2 Timothy 1. We'll get right into it. It says Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. So we know that Paul is writing, but it's under the Holy Spirit's inspiration. It always is. But not only is Paul writing under the Holy Spirit's inspiration, Paul is writing under the view of, he's just short of being martyred, okay. Paul is going to be martyred for his faith. And Pastor Krautz delivered a great message on Paul, but we see in chapter 9 of Acts Jesus predicted that Paul would suffer for his name's sake. Acts 21, Paul says he's ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. And we don't have this recorded in the Bible, but the church historian Eusebius writes that Paul was beheaded. That's how he dies according to church history. The Bible doesn't record that, so I can't say that on the authority of the Word of God, but church history certainly does seem To point to that, Paul is in prison and he's writing his last words. So keep that in your mind. He's lonely. You imagine being in prison. Would you have abandonment issues? I mean, just about everybody forsook him. We'll get to that towards the end of the chapter. And many may think that Paul was trapped. Man, he's in prison. He's trapped. But he spent his life preaching, and the truth shall make you free. Yet, he's in bonds. Yet, he had freedom. What a contrast there. for the apostle Paul. And so Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. And then it goes on to say in the first verse, by the will of God. Now this is God's will and this is God's hand that is on Paul's life. And Paul has a beautiful picture. He was never into playing the church political games. He was never into playing, well whose side am I going to get on or what group side am I going to try to kiss up to because they got some pull and they have some punch. That wasn't Paul. He had God's hand on it And it was God's will for his life. And he honored that. And then it says in verse 1, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus. The chapter starts off, it's not talking about where Paul is going to be going. It's talking about where Paul is already located. He's in Christ Jesus. And it doesn't matter what environment we may be in here on this earth. If you're in Christ Jesus, you are free. You are in the one that has given you eternal life. People say, he's in jail. Yeah, he's in jail physically, but he is completely free spiritually. Why? He's in Christ. And I'm telling you, there's a lot of people that are free from a jail cell. But if they don't have Christ as their Savior, there's going to come a day when they're going to take their last breath and they're going to open up their eyes and they will be in an eternal jail cell of hell and they will not escape. Paul's the contrast to that. He's in a physical jail, yet he's going to be in glory. He's located in Christ and anyone that's in Christ you will one day wake up in glory. Jesus is eternal life. You don't have to turn there, Romans 6, you know the verse. The gift of God is eternal life. Through who? Jesus Christ, our Lord. Paul has eternal life because he's inherited it as a free gift. If you're sitting here this evening, you want to make sure you have that inheritance. It's a free gift given by Christ. It's not about where are you going. I know we ask that question, hey, where are you going when you die? I understand that's an icebreaker. That's an opening question. I understand that. I've asked that. I'm sure you have. But another good question to ask is, who are you in? Because you're either in Adam and you're in death, or you're in Christ and you've been made alive, and that opens up, hey, let's show the person how they can pass from death unto life. Both those questions are good questions. But God promises eternal life to all those who put their faith and trust where? In Him. We can spend our life collecting things. You're not going to find eternal life in it. You're not. I know that some of the, my parents' generation, my grandparents' generation, they saved a lot of stuff. And because they needed, they wanted to make sure they had something on a needy day. A lot of it ends up just being a house full of stuff, and then there's no more room in the house, so you buy a shed, then you buy another shed. It's all just full of stuff, and you're not taking it with you. I remember when we first got here, we had all our stuff in storage. Cost us a lot of money to store that stuff. Some of it we needed, some of it we didn't need. But none of it can we take with us. It's only for our enjoyment here. Invest in eternal things. If you have eternal life and you're in Christ, don't forget where you're located. You just haven't fully gotten there yet. If you're in Christ, you're seated in heavenly places. And look at the second verse. It says, to Timothy. Paul realizes his life is about to end, and he's using his last words to encourage young Timothy. How in the world is Paul going to encourage young Timothy? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Paul, you're the one in jail, man. But he's writing to Timothy. Think if that was you or me. Yeah, I'm going to write to young Timothy, my son in the faith, and encourage him. I'd be praying, Lord, send somebody to me to help encourage me. It's completely flipped. You know how Paul can do that? And you know how we can do that? He saw past his circumstances. And he saw the needs of others. Man, isn't that a great example? Paul, what an apostle. Oh, to be a Paul. Even though it says, to Timothy, it is intended for the whole church to read and understand and get a hold of, by the way. Then he goes on to address Timothy as, my dearly beloved son. Verse number two, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Now remember in Romans 1, we talked about this already, that all saints are beloved of God. Saints are living Christians. who have been found in Christ, and now we live our lives as a testimony for Christ. But he calls him his dearly beloved son. He deeply loved him, and he deeply respected Timothy. Now, think about what's going through Timothy's head. What am I going to do without Paul? I'm not going to have Paul anymore. He's not going to be there to exhort me, to teach me, to encourage me, to help me press on. Yet Paul's writing to him and he says, look, you're going to have to dry your eye. You're going to have to gird up your loins. You're going to have to continue to evangelize and love people and pastor people and go on for God. Because I'm telling you, young Timothy, it's not going to get better for me. Matter of fact, it's going to get worse. But you're going to have to dry your eyes and go on. Dear Christian, All of us. We can go through some stuff. We can lose some people that are close to us. But if they're saved, you know what they're going to want you to do? And if they're my friend, you know what they're going to want me to do? To go on for God. I don't want nothing to happen to me. I want to have some long days here on earth and be able to preach the Word of God. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy my family. I enjoy my church family. I do. But I'm telling you, if something happens to me, Pilgrim Baptist has to go on. Another man has to stand behind this pulpit and declare the truths, and we can't forget that. And Timothy's trying to tell Paul, or Paul's trying to tell Timothy, you gotta get a hold of that, young man, gotta get a hold of that. So he says to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. He says, I thank God. That's a good place to start our day. Have you started your day thanking God? Goes on to say, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience. Well, it's the same God that the forefathers, that the patriarchs served. Talking about the same God here. God hasn't changed. Young people, when you're 18 years old, when you're 28 years old, when you're 38 years old, The faith of your parents and the God of your parents isn't going to change. You know who may change? You may change. You may change. You may change. But the faith of your parents, and the faith of your preacher, and the faith of your forefathers, and the faith of the apostles, that hasn't changed because God doesn't change. We have to protect our hearts and we have to point our young people to get their eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, because He don't change. I went to this website today and I looked at the homepage, and when the homepage came on of the church, it looked like a Led Zeppelin concert. Well, some of you don't, I don't even know why I said that, but that's when I saw it, that's what it brought it back, that's what it brought me back to. I haven't let the lead out in 25 years. I don't even know what that meant. But what I'm saying is, I see a church website. I don't want to be brought back to that. But it did bring me back to that. Look, that happens when I go out shopping or you're out and about in the community. You hear a song that you haven't thought about in 30 years. But that jingle comes on, now all of a sudden you got the words. I don't want that to happen when I go to a church website. What happened? Did God change? He didn't. But that church sure did. And we need to be careful that does not happen with us individually, because if it does, we are going to then infect others with that type of wrong thinking. Young people, who are you going to grow up to serve? How are you going to serve? Watch what it says. whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience. There's a lot of filth in this world. The internet is a cesspool of filth. And if you're not careful, your young people, your children, our children, can get infected with the smut that's on that internet. And there's many a young boys and there's many a young girls that have had their eyes and their mind burned out on dirty pictures, dirty music, dirty talking, dirty living. God says He wants His saints to have a pure conscience. That means our thoughts, our actions, our attitudes, how we treat each other, purity. And it should be real. A pure conscience. Not a conscience that's purely for show. There's a difference. God wants us to know that. I want to have a desire to please and glorify God, but there is a such thing as a true and false service. I don't know where I got this note, but I had it written down here. It's 70 years ago when a poor black man would get saved, and if he wanted to travel to Africa to bring the good news of the Gospel, they were often told, you might become a slave again. To which one black man replied, if I have been a slave for man, why can't I be a slave for Christ? That's pretty good. That's someone who isn't concerned about the jailhouse or the slave. He's concerned about wanting to get the gospel out. That's someone that's got a hold of eternal things. Verse number 3 goes on to say, at the end of the verse, it says, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of Thee in my prayers night and day. Kids, you want a half a verse to memorize and get a hold of? Here's one. Without ceasing, I have remembrance of Thee in my prayers. What do you do at night? Are you thinking about God? Are you trying to commune with Him? Or is it just when Mommy and Daddy schedule it? You have to start making your own time with the Lord. You can't fly. You're going to have to have your own wings. You can't fly on mommy and daddy's wings your whole life. You are going to have to get down by your bedside and pray to God before you go to bed. Or do you just forget Him? And it's just when, well, I know I need to pray because I want something to eat. I know this. I know that when I, I used to have to travel a lot. And even when I do, I know we travel for work. My son and I went, and I know that when we travel, you know who I have on my mind? My wife. I want to get back to my wife. We'll call her before we go to bed on that Friday night, and then we'll work Saturday and come home. But you know what? That's great. That's great. Husbands, we should do that. Why? When my wife goes out to work on the chickens and she's out there for an hour or two, I just know she's thinking of me. You know what that is? I'm making the example to say, spouses have each other on their minds throughout the day. Where's the Lord? Where's the Lord? He should be on our mind. He shouldn't be the emergency 911 dial. How many times do you use that number? Only when there's an emergency. That's not what God wants. He wants without ceasing. As a matter of fact, without ceasing is mentioned six times in the Bible. Five times it's all in relation to prayer. One time it's in thanking God. As a matter of fact, I want to look at just that one. Turn back to 1 Thessalonians 2. I want to look at this one reference. There's five with prayer, we just read the one. Acts 12 talks about prayer made without ceasing of the church and the God. Romans 1 talks about without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. 1 Thessalonians 5 talks about praying without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 1, it talks about making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing. And then 1 Thessalonians 2, look at the second verse. It says, but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated. As you know at Philippi, we were bold in our speech, in our God, to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. That's a stressful day. You're suffering, you're shamefully entreated, and you're dealing with contention. Watch what verse 4 says that they weren't. Watch what it says at the end. Not as pleasing men, but God. So they're preaching the gospel, they're not trying to appease men. Man, under all that duress. And then watch what it says in verse number seven. But we were gentle among you. Under all that stress, under all that shamefulness, that suffering, all of that, they're gentle. Look at verse number 10. That's not the end of it. It says, your witnesses and God also, how wholly, if you didn't know that's a word, that's a word. That's a pretty fun word to say. Wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves. Under all that they lived a life that was honoring to God. Verse number 11, and as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children. They didn't lose sight of what was most important. But here's the verse I wanted to get to. Verse 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing. Because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." All that. They kept a great testimony. People received the word and they couldn't stop thanking God. Church family, may I remind all of us that if somebody trusts God, if somebody gets saved from the efforts of Pilgrim Baptist ministry, you know what we shouldn't stop doing? Just thanking God for it. Thanking God for it. Praying. Well, it's the National Day of Prayer. Okay. Can that be every day? I'm all for Christians praying. I'm not for getting together with the big ecumenical, let's all hold hands with false prophets and pray to whatever Jesus people want to define. I'm not for that. I'm not for standing on a street, a public square, with at least three or four false prophets that can be identified, and every town can have that. But I am for everybody gathering and praying to God. And if you want to do that one day out of the year, fine. And you can pray, God, heal our land all you want. God's not healing our land. The land isn't ours. It's Israel's land. And God isn't going to heal our land. He's going to heal Israel and it's going to come at the Millennial Kingdom. That's when the land's going to be healed. You know what I am praying for? That a soul gets saved. Because God's into healing souls. He's not going to grow more crop. He's not going to get all the wickedness out of government. He's going to get all the wickedness out of government when he says, you know what? I've had enough. I'm coming back. I'm setting up my monarchy. My righteous rule, I think, is a better way to say it biblically. And nobody is going to go against King Jesus. So you want to pray? I want to pray. God, will you send someone we can tell the gospel to so that now we can honor you after they get saved and just thank you without ceasing day after day after day. I'm not trying to be negative, but it don't matter if the best man gets in the office. God is not going to heal our physical land. If we're going to have a revival, it is going to have to be a spiritual revival that comes out of the individual hearts of Christians and now outflows into local churches, and then those local churches are out preaching the gospel, and souls are being saved. They're coming into the church. They're being discipled, and rinse and repeat until the Lord comes back. That is how people are healed. Other than that, The best Eric is gonna do is he's gonna go out, he finished sowing his pasture, he got the dirt all tolled up, he's got the seed in, and hopefully if there's enough rain, he'll get some corn. And if the coons come and get it, and if some wild animals come, he's not gonna walk around in the green pasture with them. But there's gonna come a day when he will. And when I will. It's just not right now. We're not praying to God for physical healing, we're praying to God for spiritual healing of souls. Let me qualify that and then we'll move on to the next thought. A lot of the prayer requests we have are for physical healing. We're praying for that. Just trying to draw out that distinction of The physical land mass that we live on, God is going to deal with that in the future. That's all I'm trying to say. But if you're sick, you've got problems, and I've got problems, I do want you praying for me because we do believe God can heal, but the land itself is not going to be regenerated until His second coming. Well, that was a nice rabbit trail, as Brother Vic says. I'm going to chase that rabbit. I hope I didn't chase it too far. Let's move on. 2 Timothy 1, we're back into verse number 4. Verse number 4. 2 Timothy 1, verse 4. Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy." They had a great friendship. And what a unique bond that we share, that all Christians share, when they're out serving Jesus together. There's a special bond there. Paul and Timothy had that. Being mindful of thy tears. It's really hard to lose a close friend. Young people, you think if you lose your daddy or you lose your mom, and now, what do you do? I'll tell you what you're gonna do. You're gonna shed a tear. You know who doesn't shed tears? Stoic, dead religion. There's no emotion. Didn't we just learn about, in Romans, weep with them with wheat? We were talking about that. We don't want to curse people. We want to bless people. And if someone's rejoicing, we want to rejoice. We're going through our study in Romans. And then if someone's weeping, we want to weep with them. And this is what's happening here. There's a close bond. And Timothy, who is Paul's own son in the faith, Timothy's going to lose his spiritual father. He's saying, look, this is it for me. I'm at the end of my rope, man. I'm leaving here, Timothy. And he's upset. And Timothy's encouraging him. He's not just leaving him. He's encouraging him. How? Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. It is a joy to see a good old friend, especially when they've been taken prisoner. What type of friend are you? None of us want friends that are the guys that show up when things are going great. Yeah, this is my things are going great friend. Nobody wants a friend like that. Yeah, this is my once he gets everything he wants out of me friend. Yeah, come and meet him. Nobody wants a friend like that. Be a desiring-to-see-you friend. Come meet my desiring-to-see-you friend. That's what Timothy was to Paul, and vice versa. That's what we should be to each other. And you know what? His friend's crying, and he says, he still encourages, hey, go on for me. Go on for me. And it's an interesting word here. We talked about this word before in verse 5. Watch what it says. I'm being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy. Verse 5. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, Unfeigned faith. It's not hypocritical. It's not fake. It's not counterfeit. It's real. It's sincere. It's unfeigned. And it says, "...which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also." You know where it dwelt first? in his grandmother Lois. Do you know what we don't see mentioned in the Bible? Anything about his grandfather. You know who else is mentioned in this verse? His mother was a believer. His father was not a believer. Timothy had strong Christian women teaching him and raising him for God. The Scripture never mentions anything about his father or his grandfather being saved, nonetheless being teachers. It's his grandmother and his mother. You know what that tells us, church? This whole idea of having the perfect family until we can go on to God is a farce. And Timothy is proof of that fact. He didn't have a daddy that was teaching him the Bible. He had a mama. He didn't have a granddaddy that was teaching him the Bible. He had a grandmommy. Do you know how hard it is for some ladies who get saved and their husband doesn't get saved? Do you know how easy it would be for them to sit in church with their unsaved husband if he even comes to church? and where her mind could just run away with her when she hears preaching about Paul and Timothy. Man, I wish I had a husband like that. I wish I had a man like that. Do you know how Satan can mess with a woman's mind like that? That's in that situation? Timothy's the example. His mother raised him and his grandmother raised him. And if there's ladies that are in that situation, you know what they need to get a hold of? Raising their kid for God. That's what they need to get a hold of. Keeping their child in church, teaching them the holy scriptures. And Timothy's mother and grandmother are the perfect example of that. Now, us daddies might be saying, well, that's not me. I'm not a deadbeat, dad. I'm saved. OK? You know what we might have to consider? We might have to consider this. Maybe the extra hours of overtime aren't worth it. Maybe the worldly trinkets aren't worth it. Maybe the extra three or four hours on the ball field, or the gym, or we'll just fill in the blanks. Maybe it's not worth it. Hey, maybe there's a Timothy out there. Maybe there's a Timothy out there that needs a godly man to invest in his life. That's what Paul did. He invested in young Timothy, and Timothy says, that's my son in the faith. Paul's the example. Timothy is the example on both sides. None of us have the ideal family. But I tell you, we get born again, adopted into God's family. Know what we should do? Help each other. Help each other. Invest in a young man that might need it. Lastly, I'd like to make an appeal to you out of verse number five. At the end of this verse, it says, and I am persuaded that in thee also. When I call to remembrance the unfaith faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. He's got the same faith of his grandmother, his mother Paul. They all share that. I'd like to bring a contrast as the last thought. Because if someone here tonight has not trusted Christ, one of the most sorrowful passages of Scripture is in Acts 26, when Paul goes before King Agrippa, and he gives the Gospel very clearly to King Agrippa. And King Agrippa says, and I quote, Paul, he says to Paul, almost Thou persuaded me to be a Christian. Go to Acts 26. I'm not sure. When you find the verse, you tell me, but it's there somewhere. What is it? Verse 28, then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Right there. Right there. Almost persuaded, but what was King Agrippa? Lost. Someone can be right there. Right there. Ready to accept Christ. Almost persuaded. but lost. Young people, young people, you don't want to grow up, you don't want to grow up and end up dying and facing God at judgment because you were almost persuaded. You may have a false hope because mommy and daddy bring you to church, Adults, even some of us. There's adults that sit in church. Their whole life, church membership, baptism, faithful in carnal things, good things. And they're right there. But they have never personally repented of what their trust and faith has been in and turned toward God and put their full faith, fully, not almost, Think I'm there. Get it settled. Get it right. Know that you know that you know. There are no, I'm almost born again Christians. Are you saved? I'm almost saved. Are you born again? I'm almost born again. Settle the thing. Settle the thing. Awful, awful words from King Agrippa. Almost thou persuaded me. to be a Christian. It goes for young people and older people alike. The one thing our church should do when we meet new people, it don't matter where it is, try to look for opportunities to bring up the gospel. That's the only thing that really matters for eternity. Don't forget that.