of our salvation. In Christ's name, amen. 59 years ago this January, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated for the first time as governor of California. In his inaugural address, he says these words, Freedom is a fragile thing, and it is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance. It must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation. Brothers and sisters, this is what Paul is getting at in these two verses that we're going to examine today. The Christian faith is never more than one generation from extinction in our church, in our family line, in our country. Paul's at the end of his life. He knows the age of the apostles is coming to an end. what's going to happen next? He is desperately begging his son, his spiritual son Timothy, to fight the good fight, to finish the course, and to keep the faith. And in this passage, he sets forth the plan for keeping that faith. And in that plan, the faith must be taught. The faith must be accepted. The gospel must be passed along. Paul knows and teaches that the Christian faith is about disciples, making disciples from generation to generation. And the stewardship of sound doctrine has been entrusted to us here today from generation past. And for us, we are to pass it along to the next generation. The question is how? How do we keep the faith? How do we fight the good fight? How do we make disciples making disciples? How do we steward this faith from generation to generation so that it does not go extinct? In this passage, we find two main duties of discipleship for the believer in order to steward the sound doctrine from generation to generation. We find two main duties of discipleship in order to steward the sound doctrine from generation to generation. So let's look at this passage, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. Entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. The passage begins, you therefore my son. Paul is addressing Timothy as if he is his own son, and he is his spiritual son. He was converted under his ministry. He was discipled into pastoral ministry in Ephesus. And when he says, you my son, it actually brings us back to the very beginning of the letter where in verse two he says, to Timothy, my beloved son. So this reference to Timothy as a son gives us a little bit of understanding of what discipleship, what the realm of discipleship is. One, first there's an intimate relationship between Paul and Timothy. There's a deep love for one another. within this discipleship relationship. There's a great delight in the duty of discipleship. Paul is delighting in his son. He is not just saying, Timothy, go ahead and do this is the exact what you're supposed to do. This is no dry teaching. This is a delighting in the duty of discipleship. That's something we need to keep in mind throughout this passage. Second, There's an authoritative relationship between Paul and Timothy. In an egalitarian age, when every boss wants to just be a buddy, or every parent just wants to be a child's friend, Paul is talking about this authority, this father-son relationship, this teacher-student relationship. So another aspect of this, of discipleship, is that there is a hierarchy. in discipleship. Third, there is a generational nature to this faith and discipleship. We already saw the generations in verse 5 where Paul talks about Timothy learning the sincere faith from his mother, his grandmother Lois, and then his mother Eunice, and I'm sure it is in you as well. So we see those three generations of faith already in the passage. So let's keep that in mind. There's a delight in the duties of discipleship. There is a hierarchy. It's not just always an egalitarian, I'm your buddy, you're my buddy. There is a hierarchy. But then also, there is a necessity for generational thinking. And we see this in the very next verse, where we see four generations, and we'll get to that. So we see that when Paul is addressing his son, his beloved son, Timothy. Also, you therefore, my son. Paul is grounding the duties of discipleship in the examples and the encouragements and the exhortations that come in chapter one. That's why we read chapter one, to keep it fresh in our mind. There are exhortations in chapter one. Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, Timothy. That is, he needs to kindle afresh his ministry, that's verse six, to suffer unashamedly according to the power of God. That's another exhortation, that's verses eight and nine. Also the exhortation to retain the standard of sound word from verse 13 in chapter one, and then to guard the good deposit of verse 14 in the last chapter. There's also the encouragements of sovereign grace from verse 1 and 2, the generational sincere faith which we talked about in verse 5, being granted a spirit of power and love and discipline in verse 7, and then God's power and the great gospel of Jesus Christ from verses 8 through 10. Then he also, Paul grounds his next commands in, there's a positive example to be followed of Paul himself from verses verse 3 and verse 12, and then there's the positive example of Timothy's grandmother Lois and mother Eunice of verse 5, then there's the faithfulness of Onesephorus from verses 16 to 18, and then also there's the negative example of the abandonment of all who are in Asia, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes from verse 15. So because all of this is true, because all these exhortations, the encouragements, and the examples, positive and negative, and because Timothy is a beloved son, Timothy must listen to Paul. He must take this command seriously, these commands very seriously. Because Paul is about to lay out a strategy for how Grace Community Bible Church, in the year of our Lord, 2025, in the city of Lakeville, in the state of Minnesota, in the country of the United States of America, will hear and then pass along the gospel. Starts here. And so Paul says, you therefore, my son, And what's the first command? Be strong. And this is where we get to our first command. We get to the strength to endure. We get to the strength to endure. We need to be strong and we need that because Paul commands Timothy in verse 8 of chapter 1, join with me in suffering for the gospel. And then he goes into verse 3 and he says, suffer hardship with me. And later on, Paul talks about himself enduring all things for the sake of those who are chosen. So Paul knows the first thing every Christian needs. is strength to endure. This verb is passive, be strong. It's a divine passive. This means that we are not the ones who are strengthening ourselves. We're not getting some strength from within us. We are getting a strength from a source outside of us and that is, that strength comes from God himself. It's not a strength we conjure up. It's a strength we gain from something outside. The psalmist knows this. Psalm 28 7 says, The Lord is my strength. The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in him and I am helped. Psalm 29 11, The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. Psalm 46 1, God is our refuge and strength. The very present helps. in trouble. Psalm 118, 14, the Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation. God is the strength of his people. Paul does not say, Timothy, strengthen yourself. He says, be strong. And the strength is only for those who are his people. That's why he continues on saying, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. This passage is about initial salvation. It's more than that, but this is about initial salvation. If Christ has not become your Lord and Savior, this promise of strength is not guaranteed to you. And there may be people who are sitting here, listening to my voice here in this room, or maybe online, who are saying, I want the strength but I don't necessarily want Jesus, and that can't happen. We have to understand that this is our Father's world. God created this whole world, and by creating this whole world, He is the Lord of the whole world. He owns it all. He has decided all of its rules and regulations. And we, as sinful people, have rebelled against those rules and regulations. And thus we have broken this world and we have contributed to the wickedness of this world. And that's a problem for a holy God. Because a holy God cannot just sweep wickedness under the rug and accept you into his kingdom. That can't happen. Therefore, he promised from the beginning, Genesis 3.15, that a seed of Adam will come and will crush the head of Satan who led us all into rebellion. And he will conquer sin and death. And that seed is Jesus Christ, God himself, who came down and he lived the perfect life that we couldn't live. And he died the death that we ought to have died. and suffering on the cross, the torment of the wrath of God, and the physical pain of nails through his hands, nails through his feet, a crown of thorns in his brow. At the very end, he accomplished it all and yelled out, it is finished, paid in full. he didn't stay dead. And Paul talks about all of this in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 1. He says, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, the salvation granted to us. who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He raised from the dead. He did not stay dead. He brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And this is what we have to believe. We have to put our faith first in this. And for those who haven't done that, everything else is going to be nonsense. You may try to be strong in the Lord. You may try to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, but you can't do it unless you have submitted yourself to Christ by grace through faith. You can't conjure something up on your own. Christianity isn't a faith that you can do enough good works to be strong. It's not how it works. Paul says, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Grace through faith. But the other aspect of this verb is not that you're just strong once. It is a present tense verb. It is a continually be strong. Be continually strong. Yes, you are saved by grace through faith, but you are also being saved and continually strengthened by the grace which is in Christ Jesus. The same Greek word of be strong is the same word that's found in verse 8 of chapter 1 that talks about the power of God. The power of God. And it also talks about, in verse 12, when it says that Paul says that he knows who he has believed and he is convinced that Christ is able to guard what Paul has entrusted to Christ. These are all power words, strong words, and God is doing the strength and the power. So when I thought about power, I thought about a light bulb. A light bulb is designed to illuminate. But if a light bulb is not connected to a power source, it will not give light. We are designed to receive power and then to do something, which we'll get to in a moment, but that won't happen unless we are connected to the actual power, which is God himself through Jesus Christ. I think also of my phone. Now, I remember the days, I mean, before cell phones, but when cell phones were getting popular, I had a nice brick. 90% of the phone was the battery. Had to charge it once every decade. I think it probably still has power somewhere in a landfill. But nowadays, we have to charge our phones, it seems like every hour. That's like us. We need to be connected to power in order to function properly. So be connected to this power. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. This is a continual necessity of the Christian. So my question is, what are you doing to continually draw strength from God? And I think of, are you attending to the means of grace? That is, are you attending to those things which strengthen your faith? So think of the Word, the Word of God. Are you attending to the preaching of the Word, to the reading of the Word, to the memorization of the Word, to the meditating of the Word, to the speaking of the Word, to the teaching and praying and singing of the Word? Are you dedicated to prayer? Are you dedicated to corporate prayer and personal prayer? Are you dedicated to the ordinances instituted by Christ, baptism, and the Lord's Supper? Do you exercise the spiritual disciplines? Do you devote yourself to the Bible intake and to prayer and also corporate and private worship, but also to true biblical fellowship, to evangelism, to serving, to stewardship, to giving, to fasting, to repentance, confession, and repentance? Are these things that mark you? Are these things you look forward to because you can see how God is working in your life when you are connected to him through these means God has ordained to strengthen us? To delight in the duties of things like discipleship. We need to be connected to this power source before we even think about moving on to the duties of discipleship because it won't be a delight, it will just be devastation. It's interesting. We come to this next section, which gives us a command of something to do, not just be. One gentleman brought to my mind the necessity of securing your own oxygen mask before you help somebody else. So on a plane, the attendants always talk about what the rules and regulations are, and this is what happens. They say, in case of loss of cabin pressure, the oxygen masks will deploy. The next phrase is, secure your own mask first. And why do they say this? Because if you're not receiving oxygen, you can't help anybody else receive oxygen. If you are not delighting in the strength that is in Christ Jesus, this is going to be a drudgery. Make it a delight, not drudgery. How can you give somebody something you don't have? And I have to ask the question, do you feel weak and inadequate and ignorant in the faith? Perhaps throughout your life you've done the bare minimum of what the Christian faith requires, of what God requires. And so you feel very inadequate. If that's true, reconnect with the Lord today. Recommit to the life of attending to the means of grace, to the spiritual disciplines, because that is going to give you the power to delight in your duties. If you don't feel strong, it might be because you're focusing on the commands of Christ and you're doing a lot of it, but you're not doing it in the power of God. And so you're constantly introspective. Am I doing enough? Have I done enough today? And you don't focus on the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And you need to remember Christ and what he has done. And this is what we do whenever we celebrate communion, the Lord's Supper. We remember and we're nourished by the remembrance. We're nourished by the bread and we're nourished by the drink. Because it reminds us, I didn't die. I wasn't broken. My body wasn't broken. Christ's was. And that was necessary. Because I'm not strong enough in myself. So it is good to examine yourself in light of passages of scripture like this so that we can know whether we need to repent and return to God in faith and attempting to remember His Word and speak His Word and memorize His Word and give the Word away. Then we need to remind ourselves that we need to look to Christ for all of this because strength comes from the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, Paul understands it. Paul in Philippians 4, 12, and 13, when we think of be strong or being strong or being strengthened, we come to this passage, 3, 12, and 13. I know, Paul says, how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. In hard times and in good times, we must be connected continually to what strengthens us. In singleness and marriage, having children or barrenness, financial success or financial stress, living in a Christian nation or pagan nation, living in prestigious Vienna, Austria as a missionary, or living in Spring Lake Township in Minnesota as a window tint salesman, fighting fires in the Northwest or hauling lumber in Farmington, being a marine biologist or being a pastor, being a YouTuber or oil changer, having a full-fledged career or being a full-time mom, living with healthy children or an ill child, having your parents present in the body or present with the Lord. In whatever circumstance you find, find strength in God through the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We need to come to terms with this before we go on. Many of us are facing such hardship, we are tempted to literally give up the faith. But in every and all circumstances, do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You have to return to Christ, the one who strengthens you. read his word, sing his word, pray his word, memorize his word, be connected to him, be connected with the church in true fellowship. Because we cannot be strong in ourselves. And we cannot be strong in ourselves to do the very next thing which God calls us to do, which is speak to entrust. Speak to entrust. Paul continues on, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. In the duty to disciple, we must entrust the faith to others. Now, oddly enough, in the NASB, which is usually much more rigid in the grammatical construction and everything, it is missing the word and at the very beginning. It's in the Greek and it's in your ESV, whoever has it. It says, basically, be strong and entrust. These are not necessarily separable. These are two things that happen at the same time. It's not necessarily at the same time. It's be strong and then teach, right? You have to be strong. You have to have something in order to give something away. During World War II, there was a famous sign that was posted all over London. It said, keep calm and carry on. This is the type of phrasing that Paul is using. Be strong and speak on. Be strong and speak on. In the Christian life, strength comes from God should naturally lead to discipleship. We are designed to be faithful and fruitful and to multiply. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves in the application of the passage to everyone here, we have to realize this passage is primarily about pastoral ministry. It is. primarily about pastoral ministry. Paul is about to die and Paul is asking Timothy to come to him. He says, make every effort to come to me soon in chapter four. So what does Timothy have to do? He has to make sure that the sheep in Ephesus are being shepherded well. And this is why Timothy is to entrust the things he had heard from Paul to faithful men. And what is he entrusting? Well, the things which you have heard from me is a phrase that is very similar to chapter 1, verse 14, which says, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. Actually, it's verse 13, which is retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me. And what is the standard of sound words? It is the scriptures, verse 16 and 17 of chapter 3, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Therefore, we as a church, what we do We do expository preaching. We do Bible studies. We do Bible memorization. We do a comprehensive scope and sequence of the Truth 78 Sunday School curriculum. We believe we must teach the scriptures so that those who need to know the scriptures will learn it. So what is being taught? The things which you have heard from me, the scriptures are being taught. Not our own ideas, not our own fancies. Next, we need to understand that this is a public ministry, so the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, in the presence of many witnesses, this is not some esoteric, secretive, gnostic message we're preaching. We are proclaiming a word which is the most published word of all time. Everything everybody needs to know is right here. They can open up any of it and we will preach all of it. This is not some sort of secret. We're trying to teach people privately and quietly these things. I think of Deuteronomy 6. We'll go to Deuteronomy 6 probably a couple times here. And I should have put my bookmark there to save me a couple minutes, seconds. Deuteronomy chapter 6, the great passage on discipleship from the Old Testament, verse 7 says, You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. As you are going about life, you are teaching, and people may be there. This is not some sort of secret message that we're imparting. As a side note, probably the best discipleship opportunities actually come when you're not expecting it. Discipleship with your children in your home, discipleship with coworkers on the job, discipleship with neighbors as you're just out and about. So be on the lookout for those opportunities for discipleship. But we finally get to the actual imperative. So the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust, entrust these two faithful men. We gather and we understand what entrust really means because Paul says, entrust these two faithful men who will be able to what? Teach others also. But the interesting thing about this word entrust is it's the same word for treasure in chapter 1 verse 14, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. That's a good deposit. You're depositing to people. This is just the verb form. Entrust, deposit to these people the sound words Timothy has granted a great and solemn ministry through the laying on of his hands we saw in verse 7 of chapter 1. Paul has given this ministry to Timothy to entrust things to faithful men. So he's entrusted Timothy with much, therefore much is expected from Timothy. It's the same with us. We have been entrusted with very much at this church. Therefore, what do we do? We entrust this to faithful men. Now, what does faithful men mean? I'm actually going to get to that next time, Lord willing, because we have three illustrations of the faithful worker of God as a soldier, as an athlete, and as a farmer. But we'll get to that then. But faithful men means that Timothy needs to be on the lookout for faithfulness. Now, you think of having a deposit, and you're gonna deposit something. So I've got an envelope of $1,000, okay? I'm going to deposit that into a bank or a safe. I'm not just gonna deposit that into a mailbox. It's not very safe. So one aspect of entrusting to faithful men is that the men need to be faithful. And again, we're talking primarily about pastoral ministry. One other aspect of these men that were depositing the sound words is they need to be able to teach others also. This is the... Not the only time that Timothy or Paul talks about being able to teach to Timothy. In verse 24 of this chapter, it says, And then in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2, it's the same thing. He must be able to teach. So what we are entrusting, we are entrusting the sound words that we have heard from. Timothy is entrusting the sound words which Paul taught him. He is going to entrust that to faithful men who are able to teach others also. But discipleship is for everyone. It's our responsibility to disciple as Christians. That's what we're designed to do. but we may feel like our ability is not enough. But that's where we understand our ability to teach is, again, not dependent on us. The strength to do the teaching has to come from God. From the pastor to the preschool teacher, the strength does not come from us. 2 Corinthians 3, 4, and 6 says, such confidence we have through Christ toward God not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who has made us adequate as servants." This adequacy in 2 Corinthians 3, 4 through 6 is the same Greek word as able here in our passage. The ability comes from the strength that we receive through grace that is in Christ Jesus. The duty to disciple by Christians is not just dependent on our abilities. It's not dependent on us strengthening ourselves. It comes from strength from God. When that strength comes, then we get to speak. And why don't we feel adequate? Sometimes we don't feel adequate, like I said before. We don't feel strong because of sinful things in our lives. We might not feel adequate because of sinful things in our lives. We may have something that we're hiding in our hearts. We are not confessing this. Maybe we confess it to God, but we're not confessing it to one another. We're not truly repenting of those things in our heart, those desires that we have. Perhaps we feel unable to teach others also because of the awe-filled reverence that we actually do have for the Word of God. Because as James says, let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. This might paralyze us into inactivity. But no matter the reason for feeling inadequate, the solution is the same. We must rely on God. We must rely on his resources for the adequacy to teach. We must rely on God's strength so that we can speak on. When we have resolved to obey the commands, to be strong and to speak, we are making spiritual deposits, investments into the next generation. And another brother of mine who is much better with finances, so I'm gonna totally butcher this, but think of the spiritual deposits that you make into your brothers and sisters in Christ, as if it was money that you are investing in the S&P 500 or a Roth IRA, your 401k, investment you're making in your own home or in precious metals. You are hoping that nothing you do actually produces more. Passive income. passive investment. What you expect later on in life is for something, you know, three percent, ten percent, a hundred percent investment return. It's the same as investing in your brothers and sisters in the spiritual discipleship, in your children in spiritual discipleship. But many of us are wasting everything on fast food every day, Maybe we're investing every single dollar we have into Bitcoin. I don't suggest that. But I don't also not suggest that. I don't know, I'm not a financial guy, so don't even, don't, just, it's probably a bad idea. Investing our money on the latest, greatest technology that's gonna become obsolete within the next couple years. What are you spending your time and effort in investing in primarily? It's not bad to invest in a 401k, but are you so focused on your 401k that you are ignoring your kids? It's not bad to think about and play fantasy football, but are you more focused on fantasy football than true confessional fellowship with brothers and sisters? Are you more invested in all of your possessions and making sure they are all great and perfect and working order than you are in times of prayer? What are you investing your time in? What are you primarily investing in? There is, brothers and sisters, so much delight in the duties of discipleship, when you are connected with Christ, when you are being strengthened by Him to actually speak His words to one another. And we don't, we can't imagine the delight. We cannot imagine it. Because there is a little bit of delight here on earth in doing these things. compared to the delight in eternity. I think of, I'm not going to think of that because I did not write it down, so. What I did think of, though, was Ezra. I thought of Ezra as an example to ourselves. Ezra, if you know in the book of Ezra, chapter 7, verses 1 through 10, the summary of verses 1 through 9 is this, that Ezra goes from Babylon to Jerusalem. And it says he was able to do this because, this is what it says in verse 9, the good hand of God was upon him. Maybe the mighty hand of God? Maybe because Ezra humbled himself under the mighty hand of God? But Ezra, it says, it says, the good hand of God was upon him. And verse 10 says, for, and this is Ezra chapter seven, verse 10, for Ezra set his heart, his desire, set his heart to study the law of God, receive that strength from him. and to practice it, to actually do what God says, and also to do what, do you think? Teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. This is something our church focuses on. We focus on, Pastor Jeff is offering hermeneutic studies, he's teaching expository preaching seminars, doing personal discipleship of myself, of Pastor Jim, of Pastor Jason, and many others. Pouring into other people, helping train Alberto, who we'll hear from next week. We do this by giving financially to missionaries who do these things. I think of Kai Zoltau and Matthew Short out in Vienna at Christus Gemeinde Wien. Not only are they just pastoring Christus Gemeinde Wien, but they are teaching other pastors and they are starting a training center called Trinitas Akademie, which is the Trinity Academy. Training pastors is the main thrust of this passage, okay? But, brothers and sisters, we need faithful men and women to disciple. We need you to be available and participate in things like tending and befriending, participate in the Bible studies, participate in grace groups, actually be connected in fellowship, participate in ancient paths for men, Participate in the good portion for women. Be available to participate in those things that will actually strengthen you, and then be humble. Acknowledge that the strength comes from God, not ourselves. Do not think too highly of yourself. Then we need men and women who are teachable, who are open to correction, who are not thin-skinned, who will get offended if we say, maybe this is the better way. And we need people to be transparent and honest with their weakness. The reason why faith will go extinct from our church is if we do not follow this passage and be strong and to speak on. If we do not delight in the duty of discipleship, this church will die. The faith will die in your own family. The full quote of Ronald Reagan on that inauguration day in January of 1967 says this. He begins this way, perhaps you and I have lived too long with this miracle, the miracle of freedom, to properly be appreciative. Perhaps we have lived too long in a society, in a culture, in a family that has been strong in the Lord, that we don't understand the miracle that it is that we faithfully teach the Word of God here. And it is not properly appreciated. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, as Ronald Reagan says, Freedom, or in our case, Christian faith, must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation. It must be defended and taught, the Christian faith, in this church, faithfully by each generation. And perhaps we don't have the fight in us. We don't have the willingness to do that work which will give us strength to actually disciple. Perhaps we do not see how delightful it is to actually disciple. Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and we'll finish up here. Because in Deuteronomy chapter 6, this is a beautiful passage of discipleship. The necessity of one generation to teach the next generation sound doctrine did not start with Paul and Timothy. And God gives the command gave the command, and now Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 6, 1 says, Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them. in the land where you are going over to possess, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it. that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one sound doctrine. You shall love the Lord your God. Delight with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. It is never too late to delight in the duty of discipleship, either delight in discipling or delight in being discipled. It is never too late. You may have wasted a lot of your life not attending to the means of grace, but you can today and for the rest of your life. Resolve to make a change today to delight in the duty of discipleship, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of this faith. Be strong and speak on. Let us pray.