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passage of scripture, 2 Timothy chapter four. And part of the scriptures we'll be in this morning. I used brother Paul Helms' home going service yesterday because that was his last message that he preached out of the latter part of this chapter. And of course, some of these verses will be in the preaching this morning as we try to complete the thought out of 2 Timothy chapter four. In preaching, the title of the series has been keeping the charge and this great charge that Paul had given Timothy about being sure that he preached the word and kept preaching it in season and out of season and no matter what happened and took place that the Lord chose the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's God's method, God's way. That's why we met on this fashion this morning. Thank God for the singing and the fellowship All of it is wonderful and ordained of God, but what God chose to change the lives of men, to save men, to give us eternal life, and then to grow us in his grace, God chose preaching, the preaching of his word. And so he told Timothy, keep this charge of preaching. And so we've just preached five messages today. We'll be the sixth, probably the last on this subject. And even though it's entitled Keeping the Charge, I have a subtitle for it. and we'll take that out of verse 22. Jump down to the last verse of the chapter, and then we're gonna back up in verse six and read here in just a second. Verse 22, Paul said, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you, amen. I wanna preach on keeping the charge and doing it with the right spirit. With the right spirit, a right spirit. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you'll help us today as we try to preach the subject that is before us. Lord, thank you for the choir, what great singing they did this morning, for the ladies that just sang and challenged our heart, reminding us and Lord admonishing us that everything that happens in life, we can bring it all to you. Lord, you're the source of our help and the source of our comfort, the source of our sustaining, and we thank you for that. And pray now that you bless the preaching of your word today. Strengthen our heart by what we hear in Jesus Christ's name we ask it, amen. Paul ends the book and ends this chapter, but the entirety of the book, and it is really a prayer, probably for Timothy, that the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. That's very important because if you're not careful, you'll allow the things of life to change your spirit. And we've all made the statement before, that person, we'll say that person just has a bad spirit. You get around them, their spirit's not good. The way they talk and the things they talk about the people they talk about and they end up with a bitter spirit. They end up with a hard spirit. They end up with a hateful spirit. They end up with a skeptical spirit and they just become skeptics and you get around them and they become untrusting in their spirit, unloving in their spirit. They're no longer kind and compassionate because they've allowed the afflictions and the trials of life to change them for the worse. Everything we go through, the Spirit of God, if we go to Him, He'll make us better because the trials of life. He'll make us better because of the hardship. And some people allow the things of life to make them worse. You know, one letter, one letter, between the word better and bitter. Better and bitter. If you exchange the E for the I, when it's all about you, you'll become bitter. When everything in life is about you, it will change you for the worse. And I'm telling you, God wants to make us better, not bitter. And so when it comes to the end of the book, Paul said, it's my prayer for you, Timothy, that the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And then he said, grace be with you. Oh, how we need the grace of God. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. Thank God the grace of God saves us. But then he said, not only does it appear unto all men, but also that same grace teaches us. Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust that we might live soberly, righteously, listen to this, and godly in this present world. This world needs to see a godly people. They need to see a righteous people. And the Lord needs to teach us to be sober-minded people. This world is so foolish. All you need to do is, if you ever see a commercial on TV, I mean, it's just foolishness. And how in the world does that appeal to the nature of man? Well, we're foolish by nature. And so Paul just talked about the need of the Lord being with thy spirit. Do not allow life to change you for the worse. And so that's really kind of the thought this morning, keep a right spirit. Look, if you would, in verse six, he said in verse six, for I am now ready to be offered, we preached this last Sunday morning, and the time of my departure is at hand. So Paul is telling Timothy, You know, just a little bit of refreshing. I'm ready to give my life for Christ. And he said, the time of my departure is at hand. Paul's saying, I know I don't have much life left. I'm coming down to the end, Timothy. And we know that he's gonna ask Timothy to do all of his diligence to get there before winter. Paul's trusting that God's gonna let him live through winter until Timothy gets there, that's a request. But he knows there's not, in other words, there's a whole lot left, left of life ahead of him than there was behind him. He's lived most of his life. And Paul is telling Timothy in this chapter, you know, my departure's at hand. I fought a good fight. We preached on that. I finished my course and I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, not to me only, but unto all them also that love is appearing. Let me remind us of just a great truth real quick as we're passing through this. We're all going to a judgment and the Lord is a righteous judge. When He judges us, there's gonna be no favoritism. He's not gonna show, listen, He's not gonna show any favoritism to us. He's not gonna have respect to persons. The Lord is not gonna make an unjust judgment. The Lord is the righteous judge. If we've done well, He'll tell us we've done well. If we haven't done well since we've been saved, he's not gonna tell us, well done, thou good and faithful servant, if we've not been that good and faithful servant. I know that a lot of Christians believe just because you're saved, you're gonna stand before the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ, and you cannot wait to hear the Lord to tell you how good you've been. Oh, if you haven't lived well, he's not gonna tell you that. He's not gonna start lying for me and you. He's not gonna tell a lie. He's not gonna lie at the judgment seat. If you have not been a faithful servant of God, you're not gonna hear, well done thou good and faithful servant. Thank God you're saved. Thank God you're going to heaven. But you can suffer loss of reward and you can stand before the Lord without confidence and end up being ashamed because of how you lived. And we need to live with the reality we're all gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ if you're saved. and you're gonna give an account for the things done in this body, whether it be good or whether it be bad. When I stand before the judgment seat of Christ, it's not to stand there to find out whether I'm going to heaven or hell. That was settled 30-something years ago when I took Christ as my Savior. And there's a great white throne judgment that the ungodly will stand before, and they're gonna hear the words, depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. And they're gonna have to depart from God into an eternal destiny without Christ into an eternal hell. But if you're saved, you're gonna give an account. And Paul is telling Timothy that I'm gonna stand before the Lord who's the righteous judge. And Paul's saying, I can say with confidence, I fought a good fight. And I believe the Lord's gonna tell me, Paul, you fought a good fight. He said, I can say with confidence, I finished my course. And the Lord's gonna say, well done, you finished your course. And he's gonna be able to say, not only that, I've kept the faith. So many, in the last days, what's gonna happen, men are going to depart from the faith. There's going to be a great departing before that day, the day of Christ come. There should be a falling away first. People are going to fall away. They're going to depart from the faith. And I want you to know that in this text, he mentions Demas. months ago on Don't Be a Demas. And Demas, when we find him in the scripture in other places, was greatly commended as the servant and the minister of God. But yet Demas ended up falling in love with this present world, departed from the work of God, departed from the ministry that God gave him, did not remain faithful to the Lord and did not remain faithful to God, have him ministering with Paul. And Paul's gonna mention about Demas forsaking him. I'm gonna tell you, I've seen enough people get away from church. I've seen enough people in my lifetime depart from the faith. I've seen enough people that was running well that are not running well anymore. I have seen enough families that used to be in church sitting together and God working in their life and now their families are tore apart. Their marriages are tore apart. Their children are going to the world. They're not what they used to be and they certainly are not what they were going to be if they'd have stayed faithful. Could be a great departing in the last days. I believe we're gonna see more and more of it the scripture says we're going to see it. Let me just say this, let's make sure it's not me and you. We're gonna see it, the Bible prophesied it's going to happen. And if you do not guard your life and if you do not guard your personal spirit, see your spirit is where your will is to serve God. Your spirit. And when you come to church, if there's anybody in the world that should have a good spirit, it ought to be a Christian. A lost person in the world should not have a better spirit than you that are saved. Should have a better spirit. They certainly should not have more happiness. They certainly should not have more joy. It shouldn't be said that I'm going to tell you that Christian and that church, they're just mean spirited. And then a sinner has a very kind spirit? Something's wrong. can remind you when Paul is talking about let the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, he said in the book of Galatians chapter five, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, and peace. The Holy Ghost should be working in my spirit for me to have the love of God in me, to have the joy of God in me and the peace of God in me. Love, joy, peace. The Holy Ghost continues to work so that you have a spirit that is long-suffering. Right? The fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. These are the evidences that God lives in you. This is the proof that the Spirit of God lives inside of your heart. And I had a guy tell me one time before, here's his exact words to me. He came up and he said, preacher, after you got done preaching, I was just looking and I don't know if I have any of those. I mean, what do you say? I'm just looking at him, I go, well, I'm gonna be praying for you. I didn't even want to call him a brother at that moment. Because you've been saved for years and years. And you're telling me, man, none of those are in me. That's a testimony against your salvation. The most joyful people are to be God's people. The most loving people are to be God's people. The people that no matter what's going on in life, just have the peace of God ruling in their heart, should be God's people. And the Lord has to teach us how to be long-suffering. The Lord has to teach us how to be gentle. The Lord has to teach us how to be good because there's none good, no, not one. And so Paul is telling Timothy, and here, let the Lord be with your spirit, because if you're not careful, and I'm gonna tell you, I've seen some preachers that have ended up with a bad spirit. You know what some preachers do? Through the things of life, they get in a pulpit and all they can do is talk about every other preacher. All they can do is talk about every other church. All they can do is run down everybody who has ever left their church, they have to talk about them. Lord have mercy, that'd be a lot of talking if I had to talk about that. And anybody that remotely does anything wrong, they wanna call their name out in church. I know everybody. I'm gonna tell you this, if our names need to be called from a pulpit because we're not always right, Lord have mercy, I'll be preaching and you'll be calling me out. Last thing, when we preach the word of God, you know what I want? I wanna preach the truth and let the Holy Ghost in your heart call your name out. I don't need to be calling your name out. The Lord knows how to do that, amen. He knows how to do that. And I don't have to try to point you out to bring conviction. You know what I know? Just preach the truth, the Holy Ghost will make the application. The Holy Ghost will bring conviction upon the hearts of those that need to be convicted. It's real hard to feel conviction when you feel like somebody is with a bad spirit calling you out. It's hard to receive it. And you know what they all want to use, they want to use those verses about when the Bible says rebuke, I can bring a rebuke from the scripture without having to call your name, tell everybody, now I want everybody to stop, look over here and call that person's name and said, now this is for you. The Holy Ghost can tell you it's for you. I've had people come up and say it felt like it was nobody but me, God, and you in the church. That's the Lord's doings. And so Paul said, look, there is a crown of righteousness awaiting me. And he gets down, Paul only makes a couple requests to Timothy in this book. As he admonishes Timothy in all the things to remain a faithful preacher and all that's gonna come his way and all that the people are gonna be around him and don't get caught up in these unlearned questions, don't get caught up in the strife, don't allow, people's words to eat his death a canker and don't let it change you and draw you away. And he mentioned some unfaithful people and men that have changed their doctrine. He mentions men who changed their doctrine and says the resurrection's already passed and have subverted some people. Paul gives Timothy a lot of admonitions on how to stay faithful and to finish his course well, but he only makes a couple requests. One of them is in this verse, do thy diligence, to come shortly unto me. Now we're reading the entire book and as Timothy gets this epistle and he's reading all of these things and he gets down to the end and can you imagine as you get there that all of a sudden Paul writes, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. He's been encouraging them in the ministry and then all of a sudden now there's a request and it doesn't matter what was, I don't believe, I don't know what all was going on in Timothy's life at that moment. But I know right now for Paul to say, do your diligence and I need you to come shortly. Come shortly means put your stuff in order, put me on your calendar immediately, and everything you do, hurry up and get here. I don't know about you, that could be very inconvenient. Somebody said, I need you right now, doesn't matter what's going on in life. Paul's expecting Timothy to set everything aside and come here. Now I want you to know that Timothy's in Ephesus. Paul's in Rome. This isn't like he lives 10 miles away and I'm making a request for you to get here quick. Timothy, get here shortly. He's in Rome, 600 miles away from Ephesus. A long, hard trip to get to Rome. And when he gets there, who knows how long he's gonna stay. Timothy is pastoring a church. But you know what Paul told him right before he said, get here shortly? He said, my departure's at hand. I'm not gonna be here long, Timothy. And if you're gonna see me, I need you to get here and see me. And I'd sure love to see you one last time before I depart from this life. You know what I believe Timothy did at that moment? Timothy made up his mind, I gotta get to Rome. And you know, sometimes when God changes your plans, it's not real convenient. Some people want a convenient Christianity. Everything has to be convenient. Everything has to be planned. If it's not planned, God can't be in it. Sorry, that's not Bible. God's ways are very inconvenient sometimes. And so as he's asking Timothy to come, see, he gives him a request in chapter one, if you'll flip back. There is one other request that he gives in this book to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter one. Look with me, if you would, in verse eight. His request to Timothy is, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. Now that's a great admonition. You know how many Christians are ashamed of Jesus Christ? They're ashamed they won't speak up and give the gospel. They allow the fear of man, the fear of the atmosphere, the fear of people cripples them, and they become ashamed of Christ because they worry about what other people think. It'd be a good day in your life as a Christian when you no longer care about what people think about you serving God, that you only care about what the Lord thinks. You no longer be ashamed. Why in the world should we be ashamed of the one who died for us on Calvary? He became a shame for us. And why in the world, let me say, maybe there's a young person, a Christian here, it's gonna be a good day when you're no longer ashamed of Jesus Christ. You're no longer ashamed to mention the Lord, or mention your church, or mention the Bible, or say something from the Bible, or even to say, well, praise the Lord, the Lord's good. I mean, the world needs to hear people talking about the Lord. I remember what it was like. for the Holy Ghost to convict me and tell me, take your Bible, I was in Irma High School, take your Bible to school. Put your Bible in your book bag. And this is what the Lord was telling me, whenever you're sitting at lunch, take your Bible out, sit on the lunch table when you're done eating and read it. And I thought, okay, Lord, I'm gonna do that. I mean, I was real bold until I got there. So I remember putting my Bible in my book bag and I have it and I'm at lunch. And the whole time I'm sitting there, I'm thinking about the Bible in the book bag. The flesh part of me wanted to keep it in the book bag. I did not want to take it out. And the Lord kept convicting me. Everybody knew that the Lord, my friends knew the Lord had called me to preach. They knew that I'd gotten saved. I'd witnessed to him, but I'd never pulled a Bible out publicly in front of my friends. And here I am and I reach in my book bag and it took all the spiritual strength I had to take that Bible out and pull it up and open it up with all your friends sitting around you at a lunch table. And I just quietly, when I had a moment there talking, I just, and I laid it down and I just opened and I just, I think I was acting like I was reading, you know, just looking at it like nobody else is in there. They all went away. And somebody said, is that a Bible? Oh man. You have to announce it's a Bible on the table? I say, yeah, that's the Bible. And one kid said, oh man, I love the Bible. And they want to start talking about there. I never knew any of them went to church. You know, that's amazing how you start talking about the Lord, you find out all kinds of Christians are around. And it opened an open discussion, started talking about the Bible. I had one friend there said, yeah, yeah, well, you know, some people, here's what, his name was Billy, sitting at the table. He was a Mormon. He said, yeah, I know you say there's a hell, but hell's not even in the Bible. Boy, that was a good Bible study at lunch. Began to open up and read about how the worm doth not and the fire's not quenched and talking about hell. And you know what, all the other friends, they looked at him like he was as stupid as he said he was. As ignorant, that's a better word, right? Tommy, you rubbed off on me this morning, brother Tommy. Lord, help us. And so he said, don't be ashamed of the Lord. But then look what he said in the remainder part of the verse. He said, don't only be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. You know what he said? He said, I'm in prison, I'm in Rome, and I'm in chains. He's in chains. He's gonna mention the chain in the latter part of this chapter one. And he said, I've just got a request. Don't ever be ashamed of me. I'm the Lord's prisoner. And Timothy, I want you to the Lord. I started that church in Ephesus. I ordained you. I put you over the work. You became the first pastor there. the Bishop of the Church of Ephesus, and Timothy, please don't be ashamed of the Lord, first and foremost, but don't be ashamed of me. I'm suffering what I'm suffering for the gospel's sake. And so what a request, and he gets down, he mentions it in verse 15, this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phagelius and Hermogenes. So those men were Christians and they turned away from Paul and left Paul. And the Lord, he said, the Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus for he off refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. Know what he says in the next verse? When he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me. You know what happened? Onesiphorus went to Rome because he knew Paul was in prison. And he went around very diligently, went to every jail that he could. Is there a man named Paul here? He's an apostle. He's a preacher. Y'all would have arrested him for preaching the gospel. Finally, he found Paul and he was there to refresh Paul. Aren't you thankful for friends that when you need help, that there's a companion and somebody that cares will come and comfort you and encourage you? I'm glad the Lord loves me, but it's wonderful to know somebody else in this world cares. We all need that comfort from friends. We all need a friend that will stand by your side and not be ashamed of you and forsake you when you're living for God and going through life's trials. It is an encouragement for somebody just let you know they care. Isn't that wonderful? It absolutely is wonderful. Some of you, I don't care if people don't care. You're a liar. You're a liar. You ain't as bad as you talking like you are. We all need encouragement. We all do. And so here Onesimus was not a, Onesimus was not ashamed of his chain. When he was in Rome, he sought him out very diligently and found him. Look at verse 18. And he says, the Lord granted unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, Thou knowest very well. And you know, when you get to the end of the book, come back to the end of the book, he mentions Onesphorus again, he says in verse 19, he asked Timothy to salute Prisca and Aquila, that's Priscilla and Aquila, they were there at Ephesus with Timothy, and also the household of Onesphorus. Let me say this, gentlemen, do you realize that Paul is saying, You know, the Lord grant mercy unto the whole house of Onesiphorus because of how he treated Paul. And you know that I believe that God's mercy to your family can be hinged on how you serve God. I believe your home can be a recipient of the mercy of God because you remain faithful. The blessing of God, your children should know what it is to experience the blessing of God. Not because of their life, but because mom and daddy's life. They can have the blessing of God. And it should compel them to want to stay faithful to the Lord. So that blessing transfers onto their life for their faithfulness. Not because of that, you know, there's gonna come a time your children are gonna leave your house. and the blessing of God will remain on them if they'll choose to walk in the right way themselves. But it should be a compelling, drawing factor to serve God because they live their life under the umbrella of the blessing of God and the mercy of God because of a mom and daddy that was faithful to the Lord. And I believe that Onesiphorus brought that blessing and mercy upon his family. And so we go back to chapter four, look there with me, where Paul told Timothy, he said, I need you to come shortly unto me. And then he tells him in verse 10, oh, what a, what sad state this is. He says, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. You know, I think that there was a time that you looked at Demas' life, that you could have never imagined him to have been out of church. Could have never imagined him to have been away from the things of God. And I don't know what it was loving this present world. It could have been, that could have been a job. I mean, I don't know. It could have been money. It could have been a lot of things. We could just write a list of what it was. And I know this, he had to have loved something in this world more than he did the calling of God on his life. Because the Bible says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. It was either the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life that drew Demas away. Let me say, be careful. You know what I believe Paul is telling Timothy as well? Let the Lord be with your spirit because if you're not careful, you could be drawn away by this present world. This present world. You would think, I mean, there are more pastors getting out of the ministry than there are getting in the ministry. by all studies in the United States of America. All studies are saying there are more churches closing their doors than there are opening their doors. And there are more preachers getting out of the ministry than getting in the ministry. Here's what I'm telling you about changing your spirit. Barna actually did a study years ago, I have in one of my files at home, and pastors, And even pastor wives said, here's what they said. There's a study of, it was over 50% of pastor wives when they were interviewed personally said, the worst day of our life, when I reflect back on it, is when we entered the ministry. The worst day. Preachers, preachers saying, when I reflect back all that I've gone through the ministry, that the worst point of our life, if I could wear it all chains for the worst, is the day I entered the ministry. You know what's happened? They didn't let the Lord Jesus Christ be with their spirit. Paul's telling Timothy, people are gonna leave you. Love them, but they're gonna leave you. Let me say this, I believe he's encouraging him to not let quitters make you want to quit. Don't let quitters make you wanna quit. Don't let the bitter cause you to be tempted to be bitter. Don't let hatred bleed off on you into hatred. And there's so many things that I believe that Paul is admonishing Timothy here, and I just wrote down a couple. Don't let, as he talks about, they're gonna turn away their ear from the truth. Don't let compromisers tempt you to compromise. Do not let hardship, remember he said, Timothy, endure hardness as a good soldier. There is a certain discipline of a soldier, a certain discipline. And whenever he said, endure hardness as good soldiers, if you're not careful, listen to me, you will allow hardness and hardship to make you hardened spirit. Do not let the trials of life change your spirit. If it changes you, let it change you for the better, not the worse, not the worse. And listen, friends may forsake you. One of Paul, brother Paul Helms points that we talked about yesterday. I mean, friends may forsake you. Demas forsook. I mean, he forsook. Paul said, my first answer, they all forsook me. All of them in Asia turned away from me. And here's what Paul, Paul kept a right spirit. He said, and I pray that it's not laid to their charge. Don't you mind having a good spirit? You give your first answer standing for the gospel. Alexander the coppersmith greatly withstanding your words, and they think you're wrong, and this heathenistic man is right, and they all forsake you. They all go, people you want to the Lord, people that are following Christ, and they all walk away from you, and you're left all by yourself. I'm gonna tell you, you could end up bitter. You can end up with a hard spirit. You can end up with saying, I loved so deeply that it hurt me so deeply, I'll never love anybody like that again. You know what Paul's telling Timothy? Be careful, Timothy. Be careful with your spirit. I am praying that you allow the Lord Jesus Christ, that whatever happens in life, that you respond like Christ would respond. That life's trials make you more like Him. I'm telling you, I don't know this morning what's going on. And even though it applies in a pastor's life in this text, I'm telling you right now, sitting right here in the church, some of you could say, I'm looking at situations and it's made me worse. It's made me worse. I'm just, it's made me hateful. It's made me angry. It's made me bitter. It's made me resentful. It's made me skeptical. It's made me just keep people at a distance. And even though I'm in church, I'm sitting on the fringe. See, if you're not careful, you will allow your last church experience to bleed over here in this church. You'll treat Gethsemane like the last church. And you'll come in here and you'll sit back at a distance and you won't wanna be apart and jump all in because that last church hurt you. Or the way the last church and the last church and the last church. And it's been your experience from church after church after church. And let me tell you something, it is very unjust of you to judge us by your last churches. You got a bad spirit. You've allowed it to change your spirit. It's like the idea of I'm never gonna have a friend again because the last few best friends I had hurt me. You know what the truth probably is? You're probably part of the equation yourself. You are probably not Lily White in the whole situation. That's our wicked nature inside of us. It's that nature. And see, if you're not careful, here's what'll happen. You know, it's like those people that have been in a relationship, and it went bad, and therefore, you know, they'll never commit to another relationship. That's how some people come to church. They'll never commit because the last relationship they're in. And therefore, they've hardened their heart, and they're gonna put you in the same category as the last person. even though you're nothing like them. Same thing happens in church. So be real careful that you don't let the devil be with your spirit, that you don't let carnality be with your spirit, that you let the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Because all of us have had enough to happen to us, all to make us worse. Isn't that true? Oh, there's been enough bitterness happened in life for all of us just be bitter old cusses. Just hard, hateful. Kindness is gone. Compassion is merciful. Merciful? Merciful is gone. Be careful. I'm going to tell you this. I want to be like Paul where he said, I finished my course with joy. Get down to the end. And I wanna have more joy when I finish than when I started. Be joyful. And I know, listen to me. I am not giving a free pass and excuse to anybody who's hurt you. But be careful because you've been hurt. You don't reciprocate hurt other people. Sometimes hurt people hurt people. You hear me? Hurt people hurt people. It won't happen if you will allow the Lord Jesus Christ to be with your spirit. Be careful before you stereotype as well. What does that mean? Oh, that church is just like all them other churches. And so the Lord wants us to remain kind and merciful. He wants us to remain forgiving, forgiving. I mean, when the Bible tells us 70 times seven, the same person in one day, there is no way I can do that in my personal spirit. except the Lord be with my spirit. It's hard enough sometimes for us to forgive one time. We forgive one time and our nature says, I will forgive you. Oh, I will forgive you, but I will never forget it. Aren't we like that? I will never forget what you did to me. Oh, but I've forgiven you. No, I know we can't erase it from our memory. But you know what happens when we do remember it? It should not flood in all those emotions come back. When the emotions come back in a rage, it's because there was the lack of true forgiveness. It was. And so God help us not to lose our compassion, not to lose our long suffering. Don't allow profane people to tempt us to be profane. We should not render evil for evil. or tempted when somebody does evil to reciprocate evil. And so Paul is telling Timothy in this chapter, let the Lord be with your spirit. Demas forsook me, having loved this present world, and has departed on the Thessalonica. Paul knew where he went. Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me, talking about serving in the ministry. There's other brethren that are around him. He mentions them at the end of this chapter, but when it comes to ministry and being faithful and staying faithful in the ministry, only Luke is there. Now, it would be my opinion that Paul always had somebody pen all of his epistles, except Galatians he wrote with his own hand. I believe because only Luke is there, Luke would have been the penman to second Timothy, okay? That's just my opinion. And so he said, and then he said, only Luke is with me. Look at verse 11, take Mark, bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Now, you know, Mark, Acts 13, 13, Paul and Barnabas and John Mark, he was a young man. They were on their missionary journey, that first missionary journey. And John Mark turned back from Pamphylia and left them, departed. A few chapters later, when they were gonna go on their second missionary journey after years, Barnabas wanted to take Mark again. Paul thought it not good to take him. That great division between Paul and Barnabas. Paul took Silas, Barnabas took John Mark, and they separated. And John Mark, here it is about 20 years later. And you know what Paul says to Timothy, when you're coming to Rome, He said, take Mark and this is that same Mark that that division was over. He said, he's profitable for me for the ministry. He's become very profitable. Now, I love the terminology, take Mark. It's almost like go capture him. It's like Paul says, he shows up and so Timothy is headed to Rome and he shows up and he says, hey Mark, how you doing? Pack your stuff. What? Pack your stuff, you got an hour. What's going on? You're going to Rome. I'm going to, I said you're going to Rome. You don't even have a choice. Pack your stuff. What? Paul said for me to come just get you and tell you to come to Rome. Okay. Didn't have a choice in the matter. Take Mark and bring him. You know what I believe? I believe that when Timothy showed up and said, hey Mark, I'm going to Rome and Paul told me to come get you. He said for you to come. I believe Mark said, Paul wants me to come. Boy, I forsook him all those years ago, and I've got a chance to make that thing right. And he's fixing to part this life, I'm gonna get to show up. Wait a minute, he told you that I would be profitable to him for the ministry? Aren't you glad for second chances? Aren't you glad just because you messed up don't mean you have to be a mess up for the rest of your life? Just because you did wrong one time don't mean God holds it against you. I believe that God looks at the heart and if the heart gets right, God will keep using you. He's a God of forgiveness. He's a God of mercy. He's a God of compassion. I'm gonna say this, I'm glad not only for second chances with God, I'm glad for third, fourth, fifth, sixth chances with God. I don't even know how many chances I'm on. It's more than two, I promise you that. I'm glad that God doesn't look at us when we mess up and just say, I'm done, just throw us away. The Holy Ghost still works in us and the Holy Ghost still will use us. And here John Mark, also let me say this. He wrote the book of Mark, the gospel of Mark. God let John Mark write one of the four gospels. Talk about the grace of God. Talk about the mercy of God. How, I mean, how merciful is that? And then Paul tells Timothy, we're out of time here. Paul tells Timothy in this chapter, not only bring Mark, he's profitable for the ministry. He said, Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. Thank God Tychicus didn't depart from him in the wrong way. Sent him to Ephesus there to, to really maybe take and fill the pulpit because Timothy and Tychicus travel together in Acts chapter 20 and minister together. Maybe Tychicus is coming there to take over the church and overwatch it at Ephesus while Timothy gets to go to Rome to help Paul. Look what he said, and I'm gonna finish right here. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Paul has a request. Timothy, when you're coming, there's a few things I want you to bring with me. Bring with you to me. Now, Timothy is at Ephesus. Troas, and I know when I was preaching through the book of Timothy in this chapter, we talked about this. Troas is 200 miles out of the way. Instead of going this way to Rome, he's got to go 200 miles up to Troas just to get a cloak. just to get the books. And you know why he said, let the Lord be with our spirit at the end? Because the natural flesh would be 200 miles. I'm already traveling 600 miles to Rome and I don't even want to go. And he wants me to go another 200 miles to pick up a coat. We can just buy him a coat from the thrift store in Rome. I mean, books certainly, Paul just, you should have told me the name of the books and maybe I could have found them here. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'd rather have my Bible than just any Bible. I'd rather have that sword of mine that I've been slinging for the glory of God than just grab any other Bible. and the books and the parchments of him being able to write. And he's gotta go 200 miles that way to go 600 miles that way. You want to my inconvenient, but you know what? If you have the right spirit, the man who preached to you and got saved, the apostle of God, 14 books of the Bible has helped you and encouraged you and made you help make you are standing upon the shoulders of other men. I believe Timothy gladly went 200 miles out of the way. to pick it up and to take it to Paul. I say to you that sometimes God will change your plans and it won't be convenient. I believe Timothy dropped everything and made that a priority. Do thy diligence. Here's the last verse 21. Look at verse 21. Do thy diligence to come before winter. He said, I need you to get here shortly. And Timothy before winter, And I think, and you know, we know how he made it, we're preaching out of the book, we know that he made it there, preaching out of the book of Hebrews. Paul is the author of the book of Hebrews, but Timothy is the penman, the last book He gets there in prison in Rome and Timothy is the penman to that book. And so we know that Timothy made it. You know what a blessing it was to take that cloak and walk up to Paul and probably say, probably put it on him. And Paul put that coat on and it was cold in the winter. And he said, oh son, I hope Timothy got there before winter, before it got cold. And so God help us as I end this morning to serve God and keep a right spirit. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Keep a right spirit.
" Keeping The Charge - Keeping a Right Spirit " (Part 6)
Sermon ID | 720251533251760 |
Duration | 45:05 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | 2 Timothy 1:8; 2 Timothy 4:6-22 |
Language | English |
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