This is a very strange day for me. Preaching this morning at KBC and tonight at LBC knowing that this is our last Lord's Day here. One of the things that makes it so strange is it recalls early on the first few times that I came for the annual conference when I would do a morning at KBC and an evening at OBC or vice versa. It's fitting. And it's also sobering to think that the Lord has brought our time here to a close. There are many people who have let us know recently that they thought we would never leave. A lot of people. Who said that? We thought you'd never leave. When we came, we committed to three to five years. One of the reasons that people thought we'd never leave is because the three to five years turned into nine. We would have made 10 years in August. We settled here, built a home here, loved all of our time here. But we live our lives with open hands. The reason we came to Zambia is because we belong to God, not to America. The reason we're leaving Zambia is because we belong to God and not to Zambia. We go where he leads. And that is much easier said than done because it is a difficult and painful process. It's hard to believe how quickly those nine years have passed by. Well, as I thought about this day, I couldn't help but think about what has become my favorite epistle, and that is 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy is Paul's swan song. He's writing at the end of his ministry, at the end of his life. He knows that it's at the end of his life. He makes it clear in chapter 4. Perhaps the most famous passage in the book of Second Timothy comes in chapter four, there beginning at verse six, where he says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing." That's a man who knows his life is coming to a close. And as he becomes aware that his life is coming to a close, he sits down with his amanuenses, with his secretary, if you will, and he pens this letter. He writes to young Timothy, encouraging young Timothy to do two things. And these two things occur in every chapter in Second Timothy. He encourages him on the one hand to preserve and proclaim the gospel. In every chapter, we see that. And secondly, he encourages him to endure the suffering that will inevitably follow as a result of that proclamation. It's amazing when you think about it. If I were to boil down the message of Second Timothy, it would be this. Paul writes to Timothy and he says, I love you. They're about to kill me for preaching the gospel. And when they kill me, preach the gospel. That's the message of Second Timothy. He bids this man to come and die. for the sake of the gospel. And he bids him to come and die for the sake of the gospel, as he himself is painfully aware that that's exactly what he's about to do. Well, as he finishes this letter, and that's what I want us to concentrate on today, the close of the letter, the last paragraph in the letter, the paragraph after his statement, and four, six through eight. Beginning at verse nine, the part of the epistle that we often don't pay much attention to, but it's incredibly important. The title of my message is, The Costly Call to Community. The Costly Call to Community. Verse nine, do your best to come to me soon, For Demas, in love with this present world, has departed me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. Also the books, and above all the parchments, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. I just have to, I just have to, I had to really, I must make this statement. That's like my favorite line in the epistle. This is my favorite epistle. That's my favorite line in the epistle. Paul doesn't just say, you know, somebody did me great harm. He doesn't just say, Alexander did me great harm. He says, no, Alexander the coppersmith. You know the one down around the corner over there by, like he's very specific about who he's talking about. And I think this is incredibly important for our day. When we tend not to be that bold at all, where we tend not to want to name names. And again, there are moments when we shouldn't, but there are definitely moments when we must. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. This mic is pretty hot guys. Can we turn it down maybe or? Okay. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained at Corinth. I left Profimus, who was ill, at Miletus. Again, that is another of my favorite lines in the Book of Second Timothy. Paul, the apostle, says he left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. He didn't heal him. He didn't heal him. So for all of the faith healers out there today who say, you know, that God just intends health, wealth, and prosperity. And if we're not seeing healing, it's because we don't have enough faith. Here's the Apostle Paul who says, I left Trophimus and he was sick. I didn't heal him. He's still sick. 21, do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Putins and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Wonderful ending to this letter. But I want you to see what's often hidden from us in this ending. Why is community so costly? And why is it that so many of us avoid it at all costs, and instead just want to have shallow surface level relationships, when the church does not allow for that. The church calls us to be part of the household of faith, to be part of the family of God. The church calls us to see one another as brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers in the faith. It calls us to intimacy. And this is arguably the most intimate letter in the New Testament. We see a few examples here in this chapter. Verse nine, do your best to come to Me soon. There's urgency there. Verse 13, when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books and above all the parchments. Verse 21, do your best to come before winter. Why? Why do you need to hurry up and come? Well, you need to hurry up and come because I'm about to be put to death and I want to see you before that happens. But if you really want to understand the intimacy of these statements, you have to put it in the broader context of the letter as a whole. Look at chapter one, for example, beginning at verse two. He introduces himself and then he says, to Timothy, my beloved child. By the way, Timothy was not his son by birth, nor was he his son by adoption. Timothy is his child in the faith. To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. This is an intimate relationship. As I remember your tears, they shed tears together. They went through hardships together. As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I want to see you. It makes me happy to see you. It fills me with joy to see you. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelled first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. I know your history. I know your heritage. I know your faith journey. I know your family. I love you. I long to see you. so that I can be filled with joy, because it fills me with joy when I see you. This is not a surface level relationship. This is not a formal relationship between Timothy and the apostle. That's why he refers to him as his beloved child, because that's exactly who he is. That's the kind of intimacy that true Christian community requires. John 17, 11, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. This is the Lord speaking. And I am coming to You, Holy Father. Keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as we are one. The kind of unity that Christ is calling for within His body is a supernatural unity. He says that they may be one even as we are one. That there may be a spiritual union and spiritual communion to them that is akin to the spiritual union within the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Make them one. Unite them to each other. We're not used to that. In fact, we're not comfortable with that. There's almost nowhere that we're comfortable with that. Just go out for a meal and look for a family sitting at a table together for a meal. First of all, it'd be hard to find families sitting together at table for meal. But if you do find a family sitting together at table for meal, I guarantee you what you will find is all the people sitting around the table like this. not engaging with one another. You see a group of young people out. I've been in settings where I've seen a group of young people out socially with one another, a whole gang of young people. They're out enjoying time together, and they're not only sitting there like this, but instead of talking to each other, they're texting each other. They're there, and they're texting each other. And you know that that's what they're doing because somebody will text something to the other person, and they'll smile, and the other person will look at it, and they'll smile, and look at the person who texted it to them, and then they'll look back down, and they'll text something, and then the other person gets the text, and then they smile because they're having a conversation via text from one meter away. That's not intimacy. That's not Christian community. And in an age where we've gotten used to communicating to one another with LOL, smiley emoji, being called to this kind of community is difficult. It's hard, but it's exactly what we've been called to. Community is not only costly because it requires intimacy, but it's costly because it requires risk. And that risk is a direct result of the intimacy. Some other things that we see here in this letter that I want you to pay attention to. There's 16, 17 names in the passage that we just looked at. And those names are important. because of what they reveal. Look beginning in verse 10. For Demas, in love with this present world, has departed me and gone to Thessalonica. That's one thing that makes it difficult. It's difficult when we give ourselves away to one another in Christian community and somebody falls. Does the name Steve Lawson mean anything to anybody? People are reeling right now because of Steve Lawson's immorality and him being disqualified from ministry. Steve Lawson has been right here. He's preached right here. Trusted, beloved, used mightily. And now I get emails from people, what do we do? What do we do? We use some of his material at the School of Divinity to do a short course on preaching. And then the question came, what do we do with the certificates? Do we want his name on the certificates? This is difficult. What do we do with his books? What do we do with his summaries? What do we do? This is hard. It's hard to commit to Christian community, to intimacy, to giving ourselves away to one another when we see things like this that disappoint us. Demas, in love with this present world, has departed me and gone to Thessalonica. That hurts. Essentially, that's what Paul is saying. I'm hurt. Not only that, but look at verse 14. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. Not only is it painful when people stray, but it's also painful when people attack. It hurts when people attack. I've experienced this. I've experienced a great deal of this. And for the most part, I'm okay. When people attack, sometimes I'm asked, you know, somebody will read a particular attack about me that's pretty vicious. A couple of years ago, my name was floated as possibly running for president of the Southern Baptist Convention back in the US. I wasn't even eligible to run for president of the Southern Baptist Convention, but the conservative group there was talking about nominating me for that office. I wasn't going to run for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. But the moderate wing of the convention and the liberals outside of the SPC immediately went on the attack. And it was vicious. And I had people ask me, like, what does it feel like? What do you, you know? And my answer is twofold. Number one, that's why God gave me big shoulders. Amen. I can handle it. But number two, Not so much when they go after my family. And it happens. And it happened then. Go after me, I'm fair game. I say controversial things. When you say controversial things, you need to expect to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune from time to time. But not my family. But it happens. And not only does it happen from the outside, but it happens from the inside to people that we have intimate Christian fellowship with, who not only turn and go astray, but then turn their guns on us. But that's not all. You might ask, what does this have to do with us here today? Listen to this. Go back to verse 10. Demas and love of this present world has departed me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. What's the point there? The point there is it's difficult. to give yourself away in Christian community and then have people leave even when it's for good reason. Or to give yourself away in Christian community and then have the Lord call you to be the one to leave even when it's for good reason. Even that, It's painful. Even that is difficult. Even that brings heartache and disappointment. And I know what it's like from both sides. I know what it's been like to grow close to people here and see them go before we went. When Ken left, that was difficult. And I know it was difficult for LBC. When Dr. Musembi left, that was, that was difficult. One went to the US, another one went to Kenya. It was difficult. It wasn't for sinful reasons, but it was difficult. Prashant and Dumi, Devi and Pendi. Again, these things are difficult. Most recently, Lennox. That hurts. And that's the risk of the kind of intimacy to which we're called for the sake of Christian community. That's the risk. People are going to go. There is another risk. There's another name that will be meaningful to you here. Charlie Chaconta, who didn't leave us to go to another country, but left to go home with the Lord as a young man. Monsa and Bewe, again, not to go to another country, but to go be with the Lord as a young man. All over this room, there are people who loved them, who embraced them and were embraced by them. And when they left, it was painful. It was hard. And one of the things that we might be tempted to do is to shy away. from genuine, authentic, biblical, costly community, because we're tired of people leaving us. We're tired of people falling away. We're tired of people opposing us. But the fact of the matter is we belong to each other, and we really don't have a choice. Amen. Because as John asks in his first epistle, how can you say that you love God whom you've never seen, if you don't love your brother who you see every day? How is it? I know there are a lot of people who make the argument, no, no, no. I love Jesus, and I want to be a Christian. I want to have a relationship with Christ. I just don't love the church. Well, as we'd say in Texas, that dog won't hunt. How does that work? How do you... Imagine somebody coming to me and saying, hey, listen, Bodhi, I love you. I appreciate you. I so want to have a relationship with you. In fact, I consider you one of my best friends. Maybe the best friend I've ever had in my life. But I can't stand your wife. How is that friendship going to work? Huh? How is that friendship going to work? The answer is, it's not. How dare you? How dare you? But that's exactly what we say. We say, Jesus, I love You. Jesus, I want a relationship with You. But You're a bride that You love so much that You laid down Your life and died for her. I want nothing to do with her. I want You, but I don't love what You love. Can't have it that way. And so we risk. We risk. Thirdly, and finally, community is costly because it is never sufficient. It is never sufficient. It was never meant to be sufficient. And one of the reasons that our hearts get so broken is because we believe that we're going to get everything that we need from the community. There are people who will leave the church because, you know, there's some need that I had that I feel like the church just let me down and didn't meet that particular need. They met all these other needs, but they didn't meet that need. And they need to meet my every need. No, no. Christian community is not meant to be sufficient for all of your needs. Look at verse 17 and 18. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me. This is after He says, everybody departed from Me. He was left completely alone. Nobody's standing with Him. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.' I love the church. But God did not give me the church to meet my every need and to rescue me from my every distress. Christ does that. Christ is that in my life. Christ is that to me. Christ is my all in all. Christ is the one who sticks closer than a brother. Christ is the one who is ever faithful and cannot be unfaithful. Christ is the one whose love will endure all. Christ is the one who will meet my every need and supply the strength that I require for every obstacle that is placed in my way. Christ is the one. My brothers and sisters will let me down. And here's a newsflash, I will do the same. In fact, in many ways, that's what this message today is about. I'm leaving. And that's painful. At least I hope. I hope there's not anybody out there who came here today thinking, okay, he's leaving. I'm coming to church because I want to make sure he's really getting out of here. Because I can't wait to see him go. If that's you, see me after. But what that means is that in your story, at least in part, I'm an example of the pain that the Lord brings when He moves people elsewhere. And in my story, you're an example of the pain that the Lord brings when He calls you away from people whom you love dearly. But Christ is sufficient. I'm reminded of the fact that when I came here, I left a church that I had planted, and brethren with whom I had shared blood, sweat, and tears for many, many years. But brethren, all of whom recognized the call of God on mine and my family's life and blessed us and sent us away tearfully. Had we not experienced that painful departure, we would never have experienced this near decade a fruitful ministry and a fellowship in our new home. Our new home that will be with us, that will be a part of us, that has been marked indelibly on our hearts for the rest of our days. I can't tell my story without Zambia. Our children, my wife, they cannot tell their story without Zambia. And we praise God for it. Community is costly because it requires intimacy. That intimacy requires risk. The good news is, It was never meant to be sufficient for our every need. Christ is. And when we understand this, we understand that this community is a bonus. Amen. Christ is our Savior, our Lord, our Redeemer. and will be throughout all eternity, He is sufficient. And yet He loved us enough to not only give us Himself, but to give us one another. Painful though it may be at times, may we all be reminded that it is an expression of God's goodness in our lives. Let's pray. Gracious God, our Father, we praise you and we thank you for the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed us and purchased us with his own blood, having laid down his life for us on the cross. And we remember tonight that we were redeemed not only for an eternity in heaven with you, oh God, but for life here in the body, in communion with one another. Thank you for reminding us of that costly call to community, to the intimacy that it requires. to the risk that it involves, and to the fact that it was never meant to meet all of our needs. You do that. As such, would you allow us to see community not as costly, but as a blessing, even when it hurts, even when it's difficult? Grant by your grace that we might embrace the costly call to community because we belong to you and we belong to one another. These things we pray and ask in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.