2 Timothy

So Paul starts this chapter, but mark this. There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud. Abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, Not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god, having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

They are the kind who worm their way into homes. And gain control over gullible women who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Janice and Jambres opposed Moses So also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who as far as the faith is concerned are rejected, but they will not get very far. Because as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings. All kinds of things have happened to me in Antioch, in I iconium and Listra. The persecutions I endured, endured, yet the lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. While evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned, and have become convinced of because you know from whom you have learned it and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God breathed. And is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. So that the servant of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So, Pete's already said.

My name is Phil Cooper. I'm 1 of the elders here, and we've been going through this little series, not occasionally, not every week, into Timothy. And it's been it's been interesting, hasn't it? It's been great hearing from god and and and looking through some of these chapters in some detail. We mustn't kid ourselves though.

As we as we read some of this stuff, we mustn't fool ourselves. Christianity in this country is not in good shape. You see, cornerstone may be growing. You can, you know, it's a steady growth, but it's growth. And you can see it as if you come here, if you've been coming for any length of time, you feel how crowded the room now is.

Particularly, obviously, last week with the baby, Thanksgiving and how crowded it was. But the fact that we're packed in here is not the UK wide church scene. That is not healthy. Much of the fact was made actually church of England had some statistics published in September. And there was quite a a a lot of, articles on that in the Guardian and the Times and so on.

And a lot was made of the fact that the rate of decline was slowing. The rate of decline was slowing. In the last year, on attendance on Sundays was only down by 18000 in this country. Even more interesting, actually, was the attitude of the church of England to these figures, they pointed out that the number of people attending a service, which included lunchtimes, evenings, weekdays, had stabilized rather than declined. And the Bishop of London was quoted in all the newspapers saying this.

While there's a downward pattern in Sunday attendance, the fact that the worshiping community figures are stable shows that for many people being part of the church is more than just a matter of what they do on a Sunday morning. It's more than what they just do on a Sunday morning. She went on millions encounter the church in their daily lives through its commitment to the most vulnerable from food bank provision to night shelters, lunch clubs, and community cafes. Now there in my view is some positive spin on the numbers because it's less than what they do on a Sunday, isn't it? In those figures?

It's not more than what they do. The reality is the UK is a spiritual desert, and both these figures and that statement reflect that. Around this area, I'm not talking about the church of England, now, around this area, we have seen good churches abandon or close their evening services because the numbers aren't there. There are also some strange things going on. I was in the creche before Christmas, and this father came in, with his, little son.

And I he wasn't a regular. I didn't know him. And I we were chatting and spoke to him. And I said, why was he here? And he said, oh, I was here last December as well.

And, so obviously the question was, why? And his answer was, well, because his church, which is a local church, shuts for a few weeks over Christmas. I mean, you know, we get more visitors at Christmas than any other time. Like, that made no sense to me. Now why am I talking about this?

Because you see it's easy. For us to find ourselves in a bit of a Christian bubble at Cornerstone. And that is a dangerous thing for the church and for you as an individual Christian. We're privileged to be involved in a growing church. Good kids work, good youth work, pretty full evening service, amazing prayer meeting, high small group attendance, but that isn't the world around us.

Paulsey says in chapter 3 verse 1, but mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days. Now, Mark, this is very, very strong. It it it's it really is know this. Know this. There will be some terrible times in the last days.

Now, you may hear, you may have heard already some pretty odd views about the phrase the last days. But just so we're clear, the last days is simply the period of time between Jesus' birth in a manger in Bethlehem and when he will come again to judge the living and the dead. John Piper says the last days are the final chapter of world history. Before the consummation of Christ's kingdom. So when Paul wrote this, he was in the last days, As we listened this morning, we're in the last days.

And Paul is warning us and he's warning Timothy, there will be terrible times in that period. And that includes now. See, this passage, what it should remind us to do is to make sure that we're reading the times. I don't mean the newspaper. Reading the times, understand the times we're living in.

And that can be very difficult if we're in a sort of Christian bubble. You know, those of you working in Christian organizations or or charities have to be particularly careful because your interaction with the world is minimal. But for all of us, think about it. We hang out at church. Most of our friends are Christians.

Most of our friends are probably from the church. We're busy eating together a lot in this church, going for walks together, playing football, board games watching movies together, and that's terrific is why we love it. But when are we salt in light? When do we have an impact on the world around us? Think about your reaction.

If you're at, a film club or or board games or something, a bit of board games is coming up, isn't it on, I think it's Monday? Is it exciting or is it a pain if a new person, a non christian comes in? Is it are you excited by that? Wow. Somebody's come?

Or actually just does it just make you feel guilty because you're gonna carry on talking to your mates anyway? You don't really want the guilt. In other words, are we enjoying our Christian bubble so much that we don't see what's going on around us? In the baby Thanksgiving last, Sunday, when Pete was speaking, he said during the preach, as I read the world, Don't you repeat that? As I read the world, he said, and that's exactly what this is getting at.

It's obvious from his sermons that he does But what about the rest of us? How do we read the world? Do we even bother to try? Because the idea you see of being aware of the times in which we live is a biblical concept. Matthew chapter 16, Jesus is talking to the pharisees and the sadducees, actually.

And he says in verse 2, when evening comes, you say it will be fair weather for the skies red. And in the morning, you say, well, today it will be stormy for the skies red and overcast. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the sign of the times. 1 Chronicles saw is defeated by David. And in chapter 12, we get a list.

It's a long list. Of various groups of soldiers warriors, people that backed David in that battle against saul, and reversed their 2 of chapter 12, it says that 200 chiefs joined David from Iseca But listen to what it says, how it describes them. From Isaka, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do came. See, those men that joined David there were particularly valuable because they understood the times, and they understood therefore what Israel needed to do. If we're gonna have any impact on Kingston for Christ, we have to read the times that we're in.

And Paul is saying here that on a regular basis, in these last days, we'll find that the times are pretty terrible, that they're gonna be hostile, they're gonna be difficult they're gonna be intense and fiercely anti gospel and people are gonna seek to take advantage in the church. And that's our first point. In these times, expect false teachers. This has been a a topic all the way through to Timothy. Paul is trying to make sure that Timothy and us at Cornerstone have a ministry mindset.

That is a mindset that's ready to promote and preach the gospel that's committed to teaching and preaching even when it's difficult. Even when the times are dark. And he's saying, Hey, look, it's not gonna be easy. It's not gonna be safe. It's gonna be dangerous.

He's calling us to spiritual warfare to a warfare here. Now is that how you think? You come on a Sunday morning, you think, right, okay. Here we go. Spiritual warfare.

That's how we're supposed to think about the terrible times, and he gives us this frightening list as in in in verses 2 to 5 of people verse 2, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal Not lovers of the good treacherous rash conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with such people. Sort of amazingly powerful list, there are 18 characteristics there. And, you know, we could have a sermon on each 1, but we haven't even got time this morning to go through each of them individually. Because I want us to see the big picture. I want us to see the context that Paul is talking into.

Paul is warning Timothy. Ministry is gonna be hard. And in the last days, there will be terrible times because people will be like this, but the shocker is he's not actually talking about culture. We'll get on to that. He's talking about people in the church.

That is the context you know, we've got to ignore the chapter breaks. Chapter 2, the whole flow of chapter 2 is false teachers, and now he's carrying on. Look at verse 5. Of chapter 3, having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Well, that isn't describing society, is it?

Non Christians don't have a form of godliness. Paul is describing people in the church who are a bit like pharisees. Who are more concerned with outward practices than with the heart. Sorry. It means Matthew 23 verse 25 Jesus says to the pharisees woe to you teachers of the law and pharisees you hypocrites.

You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. Same thing here. Paul says be aware of people who are all about a appearance who are all about outside. It is the sign of a false teacher. Titus 1 verse 16, they claim to know god but by their actions, they deny him.

And this is saying these people are going to appear in the church and cause huge damage. So expect them. Watch out for them. Don't have anything to do with them. But the point is the point is for us to understand that these characteristics also describe a lot of what we see going on around us.

And if we can recognize where society is heading, if we can recognize the times that we're in. If we spiritually discern what is going on, then we might be able to identify where the church is in danger of beginning to adopt ideas being promoted by a secular society. That is why we have to read the times. And that's our second point. In these times, expect society to influence the church.

It's a sad thing. You know, if we're gonna be salt and light, it should be the other way around. But what this passage is saying is that those 18 characteristics and where we are in society today causes people in the church to use them to become like them and they influence the church. And the church falls for it quite often. Now there's 1 that stood out when we read it.

There's 1 that is at the root of pretty much all the others. Verse 2, people will be lovers of themselves. This is a massive issue culturally and within the church. The acceptance of self love and all its derivatives, self esteem, self worth, self fulfillment, self image, even self deprecation, by the way, which can be a sort of thinly disguised attempt to get somebody to flatter you or build you up. All of these concepts are all over our society.

And they're in the church, and it is complete opposite of what the Bible teaches. What does Jesus say? Love yourself first? No? Matthew 22 verse 37 love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Self love is a poison that will cause all the other things listed in that bit of too, Timothy. And yet it's promoted in nearly all forms of counseling. You'll even hear Christians saying that people can't help and serve and look after other people until they've learned to love themselves.

It's rubbish. Low self esteem is blamed for so much, yet self denial self control are derided. People consumed with self love cannot make meaningful relationships, yet that's what we all crave. So if my only agenda is me and your only agenda is you, then fundamentally you're not interested in me. And I'm not interested in you.

So we get as a result, lovers of money, boastful, proud disobedience to your parents, ungrateful, and so on. Massive issues there, aren't they? See, if you're all about you, why would you give to the church and go without? If you're all about you, why would you obey your parents? What do they know?

They don't understand you. And after all, your desires are paramount. So do what you want. What about ungrateful? I mean, I really hope as a church we're not an ungrateful church.

But do we appreciate, you know, the planning or the the, you know, the the work that goes on to put on like the cowell service that we had before Christmas or the media fast that's coming up or just a hub lunch today, the 3 home groups that have worked away at it, or sermon or bible study in the week, Or is our view that we don't really need to be grateful because we deserve it? You know, our whole mentality is that of a consumer. Is this service good enough? Is this sermon doing it for me? Are the kids happy in Sunday school or youth?

No. Well, let's move church then. The more we are all about ourselves, the more we'll naturally think, wow, it was good of me to come this morning. No need to thank anyone else, certainly. All these things come out of self love.

And in these last days, They will creep further and further into the church, and Paul is really strong on what our approach should be. Verse 5 have nothing to do with such people. Now, he doesn't mean, which is another reason why I think it's convincing that it's talking about false teachers, not the society out there, largely, he doesn't mean don't talk to them. Chapter 4 verse 5, we're told do the work of an evangelist What he means is don't hang out with these people in the church as mates month after month but saying nothing as though they're not in trouble with god. But sadly society does influence.

And the idea of self love is so prevalent now that it's now become the root of 1 of the major problems in the evangelical world. That's the Bible believing world. That's we would fit into that. And that is individualism. Evangelical churches and Cornerstone believe the Bible.

We believe that scripture is the living word of god. There's no issue with that. In fact, many of you, I guess, know verse 16 of this chapter. All scripture is god breathed and is useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness. We are not gonna change the message.

That's not how we think. But there's been a trend that says, no. No. No. There's no problem with the message, and we all think, I'll go That's fine.

We're happy with that. The problem is you see, the church needs to adapt. What the church needs to do is make itself more relevant to people to the culture around us. What we need to do is build the church around the individual's needs, make it a more attractive experience for them, find out when it suits people to come, and the result is individualism is now rampant not just in society, but in the church. Our message is supposed to be 1 of Jesus saying, take up your cross and follow me, isn't it?

But that doesn't sound reasonable in today's world anymore. So we now say, well, what it really means is take up your cross and follow me if it's convenient. You know, if you can do it at that time without putting yourself out, don't make life too difficult. I'm not that crucial says Jesus when compared with your job or your family or cycling or running on a Sunday morning. And this thinking comes out in all sorts of different forms in the church.

But it's the root of it is self love. So someone like me, I might try to bend Pete's ear and say, look, We need to think a church more like a business. This is the way to go, Pete. We've got a good product called the gospel. We all agree with that.

But we need to be much slicker in our marketing. You know, we can't have him preach anymore. We can't have Not quite sure who you're thinking of, anyway. We can't have him lead. We can't have her pray.

We've gotta shut down international cafe. We gotta shut down the student work because they're never gonna break even and I want a profit center. Then you see, If that sort of thinking comes in, it's not a long way to say everybody sitting here is a customer. That's how we need to view them. Their customers customers always write.

Let's find out what they want. Prefer to go running on a Sunday morning fine. Prefer to get ready for work on a Sunday evening. I have no idea what that means, but I've heard it a lot. How do you get ready for work?

Can't shower? In the evening, can you in advance, anyway? Fine. When would it suit you to come? Prefer a short sermon?

Okay. Prefer more music, less music? Fine. Do you see how self love has produced a trend from the a particular world that we are adopting in church. So firstly, in these terrible times, we must expect false teachers.

Secondly, we must expect outside influences to pollute the church. Thirdly, in these times, we must expect Satan to intensify his efforts. Look at verse 6 onwards. You'll see that there's a strategy here behind the false teachers It's not haphazard. It is a war.

They are the kind. They are the kind. He's talking about the people in verses 2 to 5 who have a form of godliness, but deny their power, they are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 of the identifying marks of a false teacher is they often capture the weak. They bring them into their orbit See, the words worm their way into has a sense of stealth.

It's of of creeping in undetected. Listen to this from Jude 4. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago, have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our god. It's the same thing.

Secretly slipped in among you. I. E. With stealth, worming their way in. That's what it uses here.

That's the tactic. Now let's deal with the idea that it's women that these false teachers target because I I can't believe how much rubbish I read about this on the internet, but anyway, this week. This is not an anti woman comment from Paul. Remember how this letter starts? He's so positive about Paul's grandmother and mother, the fact that they were wise Christian women who brought the gospel to Paul, to Timothy rather.

What he's doing here is not anti female. He's identifying a tactic used by the false teachers. Which was basically to use the existing structures in the church of the sort of house churches. So they got into the homes of those weighed down by sin by temptation. Now in this era, the norm, particularly in the middle class and up was for preachers of the gospel to go into homes and talk to whole households.

We saw that with the Jayla in Act is whole household is converted. This is particularly true in the gentile world, like ephesus, where Timothy is Paul would typically go to a synagogue first, speak to the Jews, and then he'd be in houses talking to the Roman Greeks, he would reach the gentiles in their houses. Now the strategy of the false prophets, therefore, from this, was to piggyback on that. Was to get into the houses and the homes, but there's 1 big difference it says they were going into households to specifically target the women. Perhaps when the husbands were away.

See, the emphasis of verse 6 though is on people who were weak and burdened by sin so they could be easily swayed, not their gender. Doesn't say gullible women instead of men who are not gullible. It's not what he's saying. They were targeting women perhaps because in the wealthier households, they had time on their hands. We're not letting women completely off the hook here.

You know, they might have not been working, not been serving, and they ended up indulging evil desires, which weakened them, which allowed the false teachers in. But it also says in verse 6, they were gullible. Now I know I'm generalizing here but women tend to be very relational, which makes them very valuable in the church community. But it can also make them very vulnerable to a false teacher. A false teacher, particularly, who worms his way in.

The phrase gullible is actually translated weak in earlier translations, but what it actually really means when you get to the original language is weak minded And that's the key because he's actually not talking about gender as much a spiritual discernment In other words, the false teachers were targeting those who perhaps by circumstances, you know, their husbands have gone off to work or whatever, gone away had become isolated and whose minds haven't been sufficiently formed by biblical truth. Evil, therefore, you see, creeps towards the weak, weak women, weak men, weak children. The task of the church, the task of us, is to make sure all of us are strong in the word of god so we can stand firm. Brothers and sisters, we're easy targets for false teachers if we don't know our bibles. And if we're not plugged in with other Christians.

Sister, because we talk it does say women, make sure it's not always your husband that goes to everything while you stay at home or in the creche or in Sunday school. Remember we have 2 services. Take advantage of that. If you're married, and he can't make it, you can still come. I know it's a bit of a shocking idea for some of you, but you can still come to the guess who to the hub lunch, to the media fast.

If you're single and you're serving on a Sunday morning, or you've got a shift, make use of the evening service. You know, if your shift ends at noon, So you can't come here on on a Sunday morning, you can still come to the hub lunch. We there we haven't got a rule here that says you don't come to the morning, you can't eat. You know, come, be with other Christians, hear about what happened in the morning. Make sure you don't become isolated.

That's for all of us. Make sure you don't become isolated. We've got the media fast coming up, Pete, mentioned it in the notes is earlier. The thing about the media fast is it is a fantastic thing, and and he said it has changed the church. I love it, and a lot of people love it.

But if you don't get involved, and it's not it's not a law. If you don't get involved, you can't do it, if you're away. You've just gotta be aware that you, by definition, you become more isolated because everyone moves on a bit further together. Their relationships are enhanced by the media fast. And you haven't taken part.

When that happens and we can't always avoid these things, you know, just make sure the the next lunch, the next guest who, the next whatever you're at, get back involved. It is so easy and I I've done this several times in my life, and I know it's been wrong. It is so easy when I've missed 2 or 3 weeks of something to end up never going again. You know, whether it's embarrassment or whatever it is, you step back even further. It's the wrong thing.

This is what the false teachers are looking for. This is what Satan is looking for. Somebody who's isolated, somebody who doesn't know the church, their Christian brothers, and sisters. When Paul says in verse 7, always learning but never able to come to knowledge of the truth, I think he's also talking about a tendency in us to feel drawn to different things. We often want something new all the time.

You know, so there's some new idea, some new thing happening happening in the world or society and off we go. We we get into the latest trend, yet we're still weak on Jesus. We're still weak on what Jesus has done for us. We're still weak on Christian doctrine. We don't really know what we believe in any detail.

That makes us easy targets for false teachers that's the point of these verses. Now finally, in this little section, Paul uses the example Janice and Jambray to show us that this is not a mistake. These false teachers are not misguided. It's not something we just say, oh, sorry. Never mind.

You you haven't understood something. They are in direct opposition to Jesus Christ. We don't know much about Janice and Jabrae, actually, but we know what's important, verse 8, halfway through, they are men of deprived, depraved minds who as far as the faith is concerned are rejected There's no room here for tolerance. Stay away because they oppose god. I don't know about you when you listen to all this and when you read it, it's pretty depressing.

We're gonna be under pressure. There's gonna be awful people around. But you see, Paul ends this section by reassuring us by confirming that in the end, they won't win, that they'll be exposed and that the church will stand verse 9, they will not get very far because as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone. So we're gonna have some difficult times, but in the end, we know we're gonna be with Jesus in heaven. In the meantime, we have to stand firm.

And we've seen 3 ways in which, the church can be acted as we read the times. Firstly, false teachers, secondly, the influence of society thirdly, Satan intensifying his efforts. But very briefly, I've got a lot of time. Paul gives us 2 ways in which we can remain standing. 2 ways in which we can stay strong, 2 ways in which we can have a hope to battle these terrible times, and it's verses 10 to 16 And the first 1 is this, remember your role model.

Remember your role model. Verse 10, you, however, know all about my teach my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecution suffering, what kind of things happened to me in Antiac iconium and Listra, the persecutions I endured, yet the lord rescued me from all of them. When Paul says here Timothy, you know about all my teaching and my way of life. He's he's using again a very strong word that doesn't mean he just intellectually knows. It means you were with me.

You saw it. You accompanied me. You saw it happen. It wasn't just that you knew about it, and the point Paul is making is when these things happened to him, when he was persecuted, what did he do? He continued to teach the truth.

You, however, know all about my teaching and my way of life. He exposed the illusions and the delusions of the day through the revelation of scripture. So that people could think rightly about life. And Paul is encouraging us and Timothy to make sure that through god's word, we're doing the same. But it's more than just teaching.

He wants us. As he says in verse 10, you know all about my way of life. My purpose. He wants our lives to be in line with our teaching, with our beliefs. Now we know it is a trait in false teachers for their lives not to match they're teaching.

Mustn't be a trait in the church. Paul says pay attention to your role models. Pay attention to your mentors, pay attention to your elders, and not just their actions. Look at the second bit of verse 10, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance. Remember your role models.

Remember who brought you to Christ. Remember who in your life has influenced you for good. See Paul's actually almost echoing the very first chapter when he's talking about his mother and he's Timothy's mother and grandmother, but he says here, but as for you, continuing what you have learned, and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it. Well, that's his mother, grandmother, and him. How from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures.

And that's the second way. First way of standing in these times, pay attention to your role models. Second way, rely on god's word. First 15, how from infancy, You have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus All scripture is god breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. That is what's gonna keep us from falling in terrible times.

This is what's gonna ensure that we'll stand firm against the lies of Satan, the false teachers, the ideas that invade the church, and its scripture. It's the Bible. And verse 16 says that god's worth is breathed into being by god, that it's useful for teaching, rebooting, correcting, and training in righteousness And doesn't that make such a lot of sense now when we're hearing in the context of this passage? We need the word for us to be able to stand against everything being thrown at us. We have to know our bibles.

We have to help each other get stronger in the knowledge of god. 2 weeks ago, when we looked at chapter 2 and I'm gonna finish with this. Vena came up to me after the service and asked how much time did I think she should spend looking at 1 what some of the false teachers are saying because we've been talking about false teaching. And I gave her a 2 point answer. The first thing I said was If you're going to criticize somebody in like a Joel osteen for prosperity gospel or self help gospel, something like that, You need to have listened to him a few times.

You need to have read some of his stuff. Otherwise, you might just be wrong. We're not, by the way, in that case, but but you need to have done it. But the second part of my answer, and I think it's by far the most important part, was a little story that we've you've probably heard before, and I I I remember hearing about the way that people are trained to spot counterfeit bank notes. They're not trained by looking at counterfeit ones.

They're trained by looking at the real thing at the genuine note because it's by looking at the real thing in extraordinary detail over and over again that they become able to spot the faults. And that is what Paul is saying. Look at the lives of the real Christians, including himself as we can in in the Bible. Look at what god has breathed into existence, his word, learn it, read it, understand it. If we do that, then we'll see the counterfeit.

If we do that, then we'll recognize the false as soon as it appears, even if the rest of society is widely accepting it. So will you do that? Will you look at god's word? Will you go to your small group? Will you come here don't be isolated.

Will you look at the real Jesus, the Jesus that saved you? And know him intimately so that when the false comes in, you can see it. Let's pray. Father god, we do thank you for your word. It's sometimes feels so, hard, you're warning us.

It seems like, you know, we've got terrible times. They're gonna be ahead of us that in these last days, they're gonna come regularly, that things will be difficult, and ministry will be difficult people won't listen. There'll be lovers of themselves. Lord help us to, fight for the purity of the church. Fight that we don't allow the pollution from outside to come in, help us to identify falsehood that when something that seems so, obvious to everyone outside of the church but yet clashes with the Bible.

Help us to recognize that. Help us to be a people that don't isolate ourselves that as a church family, we will, yes, we'll look outwards. Yes. We'll enjoy spending time with each other. But most of all, we know that for our for our really survival, In these times, we need to stay as part of the family and help us most of all, law, to study your word, to see the genuine article, help us to pay attention to those people in our lives that are giving us Christian views Godly views, biblical views that are helping us in the right way, help us to read your word And to see this, as Pete said at the beginning that this is not something that doesn't speak into our day.

But is something that is relevant and real and is the way in which we will be able to spot the false. Help us to do all of that lord in Jesus' name, amen.