I Survived It/I'm Still Standing

2 Timothy 4:16–18 CSB

At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

First and foremost, I give honor to God who orders my steps and has gifted me with eternal life through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and who keeps me saved by the power of his Holy Spirit.

I bring you greetings from my beautiful and gifted wife of 28 years now, Lady Gayle, our family, and I bring you greetings on behalf of the Community Baptist Church of Englewood, New Jersey, where I have had the privilege of serving as their Senior Pastor for the past 30 years, many of whom have joined us virtually since this service is also being streamed on my church’s facebook page.

I am delighted to have with me three of my deacons…Deacon Duncan Jones who traveled with with me, and Deacons Charles and Lorene Frasier, who now resides in Lewisville, TX.

I must say how awesome it is to be here at the one and only Faithful Missionary Baptist Church and to meet so many of you for the first time, and to see so many of you again. I’ve been blessed by the choir and the worship experience. It is my hope and prayer that God will meet us in this preaching moment and give us ears to hear, hearts and minds to understand and believe, for it is the purpose of the gospel to save sinners, reclaim backsliders, and encourage believers.

Allow me to begin by expressing to you all just how honored I feel to have been gifted with this golden opportunity to reunite with my college Pastor, his family, and my college church. For 44 of those 45 years of pastoral ministry, I have been connected to Pastor NC Sargent, Lady Toi Sargent, the children, and the Faithful Missionary Baptist Church Family.

I was just 19 years of age when I was introduced to the Faithful Family by the Russel Family. The Russels were from my hometown and our families knew each other prior to my coming to Dallas. I was a student at Dallas Bible College and Faithful was looking for a musician. The Russels mentioned the opportunity to me and spoke highly of Pastor Sargent. I agreed to play for the church but as a first-year college student, I had no transportation and my college was over in Mesquite, near Garland.

Well, Pastor Sargent and Sis. Sargent put Jonathan and the baby was....Sis. Sargent was hold the baby and they drove over to Mesquite in an ice storm to pick me up and drove me back over. I spent the night in their home, sharing the kids bedroom. The very first Sunday that I sat at the piano and played for this church it was a Sunday of turmoil and Satan was rising up challenging this young pastor and wife like you wouldn’t believe. From church fights, to lawsuits, to the church burning down and the relocation and rebuilding of this facility, to all the hell and high water this pastor and family has endured over the years; this is just a testimony that God is able to keep you from falling.

Today, we have a group of dynamic young preachers emerging; they are excellent academicians, exegetical geniuses, hermeneutically sound and homiletically gifted, I mean they can really say it. The Covid pandemic has produced a plethora of Facebook preachers, many of them young and ambitious, excited about ministry, and I am genuinely excited for them. In addition, I also celebrate the wave of young new pastors, both male and female, assuming the pulpits of churches across the length and breath of this country. It is obviously a season for shifting and change.

However, an issue that I have is that some of them start out by offering harsh critiques about how churches out be run, how ministries should operate, and even how pastors should engage in the pastoral ministry. And their opinions and ideals sound really good, but the problem is that those who are so critical towards ministry and those “doing the deed” have not been tested.

Gifted and anointed preachers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They are mentally astute, socially relevant, they look the part of a successful preacher. Got their social media platforms down to a science and according to their social media presence and followers, they seem to be blowing up! And there is nothing wrong with the image of success, nothing wrong with claiming victory for your future, nothing wrong with modeling a five-star approach to ministry, however, at some point it all has to be tested.

There’s nothing wrong with catch phrases, cliches, and hashtags, except the fact they haven’t been tested. They all sound good and they are all good, but they haven’t been tested.

These have all the answers, but they haven’t gone through the seasons of life that test your very soul.

So many are posting statements on facebook, exposing their immaturity by focusing their haters and those that don’t like them and those who said they’d never be anything, and the list goes on and on, and it may get some likes and comments, and is all sounds good until you are tested.

Too blessed to be stressed sounds good....

I’m blessed and highly favored sounds good....

You don’t look like what you’ve been through sounds good, until its tested.

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning sounds good, until its tested.

Praise breaks are good, until they are tested.

Hashtags are all good, until they are tested. You see, anybody can decree and declare, but once that thing is decreed and declared, that declaration must also be tested.

It is the testing that determines the character of an individual. The testing or the trial of your faith is what separates the glory seekers from the glory givers. Your test determines whether or not God can trust you with more. It is the endurance of hardness and hardships in a person life that reveals the source of one’s inner strength. When you can face trouble and say “though He slay me, yet will I trust him, when you can lose everything including your building, and still say “blessed be the name of the Lord,” when you can deal with the cruelty of mean deviate people and bless them instead of cursing them, then and only then can God trust you with more, pay you double for your trouble and take what the enemy meant for evil and work it out for your good!

That is why this moment is so magnificent, so monumental and so incredibly miraculous, because this man of God, this Pastor, this Under-shepherd has gone through all of that and more, and he still possesses the joy of the Lord and he hold has maintained his integrity throughout the entirety of his 45 year long pastorate, and I have come to eulogize one who has been tested, tried, and can truly say, “I Survived It and I’m Still Standing!”

Now I know many of you are stunned by the usage of the word eulogize because associate an eulogy with a funeral experience. However, the word eulogize means to “speak well of someone” and that is exactly what I’ve come to do; I’ve come to speak well of someone that deserves being well spoken of and the real blessing is I am privileged to speak well of Pastor Sargent and it is NOT his funeral! I’ve come to speak well of him, to speak well of his family, to speak well of this church. And while I’m speaking well of everyone, I can’t help but close this message by speaking well of the ONE in whom we live, move, and have our being.

A Time of Reflection:

Paul’s writing to Timothy, that second letter, is the foundation for our discussion today. Enclosed in this letter are Paul’s final words before his earthly departure. It is a combination of final instructions to Timothy to remain faithful to preaching the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, and recounting some of the critical moments of his ministry in which God had shown Gods-self mighty and strong.

First he instructs Timothy to preach the word. To be faithful when it was convenient and when it was not, prepared in season and out of season. He reminded Timothy that his ministry would be tested by the people’s inability to tolerate good, sound, preaching. In fact, Paul stated that they would reject solid biblical preaching and seek out for themselves the kind of teachers/preachers that would say what their itching ears wanted to hear. For that reason and more, Timothy was encouraged to be faithful to the gospel ministry and complete his ministry!

He says all of these things with the end of his ministry in sight. He faces the conclusion of his ministry with a level of confidence, calm, and inner resolve that he had done at least three things, fought a good fight, finished his race, and kept the faith. And because of this, he was confidently anticipated a blessed reward when the Lord the righteous judge appeared.

But then he moved into a moment of personal reflection and talks about some of the experiences he encountered in ministry. In verses 16-18, he addresses some challenges he’s had to face while trying to do ministry. The seemingly overwhelming experience Paul faced what the reality of Personal Abandonment.

At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. Here Paul highlights a very real aspect of ministry, that of having to face some difficult days all alone. Having responded to the call of God on his life, he began proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ taking advantage of every opportunity possible. Like today, everyone was not thrilled to hear about this Jesus. In fact, preaching and or teaching a Christ-centered message was considered blasphemous and treasonous. Blasphemous because Jesus is proclaimed as the Son of the Living God. Treasonous because political rulers were considered gods/ small g, and to devote one’s-self to any deity was scene as a betrayal of trust and an act of treason.

Paul, a Pharisee, a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the 8th day according to the Jewish custom, a persecutor of the church, went against everything he once embraced when he started preaching Jesus, because when he met Jesus, he realized he had been on the wrong side of spiritual history. He once preached against Jesus and persecuted the church because he had not yet received the revelation of who Jesus was; in other words, he did all of that in ignorance. Now that he knew the truth, he started preaching and teaching the truth and there are times in ministry when pastors and preachers stand on the truth or take a stand for the truth, you may have to stand alone!

Folks will stand with you as long as you are engaging in foolishness, as long as you tolerate hypocrisy, as long as you preach watered down messages that neither convicts, convinces, or converts, but the moment you take a hard stand for the truth of God’s word, the moment you align yourself with the principles of God’s word, the moment you say Yes to righteousness and no to all ungodliness, you will have to stand alone. For Paul, he would face several leaders and or councils in his day…he would have to defend his actions and explain the when and whats of his intentions by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and when he did, there was no support, no one to stand with him, no encouragement, just no one.

However, just when it seems like you are left to face your situations all by yourself, God has a way of showing up in niche of time. So when, in his reflection, Paul says this, no one stood with me, but instead, everyone deserted me, But the Lord…in other words, But God! I just got to say right here, I’m glad that I can look back over my life and see where my life is filled with “But God moments.”

No one stood with be but the Lord…stood with me and strengthened me. God stood with me. One of the greatest promises in scripture is the promise of God’s presence, I will be with you!

Joshua

David…thou art with me

Disciples....lo I am with you

Elisha at Dothan…more with us than against us

Can anybody testify that God has been with me....

But secondly, God strengthened me. Paul’s journey taught him how to rely on God’s strength for sustainability. His afflictions weakened him, his many afflictions diminished him physically, mentally, emotionally. The toll of ministry and persecution alone was costly and often public. He had to deal with both religious warfare (Pharisees, Scribes, and Political forces) and spiritual warfare (spiritual wickedness in high places) but when he thought about his attacks, afflictions, adversaries, he said, “I glory in my afflictions because I’ve discovered something, when I’m weak, then I am strong; when I appear the weakest, that’s when I am the strongest; in other words, my weakest moment is actually my strongest moment because that’s when God’s strength is manifested.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me..

Greater is he that is within me...

Not only did God strengthen me, but God delivered me out of the mouth of the lion. This is a metaphor, and statement that suggests that the kind of evil that came against him had the potential to literally rip him apart the way a lion devours its prey. His enemies, his challenges, his adversaries, his adversities, his assaults were so wicked in their intent, that if it had not been for the divine intervention in his life, Paul would have been destroyed. But the Lord, delivered, the Lord rescued, the Lord raised him up, the Lord brought him out not just a conqueror, but more than a conqueror!

That is why Paul is such a victorious writer. That is why Paul writes with the flair of confidence. You see, once you have experienced the hand of the Lord to deliver, you can testify,

Troubled on every side, yet not distressed

perplexed, but no in dispair

persecuted, but not forsaken

cast down, but not destroyed..

These light afflictions which are but for a moment, will produce a far better and exceeding weight of glory…I don’t look at that which is seen, because that which is seen is temporary, but that which is unseen, is eternal…God delivered me, and God will deliver me from every evil work and keep me for his heavenly kingdom!

All of this is done, Paul says, that the gospel message might be preached through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear…God does not do anything by accident, God’s moves according to his purpose…and in this case, it was the proclamation of the gospel to a people that were otherwise overlooked and left out that was on the line…these people needed faith, but they couldn’t get it without hearing the word, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. In other words, God delivered Paul and God kept Paul because there was a Kingdom assignment on his life and God trusted Paul with the grace to endure his trouble and trials just so that at the end of the day, Paul might reach others for Christ.

I know I’ve said a lot today, but I’ve said all of that to say, we have our own Paul who has seen his share of trouble and affliction. Our pastor knows what it’s like to be lied on, cheated, talked about, mistreated, buked, scorned, talked about sure as you are born, up, down, almost level to the ground, but God has been his refuge and his strength, his very present help in the time of trouble, and over these 45 years, God has taken his ashes and given him beauty, his mourning and given him joy and gladness, his spirit of heaviness and given him a garment of praise.

I almost gave up, felt like I just couldn’t take life anymore

Devil had be bound, depression weighed me down,

But God held me close so I wouldn’t let go…God’s mercies kept me so I would let go...

I’ve been through the fire, I’ve been through the flood, broken in pieces and left all alone, but through it all God kept me, through it all God blessed me and I still have a praise inside of me!

Although I’ve been wounded and I’ve been scared, I never gave up, I trusted in God, and through it all…God kept me....

I’ve had some good days…I’ve had some hills to climb...

God’s been good to me...

A good God deserves a good praise...

A great God deserves a great praise

An awesome God deserves and awesome praise

A mighty God deserves a mighty praise...