2 Timothy Chapter 4 Pt. 2
Alright. Good evening. Good evening. Happy New Year. Welcome back.
It's been a few weeks, since I've seen some of you and, especially if you've joined us online tonight. It's been a been a few weeks since we got together. I hope that your Christmas and New Year's celebration went well. Everybody had a good time. We enjoyed celebrating together, the birth of our savior, and then a brand new year getting started.
So looking forward to that. We have a little unfinished business from last year. We didn't quite finish 2nd Timothy. And, so we're gonna try to finish that up tonight, and then we will be starting next week all the way back to the beginning. We'll be heading back to Genesis and, beginning in Genesis starting next week.
So I'm looking forward to that study. Just so you know, just so you'll be prepared. We'll be in the book of Genesis probably all year. It's, it's gonna take a long time to get through the book of Genesis. So we'll we'll be in the book of Genesis for a very long time.
So just be prepared for that. I hope that it's not that you have to get prepared, but that you're excited about it because it really is a good, a wonderful study and to go back to the very beginning and remind yourself how all this began and how incredible the God that we serve is and, you know, it's just an amazing time. But for tonight, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer, and then we're gonna kick off with the last part of 2nd Timothy chapter 4. We'll begin with verse 9. Let's pray.
Father, we do come to you tonight, and we are, again, excited to be in your house. God, the fact that we can gather together in your name in the middle of the week, encourage each other. Father, we're very thankful for that. Father, we pray that you would watch over us tonight, that you would guide us and direct us in the paths that you would have us to go. Father, we pray that you would be with our nation as we, mourn the loss of a former president, and tomorrow is that national day of mourning.
Father, we thank you for living in a system, where democracy is still in control. And so, father, we pray that you would help us to lead people to you, father, that they would understand that you are the one that's actually in control. Father, tonight as we go through this time together, I ask that you open our hearts and our minds and then, god, you would just show us exactly what you want us to see, and you would use us always for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright. So, before I start, I know I referenced this a moment ago, but, you know, tomorrow is a national day of mourning, for president Carter. Now I know a lot of people have a lot of different political ideas and and thoughts and and feelings about him as a president. But I do want to say that he did a lot of wonderful things in the name of our savior, both in office and out of office. And so, therefore, you know, it's a it was an incredible thing that someone could have that kind of faith and have a stage like that.
So, you know, there's a lot of people that, didn't have a home until Habitat for Humanity came along and helped them. So, you know, he did a lot of wonderful things. So, hopefully, it'll take a moment and just remember him and and pray for his family, as we go through the day tomorrow. Alright. So second Timothy chapter 4 beginning in verse 9.
2nd Timothy chapter 4. We're gonna read 9 through 13, then we're gonna talk about that for a little while. 2nd Timothy chapter 49 through 13. It says this says, be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica, Crescens for Galatia, and Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.
Get Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for ministry. And I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Karpus at Troas when you come, and the books, especially the parchment. Alright. So several things.
Paul was certainly a man of god, and we know that he wrote, the majority of the new testament. He wrote a awful lot of that, but here's a news flash that you might not realize. Paul was not superhuman. Paul was not deity. Paul was not Christ.
Paul was a person. He was a human being, and he had been through going through a lot of things. He was somebody who had needs and wants, and at this point, he needed some companionship. He was pretty lonely. This is after his second arrest.
He's, basically, he's heading towards death. He's heading that way right now, and he's not going to be released. He's heading that way, and he's kind of alone. And so he's writing this letter to Timothy, and he says, come to me quickly. He said, Demas has forsaken me.
Well, he said Demas left him for the love of this present world. Basically, what he's talking about, Demas is that, he literally left the ministry. He he went away. He used to be a fellow worker, and now he has, decided the things of the world were better than the things of god. And so he's walked away from the ministry.
He's walked away from following Christ. He's fallen out of relationship. And so it's just a a bad thing. And so Demus is now gone. He is no longer there with him.
And then, others left out of necessity, Creason's and Titus. They left because they had things that had to be done at different locations. And so they went to take care of those things, and then Paul sent away. He told him to go go and and do some things. So he sent him away.
So all the ones that had been around him, Paul either sent away, they left out of necessity, or they, fell away. Okay? And so a lot of things that that had happened in that situation. So he says, hey. I need you to come.
He said only Luke is still with him. Only Luke is still with him. Luke had traveled with Paul on a lot of his missionary journeys. Luke had been with him through the first, imprisonment. Everybody else was gone, but, there he was.
In the in the first imprisonment, he had visitors coming and going. He had, like, you know, people could come and see him and hang out and all this kind of stuff. And and it was more like he was just under house arrest, but everything was kinda somewhat normal, but this time it's not. And so he says, listen. Only Luke is with me.
I I need you to come. I need you to come. I need you to come as quick as you can. I don't don't hang out. Don't wait.
And, oh, yeah, bring Mark with you. Now that's something to think about there because, Mark was somebody that, you know, Paul didn't want anything to do with him to start with. You know, Paul Paul wanted to send him away. He didn't want anything to do with Mark. And now he's saying, hey.
Bring Mark with you. Bring Mark with you. He's he's come back to a point that he's, realizing that Mark is working for the lord, and he wants to him to come as well. So he says, bring Mark with you. This kind of a restoration of trust in in Mark.
You know? So that's a good thing. You know, think about that with with your own people around you. Anybody ever get crossways with somebody? Anybody?
We get crossways with people. Right? Sometimes when we get crossways with people, we get crossways with them over silly stuff. Things that have no real reason, but some reason we get upset about it. I don't wanna I don't wanna be around you anymore.
I don't want us to do things together. I don't whatever. You know, when that happens, really, reconciliation is needed. It's needed because the things that have happened and caused us to separate and be apart from one another, more than likely were things that were worldly, and we need to be reconciled because of God. And in this case, he's recognized that he needs to be back together with Mark.
And so he's he said, hey. You know, I want you to bring him when you come. And then he says something kinda strange to me when I first read it. Bring the cloak that I left. Bring the cloak.
Well, why would he want him to bring the cloak? Why would he why would that be so important? Bring that cloak. I mean, he's he's in prison. Why is he so wanting to bring the cloak?
And, I started doing a little bit of research and found out where Paul was being held at this point. He didn't have it wasn't insulated. He didn't have a lot of it wasn't a lot of heat, wasn't a lot of thing. He was cold, and they didn't take care of him. They didn't provide those things for him.
In the first arrest that Paul had, he was taken well care of. But this time, he was literally like a jail cell, and there wasn't a lot of things being taken care of for him. So he's cold. He says, hey. Bring the cloak.
Well, here's the important thing to to know about this if you didn't know. This is something that's important is that when he says I left the cloak with carpus at Troas, it's likely that somehow he knew he was gonna be arrested. He was probably told he was gonna be arrested and so he took the cloak and some books and things like that and he gave it to Karpus to hold for him because in the time period if somebody arrested you, they confiscated all your stuff. They took everything and especially if it was nice clothes or cloak, things like that. They would take it.
The soldiers would just take it. And so he had left that and said, hey. Stop by and get that. Stop and get my cloak, but not just my cloak. He said, I I need you to get do y'all know what a cloak is?
Everybody knows what a cloak is. Right? It's kinda like a cape, but it's it's it's really a big round thing with a head hole and arms hole. Right? And it just goes over you.
And that's the way this was. And, so it comes over the top of you. It helps them stay warm. He said, bring that. But he also said, look.
Bring the books, especially the parchment. So he had left the cloak. He had left books. He had left parts. Why do you think he wanted the books so badly?
So he could study. So he could read and he could study and he could continue to grow. Listen. Sometimes I think that people feel once they come to know Jesus as lord and savior that, well, they just know whatever they need to know. Well, the first book that we need to be studying all the time as a believer in Christ is this one.
Come on. That's the primary book. Yeah. That's the primary book. Well, when he said especially the parchments, that's what he was talking about was the scripture.
Okay? But also the books. Reading books that biblical scholarly people have written is a wonderful thing to go hand in hand with the Bible. Not a substitute. It's not a substitute for the Bible, but it is a wonderful thing to go hand in hand and help build you up as you study.
When Jesus was alive and he would speak in parables, His disciples didn't understand what he meant. So oftentimes he'd speak in a parable and then he'd have to turn around and break it down for him. Understand that when you read the scriptures, sometimes it's hard to understand and a commentary or another scholarly writing that you can read and kinda help you break down some of these things that you're struggling to understand is a very positive thing. Paul had books. He had things that were scholarly books that were written that he wanted, and he wanted those parchments so he could look at God's word.
He wanted those things because he was in a place where that was his comfort. He was just talking to God. He was spending time with God, but he needed stuff to even get closer to God. He wanted people to come and be around him. Probably not just to have companionship, but also so he could talk to them about what God had been showing him and all of the time that he'd been there and things, messages that they needed to pass on as he left this world.
Things that still needed to be done. And he was called. Bring the cloak. Bring these things. Bring them with you.
And when you come, I I I need you to to bring these things so that I can continue the fight that I'm in right now. Don't know how long it will be. So we look at all this and we think about it. It's important for us to to realize that Paul, even in this weakened state, even in this terrible way he was being held and all of the things that was going on, he still found that it was very important. He wanted Timothy to know things.
He wanted to write all those things to Timothy. Now he's saying, Timothy, come here. I need you to come. I need you to come. I need you to bring these others with you.
I need to pass on this other information. I want the books. I want the parchments. It's possible that he wanted to take those books and parchment and show Timothy what was important about them and give them to him at the end. We don't know that, but it could be that.
So he wanted all of that and he was calling them in. Most of the people that are members in this church are older than 40 years old. We're not, as they say, spring chickens anymore. Right? Right.
We're getting older. We had 8 funerals last year. Yeah. 8 funerals. We lost 8 people in our church that were hard workers, that serve the Lord, that did so much and taught people on all the things that they did.
Now they're receiving their reward and they're, you know, where they always wanted to be. But there's still so much that needs to be passed on, and there's so much that we need to do to help raise up another generation. There's so many things that we have to do that we need to do to make sure that people know the things they need to know about the Lord. Paul, even in his imprisonment, was still trying to pass all that on. He knew where he was going.
He knew what was gonna happen, and he knew that probably his time was growing short. And even in that, he wanted to continue to make sure that people knew what they needed to know. He wants to continue to groom them and prepare them for what was to come. And so he was continuing to do just that. Then he gives a warning.
Right? 14 to 15, he says this. Says, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him for he has greatly resisted our words.
So if you just read that on, at face value, perhaps you think Paul's just being petty. He's just being petty. Right? This guy was mean to me. I hope God repays him.
You know? Sounds like he's being petty, maybe. Well, here's the thing. The Alexander, was mentioned as someone whose faith had suffered during the shipwreck that Paul was on. He's been mentioned in the past in first Timothy, 120.
Paul mentioned him. He said his faith had suffered, and and he was a a coppersmith. Well, a coppersmith back then didn't mean that they just did copper. It was any metal worker. If they any kind of metal work, they were a coppersmith.
And so, all of this that happened, Paul simply wrote that Alexander did me much harm. He didn't say let me tell you what he did. You know what he did? He did he didn't post it on Facebook. Alright.
Tell the whole world. He didn't go through all that. He just said he did me much harm. That is simple. He wronged me in some way.
So he said that. Right? So the implication here is that, perhaps, he informed the Romans own things about Paul. He was a traitor. So he had turned from the faith.
He'd suffered in his faith, and now he had turned against Paul by giving, evidence against him to the Romans. Right? So that's kinda what, what we see there. And so perhaps that's what he did. He said he's done me much harm.
But then he said, may God may the Lord repay him. So Alexander's judgment was just simple. May he be judged according to his works. Here's a question. How many of you would like to be judged according to your works?
None of us want to be judged according to our works. We don't want to be judged that way. We we want to be judged with mercy and grace. Right? We don't want to be judged according to our works.
He said he did me much harm. May he be judged according to his works, what he did. And he would be judged for that. If we were judged for the things that we do that are negative. Now listen, we do have to answer for those things.
They will be brought up even those who us who are believers in Christ. Every part of that will be brought up and we will have to answer for it, but we're not judged for it. We're not judged for it because Christ took our judgment. Christ paid the price for everything. So all of those things that we've done that are in our life, we don't pay the penalty for it.
Yes. We will have to answer for it. Yes. It will be brought up. And, yes, there will be, it will be hashed out.
But we don't receive the punishment for what we did because Christ already received the punishment. You got the judgment seat of Christ when all this is gonna take place. Right. And he looks at me without the delivery for money. That's right.
And so all these things will be told, but the price has already been paid. Right. Okay? So that's the most wonderful part of knowing this is that Christ paid for all of our sins. For every single one of them.
So he did me much harm, probably. He turned him in. He brought charges against him. And a lot of times when they brought charges against him, they accused him of a lot of things. They accused him of atheism, of cannibalism, hatred of the human race.
They accused them of, being sinful. All of these things that were being leveled against those who were Christians. They were accused of atheism because, certainly, the Christianity that they was not the belief in God that others thought it should be. So it's atheism. They charged them against cannibalism because they spoke of eating the body of Christ.
So cannibals. Right? They they spoke of that. So all these things they were brought, and they brought them up on charges for these things. He said, look.
May god just judge him according to what he's done. That's what he's really saying. Like you said, that's that's the end result. My god just judge him according to what he's done. As we we look at all of this, he also goes on to say, that nobody nobody stood with him.
He says, let's see. 1515 through 19. You must also be aware he has greatly resisted our words. At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them?
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. And the lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. So in these closing, part that he's talking about here and all of this, he's he's saying several things.
First of all, he says, no one stood with me. So no one stood with me, but the lord stood with me. He was all alone. We knew that Jesus stood with him. Right?
He didn't have anybody standing up there receiving the charges. He was the only one. Nobody stood with him. Nobody stood with him. Jesus stood with him, and Paul served him very faithfully, and God was faithful to Paul in his first defense.
He says, may it not be charged against them? This is saying, hey, Paul is not bitter that nobody came and stood with him. He understood what the situation was. He wasn't bitter that anybody didn't come and stand with him. He said, listen.
May it not be charged against them. That's spiritual maturity. That's spiritual maturity. In a movie that I recently watched, a man Christian, things going good in his life. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a drunk driver slams into the passenger side of the car that he was driving, and his 17 year old son was a pastor.
He killed his son. Of course, the man's arrested. He goes to jail, but you can't get his son back. The man turned very bitter, very angry towards the one who was driving the car. Said he actually hated him.
But then God started working on him. And God started showing him that if he forgave him for his sin, he could forgive this man for his sin. And it took a lot. A lot. He kept resisting it.
He kept fighting it. Finally, he broke down. He gave it to God. He said, God, if this is what I have to do, I will forgive this man. But it wasn't just, okay, I forgave him.
No. No. No. He had to go tell him he forgave him. He had to go see the man face to face and let the man know that because of God he forgave him for the actions that killed his son.
And and which was incredible to this man that was in prison. But then not only did he forgive him, when the man got out of prison, he mentored him. And they got together and he mentored him and helped him in his walk until the 2 of them became great mentors for other people. The whole point is that God said I forgave you. You've gotta forgive them.
We look at this. Paul saying, listen. Don't hold it against them. I forgive them. Whatever reason they didn't come, I forgive them for that.
We say that and and this is what we usually say with that. That's easy to say. Hard to do. It is hard to do. I think it was pretty hard for Jesus to go to the cross too.
Don't you? I think that there are many things in our life that is very hard to do, but it's worth it when we do it. Sometimes the things that are easier not that worth it. God even said, it's easy to love your brother, but love your enemy. Can you love your enemy?
It's easy to love your brother. Can you love your enemy? Can you love that person who is not your brother? You see, Paul said don't charge it against them. Don't charge it against them.
Then he goes on to say, look, I know that God's gonna take care of me. He I was delivered out of the mouth of a lion. God had delivered Paul out of the mouth of a lion. He kept him from being eaten. Right?
He stopped that. And because of that, he was saved. He said I know that God will deliver me. Now he doesn't know if God's gonna deliver his life this time. We like to think of it like this.
Oh, well, of course, I'll be fine. There's no way that something bad would happen to me because god's gonna take care of me. Right? And he does. But here's the point.
Just because God's taking care of you doesn't mean he's gonna let you live another day. He's gonna take care of you, but it might not be on this side of heaven. It might be by bringing you home. That doesn't mean that you don't still do what he's called you to do. It just means that, you know what, even if something happens, you'll be okay.
You'll be okay. When the viper bit him on the hand he shook the viper off into the fire. Oh, my goodness. You know, he's supposed to die, but he didn't die. All of the ones and they would talk about in Old Testament, they were being bitten by all of the vipers, but they looked up at the one on the pole that was being held up.
They lived. Right? It says nothing will come to you. None of these things will be a problem for you in that moment and what God had for them at that point. That doesn't mean that never ever would it ever happen.
People ask me, well, you know, God's gonna take care of you. You can walk right out in front of that car and nothing will happen. Right? I say, let's see. No.
I don't say that. No. The whole point is, God's not saying that. God doesn't say that he's gonna take care of you and you will never ever be hurt. He doesn't say that he's gonna take care of you and you will never die.
He there are many in scripture that are martyrs. They were serving God and they were killed and because of their death, more people were saved. Because of what they did in death was greater than what they did in life. And so even Paul knows that God saved him from the lion's den. He doesn't know if he's going to save him physically or not, but he's gonna save him.
He's gonna take care of him. And he said, look, I know I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. God delivered him. He just didn't know what his fate was gonna be this time. But he knew he was either gonna be preserved for this world or preserved in the kingdom of heaven.
1 or the other. He knew all of that. And then he says to him be the glory forever and ever. Listen. It's not about me, Paul said.
It's not about me. I don't want you worshiping me. I don't want you talking about how great Paul is. I don't want you talking about all these great things for Paul. What I want you to see is how god did these things, and I just happen to be the one who used for it.
God did these things, and I was the one that that it happened to in order for god to be glorified. I had all of these things happen, but god is the one. Don't look at me. Don't don't say Paul. It's not Paul.
It's god. I guarantee you if you, can talk to Billy Graham today and you say, Billy, look at all those great things you did in your life. He would have said that wasn't me. That was God. That's right.
That was God. The reality is that we don't know what God's gonna do in using us. Will he use us in life? Will he use us in death? Will he use us somewhere in between?
How's he gonna use us? We don't know. We gotta be willing. He said to God be the glory forever and ever. To God be the glory, and no matter what happens here, to God be the glory.
I don't know what's gonna happen. Whatever it is, God gets the glory. Not me. And Timothy, listen. It's not about me.
Therefore, Timothy understands it's not about him either. Right? Timothy is looking at this example. He's looking at this example. We we all all the time, we wanna talk about, well, don't do things like I do.
Do it better than I do. Well, actually, we need to be doing things in a way that we can say, follow me. See what I'm doing? I'm following God and you follow me as I follow God. Don't don't say don't don't follow me.
If you're following God, they should be following you. So Paul did. He followed God, and as he followed God, he showed Timothy, and he showed, Luke, and he showed, Mark, and he showed Barnabas, and he showed all these different ones. He showed them what it means to follow God and how to walk in that way. And to God be the glory all the way to the point that he died.
So at the end, 19 through 21, Paul is basically closing out his greetings to his friends. He says, greet, Priscilla, and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus, Erastus, stayed in Corinth, but, Trophimus, I have left in Melitus, sick. Do your utmost to come before winter. Eubelus greets you as well as Putins, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren. Now he's telling all of them, look.
My heart goes out to these people that I've I've worked with. My heart is still thinking about these who are still in the fight, who are still out there, who are still serving. I'm thinking about you. Greetings to all of you. He says, I'm thinking about all that.
He wasn't centered on himself. He was centered on them. And he even said, I've left sick. I've left sick. Paul was a man he was he was used by God to perform many miracles, but yet, he wasn't able to heal.
You understand? Jesus did many miracles, but he had even some of his disciples that he did not heal. He left them with things in their life. Infirmities that he could have healed, but for whatever reason he didn't. He told Paul, my grace is sufficient for you.
My grace is sufficient. Even the things he had going on. So we look at that and sometimes we wonder, well, if God's so good, how come there's so many sick people? If God's so great, how come cancer is still a thing? If God's so great, how come I prayed that he would save the life of this person, but he didn't do it?
That's right. If God's so great, why not? Paul says, look. God is the one to receive all the glory. He's telling all these that he's thinking about.
He's talking about them, and he even says, I even left one that was sick. Paul did not have miraculous healing powers of his own, but he trusted God in all of it. He trusted God in all of it. God used Paul to heal people, but he didn't use him to heal that person. So he didn't heal all of it.
We have to understand that it is the will of God. It's hard to say. It is the will of God that some people should remain sick. What? I don't even sound right.
It don't even sound right. I've told you this example before. My mother has multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was, I think, 17 years old. It's been a battle all of her life.
She's still struggling. There are days that she can't hardly get out of bed. There are days that she can't hardly move. There are things that are going on. She doesn't know what's gonna happen next.
She spent time in her life when she went blind in one eye. Thank God, he gave her the sight back. She went deaf in one ear, never regained that. There's been all kind of things that happened in her life and and years ago, we were talking and she said, you know, if God said we can take you back and I can take this away where you would never have it. She said I would not do that because I have been able to witness to people that I would never have been able to witness to without having this illness.
I have been able to show people the love of God through this that I never would have been able to do had it not been for this. God used me throughout this disease and everything that I've had in ways that I never would have been able to be used without it. If God asked me, we go back to that time and you could have your mom without this mortal sclerosis, what would I have said? Yes, please. Yes, please.
But I won't see it through the eyes that she has because she's the one who's experienced all of that. The whole thing that we see here is as he is saying goodbye to everyone, and he's talking about those who have served him so well, the ones who have continued to be around him. He's encouraging them to continue to do the things that they need to do. And then all of this, at one point he says, do your utmost to come before winter. And some believe he's talking about an actual winter.
Some believe he's talking about the winter of his life, which would be the end of it. Do your best to come before winter. Paul's elderly at this point, and he did want to see Timothy before his life came to an end. We don't know if he ever did. Scripture doesn't tell us if he saw Timothy before he died or not.
We don't know. But the reality is we have 2 books of Timothy, first and second here, where we know Paul poured everything into Timothy. This is after he was doing it in person. He did it in person first. Now he's been doing it through the writings that he's been sending him.
He continued to pour all of that in because it was important for him to continue to empower Timothy that Timothy might be a servant of God and and lead people to Christ the way that he needed to do. Paul's imprisonment, was in a a bleak building in Rome. It was a 100 years before Paul was ever in prison, it was built. It wasn't a beautiful place. It wasn't somewhere that anyone would desire to be, but Paul was there.
It was built for the political enemies of Rome. So, of course, you know it wasn't a good place, and it lasted it lasted, for a very long time until the point that, Paul was beheaded under Nero outside of Rome's, gate at a place called 3 fountains. Know why they call it 3 fountains now? There's a legend. It's an absurd legend, but it's a legend.
There's a legend. The legend says that when Paul was beheaded, his head bounced 3 times. And where it bounced the first place it bounced, a fountain sprung up. The first one was hot, the second was warm, and the third one was cold. And it says 3 fountains.
It's a that's just a legend. But that's what they call that, 3 fountains. But Paul was beheaded. You know why he was beheaded? It was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen.
It was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen so they be had to be had him. There's some tradition that says he was beheaded on the same day that Peter was crucified upside down. I don't know if that's true. They say there's some in some tradition, it says that, but he was a Roman citizen. He could not be crucified.
Otherwise, he probably would have been crucified. That was the normal way to put people to death during that day. The last words from the pen of Paul. The lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
Amen. The last words, a man who loved Jesus, he had received his grace, and he let everybody know that this is being affirmed. The lord Jesus be with you. I'm gonna be gone, but Jesus be with you. He's talking to us today and all What's that?
He's talking to us today. Exactly. And so that's the great thing about scripture is that even though it was written so long ago and oftentimes written to a specific audience, it was also something that we can glean from even in today's world. So we look at all this and we gotta understand that You know what? It's not about a man.
There are great preachers. There are great evangelists. There are great people that have done many many great things for God in this world, and it's good that we recognize that. But if those people are no longer here, then they're together with Christ. It's not them.
It's Christ. Right. And the thing is we learn from what they've done, but it's God that gives the glory. It's God that we have to continue to keep our eyes focused on. Yeah.
We can learn things from those people, but that's not the one that we need to walk close with. Paul was a incredible man. Paul was an incredible disciple of Christ, and he was an incredible writer. He wrote all this down. Perhaps the reason he was imprisoned is so he had time to write all this down.
I don't know. But the reality is that because of what he wrote down, we today can study and learn from it. The congregation in that day was hearing and learning from it. And so there's so much going on with that. I hope you enjoyed the study of Timothy, first and second.
I learned a lot in in these two books. Just a a good deep study, and I'm glad that we had the opportunity to do that. Look forward to starting in Genesis next week. So for those of you who joined us online tonight, thank you so much for being here. God bless, and good night.
WatchNotesDownloadDateTitle
- Jan 8, 20252 Timothy Chapter 4 Pt. 2
2 Timothy Chapter 4 Pt. 22 Timothy 4:9-22 NKJVAlright. Good evening. Good evening. Happy New Year. Welcome back.It's been a few weeks, since I've seen some of you and, especially if you've joined us online tonight. It's been a been a few weeks since we got together. I hope that your Christmas and New Year's celebration went well. Everybody had a good time. We enjoyed celebrating together, the birth of our savior, and then a brand new year getting started. So looking forward to that. We have a little unfinished business from last year. We didn't quite finish 2nd Timothy. And, so we're gonna try to finish that up tonight, and then we will be starting next week all the way back to the beginning. We'll be heading back to Genesis and, beginning in Genesis starting next week. So I'm looking forward to that study. Just so you know, just so you'll be prepared. We'll be in the book of Genesis probably all year. It's, it's gonna take a long time to get through the book of Genesis. So we'll we'll be in the book of Genesis for a very long time. So just be prepared for that. I hope that it's not that you have to get prepared, but that you're excited about it because it really is a good, a wonderful study and to go back to the very beginning and remind yourself how all this began and how incredible the God that we serve is and, you know, it's just an amazing time. But for tonight, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer, and then we're gonna kick off with the last part of 2nd Timothy chapter 4. We'll begin with verse 9. Let's pray. Father, we do come to you tonight, and we are, again, excited to be in your house. God, the fact that we can gather together in your name in the middle of the week, encourage each other. Father, we're very thankful for that. Father, we pray that you would watch over us tonight, that you would guide us and direct us in the paths that you would have us to go. Father, we pray that you would be with our nation as we, mourn the loss of a former president, and tomorrow is that national day of mourning. Father, we thank you for living in a system, where democracy is still in control. And so, father, we pray that you would help us to lead people to you, father, that they would understand that you are the one that's actually in control. Father, tonight as we go through this time together, I ask that you open our hearts and our minds and then, god, you would just show us exactly what you want us to see, and you would use us always for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright. So, before I start, I know I referenced this a moment ago, but, you know, tomorrow is a national day of mourning, for president Carter. Now I know a lot of people have a lot of different political ideas and and thoughts and and feelings about him as a president. But I do want to say that he did a lot of wonderful things in the name of our savior, both in office and out of office. And so, therefore, you know, it's a it was an incredible thing that someone could have that kind of faith and have a stage like that. So, you know, there's a lot of people that, didn't have a home until Habitat for Humanity came along and helped them. So, you know, he did a lot of wonderful things. So, hopefully, it'll take a moment and just remember him and and pray for his family, as we go through the day tomorrow. Alright. So second Timothy chapter 4 beginning in verse 9. 2nd Timothy chapter 4. We're gonna read 9 through 13, then we're gonna talk about that for a little while. 2nd Timothy chapter 49 through 13. It says this says, be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica, Crescens for Galatia, and Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for ministry. And I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Karpus at Troas when you come, and the books, especially the parchment. Alright. So several things. Paul was certainly a man of god, and we know that he wrote, the majority of the new testament. He wrote a awful lot of that, but here's a news flash that you might not realize. Paul was not superhuman. Paul was not deity. Paul was not Christ. Paul was a person. He was a human being, and he had been through going through a lot of things. He was somebody who had needs and wants, and at this point, he needed some companionship. He was pretty lonely. This is after his second arrest. He's, basically, he's heading towards death. He's heading that way right now, and he's not going to be released. He's heading that way, and he's kind of alone. And so he's writing this letter to Timothy, and he says, come to me quickly. He said, Demas has forsaken me. Well, he said Demas left him for the love of this present world. Basically, what he's talking about, Demas is that, he literally left the ministry. He he went away. He used to be a fellow worker, and now he has, decided the things of the world were better than the things of god. And so he's walked away from the ministry. He's walked away from following Christ. He's fallen out of relationship. And so it's just a a bad thing. And so Demus is now gone. He is no longer there with him. And then, others left out of necessity, Creason's and Titus. They left because they had things that had to be done at different locations. And so they went to take care of those things, and then Paul sent away. He told him to go go and and do some things. So he sent him away. So all the ones that had been around him, Paul either sent away, they left out of necessity, or they, fell away. Okay? And so a lot of things that that had happened in that situation. So he says, hey. I need you to come. He said only Luke is still with him. Only Luke is still with him. Luke had traveled with Paul on a lot of his missionary journeys. Luke had been with him through the first, imprisonment. Everybody else was gone, but, there he was. In the in the first imprisonment, he had visitors coming and going. He had, like, you know, people could come and see him and hang out and all this kind of stuff. And and it was more like he was just under house arrest, but everything was kinda somewhat normal, but this time it's not. And so he says, listen. Only Luke is with me. I I need you to come. I need you to come. I need you to come as quick as you can. I don't don't hang out. Don't wait. And, oh, yeah, bring Mark with you. Now that's something to think about there because, Mark was somebody that, you know, Paul didn't want anything to do with him to start with. You know, Paul Paul wanted to send him away. He didn't want anything to do with Mark. And now he's saying, hey. Bring Mark with you. Bring Mark with you. He's he's come back to a point that he's, realizing that Mark is working for the lord, and he wants to him to come as well. So he says, bring Mark with you. This kind of a restoration of trust in in Mark. You know? So that's a good thing. You know, think about that with with your own people around you. Anybody ever get crossways with somebody? Anybody? We get crossways with people. Right? Sometimes when we get crossways with people, we get crossways with them over silly stuff. Things that have no real reason, but some reason we get upset about it. I don't wanna I don't wanna be around you anymore. I don't want us to do things together. I don't whatever. You know, when that happens, really, reconciliation is needed. It's needed because the things that have happened and caused us to separate and be apart from one another, more than likely were things that were worldly, and we need to be reconciled because of God. And in this case, he's recognized that he needs to be back together with Mark. And so he's he said, hey. You know, I want you to bring him when you come. And then he says something kinda strange to me when I first read it. Bring the cloak that I left. Bring the cloak. Well, why would he want him to bring the cloak? Why would he why would that be so important? Bring that cloak. I mean, he's he's in prison. Why is he so wanting to bring the cloak? And, I started doing a little bit of research and found out where Paul was being held at this point. He didn't have it wasn't insulated. He didn't have a lot of it wasn't a lot of heat, wasn't a lot of thing. He was cold, and they didn't take care of him. They didn't provide those things for him. In the first arrest that Paul had, he was taken well care of. But this time, he was literally like a jail cell, and there wasn't a lot of things being taken care of for him. So he's cold. He says, hey. Bring the cloak. Well, here's the important thing to to know about this if you didn't know. This is something that's important is that when he says I left the cloak with carpus at Troas, it's likely that somehow he knew he was gonna be arrested. He was probably told he was gonna be arrested and so he took the cloak and some books and things like that and he gave it to Karpus to hold for him because in the time period if somebody arrested you, they confiscated all your stuff. They took everything and especially if it was nice clothes or cloak, things like that. They would take it. The soldiers would just take it. And so he had left that and said, hey. Stop by and get that. Stop and get my cloak, but not just my cloak. He said, I I need you to get do y'all know what a cloak is? Everybody knows what a cloak is. Right? It's kinda like a cape, but it's it's it's really a big round thing with a head hole and arms hole. Right? And it just goes over you. And that's the way this was. And, so it comes over the top of you. It helps them stay warm. He said, bring that. But he also said, look. Bring the books, especially the parchment. So he had left the cloak. He had left books. He had left parts. Why do you think he wanted the books so badly? So he could study. So he could read and he could study and he could continue to grow. Listen. Sometimes I think that people feel once they come to know Jesus as lord and savior that, well, they just know whatever they need to know. Well, the first book that we need to be studying all the time as a believer in Christ is this one. Come on. That's the primary book. Yeah. That's the primary book. Well, when he said especially the parchments, that's what he was talking about was the scripture. Okay? But also the books. Reading books that biblical scholarly people have written is a wonderful thing to go hand in hand with the Bible. Not a substitute. It's not a substitute for the Bible, but it is a wonderful thing to go hand in hand and help build you up as you study. When Jesus was alive and he would speak in parables, His disciples didn't understand what he meant. So oftentimes he'd speak in a parable and then he'd have to turn around and break it down for him. Understand that when you read the scriptures, sometimes it's hard to understand and a commentary or another scholarly writing that you can read and kinda help you break down some of these things that you're struggling to understand is a very positive thing. Paul had books. He had things that were scholarly books that were written that he wanted, and he wanted those parchments so he could look at God's word. He wanted those things because he was in a place where that was his comfort. He was just talking to God. He was spending time with God, but he needed stuff to even get closer to God. He wanted people to come and be around him. Probably not just to have companionship, but also so he could talk to them about what God had been showing him and all of the time that he'd been there and things, messages that they needed to pass on as he left this world. Things that still needed to be done. And he was called. Bring the cloak. Bring these things. Bring them with you. And when you come, I I I need you to to bring these things so that I can continue the fight that I'm in right now. Don't know how long it will be. So we look at all this and we think about it. It's important for us to to realize that Paul, even in this weakened state, even in this terrible way he was being held and all of the things that was going on, he still found that it was very important. He wanted Timothy to know things. He wanted to write all those things to Timothy. Now he's saying, Timothy, come here. I need you to come. I need you to come. I need you to bring these others with you. I need to pass on this other information. I want the books. I want the parchments. It's possible that he wanted to take those books and parchment and show Timothy what was important about them and give them to him at the end. We don't know that, but it could be that. So he wanted all of that and he was calling them in. Most of the people that are members in this church are older than 40 years old. We're not, as they say, spring chickens anymore. Right? Right. We're getting older. We had 8 funerals last year. Yeah. 8 funerals. We lost 8 people in our church that were hard workers, that serve the Lord, that did so much and taught people on all the things that they did. Now they're receiving their reward and they're, you know, where they always wanted to be. But there's still so much that needs to be passed on, and there's so much that we need to do to help raise up another generation. There's so many things that we have to do that we need to do to make sure that people know the things they need to know about the Lord. Paul, even in his imprisonment, was still trying to pass all that on. He knew where he was going. He knew what was gonna happen, and he knew that probably his time was growing short. And even in that, he wanted to continue to make sure that people knew what they needed to know. He wants to continue to groom them and prepare them for what was to come. And so he was continuing to do just that. Then he gives a warning. Right? 14 to 15, he says this. Says, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him for he has greatly resisted our words. So if you just read that on, at face value, perhaps you think Paul's just being petty. He's just being petty. Right? This guy was mean to me. I hope God repays him. You know? Sounds like he's being petty, maybe. Well, here's the thing. The Alexander, was mentioned as someone whose faith had suffered during the shipwreck that Paul was on. He's been mentioned in the past in first Timothy, 120. Paul mentioned him. He said his faith had suffered, and and he was a a coppersmith. Well, a coppersmith back then didn't mean that they just did copper. It was any metal worker. If they any kind of metal work, they were a coppersmith. And so, all of this that happened, Paul simply wrote that Alexander did me much harm. He didn't say let me tell you what he did. You know what he did? He did he didn't post it on Facebook. Alright. Tell the whole world. He didn't go through all that. He just said he did me much harm. That is simple. He wronged me in some way. So he said that. Right? So the implication here is that, perhaps, he informed the Romans own things about Paul. He was a traitor. So he had turned from the faith. He'd suffered in his faith, and now he had turned against Paul by giving, evidence against him to the Romans. Right? So that's kinda what, what we see there. And so perhaps that's what he did. He said he's done me much harm. But then he said, may God may the Lord repay him. So Alexander's judgment was just simple. May he be judged according to his works. Here's a question. How many of you would like to be judged according to your works? None of us want to be judged according to our works. We don't want to be judged that way. We we want to be judged with mercy and grace. Right? We don't want to be judged according to our works. He said he did me much harm. May he be judged according to his works, what he did. And he would be judged for that. If we were judged for the things that we do that are negative. Now listen, we do have to answer for those things. They will be brought up even those who us who are believers in Christ. Every part of that will be brought up and we will have to answer for it, but we're not judged for it. We're not judged for it because Christ took our judgment. Christ paid the price for everything. So all of those things that we've done that are in our life, we don't pay the penalty for it. Yes. We will have to answer for it. Yes. It will be brought up. And, yes, there will be, it will be hashed out. But we don't receive the punishment for what we did because Christ already received the punishment. You got the judgment seat of Christ when all this is gonna take place. Right. And he looks at me without the delivery for money. That's right. And so all these things will be told, but the price has already been paid. Right. Okay? So that's the most wonderful part of knowing this is that Christ paid for all of our sins. For every single one of them. So he did me much harm, probably. He turned him in. He brought charges against him. And a lot of times when they brought charges against him, they accused him of a lot of things. They accused him of atheism, of cannibalism, hatred of the human race. They accused them of, being sinful. All of these things that were being leveled against those who were Christians. They were accused of atheism because, certainly, the Christianity that they was not the belief in God that others thought it should be. So it's atheism. They charged them against cannibalism because they spoke of eating the body of Christ. So cannibals. Right? They they spoke of that. So all these things they were brought, and they brought them up on charges for these things. He said, look. May god just judge him according to what he's done. That's what he's really saying. Like you said, that's that's the end result. My god just judge him according to what he's done. As we we look at all of this, he also goes on to say, that nobody nobody stood with him. He says, let's see. 1515 through 19. You must also be aware he has greatly resisted our words. At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them? 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. And the lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. So in these closing, part that he's talking about here and all of this, he's he's saying several things. First of all, he says, no one stood with me. So no one stood with me, but the lord stood with me. He was all alone. We knew that Jesus stood with him. Right? He didn't have anybody standing up there receiving the charges. He was the only one. Nobody stood with him. Nobody stood with him. Jesus stood with him, and Paul served him very faithfully, and God was faithful to Paul in his first defense. He says, may it not be charged against them? This is saying, hey, Paul is not bitter that nobody came and stood with him. He understood what the situation was. He wasn't bitter that anybody didn't come and stand with him. He said, listen. May it not be charged against them. That's spiritual maturity. That's spiritual maturity. In a movie that I recently watched, a man Christian, things going good in his life. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a drunk driver slams into the passenger side of the car that he was driving, and his 17 year old son was a pastor. He killed his son. Of course, the man's arrested. He goes to jail, but you can't get his son back. The man turned very bitter, very angry towards the one who was driving the car. Said he actually hated him. But then God started working on him. And God started showing him that if he forgave him for his sin, he could forgive this man for his sin. And it took a lot. A lot. He kept resisting it. He kept fighting it. Finally, he broke down. He gave it to God. He said, God, if this is what I have to do, I will forgive this man. But it wasn't just, okay, I forgave him. No. No. No. He had to go tell him he forgave him. He had to go see the man face to face and let the man know that because of God he forgave him for the actions that killed his son. And and which was incredible to this man that was in prison. But then not only did he forgive him, when the man got out of prison, he mentored him. And they got together and he mentored him and helped him in his walk until the 2 of them became great mentors for other people. The whole point is that God said I forgave you. You've gotta forgive them. We look at this. Paul saying, listen. Don't hold it against them. I forgive them. Whatever reason they didn't come, I forgive them for that. We say that and and this is what we usually say with that. That's easy to say. Hard to do. It is hard to do. I think it was pretty hard for Jesus to go to the cross too. Don't you? I think that there are many things in our life that is very hard to do, but it's worth it when we do it. Sometimes the things that are easier not that worth it. God even said, it's easy to love your brother, but love your enemy. Can you love your enemy? It's easy to love your brother. Can you love your enemy? Can you love that person who is not your brother? You see, Paul said don't charge it against them. Don't charge it against them. Then he goes on to say, look, I know that God's gonna take care of me. He I was delivered out of the mouth of a lion. God had delivered Paul out of the mouth of a lion. He kept him from being eaten. Right? He stopped that. And because of that, he was saved. He said I know that God will deliver me. Now he doesn't know if God's gonna deliver his life this time. We like to think of it like this. Oh, well, of course, I'll be fine. There's no way that something bad would happen to me because god's gonna take care of me. Right? And he does. But here's the point. Just because God's taking care of you doesn't mean he's gonna let you live another day. He's gonna take care of you, but it might not be on this side of heaven. It might be by bringing you home. That doesn't mean that you don't still do what he's called you to do. It just means that, you know what, even if something happens, you'll be okay. You'll be okay. When the viper bit him on the hand he shook the viper off into the fire. Oh, my goodness. You know, he's supposed to die, but he didn't die. All of the ones and they would talk about in Old Testament, they were being bitten by all of the vipers, but they looked up at the one on the pole that was being held up. They lived. Right? It says nothing will come to you. None of these things will be a problem for you in that moment and what God had for them at that point. That doesn't mean that never ever would it ever happen. People ask me, well, you know, God's gonna take care of you. You can walk right out in front of that car and nothing will happen. Right? I say, let's see. No. I don't say that. No. The whole point is, God's not saying that. God doesn't say that he's gonna take care of you and you will never ever be hurt. He doesn't say that he's gonna take care of you and you will never die. He there are many in scripture that are martyrs. They were serving God and they were killed and because of their death, more people were saved. Because of what they did in death was greater than what they did in life. And so even Paul knows that God saved him from the lion's den. He doesn't know if he's going to save him physically or not, but he's gonna save him. He's gonna take care of him. And he said, look, I know I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. God delivered him. He just didn't know what his fate was gonna be this time. But he knew he was either gonna be preserved for this world or preserved in the kingdom of heaven. 1 or the other. He knew all of that. And then he says to him be the glory forever and ever. Listen. It's not about me, Paul said. It's not about me. I don't want you worshiping me. I don't want you talking about how great Paul is. I don't want you talking about all these great things for Paul. What I want you to see is how god did these things, and I just happen to be the one who used for it. God did these things, and I was the one that that it happened to in order for god to be glorified. I had all of these things happen, but god is the one. Don't look at me. Don't don't say Paul. It's not Paul. It's god. I guarantee you if you, can talk to Billy Graham today and you say, Billy, look at all those great things you did in your life. He would have said that wasn't me. That was God. That's right. That was God. The reality is that we don't know what God's gonna do in using us. Will he use us in life? Will he use us in death? Will he use us somewhere in between? How's he gonna use us? We don't know. We gotta be willing. He said to God be the glory forever and ever. To God be the glory, and no matter what happens here, to God be the glory. I don't know what's gonna happen. Whatever it is, God gets the glory. Not me. And Timothy, listen. It's not about me. Therefore, Timothy understands it's not about him either. Right? Timothy is looking at this example. He's looking at this example. We we all all the time, we wanna talk about, well, don't do things like I do. Do it better than I do. Well, actually, we need to be doing things in a way that we can say, follow me. See what I'm doing? I'm following God and you follow me as I follow God. Don't don't say don't don't follow me. If you're following God, they should be following you. So Paul did. He followed God, and as he followed God, he showed Timothy, and he showed, Luke, and he showed, Mark, and he showed Barnabas, and he showed all these different ones. He showed them what it means to follow God and how to walk in that way. And to God be the glory all the way to the point that he died. So at the end, 19 through 21, Paul is basically closing out his greetings to his friends. He says, greet, Priscilla, and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus, Erastus, stayed in Corinth, but, Trophimus, I have left in Melitus, sick. Do your utmost to come before winter. Eubelus greets you as well as Putins, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren. Now he's telling all of them, look. My heart goes out to these people that I've I've worked with. My heart is still thinking about these who are still in the fight, who are still out there, who are still serving. I'm thinking about you. Greetings to all of you. He says, I'm thinking about all that. He wasn't centered on himself. He was centered on them. And he even said, I've left sick. I've left sick. Paul was a man he was he was used by God to perform many miracles, but yet, he wasn't able to heal. You understand? Jesus did many miracles, but he had even some of his disciples that he did not heal. He left them with things in their life. Infirmities that he could have healed, but for whatever reason he didn't. He told Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient. Even the things he had going on. So we look at that and sometimes we wonder, well, if God's so good, how come there's so many sick people? If God's so great, how come cancer is still a thing? If God's so great, how come I prayed that he would save the life of this person, but he didn't do it? That's right. If God's so great, why not? Paul says, look. God is the one to receive all the glory. He's telling all these that he's thinking about. He's talking about them, and he even says, I even left one that was sick. Paul did not have miraculous healing powers of his own, but he trusted God in all of it. He trusted God in all of it. God used Paul to heal people, but he didn't use him to heal that person. So he didn't heal all of it. We have to understand that it is the will of God. It's hard to say. It is the will of God that some people should remain sick. What? I don't even sound right. It don't even sound right. I've told you this example before. My mother has multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was, I think, 17 years old. It's been a battle all of her life. She's still struggling. There are days that she can't hardly get out of bed. There are days that she can't hardly move. There are things that are going on. She doesn't know what's gonna happen next. She spent time in her life when she went blind in one eye. Thank God, he gave her the sight back. She went deaf in one ear, never regained that. There's been all kind of things that happened in her life and and years ago, we were talking and she said, you know, if God said we can take you back and I can take this away where you would never have it. She said I would not do that because I have been able to witness to people that I would never have been able to witness to without having this illness. I have been able to show people the love of God through this that I never would have been able to do had it not been for this. God used me throughout this disease and everything that I've had in ways that I never would have been able to be used without it. If God asked me, we go back to that time and you could have your mom without this mortal sclerosis, what would I have said? Yes, please. Yes, please. But I won't see it through the eyes that she has because she's the one who's experienced all of that. The whole thing that we see here is as he is saying goodbye to everyone, and he's talking about those who have served him so well, the ones who have continued to be around him. He's encouraging them to continue to do the things that they need to do. And then all of this, at one point he says, do your utmost to come before winter. And some believe he's talking about an actual winter. Some believe he's talking about the winter of his life, which would be the end of it. Do your best to come before winter. Paul's elderly at this point, and he did want to see Timothy before his life came to an end. We don't know if he ever did. Scripture doesn't tell us if he saw Timothy before he died or not. We don't know. But the reality is we have 2 books of Timothy, first and second here, where we know Paul poured everything into Timothy. This is after he was doing it in person. He did it in person first. Now he's been doing it through the writings that he's been sending him. He continued to pour all of that in because it was important for him to continue to empower Timothy that Timothy might be a servant of God and and lead people to Christ the way that he needed to do. Paul's imprisonment, was in a a bleak building in Rome. It was a 100 years before Paul was ever in prison, it was built. It wasn't a beautiful place. It wasn't somewhere that anyone would desire to be, but Paul was there. It was built for the political enemies of Rome. So, of course, you know it wasn't a good place, and it lasted it lasted, for a very long time until the point that, Paul was beheaded under Nero outside of Rome's, gate at a place called 3 fountains. Know why they call it 3 fountains now? There's a legend. It's an absurd legend, but it's a legend. There's a legend. The legend says that when Paul was beheaded, his head bounced 3 times. And where it bounced the first place it bounced, a fountain sprung up. The first one was hot, the second was warm, and the third one was cold. And it says 3 fountains. It's a that's just a legend. But that's what they call that, 3 fountains. But Paul was beheaded. You know why he was beheaded? It was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen. It was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen so they be had to be had him. There's some tradition that says he was beheaded on the same day that Peter was crucified upside down. I don't know if that's true. They say there's some in some tradition, it says that, but he was a Roman citizen. He could not be crucified. Otherwise, he probably would have been crucified. That was the normal way to put people to death during that day. The last words from the pen of Paul. The lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. The last words, a man who loved Jesus, he had received his grace, and he let everybody know that this is being affirmed. The lord Jesus be with you. I'm gonna be gone, but Jesus be with you. He's talking to us today and all What's that? He's talking to us today. Exactly. And so that's the great thing about scripture is that even though it was written so long ago and oftentimes written to a specific audience, it was also something that we can glean from even in today's world. So we look at all this and we gotta understand that You know what? It's not about a man. There are great preachers. There are great evangelists. There are great people that have done many many great things for God in this world, and it's good that we recognize that. But if those people are no longer here, then they're together with Christ. It's not them. It's Christ. Right. And the thing is we learn from what they've done, but it's God that gives the glory. It's God that we have to continue to keep our eyes focused on. Yeah. We can learn things from those people, but that's not the one that we need to walk close with. Paul was a incredible man. Paul was an incredible disciple of Christ, and he was an incredible writer. He wrote all this down. Perhaps the reason he was imprisoned is so he had time to write all this down. I don't know. But the reality is that because of what he wrote down, we today can study and learn from it. The congregation in that day was hearing and learning from it. And so there's so much going on with that. I hope you enjoyed the study of Timothy, first and second. I learned a lot in in these two books. Just a a good deep study, and I'm glad that we had the opportunity to do that. Look forward to starting in Genesis next week. So for those of you who joined us online tonight, thank you so much for being here. God bless, and good night.
- Jan 5, 2025Ring In The New
Ring In The New
Happy New Year!Just like we celebrate a new year, we celebrate a New creation. How can you become a New Creation?"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."A brand new creature! A new believer is a new creature. A new baby can learn the bad with the good. New believers sometimes fall away quickly due to bad examples. Just like a new year, sometimes, we fall short of our goals. Sometimes it is because we don’t fully buy in. Make no mistake he is a New creature. Old has passed away, New things have come. Have you been renewed?Full Transcript:You know, we live in a country that is filled with opportunities, filled with stuff, filled with all kinds of direction. And sometimes it's hard for people to think about god being all they need. Every commercial tells you you need a lot more than that. Right? Every commercial tells you you need everything. You gotta have all this stuff. Everything you look at says that. But the reality is, all we really need is God. That's what we need. In this new year, ring in the new not just year. Ring in the new everything. Be renewed. It's a new year. It's an opportunity to do over. Last year, maybe, it wasn't as great for you as you had hoped. Maybe last year, things weren't so good. Maybe you had a hard time, but this year, you want to do it right. This year, you want to strive to do better. Many people begin the year with a opportunity, and they say, I want to read the Bible through this year. I've never done that before. That's a awesome thing. Do that. If you've never read the Bible through, there are so many different plans out there that you can get, and you can read it through. Don't hurt yourself if you don't make it through in a year. Just keep reading. You know? Yeah. There's plans to read the Bible through in a year, and, actually, it's fairly simple to read the Bible through in a year if you just take the time to do it every day. But even if it takes you a little longer, read it all the way through. It's something you need to do. You need to read it all the way through. How do you live your life for God if you don't know what's in the book? Right? So you need to read it all the way through. Many people say, well, I wanna serve God better this year by x, fill in the blank. Last year was a very difficult year for our church. Last year was a very difficult year for me as the pastor. As I was thinking about the new year, I look back over the last year, and I I feel like that there were many times throughout this last year because of the things that were going on that I was kind of in a, maybe in a depressed state of mind. I said, god, don't let me be that way this year. Let me get past that. It was hard. We lost a lot of people in our church that I was personally very close to. It was a tough year. But you know what? They are all celebrating today. They finally got where they wanted to be their whole life, and I need to be celebrating too. And so let's ring in the new. Let's start fresh this year, and let's ring in the new. So, first of all, happy new year. Happy new year. Thank you. It's a new year. We want it to be a happy new year. We want it to be a fresh start, and we want to look at it with a very positive outlook. Here's the thing. You know, when you look at things that are coming with a negative outlook. Right? I've gotta have some skin cancer taken off this week. So if I'm sitting there dreading that, thinking, man, it's gonna be horrible, I've gotta have that done, it's hard to get past it. But if I think about it in a positive way, hey, I'm getting that cancer off my body. It's gonna be better. It's gonna be a great thing. I'm so glad that that's happening. It changes your whole outlook. We look at the new year 2025. It's gonna be a great year. Why? Because God's still in control. God's in control. No matter what else is happening in your life, no matter what else is happening in the world, it's gonna be a great year because god is in control. So just like we celebrate a new year, we wanna celebrate a New Year in Christ. It's a time to reflect and make changes. It's a time in secular world to reflect and make changes. Right? How many people have seen, more weight loss commercials than you ever wanna see in the last week? Right? Man, they're on everywhere. Why? Everybody wants to make a change. It's time to make a change, lose weight, get healthy. Gym memberships, they'd sell them for 25¢ a month, to start the year and then raise it up, of course, as you go. They do all of these things. Why? It's time to make changes. It's time to be different, to do something different. Well, why? Because it's a new slate. We've given been given a new chance. It's time to make changes, to look back and reflect over what went well last year, what didn't go so well, and how can I make it better this year? I'm gonna encourage you to do this. Think about your walk with Christ over the last year. What went well? What didn't go so well? What do you what did you want to do that you didn't do? Where did you fail him? It's a brand new year. Let's strive to make the right changes in our life this year. Strive to read God's word. Strive to spend time in prayer. Strive to spend time together with brothers and sisters in Christ. Strive to live your life so that others can see Jesus in you, and even strive to tell people about Jesus. Make those changes. If last year that wasn't you, then this year, that's where we need to go. We need to ring in the new. It's a time to reflect on the things that didn't go so well, and it's a time to make changes so that this year will be better. It can be different than before. Sometimes we get wrapped up in this, well, you know, that's just how it is. It's always gonna be that way. I can't really do anything about it. Well, can you? Sure. There are things in life that you can't really change, but most everything in our lives, we can do something about it. We can do something. We can take that opportunity and do something about it. Do you want to do something about it? You reflect on last year. You wanna make changes this year. What can you do and make different? We look around our church and we see that we have people that are here, but there's a lot of vacant seats. There's a lot of vacant seats. We lost 8 people from our congregation last year. We lost 8 people, but we hadn't brought in 8 people. We don't have the seats filling up with new people. Why is that? Is it because we're not telling them about Jesus? Is it because we're not telling them about, the need for a savior? Is it because we're not living our life as we should? Why is that? Think about that. Why is it? It can be different than last year. It can be different if we strive for that, but we have to strive to do better. We have to absolutely strive to do better. Do you know that the majority of people who make a New Year's resolution to get in better shape are done going to the gym by the end of January. By the end of January, they're through. They're not working out anymore. They have for forget about that. That was too hard. I'm not doing that. Many people who strive to read the bible through in a year don't make it through Genesis. They get started and they start reading through Genesis. And if they get through Genesis and Exodus, guess where they stop? Leviticus. They hit all those laws and, man, they just quit. They stop. People say I'm gonna do better, but they don't strive to do better. They say I want it to be different, but they don't really try to make it different. They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way you always have and expecting it to be different. Expecting to get different results. Well, if we do the same thing the same way we always have, it's not gonna be different. We're gonna get the same results that we've gotten in the past, both in our personal individual lives, and our spiritual lives, and our church lives, and all of it. If we do the same thing we've always done, we're never gonna get this any different results. And so we have to strive to make it a better year. We have to strive to make those changes. We have to strive to do better. That means that even when we don't feel like it or even when it gets hard, we have to keep working. Just like celebrating a new year, we celebrate a new creation in Christ. We celebrate a new creation. This the word says that if anyone who has come to know Jesus as Lord and savior is a new creation. A new creation. Not the same as they were before, but different. A new creation. If it's new, it's not what it once was. Right? Think about that. If it's new, it's not what it once was. Some people will say, well, you know, I've always been this way, and I just don't know that I can really change. Well, here's the news flash. On your own, you can't. But if you call upon the name of Jesus as lord and savior, and he makes you a new creation, then it's totally new. And God can help you to be a brand new creation in Christ. He can help you to change how you were into how you need to be. We can be a new creation. We every year, we celebrate New Year's and and so many people say, I'm gonna be better this year, and then they fail. But with God making you a new creation, you can be better. You can be better. He's there with you. You are a brand new creation in Christ. If it's new, it's not what it once was. The old has passed away, and the new has come. I said to the children, you can never get back 2024. You cannot turn the calendar back to 2024. It is not possible. It's gone. There's no way you can go back to 2024. Well, if someone becomes a new creation in Christ, there is no way they can go back to being lost. It can't happen. God said that those which I have in my hand, no one can take you out of my hand. If you are a new creation in Christ, you can't go backwards. If it's a brand new year, you can't go backwards. The reality is what we have to do is strive to go forward, strive to do better from here. We have to continue to look at that new thing. God has made us new. God has made us new. Just as surely as if you, had a a facelift and you looked in the mirror at your new face for the first time and went, wow. That's really different than what it was before. Look in the mirror of Christ and say, you know what? God has changed me. I am not the same person that I was. I'm different. I'm a different person than I once was, and it's time that I start doing something about that. It's time that I live my life that way. It's time that God made me a new creation. Let me live like a new creation and not live like I used to. The old has passed away. The new has come. Don't dwell on the old. Look to the new. It doesn't have to be the way it has always been. For me, that's a big big one to think about. It doesn't have to be the way it's always been. Well, you know, that's just kinda who I am. That's just kinda the way I do things, and that's just, you know, whatever. Okay. But it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to continue to do the same old things that you've always done. You don't have to continue doing that. Listen, as people who are believers, one of our commandments, the greatest commandment that was given to us is go and tell. Go and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. We're supposed to go and tell. That is our number one. That is the greatest commandment that we go and tell. So here's the thing. If we look at that, and that's our great commandment, but over the years as believers in Christ, we've never done that. It doesn't mean that we have to keep living that way. In fact, it means we should not keep living that way. The old has passed away. The The new has come. Don't look for the same old results doing it the same old way. Look for new results. The new things, the new creature, a new creation in Christ. And it's time for all of us to take a long hard look in the mirror and say, hey. You know what? I'm a new creation. Why am I still doing things in the old way? Why am I still living my life in that way? I need to change. God has called me to be his son or daughter. Why am I still living in this bad way? Why am I still doing things in this way? Why am I not doing what I need to do? Pardon me. How can you become a new creation? Maybe that's what you're saying today. He's talking about this new creation. I've never done that. I don't know what that means. How do I become a new creation? 2nd Chronicles 5 17. You can take a look at it in your bible. The words will be on the screen. 2nd, Corinthians. I said chronicles. 2nd Corinthians 5 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. The key part of that phrase is if anyone is in Christ. Have you ever given your life to Christ? Have you given your life? Have you said, I wanna make you Lord and savior of my life? Have you given up your old ways and given yourself to him? If you are, you are a brand new creature in Christ. The old has passed away, and the new has come. Do you know him? Has that happened in your life? If it has never happened in your life, I'd like to talk with you about that personally one on one. If anyone is in Christ, then he's a new creature. The old has passed away. So a brand new creature. A brand new creature. This year, 2024, my family, my wife, and I, welcomed a new grandchild. Right? New babies are so special. They're wonderful. I know many of you, you know, you got 27 of them. That's this. But it's still fresh. Right? Every time you have a new one, it's still wonderful. It's still an amazing thing. As parents, we have a new, child in our life. It's a brand new creature. Then this new creature comes into our life. And, man, it is so different. It changes everything in our life. We've been blessed and been able to be close to our grandchild, and so it's been a wonderful time for us to be able to do that. He's a brand new creature, and it's so neat watching every day. Watching, literally, every day new things he learns, new things he's doing, the new things that's happening in his life. He's getting stronger. He's eating, you know, more solid food, things that are, not baby food stuff as much, and, you know, all these kind of things. And so we're looking at all that. We're watching them grow. And I'm thinking when I'm looking at all this, I'm thinking, you know, that's exactly how our our walk is in Christ is supposed to be. We become a brand new creation, a brand new creature, and we're supposed to continue to grow in strength in him every day. We're not supposed to be the same as we were before. We're supposed to continue to grow and be a better person, to be worthy of that lord and savior that we have accepted. New believers are just like newborns, and they're learning every step of the way. But how do they learn? Well, how do they learn? Somebody's gotta be there to teach them. Somebody's gotta be there to show them. Somebody's gotta mentor them. How does that baby learn to wave? Every time he leaves, I say, bye. I wave at him. The other day he was sitting there and he started going, ah, he's getting it. He's remembering that wave as as creatures in Christ. And it wasn't just me, but the creatures in Christ, brand new. They come in, and and they accept Jesus as lord and savior. And then sometimes we just expect them to know everything right then. Well, you don't know everything. You didn't know everything when you became a believer. How are they gonna know everything right then? They're not. They gotta be mentored. We have a new believer's class. It's only 6 weeks. We go through a new believer's class. That doesn't give them everything they need. That gives them some basics to build upon. They gotta have mentors. They gotta have somebody there helping them to strengthen. Well, I'm 80 whatever years old, and so I've been, you know, in church my whole life. Yeah. Are you perfect? No. Are you gonna be perfect? Not till I step into heaven. So while you're here, you still need to be taught, you still need to be mentored, you still need to do things, but you also need to then turn around and pour into other people. Pour into other people. Well, I'm too old to do this or to do that. Yeah. But you know what? You can still teach. You can still talk to other people. You can still share with other people how they can be a better creation in Christ. How they can learn to be stronger. The things that will help them in the hard times. You know what? I went through that before. Let me tell you what happened in my life. This occurred, and this is how I handled that. This is what I did. And listen, it wasn't right. I learned to do it this way. You can share all that with new creations. New creations in Christ. Even if they're not new, but they're not yet in heaven, they're still learning. We still need to work together to help each other to grow in Christ. They new creations have plenty desire to learn. Every child, they have desire to learn. They wanna learn something all the time. They're constantly watching. They're learning everything. They're they have this desire to learn from you, to learn from the ones that are around their life, a new creation. In a church, they have a desire to learn from you. They know there are people that have been here for all of these years, and they want to learn something. They have that desire to learn. They must have things taught to them. They don't just know it. As much as we'd love to think that when a person becomes a new creature in Christ, that immediately everything they need to know is imparted upon them, and they don't ever need anybody else to show them anything. That is not how it is. Even the scripture says, they're like newborn babies on milk. Right? And they need solid food. They need to grow. They need to learn. We're the ones that know Jesus, have known him for all these years, that need to be the ones to help teach them. We're the ones they're looking towards. We're the ones they're looking at saying, how do I do these things? And if we're not doing things as we should, how are they gonna do them? A new baby can learn things. A new believer is a new creature, and a new baby can learn good and bad. Woah. Hold up. What do you mean? Well, they can learn your bad habits just like they learn your good things. They can learn things. You know, it's amazing. You know, people who before they became parents, they had we'll say a colorful language. They used a lot of words that shouldn't have been used. They have a child, and when suddenly that child begins to use those words, they're shocked. And that's when they have to start changing their vocabulary. Right? They start changing it because they're shocked that that word came out of their child's mouth. Well, why? Because they're watching you. They're learning from you. They learn the good and the bad. They learn the good habits, and they learn the bad habits. They learn everything. They're watching everything that's happening. Brothers and sisters, new believers are watching you. They're watching everything you do. They're watching if you have a a a good habit in your life, a habit of reading God's word and and talking to others about him and doing all those things. They're looking at you have bad habits that the only time you pick up God's word is when you come back to church. On Sunday morning that you talk about God in one way, but then you don't live that way during the week. They're watching those things. They're learning those. Well, you know, so and so. So they've been a believer for 60 years, and, you know, I don't see them doing whatever. So I guess it's not something I need to do. They learn the bad with the good. We as believers, those of us who are more mature believers I didn't say who are mature believers because probably most of us in here aren't mature yet. We're more mature, but we haven't made it to that mature stage yet. We're still striving. We're still learning. We're still trying. But if we're more mature than those who are new in Christ, we should be helping to mentor them. We should be helping to mentor them to bring them along, and show them exactly how they need to do things. Bad examples teach just like good examples. Sometimes, they teach even quicker than good examples. Bad examples teach just like good examples. The person is doing things in a way that's bad and negative, that teaches that child just like it teaches a young believer. It teaches them just like good habits. Sometimes even faster. And so we have to be careful with what we're doing. We need to teach. We need to share. We need to bring them along. But we need to do it in a way that's pleasing to God, and we need to be good examples. We have to be diligent not to be bad examples, but to be good examples. Well, they they shouldn't watch me. I'm I'm just not that good. You know, I I struggle. I have a don't don't don't do what I do. Don't do what I do. Is that really how you wanna live? Is that really how you want to live, to tell people, don't do what I do. I'm not doing it right. I'm not doing it right. Paul said that we should tell them to follow us, that they should mimic what we do. And if we know that people are following us, you know what we gotta do? Follow God. We gotta follow God. We gotta be that good example. Instead of saying, don't do what I do, stop doing the wrong things. And instead, follow God and do what God puts in your heart. Do the things that are right in his sight. Do the things that you know you should have been doing all along, but you haven't. Don't tell people, don't follow me. I'm not a good example. Become a good example. Be that person that leads someone to Christ. Be that person that shows someone how they can overcome those hard things in their life. Be that person that is the mentor and braze them up. It's been said that growing the body of Christ cannot be done with addition, but it has to be done with multiplication. You see, with addition, it's the whole body brings in 1. But with multiplication, everybody brings in 1. And so then suddenly, that's multiplying. That's not just adding. I'm you know, I would love to see this congregation packed out, but that's not what I'm talking about. When I'm talking about growing the body of Christ, I'm talking about the the kingdom of God. I would love to see the kingdom of God be growing, being multiplied exponentially. Because those that do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, they have a a eternal destiny in hell. Only by giving their life to Christ can that change. You know how. We should be sharing with them how. We need to be letting them know how. We can be a bad example, and we can say, well, don't do what I do. Instead, do what I do. Instead, live your life so you can say, hey. Follow me. I'll show you how you do this. I'll show you how to you know what a a carpenter that's any good? They don't say, hey, don't do it like me. They say, let me show you the best way to do it. And then they show you exactly how to build something so that it comes out right and proper. Somebody who is, good in computers, they said they don't say, don't do it like I do. Let me show you the best way to do it. Somebody who knows Jesus as lord and savior shouldn't be saying, don't do it like I do. Let me show you the best way to do it. Let me show you how I walk. And and you may be a little different. God may get put you in a different direction. Maybe use a different devotion than I do. Maybe you have your prayer time and devotion time at night instead in the morning. Maybe you do it a little different. But do those things. Let me show you that because I'm gonna do them. And I wanna walk in that way. That's the way we should be teaching them, not bad things, but new things. We have to be diligent, not to be bad examples. New believers sometimes fall away quickly. You know why? Due to bad examples. Well, you know, I gave my life to Christ, and I'm looking around, and none of these people are living like that. What's the difference? They look just like the people that aren't going to church. Why would I wanna continue to follow them that way? Why would I wanna continue to do that? I can go back to doing things the way I was doing before. I can do this or that. They fall away from the walk. Before. I can do this or that. They fall away from the walk. That doesn't mean they fall that they've lost their salvation, but they fall away from the walk. And instead of growing as a believer, they never grow because they fell away because of bad examples that have been given to them in the 1st place. They're taught bad habits like not putting God first. Not putting God first. We gotta put God first in everything that we do. So think about this, if I'm getting paid the first thing I should be doing is taking what I got paid and giving part of that back to God. Giving him a tithe. Giving him an amount of that money as it's been given to me. I give back to him. I should be doing that. That should be the first thing. When I get paid, I should be doing that. First thing I should be doing during the day is I should be focusing on God. I should be putting God before all those other things. I need to be doing that. And if I'm not putting God first in all things, then the people that are following me are not seeing that. I'm a bad example. I need to get be a good example in order that others can see that. I need to make changes in my life. Perhaps you are here today, and you're thinking, you know what? I have not been doing the greatest thing. I haven't been putting God first. I haven't depended on God for everything. Well, you know, I mean, I don't I don't wanna say I depend on God for everything. I mean, you know, some things I just I I don't necessarily need to call God to, ask about or try to get him involved or, you know, I can do these things on my own. Really? The scripture says apart from me, you can do nothing. The reality is when we start thinking about, I can do all these things on my own. I don't really need God for this. You need God for everything. You need God for everything. And if we're not putting God first and putting God above everything else in our life, then we're going to be bad examples. Just like a new year, sometimes we fall short of our goals. In a new year, we make resolutions or goals, and we wanna do this, we wanna do that, but we fall short. We just don't make it. Say, well, I wanted to do this, but we didn't. Why? A lot of times, the reason we don't is because we don't really take our goals seriously. Oh, we say we're making goals, but we don't really take them seriously. We just want to have a good list to share with somebody and say, this is what I'll plan on doing this year. And if I do, okay. If I don't, okay. It's kinda like marriage today. You know, people get married, and they say, well, if we make it, fine. If we don't, it's okay. Not a big deal. No. A goal when you set a goal, it should be something you strive for. When we make a new goal, then we should strive for it instead of falling short of it. The reason we're falling short is because we're not really trying to reach it. So it's a new new year, a new creation, then strive for that goal. For all of us, we need to be striving for those goals. Sometimes it's because we don't fully buy in. What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes we make a goal because it sounds good, but we didn't really buy into that goal. Right? You know, I think that probably, you know, this is what I should do this year. But, you know, you didn't really buy fully into that. It just like I said, it sounded good, and I never really bought in. Well, I'm gonna tell you this. If you don't fully buy in, you're never gonna reach that goal. You'll never reach it. If you say, you know what? Last year, I challenged at the beginning of the year for each person to lead 1 person to Christ during the year. If we took a a tally today and said, how many of you achieved that goal? I dare say that it wouldn't be a very high total. It wouldn't be a very high total. Why? Because we said, okay. Yeah. We wanna do that, but we didn't fully buy in. We're like, yeah. That sounds good. We didn't really buy in. We never really tried to reach that goal. You know, if God happened to put somebody in our way and we had opportunity to tell them about Christ, maybe that woulda happened, but, you know, we didn't go out of our way looking for it. Sometimes we don't reach goals because we don't fully buy into it. We don't try. We just say, well, it's a goal. I'm never gonna reach it, but it's a goal. If we don't buy in, we'll never reach the goal. If we don't buy in, how are we gonna reach people for Christ? Make no mistake. He is a new creature. Those who accepted god as lord and savior, he is a new creature. A new creature. Not the same as before, a new creature. Not the same. Different by design. What do you mean by design? Well, god said, if anyone comes to me, he is a new creature. He designed it that way. You are new. You're not the same. You are not the person that was walking in the shadows. You are not the person that was in the darkness. You are now the person in the light. And if you are a new creature, then you need to be walking fresh and new. Every day, we need to be trying to walk fresh and new. We need to be putting God first in everything we do because we are a new creature. If you're a new creature and you want to bring other people along with you, then we have to do it that way. It's a new year. It's time to realize the old has passed away. The old has passed away, it's gone. It's no longer here. It's passed. Now we have a new slate. We have a new year. We have a new life. We have a new opportunity. The old person for that has accepted Christ. The old person is gone. The old person is gone. The old has passed away. Grasp the truth that as a new creature, we have to have new habits, new goals, new opportunities. And every year, we need to be striving to reach those goals. We need to buy into them a 100%. I'm gonna challenge you again this year just like I did last year. I'm gonna challenge that every person in this room would lead at least 1 person to Christ this year. Lead at least 1 person to Christ this year. The reality is that for most people, if you lead one person to Christ, you know what's gonna happen. You get so excited about it. You start looking for another. That's called multiplication. That's when we start multiplying. You get so excited, you start looking for another. And then if you lead that one, and they lead 1, and they lead 1, you see what's gonna happen. Today, we're gonna celebrate a baptism. You know why? Because brother Tim led a person to Christ. It wasn't the only one. He led several to Christ this year. But this particular one, we're gonna baptize today because he led into Christ. You know what? The old has passed away. He's a new creature. That means he needs mentoring by all of you who know him as lord and savior. That means that we now want him to lead someone to Christ. Now we wanna continue to do that. Just think about it. If everybody led someone to Christ, we'd have to keep the baptism full all year long. We'd be baptized in all the time. And the great thing about that is not that the church would be growing, but the kingdom would be growing. And that's what we need to strive to do. New things have come. New things have come. The old is past, new things are here. What God has put in your life is new and better than anything you ever had without him. That anything you ever had without him, what God has put in your life is new and better than anything you ever had without him. Grasp that. Be excited about that. The things that God installs are always perfect. Everything he puts in our life is always perfect. I was telling James today, I think about 6 weeks ago, 5, 6 weeks ago, God put this message on my heart for today. This was the day it was going to be. And between the time that God put that message on my heart and today, James got saved. And then we talked about baptism, and he said, originally he was gonna be baptized next week, then he came back. No. I wanna be baptized this week. It's gonna work out better for me. I said, that's awesome. I went back and looked at my message for today and went, wow. Look how God put all that together. It's amazing how God does all that. God does everything perfectly. He puts it in our life perfectly if we will follow what he's doing for us. When he puts it in our life, if we follow it, it's always gonna be perfect. Instead of trying to hold on to the old things or think that we know better than he does or do things differently, we have to trust in these new things. We have to trust in them and follow them. Here's the question I have for you today. Have you been renewed? Have you been renewed? When I say have you been renewed, have you trusted God in your life? Have you trusted him as your Lord and savior? Have you become a new creature because you've given your life to Christ? Has that happened? If it hasn't happened, then what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Today can be that day. If it has happened and you already know Jesus Christ as lord and savior, when's the last time you consider yourself renewed? Are you renewed daily? Have you given your life daily? Are you daily taking up your cross and following him? Are you doing that on a daily basis? Or are you kinda hanging around in your old ways, and not really growing and maturing in Christ? Giving it all to him. Well, today, I wanna ask you this. If you know that you need to be renewed, you need to give your life to Christ fresh and new this year, then I'm gonna have a time of invitation in just a moment. The altar will be open. If you need to give your life fresh and new to God this year, I'm gonna ask you come down here and do it at the altar. Do it at the altar. If you've never given your life to Christ, but today, you know you want to do that, come talk to me. I wanna talk with you about it and tell you exactly how you can do it. Whatever God puts on your heart during this time of invitation, answer. And if you need to come down to the altar to do that, then come down. It'll be open. If you are not physically able to do that and you need to stay where you are, that's okay too. But answer him. Don't let it pass by. Answer whatever he puts on your heart. Let's pray. - Dec 29, 2024Lost Men Are Saved
Lost Men Are Saved
- Dec 18, 20242 Timothy Chapter 4 Pt. 1
2 Timothy Chapter 4 Pt. 1
- Dec 15, 2024Worldly Men Fear
Worldly Men Fear
- Dec 11, 20242 Timothy Chapter 3 Pt. 3
2 Timothy Chapter 3 Pt. 3
- Dec 8, 2024Wise Men Seek Him
Wise Men Seek Him
- Dec 4, 20242 Timothy Chapter 3 Pt. 2
2 Timothy Chapter 3 Pt. 2
- Dec 1, 2024The Good Shepherd
The Good Shepherd
- Nov 24, 2024Worship Like No One Is Watching
Worship Like No One Is Watching
- Nov 20, 20242 Timothy Chapter 3 Pt.1
2 Timothy Chapter 3 Pt.1
- Nov 17, 2024The Glory Of God
The Glory Of God
- Nov 13, 20242 Timothy Chapter 2 Pt. 3
2 Timothy Chapter 2 Pt. 3
- Nov 10, 2024Accountability
Accountability
- Nov 6, 20242 Timothy Chapter 2 Pt. 2
2 Timothy Chapter 2 Pt. 2
- Nov 3, 2024Fruitful
Fruitful
- Oct 30, 20242 Timothy Chapter 2 Pt.1
2 Timothy Chapter 2 Pt.1
- Oct 27, 2024Surrender
Surrender
- Oct 23, 20242 Timothy Chapter 1 Pt.2
2 Timothy Chapter 1 Pt.2
- Oct 20, 2024Intentional
Intentional
