Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/70689/2-timothy-49-22/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Take your Bibles. We're going to finish the book of 2nd Timothy. 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verses 9 through 22. While you're turning there, I had a revelation just a few moments ago sitting on the front pew right here.

[0:20] And the revelation was that I am officially an old man. And the reason I had that revelation is because the Word of God says that grandchildren are the crown of old men.

[0:32] So I was sitting here with my granddaughter and I was like, well, that means I am an old man. So there you go. It was Proverbs chapter 17. The Word of God tells us. Remember, we've said this before, men, that Scripture tells us we are old, but it tells ladies they are advancing.

[0:48] It's a big difference there, right? We are old, they are advancing. So just wisdom so that we know how to handle that. And we know the right words to say because as we say in our house, words matter. They matter. So we want to say it properly.

[1:04] You have your Scripture. Thankfully, you have it before you. Hopefully, it's open to the right passage. If you are physically able and desire to do so, would you join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God.

[1:15] 2nd Timothy chapter 4, starting in verse 9. We'll read to the end of the chapter, which is the end of the book. And we will finish this letter of Paul today. Paul, writing to his son in the faith, the very last letter, supposedly that he wrote, before his death at the hands of the Roman emperor, says, Make every effort to come to me soon.

[1:42] For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Cretans has gone to Galatia, Titus to Domitia.

[1:52] Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. But Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus, When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, And the books, especially the parchments.

[2:09] Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.

[2:20] At my first defense, no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, So that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, And that all the Gentiles might hear.

[2:36] And I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, And will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever.

[2:51] Amen. Greet Prissa and Aquila, And the household of Arnysiphorus. Erastus remained at Corinth, But Trophimus left sick in Miletus.

[3:01] Make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, Also Pudens and Lionel. All the brethren. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

[3:13] You may be seated. We have made our way through the letter of 2 Timothy. We have seen, And we need to be reminded of, That the theme of 2 Timothy can be found, In the first verse of the second chapter.

[3:27] Where Paul writes, You therefore, my son, Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. In his letter to Timothy, Which we have recorded as 1 Timothy, Paul is writing, In the midst of his missionary travels, And he is writing back to Timothy, Whom he has left behind at Ephesus, As he is pastoring the church here, Or raising up elders and pastors and deacons, And he is really organizing the church body, And he is encouraging Timothy in his first letter, How the church should behave, And what it looks like to be the church.

[3:59] Now we come to the end of his life, Where he is once again writing this letter, To the same man, Timothy, But with a totally different context. No longer is he writing about the concerns, Of the corporate body, Though the corporate body is factored into that, We'll see that in just a moment.

[4:15] Now he is writing to the individual, About how not to just be the church, But how to be the man, Or the woman. How to be the person for the time. Those who are ready, And prepared for the season, In which the Lord has left them.

[4:33] We have been reminded, That Timothy is not living, At an easy point in history. The reason Paul is in a prison cell, The reason he is below ground, In a Roman dungeon, Is because the persecution, Against Christians has escalated.

[4:51] It is probably during the reign of Nero, That these persecutions are reaching, The zenith of that time, In which many atrocities, In which many atrocities, Are being done against people, Who profess Jesus Christ.

[5:03] And therefore the temptation, Is to kind of cower back, Or to maybe go in hiding. But all throughout the letter, Paul is encouraging Timothy, Who evidently did not necessarily, Have the strongest backbone of anyone.

[5:16] Because even in the first letter, Here he is kindling afresh, The fire that is within him. Here he is encouraging him, To be strong. So he needs this kind of prodding, If you will.

[5:27] But he is encouraging him, To continue to be faithful, To be strong, In spite of, And probably in light of, The society in which he lives. He does not tell him, It's going to get easier, As a matter of fact, He tells us, As we have seen, That in these latter days, And my friend, Listen to me, If when Paul was writing this, It was the latter days, Then it is doubly so, The latter days today.

[5:50] The latter days, Really, If we define it biblically, Exists between the time, When Christ ascended, Into heaven after the resurrection, Until he descends, To reign upon the earth.

[6:01] That everything in between, Is the latter days. We have it introduced for us, In the early pages of Acts, Where when Peter preaches, His Pentecost sermon, He quotes the book of Joel, That refers to the coming, Of the latter days, And what's going to happen.

[6:14] So that is the introduction of it. So, By appointment, The church exists, In the latter days. Another way to define that period, In history is to call it, The church age.

[6:26] The church was made, For the latter days. We were made, For difficult days. The church was not, Formed nor fashioned, To live in ease, Or comfort, Or in prosperity.

[6:39] The church, The reason for its existence, Is to be a light, And a proclaimer, Of the gospel, In the midst, Of difficult days.

[6:50] It is to call, Men and women, To Jesus Christ, Until he comes again. So it is, Very becoming of the church, Not to wait, Till things get better, Or not to, To hope that things, Will eventually pass, And that seasons, Will change.

[7:06] Rather, It is the calling, Of the individual, And of the church, To be strong. And so now, We have seen this letter, As over and over again, Be strong, In the grace, That is in Christ Jesus.

[7:22] And he ends it here, And you say, Well pastor, This is nothing, But personal concerns, A salutation, A listing of names, But in here, I want you to see, Some essentials, For endurance.

[7:33] What is it going to take, For us to endure? What is it going to take, For us to, Be strong, In the days, In which we have been called, And even prepared, To live within.

[7:46] Friend, If you wanted to live, At a time, When it was easy, Then you would have had, To have been, Either Adam or Eve. But unfortunately, That didn't last long.

[7:57] So until, Christ comes again, We are called to be strong. But the good news is, Is we're not just strong, In ourselves, Is be strong, In the grace, Of the Lord.

[8:10] What essentials, Exist, What is, Of utmost importance, That we need, To have in place, So that we can be, The men and women, God has called us to be. Number one, You see the fellowship, We were created for.

[8:26] We are reminded, Now while this is, A letter to an individual, This is a unique letter, Because it is written, To an individual.

[8:39] Now, We do not have to say, It is in isolation, Because every promise, And I believe it, With all of my heart, Every promise, In the New Testament, Finds its fulfillment, Through the local body, Of believers, Called the church.

[8:51] That is, If you're going to go, Through the scripture, And you're going to look, At what God promises you, Before you name it, And claim it, Make sure you put it, In its right context, And every promise, In scripture, Is given through, And in the local church.

[9:06] It is, The bride of Christ, It is, Of great importance, To him. That doesn't say, That we as a church, Are fulfilling the promises, Because it is not a building, It is not, A denomination, But it is the people of God.

[9:21] And so, While Paul is writing, To the individual Timothy, He is not isolating him, From the church, As a matter of fact, He is writing to him, Within the context, Of being the church, And he is demonstrating, And declaring to him, The essential aspect, Of fellowship.

[9:37] Look at what it says, Make every effort, To come to me, Soon. Now, If this was anybody else, Besides Paul, Maybe we could kind of, Cast it off a little bit.

[9:52] But this is Paul. He who was stoned, And left for dead, And got up, And went back into the city. I love that, By the way, In passage in the book of Acts, Where he proclaims Christ, He says, I'm not the God you should serve, Let me tell you about, The God you should be serving, And they get mad at him, And they stone him, And they think he's dead, And they leave him for dead, And it says, And Paul gets up, While everybody's looking on, The disciples are gathered around, Going, Oh, Paul's dead, And he gets up, And he kind of brushes the dirt off, And then he goes back, Into the same city, And stays the night.

[10:21] Now, You don't normally, Stay overnight, In a town they just tried to kill you in. But he did. And he came back later, To strengthen the church, That remained.

[10:32] This is Paul, Who's been shipwrecked at sea, He's been hungry, He's been well fed, He's been clothed, He's been naked. This is Paul, Who has been beaten, With the brand marks of Christ.

[10:44] This is Paul, That's been imprisoned, Multitude of times. This is Paul, Who met Jesus, On Damascus road, Who saw the bright light, As everybody that was with him did, But yet, He also heard the voice, Who called out to him.

[10:59] This is Paul, Who was three years, In the wilderness of Arabia, In the school of Christ, Graduated from the greatest, Of universities, So much so, That his tutoring, Under the feet of Gamaliel, Meant little of anything.

[11:11] You say, Well who's Gamaliel? He was only the greatest professor, Of that time. And his tutelage, Under Gamaliel, Meant nothing, Because everything, That was gained to him, He is counted as rubbish. Because he had been, In the presence of Christ.

[11:24] This is Paul, Who was laying his hands, On individuals, And they were being filled, With the Holy Spirit. This is Paul, Who was casting out demons.

[11:35] This is Paul, Who was making, Seeing man blind. And this is Paul saying, Please hurry up, And come see me.

[11:47] Right? I mean, If Paul longed, For the fellowship, How much more, We? It is not that Paul, Is up on a pedestal, And that he's greater, Than anyone else.

[12:02] Paul is just, As he would say, The chief of sinners, Who was a, A disciple, Born out of due season. He is one, That is being used, Of the Lord. And he understands that.

[12:14] But he says, Make every effort, To come to me soon. And he has this, Longing, To walk in fellowship. And then we read, Through this listing of names.

[12:25] And we think, Oh wow, This is just a bunch of names. Do you know Paul, Paul, Has a habit, Of listing names, At the end of every one, Of his letters? I love what Warren Wearsby, Says about it.

[12:38] Warren Wearsby said, It is a great man, Who acknowledges, That he needs other people, To walk beside him, In the ministry. Paul writes the names, I love the fact, That Paul names his enemies, But Paul also names, Those who are walking with him.

[12:53] Right? I mean, We have the name, Of Alexander the coppersmith, He doesn't mind naming names, But he also encourages, Over and over and over again, About those who are laboring with him, Those who are with him, Those who are walking beside him, Those whom he's left, In other places, That are ministering there, And he does not neglect, To acknowledge, Those who are laboring, In the fields of the kingdom.

[13:15] Because Paul knows, Much like us, That fellowship, Is of great importance. Paul writes to the, Church at Rome, In the book of Romans, If you remember, It's been some time ago, Went through the book of Romans, He writes to the church at Rome, Which he had never seen, Face to face, He was on his way there, Because he's been arrested, We understand that, But I love how Paul writes, There in the first chapter of Romans, Where he says, I long to see you, That I may encourage you, But then he says something else, And be encouraged, By you.

[13:54] So, Paul doesn't say, You're going to be blessed, Because I come see you, Paul says, I hope to be a blessing to you, And I know you're going to be, A blessing to me. It is the fellowship, Of the saints, That is so essential.

[14:08] Friend, Listen to me, We will not, Endure, If we isolate ourselves, From fellowship. Fellowship, Is essential.

[14:23] It is the reason, We have all of the, One another passages, And, It is the very reason, Why the enemy of our soul, Tries to isolate us, And separate us, So often.

[14:35] It does not take, Very long, To come up, With a reason to, Miss out, Or to come up, With a reason to, Be separate, Or come up, With a reason to, Live in isolation, And it is, A clear sign, That it is because, Fellowship, Is so essential.

[14:51] We see the fellowship, That we were created for. Number two, While fellowship, Is so important, There is something else, That we need to acknowledge, And it is something, That we would rather not acknowledge, But we need to, There is the fellowship, We were created for, And there is, Secondly, The fallibility of man, The fallibility of man, Some of you know, That in, My office, I keep, Two dictionaries, One is a, Reprint, Of the 1862, Webster dictionary, I keep it because, When it was originally written, Every definition, That could be connected, To scripture, Was connected to scripture, Because at that time, In the education system, Words were defined, In their use in scripture, So it's really, Amazing, The American encyclopedia, That was used to define, This is how it is used, In the context of scripture, And the other one, Is an original old copy,

[15:52] From the 1800s, Which I never open much, Because the pages want to, I want to fall out, So I leave it be, The binding is completely broke, But what's amazing, Is neither one of those, Dictionaries, Have the word fallibility, In it because it's a, Fairly new word, So you have to dig, A little bit further, To see, What fallibility means, It's pretty simple, It means, Able to make mistakes, Or to fail, To be fallible, Means to have the ability, To fail, That's why we don't like it, But we need, To remind ourselves, Of the fallibility, Or the ability to fail, Of man, You say, Well I know a lot of people, That have the ability to fail, Well stay with me, Look at what it says, He says, Come to me soon for, Demas, Now the only other time, We have Demas, Acknowledged, Is in Colossians chapter 4, In Colossians chapter 4, That is that,

[16:52] Salutation, Part of the book, Of Colossians, To the church of Colossae, And he is writing again, Listing those people, Who are with him, And as he is listing there, In chapter 4, I believe it's the 14th verse, Of Colossians chapter 4, He says that Luke is with him, Now Luke is always with him, Luke is the author, Of the book of Luke, And also the author, Of the book of Acts, And he's the traveling companion, Of Paul, He is the physician, That Paul probably needed, Quite often, But anyway, He says that Luke is with him, But he says that Demas, Is with him too, So the only thing, We know about Demas, From scripture, Is that he was a traveling companion, Of Paul, On his missionary journeys, Right, So he was with him, He was traveling with him, As he was declaring the gospel, Raising up churches, But now we read this, One little caveat about him, For Demas, Having loved this present world, Has deserted me, And gone to Thessalonica, Here's Demas, Who was with Paul, Up until this time, That is,

[17:53] Until Paul was put in Roman prison, Waiting his imminent death, And Demas said, You know, To put it another way, I don't think I'm quite ready to die, And he deserted Paul, Now, Fellowship is important, But we need to acknowledge, That our fellowship with man, Is a fellowship with fallible men, Who may, Fail us, And if we're really just going to be, Transparent and honest, Every one of our failures, Have the same root cause, That Demas' failure has, We love, This present, World, We pull back, We fail to do, What God's called us to do,

[18:55] We're hesitant, To give of ourselves, As we ought to, We are, Cautious, To go all the way in, And the reality is, Is because we love, This present world, That is, The word world there, Means age, We love, This age, Or another way of saying it, Our life, More than we love, The world to come, And that is, Quite honest, The root cause, Of every, Failure, Now, We notice here, That when Paul says this, Paul is not necessarily, Declaring judgment, He is just making, An emphatic statement, He tells us, Why, Demas, Left, Because of his love, For his life, He deserted him, Now, He doesn't necessarily, Judge him, Because right after that, He begins to declare, Those whom he has sent, To other places,

[19:56] Those who are, Doing work, And continuing, To be faithful, And the key to this, Why we don't see, Paul getting very upset, We find later on, In these verses, Where he makes this statement, He says, Stop, And pick somebody up, On the way, Tells him in verse 11, Pick up Mark, And bring him with you, Well who is Mark, Well Mark is John Mark, You know Mark, Because he is the author, Of the first gospel written, The gospel of Mark, I like the way Mark writes, He writes very quick, He writes very pointed, He writes very concise, As a matter of fact, The most recurring word, In the gospel of Mark, Is immediately, Or straightforward, Depending on which translation, You're reading, And Mark is always moving, And it's going, It's going, It's going, It's going, It's going, It's going, It's going fast, And Mark is writing, Probably because Peter has just died, And he is writing from what he had heard Peter declare, As Peter was declaring the gospel, So we see a lot of that,

[20:56] In the writings of Mark, But Mark was also a traveling companion, An early traveling companion, With Paul and Barnabas, On their first missionary journey, Mark was also the one, That when it got a little bit tough, That Mark loved this present age, And deserted them, Remember that?

[21:13] And Mark was also the one, That later on, Barnabas, We have to praise God, For the Barnabases, Around us, The sons of encouragement, Right? That Barnabas, Wanted to bring him along, On their second missionary journey, And the Bible tells us, In the book of Acts, That a sharp disagreement, Occurred between Paul and Barnabas, So, I mean, Here's a newsflash, Paul was mankind too, Had a little bit of a temper, Right?

[21:40] A sharp disagreement, The wording is there, It got a little heated, And Paul says, I'm not going to take, He who deserted us, To go with us, So much so, That Paul and Barnabas split ways, Barnabas took Mark, Paul took Silas, They went into Macedonia, And the rest is recorded for us, In scriptural history, So the last time, Paul has an encounter, Around Mark, Paul is mad, And upset, And says, I don't want anything to do with him, He deserted me, Now, What we see, Is that Paul says, Pick up Mark, Because he's profitable, For me, You know what we acknowledge here, Not only the fallibility of man, With Demas, But we also see, Paul acknowledging, His own fallibility, Friend, Let me tell you something, The reason, We need to acknowledge, That men are prone, And able to fail, Is because each and every one of us, Are prone, And able to fail, At times, The fellowship will be broken,

[22:41] Because of our own, Failings, At times, We will be living, Peaceably with all men, As much as it depends upon us, But still, We will find, There being division, While fellowship is important, That fellowship, Is between fallible men, And women, Each one of us, Prone and able to fail, And each one of us, Prone and able to make mistakes, And the greater, And the earlier, That we can acknowledge that, The more, That we can, In humility, Like Paul, At the end of his life, Not necessarily pass judgment, Because we understand, Our own weaknesses, And we leave that, To the Lord, Because without it, There will be, No endurance, Because if we think, That man will never fail us, Then we will get hung up, On that reality, And we will not endure, Because we will fail others, And others will fail us, I know that,

[23:43] Is not an encouraging word, But hopefully, It's an accurate word, Even within the confines, Of the church, So we see, The essential of the fellowship, We were created for, We see the essential, Of acknowledging, The fallibility of man, But here's the good news, That Paul declares for us, Here at the end, Third and finally, We see the essential, Of the favor, Of the Lord, That our endurance, While it is, Absolutely necessary, That we have fellowship, While it is, Absolutely fitting, That we acknowledge, That within that fellowship, There will be heartbreak, And there will be failings, Sometimes our fault, Sometimes not our fault, Sometimes the fault, Of those around us, But we must acknowledge that, And we must examine, Our own lives, And our own hearts, And minds, But we know, The absolute guarantee, Of endurance, Is not found,

[24:43] Within ourselves, Or found with those, Around us, Rather our endurance, Is found in the favor, Of the Lord, Because look at what, Paul says in verse 16, At my first defense, No one supported me, But all deserted me, Now the word, That he uses here is, Kind of the pre-trial, To the Roman trial, In the Roman court system, There was a first offense, In which you stood up, And you said, This is what I'm being charged with, Or they would proclaim, This is what we're charging you with, And this is what you would say, About the charges being brought against you, And there was all this back and forth, And there was the first offense, And then you would go back to your cell, And then sometime later, In the future, They would bring you back, And they would declare their judgment to you, What Paul is saying now, If he is talking about his literal first trial, Or if he's just talking about, An aspect in his life, What he is saying is, That his first offense, The first time he had to publicly declare, His faith in Jesus Christ,

[25:44] When he knew it was an antagonistic audience, No one was with him, But all deserted him, That would have a tendency, To leave a little bit of bitterness within us, Because Paul knew that by making this public declaration, He was essentially signing his own death warrant, And yet, None were with him, But look at what he says, May it not be counted against them, Oh isn't that a, Mighty thing, What does he tell Timothy, But you Timothy, My son, Be strong in the, Grace, Of the Lord Jesus Christ, Grace, Paul says, They left me and deserted me,

[26:45] But may the Lord not count it against them, That's a display of grace, And mercy, Much like our Savior, When all deserted him, Much like when Stephen was being stoned, And he prayed for those who were, Killing him, Paul, Standing there, Watching, May you be strong in the grace, To no one's to women, How can he say that, I mean, How is that possible, Well it's possible, If we read the remainder of it, Look at what it says, But the Lord stood with me, Oh praise God, There is a friend, That sticks closer than a brother, There was one, That was forsaken, Not only by man, But by his heavenly father, There is but one, Who has been forsaken by all, And bore the weight, And pain, And judgment, Of all of our sins,

[27:46] And yet, He has promised each one of us, I will never leave you, Nor forsake you, Though it is absolutely essential, That we have fellowship, One with another, The greatest essential, Is the reality, That God keeps his word, And when Jesus Christ says, He will not forsake us, He does not forsake us, That when we stand alone, In the midst of that trial, And when we feel like, We're in isolation, And the enemy of our soul, Wants to stand on our shoulders, And say, See, No one is here, No one is around you, No one is going to encourage you, And he longs to get you, To this place of focus, On yourself, You remind him, That while he may not see them, You know the reality of him, That there is one, Who has promised you, That he will stand with you, And not only will he stand with you, Look at what it says, And he strengthened me, It is the favor of the Lord, To strengthen his people, So that they may endure, One of the greatest testimonies,

[28:48] And I know I've shared it with you before, But it's a testimony, That bears repeating, Over and over and over again, Was during the rampant persecution, Of the early days of the church, An individual was put in prison, And this was during the time, When they were burning people at the stake, And I don't know, I've told you this before, And he was in the prison cell, And he was awaiting his, Burning at the stake, Because he would not, Recant his faith in Jesus Christ, And the whole time he was there, He was in a jail cell, With an individual beside him, And he was proclaiming the glories, Of Jesus Christ to his cellmate, And there was a window in this jail cell, And you could see, Where they were building the fire, Right, They were putting everything around it, They were putting the stake on the ground, Where he would be tied, And lit on fire alive, And the next day, Was his scheduled execution date, And the gentleman in the cell with him said, If what you declare is real, Then I want you to give me a sign, And he said, What would you have?

[29:41] He said, Well then when you're, Tomorrow, When you're on that stake, If God is still with you there, Give me a sign, Because I'll be watching. The next day, The executioners come in, They get the gentleman, And they take him to the stake, And they're preparing to tie him to the stake, And he asked some questions, He said, If you don't mind, Let me pray.

[30:02] So he knelt down, And he put his forehead against that stake, And he prayed over that stake, And he prayed that God would help him, They went to tie his hands, He said, There's no need in that, You don't have to tie my hands and feet, So he was unfettered, Untied to the stake, They lit the fire around him, And the fire began to grow, And the flames began to consume, And it got hotter, And it got hotter, And the guy in the jail cell was watching, And he was waiting, And the fire burned for, It seemed like several minutes, I don't mean to get too vivid in my description, But it got to the point, Where it should have been beyond ability, Where the skin was literally burning off of his arms, And at the very last moment, The man whose body was engulfed in flames, Raised both hands to heaven, To show the man that was waiting in the jail cell, That there was someone with him, Strengthening him, Even there, No one else was there, But the man in the prison cell, Knew what he was doing, Because see, This is a reality, How do we endure, Because it is the favor of the Lord,

[31:07] To be with us, When no one else is, Look at what Paul says, Paul says, That not only did he strengthen me, He strengthened me for a purpose, So that through me, The proclamation might be fully accomplished, And that all the Gentiles might hear, And I was rescued out of the lion's mouth, Now we don't know if this is a word picture, Or if this is a little statement, Because it was a practice at that time, For them to throw them into the arena, And let lions consume them, And Paul, Because he was a Roman citizen, Could not have endured that, Once his citizenship was discovered, They would have pulled him out of that, But, It also could be speaking to the leaders of that time, But then notice this last statement, Here's the grand favor, The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, You say, How can he say that, He knows he's about to die, Right, He already said he's being poured out as a drink offering, That's the last sacrifice in the sacrificial system,

[32:08] But he says, But the Lord will, How can you have such confidence, Because look at the rescue, He will rescue me from every evil deed, And will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom, Brothers and sisters, The greatest rescue is the rescue to his side, Not from our troubles, He says, The favor of the Lord is that he will rescue me from every evil deed, And the final rescue will be a deliverance from this world, Until his heavenly kingdom, And we endure because we know, Listen, Listen, Not because we know life is going to get easier, We endure because we know that even as it gets harder, Christ will not forsake us, And the greatest rescue is the last rescue, Right, The greatest rescue is the rescue that happens at the end of the life for the believer, The greatest rescue is the rescue that happens when it's all done, And when the world is mourning, And when we're sad and sorrowful,

[33:09] And we know there's pain that is real, But the greatest rescue is to be rescued out of all of this evil, And into his kingdom, Yesterday I had an opportunity to have a video call with Miss Sally, So thankful you reached out to me, I was praying with her, You know, And I made a declaration to her that I've made to so many people for her, It tells us in the Gospel of John that those who believe in Jesus Christ Have already passed out of death and into life, Right, So death is a thing in the past, In spite of what our bodies and what the world is telling us, We've already passed out and into life, And there is just one great rescue awaiting that day, I don't know when my rescue will be, But I can't wait to see how faithful he is to rescue me, There is the grand favor of the Lord, Paul did not say God was good,

[34:11] And that Jesus Christ was amazing, Because he removed all the problems, He said his favor is on display, Because he takes me to his kingdom, It all depends on our focus, We endure, Because we know, That it is to his heavenly kingdom, We go as brothers and sisters and believers in Jesus Christ, And then we say to him, Be the glory forever and ever, Amen, Amen, This is how we are strong in the grace of the Lord, He gives these greetings, And then in verse 22, He says, The Lord be with your spirit, And just in case you thought he was writing to an individual, Grace be with you, That word you there is plural, We would say it in the south,

[35:12] Grace be with y'all, He says, Timothy, I've addressed it to you, But I know you're around others, Grace be with all of you, As you seek to endure in faithfulness, Let's pray, Oh Father, We thank you so much, Thank you for this day, Thank you for the gift of your word, But more than that, Lord Jesus, We thank you, That you are faithful, We know, In our own failings, Where we fail one another, And others fail us, There is the temptation to be discouraged, To be disheartened, And to push back, But Lord Jesus, You are so faithful,

[36:14] Help us, To stand, In the grace, In favor of the Lord Jesus Christ, When we have nothing else to stand in, And may it be, For your glory, Forever, And ever, In your name we pray, Amen.

[36:34]  Amen.