Shabbat Shalom. Please open your Bibles to the second letter that Paul wrote to Timothy. And I'm going to read the first eight verses of 2 Timothy, chapter 2. Paul is saying to Timothy, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore, in due hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that warres, entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.

And if any man also strives for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strives lawfully. The husbandman that labors must be first partakers of the fruits. Consider what I say and the Lord give the understanding in all things. Remember that Yeshua, the Messiah, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel." And I'm stopping here with verse 8 of 2 Timothy, chapter 2. To remind you, beloved brothers and sisters, that the Apostle Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, who was in Ephesus. And Paul was in the city of Rome, in jail, ready to die. And this 2 Timothy is the last letter that Shaul Paul ever written, that is in the canon of Scripture.

And it's speaking about the future days which are going to come, but it's also speaking about how to live a victorious life as believers here in this world. If we are going to please God and to honor him in our life. Paul is ready to depart out of this world. And he's handing over, you might say, the baton to Timothy, to say, "Timothy, you take and carry on in the ministry of the Lord." In 2 Timothy, chapter 4 and verse 6, the Apostle Paul already said, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." "I have fought a good fight." "I have finished my course." "I have kept the faith." What Paul does here is really opening his heart, pouring out his heart, sharing with another younger brother the reality of saying, "Listen, Timothy, I'm ready to die and ready to go back to heaven." "And I want that the word of God, that the truth that you have learned from Yeshua the Messiah, will be handed over to somebody else." "So the ministry will continue on." Now, Paul wrote this letter.

It is about 66 AD. And look at the result of the ministry of the Apostle Paul. You and I are some of the fruit of his labor. He handed over things to Timothy. Timothy handed it over to another person. And from there on, you and I are really evidence of the fruit of Paul and others such as Shimon Petos and all these early Hebrew believers in Yeshua the Messiah. The fact that there are millions over the generation that came to faith in Yeshua is the proof that the work of the Lord is continuing on. The Spirit of God is working. The Word of God is being taught.

The truth is being presented even though Satan and the world try to infiltrate and try to hinder the things of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And you remember what Yeshua said in Matthew chapter 16 to Shimon Petos and to the disciples there in Caesarea Philippi. You are Shimon. You are Petos. And upon this rock I will build my assembly and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And the proof that there are believers in this world among our own Jewish people among the nations of the world. Believers in Yeshua and the body of Messiah is an evidence that the church, the assembly, the ecclesia, the called out ones, no one will prevail against it.

It will continue until the Messiah will come. But here, Paul, he already gave to Timothy in the first chapter those two encouragement. Number one, be not ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. Number two, which we covered in our last ministry meeting, be true to the Word of God because God's Word will never, ever change. Be true to the testimony. Be true to the testimony. Be true to the Word of God. And now in the second chapter of 2 Timothy, he does something that is very, very interesting. He now presents before Timothy a necessity to walk a godly walk and he's using seven human experiences that all men and women in the walks of life are experiencing.

Seven full human experiences that humanity is going through here in this world. Today in this ministry, we're only going to deal with four of them. But I want to highlight for you the seven human experiences that Shaul Paul uses as he's writing to Timothy. The first one, he calling him a son in verse one, my son. The second one in verse three, he's saying you are as a good soldier. The third one in verse five, he says if any man going to become an athlete or is striving for mastery, if someone become an athlete, he has to play the game by the rules. In verse six and seven, he's presenting before him the fourth presentation, a husbandman or a farmer.

Then in verse 15, he's calling a person to be faithful as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. And then number six in verse 21, he's presenting to Timothy the truth that you and I can be like vessels unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use. And finally, in verse 24. And finally, in verse 24, he presents before him the necessity to be a faithful servant. He takes the walks of life in which we are all participating in and he applied this by presenting this to Timothy. And he says, Timothy, if you are going to be a godly man and walk in a godly walk, here is the way whereby you are going to be able to do so.

As a son, as a soldier, as an athlete, as a farmer, as a workman, as a vessel, and as a servant. In Hebrew, son is Ben. In Hebrew, soldier is Chayal. In Hebrew, athlete is athlete. In Hebrew, farmer is Ikar. In Hebrew, workman is Poel. And in Hebrew, vessel is Kli. And in Hebrew, servant is Mesharit. All are called to walk faithful in order to please the Lord and have a victorious life in their life as they live here in this world. Now, let's go over those verses that are extremely interesting that Shaul Paul is now presenting before Timothy. And I think you and I can learn from that because you and I can find ourselves in at least one, if not more, of each of those things which Shaul Paul presented before Timothy.

The first thing, of course, is found in verses 1 and 2, he calling him a son. Paul is saying to Timothy in verse 1, Thou therefore my son. Be strong in the grace that is in the Mashiach Yeshua, in Christ Jesus. The first thing Paul is saying to Timothy, Listen, Timothy, you are my son. Now, we know very well that Timothy is not the physical son of Shaul Paul, but his spiritual son. In other words, through the ministry of the apostle Paul, you read it in chapter 14 and chapter 16 of the book of Acts, somehow the ministry of the gospel was there where Paul had arrived to the location where Timothy lived.

And there, you know, Timothy accepted the Messiah and became a disciple of Yeshua HaMashiach. We read in chapter 16 of the book of Acts that he came to Derbe and Lystra and behold, a certain disciple was there by the name of Timothy. The son of a certain woman, which was Jewish and believed, but his father was Greek. Timothy became a spiritual son of Paul. Paul presented the gospel to his family there. He already was in Lystra, by the way, before chapter 16. Already in chapter 14 he was there. He is visiting again now. And after he presented the gospel in Lystra, Timothy and his mother and others became believers in Yeshua HaMashiach.

And so he calls him a son. Ben in Hebrew. You know, it's such a wonderful thing when a person presents the gospel and others hear the message. And they become believers, they become children, spiritual children of these individuals that share the message of the gospel. Thank God for others that have shared with us the gospel and told us of the necessity to accept Yeshua, that confess our sins and turn to him by faith and realize that he is the promised Mashiach of Israel and the Savior of this world. And so we became children of others that have shared with us the gospel. But now notice what he tells him.

As a son, and brothers and sisters, we know it very well, those of us that are parents, humanly speaking, how we love and we long to have our physical children making decisions in their lives that we have taught them. And how it grieves our hearts when they don't. Think about it spiritually. How a man or a brother and a sister, whoever, share the message of the gospel in whatever situation is, and that person have accepted the Messiah, but somehow have gone astray. It grieves the heart of the parents, you might say, who labored so much to share the gospel, to bring them before the Lord, to show them the ways of following the Lord.

And so Paul is now saying to his spiritual son, he said, Timothy, you are going to face problems here in this world. You see what's going to happen. He already said in the previous chapter, All they that were in Asia, turn away from me. He's in prison and everybody that was in Asia that had heard the message from the Apostle Paul, from Shaul, have turned away from me. In chapter 4, we find it about Demas who loved this present world and he departed from the Apostle Paul. So there was someone like Timothy, and Paul loved this spiritual son of his. And he says, Timothy, listen, if you are going to be a help to the world around you, if you're going to be able to successfully, successfully continue on in the path of the Lord, listen to what you need to do as a son.

And that's applied to you and I, brothers and sisters. If you and I are going to continue in the things of the Lord with all the discouragement that is going on around us, with all the disappointments that are going on around us, with all the opposition that's going on around us, we will need a lot of grace from the Lord. And notice what he tells him. He said to him in verse 1, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in the Mashiach, Yeshua, in Christ Jesus. In other words, what he's really saying, and you and I need to realize that we need more of the grace of the chesed that God provides for us every day.

He gives us more grace, we read. We need more grace. We got something yesterday, some of this grace yesterday. We will need it for today. And when we got it today, we will need it for tomorrow. And when we're going to end up tomorrow, we're going to need it for the following day. The grace of God, the grace of God, not only the grace that saved us, but the grace that keeps us. The chesed, the grace that God provides for us. You know, in the book of Hebrews, we read in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16, let us draw near unto the throne of grace. You know why we need prayer meetings?

Because the prayer meetings, it's the room where the throne of grace is being presented and we can cry for the Lord to help us with the many, many needs that we have experienced in our lives as believers. Problems at home, problems at work, problems with health, problems in assemblies, in congregation, problems on every form and shape. And do you think we can carry on the work of the Lord and carry on to walk with the Lord without the grace of God? We need the grace of God every day in our lives. So he's saying to Timothy, Timothy, be strong in the grace. And I mentioned this before, many years ago when I was helping Jews for Jesus on the streets of New York, handing out tracts.

And I remember that very well when we were at the meetings at the office and we were together before we went out to minister to hand out tracts. And I'll never forget that when Brother Moish Rosen and all the Jewish believers shared with us the very same verse. And he said, listen, how is it? It seems to be a contradiction. Be strong and get grace. It seems to be a contradiction. But what he was really saying, and it's so clear, be a strong grace getter. Get more grace. Get more chesed from the Lord because the only way that we can continue successfully to walk with the Lord is we need the grace of God, beloved brothers and sisters.

We need even grace with each other. How to handle ourselves, how to be gracious to one another. How are we going to do it unless we have the grace of God? Think about believers who suffer in the world today. Think about the apostle Paul Shaul who was sitting in prison preparing himself to die when he knew that he was going to be killed. Do you think he didn't need any more grace from the Lord? And so he's saying to Timothy, Timothy, be a strong grace getter. Don't depend upon yourself. Don't think that you can be fine on your own and you can do it on your own.

You are the captain of your ship. You can do it on your own and the Lord will show us that we are, as we read yesterday in our Bible class, that seize ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils. We are nothing, beloved brothers and sisters, without the grace of God. We sometimes think that we are something, but the Lord will teach us. And if we're going to be something like Timothy and something like Paul, a little bit, we will need more grace in our life. And so you notice what he's saying. As a son, a person who became a child of God, born again.

As a Ben, we became sons and daughters of the fathers by virtue of the fact that the Messiah had paid the price for our sin and sins. And we become children of God, but now as son and as daughters, don't forget to be a grace getter. Take more grace by prayer. Come to the throne of grace and ask from the Lord to show you mercy. And as Peter said in his second epistle, chapter 3, he says, Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Yeshua the Messiah. He doesn't say grow in your ego and think yourself a little bit more of yourself and how great you are.

He says, no, grow in the grace and in the knowledge. The more you know Yeshua, the more you depend on Yeshua, the more you can be a good, godly servant here in this world. The more you think of yourself, the more you exalt yourself, you will find out that you will never be able to be anything for the Lord here in this world. Because God resists the proud, but he gives grace unto the humble. What a lesson! Timothy, therefore my son, be strong in the chesed, in the grace, which is found only in the Mashiach, in Yeshua the Messiah. Then notice what he says in verse 2, and listen how beautiful it is.

Paul is saying to Timothy, Timothy, not only this, that you personally be strong in grace. He said, and the things which you have heard of me, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Now you notice what he says here? Timothy, you heard from me truth, right? You pass it along to faithful men, right? And that they in turn will pass it to others also. He's really showing to us the four generations. You heard it from your fathers, say it to your children, the children will send it to their children, and they will give it to the others, to their grandchildren.

In other words, what he's saying, spiritually speaking, Timothy, you, what you heard from me, Paul, you now, the same, commit to others, but committed to others who are faithful men. You see, who is going to carry on the things of the Lord? It is required from a servant that he may be found faithful. And you know how many times, when I think about it, if there is anything that we can confess before the Lord, that many times we have not been faithful where we should have been faithful. And no wonder the Lord could not use us. And as we say, we drop the ball, you might say.

And we got to repent and turn back to the Lord, and we go back and we pick it up again. And the Lord so graciously help us to continue on. And that's the way the Lord is. But he wants Timothy to minister and to teach the things that Paul has taught him to other men, and we can say women, brothers and sisters, who are faithful. What do you think? That the Lord expects from us to be believers? We have the ticket to go to heaven, and then carry on in our life without to be faithful to the Lord? How can he use us? How can the Lord use us when we do not make it the purpose of our life?

With all the failure, we do fail. But to make it the purpose of our life, Lord, help me to be faithful. And when I messed up, Lord, help me to correct it, to repent before you so you can use me in a ministry of the things of the Lord. So he says, really, committed to faithful men. And brothers and sisters, listen, we need today, faithful brothers and sisters that continue on with the things of the Lord. He doesn't say brothers and sisters have degrees, that have gone to school, that have a good IQ, that have been wealthy, or have power. Or maybe have, you know, I'm Jewish, you see, I have a Jewish background, I have a lot of things to be proud.

No. He wants faithful men and women to continue the things of the Lord. Because that's the only way that a ministry can continue faithfully and others will benefit from that. And so you notice, Paul, one generation. Timothy, second generation. Faithful men, third generation. Others also, fourth generation. Now, to remind you that Paul and Timothy were Jewish people. They were not priding with their Jewishness, but they knew the history of their nation. In the first eight verses of Psalm 78, it is exactly what our forefathers have taught us, like they have taught Shaul, Paul, and Timothy. You remember what it says, verse 1, You see, we, the generation that wrote this psalm, Asaph, and our fathers that have already taught us.

This is the fathers of Asaph, the early Hebrew nation before the time of Asaph, who wrote Psalm 78. But then notice in verse 6. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children. You notice that's fourth generation. Our fathers, we, our children, and their children. Avoteinu, our fathers. Baneinu, our sons. And Bneihem, their children. This is exactly what we find here. It is amazing, but spiritually speaking now, the Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy, listen, you have heard from me. You, in turn, share this with faithful men. And they, in turn, will share this with others.

And the ministry will continue. The evidence, again, is that you and I are believers in Yeshua, the Messiah. We have heard it because others have been faithful to continue on to preach the Word of God. To teach about the person of Yeshua HaMashiach. And then to present Him before you and I and many around the nations of this world. And we can praise God for His goodness. But now notice, back to 2 Timothy, chapter 2. This time, verses 3 and 4, he's now using another application. Using the soldier to present to Timothy the necessity of continue on in our walk with the Lord. And you notice what he said in verse 3.

As a soldier, notice, thou therefore endure hardness. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach. The word in Hebrew for soldier is chayal. So you ever been in the military? I have had the privilege of being in the Israeli military for three years. At the time that I was a soldier, the war broke. Yom Kippur, 1973. It was scary. I didn't even finish my military training where the training was to teach us to experience hardship. You know, we don't like hardship, right? We would like to smoothly carry on. We'd like to be, oh, I'm a believer in Yeshua. I'm heading to heaven. And between earth to heaven, I want everything problem-free.

I don't know about you. I know I would like to have it. But it doesn't happen. There are always challenges. If it is not health challenges, family challenges. All kind of challenges coming across. So the soldier is being trained to endure hardness. And so, Paul is saying to Timothy in verses 3 and 4, listen, he said, thou therefore endure hardness. How? As a good soldier of Yeshua HaMashiach. This time, we are not in the military of any nation here in this world. But every believer enters into what we call to become a soldier, a chayal in Hebrew of Yeshua HaMashiach. We don't hold guns. We don't hold knives.

We hold, you might say, the Tanakh and the Brit HaChadashah, the Bible, the Word of God in our hands. And we hold, you might say, the Holy Spirit is indwelling every believer. Our Lord Yeshua is in glory at the right hand of the Father. And we are soldiers of the Lord. Well, as soldiers of Yeshua, the Messiah, we live here in this world. And we quickly find out that there are many hardships. Things are not always going smooth. And we need to learn to develop endurance. Endurance is very important. Sometimes, you know, unfortunately, we say, I don't have patience anymore. I'm just tired of it.

And I just want to give up. And what's the use? I tried my best. And I worked this. And I've done that. And you get disappointed. Because what do you think? In training, things are not going to be easy. And therefore, he's saying, listen. He says, you need to learn to endure hardness. If you just go to chapter 4, it says in verse 5, But watch thou in all things, and do affliction. You know, sometimes the believers have affliction in their life. You know, we live again. Thank God. In a country that we have liberty. We have freedom to meet together. To read the word. To live as believers in Yeshua, the Messiah.

Nobody have to persecute us. Not yet. But imagine what the hardships that believers are going in this world, in many, many other lands. Imagine the conflict and the challenges that they're experiencing in their lives. The early believers in the land of Israel. The Hebrew believers in Yeshua, the Messiah. They have experienced a lot of opposition in their lives. And the apostle Paul, Shaul, we can take the list that is found in 2 Corinthians 4, 2 Corinthians 11. And you can find the list of complications that he have experienced in his life. He was beaten by some. He was rejected and placed in prison. In fact, as I mentioned, he's in prison right now.

But he was in prison in Philippi. He was in prison in Jerusalem. He was in prison in Caesarea. He was in prison in a home prison earlier in his life. And now again, he's in a dungeon. He's experienced hardship. Imagine, beloved brothers and sisters. And the truth of the matter, we don't look for hardship. But we are to prepare ourselves. And then he tells him in verse 4 to avoid entangling yourself in this world and all what the world is offering and drawing us away from fighting the good fight. It says in verse 4, No man that worth entangles himself with the affair of this life, that he may please him that has chosen him to be a soldier.

You know, it's very true, isn't it? When we are occupied with so many things, and, you know, humanly speaking, we all have jobs and we have responsibility. We have to maintain livelihood to continue on. We have to raise family. We have to care for others and so on. But Satan knows how to use the world to entangle us in all the things of the world. That there is time for pleasure. There is time for business. There is time for everything else. But very little time will do God a favor, and we are going to give him half an hour sometime during the week, if I will find some slot for God.

That's how we are. But Paul is saying, listen, do you want to be successful in your spiritual walk with the Lord? Do you want to have the walk of the man or woman of God here in this world? Well, you cannot do so successfully when you, a man that worth entangles himself with the affairs of this life, you cannot please God, the one that has chosen him to be a soldier. Now, you and I might say, well, this is only applied to Timothy. You see, he was a spiritual leader, the pastor who does full-time ministry. But the rest of us, we don't need that. Well, that is not the truth.

He really wants all his own people to the measure that is possible within the grace of God, with all the responsibility that one has to be faithful and to be able to bring fruit for God. You see, God has chosen us. He has brought us to become part of a company of redeemed people. We are here on a journey on the way to glory, to heaven. And one day he's going to come to take us to be with him. But until then, to fight that fight of a soldier that is pleasing to the Lord and how precious it is for the Lord when it says he wants to find pleasure in the life of his own people.

We want to please him. You know, there's one that always pleased the Lord and his name was Yeshua. He pleased God in every form and shape in his life. He lived for the Lord and he pleased God completely. So to endure hardship, even if there are difficult times sometimes, we are not to give up. And that's why, brothers and sisters, we need to learn to encourage each other. We need to spend time and energy to build each other up rather than to tear down. Because there are so many discouragements anyways. And the important thing is for believers to encourage each other so they can continue on.

Because one day we're going to be down and we will need an encouragement from our brothers and sisters. And so here he's encouraging Timothy to continue on as a soldier, to fight the good fight, to endure hardship, to endure hardship, and to continue on in following Yeshua, the Messiah. So we talk about a son, to be obedient to the Father. We talked about a soldier, to endure hardship. And now thirdly, in verse 5, he is taking another illustration from life. And here he's speaking about an athlete. You know, a person who is an athlete. In Hebrew we call it sportai, a person who deals with sport.

It could be any kind of athletic experience in the life of a person. Notice, he says in verse 5, he says, if a man also strives for masteries. In other words, if a person is striving as an athlete, as a sportai, as one who is under, you might say, contest. He is really, as an athlete, continuing. He says he's not crowned, except he strives lawfully. You know, can you imagine that you have a certain sport, let's say running, a marathon. And all of them coming to the front, but that one person come in and instead of starting from the beginning, he's starting a kilometer ahead. He violated the rules.

When he's going to get to the end, he will not be crowned, he will not receive a reward. Because he didn't play by the rules. And that's what the Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy. He says, Timothy, an athlete has to obey the rules. To be submissive to the rules. And that's why it is so important, because he will never be able to obtain a reward from God unless he is obeying the rules that have been given to all those who run that race. You know, isn't it true? Again, we like to break the rules. We like to have a shortcut. You know, when Israel went from Egypt, Mitzrayim, to Canaan, Knaan, they could do it in 11 days.

And it took them 40 years. Why? Because of Israel's disobedience all along and lack of trust in God. They didn't go the short way. Because the short way, it's called in Scripture, Derech Haplishtim, the way of the Philistine. And the way of the Philistine, a Polesh in Hebrew means, it's someone who is invading. You cannot invade things and assume that they are yours. You have to own it. You have to gain it. You have to pay the price for that. You have to work hard for that. You have to obey the rules in order to receive a trophy. You know, sometimes we like the trophy and we've never gone through the whole experience of the athlete that is faithfully obeying the rule and really won.

Have you heard about those people that won certain races and then find out that they've injected something to increase their capability to do something? It's disobedience to the rules. So you got the medal, but it's not yours. You didn't get it by right. And that's why Paul is saying to Timothy, Timothy, no athlete is able to be crowned, to receive a crown, to receive a reward, except he or she strive lawfully. In other words, seek to submit to the rules and all beloved brothers and sisters, when you think about that, how in this area we fail the Lord also. All the instruction that we receive in Scripture to have grace, to have forgiveness, to have patience, to have love, to have obedience, all these areas.

You look at our life and we say, Oh Lord, how many times I did not submit to the rules that you have given me in your word. And you see, there's a day coming that the Lord is going to reward his own. We are going to receive reward today for faithfulness, but they're still awaiting a day in which God also will reward the believers for the messianic kingdom. When all the redeemed of the present day dispensation or age in which you and I live in today, 2,000 years, when God is going to restore our nation Israel, the Messiah will reign, the people who belong to the heavenly company will reign and rule with him.

And God is going to give us rewards for our faithfulness. And when we don't faithfully submit to his authority and obey the rules, he will not give us those rewards. We belong to him because we are saved by his precious blood, but rewards, we're going to lose out in that sense. Notice, by the way, turn to 1 Corinthians 9 for a moment. Look what he says in verse 24. Know ye not the day which run in a race, run all, but one receive the prize. So run that ye may obtain. Run it faithfully. Look at another verse in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. Here again he's saying, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is before us.

The apostle wrote to the early Hebrew believers, he said, Let us run the race. But in order to run the race, let us lay aside weights and sin that does so easily beset us. Sin beset us very quickly. Weights that we carry in our lives, that are hindering us from our spiritual growth, and therefore as athletes we are not successfully gain the crown or gain the victory because we have allowed weights to be within us. In many ways, brothers and sisters, again, normal athletes who run carry with him those weights in training. But he removed them when the time to run is because he only makes it hard for him in training, but he set it aside and he loosened everything up so he can run so fast and arrive to the end and get the medal, you might say.

Win the victory. Spiritually speaking, it's the same thing. If we are going to be able to victoriously, as it says here in verse 5, being crowned, we have to strive lawfully. Therefore, we are to lay aside all the weights and the sin which does so easily beset us. So, we talked about the son. We talked about the soldier. We talked about the athlete that the Apostle Paul presents before Timothy. Fourthly, in verses 6 and 7, he is now speaking about the farmer. And he is teaching Timothy a spiritual lesson from the life of a farmer, a person who owned a farm. In Hebrew, we call him Ikar. If you ever lived in Israel, we have many, many, in the past, Kibbutzim.

And the Kibbutzim, the commune, the Kibbutzim, the Moshavim, used to have a lot of farms. And in order to be able to sustain their livelihood, they had to work hard on the farm to maintain the livelihood so there would be crop and they would be able to eat and to feed the people who live on that Kibbutz and even sell it to others from without. Well, notice what he said about the farmer. In verses 6, he says, The husbandman, this is the farmer, the Ikar, that laborer must be first partakers of the fruits. Timothy says, look, the husbandman or the farmer, he has to labor, he has to work.

If the farmer doesn't work and he doesn't sow seeds, he will never have any crop. Now, have you ever seen a farmer who is just having the farm and, you know, he's sitting and doesn't work the ground, doesn't plow the land, the ground, doesn't sow the seed, doesn't water it? How will he ever get any fruit? So, he must, first of all, labor. Now, again, to apply it spiritually. If you and I want to have fruit, we have to labor. We have to work hard at this. To be consistent and to sow the seed and to water the ground and to do everything to labor that the Lord in due time will bring crop, will bring fruit.

Turn to Proverbs chapter 24 with me for a moment. It's the words of King Shlomo, King Solomon, the king of Israel. Notice what Shlomo, Solomon, said to Israel. In verse 30 to verse 34, Solomon says, I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the men void of understanding and lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and consider it well and I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth and thy want as an armed man.

You know, Solomon said, listen, I walked by the field of the slothful and what I see him doing? First of all, I saw that the vineyard and the field is filled with all kind of things. You know, the grass grow over them and so on and the nettles had covered the face thereof and stones were there and so on. And then I realized why it is like that. It's simply because that slothful farmer, he says, you know what? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. It didn't work. Well, if you don't work, what do you expect from the farm to bring, to raise?

There will be only stones and there will be grass covering over everything. There will not be fruit if you will not work the day-by-day farm of yours, farmer. You gotta work. Well, spiritually speaking, it is the same. Beloved brothers and sisters, the farmer has to work. If he's going to work, according to these verses, he will be the first one who will partake of the fruits. He will be the one that will enjoy from the benefits of the labor as he worked as a farmer from his field. And so Paul said to him in verse 7, Consider what I say to you, Timothy, and the Lord will give you understanding in all things.

Timothy, I challenge you as a farmer, all these individuals and their experience in their lives benefited when they submitted to the word of the Lord. And so we apply this to us today. We are sons and daughters of the Father. We are called to submit to the Lord and to hand over the truth that we have learned to others. We are spiritual soldiers of Yeshua the Messiah. We are to be continuing on to endure hardship. We are also that are athletes. We are the ones that are carrying on. We are in a race. We are to be faithful to continue on and to strive lawfully in order to receive a crown.

And we are also as a farmer who work the ground. We are to labor and ultimately we will benefit from the blessing and the fruit that will come up in the labor that we have done. But I want to highlight a few things about 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 8. Paul directs Timothy to the person of Yeshua the Messiah and the importance of depending and identifying with Him. He said to him very beautifully in verse 8 Remember Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus the Messiah of the seed of David who was raised from the dead according to my gospel. He kind of pause and he says Timothy remember remember Zechor in Hebrew remember Yeshua HaMashiach remember that he was notice verse 8 that he is of the seed of David Zerah David and that he was raised from among the dead according to my gospel.

Here is Paul and here is Timothy why does he tell to Timothy remember Yeshua HaMashiach who was of the seed of David?

Well because both of them knew the Tanakh the Hebrew scriptures their fathers and their grandfathers and so on they were all teaching them the Hebrew scripture and the Hebrew scripture prophesied or spoke about the coming of the Mashiach that the Messiah will come and that number one he will be the seed of the woman Genesis 3.15 number two that he will be the seed of Abraham Genesis chapter 22 and number three that he will be the seed of David the king of Israel 2 Samuel chapter 7 that the Mashiach that they believe in and everybody is opposing them and they experience opposition remember that what we believe in and who we believe in is not

some man that somebody else told us somewhere from who know where but he is the Mashiach he is the promised Messiah of Israel not only this he was of the seed of David Zerah David you know the first verse of the Brit of the new covenant says in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1 he says the book of the generation of Yeshua HaMashiach the son of David Ben David you read throughout the scripture Matthew 12 Matthew 15 Matthew 21 and on and on many call him son of David Yeshua is a descendant of David and we read every ministry meeting when we come together we read Isaiah chapter 11 that is being read to us

right here the seven false spirit of God which rested upon Jesse's son which is the Messiah himself was the father of David remember that we do not believe in someone that is not in accordance with the word of God and remember that he rose from among the dead he is not in a grave he is no longer on the cross on the tree he had been resurrected he is in God's right hand the Bible teaches us that every knee shall bow one day to him every tongue will confess that Yeshua HaMashiach is Lord to the glory of God the Father remember this Timothy he is risen and he is a descendant of David who is

the Mashiach of Israel the Savior of this world the Bible the Bible the Bible teaches us that after he died on the cross on the tree and he was buried God raised him and he was resurrected from among the dead and God had placed him at the pinnacle of the universe Timothy don't forget it remember and so brothers and sisters if we learn anything today from these thoughts Paul is presenting to Timothy the necessity of being a man of God and using these seven fold you might say experiences of life to show us that if we are going to submit to the Lord we can be able to be a man and woman of God

to be able to serve the Lord here in this world well how much we need the Lord's help in order to be able to be men and women of God therefore let us pray that the Lord will help us to take more grace from him in order that we will be living a life that is pleasing to him