Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries, the teaching ministry of Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub. On today's program, Pastor Jeff continues his message, "Getting Started," from the series Kingdom Embassy, and shows you what you need for a strong faith and powerful impact on those around you.

Our mission is to challenge people like you to respond to the word of God and stand boldly for Jesus Christ in a world drifting further from the truth. We invite you to visit pastorjeff.com where you'll find biblical resources designed to strengthen your faith and encourage your walk with Christ. While you're there, sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails delivered straight to your inbox. Now, let's hear today's message from God's word with Pastor Jeff.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: Jesus during his earthly ministry, we've talked about it. When he came up out of the waters of baptism and coming off the Mount of Transfiguration, we hear the voice, not just for Jesus but for the whole world. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." Was Jesus ministering out of the overflow of the love that the Father had for him? One hundred percent.

How was he able to endure the Pharisees that didn't like him? How was he able to endure his disciples who were always causing him challenges where he was asking them questions like, "Are you still so dull?" How was he going to minister all the way to the cross when his disciples couldn't even stay awake with him for an hour? Because the love of his Father consumed him. My question is not intellectually do you believe that God loves you; it is have you received the love of the Father in your heart?

You need to receive the love of the Father in your heart. Paul's writing to Timothy to remind him that the reason that he ministers is not because of any gifting that he has or not how special he is, but it's the grace of God who has filled him with the love of the Father in his heart. And he's telling Timothy that he's his child and he's encouraging Timothy. Now, we see some powerful transitions here taking place.

One of the most important things that we can have as a human being is the affirmation of our earthly father. Did you know that? Every single man sitting here, every single woman sitting here, whether you received it or not, there's a hole in your heart that would say this: I wish my dad would tell me how special I am, that I belong to him, how much he loves me, and how much he values me and what he thinks I can do in my life. Everybody has that.

If you say, "Not me, I didn't need that," yes, you did. You've just tried to fill it with other things because God created it that way. God created fathers to pour that into their sons and daughters so that they would know what the Heavenly Father that they can't see wants to pour into their heart. We need it from an earthly perspective, too.

If you've never got the blessing, I would encourage you to see if you can get it. And if you know I can't get it, my father's already passed away or my dad doesn't even talk to me anymore or there's no way I could ask, I have good news for you this morning on the word of God. Your Heavenly Father will affirm you that way. He loves you with an unconditional love. He created every fiber of your being. He knows you inside and out and he set you on the earth for purpose with which you only could accomplish.

But if you can get it from your dad, get it from your dad. I heard somebody preach a message on the blessing once and I had never really thought about it much. I grew up in a family where I was very loved by both my parents and felt loved, knew I was loved no matter what. But I'd never had a blessing verbally from my dad. After I heard this message and started to see in the Old Testament how everybody was fighting for the blessing from their dad, I just sent a note to my dad and asked him to bless me one time.

I said, "Dad, I know you love me, it's all good, we're fine, but I'd love to hear it." I remember we were at a Promise Keepers in the mid-1990s. I had taken over as a youth director for a church of 100 people. We had four youth that I was responsible for when we started. I got to preach at that little church about once every six weeks and my parents would drive up two hours about every time I preached to listen to me.

I remember at that Promise Keepers, I'm watching all my heroes in the faith on that main stage at Soldier Field preaching in front of tens of thousands of guys. At one point in that meeting, they said, "Fathers, if you're here with your sons, I want you to bless them. Just tell your sons what you think." I remember my dad with tears in his eyes said to me as a mid-20-year-old kid, he said, "Hey listen, I'm hearing all these guys speak, they're good and all, but I've heard you speak. You're every bit as good as them and one day I know you're going to do the same thing."

Now, I don't know if that's true, but I haven't forgotten it because I got the blessing of my dad. That's why it's so important that we bless people with our words. Some of you are anxious and you're upset and you're all these different things and you're trying to find it in this world because you never got the blessing of your dad.

Timothy's dad, we don't know much about him. We know that he was a pagan. We know he came to faith through his mother and his grandmother, Eunice and Lois. Where's his daddy? He didn't get the blessing from his dad. So what was Paul doing? Paul was stepping in the gap as a spiritual father telling him, "I believe in you. You're my son and you're going to do great things."

And friends, I'm here to tell you, I'll just speak for men for a second because I know men pretty well. Men, we are insecure at every single level. We are. I mean, it's insatiable. We don't believe we can do anything. We're afraid of failing. We're afraid of people saying bad things about us. We need the affirmation of another man. Women, it's like this: if you're married to a guy and all of a sudden one day he's out with his friends and his friend says something to him that you've been trying to tell him for 20 years, and he comes home and he says, "Man, I know this now," and you're like, "I've been telling you for 20 years!" It's because he needed to hear it from a dude.

He needed a man to speak blessing into his life. It's the way that God designed it. Spiritually it's necessary for us too because we have too many people in the church that feel as if I'm no good, I'm lousy, if people really find out about my past they're going to expose me. Friends, let me tell you some really good news here this morning on the word of God. Everybody here at Brave Church has a past and everybody here has sinned and everybody here has made mistakes. Everybody here has things that if it was put up on the big screen for everybody to see, we would be shameful about those things. But I got good news. At the cross of Jesus Christ, when you turn from your sin and trusted him, those are all gone. And when God forgives, he forgives. Amen?

So Paul is writing this letter, not to the church in Ephesus, he's writing to Timothy. He needs Timothy to man up spiritually and be the man that God wants him to be. Timothy needs to hear it from Paul. My dad was a veterinarian. I mean, my dad told me I did a good job buffing the floors at his office and cleaning out dog kennels even though I was allergic to cats and all that kind of stuff. But when I got into ministry, I wanted somebody in ministry, some pastor, to tell me that I'm okay at this, tell me that I can do this.

I remember being at Dallas Seminary and I was in a small group with a guy by the name of Howard Hendricks and Howard Hendricks, they called him Prof. That was his nickname. He had trained some of the finest people that I knew in ministry, trained all the people I listened to like Tony Evans and Chuck Swindoll and Joe Stowell and David Jeremiah. I mean, he trained all those guys and a myriad of others. I got to be in a small group with him one semester with 11 other guys.

He taught the first three weeks and then he had each of us teach. I remember teaching on the Great Commission to that small group and to Howard Hendricks, thinking to myself at the time he's not going to learn one thing from me today. Like there's nothing I can teach this man. I got into the group, he opened his Bible, pulled out a yellow tablet, and as I'm leading the small group he's taking notes on everything I'm saying. I'm intimidated and I'm nervous. Afterwards he said, "If you ever want me to evaluate what you did, come into my office and I'll help you."

I thought I was never going to get a chance to do this again, so I set up an appointment. I walked into his office and so Howard Hendricks is sitting at his desk and I'm sitting here. Before I could even sit down, the door shut, he looked me in the eye and he said this, "Jeff, has anybody told you how exceptionally gifted you are for this work?" I couldn't get to my car fast enough and write it down because I never wanted to forget exactly what he said. Now, I don't know if that's true, but I've never forgotten it. What did I have? I had an older man in the faith affirm me.

We got a lot of men that won't stand up and do anything in the church because they've never been affirmed for being who God created them to be. Friends, I got good news. If the Lord saved you, he's telling you you're worthy of anything that he calls you to do. Amen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. Today's message, "Getting Started," from the series Kingdom Embassy, shows you why biblical teaching is meant to strengthen your faith and deepen your love for God and others. We'll continue with Pastor Jeff in just a moment.

But first, this month we're excited to offer you an important resource called Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxas. This powerful book challenges believers to not remain silent while culture drifts further from biblical truth. Instead, it calls the church to stand courageously for righteousness, proclaim the gospel boldly, and engage the spiritual battle with truth, prayer, and sacrificial love.

When you give to support Pastor Jeff Ministries, your generosity helps more people hear clear, uncompromising biblical truth through radio, digital outreach, podcasts, and teaching resources around the world. And as our thanks for your gift today, we'd love to send you a copy of Letter to the American Church. Visit pastorjeff.com to give and request your copy today.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: People are dying to know that God could actually use them and I'm here to tell you on the authority of God's word, whatever he's placed in your heart is something that he's birthing and he wants to use in your life. Amen. That's what he's saying. And how important is it that we grasp that grace? How important is it that we receive it? How important is it we don't let it go?

Paul continues to do this over and over in the life of Timothy because that love for God leaks and we kind of forget it from time to time. That's why even in 1 Timothy, we'll get there in chapter four, where he tells him don't let people look down on you because you're young, but you set an example in every way.

That's why when he writes the second letter to him in 2 Timothy chapter one, verses six and seven, he says, "I want to remind you to kindle afresh the gift which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Remember when I prophesied over you and gave you that gift that God sent through me? For God has not given us a spirit of timidity. Don't be scared. But of power and love and discipline."

Why does Paul continue to affirm him? Because he wants to make sure Timothy knows, as he's serving Christ in the church, that he serves with such a foundation of the love of God in his heart that he knows that he knows that he knows that he's called by God to do that. That's foundational, friends. That's foundational. And it's true of every single believer whether you've received it or not. Whether you're male or female, it's true of you. Whatever God's blessed you with is what he wants to use to advance his kingdom.

Just think about it for a second. Just rhetorical questions. Has anybody ever affirmed anything in your life? Anybody ever been there in a time that you didn't need to be? I mean, I was thinking about my life growing up. I was thinking about my Little League baseball coach. I was thinking about my high school football coach. I was even thinking about this guy named Andy Schmidt.

Andy Schmidt worked with Campus Crusade for Christ. I knew he loved me, but he said some really hard things to me when I was in college. In the season of my life where I was going after God a little bit but going after football a lot, he told me this one time to my face. He said, "Jeff, if you would ever pursue Jesus the way you pursue football, you would actually make a pretty big difference in the world."

I'm like, I don't like this guy very much. But it never left me. I haven't seen him since I graduated college. He texted me the other day. He's going to be out here in about a week. We're going to spend some time together. Praise God for people like that. But who sent those people into your life? Who gave you your parents? Good, bad, or indifferent, who gave them? Who gave you people that have come alongside and affirmed you? It was God.

God wants us to be affirmed by him and where we have the ability to affirm others, that's what he wants us to do. Friends, if you're going to serve Christ in his church, I'm telling you you've got to receive that because the enemy will try to rob you from that all the time. Be thankful to the Lord for all that you have and don't let your thankfulness turn into bitterness by not believing that you're loved by God. You are loved by God.

Did you hear what I said? You're loved by God. Yeah, but Pastor Jeff, this week I had heart… you're loved by God. But I sinned like in a way… you're loved by God. It's who he made you. He loves all of his creation. Amen. You need to have a gratitude for God's grace. Second, you need this: you need to have the goal of good teaching in your mind.

You need to understand the goal of good teaching. You need to understand what is the goal of good teaching. If you're going to serve in the church, I don't care if you serve in kids' ministry, women's ministry, men's ministry, high school ministry, what's the goal of good teaching? What's God want to put out of my life into the lives of others? He's going to answer that question for us.

He says this, "As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines." What's he saying? He goes, "I'm telling you stay where you're at." Now, why would he have to tell Timothy to stay where he's at? Because it's easy to want to leave where God has you serving. It doesn't matter whether you're the pastor of a church or whether you're serving with kids or whether you're serving in a small group, there's a thing in your heart that goes off and says I don't know if I want to keep doing this anymore.

And Paul's encouraging him: stay there. Bloom where God's planted you, do the things he's called you to do. And here's the instruction: instruct men. Instruct means command them not to do what? To teach strange doctrines. Doctrine means teaching. What's strange teaching? Strange teaching is anything that does not come from this book. If it doesn't come from the 66 books that make up the Bible, it's strange teaching and you shouldn't be listening to it.

Command people in the church to teach from this book. If you're in a small group, let this be the foundation for your life. If you're teaching kids, let's let the word of God be the foundation for our life. Otherwise, it's strange teaching. And what's he go on to say? "Nor pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith."

So what's the ultimate goal of faith? Or the ultimate goal of teaching? It's faith. We just talked about faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And without faith it is what? Impossible to please him because anyone that comes to God must believe that he is and that he rewards those who seek him. Good teaching results in people taking steps of faith. Good teaching results in people saying that's what God wants me to do, I guess I'll go do that.

Good teaching aligns people with the word of God. Now what about all that other stuff before? He says don't pay any attention to myths. That's fables, that's storytelling, that's legends, and endless genealogies. I mean, for people that came out of the Jewish background, genealogy is everything. Who your dad is, who your grandfather was, what line you came from. It would be like today: what's your status? Who do you know? Where do you work? None of that stuff means anything in the church. Did you know that?

And people that can tell good stories don't make good preachers. There's nothing wrong with stories. Stories are good, but if the only thing that a person can do is tell a story and you're like, "Oh, they're so good," I'm like, "Well, what do they talk about?" "I don't know, but it was so good, I was moved." That's not good teaching. It's just not. Good teaching is when you get taught and you think to yourself, where did he find that? And you look down in your Bible, oh, it's right there.

If you're hearing somebody flab on for however long and you're like, where did they get that? And you're looking down in your Bible and it's not there, it's not from God. Period. Don't get caught up in storytelling, fables, genealogies, mere speculation. "Here's what I think. Here's what I think, I think this, I think this." Who cares what you think? I want to know what God thinks. I want to know what God has to say on the topic. Amen.

But notice what he says. Here's the goal. Ready for the goal? How do you know you're hearing someone that's teaching you the way God wants you to teach? "But the goal of our instruction is," you'll see it in your Bible. "But the goal of our instruction is love." Love. Goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Why would that be a good goal? Because the whole law and prophets is summed in that word. Matthew 22:37 to 40 says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you shall what? Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said in John 13, "A new commandment I give you. Love one another as I have loved you. As I have loved you, so you also shall love one another."

What's the command? Love. How do you know you're hearing teaching that's accurate from the word of God? It should grow your love for God and your love for other people. That's how you know you're hearing the word of God. Over time you should be able to ask yourself, as I sit under this teacher, do I love God more today than I did before? Now, it's kind of like a stock market. I'm not asking you like every hour or every minute or whatever, but over time, as I'm thinking about my heart, do I love God more and do I love people better than I used to?

That's the goal of our faith. And you say, well, I want to see other people live like that and when I'm ministering in the church, I want to see other people that experience that. How can I get them to experience that too? Well, he tells us. The goal of our instruction is love and it comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

You say, how can you be someone who teaches the love of God? The first thing is from a pure heart. It's from a pure heart. Notice what Psalm chapter 24, verses three and four say. As the psalmist is writing, he says this, "Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord and who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully, he shall receive a blessing from the Lord."

What is it? It's a pure heart. Clean hands and a pure heart. You were not born with a pure heart. "I'm pretty pure." No, you're not. You're comparing yourself to the wrong one. Compare yourself to Jesus. You may be innocent of some things, but you're not pure. That's why Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart," Matthew 5:8, "for they shall see God." It's a pure heart. Well, you say, well, how do I get a pure heart? Because there's sin that enters and this temptation and there's all these things.

It means you walk right back to the cross of Jesus Christ and you realize that when he shed his blood on Calvary for you and died and rose from the dead and you turned to him, all your sin is washed away and God is able to cleanse your heart from the inside out. That's why David, after he sinned with Bathsheba, in Psalm 51 said, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Renew a right spirit within me. Lord, give me a pure heart."

One of the reasons that we have a hard time continuing to walk with God is we let all sorts of things filter into our heart that make our hearts unpure. We watch things that are impure. We listen to things that are impure. We hang out with people that are impure. Our heart starts becoming impure and then we blame God that our life is not being blessed. We need to take ownership and awareness of where is my heart not being pure and God, what do you need to change in my life so that I can receive the fullness of your blood for a purity of heart?

A pure heart. What's the second one? A good conscience. A good conscience is when you have a pure heart, it's the ability to hear God's promptings for where he's leading you, whether right or wrong. When you have a pure heart, you'll hear the Lord say no, yes, hold on there, slow down. That's your… that's a good conscience.

If you're in a season where you're not hearing the Lord, and yes, God can take us through seasons where he turns his voice off a little so we'll have to trust him, but perhaps if it's been a very long season, one of the reasons you're not sensing God's promptings is you haven't had a pure heart or he's told you, "I want you to do this," and you're like, "Yeah, come back to me later when you got something better to tell me. I'm not listening to you about that, I'm dating him anyway. I'm not listening to you about that, I'm marrying them anyway. I'm not listening to you about that, I'm taking that job anyway. I'm not listening to you, I'm buying that house anyway."

And God's like, well, if you're not going to listen to my promptings, I'm not going to continue to prompt you. God is not up in heaven inviting you to come into his church so that he can tickle you with laughter and joy just so he can be like, "Haha, I got you." That's not what God does. God moves on your conscience to see if you'll be more obedient to him and can experience the fullness of his grace.

A pure heart and a good conscience. Listen in the book of Acts to this scripture, in Acts chapter 24 and verse 16, you'll hear it spelled out by the apostle. Acts 24 and verse 16, he says this, "In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men."

In other words, Lord, I want to live my life in such a way that I have a clean conscience before you that nobody could accuse me of anything, but I also want to live my life in front of the world so that nobody could accuse me either. And Lord, I can't do that apart from your grace. Give me a pure heart, give me a clean conscience, and then give me this: a sincere faith. A sincere faith is trusting to obey God at whatever his word speaks to you.

Now, some of you may say, well, Pastor Jeff, every time you start to preach, you preach the same boring rote prayer every time. But have you listened to that prayer? I mean, I've asked you when I pray, will you believe whatever God shows you and will you by faith put into practice what he says? If you will believe what God shows you and you will by faith put into practice what he says, you will change. You will become the fullness of everything that God created you to be.

You can sit here all you want and listen to messages. You could come for the series on Genesis and Revelation and like, "I heard all Revelation, now I know everything, it's so good." If it didn't result in a greater love for God and a greater love for other people with a pure heart and a clean conscience and a sincere faith, the messages weren't that good.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with the message "Getting Started" from the series Kingdom Embassy, showing you why biblical teaching is meant to strengthen your faith and deepen your love for God and others.

Thank you for joining us for today's program. Before we go, just a quick reminder, when you give a gift of support to Pastor Jeff Ministries this month, we'll send you Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxas as our thanks. This compelling resource is a powerful call for believers to stand courageously for truth, reject compromise, and faithfully engage the culture for Jesus Christ. And your support today helps more people hear bold biblical truth through the teaching ministry of Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub so they can stand firm in their faith.

Request your copy today when you give at pastorjeff.com. That's pastorjeff.com. We'll see you next time.