God's Call In Our Lives

Thank you, Emily and Taylor. Appreciate that song. It's such a fitting song for where we are in second Timothy. In fact, Eopold could have written that song. Really, the lyrics of that song could have been written by Paul in the condition he was in. His world had been shaken. His heart had been broken. His world had been shaken because he was possibly violently, quickly arrested and put in prison in Rome as we saw last week this time, not like the first imprisonment, but this time in the dark dungeon underground, dungeon damp and dark, the mammothine prison with a hole in the top of his cell, one hole for light and air to get in. Without the ability to do the things he had done before and really through all of his ministry and he feels deserted. His heart has been broken too because he feels deserted. Nobody even showed up at his first defense before Caesar and that did not go well and he knows now that his execution is near. His heart has been broken. There's a thread of loneliness, of pain, of heartache that runs through this book. But there is also that thread of hope and encouragement and strength of the Lord that comes to him in this time of suffering, in this time of heartache and the world around him being shaken. There's also this confidence that comes through. He's appealing in this letter which I've entitled this series of messages last words to a dear son. He's entitled these words to Timothy and this is a passionate pouring out of his heart to Timothy. His young son in the faith and he writes this letter, a gripping letter, a passionate, personal letter, not just with the ink flowing out of his pen but with the blood flowing out of his life onto the pages of this impassioned letter. We saw last week that he begins this letter of last words to a son with some greeting to his son and then some words of remembrance to his son. It's a very reminiscent feel to this letter and then there were words of challenge to Timothy to fan the flame of the gift of God that God had put in him, to use that gift to serve him and not let it sit on the shelf but to serve him faithfully and then to trust in the power of the Spirit of God to overcome his own personal temperament, personality weaknesses to be able to be courageous in his stand for the Lord. So he follows up that with the rest of chapter 1 where we are today with a call to his son in the faith. And really what he's expressing is God's call in our lives. Now when we think of God's call we often think of the call of God, some mysterious impression, voice, leading of the Lord for someone to go into full-time ministry as a pastor or a missionary or something like that. And certainly these words are addressed primarily to a pastor. And this book is an impassioned plea to a young pastor. But beyond that God's call is for all of us. God calls all of us to salvation first of all. The Bible talks about his calling us to himself. The Bible speaks of the fact that God's call in our lives is broad enough not just for vocational ministry but for all of us in whatever vocation God places us. God has called some of you to be in the marketplace, to be faithful servants of God where you work day in and day out in your job. And there's nothing necessarily secular about that job. That may be God's calling for you because the job that you have is God's means of supporting your family, putting bread on the table and so forth. But it is also his place for you to serve him to be light and salt, the testimony and a witness for him there. That's God's call on your life quite possibly. He called us all to serve him in some way. God's call us all to live obediently to him. So the call of God is for all of us. And so as Paul addresses this call to his young son in the faith, he also addresses it to all of us gathered here today. As Paul challenges Timothy, he challenges us also. The call of God in our lives is for each of us, all of us, not just for those who are in the ministry as it were. There are two challenges that Paul gives to Timothy in these verses. The first is a call to courage. He calls upon Timothy to have courage in a day when it was greatly needed. I think we live in similar days where courage is also greatly needed. And so this call goes out to you this morning. It's to me, it's to my young sons in the faith, if you will. The ones I mentioned last week that God has providentially allowed me to have some impact in their lives. And for whatever reason, they still want that. I've been blessed and committed this series of messages to them and to you as the church that I love very much. The call to courage in verse eight, notice the kinds of courage that Paul calls Timothy to, the kinds of courage, verse eight. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord or ashamed of me, his prisoner. Join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Notice three things basically he says, Timothy should not be ashamed of. This is the kind of courage he should have. First of all, the courage not to be ashamed of Christ. He says, do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord. That's not an indictment of Timothy. He's not saying Timothy, you're ashamed of Christ. Shame on you. He's not saying that. But as we saw last week, Timothy had a nature, a personality that was more timid by nature, more maybe shy by nature. He could more easily be intimidated by opposition or by those whom he may have felt had more gifts or abilities than he did. So Timothy was kind of that more timid retiring type of personality. And so Paul keeps challenging him as he did in the first epistle to step out of that in the power of God. And here he's saying, Timothy, I know that you might be tempted to shy away from a bold testifying of Christ because of all the opposition against you. I'm challenging you not to be ashamed of Jesus. It's a little harder for us to understand the challenge that Timothy would face because we don't face quite the same challenge today. The cross of Christ was considered scandalous in the first century. Today, the cross is a well-known emblem of Christianity. We wear it with pride on pieces of jewelry or other symbolic ways. And it is fully recognized in at least our Western culture as an honored symbol of Christianity, not so in the first century. In Paul's day, in Timothy's day, every Jew and Gentile who did not know the Lord viewed crucifixion as the ultimate disgrace and dishonor. In fact, polite company did not even use the word cross. It was considered an obscenity. To use that word would be the equivalent of us using obscene language, profane language. And so the word cross was not even spoken in polite society. If you were a sophisticated, educated, urbane Greek of the day, you considered the idea of substitution on a cross as something crude and even laughable. And so those who took a bold stand for Christ and preached and taught and stood for the cross as the only way of salvation were laughed out of town and considered crude and improper. In society, that's the kind of culture Timothy faced. And so that's why Paul challenges him. Don't be ashamed of Christ. Don't be ashamed of what he did for us on the cross. Be courageous in your testimony of Christ. But then he goes on to say, also don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner. Paul was in prison, but notice he does not say of himself, I am Nero's prisoner. He was, politically, technically he was the prisoner of Rome, of the Emperor Nero, but he considers himself Christ's prisoner. Don't be ashamed of Christ or of me, his prisoner, the prisoner of Christ. He's not ashamed of Christ, he's in prison because he's taken a bold stand for Christ and the testimony of Christ. Interestingly enough, that also was not popular in Paul's day. Paul talks about a couple of people who had turned away from the faith over in chapter 2 and verses 17 and 18. He talks about Hymn and Aes and Falitas, mentions them by name and he says they have wondered away from the truth. Chapter 2 verse 18, they say that the resurrection has already taken place and they destroy the faith of some. This new teaching in New Testament times that was in the departure from the faith was the teaching that the resurrection had already taken place. In other words, there is no literal physical resurrection of the body to look forward to. The only resurrection we have is a spiritual resurrection. And the teaching that went along with that in the first century was the teaching that since we've all been resurrected spiritually, that means that we have all power over all of our problems. We don't have any suffering in problems anymore because we're resurrected. We're not in this sinful nature anymore. So people that suffer must be out of the will of God. It was really a very early form of the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel that we still have around today. It was a very early form of that. And so it would be very easy for people who were swayed by that teaching to think, what's wrong with Paul? Look at him, he's suffering. He's over there in the Roman prison. So certainly the spirit of God is not with him. Certainly his ministry has been abandoned by the Lord. So Paul also pleads with Timothy not only not to be ashamed of Jesus but don't be ashamed of me. Don't be ashamed of me as prison. Probably the reason why many have deserted Paul in prison was because of this teaching. They thought maybe God had turned his back on Paul. Christians are not supposed to suffer. Christians are not supposed to have hard times. We've already been through the resurrection they were teaching. We are in a new plane, a new level of spirituality that absolves us from all suffering. So they taught that Paul must have been outside the will of God. What another kind of loneliness Paul must have felt on this occasion. But he challenges Timothy. Don't be ashamed of me either. The prisoner of Christ. We have brothers and sisters all across this world who are in the same shape, who suffer for their stand for Jesus. And we need to link with them. We need to own them as brothers and sisters. We just got a letter here at the church this week just in the last couple days from our missionaries Dave and Carol Richards. They're up in their 80s now. They're not able to be on the foreign field any longer. But Dave and Carol were fellow students of mine at Peabmont. They came later in life at Peabmont. I want to just let you know that. But they were good friends of mine. We went to church together and we took them on for support many years ago. They served in Mali in Africa in a country that is now overrun by Muslim extremists. And in this letter he talked about brothers and sisters that he had led to the Lord, a church he had established. And these dear people never know from day to day if they're going to have their home. If their belongings will be taken from them, if their children will be stolen from them. If their lives will be taken, they never know from day to day. And they live every day not fleeing but faithfully for Christ in the midst of that terror. And there are brothers, there are sisters. We dare not forget them. We are one of them. And when the world says we don't want to identify with that, we need to embrace our brothers and sisters across the world who are suffering for the cause of Christ. Just like Paul said Tim of the Evkourage, don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner. But then thirdly says don't be ashamed of the gospel. He says but join with me in suffering for the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Stand for it. Proclaim it. Defend it. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. We live in a day of attacks on the gospel and on believers. And on Christ himself. Don't be ashamed. Some of you my age at least will remember the great National Basketball Association player, NBA legend Rick Berry. Rick Berry played 15 years in the NBA. The height of his career was with the San Francisco Warriors at that time, the San Francisco Warriors. Rick Berry was one of the outstanding scorers in NBA history. He was a perennial author. He's been listed among the top 50 NBA players of all time. He's in the Hall of Fame. They had a stellar career. But there was one thing kind of strange about Rick Berry. And that was the way he shot free throws. Do you remember Rick Berry shot underhanded free throws? He was the only one in the league that would do it. And it really looked weird, so weird that all the other players called it the granny shot. Granny shot? Well he kind of looked like grandma. You know? He'd been to over put the leg, but all between his legs and he'd just kind of flip it up toward the hoop. It looked really weird. But he finished a 15 year career with a 90% free throw percentage. The best at that time and one of the best of all time. So why didn't everybody do this? Rick Berry pleaded with players to do it because he said the physics of it make this a much better shot than the typical shooting motion to shoot free throws. And he was proven right in 2008, Discover Magazine hired a physicist to actually run the science on it. And the guy said, yeah, the 45 degree angle and the type of backward spin on the ball the way it comes toward the hoop. Because of much greater percentage it will be a made free throw. So why didn't more people do it? Wilk Chamberlain did it in one game. Wilk Chamberlain, one of the greatest players of all time, still holds the record for scoring the most points in one game. So what 100 points in a game in March of the second of 1962? 100 points. And he always was terrible at free throws. Horrible shot just over 50% for his whole career at the way below average. In that one game he shot the granny free throw and he made 28 out of 32 free throws. Why didn't he keep shooting that way? You know why? Everybody was ashamed to shoot the granny shot. It didn't look cool. Nobody else was doing it. It looked weird. It identified you for a laughter and ridicule throughout the NBA. But Rick Berry said it works and I'm going to keep doing it. Why are so many of us ashamed? Why do we back away from a bold testimony of the gospel? And identification with other believers? And testifying why don't we have courage to do what the Bible tells us is the right thing to do? Are we so weak that we have a lack that we're ashamed because other people will think of us as weirdos? In the midst of a culture that was against Christ and Paul and the gospel, Paul says to Timothy, don't be ashamed. Now folks, we are living in such a day. We're living in a day of opposition to the gospel and the cause of Christ and to believers. I think there's a signal event that happened in the last three weeks that shows us exactly where we are. In the eyes of our culture in America, it happened in the U.S. Senate on June the 7th. President Trump's choice for the Office of Management and Budget, second in command, a man by the name of Russell Vault, who is an outstanding believer, graduate of Wheaton College, and loves the Lord's unashamed of Christ, was under consideration, was being questioned by the committee. To confirm him for that position. The conversation which really should have been about his qualifications for the job quickly turned personal, fiercely personal, and attacked his Christian faith. Leading the charge was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who said, picked out of a publication that Vault had written a year before defending Christianity and suggesting indicating that Jesus Christ was the only way to salvation. Sanders, I saw the film of the interview. It was brutal. It was brutal. Sanders quoted this one line out of that article, took it out of context where Vault said this, Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology, they do not know God, because they have rejected Jesus Christ his son and they stand condemned. Vault was writing that in the context of future judgment before God, but Sanders pulled out that one statement, turned and said, Vault, do you believe that statement is Islamophobic? Vault was called off guard, but he began to try to explain why he had made that statement as a Christian. He said, absolutely not Senator, I am a Christian, and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith, and he was going to go on and explain what the article explained. He believed that Jesus Christ was the only way to heaven that the Bible clearly taught that. It was one of the basic tenets of Christianity. Before he could get that far, Sanders interrupted him and said, forgive me, we just don't have a lot of time. Do you believe people in the Muslim religion stand condemned? Is that your view? I am very graciously started to answer again, said again, Senator, I am a Christian, and I wrote that piece in accordance with the statement of faith at Wheaton College, and you started again to explain what he was cut off again. I understand that, Sanders said, I don't know how many Muslims there are in America, maybe a couple million, are you suggesting that these people stand condemned? What about Jews? Do they stand condemned too? And he started to answer again, Senator, I am a Christian, that's as far as he got. And Sanders interrupted again, shouting this time, I understand you are a Christian, but this country is made of people who are not just, I understand that Christianity is the majority religion, but there are other people of different religions in this country and around the world. In your judgment, do you think that people who are not Christians are going to be condemned? Well, started to answer again, thank you for probing on that question. As a Christian, I believe that all individuals are made in the image of God and are worthy of dignity and respect, regardless of their religious beliefs. I believe that as a Christian, that's how I should treat all individuals. Sanders interrupted again. Do you think that's respectful of other religions? And then he turned to the chairman of the committee and said, I would say simply Mr. Chairman, this nominee is really not someone who this country is supposed to be about. Even the Washington Times, secular columnist Cheryl Chumley could not believe what she was hearing. She wrote the next day in the Washington Times, when it comes to Christians standing firm in their faith, that's discriminatory. When it comes to Muslims standing firm in their faith, that's freedom of religion. Apparently, in this age of diversity, she wrote, the only group that is acceptable to attack is Christians. Sanders office, the next day released a statement that went even further and said, condemning an entire group of people because of their faith is racism and bigotry and cannot be part of any public policy. The push back to that was amazing. And other senators who piled on with Sanders was also amazing. But the point that was made very clearly was, if you are a Christian and if you believe what the Christian faith teaches about the way to heaven, you are disqualified from public office in this country. You have no right to serve in public office. Now, I think that was a watershed event. The mainstream media did not say a whole lot about it. But there were those who arose in fierce protest. I've signed a petition to be sent to Senator Sanders expressing my disbelief that he would have a religious litmus test which is expressly forbidden in the Constitution of the United States, that he would have a religious litmus test for public office. But you see, it's okay to do that to Christians today. Because if Christians believe what Christianity teaches, that's bigotry. That's racism. That has no place in public policy. At least that's what we're being told by our culture. If I stand before you as I do every Sunday and proclaim that Jesus Christ is the way of salvation, the only way to heaven that no one will be in heaven except through Jesus Christ, in our culture today, that's seen as racist and bigoted and discriminatory. Now, that will continue to happen, I believe, in our country as Christianity, in our pluralistic, relativistic society, as Christianity is seen as exclusive. And thank God the way to heaven is exclusive. There is only one way. And that's through Jesus Christ. Are we going to be ashamed of that? Are we going to back down? A life way, Southern Baptist research recently found that in Protestant churches in America, 52% of people in Protestant churches believe that there's more than one way to heaven, that you can get to heaven through other religions. Why is that changing in our culture, even in churches that are supposedly Christian churches? Why is that changing? Because we're ashamed. We're ashamed to be identified with this narrow bigot and racist group of people that believe there's only one way to heaven. You see the whole debate is being inflamed by using terms that nobody wants to be identified with. I don't want to be considered racist. I don't have a racist bone in my body that I know of. I don't want to be considered a bigot. And yet those are the terms that are being used for those who believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. So are we facing ridicule today, opposition, marginalization, Christianity being pushed out to be seen as an extreme religion now? Yes, you better believe we are. So God's call and Paul's challenge to Timothy is just as much for us today. Will we have the courage to stand for Christ and His people and be identified as Christians and stand for the gospel? Or will we timidly back into the shadows and not stand for fear of being ridiculed? We need the same kind of courage today. And then Paul quickly gives us three reasons for courage. If we do become a little timid, a little intimidated, a little fearful, there are good reasons for courage. Look at verse 9, the first one is the power of God. He says, but join me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Thank God we never stand alone. We always have at our disposal the power of God, the boldness and confidence of the Spirit of God, so the power of God. Secondly, the purpose of God. Notice verse 9, who has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we've done, but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. This verse has been called a beautiful summary of salvation and it is. It describes salvation as being the purpose of God. Think about all that God's done for us in His purpose to save us. He saved us, meaning he's delivered us from sin, from Satan, from His kingdom and brought us into His kingdom, His family. He saved us. He's also called us. Salvation involves a call of God, the working of the Spirit of God to bring us to Himself. That call is to result in a holy life. He says, that's not because of anything we've done. It's through the purpose because of the purpose and grace of God. That whole plan of salvation was devised and began before human history started. Back in eternity passed. The purpose of God to save us and deliver us when you think of all that God has done for you, His purpose to save you. You don't have to give you boldness to take a stand for Him, to be willing to be identified with Him. So the reasons for courage, the power of God, the purpose of God and then the person of Christ in verse 10. But it has now been revealed. What, the salvation that you talked about in verse 9, this purpose of God, although it started before the beginning of time, verse 9. Now it's been revealed how, through the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has destroyed death. There's nothing beautiful about death. It's an intruder in the God's plan. It's called in 1 Corinthians 15, the last enemy that will be defeated. But it has been defeated. It's been defeated by Jesus Christ and in place of death, He has into the verse brought life and immortality to light. I mean, it's now in broad daylight. Death is in the shadows, in the darkness, but Jesus has abolished, destroyed death through His death on the cross. And He has brought out into the light, life, eternal life and immortality that we will never die in Christ. So tremendous person of Christ who's done this for us, we should never be ashamed. Why? Because we have the power of God with us, we have the recipients of the purpose of God in salvation. The person of Christ who died for us is always with us. Those are reasons for courage. But then Paul gives an example of courage. He himself is an example. If you look at verses 11 and 12, Paul says, and of this gospel, I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. Paul never forgot. God's appointment, as we saw last week, he was called to be an apostle by the will of God. Today, he says, I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. A herald, a proclaimer. A herald was one who represented a king in taking his message to every village across the countryside and standing in the city square and proclaiming his message to the populace of that town or that village. We're proclaimers of the gospel, but Paul was also an apostle, that special calling of God for men who served with Jesus and in Paul's case was directly appointed by Jesus to be one of those men who established the church in the first century, gifted with miraculous power, apostles, but then he was also a teacher. That's Paul's favorite word for the ministry of a pastor in the in the pastoral epistles. The evangelist takes the gospel to people, takes it to new territory. The pastor teacher stays in one place in a church and teaches the flock under his care, the word of God. That's the primary responsibility of the pastor teacher to teach the word of God. So a proclaimer, Paul himself an apostle and also a teacher. He could never forget. He was appointed. He's an example of this courage. Nothing could hold him back. Nothing would ever cause him to lose his focus. He knew what God had called him to do. Not even being thrown in a Roman prison would cause him to lose that focus. He had courage. He was also not ashamed. Not only was he appointed, he was not ashamed. Look at verse 12. He says, that is why I'm suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed. Remember verse 8, he's just challenged Timothy. Don't be ashamed. Of Christ. Don't be ashamed of me. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. And now he says, I want to explain to you Timothy why I'm not ashamed. I am not ashamed. Why? Because I know whom I have believed and then convinced that he is able to guard what I've entrusted to him for that day. I know whom I have believed. That's why I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Not ashamed of Jesus. Notice he did not say, I know what I have believed. Although Paul surely knew what he believed. One who could be used to God to write the masterpiece of Romans, the original systematic theology of the church, Phil chopped full of doctrine and theology. Paul knew what he believed. But it was not what he believed that got him to heaven. It was the person he believed. I know whom I have believed. It is Jesus who gets us to heaven. It is not subscribing to a doctrinal statement of a church or a creed of a religion. It is not saying, I believe these certain doctrines. That'll get me to heaven. Won't it? No. No. Belief in doctrine is important. The only thing that will get you to heaven is faith in Christ, the one who died for your sins. Paul said, I know whom I have believed. And he said, I'm confident that he's able to keep what I've entrusted to him, to guard what I've committed to him until the day I meet him someday. That's the day he's talking about. I've committed my soul to him. But he says, I've also committed my ministry to him. And I think that's included in this. It's not just that I've committed my soul to him. And I know he's able to keep me to heaven. That's true. But in this context, he's also talking about I've committed my whole life to guarding the gospel, to preaching and teaching the gospel. And I believe he will keep me in that faithfulness to the gospel until I meet him someday. I'm confident of God's power in keeping him. The importance of courage to stand for Christ and to stand with each other. If you're ever called upon to suffer, regardless of what degree of suffering it may be. Ridicule, misunderstanding, laughter, or maybe even the loss of a job, the loss of a friendship, whatever it may be. If you're called upon to suffer for the name of Christ, don't, don't shrink back from him or the gospel or his people have courage to stand for Christ in these days, these difficult days. So there's a call to courage and quickly there's a call to faithfulness in verses 13 to 18. Notice Paul's challenge to be faithful in verses 13 and 14. He tells Timothy, what you've heard from me? Keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. To everyone who's entrusted with the gospel, especially to those who are to proclaim it and teach it, this charge, this challenge, this call to faithfulness is given. First of all, keep it personally. Don't ever let it slip from your heart. I love the way he says it. Keep the pattern of sound teaching. The word pattern was a word which was used of a rough sketch of something like an architect might make a rough sketch of a building that he's considering before he does the detailed plans and fills in all the detail. The rough sketch is the basics of what will happen. And that's the word used here. Keep that pattern. Paul has developed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the power of God, the rough sketch of Christian doctrine. It can be fleshed out. It can be explained more fully and those who study the word of God seek ways to explain more fully what it's about, but you don't ever leave the rough sketch. The basic doctrinal framework is set in place and is never to be abandoned. We keep that. And then we also guard it with our eyes if necessary. We're called upon like soldiers to be vigilant, guarders of the truth. And so we're to keep it, we're to guard it, but notice the spirit in which we're to do it. You see that in verse 13, he says, keep the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. With faith, confidence that it's the right thing faith in Christ, but also with love. It's very easy when you're defending the faith and standing for the truth to become a fighter or a witch hunter, you know, to be looking for anybody who may vary in the least little bit and condemn them outright. Paul says, make sure that you have a loving spirit and heart as you stand for the truth. That's a good balance. But he says also to do this with the help of the Holy Spirit at the end of verse 14. He reminds him again, just like he did in verses 6 and 7, the Holy Spirit's given to you Timothy. He's there to give you boldness, power to be able to do what God wants you to do. You don't need to be timid or intimidated by the forces against you. And he's saying here, you've got the same help of the Holy Spirit to guard the truth. So guard it well. Boston Light is Boston's first lighthouse, the first lighthouse ever built in the United States of America. My last year Boston Light celebrated its 300th anniversary. It was built in 1716. It was bombed by the British in the Revolutionary War in 1776, but it was rebuilt. And so it has maintained a light in Boston Harbor for over 300 years. The lady who is now in charge, who is the not the man of the lighthouse, she calls herself the woman of the lighthouse, is serving as the 70th keeper of the lighthouse. She says over three centuries since its inception, a keeper has always kept the light burning in the Boston Light, America's first lighthouse. However, the position has changed a little bit. Everything's automated now. There's no need to actually for her to keep the light burning. Everything is automated, but her responsibilities are to maintain the grounds, guide tours, and manage 90 volunteers who help her with that lighthouse. But even with those modernized tasks, Sally Snowman says this about her job. I have the significant of jobs in 2016 to be the keeper of the first lighthouse of America. She says, maybe on my wildest dreams, she says, would we be as passionate about being keepers of the light of the gospel that we keep it, that we guard it, that we realize it is a treasure deposited with us, not just for 300 years, but for almost 2000 years. We keep it and guard it intact so that it will never lose its powerful light to the nations of the world. That's the challenge to be faithful. But then Paul gives an example of unfaithfulness in verse 15. You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Fiegales and Hermogenese. He mentions two men without any explanation. Timothy knew who they were. All they needed to hear was their names. He didn't need any description of where they were. They were probably in the church at Ephesus. And they were among those who had deserted Paul. The reason why I would mention them was probably because he considered them friends. This was a heartache to him. It caused him deep pain to think these two men would desert him, would turn against him. Because of his imprisonment. And I'm sure it was part of why Paul felt the way he did throughout this letter, the pain, the sense of betrayal, the hurt that he felt, but he would not dwell on that. Many of you here today have probably had people hurt you in the past. Maybe they've said things against you that were not fair, maybe not true. Maybe they've done things to you that hurt very deeply, a sense of betrayal and desertion. You can focus on them the rest of your life and it will do no more than destroy you. It will create a resentment and bitterness that will eat out the very fabric of your soul and your heart. So do what Paul did. He mentions the hurt. He admits it. It hurt. He feels deserted, but then he spends three verses on an example of faithfulness. And that's Onesiferus, a dear man that we only hear about in this letter. But Paul spends three verses talking about him, which indicates I think the focus of his heart that he was not focused on the people who hurt him. He was grateful for the one who had stood by him. He says in verse 16, may the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiferus because he often refreshed me. Interesting word refreshed literally means to cool again. Like a drink of cool water, breath of fresh air. He was refreshed by this man's fellowship. And he says he was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. I mean, everybody else deserted him and he says in chapter four, my first defense, nobody was there with me. But when Onesiferus visits Rome, he does his best to find Paul. It wasn't easy. He had to look for him, discovered no doubt through questioning that he was in prison, finally figured out where he was. No doubt all of the questioning leading him to Paul would have caused him some rejection, some ridicule, some laughter. And yet he stayed on course and stuck with Paul. Found him, verse 18, Paul says, may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day. They have rewarded the judgment seat of Christ. You know very well, he says to Timothy, you know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus. Onesiferus was probably a member of the church at Ephesus. In fact, where we hear out him again, the only other place we hear out of him is chapter four, verse 19, where Timothy is told to greet his household there in Ephesus. Maybe he was a deacon. The word help here is the word we get the word deacon from. Maybe he was a deacon in the church at Ephesus. Whatever role he played, he stuck by Paul. He stuck with him, even when other people were deserting him, turning away from him. He stuck with him and Paul could not forget that and blessed his friend who persisted in finding him and ministering to him, who braved the dangers of being associated with a prisoner of the Roman Empire. He was not looking for a prisoner of the Roman Empire, but he stuck with it. He stayed faithful. An example of faithfulness. What a blessing he was to Paul. And what a blessing we are to our brothers and sisters in Christ when we demonstrate faithfulness to them in times of hurt and pain and difficulty. We don't turn our back on them. We don't want to be associated with them. Faithfulness. God's call is for us to be courageous and faithful like Paul, like Timothy, like Onesiferus. God calls us to be courageous and to be faithful. I challenge my sons to be faithful to be courageous. I challenge our church to be courageous in the face of ridicule and opposition in the day in which we live to be courageous, not to back away from the gospel or our brothers and sisters in Christ or Christ himself be courageous in this day and be faithful to the call of God to serve him well, to hold through his gospel, his faith. Be faithful. Father help us by your grace, in your purpose, by your plan, through your power, because the person of Christ, to be faithful and courageous in the days that we stand. May we stand for you, but with love, with kindness, with grace. May we have that beautiful balance of a firm committed stand for you, an unashamed stand for the gospel, but with love and grace and tenderness. Lord these are difficult days to live and to minister. Help us to be faithful and courageous in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.