional high? We've had all this time together, messages every day, seminars, really fired up. “Yeah, I'm going to go home and I'm going to do things different.” That's the moment. That's the emotion of the moment. We're moved to change, but then—we're just not going to do it. Because we go home. We go back to work. Work is piled up. And before we know it, our notebook—assuming you take notes, some people still do that, some don't—but you set it aside, and you get back to things. And a year goes by, and you come back here: “Okay, this year, this year it is going to be different. I am going to…” And we just keep procrastinating.

Now, the Barna Group did a study on temptations about a decade ago. I'll give you a couple quick statistics. Nearly half of Americans—about 44%—said they are tempted to spend too much time with media, including the internet, television, and video games. Another one of these new temptations, because they said the same old ones are always there. These were new. To express anger or to go off on somebody through text or email. You ever done that? Do anybody want to do confessions? I've done that. You hit send and you go, oh man. It's like, should have just gone to bed and woken up in the morning. Basically, this says that it's one of these new things that people are dealing with. Keyboard warriors, we call them. Boom! But face to face, we wouldn't talk that way.

Here's two other ones. Sixty percent of Americans say procrastination is a serious temptation. They know they got to do something, they just want to keep putting it off. And 41% said they're tempted to be lazy. I'll get to that in a moment. Being lazy and procrastinating are two different things. They're related, but they're slightly different.

In John 9:4, we have one quick verse here. Jesus Christ makes a clear statement: “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).

This is again—they're asking Him to find out who sinned when He healed a man who was blind from birth. And Jesus said neither one sinned. But verse 4 is what I look at. He says: “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).

There's coming a day, whether you realize it or not, when we may not as a church, as a whole, be able to do anything. I don't want to get into—I put a note here: don't get into politics. I'm not going to get into politics. Our world is collapsing around us. I'll just say that. This election doesn’t matter. It does not matter. Our world is collapsing. I mean, even if you look at—you have your favorite person to become president—our national debt is $37 trillion. You can't get out from under that. You can't get out from under that.

We need to do the works of our Father while we have time to work. And that means not only publicly as a church as we do things, but personally in your life, get yourself right while you still have time to get yourself right. Because there’s a day coming when it’s too late. Time’s up. You had your time. What did you do with it?

Mr. Martin—not related, he’s the better-looking Martin—talked about time. Time management, our use of time. I’ll have some comments about that as well. Go to Proverbs 27. Because again, as I reflect upon my surgery that I thought was a non-issue, we have these verses that we read, and, you know, we think about them and then, you know, we go on and we don’t really take them to heart. Proverbs 27. Because again, we have to do what we can do as a church, but in our lives personally, while we still have time to do it. So we need to be working in ourselves, on ourselves, preparing ourselves, because we don’t know how long we have, how much time we have to get our act together, to get our personal houses in order.

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1). Had it ever crossed my mind that I wouldn’t wake up from surgery? Never crossed my mind. I think it did my wife, because at one point I think she was going to go get something to eat or whatever at the hospital and they’re about to go in and she goes, “No, wait.” I’m like, “No, go ahead and go.” “No, I’m going to wait.” So it was probably more in her mind than mine. But the Bible is clear: you don’t know.

We had announcements at the beginning of the Feast—family traveling to the Feast, accident. This has happened before. They didn’t plan for that. So you don’t know if you even have tomorrow. You know, we don’t generally think of procrastination as sin, but notice James 4, because I might submit to you that maybe it is. Or, better said, it leads to sin. It can lead to sin.

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'" (James 4:13). Come now, you who say, “Tomorrow I’ll start my Bible study. Tomorrow I will…” You can fill in the blank. What is it that you’re not doing that you keep saying, “I’m going to do,” but you don’t? "Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14).

I’ve often thought about some of the people in the church that I’ve known over the years. I came in—I’m 62. I came in at age 10. I’ve been in church 52 years. I’ve known a lot of people. People I call pillars and patriarchs. People just—you know, I’m not just talking about the Bible ones. I’m talking about people I’ve known in congregations. And they’re here for a while, and then they’re gone. And if God wills and time goes on, that’ll be me too, at some point. I don’t personally think we have that much time, but we don’t know.

Verse 15: “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that’” (James 4:15). Now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Verse 17: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

So procrastination can lead to sin. If you know to do something that God says to do and you’re not doing it, you’re putting it off—at that point it becomes sin. We don’t know if we have tomorrow. I mean, we don’t think this way. None of us think that, “Well, this is it.” But the key is—we don’t know. And so if there’s something in your life, or something in my life, that I need to get right—don’t delay. Do it now. Don’t put it off. Stop what you’re doing. Pack your bags. Go. Do what you have to do.

I’m sure many of you have seen motivational posters. I have one I often refer to. I don’t particularly—I’m not a fan of pithy quotes. I find them corny. They’re just whatever. But this is one that was given to me back in 2000 when I finished my MBA. Co-workers decided to buy this for me, and I still have it. But I like the saying. It says: “Success is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Success is when preparation meets opportunity.

There’s a whole bunch of corny ones out there. Actually, some satirical ones I won’t talk about, but they’re funny. But success is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. You know, I think about that one a lot because God is offering us many opportunities. They’re not guarantees. They’re opportunities. And why do I say they’re not guarantees? Because we’ve got to get there. And that’s on you. That’s on me. What He holds, He holds it out there for us: “This is yours.” But you’ve got to do your part. So it’s an opportunity. And the success—the part of being in the Kingdom—is when we align our preparation with the opportunity.

You know, God’s offered us many opportunities. I’ll just give you a few. You can jot these down if you want to look them up later. The opportunity to become immortal, to have eternal life.

We find that in 1 Thessalonians 4. We've talked often about the opportunity to be kings and priests ruling eternally with Jesus Christ—we find that in Revelation 1:6. The opportunity to receive a new name—we read about that in Revelation 2. The opportunity to inherit all things—in Revelation 21. These are all these opportunities. These are for you. But it's not a guarantee if you don't prepare yourself, if you're not doing your part. It's there. He promises it. He puts it out there for us. But we have to do our part. We'll not be granted any of these things if we're not preparing ourselves.

So, I am between congregations right now. We just moved from Ohio. So the congregations that I've been in know this phrase. I have certain phrases I repeat a lot. This is one of them. And I think one of the congregations I spoke to in Tennessee, where we're moving, heard it already. We don't inherit all things just because we get an A-plus in attendance. You don't enter the Kingdom of God just because you got an A-plus in attendance. Now God wants you to get an A-plus in attendance. He wants you at every holy convocation. He wants you at services. But if that's all you're doing, it's not enough. It's not enough. You're not just going to sit here and it’s just going to sort of seep into you. You've got to study. You've got to examine self. These are all things that we know to do.

In Matthew 22, in the parable of the wedding feast, we see this principle of an individual who is not allowed to enter in because they didn't prepare themselves. Matthew 22—I'm just going to break into the context of a familiar parable. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:11-14).

The principle is, if we're not considering where we're going and preparing ourselves to be there, we may fall into the ones that were called but not chosen. They called you, maybe you started responding, but then you just stopped.

I'll make a plug for Mr. Petty. He made a reference in his sermon the other day that I picked up on—maybe you did too—on an excellent sermon he gave maybe seven years ago called Little Sins. I don't know if he deliberately made that reference, but I heard him talking about it, and I remember that. Go listen to that sermon. I'm not saying that because he's my RP, but if that helps me, I'm okay with that. I just moved into his area. It's a good litmus test on the fact that we often get called and we do these big things: keep the Sabbath, Holy Days, food laws, right, tithing—and then it just stops there for some of us. That's like the A-plus in attendance. It's not enough.

And so if there's things that we know in us, we need to work on that. Let's go to Revelation 19. Again, many are called. Many are offered the opportunity, but few are chosen. Because if few are chosen, that means many—or most—didn't prepare themselves. Revelation 19:7: “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7).

Just look at one simple statement here for clarity. Because if we're sitting around waiting for God to change us, we've got it all wrong. You have to make yourself ready. And God gives us all these great tools to do that. And His Holy Spirit in us makes it possible. That Holy Spirit that guides you before baptism, but once in you, right, is what helps to bring that about. Helps us make ourselves ready.

And as a church—the only way we as a church are going to be ready is if (I've said this before too) I work on me and you work on you. Collectively, then, we all individually grow and then collectively we all grow. And the church, the bride, has made herself ready. And so it's really important as it’s coming upon each one of us to think: is there something I'm putting off to tomorrow that I need to deal with now? Because we don't know how much time we have. And so again—you have to make yourself ready. God, as I said, through the Holy Spirit and places the paraklētos, as it's called, the Helper, helps us in this process because we can't do this.

I was talking to somebody the other day about the topic that comes up about God not doing miracles. God's still doing miracles. You know the most amazing miracle of all? A physical human being eventually transformed into a spirit being—that is an amazing miracle. And He does it. It starts with Him calling us. We've got to respond. But the transformation of each and every one of us is a miracle. He does that. He changes our minds, our hearts, how we think. He still does that today.

But the bride of Christ will be adorning herself not in physical attire, but in spiritual attire. And we could spend time on the fruits of the Spirit and those aspects—those are separate studies all their own. But that's what we'll be adorned in as a bride—those aspects of spiritual character that reflect our elder Brother, Jesus Christ, the fruits of the Spirit. “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). That would be an attribute we would take on.

We often quote Matthew 6:33. It's a popular one for our teens. It often comes up at prom when they do a “give us your favorite scripture” and they typically say, “Seek first the Kingdom of God”. And I'm going, come on man, keep going. There's a little bit more to that. “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

All right, this is what we're to do, right? This is what our responsibility is. So don't delay. Don't put it off. If there are things we need to work on, now is the time to do it. If you want to be part of the Kingdom of God, if you want this opportunity to be kings and priests—ruling, governing, and teaching—the opportunity’s there. But we have to prepare ourselves.

You know, it was mentioned on the first Holy Day during the offertory message about the analogy of farming. And not only do you plan for the crop, the harvest, and you back it up to: what do I have to do today to reap that harvest? And there's a lot of analogy. I used to—in one of my previous careers—I was doing engineering, this type of engineering in commercial buildings. It's a long process. It starts with an architect coming up with a design. Then you've got to look at soil studies and how heavy the building's going to be before you even get into the foundation. There's a lot of work that goes in. You don't just pop up a building, because if you do, it's going to fall down. There's a lot of work that goes in in advance. There's a lot of education that's required. And the same is true for us.

This is our time of education. You know, we used to talk about the days when people came in and they really approached Sabbath services like school. Right? We're here, we've got our Bibles, notebooks, we're taking notes. More and more, people just sit and listen, because they want to go home. “I can download sermons.” That's true. You can do that, but that's not study. That's not study. But again, we've taught these principles. We've got to study intently. We've got to know more material. If you're going to teach this, you've got to know it.

One of the areas we moved out of purchased a building several years ago, and before we moved in, we had a neighbor come up and start asking questions about our beliefs. A member said, “You should go talk to my pastor.” And I said to everybody, “You know, that's not the right answer. Because if somebody asks you a question about what you believe, that means they trust you, and so you should give them an answer. They didn't ask me.” You know what they think my job is? To get them in the seat and get them donating money. That's what most people think a minister's job is. For an average person coming in out of the world, they think, “Well, I don't want to talk to him, because I know what he's going to try to do.” But they'll talk to you. Can you give them an answer? Can you teach them one of our fundamental beliefs? And I don't mean you have to give a big treatise on it, but can you give them an overview?

That particular question they asked was, “What do you believe in the Trinity?” “Go talk to my pastor.” And I'm friends with the person, so I'm not trying to make them feel bad. We've talked about it in the past. Can you teach? If the opportunity we're given is to be teachers in the Kingdom and the millennium, can you do it? Can you do it now? We should be trying to do that, preparing ourselves for that.

Remember, Paul's words to Timothy were to do your utmost. Do your utmost to come before winter. That word in Greek means to use speed, to make effort. It means to endeavor, to labor, to study. Spiros Zodhiates, the Greek scholar, says it means to make every effort to do one's best. Paul said, “Timothy, make every effort to do your best to be here before winter.”

That word is used in 2 Peter as well. “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:1-3). We're going to have people making fun of us. Scoffers just making fun of us for what we believe. They'll be doing what they want to do.

Drop down in verse 8: “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9).

Verse 14: “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you” (2 Peter 3:14-15).

Verse 17: “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17-18). Be diligent. Make every effort to do your best.

Again, the Barna Group study concluded 60% of Americans say procrastination, or putting things off, is a serious temptation. 41% say they're tempted to be lazy. This is a study of Americans. It's a U.S. problem. Again, I mentioned procrastination is not the same as being lazy. The dictionary definition of lazy is “disinclined to activity or exertion.” Right? You just have no energy. You're just not energetic. That's lazy. Procrastination is “to put off intentionally and habitually.” It's not that I don't have energy, I just don't want to do it. I've got other things I'd rather do. And that's going to be different for all of us, right? We all have a well-heavened thing we'd love to do. I could give you a list of things I'd love to do, but there's other things that I have to do. And often the things we have to do have to come first. And so we have to put aside the things maybe we want to do.

So what might we be intentionally or habitually putting off or changing? We're going to go to the book of Ephesians. Many people have been in the book of Ephesians already this Feast. I would encourage you all to do a study on the book of Ephesians. There's a lot in the book of Ephesians that mirrors the Church today. There's a lot of things that were going on there that seem to mirror the Church today.

We went through chapter 4, which was touched on already, reminding us to strive for unity in the body of Christ. That word striving means we've got to work at this. We've got to strive towards unity. And sometimes striving towards it means just being patient with one another, forbearing one another, and just tolerating some of our differences. But that's the message of chapter 4.

As we move into chapter 5, notice what it says: “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:1-2). He goes on to list—I won’t for the sake of time—all these negative things, these sinful behaviors. But jumping to verse 5, he says: “For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God” (Ephesians 5:5).

Expanding this is like: if you're sinning, no inheritance. If you don't repent and change. God always grants us the opportunity for repentance and change. Never forget that. So if you've got something hanging over your head, just know all you got to do is just repent. Put it before God, repent and change. That's the thing. We can never forget that. But if we don't, He says there's no inheritance.

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God has come upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:6-8).

Everything we do should lead to conduct that glorifies God. Knowledge should lead to conduct. “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1). So all the knowledge we amass should translate into our conduct. And so our relationships—if you've got relationship problems, you need to fix them. Because all this life is learning to have a relationship with God and a relationship with God's people.

So if you've got relationship problems, you've got Kingdom of God problems. Because if you can't get along with one another—I mean, if God's called me and He's called you, and you and I can't get along—one of us isn't going to be there. Because there's obviously a problem, and one of us… Let's work it out. If we know to do it, don't delay. Do it now. Sorry, get off on a tangent.

So walk as children of light. “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:9-11).

He goes on to talk about being shameful even to speak of those things which are done by those in secret. “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15). Circumspectly, diligently, accurately, perfectly—other translations use those words. Be circumspect, be diligent, be diligent to walk not as fools but as wise, showing the wisdom that comes from above as we apply it in our lives.

Then he says in verse 16: “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:16-19). Positive, encouraging, uplifting.

You know, Hebrews 10:24-25—I'm not going to go there—another one of these thoughts that popped in my head. Verse 25 we often quote because it speaks of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Verse 24 before it is the reason why. It says that we would come together to “stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:24-25). We all need to be encouraged, and we should make that a part of why we come together each and every Sabbath and each and every Holy Day.

So again, we need to be walking not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time while we still have time. And I'm not talking about calculating the time of Christ's return. I'm talking about you don't know if you're going to wake up tomorrow. So now really is the time. It really is, for all of us. Myself included—I’m not excluding myself from any of this. We don't know how much time we have.

The Old Testament word study on the term “lazy” or “slothful,” which is used in Proverbs 24, where Solomon talks about going by the field of the lazy man and the man void of understanding, says its word is “sluggards.” Useless, lazy persons who fail because of laziness that becomes a moral failure. And the words for “void of understanding” mean a lack of heart. There's just no heart and soul there.

Let's go to Hebrews 12. Excuse me—we’ve been there this Feast already. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

The word that's translated “sin” here and in most instances of the New Testament is hamartia. And it means—it’s an archery term—missing the mark. So there's the bull's-eye, and anything that's not there is sin. You missed the mark. That's our goal: to keep working at hitting the mark. Keep striving towards that.

I gave a message covering these points not too long ago—how many times in repetition it takes for an archer to hit the bull's-eye. That's what it's saying to us. If you're not hitting the mark, you're missing the mark. Missing the mark is sin. So just keep practicing at hitting the mark. “Run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Paul here—and I agree, I think this is Paul—is encouraging us to cast off anything that misses the mark. And it's going to be different for all of us. You know what it is. Whatever that is—whatever that weight, whatever that sin, whatever the thing is that's missing the mark—he says, cast it off.

Back in my youth, a long, long time ago, in high school, I ran cross-country. We were so fixated on how to shave seconds off of our times that we would weigh our shoes. Before you bought a pair of shoes, you went and weighed them at the store. Sometimes we wouldn't wear socks just to get a couple ounces off. Our garments were about as thin as you could get—like dry-wick material. Same with your shirt. We focused on that. And that's what he's saying here. Shed everything that's going to miss the mark. Any weight. Anything. Get rid of it. And you know what it is for you, and for me it'll be different. But he says, whatever that is, get rid of it. Do it now. Don't put it off.

So that's the imagery we have here. You know, in Matthew 24 and 25—I'm not going to read those, but those are well-known passages where the disciples, just like today, said, “Tell me the sign of Your coming.” Basically, “Give me a sign, because once I know You're coming, then I'll get my house in order.” That's basically what they were asking: “Just give us a sign. Let us know when it is You'll be returning.”

You'll see in Matthew 24 they asked the question. In Matthew 25 He then goes on to give the parable of the ten virgins. The principle there, if you read through the story—we're not going to read through it—but the principle is preparation. Because the ones that were defined as foolish were not prepared. That's what it comes down to. They were not prepared.

And He follows that up with the parable of the talents. So the first parable is on being prepared. The second one, the parable of the talents, is on producing, on being productive, on doing something with what you've been given. So He tells us that in our lives we should be preparing ourselves, and we should bring forth some fruit. We should be productive as a result.

This is what He's looking for us to do. So one more thought as we begin to wrap up. How am I doing on time? Today, right now, in this life, you and I are being offered an opportunity. It's not a guarantee.

Right? God's side of it is a promise. God says He's promised to do His part. That part's the guarantee. Whether or not we receive it, though, is up to us. And we're offered an opportunity of not merely being in the Kingdom of God. Right? Our goal isn't just to get there. What He's asking of us, and the reason we're called now, is He's preparing leaders and teachers for the Kingdom of God. Kings and priests, governing people, teaching people.

We've heard principles by Mr. Clore on how we might do that. That's what we should be thinking about. What am I going to do when I get there? How am I going to do that when I get there? If your focus is on that, your assurances of getting there are probably closer to a guarantee, because you're going to be doing all the things in your life that you need to do to prepare yourself to be a king and a priest.

Revelation 20. Because here's the thing I wanted to add before we wrap up. When you consider that our role will be teaching, have you ever considered that teaching in the beginning of the millennium may have a different emphasis than teaching at the end of the millennium? Things will be different.

I appreciated Mr. Petty's concept of the journey, because even the millennium will be a journey. The beginning will look a whole lot different than the end of it. And at the end of it, which is what today pictures—today's the seventh day of the Feast. If we do the math, a thousand years divided by seven days, this puts us about 920 years into the millennium. We're near the end of it. We're almost there.

And something happens at the end of the millennium. It's a major event that we know about. We don't spend a lot of time on it, but Revelation 20:3 tells us. When you break into the context, he's talking about laying hold. “Satan’s going to be bound for a thousand years. He cast him into the bottomless pit, shut him up, and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:3).

He's going to be turned loose. And we're going to have to see how well we did teaching people to avoid deception. That's going to be on us. Because it says he's going to go out and he's going to deceive.

Drop down to verse 7: “When the thousand years are expired, Satan will be released from his prison. He will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:7-10).

You know, the beginning of the millennium, I think our emphasis as teachers is probably going to be changing hearts and minds, comforting people that have come through trauma and all types of things, right? Getting out of their minds the teachings of this present evil age. But I would think that by the time, in my view of the world, by the end of the millennium, that's not going to be the issue.

In fact, I often picture myself trying to sit down with somebody saying, now look, this is what's about to happen. And they're going to say, “Why would someone… why?” Trust me, it happens, right? We have to prepare them for Satan's release. So what we teach at the beginning may be different—or our emphasis will be different—than what we teach at the end.

You know, Peter warned in 2 Peter that there would be those false teachers that would rise up among you to bring in destructive heresies. We may go over these verses with people: “Look, this adversary is going to come out, and he may start deceiving people. You may have your best friend deceived, and they may start trying to deceive you.” I don't know how it's going to work. But I know sometimes in my sort of meditation, I often ponder and pray and ask God, like, what's it going to be like? And maybe it'll be completely different. Whatever He does, I'm good with it. I have my own ideas. Whatever He decides, I'm fine with.

How are we doing time-wise? I think I want to begin to wrap up. Let's go to 2 Peter 1. Because as future kings and priests, we're not only going to have to teach people how to live God's way of life—we’re learning that now, and we're going to be teaching that—but we're also going to have to prepare them against this deception that will come at the end of the millennium.

And so I'll ask the question again: Do you feel prepared to do that? If the answer is no, well then don't delay. Don't put it off. Get to work on it.

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:2-8).

You will be prepared, and you'll be productive. “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:9-11).

After Paul said to Timothy to do your utmost to come before winter, except for a couple comments of passing along greetings from others, his letter just ends. We don't really know. In one sense, we're kind of left hanging. It doesn't really say much beyond that.

What happened after Timothy got the letter? We don't know for sure. A couple scenarios: he could have decided to wrap up a few items, get on the road tomorrow, maybe next week. With the time and distance he had to travel, if he didn't set out soon enough, if he didn’t go before winter, he probably would not have made it. The other scenario is that he went out immediately, exerting every effort—that word spoudazō, right—to get there as quickly as he possibly could. Every effort to just get there, to drop what he was doing and be there.

Paul still could have been dead when he arrived. But at least he knew he put every effort into being there. The Bible doesn't tell us what happened. Clearly, there are some apocryphal writers that describe the martyrdom of Paul and suggest that Nero beheaded Paul.

Paul's gone. The letter still remains, though. And if we consider ourselves in sort of the receiving of it, like Timothy, what is it that you or I may be putting off for far too long? Don't delay. Do it now. Do it before winter. Do it before it's too late.