2 Timothy

To Timothy 4, do your best to come to me quickly. For Demus, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to thessalonica. Crescents has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

I sent Tikikus to Ephasis. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpas at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. Alexander, the metal worker, did me a great deal of harm. The lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him because he strongly opposed our message.

At my first defense, no 1 came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them? But the lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me, the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom, to him, be glory for ever and ever, amen.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, and the household of Honis Forest. Erastus stayed in corinth, and I left trophimus ill in miletus. Do your best to get here before winter. Uabilis greets you. And soda Pudence, linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters.

The lord be with your spirit, Grace, be with you all. Father, we thank you for your word as we open it now as, we've heard it read this morning. Please take it, lord, put it in our hearts and minds, speak to us through it, that we might understand it. That we might apply it and that we might be changed by it. In Jesus' name, amen.

If you've been at cornerstone at any length of time, really, you'll know that we teach that the Bible says that you're not saved just to be on your own, you and some sort of little private relationship with god. The Bible is absolutely clear that you've saved to be part of a community called the church. But what does that actually mean? For you. Just think about that.

What does it mean to be part of the church? Is it just somewhere you go at the same time, you know, every Sunday or or when you can? Is it the place where you go to worship god? And you sort of lose yourself in him and forget your problems. Perhaps it's a place where you make friends where you can arrange to have coffee with somebody later in the week.

Or perhaps church for you is a place of learning, you know, where you can go with your questions about god and the Bible and have them answered. Now I guess to some extent, churches about all those things, isn't it? Yet it's still not a good summary. It's not really what being part of a church is all about. Paul, is writing in these last few verses.

Of 2 Timothy, the end of chapter 4, just before he's about to die. Apparently, he was beheaded, but he knows here that his time is limited And he just wants to say, says personal remarks in our little heading. He just wants to say the last few things to Timothy, to the Churchill Ephasis, and to us. And I think in these verses, he shows us what being part of the church is really all about. And it's pretty simple, it's people.

See, Tom, I don't know if you were, here a couple of weeks ago, Tom preached to us the sermon in acts of Paul talking to the Ephesian elders, acts 20. Actually, that sermon does dovetail very nicely into this 1. So if you if you haven't heard it, it's worth downloading it online. But Paul was showing us there as he spoke to the elders. That they must preach a life saving gospel, of course, but they must also protect those who have been saved.

And Tom showed us that Paul was warning the elders that savage rule wolves will come in, not just from the outside, but also from within your own number, Paul says. And here, in these last few verses, Paul spends his time before his death to focus on people because people are valuable. People are made in the image of god. And people are what ministry is all about. Actually, I've been really struck, because to be honest, when I read this, to start with, I thought, my goodness, this is a slight nothing y passage or am I gonna preach on here?

But but there's a lot in this passage that speaks directly to Cornerstone this morning. Paul looks at several groups of people in this passage. And when when we're gonna look at the first 1, and it's the faithful servants of the gospel, the faithful servants of the gospel. Look with me at verse 9, Do your best to come to me quickly for Dimas because he love this world has deserted me and has gone to thessalonica. Crestons has gone to Galatia and tied us to Dalmatia.

Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry. I sent Tichicus to Ephrosis, when you come bring the cloak that I left with Carpas at Traras and my scrolls, especially the parchments. Now ignoring Dimas for a minute, we're gonna come back to him. We have quite a few people mentioned here who are still going strong.

Still serving, still faithful to the work, Christians, Titus, Luke, Mark, Tichicus, and of course, Timothy himself. See, Timothy, we know from having preached through this, Timothy's Paul's faithful son in the faith. And the statement in verse 9, do your best to come to me quickly, is obviously writing to Timothy, saying Timothy, I want you to come quickly. It's interesting when you look at the relationship between Paul and and, Timothy, in 1 Corinthians 4, Paul writes this, For this reason, I have sent to you Timothy, my son, whom I love, who is faithful to the lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

So he's saying there, look, I'm sending Timothy to you, church in corinth, because he's part of me, because he's a clone, if you like of me, but in a good way. He has the heart of Paul, he has the habits of Paul, he has the theology of Paul. Paul is saying there that he knows what Timothy's gonna say, He knows what Timothy's gonna teach. He knows what Timothy's gonna remind them of, and it's exactly what he would say if he was there. And that is rare.

Many years ago, I was in a church, and we used to have meetings of home group leaders that we've got taught the material and stuff. And there's an assistant pastor, and they didn't have this. It was hilarious. Every time the pastor started speaking, the assistant pastor finished the sentence in completely the opposite way that was meant. So he would say, let's just talk about the away day and the assistant pastor would chip in which we're cancelling.

And the pastor said, no, we're not. And he'd say, you know, let's just, talk about the home groups, and the assistant pastor would say, which we're abolishing. And he said, no, no, we're not doing that. And it was like that every time he went the wrong direction. He didn't seem to understand the pastor's mind at all.

That is the opposite of what Paul is saying here. As he sits in prison awaiting his death, he longs to see his son Timothy 1 more time. Now there's no doubt as you go through life, as you serve god, as as you battle areas of temptation in your life, perhaps as you suffer opposition, 1 of the greatest helps can be a mentor. For Timothy, that was Paul. Paul was his mentor.

They weren't always together. Yet they were great strength to each other. And I guess I hope this morning we're going to see quite a few practical applications, but this is definitely 1 of them. Find yourself a mentor. Find a Paul who will teach you and correct you and push you and love you.

Very important. As we said at the beginning, we're not supposed to be Christians in isolation. So look for a Paul in your life. I was, I I'm quite close to 1 of the elders, over at Dundonald church, where we plant this was planted out of that church. And, when my mother passed away in April, he texted me to ask me if I was doing okay.

And I thought, well, I don't quite know what to say to that. So I I gave him a couple of lines of chat, and he texted me back saying, okay, we've been in meat this evening. And I thought, oh, for goodness sake, what's the anyway, So I went to this meeting and he said, well, I was just expecting fine back. When I got some information, I thought, wait, it must be in meltdown. But you need that sort of relationship with somebody.

Somebody who understands you and and knows what's going on. Hopefully better than that, but there you go. Hopefully, many of you have this person in your life. And if so, give thanks to god for that person. For him or for her.

But then look at the other side of the coin. Be a mentor to someone else. Look for a Timothy someone who you can strengthen, someone who you can love, someone who you can help and guide and pray for and long to see. So these relationships are vital, and they're valuable in keeping us strong. So Timothy, obviously a faithful servant.

The next faithful servant we come across, first 10 Cresons has gone to Galatia. That is it. That is all we know. He's not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. That is the full account that we have of Crescent's.

Cressons has gone to Galatia, but bear in mind that Paul had a heart for Galatia, that Paul went there in all 3 the first 3 missionary journeys. It was a mature church, actually, with mature leaders So it's likely that he sent somebody quite mature in the faith, somebody who could actually help them in some way. So, Crestons, if nothing else, might remind us that behind the scenes in every church, there are spiritually mature people spiritually strong people who serve and are gifted and are invaluable, but are content to be relatively unknown. And I hope some of you sit there and think it actually would be great to be Christians. I'd love to be a faithful mature servant of god.

Where we go from somebody relatively unknown to someone quite well known, that's Titus verse 10. Crescent has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Titus we know quite a lot about. Titus was like a chief of staff, really. He was an equipper.

He was a trellis builder, if you know what I mean? He was an organizer. You know, between 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy Paul wrote Titus and in chapter 1 verse 4 of that letter, He says to titus my true son in our common faith. Then verse 5, he carries on The reason I left you in crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. Titus was capable of going into a situation after Paul or after another church planter and taking a new fragile, if you like church, and shaping it, and building it into something stronger.

He could be trusted to appoint leaders and equip elders. At the beginning of Paul's letter to titus, as we've just read, he was in crete. By chapter 3 of his letter to titus, Paul writes this, as soon as I send artemis or Tichicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicholas. So he's moving him on already by chapter 3. Titus is being called into the next area that Paul is ministering in.

Titus is faithful, reliable. He's a strong leader. He has a gift of organization. He has a gift of equipping other leaders. Again, could you do that?

Are you willing to get involved in church life to help it structurally? To organize it, to equip others? Are you interested in working in behind the scenes? Making sure things run properly. Could you do that in a new plant?

In a new work somewhere. Titus moved on. He did these things often, and he's very, very valuable to Paul in the early church. Next verse 11, we come to Luke. Only Luke is with me.

That's been suggested that this is a sort of negative, believe it or not. You know, only Luke is with me. It's like we might say, oh, you know, Tom's preaching again tonight. I don't know. It's that sort of thing.

It's as if it's a sort of eeyore phrase, and he's being all hangdog about it. That's not can't be right. Luke is a faithful servant and he's a good friend of Paul's He describes in in philemon as a fellow worker in Christ and in colossians 4 verse 14, he says our dear friend, Luke, the doctor, and Dimas send greetings. Luke wrote, as we know his gospel, we're going through it in the evening service, Come this evening. Chris is preaching, not Tom.

And, but he also reacts and he's a companion of Paul through that book. And in acts, we don't see Luke teaching and preaching, but he was highly valued first as a historian keeping careful account of what was happening, but secondly as a physician. And let's face it if anybody needed a doctor with them, it was Paul. Whipped, beaten, stoned. Luke was with him when he was shipwrecked.

Luke is a terrific example of using the gifts that we've been given for god. And it seems to me we should be doing the same thing. Yet the funny thing is I think we've got into a strange habit in Christian circles of trying to separate our work from our church life as if in some way, you know, they're different. Why do you think if we're gifted in some way on a Monday to Friday Why wouldn't we use that at the weekend for god? Why spend a lot of time looking for other gifts that you might have when there's some right in front of you from the week.

So I don't really buy into this idea that you do hear about what I do computers or finance or or admin or teaching or music in the week. So I wanna do something different at weekends. That just sounds like consumerism to me. Luke was a doctor and a historian, and he uses both to serve god. He might not have had the profile of Paul, but he was incredibly important to the work of the gospel.

And again, the church is full of people like Luke. Faithful, hardworking, gospel hearted. May not have the profile, but they're at hard at work And in here, in Paul's last few verses, really, he's remembering them, he's mentioning them, he's remembering in effect the impact they've had on his life. Unfortunately though, his thoughts are also taken up with another group of people, and this is the second group. Those who've abandoned him or opposed him in the church, and he starts with Dimas verse 9.

Do your best to come to me quickly for Dimas because he love this world, has deserted me and gone to thessalonica. Now we don't know that much about Dimas. We we heard in colossians 4 a few minutes ago. Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Dimas, send greetings. So at that point, he seems to have been a a valued companion of Paul.

Remember colossians is written when Paul's in prison, So Demas was around, Demas was there. He's mentioned again in philemon, verses 23 and 24. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, send you greetings, and so do Mark, Aristakis, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. So we know from those verses that he's around quite a few years, actually. He was a fellow worker.

He was justified as I and Paul mentions him in in 2 letters. So he's clearly quite a key person. Paul had invested in him But the phrasing here in 2 Timothy 4 tells us really what's going on. Paul says to Timothy in verse 9, do your best to come to me quickly. Why?

Okay. Possibly because he's about to die. Depends how much he knows about that. Well, I think it's the next bit is why. 4.

That's the keyword for Dimas because he love this world has deserted me. In other words, Paul is saying that this desertion has left a void, and I want you Timothy to come and fill it as quickly as you can. So it shows us that Demus was important to Paul. He was important to the ministry. And now he's gone.

We don't know a lot about the circumstances, although he tells us what's happened, de masses in love with the world. But the phrase deserted me here is a really strong phrase in the original language. It's very emotive. It means he's left me in the lurch. He's abandoned me.

He's deserted me. Dimas seems to be 1 of those people who got excited about Christianity, got excited about the church, about the community, about the church family. You know, they those sort of people, they get fully involved pretty quickly. They can't get enough of it for a while. They serve in several areas.

But then enthusiasm, dulls, or hardship comes, or the pull of the world with its comforts, and its ideals is just too strong. And they succumb and they leave. Usually, just as has happened here because that's what leaving in the lurch means. Usually, pretty abruptly. No thought for the people they once loved.

The people they spent time with, they just go and they leave a gap when they do. So again, let's apply that. Are you in danger of being a d mass? You know, right now, you'd say, no, I'm a I love church, I love the friends I've got, the community. But what about privately?

How's your relationship with god? Is it strong? Even though you're serving and we would feel a void if you left, Can you already feel the pull of the world on you? Is it getting stronger? Perhaps you already lead 2 lives 1 on Sunday and the occasional midweek meeting that you go to, and then the rest of your life.

The rest of your time when you're attracted as if by some, you know, almost magnetic force to friends at work or old university buddies or you know, even your neighbors. And then from them, you're pulled into a world of, I don't know what it is for you. Might be ambition or drinking or sports, whatever it is that pulls you away. And let's be honest, it's often a sin. You want a relationship perhaps that you know is wrong.

You want a lifestyle that you know is wrong. And so you look for a reason to walk away from the church to allow you to do what you want to do. Now 1 way to tell if this is a real danger for you is when Sunday morning or Wednesday evening, whatever night your home group's on, is when it becomes hard to go to it. It's when it becomes, you know, something that you don't look forward to anymore. Not because you're tired, we all feel tired, you know, off and on, but because it's now an irritant getting in way of the other life the life that you don't want Jesus in.

The life of working late or going down the pub or seeing other friends. When church is annoying, even though you love the people, be careful. Do something to change your mindset because you don't want to be edemus, walking away, deserting god, deserting us, The pull of the world can be really strong, and it proved too strong for Demus to handle. We're warned actually very strongly by John in in John's gospel chapter 2 verse 15. He says this.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the father is not in them. Because we can't straddle it. You know, that's the temptation, isn't it? I'll try and keep it in balance.

That's pretty clear. Demus has deserted Paul, and he came from within the church. He was a faithful worker. He was a fellow worker. He's mentioned in various of Paul's letters, but we also in this passage meet an enemy of the gospel from without verse 14.

Alexander, the metal worker did me a great deal of harm. The lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him because he strongly opposed our message. Now there there's some debate amongst commentators as to whether this is the same Alexander. There's an Alexander mentioned in 1 Timothy chapter 1 who is at the church in ephesus and becomes a false teach I have to say, I think it's a very compelling argument that it is not the same because Timothy would have known all about him.

He wouldn't need warning about him here. What we do now, however, is that Alexander was a metal worker. He is likely to have made idles. For a living. He could be the same Alexander that's mentioned in acts, actually chapter 19, where there's a big row a big who are in ephesus and a sort of riot when demetrius, the metal worker causes uproar.

And actually, there's an Alexander mentioned in because they're saying, Paul you're ruining the idle business. Again, we don't know. But it's clear from this that this Alexander did pour great harm, and the verse tells us because he strongly opposed our message. I e the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we need to understand here Cornerstone the importance of what's going on, both Dimas and Alexander heard the gospel and walked away.

Demas deserted the church. Alexander openly opposed it. And what's amazing, I think it's very sad in some ways. Is Paul takes time to write about them at the end of his life. In his final letter, he's naming them and warning Timothy and us about them.

And did you notice that he doesn't say I'm praying that they will have a change of heart. I'm praying god will bring them back. I'm hopeful they can be persuaded to turn their lives around. Now I'm sure he was praying for them, and he probably was personally devastated at their actions, particularly Dimas. And he'd like nothing more than to see them come back to Jesus.

But he's showing us that there comes a time when we have to steal ourselves to recognize that somebody is opposing the gospel and it's time to warn others about them. We have to stand firm and as a church, in some cases exclude people. Now, we've experienced these situations at Cornerstone. We've had our share of democseers, people who walk away because the pull of the world is just too strong. And sometimes, I guess in the hope that they'll turn around, I think perhaps we've been too soft or too slow to recognize what is happening.

And as Tom showed us from acts 20, that is on us. That is on the eldest. As Christian brothers and sisters, it is right to on the side of forgiveness. Of course, it is. But we can't stay friends with a d mass as if they're a Christian brother or sister.

It's important you see for their sakes that if they're a demas, they feel the separation. They feel the separation of having left. And if we do manage to stay in relationship with them, then we have to be extra vigilant that the pull of the world doesn't become contagious and infect us as well. Now the Alexander of this world, they're a different story. These are people who just openly opposed the gospel.

They heard it, and they're saying that is not true. There are many gods Jesus did not die on a cross. Jesus did not die for your sins and mine. Jesus did not rise again He didn't come to earth as the son of god, whatever it is they're saying. It's an entirely different situation because it's very very hard to stay friends with somebody like that.

To stay friends with someone who is openly and actively opposing something you strongly believe in, because you'll often be compromised. See like Paul, I think we should be warning people against the Alexander's of this world. Do you know people like that? Be careful. Don't find yourself being too accepting of them as they oppose something that's very precious to you.

Paul says here, you too should be on your guard against him because because Not because he's not very nice because he strongly opposed the message. Now the final person I'm putting in this category of people sort of not on-site, if you like, after Dimas and Alexander might surprise you. It's Mark verse 11, get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry. Now, that sounds quite positive. It is quite positive.

If it doesn't sound like someone we need to be careful of, who who is holding on to the world perhaps, or openly opposing the gospel, that's clearly not right. Mark is somebody who's useful to Paul in the ministry, and he's valued because of it. So why have I put him in this little section? Because he wasn't always like that. See, early on in acts, Mark who was from Jerusalem accompanied Paul and Barnabas on Paul's first missionary journey, and we read in acts 13, verse 13, from Pathos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perger in pamphylia, where John, also called Mark, left them to return to Jerusalem.

It was just too much for Mark. It didn't have the character for it. Now, some years later, Paul and Barnibas are about to set out again, Acts 15, verse 37, it says Barnabas wanted to take John also called Mark with them. Verse 38, but Paul did not think it wise to take him. Because he deserted them in pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

See, the word deserted there in Acts is the same word as deserted when it's talking about de mass here. If you know acts, you'll know that they had such a massive disagreement, Paul and Barnarbus over this, that they split and went separate ways. Paul was not someone who had much stomach for weak uncommitted men, and you couldn't risk taking somebody on a missionary journey you might have to carry. But we're now 12 years old later. Paul's in prison in Rome, who's with him, it's Mark.

Who does he want mark? If we look at colossians and Philemon, he re he refers positively to Mark. We read them earlier. So this is a picture of an unfaithful companion restored and that is a fantastic thing, isn't it? So I wanted to end the section of negativity about Dimas and Alexander with someone who did come back.

Who's somebody who had deserted, but had sorted themselves out and was back in action serving god, promoting the gospel, restored into relationship with a church. What an encouragement that is? So we should keep praying. We should keep praying even with those people that we know of right now that have walked away or that we should be standing firm against or that we should be having to warn others about. Keep praying that they turn out to be a mark, and they come back.

The third group is a a little group of people near the end verse 19. Third group is is a group that shows us that church life is always changing. Greek, priscilla, and aquila, and the household of honor sufferers. Erastus stayed in current and I left trophimus ill in miletus. See Paul finishes the letter by mentioning some basically faithful old friends.

I haven't got time to go into the detail of all these people. But there are people that have been with him in corinth and ephesus and Rome all over the place, and they've been faithful, and they've been busy for god. And Paul is mentioning these dear brothers and sisters here to show us really that teamwork in ministry is crucial. We have to be a team. Our staff need faithful workers.

You know, people perhaps who are behind the scenes live, we've looked at earlier. People who will follow and serve and support. But both the staff and the elders and the churches a whole all of us Also, just need, don't we? Some old faithful friends who stick to the gospel? People who will care for us and build us up and edify us, people who will laugh and cry with us.

We need old friends that we can rely on, but it's not to be a clique We must understand that the work here will move on. This church may outgrow you. In the sense that you'll get to a stage where you just can't know everybody anymore. Maybe they're already. You know, I we prayed, don't we?

That Cornerstone will grow as more people come into the kingdom. This church may have a momentum, which as you get older, you will recognize you just can't keep up with it. And the temptation then is to get grumpy. The temptation then is to look for a new church, which allows you to relive glory days as you saw it when there was only 40. But that's not faithfulness or supportive or friendship or love or service.

See, Paul knows this. So when he looks at his old friends in verse 19 and he talks about them there, He moves on. Look at verse 21. Do your best to get here before winter, uvulous greet you and so do Pudens, linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters. Now how do I know that means he's moving on?

Because those names 3 out of 4 are Latin names. They're from Rome, they're new friends. In other words, they hadn't been scattered when the Roman church had come under persecution, but they'd stuck with him They'd become important to him, and he wanted Timothy to know about them. Hey, there's some new guys who send their greetings. See, Paul is showing us here that the church family is gonna constantly be changing.

There'll always be new people arriving, and they're to be greeted, and they're to be loved, and they're to be built up, and they're to be valued just like our old friends in verse 19. Paul, I think, is basically describing the Rome newcomers group here. He's excited about them. And he wants to tell Timothy about them, and I hope you're equally excited when new people come to Cornerstone. In newcomers at the moment, we're we're having a home group reshuffle in the summer so that there'll all be exiting pretty much.

But in newcomers at the moment, there's about 12. Now how many do you think you know? How many of you chatted to? How many of you had round? Ministry and church life is all about people, faithful and unfaithful with joys and disappointments with old friends leaving and new friends regularly joining.

Now does that excite you because it excited Paul? It was his life. And so we get really to our last point this morning, which shows us that it's not impossible that we can't sit here and say, well, I just can't do it. I can't remember names, so I'm no good with new people. And, you know, I don't really have the heart for it, and I don't really want the church to get any bigger, and I find the whole thing very difficult.

And, you know, Paul's different. He's he's, you know, 1 of those sort of semi gods that can do everything, and I'm not like that. Because you see, that's not what Paul says. It's it's not about him being gifted at remembering people's names and dealing with new people. And managing to stoically overcome the disappointment of the demuses.

Wasn't some ability that he had that we don't have. Because the key to this whole passage is 17 and 18, but the lord stood at my side and gave me strength. So that through me, the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth the lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom to him, be glory forever and ever. Our men.

It's about god, isn't it? It's not about us. See, Paul didn't actually get that much support. He says in verse 16, at my first defense, no 1 came to my support. Perhaps Luke hadn't got there because earlier, he says only Luke is with me.

The faithful had been sent out on ministry roles. That's what he says in this passage. He's gone to Malaysia. He's gone, you know, wherever. The unfaithful had abandoned him.

And yet, Paul says, doesn't matter. The lord stood by my side and gave me strength. And by the way, it's not just strength in the sense that we might want strength, just to get through it when somebody lets you down, when somebody leaves, whatever it is. The the the the idea of strength here is much more, like being infused with power. So he's actually saying the Holy Spirit infused me with power.

Why? So that through me, the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the gentiles might hear it. So yes, I hope we have each other. I hope we have old friends to lean on, but some will move on. Not for bad reasons, they'll move on because they'll join another gospel work.

You know, we'll do a plant. If we do that plant that we've been praying for in toll with, That will be a massive wrench for this church as people that we've known for a long time leave to do that plant. And yes, we'll have new friends that's exciting that we have yet to get to know. But whatever the case there's 1 friend who will always be with us and that's Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying in 17 and 18.

Brothers and sisters, we can't do ministry without each other. We're dependent on all of those people that god brings into our lives. Even those, this might be a surprise, even those who bring a negative contribution. That we can learn from it. Learn even though we're hurt.

But as we go along, trying to spread the gospel in Kingston, we're not to rely on those friends, actually, in the end, we're to rely on Jesus. Relay on the son of god who came to earth that he might deal with our sin and bring us into relationship with God the father. Rely on him, know that he will stand by you when no 1 else does. And ultimately, look forward to being in eternity with him forever, to him be the glory forever and ever. Our men.

Let's pray. Father god, we thank you for this word, we thank you for how we see that ministry, that church, that Paul's heart was all about people. We thank you as this may have reminded us of old friends of people who've stood faith faithfully for the gospel who serve you. People, perhaps some of us left behind when we planted this church, people who we will lose when we start a new work somewhere. Or we'll go and join a different work.

Father, we thank you for new people constantly arriving. That we might be excited to get to know them. But, lord, most of all, we thank you for you. That you will stand by us when no 1 else will, that you will stand by us whatever's going on in our lives. Help us to stay faithful to you, help us to stay strong, help us to look to mentor people, and look to be mentored that we might stay strong.

Help us lord to be, servants of yours, whether it's behind the scenes, where there's high profile, whatever our gifts are that we might use them for you, that we can look forward to being with you in heaven. In Jesus' name, amen.