Our sermon today is going to be taken from 2 Timothy. We'll be starting to look at the book of 2 Timothy, this final epistle of the Apostle Paul. Kids, what's an epistle? It's a letter. Very good. Thank you. Now, I've got to tell you, this is a book that I've always wanted to preach through, but I haven't preached through until this moment. I've always been kind of scared, actually, of preaching through it, because it is Paul's final letter to the church. The topics that it discusses are of such importance, such great moment, and I never thought up to the challenge, if I can put it that way, of going through his epistle. I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge yet, but we don't have any more time to wait for me to get to that point. So we're going to launch into 2 Timothy. So I'd invite you to turn with me there. And we're only going to be reading two verses, two important verses, where we find out who Paul is writing to. But I want to go over the background so we can understand what was happening when this letter was sent to Timothy so long ago, but also remembering that this wasn't just sent to Timothy. This was sent to us. It was sent to you. This is a letter addressed to you and for your good as well. So let's prepare our hearts, though, before we come to the Word. Let's ask the Lord to prepare us to hear it. O sovereign Lord, we will not be able to absorb anything from the Scriptures unless, O Lord, You prepare our heart. If a farmer sows seed on ground that has not been broken up, that is still hard and stony, that seed will not take root. It will not produce a good harvest. But when our hearts are broken up and prepared to receive the seed, Lord, then it takes root and it produces that harvest that you want. And we pray, Lord, that you would do that with us, that you would convict us, impair us, that you would help us to understand, that you would give us ears to hear. will be much easier, O Lord, we know, to understand the rest of this letter if we understand the beginning. So we pray, Lord, that You would help us to tune out all those distractions that are with us at every moment. We know the devil is always at our elbow trying to turn our attention elsewhere. But we pray, O Lord, that You would thwart him. Help us, O Lord, to fix our attention upon the Word of God this morning. And we do pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verses 1 and 2. I remind you this is the Word of God given through His servant Paul. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, a beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. The grass withers, the flower fades, and the word of our God will stand forever. Well, let me get to the meat of things. In talking about when this letter was first given to Timothy, we need to go back all the way to AD 67, when Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, who was getting on in years. We remember that he had been ministering for the Lord now at this point for probably around 20 years, perhaps longer. He took up his pen to write a letter of encouragement to a dear friend of his. But the person he was writing to was more than just a dear friend. This person was someone he called his son, his son in the faith, not biologically, but spiritually. Somebody that he had been used in bringing to faith and then had ministered to and with through the years. This is Timothy whom he is writing to, the same Timothy that we met. It's not that first Timothy is one person and second Timothy is the second person, but rather it's the same Timothy is being written to in both letters. And he's writing more than just a letter to Timothy. In many senses, what Paul is writing in 2 Timothy is his last will, his final written words. For Paul is not writing from one of the many cities where he had ministered. He's not writing from some place where he planted a church. He is writing from a jail cell in Rome. Now at this point in his life, Paul was no stranger to jails or imprisonment. He had been frequently in prison for preaching the gospel. He'd even gone through imprisonment and trial in Rome before. This wasn't his first time at this particular rodeo. The book of Acts, you will remember, ends with Paul under arrest in Rome. having used his status as a Roman citizen to appeal for trial before Caesar instead of being sent to Jerusalem for trial where he almost certainly would have been murdered by the Jews. He had appealed and been, you remember, put on a boat and shipped off initially to Rome. The boat had been shipwrecked. It washed up by God's grace on the island of Malta and then he had continued on his travels to Rome and there he had had a fairly imprisonment as imprisonments go. In Acts 28, verses 30 and 31 we read, Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. At that point in time, he apparently not only was able to minister freely, but he also, he won his appeal and he was released. And then he continued on in his ministry, even traveling as far as Spain, we think. But on his return from Spain, sometime in 66 AD, he was rearrested. And he was once again conveyed, this time again, under guard to Rome for trial. And this time around, in his second trial there, there was no rented house for him. There was no easy access from friends, no frequent visitors. Paul is undergoing this time what they called close confinement. He was considered at this point in time by the Romans a troublemaker. In using his own words, he was considered an evildoer. Therefore, he was shackled, probably shackled, manacled on the feet, 24 by 7. And he had been abandoned by most of his former friends. Now, undergoing imprisonment and trial is difficult at all times. But it's even more difficult when you don't have any companions, when you don't have anybody to comfort you. I have visited prisons on several occasions. And one of the things that has struck When I've spoken to prisoners there, Christian and otherwise, is the loneliness that they feel. Even though they're imprisoned with many people, they often feel alone. Well, Paul really was alone. The only close companions he would have had would have been the guards. And when his friend Anesiphorus came searching for him, Anesiphorus had to seek him zealously, we read, in order to find him. We can imagine Anesiphorus going amongst the Christians in Rome saying, Do you know where Paul is? And then getting an answer, Paul who? And he said, the Apostle Paul, of course. And then hearing things like, no, no, I have no idea where Paul is. And don't tell anybody I've spoken to him or said anything. People didn't want to have anything to do with him because they knew that it was likely that Paul was going to be put to death, possibly for treason. And they suspected that if they were associated with him, they might be imprisoned as well. Because, of course, Christianity had by this time become what the Romans called an illicit religion. I won't even try to do the Latin for that, an illicit religion in Rome itself. The Emperor Nero, you remember, after a fire that he had probably set, Nero had been chomping at the bit to rebuild Rome, but unfortunately, there was a lot of Rome in the way of his rebuilding. And he figured the quickest way to get rid of most of it was private, of course, was simply to burn it down. And consequently, there had been a great fire in Rome in 64 AD. But suspicion had turned to the emperor. People knew that he wanted to rebuild for a long time, and they blamed the conflagration on him. His political enemies, in particular, were quick to do that. And so Nero, once again, shifted the blame. And who did he shift it to? Who did he say started the fire? The Christians! Blame the Christians. And so Paul was one of these detested Christians, even though it was four years after the fire at this point, he was still part of a hated group. And Paul would have been doubly detested because, of course, he was originally a Jew. And still, he was a Jewish Christian, and he would have been detested doubly, therefore, not just as a Christian, but as a Jew, because the Jews in Palestine had revolted, and the Romans had removed the protected status from the Jewish religion. At this time in history, there were Roman legions in Palestine fighting to subdue that people. Paul tells us also in chapter 4 of his letter that everyone save Luke had left him and no one had stood with him in his first defense save the Lord Jesus Christ who always stands with His people when they're in difficulty. He says, in fact, Alexander the coppersmith, an apostate Christian from Ephesus, had done him much harm, and that was probably by testifying against him. And without anyone to vouch for Paul during his first defense, no patrons or sponsors, no one able to stand with authority and say, this is a good guy, I'm going to stand for him. With a long record of stirring up trouble, from the Roman point of view, that is, Paul knew that his time left on earth was short. He described himself as already being poured out like a drink offering, one of those drink offerings that was offered daily at the temple. He knew that he was passing away. He wasn't afraid. And the reason he wasn't afraid is because he knew that even if the Romans took his life, yet he still had eternal life in the Lord. Historians tell us that indeed Paul was condemned to death and beheaded on the Ostian Way about three miles outside of the capital within three to six weeks of finishing this letter. It's ironic that because of Paul's status as a Roman citizen, he was not crucified like Christ. He had the privilege, if we can call it that, of having his head chopped off with a sword. So Paul is aware that this letter that he is penning at this point in time would have been one of the last things he wrote. And not having a wife to write to, he instead writes to his spiritual son in the faith, Timothy. So we need to go over and ask ourselves, who was this Timothy or Timotheus, a name which meant honoring or worshiping God? Who was Timothy? Let's review that. Well, Timothy was from Lystra, He's first mentioned in the Bible in Acts 16.1. He was the offspring of a mixed marriage. His father was a pagan Greek, and his mother was a devout Jew. He also had a godly grandmother who assisted in raising him. At this point in time, it was very common for the mother of the bride to live with the family. And indeed, his grandmother Lois had done so. But despite not having a believing father, his mother and his grandmother had instructed him from his childhood in the sacred writings of the Old Testament. And incidentally, if I can just take a brief aside, that story is repeated in Christian history again and again. The history of the Christian faith is literally filled with stories of evangelists and great men whose mothers were the original sources of their great faith. We can think of first Timothy right here. Then there are men like Augustine, men like John Newton, men like Charles Wesley. Men like Octavius Winslow, men like Billy Graham. Billy Graham wrote of his mother, not just around the dinner table or in front of the radio for favorite broadcasts. She gathered us around herself and my father to listen to Bible stories, to join in family prayers, and to share a sense of the presence of God. Lest you forget, although Billy Graham was a Baptist, his mother was a Presbyterian. So she raised up her child to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Little did she know that he would go off and join the Baptists. But nonetheless, he did wonderful work there as well. Well, Timothy's mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, did the same for Timothy. And so when Paul makes his first missionary journey in 47 A.D., Timothy is prepared to hear and understand the message. His mother and his grandmother had prepared him for that word. And so Paul preaches that the Messiah spoken of in the scriptures that Timothy had been soaked in as a youth, he preaches that he has come, Emmanuel, God with us, came to be with his people, and his name was Jesus, meaning God saves. And Timothy believed that gospel. And when Paul had returned to Lystra on his second missionary journey, we read that Timothy was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. So not only was he a Christian, he was a Christian who was well thought of already, somebody who they thought would be a fit member of the apostolic community, going about and preaching the Word, ministering in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul takes Timothy with him. He circumcises Timothy so that he would not have been a stumbling block to the Jews of that region. It's not because, you know, Christians had to be circumcised or anything like that, but in order to bring him into synagogues where he was preaching, or indeed to take him to the temple in Jerusalem, he would have needed to have been circumcised. And Timothy traveled with Paul as his assistant to Troas, to Berea, to Thessalonica, and to Corinth. And you will remember, he served as his representative and his reformer in Ephesus. That's what 1 Timothy is all about. And he is now laboring, when he receives this letter, we believe, in Ephesus. Now, Paul sends for him, okay? He knows that he's in Ephesus, he knows that he's ministering, but he calls upon him to come to him before winter from Ephesus. He asks him to bring along some things with him. We'll see at the end, he asks him to bring along, amongst other things, a cloak because a Roman jail. could get very cold during the winter. Now, there is a legend that Paul was being held in what was called the Mamertine prison in the middle of Rome, which was essentially just a huge pit dug out of the rock. There was one entry hole, and they used to lower down people into the prison from it. I don't believe that that's where he was, simply because people could visit him. You could not visit people in the Mamertine. And also, it was not the kind of place where you could read. It was dark all the time. Often people simply starved to death in that particular prison without being executed, and it wasn't the kind of place that they put Roman citizens. So it's unlikely that he was there, but it is possible on the outside. But in any event, he was in a place that was very cold, and he had need of reading materials. No doubt he was planning on continuing to write, so he asked for the parchments and the books to be sent to him. And I hope you'll stop at this point and consider what that says about the heart of Timothy. Paul could depend upon Timothy. Paul had much earlier written this about Timothy to the Philippians. He'd said this in Philippians 2.19, and you may want to turn there with me to see Paul's earlier words. Remember, Galatians, Ephesians, and then Philippians, so just a few back. If you get to Colossians, you've gone too far. In Philippians 2.19, he says this about Timothy, Note that. Everybody, you know, in some sense serves themselves, but not Timothy. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father, he served with me in the gospel. Therefore, I hope to send him at once as soon as I see how it goes with me. To have a friend who is more than a friend, who's a believer with you in Christ, a co-laborer, a spiritual son, who is willing to drop everything that he's doing and then go on this hazardous journey. And we're talking about a journey of almost a thousand miles. I mean, that is a wonderful thing, especially when he's calling him to come quickly to him at the worst season for travel in the Mediterranean. He doesn't even say to him, you know, Timothy, it'd probably be best if you waited until spring when the water is easier to travel on. But no, he says, come visit me. knowing that Timothy is going to move heaven and earth to try to do that. And he is coming. We need to remember to visit someone being held in jail as an evildoer at a time when associating with somebody in jail as an evildoer might get you in serious trouble as well. We can think of, for instance, a jihadi being held in prison and then what authorities would think if another man of military age suddenly appears from the Middle East to visit his in jail. Suspicion would immediately fall upon such a person because of his acquaintances. And indeed, with the Romans, that's exactly what would have happened with anybody who visited with Paul. And we know that Timothy was imprisoned himself. We don't know whether it was a result of visiting with Paul, but he knew the risks. He'd been in the Roman world for long enough, and yet he was willing to come and to visit Paul. And in the average lifetime, there are very few friends like that. And having friends like that when you are in the ministry is priceless. I was taught beforehand, and I found this to be true in speaking with other pastors and in my own experience. As a pastor, you are going to run into four kinds of Christians. The first kind is the Christians who add to your workload. They don't make things easier, they make things harder. You never encounter them without suddenly feeling that the burden on your back is a little heavier. Then there are the Christians who don't add to your workload, but they aren't available to help you with it either. And then there's the third kind of Christian. Those are the Christians who will help carry a little of the load if you ask them. But then there's the fourth kind, and this is the rarest kind of Christian, but the most wonderful kind as well. These are the Christians who see the burden and then simply take some of it on their shoulders without even being asked. The person who just comes alongside you and says, don't worry about it, Pastor, I got this. And then you not only know that they're going to take that burden on themselves, but you can trust that they will get it done. And Timothy was that kind of Christian. And that despite the fact that he had so many impairments, we might call them, so many handicaps. First off, Timothy was young. Then we learn also that he was timid by nature. Timothy was almost undoubtedly what we would call today an introvert. He had frequent ailments. He was always getting sick. He had terrible tummy troubles, for instance. And yet, despite all of that, Timothy was willing to leave his home to accompany Paul on a dangerous missionary journey. Not just one, but many dangerous missionary journeys. He was willing also to be sent on difficult and even perilous errands. And he would remain, to the very end of his life, a worthy servant of Jesus Christ. I have to tell you, it is amazing what the Holy Spirit can enable even someone naturally reserved, someone who is frail, what He can enable them to do. Church history is full of examples like that as well. We can think of, for instance, Amy Carmichael, this frail woman who went out to India and formed the Donover Fellowship, saved countless numbers of young Indian girls and then was gravely injured in an accident and basically spent the rest of her life paralyzed and yet did great work even in that condition. There's so many examples of that. William Wilberforce, the great reformer and Christian who served the Lord in Parliament, the reason why the slave trade ended in England, a member of the Clapham sect, but a man who throughout his life was afflicted with terrible, terrible spinal deformities and great pain throughout his entire life. He had to wear a rigid cage made of iron in order for him to stand upright, and it caused incredible pain. And yet, he spoke persuasively. for Jesus Christ while in that condition, often on the floor of Parliament, speaking with the power of the Lord. And Timothy was just such a man as well. He returned, we know, to minister in Ephesus after visiting Paul. And we also read of him, and this is told to us through church history, in the year 97, the 80-year-old pastor tried to, this is Timothy, and think about this, an 80-year-old pastor tried to halt a procession in honor of the goddess Diana by preaching the gospel. The angry pagans beat him, dragged him through the streets, and then stoned him to death. So he died even in the midst of attempting to reach these pagans with the gospel. Timothy, like Paul, proved to be faithful unto death. And this letter or last will and testament that Paul sent to Timothy exhorted him to do exactly that, to be faithful, to safeguard with his very life, if necessary, the deposit of doctrine. And remember, doctrine simply means the teachings, the teachings that he had received. And if we were to outline 2 Timothy, we could put sacred or sound doctrine at the heart of 2 Timothy and break down the chapters in relation to what we should do with sound doctrine because that's what Paul is sending to Timothy. He's sending him instructions, advice as a spiritual son on how to safeguard the teachings that he's received. So as regards sound doctrine, Timothy in the first chapter is told to hold on to it. And then he is told in the second chapter to teach it. Then in the third chapter to abide in it. And then finally in the fourth chapter to preach it. So sound doctrine is going to be the center of this letter. And he doesn't say hold on to this sound doctrine because it's so neat. Or hold on to the sound doctrine because it's orderly. or hold on to the sound doctrine because, hey, tradition is a wonderful thing. He doesn't say any of that. He's told to hold on to the sound doctrine because ultimately the sound doctrine that's been given to him by Paul didn't come from Paul, it came from Christ. And why do we hold on to this sound doctrine? Because it organizes our life? No, it's because in this doctrine, in the teachings of Jesus Christ, we find the key to the promise of life. And not the victorious Christian living that we hear peddled from pulpits by men like Joel Osteen today, these hucksters, but rather something far greater than simply your best life now, but rather everlasting life. I'm reminded of what several men have said, that if you're living your best life now, it means you're on your way to hell. No, this is eternal life that he's teaching about. And how fitting, consider this, how fitting that Paul, a prisoner facing imminent death, should fix Timothy's attention on the great promise of Christ that in him and in him alone can we find indestructible life, eternal life that will have no end. And brothers and sisters, that is the whole purpose of the gospel. The whole purpose of our church, the whole purpose of Paul's ministry, of Timothy's ministry, of the ministries of all these faithful men and women through history, it has been to hand on the Gospel, to teach it far and wide, and thus to give men the key to life, not strange secret doctrines imparted by ascended masters, but rather the clear and the easy-to-see teaching of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That life is to be found in Christ Jesus, as Paul says here, for apart from His life, apart from His atoning work, apart from His continuing intercession, we could never possess that life or that salvation. And it's not just Paul who fixed on teaching life, abundant life, eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all the apostles. I'll give you some examples. John records in the high priestly prayer of Jesus offered up just before His crucifixion. Here is Christ talking to the Father. And He talks about the mission, the ministry that is committed to Him. John 17, 1, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that Your Son also may glorify You as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give. eternal life to as many as you have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." There we have the very heart of the gospel. And if we as a church are not preaching eternal life through knowing the Son of God, Jesus Christ, then we're not doing what we were called to do. then we're not being the true church, then we're not handing on sound doctrine. It doesn't matter how useful, in one sense, the information that we give is. It doesn't matter if we tell people to vote for the right person, if we teach people how to balance their budget, if we teach people how to be happy at every moment of their lives. It doesn't matter. if they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, whom was sent by the Father to die. And in fact, that's the purpose of the entire Bible. Why was the New Testament written? Well, we don't have to live wondering what the answer to that question is. John tells us in John chapter 20 and verse 30, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written. That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." Life, not just life now, not just a better life, but eternal life. And that's the message that John would reinforce also in his own letters to the church. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 John chapter 5, and starting with verse 11. He says this, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Not you may wonder whether or not you're actually saved. You may wonder whether you're going to go to heaven. You're going to constantly be in doubt until the very moment that God tells you whether you're saved or not. No, He says that you may know you have eternal life. and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." That's why Paul had been made an apostle. And that's why it's important Paul is sending this letter to Timothy that he might continue on that great work that the Lord Jesus had given him. And then in due time, Timothy would raise up people following him to cast that mantle, like the mantle of Elijah that was given to Elisha, to the next generation that they might take it up and continue to preach the gospel. And that is why it is so important today, brothers and sisters, we don't read these things because we don't have anything else to do on a Sunday morning. I'm sure you do. You can think of other things, but nothing so important as going to God, reading his word, taking it in, things like this letter. And then after we digest it and we think upon it, then taking that message that we've been given and then casting it on to other people. giving it to our children, giving it to friends and co-workers, indeed sharing it with the world. For Paul to deliver his message to people in Spain required that Paul actually travel all the way to Spain. For you to communicate the Word of God to people in Spain no longer requires that. It requires that you spend a few minutes sitting at the keyboard typing. Helps if you know Spanish, of course, but that's not even required. There's so many Spaniards. The wonderful thing about Europe is nine times out of ten, the European you're talking to speaks English even if he won't admit it to you. And so we can communicate worldwide this gospel message. The sermons that we publish on Sermon Audio are picked up in countries I have to look up in the atlas. They're picked up in closed countries. That's the thing that amazes me. I was amazed when I remember looking over the stats for one month and there were four sermons that had been listened to in North Korea. It's amazing that anybody in North Korea has an internet connection. And here's something to think about. Anybody in North Korea who has an unfiltered internet connection and is listening to sermons is likely a member of the government, which is interesting. Or possibly, a very small possibility, a foreign diplomat or a foreign business person there. But nonetheless, to be able to reach North Korea with the gospel, to reach Saudi Arabia with the gospel, people in Yemen listen to our sermons. It's amazing. We can do that, but we have to want to do that. We have to want to take the time to communicate something, not just sending amusing cat memes to our friends, but the gospel. And it doesn't have to be complicated. It can be as simple as Jesus' Lord explaining that in Him and in Him alone we have life. I mean, what a difference might it make in the lives of so many people we know if just once a day we posted or communicated one verse of Scripture that encapsulated the gospel? John 3.16, for instance. It used to be the case that everybody knew what John 3.16 is. It's been my experience that most people don't any longer. But let me ask you this. If you were writing a final letter, if you're in jail, you're awaiting the death sentence to be carried out upon you, and you have one final letter to write, what would you write? Let me ask you about that. So many people, immediately their thoughts go to their loved ones. One of the things that's often said by people who know they're about to die is, you know, tell my wife I love her. Tell my family I love them, and so on. Would it be, I love you, that simple message? Tell them I love them. Well, Paul, he does tell Timothy he loves him. He calls him his beloved son in verse 2, right there. To Timothy, a beloved son, but that's not the center of his message. And I have to tell you, if the first time that your wife is aware of the fact that you love her is you're about to be executed in prison, something's really wrong, okay? That should have been something that was evident beforehand. But Paul says to Timothy, not merely, I love you. What is it he communicates to Timothy? He communicates to him not about his love, but about the love of Christ. And then he tells Timothy, when you're writing, when you're teaching, don't just tell the people you love them. And a pastor should love his congregation, absolutely. But tell them about the love of Christ. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. because there, brothers and sisters, in the love of Christ is found the key to salvation, the eternal life that we were talking about. And that is what you should be passing on, not just at the end of your life. Certainly, if it was the last thing that you had to do, it should be to tell the people you love about the love of Christ. And I've seen that happen. I was privileged to be with a lady dying of cancer who begged me to exhort her family in the room. They were standing around her to exhort them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. She said she knew where she was going, but she didn't know where they were going, and she suspected it was where they didn't want to go. And so she said, you know, I don't need to hear the gospel again. They do. What a beautiful, beautiful thing. She loved them so much that she wanted to give them the one thing. that would last, the one thing that would save them. And so that should be our desire, and not just at the very end of our life. If we wait until the end of our life to start preaching the gospel, oh, that would be a terrible shame. So let every moment of your life be like this epistle of Paul, because although it's probable that Paul knew he was probably going to die, it's by no means certain that he knew he was going to die within three to six weeks after penning this paper. but he would have written the same letter no matter when he sat down to write it because he loved the Lord and it was his desire that others would know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore eternal life. Let that be your life as well. May it be, I pray that you know somebody like Timothy, but it may just be that God uses you to raise up another Timothy in this world. Let's pray that that's the case, that we can pass on the gospel to somebody who loves the Lord so much that they can't keep that love within but have to share it with the entire world. Let's go before the Lord now. God, our Father, we do thank You for the examples of Paul and Timothy. We thank You for the love that You showed through Your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank You for the great gift of eternal life that comes through faith in Him. I pray, Lord, that You would help us to share that with others. We pray for those ministries that are opening up and expositing Your Word and sharing it throughout Fayetteville. as we said, through the chaplains who are ministering in the military and through all of those faithful preachers who are passing on the gospel. But we pray, Lord, that you would use us in that process as well. May it be that when we write, we write things full of gospel truth. May when we speak, it be full of gospel truth. May when we communicate to our kids those things that are most important, that we put Christianity and the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, at the center of it. O Lord, help us to pass on the faith as Paul passed it on. And Lord, will you please raise up new Timothys in our midst? We need them, Lord, now more than ever. Please send them to us. We pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen.