Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4 as we today, this morning, we have every plan to finish up our study through 1st and 2nd Timothy, managing the household of God. We've been through 15 different ways in which we are called in these two letters that Paul writes to manage the household of God. Maybe I can just run through the list for just a moment here to refresh our memories. We have been called to manage the household by instruction. We've been called to manage through our example. We've been called to manage through prayer, through submission, through leadership, through vigilance. We've been called to manage through teaching. We've been called to manage through our individual responsibility. We've been called to manage through integrity. We've been called to manage through remembrance, through multiplication. We've been called to manage through trials. We've been called to manage through purity, through godliness, and then last time through proclamation. All of these ways that Paul has reminded us that we are to be actively building up the body of Christ here. And we realize that although Paul was writing to a young preacher in the city of Ephesus, whose name was Timothy, that these commands are for all of us. We can't lay this at the feet of the pastor and say, well, here you go, pastor, manage our church. We realize that we are all called to be partakers in this responsibility of management. As we take our last look here today at these two books, we come to chapter four, the second part of chapter four of 2 Timothy, and we see here lastly that Paul tells young Timothy to manage through encouragement, to manage through encouragement. Paul knew that the end of his life was very near. Matter of fact, we believe that probably within a few short months, Paul was going to exit this world and to be exalted before the Lord. Paul was writing this letter probably sometime in the fall to winter and was executed sometime in the springtime. We recognize that probably within a few short months, he realizes his life is going to come to a close. However, Paul did not use this as his excuse to retire from ministry. He didn't sit there in that jail cell recognizing just a few short months away he was going to stand before Caesar for the second time and give an account and was probably going to be judged guilty and taken out to be executed. But yet he didn't take this time to say, well, I've done pretty much all that I can do. Good luck to the rest of you now. And then sit there in his cell for the last few months of his life, bemoaning what was going to happen or just kind of waiting out until even confined in this jail cell. Paul realizes his responsibility to continue. He had not yet finished the race. Now he talked about finishing the race last week, but he realizes he has not yet crossed that finish line. There was still work to do. However, as we look at this last section here of this passage, his continued service was not possible by himself. He needed faithful friends. While he is confined in this jail cell, for him to finish was not possible by himself. He needed the help and the support and the encouragement of faithful friends. We look at verses 9 to the end of the chapter here, and we see that this whole passage kind of climaxes with verses 17 and 18. Notice what he says in verses 17 and 18. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. that by my preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of lions. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me under His heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Two verses that say, in which Paul, the writer here, voices such great confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ that the Lord is going to protect him and that the Lord is going to exalt him and that the Lord is going to be there in jail with him and support him and give him strength. Two verses that we can certainly take away as Christians today to be an encouragement for us. However, I think the full impact of these two verses are understood better when we understand the verses leading up to them. Let us look here for just a moment today at a couple of snapshots of certain individuals here to get a clearer picture of how we manage through encouraging one another. We manage through encouraging. Paul states such great confidence in the Lord in verses 17 and 18. But let's take a moment and look at the verses leading up to 17 and 18. We see here today that we are, first of all, in verses nine through 12, we are called, or we are encouraged by standing with others. We are encouraged, first of all, by standing with others. Notice what Paul says in verses nine through 12. He says, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Paul is writing to Timothy. Paul is in a prison in Rome. Young Timothy is in a church in Ephesus. A long way away, no doubt several months journey. He says, do thy diligence to come to me. And then he says in verse number 10, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica. Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. take Mark, bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Antiochus, have I sent to Ephesus. We see here in these first couple of verses of chapter four, we are encouraged by standing with others. There is no doubt that when you decide to be involved in ministry for the Lord, relationships can be difficult. Now, when I say involved in ministry, I'm not just simply talking about full-time staff, pastors, and missionaries. Anybody who desires to serve the Lord, you will realize that ministry can be difficult on relationships. In this passage alone, we see, first of all, that we will often feel forsaken at times. We see that in verse number 10. The Lord was forsaken, was he not, on the night in which he was to be taken away to be crucified when his closest 12 friends on this earth all forsook him, all ran. Relationships can be difficult. We will often feel forsaken. We see in verse number 11, we will often feel alone. Remember Elijah? When he goes before the Lord and says, Lord, I am the only one standing for you. I am the only one in this whole wicked or wretched nation that desires to do anything right for you. And the Lord reminded him, there are some 1,000 prophets who have not yet bowed their knee to Baal. Sometimes in ministry, we often feel alone. Ministry can be difficult on relationships. Sometimes we will often feel hostility and opposition from both without and within the body of Christ. Relationships can be difficult because we will often feel as though no one stands with you when you need them. We see that in verse number 16. Verse number 20, we see that relationships and ministry can be difficult because we feel the pain of sickness We feel the pain of separation from others who are in ministry, who the Lord takes away. We sit here and say, Lord, why did you move that family out of our church? They were such an important part of our church. Why did you move them to some other region of the world? Lord, why did you take that person out of our ministry here and take them to some mission field? Lord, they were so important here. And sometimes in ministry, it can feel lonely and it can be a strain on relationships because sometimes the Lord simply moves people. It's difficult. Ministry can be difficult on relationships. In fact, of the six names listed in these verses here, two of them, two of the people that Paul lists in this passage, walked away from the ministry. They left. Oh, at first it must have been an exciting idea to be able to travel with the apostle Paul. But did not take long to realize that with that, came sacrifice. With that, you had to turn your back on the things of this world. With that means that you might sometimes feel rejection and criticism from those outside the body, from those within the body. Paul faced all of that. Two of them left. Listen to the urgency that we see in verse number nine, as Paul urges Timothy, just before winter is coming, Just before his impending death, Paul urges Timothy, do thy diligence to come after me. Timothy, come and see me. We see here encouragement by standing with others. We see, first of all, in this couple of verses, those who abandon leaders in ministry. Those who abandon, he mentions here Demas. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. Demas, the one who was influenced by the world. You know, he was not always this way. Demas was not always of this mindset. If we go back and look at Paul's letter to the Colossian church. At the close of that letter, Colossians chapter four, verse number 14, Paul states this, Luke, the beloved physician, Luke is with me, and Demas greet you. Luke and Demas greet you, he writes in this letter to the Colossians. Luke, who was with him almost through his entire ministry. And then Demas, who started out here. But he says here, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed unto Thessalonica. You know, there is a desire for this world that makes serving the Lord impossible. If our minds and our eyes and if our perception, if our affections are set upon this world, it is impossible for us to look to serve the Lord as well. We cannot serve the Lord and serve this world. We cannot serve the Lord and serve mammon at the same time. As a Christian, either my focus is gonna be upon the Lord and serving him and seeking to please him, or it will be upon the things of the world, but it cannot be both. Demas hath forsaken. The word here, forsaken, means to utterly abandon. And I believe the implication is that he completely walked away, not just from Paul, but from the faith. I believe he completely gave up. Now, was he a Christian? That would be between him and the Lord. But as far as ministry and his desire to serve the Lord, he had cast it all aside. Many feel that perhaps it was Paul's arrest that was the catalyst. He was faithful with Paul. He had served with Paul. As we understand the last part of this book here, the impression is that Paul was arrested quite quickly. And perhaps as a result, Demas took a step back and said, wait a minute. It's getting pretty serious now. He's being arrested. He's being taken to Rome. He will stand before Caesar. That means he will probably lose his life. You know, the things of this world don't look so bad. Perhaps I can serve the Lord without really giving everything. Perhaps I can serve the Lord without really having to worry about any kind of sacrifice or personal cost to my own life. So we see that Demas has forsaken him. But we see others here as well. Look at those who united with leaders in these verses. He mentions five different people here. He talks about Crescens here. Verse number 10, Crescens has gone to Galatia. Crescens was sent by Paul to the church of Galatia. The church of Galatia was a group of fickle and easily influenced group of believers. What do we know about the Galatians? Well, if we wanted to take a moment here and turn back, notice what Paul says about this church, Galatians chapter 1 and verse number 6. He says here, I marvel, Galatians church, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you unto grace. I am amazed that you are so quickly moved away from him who gave his life for you. Look at what he says here in chapter 3. Verse number one, oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth? Here we have a group of believers, a group of Christians, who were easily deceived and easily influenced. And Paul sends this individual, Crescens, to go and to set things straight in the church of the Galatians. sent to confront the Judaizers who sought to add works to the gospel of Jesus Christ, who sought to add works to grace. Paul had great trust in him. We see here secondly Titus sent by Paul to Dalmatia. Titus was another one of Paul's own sons, as he says in Titus chapter 1 and verse number 4. Titus was the one, as we look at Galatians chapter 2 verses 1 and 3, who was the individual in Jerusalem that the Jewish Christians expected to be circumcised. If you want to be a Christian, you must go through circumcision. And what did Paul say? Absolutely not. We are saved by grace, not through works. We see here Luke, also in this passage. Luke was Paul's personal physician. Almost from the very moment that Paul goes out into missions work, we see Luke there. Luke is with him when he has a shipwreck. Luke is with him when he struggles with the thorn in the flesh. Luke is his personal doctor that goes along with him, his personal secretary who often wrote letters for Paul. In fact, we see here, and again in 2 Timothy chapter 4, that Luke only is with him now at the end. Luke's the only one that's left. William Barclay, the commentator, states this. Why is Luke with him? Roman citizens were allowed to take two slaves with them when being taken to Rome for a trial. If you were a Roman citizen going to Rome to stand trial before Caesar, you were allowed to take two slaves with you only if you were a Roman citizen. William Barclay suggests that Luke himself volunteered to become a slave for Paul. so that he could accompany Paul at this time. Can you imagine what a friend that is? Paul, I'll go to Rome with you. I'll even become your slave. That means if I can go to jail and be there to encourage you and to help you. This being the case, he was willing to become a slave in order to serve Paul in his bonds. Then we have Mark. Young John Mark. Where do we see John Mark earlier in scripture? On a missionary journey with Paul. But he doesn't complete that journey, does he? Young John Mark becomes disillusioned and he goes back home, as Paul might say in his words, goes back home to mom. Couldn't handle it. Mark abandoned Paul previously, so rejected by Paul that it caused a split in the missionary team between him and Barnabas. We see that in Acts chapter 15 and verse number 39. In fact, we see there that he and Barnabas strenuously disagreed. There was a great conflict. Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with him on the next missionary journey. And Paul says, absolutely not. He quit once. I'm not going to have him with me again. So Paul and Barnabas split. Paul goes one way with Silas and Barnabas goes another way with John Mark. His repentance and zeal were such that now, what does Paul say? Paul says here, bring John Mark with you when you come. He is profitable to me. He is of great worth to me in the ministry. We see here Tychicus sent by Paul to replace Timothy so that Timothy could come to him now. Here's the person. I'm sending Tychicus to you, Timothy. Tychicus, that's a hard one to say very quickly, several times in a row. Tychicus is to take over the church so that you can come to me and see me before I am executed and before my life comes to an end. We see here not just the one individual who abandoned the leader, Paul, but we see here those who united with Paul, who supported Paul. We are encouraged by standing with others in times of difficulty. Church, we are encouraged when we stand with each other. We are certainly going into a day and age that we live here where Christianity is not always going to be popular, where Christianity is not always going to be accepted. We are moving into a day and age in which Christianity is going to experience persecution even in America. We are encouraged when we stand together. I don't remember which American leader it was that said, either we stand together or we hang separately. You know, there's an awful lot of truth there. Either we stand together, believers, or we will die separately. Paul says we are encouraged by standing with others. Number two here this morning, we are encouraged by not just standing with others, but by caring for others, by reaching out to others. Notice what Paul says here in verse number 13. He says, the cloak that I have left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee and the books, but especially the parchments. Paul says, bring three things for me. Now understand, It's not like, you know, if you're mom or your dad and you forgot something and so you call up your kids and say, hey, kid, whatever your kid's name is, kid, I forgot my lunch. Can you please pick it up off the kitchen counter and bring it two miles down the road where I'm working so I can have lunch? That's not what's going on here. This is an extremely long distance time travel between Ephesus and Rome. Not to mention that winter is coming on, which makes sea travel almost impossible. Therefore, Timothy has to go by land, which is almost twice as far if you look at the map. Paul says, stop by and pick up my cloak, pick up my books, and pick up my parchments. Now, we don't know and understand necessarily what all these things are. We can understand the cloak is probably a winter coat. Winter is coming on. He's going to be cold in the prison. Bring me my coat. It's going to be important. Bring me the books and bring me the parchments. We don't know what those are. Probably, to some degree, the Old Testament, or at least parts of God's Word. Probably his parchments could either be his own personal notes or perhaps letters that he was going to write to other people. But he says to young Timothy, bring these things for me. Now, if you're thinking about Timothy as he's reading this, he's thinking, wow, this is quite a request. To leave my ministry here, to take this long trip to go out of the way to get a few things to bring to Paul, Is there nobody else there with Paul that could do this for him? Why is it that he needs me to make this long trip out of the way to get his personal effects and to bring... Is there nobody there in Troas that can pick these things up and bring them to him? Why is it that I need to do these things? And yet, we see here, he was willing to care. Those who help in ministry is what we see first. We are encouraged by caring for others. Those who help each other in ministry. Is it always convenient? Ministry by its nature is not convenient. You say, but you're paid. That's your job. Ministry by its nature, whether you're paid or whether you're not, is not convenient. You know, he could have said, Paul, that's out of the way. Winter's coming. I got a ministry here. I have a church family here. I have my family here. This is going to be very inconvenient. There has to be somebody else. Paul says, Timothy, I need you. I need you to do this. Let me ask you this. When was the last time you were inconvenienced to serve the Lord? When was the last time that you said, you know what? This needs to be done. Somebody needs to take part in this. Oftentimes our excuse is, well, I work. I work long hours. Everybody works long hours. I have a family. All of us have families. I live a long way away. Tell that to Timothy. He lived a long way away. The problem is we don't like to be inconvenienced. I will come to church if it's convenient. I will serve the Lord if it's convenient. But we see here, we are encouraged by caring for other people's needs. We see first of all those who help, and Timothy was willing to say, I will leave it, Paul. I will go out of the way. I will grab these things. I will bring them to you because you need these. But we also see those who hinder the ministry. Yes, those who help, but we see here also those who hinder. Look at verse number 14. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. I'm glad I'm not Alexander. Of whom be thou ware also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. Notice where it says, he hath greatly withstood our words. In other words, he has acted harshly against us. Who is Alexander? Paul had no shortage of people who hated him. Paul had no shortage of people who wanted him dead. Every city he went to, the Judaizers followed him. Every city he went to, they stirred up trouble and tried to have him killed. Here is one such man who happened to succeed. Most believe that he is probably the individual that Paul turned over, that he is probably the individual that turned Paul over to the authorities and testified against them because that's what it says in verse number 15. He hath greatly withstood our words. Probably the one who turned Paul over to the authorities. probably the one in his first hearing that we see here in verse number 16 stood before Caesar against Paul and denounced him. Perhaps the same Alexander that we find in 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 20 who Paul rebuked sharply. Paul prays here that the Lord would deal with him accordingly. He doesn't say Timothy on your way make sure you find Alexander and take care of him for me. Rebuke him for me. What does Paul say? Paul says, Timothy, the Lord will deal with Alexander. The Lord is going to take care of those who rebuke us. The Lord is going to take care of those who withstand us. He is the same one that writes in Romans chapter 12, verse number 19, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. But how often do we like to leave off those last two words? Or the last three words. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. End of statement, right? That's not what Paul says. We will leave him to the Lord. We'll let the Lord take care of Alexander. We see, first of all, that we are encouraged by standing with others. We're encouraged by caring for others. And thirdly, we see here, we are encouraged by trusting God. Alexander turns Paul over to the authorities. Paul is in prison for the rest of his life, for the rest of his short life. As a result of this, we see here that everybody else has fled. Everybody else has left Paul. The only one left is the Lord. And notice what he says here in verses 16 through 18. at my first answer, the word of your answer is apologia, the idea here is this, at my first hearing, at my first defense, you see a Roman citizen was allowed two defenses before Caesar. The first one was to declare his guilt and the second one was to sentence him. So the first one here, he says this, at my first standing before Caesar, at my opportunity to prove my innocence before Caesar, what does he say here? All men All men forsook me. You know, we look back now through this lens of Paul was the most likable Christian missionary, preacher, teacher in the Bible, right? Everywhere he went, all the little kids went with their Bibles to have Paul sign it, right? Like we used to do when we were kids. Everybody wanted Paul's name. Everyone loved Paul. That's not the case. We go back to this time frame, we realize that even the Jewish people didn't all like Paul. even the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem didn't all like Paul. And Paul says here, when I was in prison at my darkest hour, nobody else stood with me. Everybody else fled. He trusted God for his, first of all, for his presence we see in verse number 16. Everybody else left. Maybe it was out of fear for being associated with Paul. Paul's in jail. He's standing before Caesar. He's probably going to die. Now would be a good time for me to find a new mission field. Now would be a good time for me to find a new place of service. And everybody else left. The word here is, well I'm not going to butcher the Greek word here, but it means no one came together to stand with me. As I stood there in court, no one surrounded me, no one was there to encourage me, no one was there to speak on my defense. I wonder if Paul understood a little bit what it was like to be the Lord Jesus Christ that night as he was taken away by the soldiers. As he was brought before the high priest, all of his disciples had fled and no one was there to stand with him. Even those who associated with him, as we see in verse number 21, at least we will see in a few minutes, even they were not there at this hearing. He trusted the Lord for his presence. You know, we are reminded here that people cannot always meet our expectations. There are always reasons which we are not aware of as to why people might let us down. As a pastor, I cannot always be there when you need me. I can't always be there for the weddings. I can't always be there for the funerals. I can't always be there for the hospital visits. I can't always be there for the births. I can't always be there for the special events. As a church member, you do not always meet the pastoral expectations. You're not always there for the outreaches. You're not always there for the services. You're not always there to give. We can get angry at each other. We can get bitter at each other over these unrealistic expectations that we have for each other. But as one commentator states, we must not be so simplistic and unforgiving to attach personal feelings to these unmet expectations. These are not indications of a lack of love or care. You know sometimes we just can't meet them. What is Paul's response? Paul prayed that when others did not meet his expectations that God would forgive them as he had forgiven them. We are encouraged by trusting God. We trust God for his presence. When no one else is there when we need them, the Lord is there. We are reminded in Proverbs 19.11, the discretion of a man deferred his anger. and it is His glory to pass over a transgression." What a beauty it is in the body of Christ that rather than getting angry when people don't meet our expectations, rather than getting angry at people when they don't do what we want them to do or say what we want them to say, rather what a privilege it is for us to look over a transgression. That's what Proverbs 19.11 says. It is the glory to pass over a transgression. That verse does not mean that it is a glory for us to turn our head towards sin. That's not what that means. What that means is this, when somebody doesn't meet my expectations, it is my privilege in Christ to forgive. When somebody offends me, it is my privilege in Christ to forgive. When people don't meet the expectations and do the things that I expect, and when my feelings get hurt, what a privilege it is in the body of Christ to overlook, because the Lord overlooked ours. We see, first of all, He trusted for His presence. We see, secondly, in verse number 17, He trusted Him for His strength. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. The Lord strengthened me. The Lord empowered me. He increased my strength. I'm reminded of what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10, where he says, And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul was there in jail. No one stood with me. How discouraged he would be. No one stood up for him. How depressed he would be. And so he realizes that the Lord is with him. And with the Lord's presence comes the Lord's strength. And he recognizes, when I am weak, the Lord makes me strong. When I am lonely, the Lord is my friendship. When I have no power, the Lord is my power. He goes on to say in 2 Corinthians, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities. Who here can say that? Because the Lord makes me strong when I am weak, then I am going to glory when I am weak. I look forward to being weak because then I have the Lord's strength. in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, he says, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul says the Lord was my strength. I had no strength. I was alone. The Lord was with me and the Lord gave me his strength. And then the Lord gives me his deliverance, he says in verse number 18. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. Paul is not talking here with some hopeful fancy that God was going to deliver him from prison. He tells us here earlier in the chapter, I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. He recognized the end was near. He's not asking that the Lord would deliver him from prison. Not the deliverance from an impending death. I believe that Paul's greatest desire was that his life and his death would bring glory to God. That's why he says in Philippians chapter 1, verse number 21, for me to live is Christ and to die is what? is gain. What is the deliverance that Paul is talking about? I believe he desired to be delivered from any word or deed that would reproach his testimony for the Lord. I am ready to be delivered. I am ready to go through any persecution, even death, if the Lord's name will be glorified. And I'll do it alone, because I have the Lord with me, and I have his strength. We are encouraged by trusting God. We see here lastly, as we look at the last few verses, we are encouraged by serving the brethren. Look at verses 19 through 22. It says, Salute Trissa and Aquila, the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at Miletium sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter, We see here that Paul begs Timothy to serve him by coming to Rome. We see that in verse number 21. But notice the following seemingly insignificant individuals and their significant acts of service. Paul reminds us here that we are encouraged by serving the brethren. He says here, first of all, salute, verse number 19. Espazomai is the Greek word, and it means to enfold in the arms, to embrace or to greet. The idea here is this, go up and give them a great big bear hug from Paul. A big hug. Salute them. And then he goes here and gives us another list of individuals. We see, first of all, Priscilla and Aquila. Every time we see Priscilla and Aquila in the New Testament, they are serving the Lord and they are serving Paul. Three separate cities, Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus, in which they started churches. You know where these churches started? In their very own homes. They served Paul. They helped start churches. Their purpose was to serve others. Priscilla and Aquila. We've seen in the scripture about Apollos, the great speaker, Apollos. Who was it that served Apollos? It was Priscilla and Aquila. We see here another individual, Onesiphorus. We see he is mentioned in chapter one of verse number 16. Often refreshed Paul in prison, we find in that verse. Onesiphorus often comes to prison and he's not ashamed of my bonds. He's a believer who's not afraid to come and say, I'm here to see the Apostle Paul. He's not worried about being arrested for being his associate. He was a servant to Paul in Paul's time of need. We see here Trophimus. Trophimus was a man who was saved in Ephesus and accompanied Paul until he became sick and could not continue any further. What was it that kept him back from being with Paul now? He just physically couldn't make the trip anymore. He was sick. He served Paul as much as he could. We see here also Eubulus, Putins, Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren. Well, who are these individuals? He mentions them as if we should know who they are. Scripture gives us no other indication as to who these individuals are. They're average, normal believers whose lives produce no further significance except that they were faithfully serving each other within the body of Christ. We don't know who they were. For all we know, they were just seemingly insignificant members of the body. But we recognize there are no insignificant members to the body. Every person who has the opportunity to serve Christ within the body of Christ serves a purpose. We don't know if they were Sunday school teachers. We don't know if they did special music. We don't know if they were out every day evangelizing, passing out tracts. We don't know who they were. We don't know what function they served. But Paul reminds us of them. What part is insignificant? Brother Fafard and I were talking, he's going out to Indianapolis to a place where they make springs. Little springs. Insignificant, right? Well, it's just a spring. He was telling me these springs are used to remove the nuclear core from a reactor when it all shuts down. Well, suddenly that little spring becomes quite significant, doesn't it? How many of you remember 1987, maybe, watching the Challenger lift off? I was in, what, fifth grade, sixth grade, watching it on TV, and it exploded. What caused the explosion? Just a little O-ring. Insignificant, right? We can maybe even assume that maybe they said, well, I forgot this one O-ring. Ah, don't worry about it. It's just an O-ring. This huge rocket, however many, millions of dollars to build, to reach space, to reach the outer atmosphere, and to see space, and to do all these, it's just a $2 O-ring. Don't worry about it. You know, that O-ring was pretty significant, wasn't it? Ask the family of seven astronauts how significant that O ring is. We don't know who these individuals were. We don't know if they were great soul winners. We don't know if they worked in the kids program. We don't know if they ran the nursery. We don't know what they did, but they were significant to Paul. Here's the reminder for us. We encourage each other by serving the brethren. What is your role? Maybe the question would be more appropriate, what should your role be? Because there are no insignificant parts. If we are the body of Christ, every single one of us fulfills a purpose, or is designed to fulfill a purpose. So if we come to the conclusion of our study here, managing the household of God, Paul reminds Timothy as he is getting ready to pen his last words, probably at least the last words that we have as far as inspired text. He reminds Timothy of the importance of encouraging the body. Be an encouragement to the brethren. Are there those that resist the body? Yes, there are. Some of them are within the body and some of them are without the body. And so Paul reminds us of the encouragement, of the responsibility to be an encouragement. Timothy, encourage. Let me ask you, Faith. Would you consider your work at Faith Baptist Church as one of encouragement to the body or one of hindrance to the body? Now we may say, I'm not hindering the body, I'm not resisting, I'm not causing trouble as far as I know, I'm not trying to stir up problems within the body of Christ, but sometimes the hindrance is simply in the fact that we do nothing. Sometimes it could be an individual's lack of being involved that creates more work for somebody else who is already doing so much. That would be a hindrance. So what is your purpose in the body of Christ? How do you serve the Lord by serving Faith Baptist Church? Does your service function as an encouragement to the body or might it be considered the hindrance that keeps us from growing? were called to manage through encouragement. Dear Lord, we thank you for this study, a reminder for us, each one of us, Lord, how we are to serve within the body of Christ, how we are to manage the household of Christ. Lord, at the end here, Paul writes to Timothy and tells him of the pain that he had suffered, the heartache that he had suffered on behalf of other believers, on behalf of those that followed with him sometimes. And so he warns Timothy of the importance of being an encouragement. And Lord, it would bring a question to us today. How do we encourage the body of Christ? What role do we play? Lord, there are no insignificant responsibilities. There are no insignificant people. But what we need, Lord, are people who are willing to look and to see where they can plug in, to see where they can function, what role they can provide, and to serve as an encouragement to our local church here, Faith Baptist Church. Maybe there would be someone here today that would say, Pastor Matt, I have for too long been nothing more than a bystander. Perhaps my apathy in and of itself has served as a hindrance to Faith Baptist Church. I am so thankful for those. who serve so selflessly here. But there is so much to do. Faith Baptists, there is so much to do. We have so many needs. And we're looking for people. We need people who would say, I need to serve. I need to be an encouragement. And I need to serve. Pastor, the message today spoke to me. I'm just lifting up my hand. Would you pray for me, Pastor, that I would find how I can function within the body of Christ to serve as an encouragement? I'm just lifting my hand. Would you pray for me? You can put those hands down. Today's message was primarily for the body of Christ, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. But the truth is, you can't serve the Lord if you don't know the Lord. You can be involved in work, But as we sing today, it's not just to serve, but to love you with all of my heart. It's not just important to be busy, but it's important to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Maybe there's someone here today that would say, Pastor, I don't know Jesus as my Savior. I don't know where I would spend eternity if I were to die today. Pastor, would you please pray for me? I'm lifting up my hand. I'm not going to embarrass you, but if you lift up your hand, I will pray for you. Dear Lord, we pray for those today that have raised their hands We recognize the importance of encouraging. We recognize the importance of serving. So Lord, I pray that you would be with those who have a desire to be used of you. Lord, I pray that they would look around to find ways in which they can be involved in our ministry here, to look for ways to serve you, to look for ways to be an encouragement to the body of Christ. Lord, I pray that you would work in their hearts today As our heads are bowed and as our eyes are closed, I'm going to ask Kelly to come and lead us in the Song of Invitation. If the Lord is speaking to you, don't put it off. He desires to use you. How can you be used in the body of Christ? Kelly, go ahead and lead us in the Song of Invitation.