{"id":18222,"date":"2016-06-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/2-timothy-032-no-regrets\/"},"modified":"2016-06-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T05:00:00","slug":"2-timothy-032-no-regrets","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/2-timothy-032-no-regrets\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Timothy 032 – No Regrets"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[100],"series_event":[454],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18222","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-2-timothy","series_event-2-timothy","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"2 Timothy 032 - No Regrets","sermon_date":"20160605","sermon_month":"6","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3655,"sermon_slides":3656,"sermon_mp3":3659,"sermon_id":"65161155528","series_or_event":454,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":100,"chapter_and_verse":"4:5-6","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nNo Regrets\n\n6-5-16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2 Timothy 4:5-7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 33\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 4, maybe today as time permits looking at through verses 5-7, maybe verse 8; probably not verse 8.\u00a0 So for the sake of time, you guys in the sound booth I\u2019m just going to go ahead and bypass my lengthy introduction.\u00a0 I can do the Reader\u2019s Digest version of the introduction.\u00a0 The Reader\u2019s Digest version is don\u2019t quit.\u00a0 All right, let\u2019s close in prayer.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nThe book of 2 Timothy is not really a book about is Timothy a Christian, is he not a Christian, Paul is very clear that he is a believer.\u00a0 In fact, back in verse 5 of chapter 1 he mentions Lois\u00a0 and Eunice, his grandmother and his mother and he talks about their faith.\u00a0 And then he says of Timothy I\u2019m sure that it is in you as well, this faith.\u00a0 So there isn\u2019t, going back to chapter 4 now, there isn\u2019t really any ambiguity about whether Timothy is going to heaven; the doubt is, is he going to finish his job that God gave him while he\u2019s here on the earth.\n\nAnd that really is the great choice of our lives; God has placed us all in different positions; He\u2019s called us to do different things.\u00a0 We all have unique callings from Him.\u00a0 The issue is are we going to press into His design for our lives and become what He\u2019s called us to become \u201cin Him\u201d this side of the grave, this side of eternity.\n\nAnd so this is really a lengthy section that we find ourselves in which is an explanation of what Timothy is to focus on in difficult times, perilous times.\u00a0 It\u2019s the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.\u00a0 Paul has laid out eight reasons why he is to continue on with his ministry of studying and proclaim the Scripture as the pastor over the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 And we now arrive at the ninth reason.\u00a0 It is necessary for Timothy to continue to preach and teach the Word of God in order for Timothy to complete his ministry.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the tenor there of verses 5-8.\n\nSo we have a charge, verse 5;\u00a0 a reason for the charge, verse 6, and then he begins to talk about a reward; Timothy, there\u2019s a reward in it for your faithfulness.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t grant rewards to be saved, which is by faith alone by grace alone, but there are rewards given or not given to believers in the next life for those believers that endure in their calling in spite of great difficulty.\n\nNotice, first of all the charge that Paul gives to Timothy.\u00a0 He says there in verse 5, \u201cBut you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.\u201d\u00a0 Notice this explanation here, \u201cBut you.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBut you\u201d is a contrast at the beginning of verse 5 in comparison to what preceded it in verse 4 and in verse 3.\u00a0 Do you remember what verses 4 and 3 were about?\u00a0 Maybe not, I haven\u2019t been here for a week or so, thank you to Gabe; by the way, that did such a great job last week filling in.\u00a0 But if you dial back in your memory, a couple of Sundays ago we talked about these verses here, \u201cFor the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, [4] and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s a frightening prediction about the state of the church just as the age of the church is ready to end.\u00a0 The church itself, God\u2019s blood-bought saints themselves, will begin to lose their appetite for sound doctrine.\u00a0 Instead they will be interested in teachers that tell them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear, and they\u2019ll become infatuated, not with biblical truth, but with speculative myths.\u00a0 So Timothy, in contrast to those who are rejecting sound doctrine as all of this is going on you are to continue on in sound doctrine.\u00a0 So the \u201cBut you\u201d there is a contrast with Timothy\u2019s life and how it\u2019s to be in comparison to the masses and what they are interested in.\n\nAnd then\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice in this charge he gives here four imperatives.\u00a0 An imperative is a mood in Greek and it basically refers to a command.\u00a0 And what you\u2019ll discover there in verse 5 are four commands.\u00a0 These are not suggestions, it\u2019s not try this on and see if it works, these are direct commands from the apostle to Timothy related to what he is to focus on in the ministry.\n\nYou have the command \u201cbe,\u201d the command \u201cendure,\u201d the command \u201cdo,\u201d and the command \u201cfulfill.\u201d\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at these one by one.\u00a0 Notice first of all this command \u201cbe.\u201d\u00a0 There it is in verse 5, \u201cBut you, be,\u201d that\u2019s the verb, \u201csober in all things,\u201d sobriety.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 Well, it means cool headed, wide awake, under self-control, because you\u2019re living in the mass of a group of people that will not have those characteristics and those tendencies.\nIn fact, going back to 2 Timothy 3 the characteristics of people in the last days, they would be \u201clovers of self,\u201d they would become \u201cbrutal\u201d and they would be people lacking in self-control. [2 Timothy 3:[2], \u201cFor men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s amazing some of the things that are being triggered today in our society related to mob violence and people just willing to riot so fast over disagreements about this, that or the other.\u00a0 That\u2019s the characteristic of the last days.\u00a0 We, as God\u2019s people, are not rioters, we are people that function under sobriety, functioning under self-control.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting here, he says, be sober in some things\u2026. Oh, I\u2019m sorry, it doesn\u2019t say that.\u00a0 It says \u201cbe sober in all things.\u201d\u00a0 Think of all of the things that challenge us and get us away from a clear God-filled mind: materialism, where we spend our lives pursuing things\u00a0 thinking that that is somehow going to make us happy.\u00a0 Out of control emotions, allowing our emotional moods to dictate to us rather than reigning and governing our emotions under God.\u00a0 Sexual impulses, wanting to cast aside God\u2019s standard for sexuality and instead gratify ourselves in any number of ways.\n\nI think one of the things that is a struggle for a young person, like Timothy, was the desire that he had to be popular.\u00a0 It would be so easy for Timothy, backing up just a minute here, accommodating this crowd, verses 3-4, telling people what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear just for the sake of fitting in; just for the sake of being liked, just for the sake of being popular.\n\nAnd yet the Bible never calls\u00a0 us to be popular, it calls us to be faithful.\u00a0\u00a0 And it\u2019s almost as if in these last days we\u2019re having to make a choice, do I want to be popular or do I want to be faithful?\u00a0 Do I want to hear the accolades of man or do I want to hear the accolades of God?\u00a0 He\u2019s putting this right into Timothy\u2019s lap and he\u2019s saying\u00a0 you make the call.\n\nSo \u201cbe sober in all things.\u201d\u00a0 I have to admit I was up a little late last night working on this and kind of grumbling that I wasn\u2019t getting the sleep that I thought I needed until I read these words here, verse 5, \u201cendure hardship.\u201d\u00a0 Wow, talk about being slapped in the face there.\u00a0 Whoever told us that this job of living for Christ, doing the work of ministry, was somehow going to be easy?\u00a0 Certainly God provides His grace and His strength to help us but nowhere is it ever told that the Christian life or the Christian walk is somehow a stroll through the roses, or the rose garden.\u00a0 In fact, we learned back in 2 Timothy 3:12, \u201call who desire\u201d is that your desire, \u201call who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a promise from God.\n\nAnd I like how our Lord sort of concludes towards the end there of His Upper Room Discourse.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a wonderful section of the Bible, chapters 13-17, where He is ministering to these eleven, knowing what they are going to endure on his account, shaping them and molding them with seed truths because they are going to become the writers of Scripture and the foundations of the early church.\u00a0 How does he wrap up that discourse?\u00a0 He says at the very end of chapter 16, these [16:33] \u201cThese things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.\u201d\u00a0 Do you have peace today?\u00a0 Do you have peace with God?\u00a0 Is there an inner tranquility inside of you despite what you may be going through?\u00a0 I write these things to you so that \u201cyou may have peace.\u00a0 In the world you have tribulation,\u201d I love how the Bible is not a cheap salesman that never tells us about the down side of something until we\u2019ve already bought into it.\u00a0 The Bible just tells us right out of the gate, \u201cin the world,\u201d it\u2019s a promise, \u201cyou will have tribulation,\u201d but I love how the verse doesn\u2019t end there, Jesus says, \u201cbut take courage; I have overcome the world.\u201d\u00a0 Translation: you\u2019re on the winning side of history.\n\nYou\u2019re a victor.\u00a0 You say I don\u2019t look like a victor, I don\u2019t feel like a victor.\u00a0 Feelings really have very little to do with it because you are connected to the One who overcomes you, by definition, become an overcomer, or on the winning side of history.\u00a0 I\u2019m teaching a Sunday School class, if you come to the first hour you can catch some of that, on eternal security and one of the illustrations I\u00a0 used this morning was my favorite athletic team in the 80\u2019s, I would sit on the edge of my seat fearful and worried, is my team going to pull it out, watching the see-saw of a basketball game.\u00a0 And then I remember leaving the arena and watching the same game, by the way, my team did win, watching the same game on television through tape delay and this time I was no longer sitting on the edge of my seat, I was no longer worrying because I knew who was going to win.\n\nAnd you see, the Bible tells us already that we\u2019re winners.\u00a0 Read the last book, you\u2019ll see it.\u00a0 How do you sum up the book of Revelation?\u00a0 Two words: we win!\u00a0 First of all He wins and because we\u2019re connected to Him we win.\u00a0 So therefore we don\u2019t have to sit on the edge of our seat fearful, worried, is God somehow going to pull this off, what\u2019s going to happen here, what\u2019s going to happen there?\u00a0 These are just details that God is working out.\n\nSo \u201cIn the world you will have tribulation,\u201d yes, but take heart, here\u2019s your divine perspective on tribulation, Jesus says, \u201cI have overcome the world.\u201d\u00a0 So \u201cbe sober\u201d and \u201cendure hardship.\u201d\u00a0 Notice this third imperative, \u201cdo,\u201d do something, notice what he says here, \u201cbe sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist.\u201d\n\nMy professor in soteriology, called the doctrine of salvation, Dr. Robert Lightner, told us one time in class, he said the weakness of Dallas Seminary graduates, and I am a Dallas Seminary graduate, I graduated twice from there, they let me in twice and then more importantly they let me out twice so I\u2019m happy about that.\u00a0 But he said the weakness of this school is we train people to be expository preachers and teachers, which we have a tendency to excel at but we focus on expositional teaching so much that we leave out the gospel.\u00a0 We, for whatever reason, don\u2019t share the gospel with people that come to our churches to listen to the Bible be taught.\u00a0 We aim all of our messages at the believer.\u00a0 And there\u2019s, of course, a good place to aim our message at the believer since the job of the pastor is to equip the believer, but what about the lost person?\u00a0 What about the person that has never come to Christ, doesn\u2019t know the path to God or the way of salvation?\n\nAnd the thing that Dr. Lightner was trying to get across to us, he says don\u2019t become so focused on expositional teaching that you forget that there might be people in your midst that don\u2019t know how to get saved.\u00a0\u00a0 So that raised the question, Dr. Lightner, how do you share the gospel?\u00a0 And he just said three simple things and these are things which have always stuck with me, these are things that you could use, these all begin with the letter \u201cS.\u201d\n\nNumber 1, say something about sin.\u00a0 Say something about the fact that we are alienated from God because of sin.\u00a0 We are under the judgment of God because of sin.\u00a0 Number 2, the second \u201cS,\u201d say something about the Savior.\u00a0 Get across to people that when Jesus died on the cross He died on that cross with them in mind.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t just a generic death for the world, although that is true, but communicate to people that when Jesus died on that cross and then rose from the dead He was thinking about them as an individual; the work of the Savior.\u00a0 And then number 3, the third \u201cS,\u201d say something about salvation.\u00a0 Say something about how a person who is lost and dead in their trespasses and sins can have that relationship with God brought to their doorstep, how they can be brought into a relationship with God who both created and redeemed them, by faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 Faith meaning belief, trust, confidence, reliance, dependence, communicate to people that it\u2019s not themselves and their denominationalism and their ritualism and their religiosity which saves them, it is the work of the Savior and they have exercised volition in trusting in that.\n\nIt\u2019s pretty simple, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 Something about sin, something about the Savior, something about salvation.\u00a0 Try that this week as the Lord brings conversations along your way and you\u2019re not quite sure how to get across the gospel to people, just focus on those three \u201cs-s-s\u201d and watch what the Lord can do with something as simple as that.\n\nDon\u2019t, in other words, Timothy, become so preoccupied with the teaching of the Word of God, which by the way Paul tells Timothy to focus on, we saw in chapter 3 and chapter 4, that you forget to do the work of an evangelist.\u00a0 An evangelist is something that I would analogize to as an obstetrician; you know being an obstetrician and being a pediatrician are two different disciplines.\u00a0 As a matter of fact I\u2019ve never met a pediatrician that\u2019s also an obstetrician, and vice versa.\u00a0 An obstetrician helps with the birthing process; that\u2019s evangelism.\u00a0 A pediatrician helps the newborn child to mature correctly, to grow correctly, to make sure that child is having the proper nutrients, vitamins, enough sleep at night, those types of issues.\n\nTimothy, you need to be an obstetrician, you need to lead people to Christ; a pediatrician, you need to help them grow.\u00a0 It\u2019s so interesting how we\u2019re either in our churches doing one or the other.\u00a0 I ran into some people when I was there on the East Coast this last weekend in Connecticut that said you know, every sermon we hear in our church is the gospel, I\u2019ve been saved for 20 years, I don\u2019t know how to grow, I don\u2019t know how to develop, I don\u2019t know how to mature.\n\nBut on the other end of the stick you have churches, and Sugar Land Bible Church probably runs the risk of being more in this latter category, that we become so focused on the Word of God and training the saints we become sort of like a holy huddle, an \u201cus four and no more\u201d mentality that we forget the fact that the world out there, your next door neighbor, the person sitting in the cubicle or office next to you is on their way to hell.\u00a0 So let\u2019s lead people to Christ, let\u2019s help them grow in Christ, but let\u2019s not forget to do the work of an evangelist, to bring forth that gospel to people.\u00a0 Doing the work of a pastor-teacher is far easier for me than doing the work of an evangelist.\u00a0 The reason is because I\u2019m really not gifted as an evangelist.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the spiritual gifts I wish I had but God, according to the book of Hebrews gives the spiritual gifts according to His will.\n\nThere are people in this world that can lead people to Christ just like that; I would put the former Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, in that category.\u00a0 How he could get into an elevator with somebody on the first floor and by the time he hit the second floor the gospel was shared, the person was saved.\u00a0 I mean, not everybody can do that, that\u2019s a gift.\u00a0 We would think of people like Greg Laurie, Billy Graham, these types of people that have a tremendous spiritual gift of evangelism.\u00a0 And so many times I say to myself, well, I don\u2019t need to do the work of an evangelist because God hasn\u2019t made me an evangelist.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice here he never says you don\u2019t have to do it because you don\u2019t have the gift, or you have to do it if you do have the gift.\u00a0 He just says do it!\u00a0 The gospel is true regardless of whether you\u2019re gifted at it or not.\n\nSo this is a tremendous balancing statement here.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that the evangelist\u2019s work is just that, work; ergon<\/em> is the Greek word for work, \u201cdo the work of an evangelist.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that we are not saved by works but getting the gospel to people is work.\u00a0 Why is it work?\u00a0 Well, to a very large extent a lot of people don\u2019t want to hear the gospel because they know that if they hear the gospel and respond to it that they\u2019ve been thinking wrong about their relationship with God, maybe their whole lives.\n\nThe gospel, communicating it clearly is work; keeping it clear, keeping it uncluttered with a bunch of excess verbiage that\u2019s handed down to us through human tradition, instead of focusing on the single condition the lost sinner must satisfy to enter into a relationship with God, faith alone!\u00a0 Keeping all that jargon out of the gospel, so that it stays the gospel is a perpetual uphill fight, partly because humans in their pride, we in our pride want, to insert conditions because that gives us, we think, some kind of bragging rights, forgetting Ephesians 2:8-9, which says no man who receives the gospel shall boast.\u00a0 Romans 3:27 talks about how the gospel itself excludes the principle of boasting, or bragging.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:8, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d Romans 3:27, \u201cWhere then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.\u201d]\n\nSo communicating the gospel, keeping the gospel clear is nothing short of perpetual labor and work, as someone has said the gospel is free but somebody has to put in the plumbing.\u00a0 Someone has to put the effort and energy out there to study it and communicate it correctly.\u00a0 And what an opportunity we\u2019re going to have just this week, at Vacation Bible School, as children, some coming to our church, some that don\u2019t come to our church are going to hear over and over again the clear gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I\u2019d encourage you to pray this week for vacation Bible school.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what it is about vacation Bible school but God uses vacation Bible school in a special way.\u00a0 There are countless people I know that got saved through DVBS, maybe they\u2019re not hearing the gospel at all in their family, maybe they\u2019re not hearing the it at all amongst their friends, they\u2019re probably not getting it at the public schools, I would guess, but they\u2019re coming here to hear it this week.\n\nAnd there are different creative ways to communicate the gospel to these young minds.\u00a0 And beyond that, I would encourage you to think about, very carefully, children\u2019s ministry in this church.\u00a0 One of the perpetual problems we have, and most churches have is there\u2019s a constant shortage of workers to really get behind the children\u2019s ministry and teach children for a quarter.\u00a0 You say well, wait a minute, I don\u2019t know how those kids are going to act.\u00a0 Well let me let you in on something, they\u2019re going to act just the way you acted when you were their age.\n\nAnd a lot of people are kind of waiting for a voice from God to speak to them. So are you ready\u2026 CHILDREN\u2019S MINISTRIES, SUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH.\u00a0 Did you guys hear that?\u00a0 The voice of God.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just a neat thing to do, to give yourself to, to transfer truth to somebody that many\u00a0 have never heard it and needs to hear it from you.\u00a0 \u201cDo the work of an evangelist.\u201d\u00a0 Don\u2019t be like the Dead Sea but be like the Sea of Galilee.\u00a0 Why is the Dead Sea dead?\u00a0 Because everything in it is dead, right?\u00a0 Because of its high salt and mineral content, because water comes in but it never flows out so everything in the Dead Sea dies.\n\nHow different the Sea of Galilee, which is alive, teaming with life and fish.\u00a0 Why is the Dead Sea dead and the Sea of Galilee alive?\u00a0 Because if you study the Sea of Galilee you\u2019ll see that water comes in and water goes out.\u00a0 What are we like when we just horde and gorge and yet there\u2019s no output or outflow?\u00a0 We die spiritually.\u00a0 And many times we\u2019re dead spiritually because we don\u2019t have an outflow for the things that God is showing us through sermons and Bible studies and listening and reading and things like that.\u00a0 Pray about this, pray about becoming that \u201cSea of Galilee\u201d so that there may be life to our souls.\n\nBe, endure, do, and notice this fourth imperative here, \u201cfulfill.\u201d\u00a0 Looking again at verse 5, \u201c\u2026fulfill your ministry.\u201d That\u2019s the Greek word pl\u0113ro<\/em>\u014d<\/em>, it means to complete\u00a0 your task, to complete, in this case your assignment.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice the word \u201cservice,\u201d which is a translation of the word ministry, it\u2019s the word diakonia<\/em>, where we get the word deacon.\u00a0 And you just saw this morning at the communion table some of our deacons.\u00a0 What are deacons?\u00a0 They are servants, and yet we\u2019re all called to be servants.\u00a0 Timothy, you\u2019re a servant and you need to fulfill your service.\u00a0 You need to fulfill what God has called you to do.\n\nOne of the verses that jumped out to me this week is Acts 13:36, Paul there in the synagogue in Antioch, Pisidian Antioch, is reviewing Israel\u2019s history and he says this in Acts 13:36, it just kind of jumped off the page at me this week, \u201cFor David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay.\u201d\u00a0 When did David die?\u00a0 After he had fulfilled his purpose the Bible says.\u00a0 After he had fulfilled his assignment.\u00a0 You say well, wait a minute pastor, I\u2019m not perfect, I\u2019ve made some mistakes, there\u2019s no way I could fulfill my purpose.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, did you catch who this was written about?\u00a0\u00a0 David.\u00a0 Was David perfect?\u00a0 Study his life; you\u2019ll find David in his life violated three of the Ten Commandments of God, not the little ones, if there are little ones, but the big ones, like murder, adultery and then lying to cover it up.\u00a0 And yet David came clean with God; it was a process that lasted several months; he was confronted and rebuked by Nathan, a spokesman for God, but David came back to God and what did God do with the rest of David\u2019s life?\u00a0 It\u2019s like the book of Job, he prospered the latter end of his life more than the front end.\n\nSo this mentality that we have that we can never fulfill our assignments in God because there\u2019s some kind of nagging pattern or sin or disobedience in our past, nothing could be further from the truth.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not marginalizing sin, there\u2019s always consequences we pay for sin.\u00a0 But God is so great that he can get you back on track and fulfill His calling in our lives, just like He did David.\n\nBut isn\u2019t it a guarantee that we will all fulfill our purpose?\u00a0 If that were true why write this book?\u00a0 It is a guarantee that if you\u2019re in Christ you will arrive in heaven.\u00a0 But is it a guarantee that you will fulfill your purpose?\u00a0 No it is not a guarantee.\u00a0 This is what Jesus said to the church at Sardis, the dead church, \u201cThe Dead Sea Church\u201d as I like to call it.\u00a0 \u201cWake up and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die,\u201d then he says this, end of verse 2 of chapter 3 of the book of Revelation, \u201cfor I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s not saying your salvation is in jeopardy, he\u2019s saying your earthly life never, and up to this point in time has never become my vision for it.\n\nYou know, there\u2019s an interesting scene there in the eternal state, in the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22 where it says that He will wipe every tear away from their eyes.\u00a0 [Revelation 21:4, \u201cand He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.\u201d]\u00a0 Have you ever asked yourself the question, why would there be tears to begin with in heaven?\u00a0 Why would tears need to be wiped away to begin with, aren\u2019t they in heaven where tears are gone?\u00a0 What are the tears doing there?\u00a0 Why would there be tears amongst the people of God?\n\nThe Bible doesn\u2019t say but I can give a guess.\u00a0 My guess is this: there\u2019s regrets, I don\u2019t think that regret is eternal or lasting because those tears are ultimately wiped away but there is some form of regret in people as they arrive in glory and they look back and God shows them what could have been.\u00a0 This is what could have been!\u00a0 This is what I could have and would have done had you submitted under My power to My purposes.\u00a0 And yet arriving in that place of glory, thinking about, perhaps through an eternal perspective that God suddenly gives what could have been, what should have been but wasn\u2019t, you can see why tears would well up in people.\u00a0 And why those tears themselves, even in glory, would need to be dried.\n\nStudy the Bible for yourself and you\u2019ll discover that not everybody finishes well.\u00a0 Samson is in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11.\u00a0 [Hebrews 11:32, \u201cAnd what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.\u201d]\u00a0 Study the life of Samson in the book of Judges you\u2019ll see a man that didn\u2019t finish well; he went to heaven just never became what he could have become in God.\n\nIn the Bible you read about a man named Moses who served God faithfully and yet never entered the Promised Land, died seeing the land of Canaan from a distance.\u00a0 Whereas he could have entered but he didn\u2019t finish well in spite of many faithful things that Moses did.\u00a0 You\u2019ll read in the Bible about a man named Lot, I like to ask this question: Are\u00a0 you a lot like Lot?\u00a0 Who was a believer, I know he was a believer because 2 Peter 2:7-8 tells us three times the man was saved or regenerated.\u00a0 [2 Peter 2:7-8, \u201cand if<\/em> He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men [8] (for by what he saw and heard that<\/em> righteous man, while living among them, felt his<\/em> righteous soul tormented day after day by their<\/em> lawless deeds).\u201d]\n\nAnd yet read the story of Lot, the man did not finish well.\u00a0 In fact, the story of Lot ends, Genesis 19:30-38, with Lot in a state of intoxication, getting drunk with his daughters, having an incestuous relationship with them and from those unholy unions came forth the Ammonites and the Moabites, perennial enemies of Israel. Lot was saved, I am convinced of it but he did not finish well.\n\n[Genesis 19:30-38, \u201cLot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. [31] Then the firstborn said to the younger, \u201cOur father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth. [32] \u2018Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.\u2019 [33]So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. [34] On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, \u2018Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.\u2019 [35]So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. [36] Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. [38] The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. [38] As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.\u201d]\n\nThink of the Corinthian church where in 1 Corinthians 3:15 it talks about a man there who, it says, \u201cIf any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s in heaven, praise the Lord for that, yet he smells the smoke on his garments because his life in Christ, not him, but his works were put under some kind of divine microscope and they were shown for fleshly behavior and motives that beset such a man.\n\nAnd the Bible is very clear that that man suffers \u201closs.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the word that\u2019s used here as it\u2019s translated in English.\u00a0 What does it mean to suffer loss?\u00a0 We have all suffered loss.\u00a0 You hit the delete button on your term paper at school and you suffer loss; all of that energy you put into it is gone.\u00a0 Or a business fails and you suffer loss.\u00a0 Or God forbid, you lose somebody, a daughter, a son, a father, mother, brother, sister, there\u2019s that loss that we experience, that ache in the human heart.\u00a0 And in heaven there\u2019s this loss that people have.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the loss continues on and on and on and on, I think somehow in the providence of God even those tears are dried and you, in a sense, forget the whole thing.\u00a0 But there is that temporal lust.\u00a0 And Timothy, you can avoid it by simply becoming what God has called you to become, that is the significance of the word pl\u0113ro<\/em>\u014d<\/em>, fulfill your ministry; complete your task, complete your assignment, complete your service unto God.\n\nIt is interesting, we won\u2019t be getting there this week, maybe down the road a couple of weeks, we run into verse 10 of 2 Timothy 4, a man named Demas.\u00a0 Unlike Paul who we will see had fought the good fight, what happened to Demas, a little hint there, verse 10, \u201cfor Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica, has gone to Galatia.\u201d\u00a0 People say well, Demas obviously wasn\u2019t saved.\u00a0 I beg to differ; you study Colossians 4:14 and the book of Philemon, verse 24\u00a0 you\u2019ll run into this man named Demas, that Paul wrote about seven years earlier.\u00a0 A man who stood toe to toe with Paul in the work of the gospel.\u00a0 And yet within the seven years between those prison letters the world system had so worked on the mind of Demas that he left Paul.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 4:10, \u201cfor Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.\u201d\u00a0 Colossians 4:14, \u201cLuke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and also Demas.\u201d]\n\nWhich is how the world system works on all of us, through its lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and the pride of life.\u00a0 [1 John 2:16, \u201cFor all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.\u201d]\u00a0 It works overtime on the believer\u2019s life, seeking to alienate our affections from God and draw us away and back to the former lifestyle that we once indulged in.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened to Demas.\u00a0 Paul is saying to Timothy who do you want to be like, Timothy?\u00a0 Do you want to be like me, who can get to the end and say I fulfilled my ministry, or are you going to be like Demas?\u00a0 I so appreciate how the Bible does not try to whitewash some of our heroes. \u00a0You know, I\u2019ve got heroes that I look up to, you\u2019ve got heroes you look up to and when our heroes do something wrong we have a tendency to sort of ignore that defect, pretend like that defect never happened.\n\nNot so the Bible; it tells you the good, the bad and the ugly.\u00a0 Why does it do that?\u00a0 It\u2019s a learning device for God\u2019s people.\u00a0 These are real people in real life that simply never fulfilled their calling:\u00a0 be, endure, do, fulfill.\u00a0 What should your week be like this week?\u00a0 Be, endure, do, fulfill.\u00a0 If you make that list your priority this week you\u2019re going to\u00a0 have an incredible week.\u00a0 If you\u2019re tempted to lapse because of fatigue; tempted to lapse because of temptation, just remember these words: be, endure, do, fulfill.\n\nLet me sneak in one more verse, can I do that?\u00a0 Verse 6, you guys don\u2019t have any choice in the matter.\u00a0 Verse 6, Paul gives the reason why Timothy is to fulfill.\u00a0 Actually you do have a choice, you could get up and leave I guess.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.\u201d\u00a0 Why is Paul so concerned about Timothy taking the baton of truth and running with it?\u00a0 For the simple reason that Paul is about to die.\u00a0 Paul is not going to be around forever.\n\nAnd this is what makes the second imprisonment so different than the first Roman imprisonment.\u00a0 The first Roman imprisonment is described in Acts 28:16-31, it occurs about A.D. 60-62.\u00a0 The second imprisonment is recorded seven years later, written in 2 Timothy, the book we\u2019re studying.\u00a0 In the first imprisonment he wrote the prison letters, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians.\u00a0 In the second imprisonment he write the book of 2 Timothy.\u00a0 The first imprisonment he\u2019s up on religious charges; one of the things Rome did not want to get into is what we would denominational hairsplitting.\u00a0 Judaism and Christianity were a mystery to them; they did not want to get into religious controversies, they didn\u2019t understand religious controversies and so there\u2019s this great optimism of Paul\u2019s soon release for the simple reason that Rome does not want to get involved.\n\nIn the second imprisonment it\u2019s a whole different ball of wax.\u00a0 Paul now is being charged politically, something Rome did understand.\u00a0 He\u2019s being charged for insurrection, most likely.\u00a0 Why is he being charged with insurrection?\u00a0 Because he kept talking about the coming kingdom of God.\u00a0 And Rome said shut up with all of that stuff.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to hear about another kingdom, we\u2019re Rome, we\u2019re the kingdom.\u00a0 And they, through their pagan minds, misinterpreted what Paul was saying about this kingdom. So in the second imprisonment it\u2019s a political charge; in the first imprisonment the persecution is local and sporadic; once you get to the second imprisonment it\u2019s a whole different game now.\u00a0 Nero is on the throne; Nero, the madman, launched the first empire wide persecution against Christianity.\u00a0 Christianity had never known anything like this before.\n\nThe only persecution that Christianity had been experiencing was from unbelieving Israel, or Jews, and sporadic and local persecutions.\u00a0 This is different.\u00a0 Nero has no a formal decree against the cause of Christ.\u00a0 In the first imprisonment Paul was living in rented conditions, house arrest.\u00a0 Not so in the second imprisonment; he\u2019s in a dungeon.\u00a0 First imprisonment you can read about it at the end of the book of Acts, he has many visitors and evangelistic opportunities.\u00a0 You get here to the end of his life, he\u2019s all by himself, virtually alone, opportunities restricted.\u00a0 First imprisonment he had an optimism for soon release.\u00a0 Does this sound like he\u2019s going to be getting out soon, in verse 6, \u201cthe time of my departure is at hand.\u201d\n\nThis is why Paul is concerned about the next generation.\u00a0 If Timothy will not fulfill his assignment in God, Christianity stops dead in its tracks.\u00a0 A great ministry that impacted one generation never makes it through to the next generation.\u00a0 This week at DVBS we\u2019re going to have a chance to reach the next generation.\u00a0 That is a unique opportunity.\u00a0 We\u2019re not going to be preaching to the choir, we\u2019re going to be talking to the next generation.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be talking to the soon men and women who will become the leaders of Christianity in America, if Christianity is to survive, which is not guaranteed.\u00a0 This is the mindset of Paul.\n\nSo on his departure and to describe his departure he uses two images, the first is the drink offering.\u00a0 He says in verse 6, \u201cFor I am already being poured out as a drink offering,\u201d what is \u201ca drink offering\u201d?\u00a0 You can read it for yourself in Leviticus 23:10-14, Numbers 15:1-10; Numbers 28:4-7.\n\n[Leviticus 23:9, \u201cThen the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, [10] \u2018Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, \u2018When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. [11]\u2018He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. [12]\u2018Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the LORD. [13]\u2018Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah<\/em> of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the LORD for<\/em> a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. [14]\u2018Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.\u201d\n\nNumbers 15: 1-10, \u201cThe Lord said to Moses, [2] \u2018Speak to the Israelites and say to them: \u2018After you enter the land I am giving you as a home [3] and you present to the Lord food offerings from the herd or the flock, as an aroma pleasing to the Lord\u2014whether burnt offerings or sacrifices, for special vows or freewill offerings or festival offerings\u2014[4] then the person who brings an offering shall present to the Lord a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of olive oil. [5] With each lamb for the burnt offering or the sacrifice, prepare a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering.\u00a0 [6]\u202f\u2018With a ram prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a third of a hin of olive oil, [7] and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Offer it as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.\u00a0 [8] When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, for a special vow or a fellowship offering to the Lord, [9] <\/strong>bring with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with half a hin of olive oil, [10] and also bring half a hin of wine as a drink offering. This will be a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. [11] Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this manner. [12] Do this for each one, for as many as you prepare.\u201d\n\nNumbers 28:4-7, \u201cYou shall offer the one lamb in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; [5] also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil. [6] \u2018It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai as a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD. [7]\u2018Then the drink offering with it shall be<\/em> a fourth of a hin for each lamb, in the holy place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the LORD.\u201d]\n\nThomas Constable describes the drink offering in Judaism, remember Paul is Jewish, as follows: \u201cAfter the Jewish priest offered the lamb, the ram or the bull in his ritual he poured wine beside the altar.\u00a0 This was the last act in the sacrificial ceremony, all of which symbolized the dedication of the believer to God in worship.\u00a0 The pouring out of the wine pictured the gradual ebbing away of Paul\u2019s life that had been a living sacrifice to God since Paul\u2019s conversion.\u201d\n\nPaul uses the imagery of the drink offering one other place that I know of, Philippians 2:17, there he says, \u201cBut even if I am poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.\u201d\u00a0 Timothy, the ball is not in my court any more, it\u2019s in yours.\u00a0 I am already being poured out as a drink offering, the final sacrifice, the ebbing away of my life is happening.\u00a0 My departure is imminent, it is at hand; I won\u2019t be getting out of jail this time, so I\u2019m building into you so that subsequent generations can hear what you have heard.\n\nHe uses a second imagery here, the departure.\u00a0 \u201cFor I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.\u201d\u00a0 What is a \u201cdeparture\u201d?\u00a0 It is a transfer.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t even like how we, as Christians, refer to the death of fellow Christians as death.\u00a0 We ought to say they moved.\u00a0 One of these days you\u2019ll pick up the newspaper and\u00a0 you\u2019ll read one of your loved ones in this church has died.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe it, they have not died, they\u2019ve moved.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the time of my departure has come.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Timothy 4:6]\u00a0 You see, death for the Christian is not the end, it\u2019s the beginning.\u00a0 Paul could live his whole life in Christ with having no fear of death.\u00a0 Beloved, if you\u2019re afraid of death you\u2019re living beneath your privileges.\u00a0 2 Corinthians 5:8, Paul says absent from the body is to be what?\u00a0 At home with the Lord.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 5:8, \u201cNow we are confident and are pleased rather to be absent out of the body, and to be at home with the Lord.\u201d]\n\nPhilippians 1:21-23, Paul says, \u201cFor to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. [22] But if I am<\/em> to live on<\/em> in the flesh, this will mean<\/em> fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. [23] But I am hard-pressed from both directions,<\/em> having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that<\/em> is much better.\u201d\u00a0 Paul says I don\u2019t even know what to pick, I guess if I continue on living in the body God will use me as his apostle to write Scripture and found the church and edify the church and build the church up and win people to Christ and be fruitful but you know what, Paul says, that\u2019s a great thing but if I really had my preference in the whole thing I\u2019d rather just check out because I don\u2019t die, I move.\u00a0 I move into a place that Paul very clearly says \u201cis very much better.\u201d\n\nYou see as a Christian it\u2019s a win-win.\u00a0 You can\u2019t lose this one. If you\u2019re alive God is using you, praise the Lord.\u00a0 If you die you move to a better place.\u00a0 Those are powerful images there, the drink offering, the departure.\u00a0 So Timothy, I want you to take your baton of truth and I want you to run your lap.\u00a0 And what is the Holy Spirit saying to us in the year 2016.\u00a0 He\u2019s saying the exact same thing, take the baton, maybe it did not get to you in the most comfortable of circumstances but praise God, you have it in your hand, and run your lap, do your thing, complete your ministry, fulfill your calling.\n\nI\u2019ll close with this, one of the things my dad used to always say, he would say \u201cAndrew,\u201d now when he said \u201cAndrew\u201d I was either busted or something important was about to happen, \u201cChristianity\u201d he would say \u201cis one generation away from extinction.\u201d\u00a0 Think about that!\u00a0 If you want a biblical example look at the difference between the Joshua generation and the Judges generation.\u00a0 The Joshua generation, it\u2019s innumerable the victories they had.\u00a0 And yet that generation was followed by the Judges generation, chronologically in the Bible, where there arose a generation that did not know the things of God nor the things that God had done for Israel.\u00a0 [Judges 2:10, \u201cAll that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.\u201d]\n\nIf\u00a0 you want a real world example of it take a trip to Europe.\u00a0 Europe, the cradle of the Protestant Reformation, Europe, the home of beautiful Christian architecture, beautiful Christian art, massive cathedrals that once were the worship home of thousands of worshippers, and today 1% or less of Europe is Christian.\u00a0 In fact, the fastest growing religion in Europe today, as we all know, is not Christianity which is on the way out, it is Islam.\u00a0 And if you were alive during the days of Luther and Calvin and all of the things God did you would never suspect that the day would come when Europe would become a post-Christian society.\u00a0 And I just say that with heaviness in my heart and warning, I don\u2019t really care what the secularists are teaching you at the public schools.\n\nThere has never been a country in the history of mankind, other than the nation of Israel itself, that has started on such a firm biblical base as the United States of America.\u00a0 That\u2019s just a fact.\u00a0 A perfect country\u2014no, but a biblically based country.\u00a0 And you look at today, you look at the youth and how little they know or understand and sometimes even care about the things of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s shocking.\u00a0 It\u2019s frightening the things that are happening.\u00a0 And yet we, here at this church have the ability in some minor way to possibly be\u00a0 used in the providence of God to reverse an unsettling trend.\u00a0 You don\u2019t think your life matters, you don\u2019t think you\u2019re significant?\u00a0 The fact of the matter, beloved, is God wants to use us more than most of us want to be used.\u00a0 God wants to bless us more than most of us even want to be blessed.\u00a0 And let\u2019s fulfill our purpose as we press into our design and complete our assignment in God.\n\nIf you\u2019re here today and you don\u2019t know Christ personally our exhortation to you is the gospel, which is good news, it\u2019s good because Jesus did it all.\u00a0 He did the hard part, we\u2019ve got the easy part, we receive it as a gift by faith alone.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you\u2019ve never done or you\u2019re unclear about it\u00a0 you can do it right now, it\u2019s not something you have to raise a hand to do, join a church to do, walk an aisle to do, give money to do, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you respond by way of volition and faith to what Jesus has done.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk but it\u2019s really a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, when you say yes to the Lord by way of faith, you stop trusting in self and you trust completely in Him and what He has done.\u00a0 And that, in and of itself is the only condition that\u2019s necessary to become a child of God.\u00a0 I pray you\u2019ll do that right now, even as I\u2019m talking.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you have done or are doing then on the authority of the Word of God you\u2019ve altered your eternal destiny.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, I ask that You would help us to be mindful of this need and warning that we have to fulfill our assignment.\u00a0 Give our lives vision and meaning and purpose as we seek to live for you today, this week, and even as we minister to the youth at vacation Bible School.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t