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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] today's scripture reading is taken from 2nd timothy 4. in the presence of god and of christ jesus who will judge the living and the dead and in view of his appearing and his kingdom i give you this charge preach the word be prepared in season and out of season correct rebuild and encourage with great patience and careful instruction for the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine instead to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number
00:00:47 of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths but you keep your head in all situations endure hardship do the work of an evangelist discharge all the duties of your ministry for i am already being poured out like a drink offering in the time for my departure is near i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i have kept the faith now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will award to me on that
00:01:28 day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing do your best to come to me quickly for demas because he loved this world has deserted me and has gone to thessalonica crescent has gone to galicia in titus to damasia only luke is with me get mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry i sent taichikas to ephesus when you come bring the cloak that i left with carpets at roast and my scrolls especially the parchment alexander the metal worker did me a
00:02:11 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 in my first defense no one came to my support but everyone deserted me may 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
00:02:48 heavenly kingdom to him be glory forever and ever amen greet priscilla and aquila in the household on lucifer's arrestor stayed in corinth and i left trophy music in my lettuce do your best to get here before winter ubulus greets you and so the puddins linus claudia and all the brothers and sisters the lord be with your spirit grace be with you all this is the word of the lord good morning fbc i think you'll be surprised to see me preaching to you this morning instead of alex well the problem is we have emco
00:03:36 and because of the emco people are not allowed to come to church to record sermons et cetera so this is one day before the emco so therefore i'm rushing in an emergency sermon uh to to ensure that we actually have uh enough time to do this alex will present for the sermon much later on and i will basically carry on during this emco period of time so i hope you forgive me for some shortcomings of this particular sermon uh what i've done is i've taken a chapter out of our gamma series on 2 timothy this time chapter 4 and we're
00:04:14 going to use that as a sermon instead so let's get together and pray and ask the lord to guide us this morning father lord we are entering difficult times with this covet 19 crisis for which the pain and the death and the mortality seems to be endless and now we're all locked down at home even much more stringently than before so we're going to ask our lord that this morning that you just fill us with your holy spirit as we listen to your word that your word will minister to our hearts during this time of discouragement we
00:04:48 ask for your strength and your guidance for jesus sake amen title of our sermon today is basically finishing well and it's basically the last letter which paul writes to his disciple timothy here is paul what does he say in his last days before he actually dies and i had a friend of mine whom i've known for about 20 years who done many things very successful in the media radio talk show tv talk show and he was sharing with me recently of a relationship that he had been in for the last 10 years of which
00:05:32 it sort of fell apart and he was wondering what life is all about and i think it's after some time of introspection that we actually realized that so many things that actually happened in life to us and when you look back and stand back what is important it's hard to work out unless we actually have our direction of life well anchored in something that will actually last he'd done a lot of things but the end of time towards the latter or autumn part of his life they don't seem to have mattered very much so he's just confused
00:06:10 now i wanted you to look at paul's life here's a man at the end of his life well he's not successful you know if you look he's not a tv presenter he's not a radio presenter he's not a celebrity he's alone he's imprisoned he's abandoned you're aware that all who are in asia turned away from me among them who are fighting and homogeneous to timothy 1 15 and he's been facing a roman trial and instead of having his lawyer stand with him or his relatives stand with him he's abandoned and he's waiting for his execution i am
00:06:51 for i'm already being poured out as a drink offering time on my departure has come this is it this is the end what has he got to show for it not a huge bank account not a couple of houses no data title just the bare floor of a prison but he finishes well and basically this chapter gives us three things for us to think about during these difficult times the need to leave behind in our lives a spiritual legacy the need to warn others of the spiritual challenges of the time and the need to pour out our lives
00:07:33 for the things that really matter leaving a spiritual legacy here we have paul and he charges his young charge timothy i charge you the presence of god and of christ jesus is able to judge the living and dead and by his appearing and his kingdom to preach the word be ready in season out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching so this is the last time he's got to be able to write to timothy he's asking him very solely because he's charged you're not telling him to preach to god he was telling you
00:08:08 charge you in the presence of god and of christ jesus who is also by the way the judge of the living and dead which means he's talking about accountability all right i want to charge you and this is something you've got to be accountable to god for because it's the christ of the judge the living and the dead by his appearing which means there's a hope to which we are timothy and paul are looking forward to and his kingdom so this what does he charge him to do to preach the word ready in season out of season to reprove
00:08:35 rebuke exhort and here's timothy young man a young pastor church of ephesus perhaps inexperienced and shy perhaps a physical infirmity having trouble with his stomach maybe a gastric also bullied by the church that because they're false teachers as well they're all looking down at this age and and paul challenges him and why he can challenge him is because he has walked with timothy you however have followed my teaching my conduct my aim in life my faith my patience my love my steadfastness not
00:09:12 only that my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at antioch iconium and lystra which persecutions are endured and yet from all of them the lord has rescued me it's not the words that we actually teach people that will make an impact it is not only teaching it is also how you live your life how have you actually exemplified and lift up the gospel and that would inevitably involve persecution and suffering and how through all that god had actually rescued him so there are four imperatives so he
00:09:45 tells him you have to preach the word in season house even reprove rebuke exhort and the words here are reprove we show the fault of error convince someone of his error rebuke is basically command to scold to show fault to express strong disapproval but it's a bit strange isn't it uh because in most of our modern churches our attitude as we see no evil we hear no evil we speak no evil we everybody do their own thing otherwise there'll be trouble in the church on the other hand there are also church members who are judgmental always
00:10:18 picking on the faults of other people who are have weaknesses in areas of which they have themselves have strengths now paul recognizes that we are all in one body in one chapter five you actually have someone who's got sexual immorality of a kind that's not even tolerated among pagans which the sexual immorality is god that has happened among the myths is so bad that even non-christians don't even see it a man is father's wife are you arrogant are you not to warn mourn let him who has done this be removed from among you
00:10:49 so they've got to take action they've got to recognize the fault reprove rebuke and encourage cleanse out the old even that you may have that you may be a new lump leaven is yeast and yes represents sin so therefore if you are really a body of christ you don't have sin it's a body like flower without the yeast for christ outside passover lamb has been sacrificed let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old even sin the leaven of malice and evil but with the leaven of bread of sincerity and truth so
00:11:20 therefore the body of christ is like that bread and you can't have sin within that bread breaking it apart we've got to reflect the spiritual reality of who we actually are so therefore we prove rebuke is so important to and not only that we prove rebuke but we also come alongside each other to encourage it's not truth that is all important that we exclude love we have to tell the truth in love so parakaleo is exhausted to come alongside and encourage and bring comforters para kaleo is the same word we use in greek
00:11:55 for the holy spirit who is sent along to comfort us to give us strength and to teach us so therefore we're not only to reprove rebuke but also to exhort each other to bring each other in a walk that is holy before the lord so we have to reprove rebuke exhort and the manner in which we're supposed to do it the lord servant must not be quarrelsome must be kind to everyone able to teach patiently enjoy evil correcting his own opponents with gentleness so the manner in which we do it is with kindness patience and with
00:12:24 gentleness now why do we need to do all these things well because of the spiritual challenges of the church we need to warn people of the challenges of the time the challenge of the time is what we see in our world today same is that what ephesian church what timothy face in the ephesian church is what we face today for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to truth and wander off
00:12:52 into myths that is the times in which we live people don't want to hear the truth they want to hear something that will suit their own passions or desires and this one we struggle with isn't it 1 peter 2 11 i urge you a sojourner and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against our soul and our struggle in this world this side of the kingdom is that we have a body that wants to indulge itself and then we have our desire to please christ and so therefore the problem is
00:13:26 we perceive the quest for happiness is to indulge our physical desires aw dozer there's a famous christian pastor in chicago many many years ago writes these words when he sees the differences between the new kind of faith evangelicalism that had been taken over his country versus what he was used to when he sees i see it right the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the new testament it is rather new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal christianity the all-cross slew men
00:14:01 the new cross entertains them the old cross condemns the new cross amuses the old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh but a new cross encourages us and then we can see this in how christians in the west have pushed forward with the example now is the prosperity gospel but it started off with people like robert schuler 1982 we put forward the idea the most important thing we tell the whole world is self-esteem psychology is important we have to bring it in the christian faith and he said the secret of winning unchurched people
00:14:35 into the church is really quite simple find out what will impress the non-church into your community and then give it to them no longer about sin rebellion it's actually about self-esteem bill hybels from the willow creek church put forward this idea the most important need is personal fulfillment this is moving on from self-esteem the most importantly this personal fulfillment the pursuit of happiness sin now redefined not rebellion against god deserving of spiritual death sin is now redefined as a flawed strategy to gain
00:15:06 fulfillment and so therefore we've got two kinds of gospel a gospel which people's itching ears will want to hear because it follows the passion of the flesh which is the gospel it's all about us how we can find fulfillment right about true happiness in life how christ will bring us happiness how christ will raise our self-esteem you know why because god loves us and we sing all these songs about how god loves us and dies for us and that's all we're interested in or how freedom from emptiness and
00:15:34 loneliness is why we come to church or why we listen to the gospel why we open up to our five our favorite bible passages but the true gospel is all about god not us it's all about how do we worship and glorify him not how we feel good about worshiping him it's about sin and about death it's about need for righteousness and our need to live holy lives to honor and glorify him it's a distinctly different gospel which the world wants to listen to the purpose of worship clearly expressed the greatness of god
00:16:08 not to find inward release there's still less amusement a lot of times whether you're in an orthodox church or whether you're a charismatic church we want to feel the presence of god feeling the revival of feeling is more important than the knowledge of god the feeling is more important than conviction or informed commitment this is uh william james who many years ago wrote and did some research on religious experiences of christians and other religions and they found a lot of people have a lot of feeling religious experiences in
00:16:41 religion and his conclusion was so long as men can use their god they care very little about who he is or even whether he's he is at all god is not known he is not understood he's just used are we using god for an experience only see a lot of people come to the church or say they come to christ but the direction of their life is unchanged christ is this an optional added extra just like you're running a race with a racing car and christ is a pit stop where you go and repair your tyre put more petrol and
00:17:18 you're off again until you come to another bend and you go for another pit stop let me give you an example ahaz king of israel northern kingdom some years ago one kings chapter 22 talks about him wanting to invade the syrians aramians at ramon gilead and before he did that he would ask his prophets and the king of israel gathered the prophets together and about 400 men and said to them shall i go into battle against rahman galiyad or shall i refrain so he wants to go to battle he wants to make sure he wins so therefore
00:17:51 he asks all these prophets and they say hey good go up the law will give it into the hands of the king but jehoshaphat one of his advisers said no is there another not another prophet of the lord whom we may enquire see the 400 prophets already have a consensus that he's going to win but jehoshaphat knows there's a real prophet around and that real prophet is makaya and the king of israel said to joseph yeah yeah there's there's one man by whom we may inquire the lord makaya son of imran i hate him
00:18:20 he never prophesies good about concerning me but evil the reason why he hates this guy is because this guy tells the truth he doesn't want to hear the truth ahez doesn't want to share truth he has has itching ears and he's got his own passions he wants to attack ramon he doesn't want to hear bad news she knows mackay is wrong but he doesn't want to ask him anyway he's persuaded to ask for bachaya's advice and the messenger goes to makaya a messenger who went to summon makkah said to him behold the words of prophet
00:18:53 are with one accord are favorable to the king let your word be like the one the word of one of them and speak favorably so you've got to see the king better say the right thing you know if you know what's good for you so mackay is under pressure he goes to the king when he comes to the king the king said in makaya shall we go to ramon goliad to battle or shall we refrain and here we have makaya i think he's a bit shaken he says oh go up and triumph the lord will give it into the hands of the king he seems to have taken the line of
00:19:26 all the 400 prophets gone with the majority moment of weakness perhaps but the king said to him how many times shall i make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the lord although he doesn't like this particular prophet he has realized that this guy is the real deal he'll tell me stuff that i don't like to hear so therefore i think you're you're just joking like you know uh tell me the truth and you know what makaya said now therefore behold the lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these
00:19:58 prophets the lord has declared disaster on you disaster wow so it has if he actually believes bakaya he would actually say okay i'm not going to fight the ramon galette it's disaster i'll pull back my ahead was always disobedient to god anyway so he thought he could escape thought he's smarter than most people instead of riding the king's chariot with all the gold and regalia and all the royal emblems he actually disguised himself and slipped into the battle incognito and you know what happened
00:20:36 a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of israel between the scale armor and the breastplate right between the two there's a joint what are your odds stray arrow and he has was killed macaya's prophecy was correct isaiah says who says to the series do not see and the taste of the prophets do not prophesy to us what is right speak to us smooth things prophesy illusions lead the way turn aside from the path let us hear no more about the holy one of israel we live in a time just like
00:21:11 isaiah where we tell our teachers our pastors our prophets our elders don't tell us what is right tell us what is nice that is the the time which we live no better example than the last election in america where we actually have donald trump did you know that when he was blessed before he was elected there were 40 prophets no less than 40 prophets and pastors and teachers and elders in the church of america evangelical movement that all prophesied that god said he would actually become president again
00:21:42 they failed and ruth graham wife of billy graham wrote an article published in the new york times on the 12th of february this year christian prophecy movement hit hard by trump's defeat it would seem that all these prophets were fake all these churches were fake because they prophesied the wrong thing one of the top prophets then is a young 33 year old man by the name of jeremiah johnson he actually prophesied correctly that trump would be elected in 2016 when nobody else gave him a chance he actually
00:22:19 prophesied correctly so everybody listen to him and he actually profit this time prophesied this time that trump would be elected in 2020 and it failed and he actually had the honesty to come out and apologize to the church and he said these words nine out of ten messages i was preaching were about the lord nothing political or current but because that one which is the one about trump would go viral and grab so much attention i think it became toxic and it became dangerous over time he was swept along and he said these words and
00:22:53 to be candid he says whether you want to call it a temptation or not that's what sells he was selling books if you feed the people of god not the truth because they don't want to hear the truth they don't like they're like i don't like true prophets because they tell me bad stuff right i want to hear something nice and so therefore that's what sells go to any church that have got prophecy classes you will find all they'll prophesy about is who you will marry what profession you will get and they will never
00:23:25 prophesy you'll get cancer at age of 35. they will never do that because it's not what you want to hear our lauren stanford another prophet who prophesied wrongly and apologize he said allowed myself to be caught up in a prevailing stream and to be carried along by it in doing so in doing that i actually compromised what the lord had already told me years before another prophet apologized sean boltz for being wrong he actually received death threats because he apologized for being wrong and they actually threatened him said
00:23:57 when trump's re-elected again don't know when you will be strung up in front of the white house and killed as a false prophet you see the theology people have changed they believe in the seven mountains of culture which christians must capture in a christian country arts and and entertainment business education family and government and in line the kind of thinking that christians want to be supreme the same kind of thinking that made the crusades you know all these kings drive into the middle east to reclaim jerusalem
00:24:29 now we live in an age where there's micro targeting when the people behind the screen in facebook are looking at what you like and what you don't like and they feed you the news that you like not unlike false teachers and only that they will use scripture two kings one kings uh 22 11 zedekiah son of chanaya made for himself horns of iron and said thus says the lord with these you shall push the syrians until they are destroyed which means go to ramon gilead and all the prophets prophesied so and said go up to ramon
00:25:03 gilead and try if the lord will give it to the hand of the king and so now for why is he saying the horns of iron well because zedekiah is using scripture he's saying we're going to fulfill scripture there's a prophecy you know why because in in deuteronomy 3 17 says our first born bull bulgar horns he has majesty and his horns are the horns of a wild ox and with them he shall go the peoples all of them to the ends of the earth they are the tens of thousands of ephraim and there are thousands of
00:25:35 ephraim are sons of joseph and they represent the northern kingdom and so what zedekiah was saying when they make himself a horde of horns you say with these horns you'll push the syrians until destroy it says but using scripture is prophesied that this horn of horns he will guard the people all of them to the ends of earth these are basically the victorious northern kingdom netanhayahu from israel also uses scripture right to to prove his false prophecies here he says to president trump we remember the
00:26:09 proclamation of the great king cyrus persian king 2500 years ago he proclaimed that the jewish exiles in babylon can come back and rebuild our temples in jerusalem and we remember how a few weeks ago president donald trump recognized jerusalem as israel's capital mr president this will be remembered by our people throughout the ages he's now inferring as if trump is that cyrus using scripture see people will use all sorts of things accept the truth for the time is coming when people not endure sound teaching
00:26:42 having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers will suit their own passion and will turn away from listening truth and then when you turn away from listening truth you know what happened you will listen to miss and wander off into myths and all the people who cannot accept that trump was not actually elected johnny endler won the prophets you know what he's saying if you can see what's happening in heaven he can see in heaven who is sitting up in a throne go up and look at the presidency seat in heaven
00:27:09 and see who's sitting there it ain't guided it's trump the guy is so deluded he's gone to the midst as if in heaven you can see not biden sitting there it's actually trump now this is what the culture is like all right and the culture is to listen to falsehood and not truth and if you can look at how paul dealt with it this is a picture of the in athens of the parthenon a stone's throw away from it is this little hill called mars hill on this hill with lots of idols and altars and temples it's all torn down
00:27:43 now but paul was there in acts chapter 17. and and here's a place uh where it worshipped the multiplicity of gods which characterized the culture of greece at the time they've got zeus jupiter they've got aphrodite's every single kind of known god they're all worshiping them there are so many gods that they worship that if they even had an altar that was dedicated to the unknown god all right to cover their bets it is against this background of polytheism if you were to stand up and talk about the one god you're gonna be
00:28:16 shot down what did paul do did he cater to what they want or did he stand up for the truth i also found an altar in this inscription to the unknown god what therefore you worship to an unknown i proclaim to you the god who made this world and everything in it being the lord of heaven does not live in temples made by men she's telling them i don't care what you believe there is only one god and this one god made the world and then when they heard about the resurrection day some mocked others said
00:28:46 we will hear you again about this and paul went out from the midst and some men joined him and believed so here we actually have a situation where people will mock you if you stand up and say such ludicrous thing is to believe there's one god but some men will join him someone will believe all right and there will always be some when paul was persecuted in corinth in acts after 18 and lord said to paul one night in a vision don't be afraid go on speaking don't be silent for i'm with you and no one will attack you or
00:29:14 harm you for i have many in this city who are my people god is telling stay there continue the mission why because they are my people they are there you just need to stay there and continue to preach right elijah in the northern kingdom with king ahaz fighting with king ahaz and jezebel in the depths of his depression god actually encouraged him he said i will yet i will leave seven thousand in israel you're not alone all the knees that have not bowed to gabal and every mouth that has not kissed him
00:29:47 paul earlier in the chapter says therefore i endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation that is in christ jesus eternal glory you see when paul tells him to preach the word in and out in and out of season to proof rebuke exhort it is not for everybody it is a fact that there are people who will listen there are people who are god's people who are the elect and therefore he must remain sober and he must continue to preach billy graham before he died had preached
00:30:16 to 2.2 billion people heard his messages 250 million live audience in one go 185 nations where you preach you know how many became the one of christ 2.2 million decisions for christ which is a 0.1 decision rate these are the elect if at all they continue and in the end the majority people will reject your message because they have got itching ears and they will not tolerate sound teaching but we have to be sober endure suffering and continue our ministry why it's because of how we view our life
00:30:54 we leave a spiritual legacy of the people we teach behind we warn others of the spiritual challenges of time we tell them the truth and number three we pour our lives for things that matter you see how paul views his life three metaphors an offering a race and a fight for i am ready to be poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come i fought the good fight i finished the race i've kept the faith what he's saying is that his labor was offered up like a drink like wine to make god
00:31:27 smile you know everywhere in near eastern religions they all believe in a drink offering given to the gods the most expensive glass of champagne or wine poured out on the altar as a representative of our our sacrifice for him the greeks have it as well the israelites as well they have the cup of wine poured out for god representing victory sabbath rest and dedication to god paul always regarded us us to regard our lives as a living sacrifice my appeal to you therefore in romans chapter 12 by the mercy of god to present your bodies
00:32:05 as a living sacrifice holy acceptable to god which is your spiritual worship a life poured out for others is a life poured out for god says i'm ready to be poured out i'm ready to die actually he's it's just not the one inside his paul's life represented a whole life poured out to god a life poured out to god is life poured out to others where we serve them and the greatest need is for the gospel here is paul who wrote 13 out of the 27 books of the new testament significant contribution to our understanding of
00:32:41 salvation three missionary journeys establishing the church in in much of the known world at that particular time this is how he poured out his life to serve other people while there was time the alternative for us is a wasted life when you take the expensive life which god gives you and you pour it on the ground here are three of the richest men in the world jeff bezos elon musk and richard branson you know what three are doing they're racing to go up into space you know ecclesiastes chapter 3 says god
00:33:22 has placed eternity into the hearts of men and it's something that drives men they want to reach for the stars they want to reach for the heavens and all three are moving towards that and here we actually have blue origin which is a rocket with jeff bezos built and recently he actually had a lot tree or sorry it was a auction and one chap won the right to go into blue origin with jeff bezos when he goes into space and he paid 28 million dollars for 10 minute stint in space and after the 10 minutes
00:33:58 he will come down to the ground and life will be just the same you know i don't know why they do that if you go back into time socrates the great philosopher said these words oh that someone would rise man or god to show us god you see our desire to go up into space just even for 10 minutes for 28 million is that that desire to know something beyond ourselves something that transcends ourselves something in space something of god oh that someone would rise man or god to show us god and plato answered him unless a god man
00:34:38 comes to us and reveals to us the supreme being there is no help or there is no hope and plato is right a man has come from god his name is jesus christ and when he comes and he came two thousand years ago years ago he ignited a flame that touched so many people's lives and remember the life of this one gentleman who's really inflamed my life for jesus christ and his name is john sung a great book which i read in my in the 20s has still affected me to this day he describes himself as john sung as the
00:35:15 flame for god uh leslie wrote this book john sung at the age of eight or nine would experience the blessing of a revival in his town of home church of hinghua two three thousand was saved and he actually joined his father preaching at the age of 13 he actually called him the little pastor years later on he went to the united states it was brilliant he earned a phd in chemistry and in those days in the 1930s we're having phd in chemistry is not a small feat and not only that he won gold medals and
00:35:49 prizes for these secular pursuits and then he had an experience and an encounter with our lord jesus christ that was so inflamed him for jesus that they actually locked him up in asylum because they thought they got mad this guy was a scientist now suddenly believes in god and is carrying on day and night about the gospel when he came back in a boat outside shanghai harbor just before he landed he took all his degrees and his gold medals and his awards and took him and threw him in the sea and he became an evangelist not a
00:36:19 chemist and within 12 years of active service 1928 to 1939 this evangelist turned revivalist shook the church in china and southeast asia you know at the end of 1949 when the communists had taken over the china there were 1 million christians in china at that time two to three hundred thousand were actually converts of john's song this is chap who would take bible studies two hours three times a day in 1936 he preached the whole bible in one month to 2000 participants all over the china and southeast asia
00:36:56 here is a picture of him in singapore preaching at the telugu methodist church 40 sermons in two weeks consistently over the years unrelenting and not only that the people whom we trained up lit the views that would be the church in china today look at limp it became an evangelist prophet and thousands of people came to know christ because of limp here who is a disciple of johnson this is a life that is described as a flame and years later on they dug out some of his diaries and someone actually wrote
00:37:35 about this recently and he wrote this john sung's diary and johnson wrote for a servant of god to have authority in every sentence he utters he must first suffer for the message he is to deliver without great tribulation there is no great illumination johnson flame for god paul a wine offering poured out for god for the time for my departure has come to work departure i want to share with you is a very significant word it's called analysis in in greek it means the time of my losing it's like a ship being loosed from its
00:38:14 moorings or so just breaking up a camp i think we're too tied to this world and the thing that stops us from being put out as a drink offering is a time where we're tied up to this world and and the great preacher tim kellum had two thyroid two cancers one is thyroid and recently even worse pancreatic cancer for which he's been having chemotherapy and he had four prayer points for many of us who love him and follow his sermons and the second prayer point is for kathy and me that we will use this opportunity to be weaned from
00:38:46 the joys of this world to be and desire god's presence above all which is impactful is that he's the guy who wants to be loosed loosened from all the moorings of this world that bind us and to desire god's presence above all how do we see our lives do we see our lives after the pandemic last few minutes we were about 70 years old how do we spend our life oh travel all the world because we haven't been able to travel last two years or do we see our last remaining years and last remaining opportunity for us to pour out
00:39:17 our lives as an offering to our lord you're either point on the ground and have it wasted or you pour it out for our lord jesus christ who will reward us good and faithful servant at the end of his life paul says i have fought the good fight i finished the race i've kept the faith so the rise the the race is a metaphor it tells us about when you live your life you live it with in intention attention effort to a particular goal you don't run a race by running in circles you run in a particular direction because there
00:39:58 is the finishing line are we living our lives in such a way as to please god who called us for his purposes a holy calling to glorify his name or we running around in circles paul describes his life as one that's intention that's full of effort self-denial because he wants to glorify god and it doesn't matter when you whether you come to the race late or we're full of baggage you stumble because philippians chapter 3 describes this race not that i've already obtained it or already perfect but i press on to make
00:40:35 it my own because christ jesus made me his own brothers i don't consider that i've made it my own but one thing i do forgetting what lies behind straining forward to what i say beautiful thing about this race it doesn't matter when you come to know christ it doesn't matter whether you fall down you get up because you forget what lies behind but what we need to do brothers and sisters strain forward to what lies ahead lying ahead is the goal of the price and upward call of god in crisis which is why he he's waiting to
00:41:05 be loosened from the moorings of the things that bind us because as you run closer and closer towards the finish line closer and talk closer towards the goal which is actually to be with our lord jesus christ that desire must be there and you know we got every beginning has an ending and i'm sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion day of christ it didn't say that you will run the race and you will complete the the the race on your own [Music] god who begins a good work in you
00:41:35 he is the one who will bring completion on the day the grace will be completed by the power of the holy spirit within us with god every time he begins something he's got an ending and when he begins to work in us he will bring it to completion there are casualties which are inevitable because of the sinfulness of man demas in love with this world has deserted me alexander the coppersmith did me great harm the lord will repay him beware of him yourself very strongly opposed our message all who were in asia turned away from me
00:42:08 among those who are fabulous and homogeneous at my first hearing nobody stood by me you know when you go there for the court hearing your friends will stand by you your lawyers will stab by you they will say you have been a good guy when he was in his first hearing nobody stood with him everyone deserted him may not be charged against them but the lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear so i was rescued from the lion's
00:42:36 mouth so at his first hearing the lord actually rescued him and then the second hearing the lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom to him be glory forever and ever amen by the time he had the second hearing [Music] paul was sentenced to death they walked him down that road outside rome and history tells us they chopped off his head and where they actually martyred him today there's a church called saint paul outside the wall is this a life well lived
00:43:20 run sisters we need to take stock during difficult times or what our lives are worth during time of course lockdown is not a time of repression so that one day when the cold war is over we're coming out we're doing all the stuff that'll make us happy we need to finish our lives well we need to understand we need to leave behind a spiritual legacy which is church of jesus christ we need to warn people of the truth of the spiritual challenges of the time and we need to tell them the truth of the gospel
00:43:55 and we need to pour out our lives for things that really matter we need to serve each other even during lockdowns call a friend talk to someone provide meals practical aid because we only have one life and it's going to be poured out either a glass of champagne for yourself or poured out for our lord jesus christ because he's the only life that matters may god add a blessing to all of you now some of you who would want to want to transact with god this morning i want to come before him and say lord i
00:44:34 want i have not been living my life as well i should be i really want to give it to you i really want to part my life on things that really matter i don't know how to do this i need help i need prayer send pray to fbc e via zoom and one of us will come and meet you and pray with you don't be alone you can't do it alone he who began a good work in you will complete it and the others if you decide to follow jesus you'd like to attend alpha you'd like to attend a live group or you've got prayer requests
00:45:12 please click on this qr code let's end with the word of prayer lord we ask our lord that this day but so many of us the holy spirit speaks to us despite emco despite the difficulties that we actually re-evaluate what our life is worth is our life just a matter of living and enjoying ourselves and and this covet mco is a suppressive event that actually suppresses us for enjoying ourselves or is this an opportunity for us to reflect and see what is the meaning of our lives and and how should we finish our lives
00:45:48 well to glorify you to make things that last guide us we ask this for jesus sake amen
