2 Timothy: The Final Charge | Guest Speaker: Brad O'Kelley

If you have a Bible with you this morning, I want you to turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

We're going to finish up 2 Timothy today, which is what we've been doing while Russ is on sabbatical.

I want you to know that I tried my hardest to give this sermon away to everybody.

I went to everyone I could think of.

And I trust me, I realize some of you make your displeasure that I am preaching more than known.

I get it.

Okay?

Like it shows on your faces.

Don't worry, you don't hide it very well.

If you can just stick through this, I tried to give it away.

I tried to let somebody else do it.

I promise.

But it just didn't work out.

So you're stuck with me.

I apologize.

Russ will be back next week.

You'll enjoy it, I promise.

So come back and check that out.

We're going to finish up 2 Timothy, though, in the time.

So far, we've had Sam.

Rap has done two messages.

Jack Simmons last week, who was sick today, by the way, so pray for Jack.

He uh preached last week, and they have knocked it out of the park up to this point.

I'm going to come in, ruin it, and then we're going to go back to normal next week, okay?

So that's that's kind of the plan going forward.

But if you got your Bible, 2 Timothy chapter 4 is where we're going this morning, and we'll start reading in verse 1.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

The Bible says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

But wanting to have their ears tickled, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.

And will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside the myth.

But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

For I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

I've fought the good fight.

I've finished the course.

I've kept the faith.

In the future, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.

And not only to me, but also to all those who have loved his appearance.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning.

Father, we thank you for your word.

Thank you for an opportunity to study your word, to hear from you, Father.

I pray that today these would not be my words.

Father, that it would be all of you and none of me.

Father, I pray that your holy word would be a roaring line.

That you would allow me to open the cage.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So sometimes I kind of get in trouble after messages every now and then with some things that I say that Mandy doesn't know that I'm going to say.

And so that creates a little lunch problem on Sunday afternoon sometimes, you know, and we have to discuss those things because I never tell her, she asks me what I'm preaching on, I always just say Jesus.

And then that's it.

And that's the only indicator that I give her, right?

But so today it's it's not gonna be that bad because I I finally have just come to a realization that myself, this ends up kind of being a group therapy thing a little bit for me.

Um I've just come to the realization of myself that I have slipped into full-blown like dad mode in my life, okay?

Um, and this is not one of those things where like you have to have kids understand, that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about think about your parents, okay?

You see those insurance commercials on TV right now?

First time homebuyers turning into their parents?

Like, they have nailed me.

Like, I am like it hurts sometimes to see this.

I find myself choosing Crocs more often.

Does that make sense?

Like, I have a pair of camo crocs that I wore to an elders' meeting a couple weeks ago.

Like, like I find myself choosing crocs.

Is that re is that resting with your brain today?

Like, I chose those.

I don't have a lot of shoes, but I chose those, you know.

Like, I had to stop myself yesterday from cutting my neighbor's grass.

Like, I'm in that stage of my life.

That Toro was headed towards, and I mean, they're not gone, they're home.

Like, they were in the living room.

Can you imagine looking out in your living room mowing your their grass and just being like, you've been doing it wrong, you know?

Like, I've just hit that stage of my life.

But the crescendo that where this really just kind of came to me was we went to the beach a couple weeks ago, and and now like I'm also the point, I wear stupid hats all the time.

Like, I look like an idiot.

Anybody that goes to the pool with us will tell you I have this giant straw hat that I wear now.

I look like a moron, I don't care.

Um, I'm past that, I have camo crocs on, so what does it matter at this point?

Um, and so you know, I wear this hat, I have this giant hat, but we go to the beach, and I'm I'm like the beach is my Olympics for my family, okay?

Like I am the guy, I know most of you probably loath this.

Some of you are like lifestyles of rich and famous, you don't even know what I'm talking about, but it's okay.

We we are uh I need to be among my people at the beach.

So we end up at at like the Redneck Riviera, you know, like that's where we are.

And and I'm the guy with the wagon.

Like I'm the wagon guy, you know?

75 beach chairs, 400 umbrellas, kid toys that I didn't even know he owned.

Like I'm that guy, man.

I'm I'm there.

And it is my mission in life, full-blown dad most my mission in life, not only to do that, but to be the first one that does that.

You know what I mean?

I want prime real.

I view the beach as like the movie far and away.

I am staking my claim on my spot, and you will not enter.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, I'm that guy, I'm the guy you want to go to the beach with.

Because I will get your stuff down there at 5:45 in the morning.

I will look at everybody else in the face and be like, you're late.

Like that's that's just how I roll.

And so we went to the beach this time, and I'm I'm the guy dragging the wagon, you know, and I got all this stuff.

I can only imagine what the people in the you know condos above as they step out on the balcony for a beautiful morning, you know, and it's like, oh honey, what are you looking at?

Oh, the beautiful Gulf of Mexico, smelling the salt air both of the breeze, and a short, fat, shirtless redneck and camo crocs pulling a wagon, you know, 500 feet across the beach.

You know?

And like the only people that are impressed are dads, you know, and it's like, man, look at that guy.

Yeah, that's I mean, I just want to be that guy.

And so I set it up.

Well, my oldest daughter came with me one day and she's like, Why do you set all this up?

And I'm like, Well, I'm just this is what dads do, honey.

You know, that's just how we are.

And and she's very much in the questioning phase, so the questions never end.

You know, you you know that that side of things.

And she was like, Yeah, but like, why do we have to come down here and do this?

I'm like, well, because your mother wants a great spot on the beach, and she's not gonna do it herself, so I have to do this, you know.

Like, I have to come and do this.

And I said, and I and we want the best spot on the beach, so that's that's why I do this.

She goes, Well, what if somebody else wants the best spot on the beach?

I said, honey, if somebody else wants the best spot on the beach, they all they gotta do is wake up earlier than me and come take it.

And I said, and that ain't gonna happen.

Well, next day we're coming up from the beach.

My kids been playing with a bunch of other kids that we didn't know down there, you know, they all kind of group up, get together.

And she goes, Dad, one of the boys that that was down there playing with us, he said that his dad was mad because we had the good spot on the beach.

And I said, Oh, okay.

Like, I bet he did.

You know?

And she goes, she goes, but I told him.

She said, I told him all his daddy had to do was wake up and come take it.

And that wasn't gonna happen.

And I looked at her and I said, I know you have two sisters, but you're my favorite child.

Like, you are my favorite child.

Because for once in my lifetime, my fatherly wisdom made it into the brain of a child, you know.

Like, I know you're thinking, that's probably not what you want her to be.

Remember it, but I loved it.

I loved every second.

I'm like, good job, honey.

You know, you got that like I've just hit that stage, but that was the first time ever that my fatherly wisdom had actually landed and like grabbed hold of one of my children.

I loved it.

And so as we start finishing up 2 Timothy right here, the reason I tell you that is because what Paul's doing, Paul's writing to Timothy, who he considers to be his child in the faith.

Now, this is the second letter.

These are literally the last words that Paul's gonna write.

They're the last words that he's gonna write.

Here's the deal.

We like to tiptoe through the roses a little bit sometimes and make this sound like it's some kind of letter from summer camp.

Like Paul's writing, going, hey buddy, food's not great, but everything's going well.

You know, like that's not what happened.

That's not what's going on here.

What you need to understand about the letter of 2 Timothy is this this is a dying man writing his last words to his spiritual son.

Imagine what you would write to your children if you knew you were writing your last words.

That's what Paul's doing right here.

And so, right off the jump, he issues as we finish up this last thing, it's almost like you get this sense that I know I've told you all of this stuff in 1 and 2 Timothy, right?

I've filled two whole books of the Bible up with instruction to you.

And he gets to chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, and it's kind of that crescendo, that last thing of look, I know I've told you all of this stuff, but if you don't get any of it, at least get this.

And he lays out this final conclusion, and what it ends up being is it ends up being a charge to Timothy.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.

Here's what Paul writes to Timothy.

He says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.

What Paul's doing is he's setting the stage right here for how serious this is with some legal language.

I'm not a lawyer.

We have plenty of lawyers in this room.

There was one requirement that I missed for being a lawyer, and that was you have to be smart to be a lawyer.

I can't do that.

I can't help there.

This is very legal language, but what I do know, even without being smart enough to be a lawyer, I know that if somebody looked at me and said, I'm charging you in the presence of the judge, things would probably take a pretty serious turn pretty quick, right?

All of a sudden, things get legal, and you're thinking, wait a minute, what's happening here?

Paul looks at Timothy and says, I'm charging you in front of the Almighty Judge.

I'm giving you this charge.

This isn't new, it's gone on all throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, and one of the best places to look at it is Psalm 98 and verse 7 through 9.

And Psalm 98, 7 through 9 says this it says, Let the sea roar and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness and the people with equity.

Paul literally takes that form of Psalm 98 and he puts it in front of Timothy as a legal charge.

And what Paul is looking back at in a verse like or in a in a book like Psalm is he's seeing that the psalmist incorporates all the world, the mountains, the rivers, the people, everything that God created.

And he's saying, one day, God's not only going to judge that, he's gonna judge it with righteousness and equity.

When Paul charges Timothy, he's charging him before that very Almighty God that creates the heavens and the earth.

That's how serious this is.

That's how he wants it to sink in with Timothy that he's talking about.

So what is the charge?

Look at verse 2.

It says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

The charge is real simple.

Preach the word, right?

And we we think you hear that and you read that in the Bible, and it's so easy just to gloss right over it and keep on sailing.

Preach the word because you think, we're we're standing in a church, what else would you do?

You'd be surprised.

You'd be real surprised.

The reason that Paul is telling Timothy this is because he sees the world that's coming.

He sees the day that is to come.

And so not only is there a seriousness to this, but he has to go back to the very basic reminder of preach the word.

Not your opinion, not the things that you like, not the stuff that only you want to feel good about.

Preach the word.

That's the charge.

Look at what he says.

Be ready in season and out of season.

That's real simple.

When it's popular and when it's unpopular.

And I'm just gonna be 100% honest with y'all today.

I don't think there's ever been more of a time than right now where it is so unpopular to preach the word of God.

I don't think the word of God has ever been more unpopular in our lifetimes than it is right now.

You go, that's dramatic.

That's dramatic.

I hope you're right.

I don't think you are, but I hope you're right.

I don't think there's ever been a time in history where it's been more unpopular to be a Christian.

What Paul sees talking to Timothy is he says, you have to be ready in season and out of season.

That doesn't mean, hey, when you're ready to go or when you're on vacation.

That's not what Paul's talking about.

In season and out of season is when it is, when it feels great and everything's rolling along just fine, and when it's the most unpopular, uncultural thing that you have to do, you still have to preach the word.

That's the charge.

He goes on to say, reprove, rebuke, and exhort.

Now it's two very unpopular things in that list right there, which would be reprove and rebuke.

So to reprove is to convict of sin.

To rebuke would be to charge with wrongdoing.

That doesn't sound like fun.

That's the part that we don't like, right?

Nobody wants to be reminded of their sin.

Nobody wants to be reminded that we are uh you know not fulfilling our uh our desire from an Almighty God.

Nobody wants to be reminded that there's things in our lives that shouldn't be there.

That's not the fun part.

That's not the good part of standing up here and having to preach the word of God.

That's that's not fun.

And then he tells them to exhort and to exhort is to urge or to beg, and I love that because he's literally telling Timothy, I realize these first two things are gonna hurt, but what you can do after that is you can beg them to turn to an almighty God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You see, the good part is the good news, which is translated the gospel.

Paul's telling Timothy that it doesn't have to be all bad, it doesn't have to always be so terrible because you have the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You have the good news that he died on a cross for every single sin that's ever been committed.

You have the good news that through repentance and faith you can turn to Christ and be forgiven for all eternity.

That's what you exhort them with.

That's what you go to them and you beg them and urge them to be a part of.

He lays this out for Timothy and says, You have all of these tools, and then the very last thing which drives me absolutely insane in verse 2 is he says, Do it with great patience and instruction.

Patience is the worst.

It's the worst, it's the worst to have to be patient, to have to wait on something to happen.

What Paul's doing is he's looking at Timothy and he's going, it's not gonna happen overnight.

It's not gonna happen in the blink of an eye.

You're gonna have to do this over and over and over again.

You're gonna have to use these tools that are in your toolbox over and over and over again, patiently and with what?

Instruction.

Apart from the word of God, apart from preaching the word, it's impossible for Timothy to complete anything in that second verse.

There's no way for him to do those things outside of the Word of God.

That's the charge that Paul's giving Timothy.

So then the next question is this is why why do we need this charge?

What's the final charge for?

If this is a dying man's words to his child in the faith, why is this charge so important?

And let's look at verse three.

It says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers, in accordance to their own desires.

Well, there's two things that came up to me when I'm looking at this passage.

Two things I need to know.

The first thing I want to know is who is they?

Paul writes in verse 3, he says, For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

Who is they?

Well, in the context of this passage, he's talking to Timothy, who's the pastor of a church, and he's going, the people that you are preaching to will not endure it.

In this context, that's who Paul's talking to.

He's looking at Timothy, and he's going to, you're going to have a church full of people that will not endure sound doctrine.

The application side of that for you and I is he's talking about us.

He's talking about you and I.

Where we won't endure sound doctrine.

So that brings up the second question.

Remember, I told you I'm I'm not the smartest guy on earth.

So then the second question for me is what is doctrine?

What is doctrine?

We sit in church and we throw that word around like everybody knows it.

What is doctrine?

So I found this simple verse that I've had from years and years and years ago that is just the most basic.

Please, you have to understand this is how my brain works.

It has to work on the most basic level of every single thing that goes on.

And this is the most basic definition of doctrine I can find.

Here's what it is: the teaching from God, about God, that directs us to the glory of God.

All right?

Let's stop and think about that for a minute.

The teaching from God, about God, that directs us to the glory of God.

That's doctrine.

Why is that doctrine?

And it's because it gives us the source, the object, and the ultimate end of every single thing that we should put into that limb.

When we look through every single worldview, everything that goes on, it should be looked through through that.

How are we seeing from God about God, and how is it directing us to the glory of God?

That's doctrine.

The teaching of our Heavenly Father revealed in Christ Jesus, transmitted to us through the Holy Spirit by means of the Holy Scripture.

That's doctrine.

Now you may be sitting here today and you'll be going, I don't care.

I don't care about that.

I'm putting in my hour on Sunday morning, and I don't necessarily care about doctrine.

Well, eventually something's gonna come along in your life, and you're going to care about doctrine because you're not gonna have anything to stand on when you're faced with an absolute truth.

So the next question for me is why will this not endure?

Look at what Paul says in verse 3.

He says, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

Why won't it endure?

Look at the rest of the verse.

But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.

Why will sound doctrine not endure?

Here's why.

Because you and I'll get involved.

It won't endure because we'll ruin it.

It won't endure because it doesn't fit in with our truth.

It doesn't fit in with our way of thinking, it doesn't fit in with our political beliefs.

Sound doctrine won't endure because you and I'll screw it up.

That's why it won't endure.

Because when we get involved and our flawed selves get involved in that process, we think it has to be about us.

And every single thing in this world tells us it must be about you.

And there has never been a bigger lie than to make you think that you're that important or that I'm that important.

The word of God is the absolute truth, whether we like it or not.

And when we interact with it and we try to make it about us, we ruin the sound doctrine that God intended.

The reason it won't endure is because flawed people take it, and what do they do?

Look at it.

Wanting to have their ears tickled.

Wanting to have their ears tickled.

Wanting to hear what you want to hear.

They'll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.

I had somebody tell me a couple weeks ago that I said something about a particular passage in the Bible.

I don't, I don't get that, don't get this idea that I get into like these deep theological discussions with people.

It doesn't happen.

It's just one of those things where I open my mouth, insert foot, and then later on have to go back and fix it all.

And so like I made a comment about a particular passage of scripture, and I said, you know, this this is this is what I think.

And that that went over like a pregnant pole vaulter.

You know what I mean?

Like that was bad.

Um it was not good.

Uh and so I was like, and I could tell immediately because eyes were kind of like, like, did you did you really just say that?

You know, and I was it was like, uh-oh.

I've gone, I seem to have stumbled back into that situation, can't find my way out, you know.

So I I said what what I thought was was correct, and everybody was looking at me like you have lost your mind.

And I said, well, I and I said this kindly, I'm not like bragging in this.

I said, well, I'm just going based off of what this says.

And I kind of talked about the passage that we were talking about.

I'm just going off of what this says.

And one of the one of the people I was talking with said, Yeah, but I can find anybody to tell me what I want it to say.

And I thought, huh.

Hey, you're right.

Yeah.

You can find anybody that'll tell you what you want to hear.

You can go out there and find any single person that'll tell you what you want to hear.

That's that's actually easy.

That's that's the simple part, is to go and accumulate the teacher.

The teacher's the fool.

He'll go with you wherever you want to go.

But we accumulate that for ourselves.

We go out and seek that.

Who's gonna confirm my opinion?

Why do we do that?

Because that's the world that we live in.

And we've been told that that's what we're supposed to do.

Only align with what you think is right.

Only don't go over here with this group and don't do this and don't do this, and then on top of that, you have literal preachers and teachers of the Word of God who will go into gymnastics trying to twist God's word to get you to believe something.

There are preachers out there that will only preach to you repentance, they never get to salvation.

That's called legalism.

And everybody loves to shake their head on that one.

Guess what?

There's also preachers in this world that will only preach to you salvation and never tell you that you have to repent.

It's not one or the other, it's both.

We love to shake our head at the legalism part, go, yeah, yeah, that guy's crazy.

But then we realize that when you're being told that everything in your life is fine and that you don't have to make any changes.

We go, oh, I like that.

Yeah, that guy's right.

We accumulate for ourselves teachers.

Why will that not endure?

Because we get involved.

And I love this in verse 4.

Look at what Paul says.

He says, and they'll turn away their ears from what?

The truth.

And we'll turn aside to myths.

I love the definition of myth.

This is just Webster's dictionary definition of myth.

You ready?

A widely held but false believer idea.

That's a myth.

A widely held but false beliefer idea.

And Paul looks at Timothy and he goes, these are the people you're gonna preach to.

This is the church.

They are going to literally turn aside from the truth at some point.

Because they would rather hear a myth.

Something that's widely held and completely false.

Sound doctrine won't endure because the spirit and the flesh are so much at war with each other, and Paul makes this clear in Galatians chapter 5 in verse 16 and 17.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

He says, But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

We'll turn aside from the truth to myths because of the spirit and the flesh at war with us inside of us, going, no, no, no, no, no.

Go get what you want to hear.

And we'll turn aside to widely held but faults, beliefs, or ideas.

So what do we do?

What do we do to accomplish this charge?

Look at verse 5.

Paul says, but you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Here's another thing that we don't like.

We don't like when the Bible brings up the word sober.

It's not fun.

We don't like that soberness.

And what Paul is talking about here is not, he's using a Greek word called nepho.

And the Greek word is not just sober to abstain from alcohol.

There are places in the Bible where that's the case.

It's a different Greek word for that.

What Paul is doing here, though, is he's saying, I want you to be sober from all intoxicants.

Think about that for a minute.

I want you to be sober from every type of intoxicant.

This is also metaphorical.

What Paul's doing is he's laying out a metaphor before Timothy, and he's going, I want you to not only be sober so that your mind works correctly, he says, I want you to be free of all intoxicants.

Why would he say that?

Because the intoxicants are all around you.

It's so easy to become intoxicated by what someone will tell you, by some political belief, by some other means.

It's so easy to become intoxicated by those things, and we lose that soberness that God calls us to.

And then he looks and he says, endure hardship.

This is a guy sitting in prison writing his death letter.

He says, endure hardship.

He's in prison because of his faith in Christ.

Endure hardship.

He says, Do the work of an evangelist.

That word evangelist is only used three times in the New Testament.

This is one place of it.

And it's interesting because what Paul is doing is he knows Timothy.

Remember, this is his spiritual son.

And he looks at Timothy and says, Do the work of an evangelist.

Now, when we hear the word evangelist, you know what we think of?

Billy Graham.

First thing.

Most people, even maybe you haven't been in the Christian life very long.

Maybe you don't, maybe that's not your thing.

Maybe you're here for the first time and you're like, look, man, I stumbled in here.

I don't even know what I'm doing here, and I really don't like this.

Um come back next week.

But then we think about Billy Graham, because he would sell out arenas, right?

And he would stand up and he would go from town to town to town, he would preach and do all these things.

That's our idea.

And there's there's there's nothing wrong with that definition.

There's nothing wrong there.

An evangelist literally was someone who would travel from place to place to place, and their objective was to do nothing but to literally preach the gospel to that place, and then they would pack up and go to the next place.

It's a simple definition of an evangelist.

And so when Paul looks at Timothy and says, do the work of an evangelist, it's not just him going, I want you to move around place to place.

Paul's got a church, he's got to stay there and do the work.

But what he's looking at and saying is he's saying, I want you to be focused on the preaching of the gospel.

He knows Timothy, and he knows that his giftedness lies right there because in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 4 through 6, this is what Paul writes.

1 Corinthians 12:4–6

He says, Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit.

There are a variety of ministries and the same Lord.

And there are a variety of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.

What Paul's doing is he's reminding Timothy, you have all of these gifts, and your greatest gift is to be an evangelist, to preach the gospel.

And don't forget that even though you're the pastor of this church and you have all this other stuff going on, to preach that gospel because that's where your giftedness is, and it goes to the same Lord and Savior.

It points to the same God that gifted you that way.

Do the work of an evangelist.

And then he says the last thing in verse 5, fulfill your ministry.

This is Paul literally looking at Timothy and saying, if you root your ministry, if you root your life in the gospel of Jesus Christ and his absolute truth of his word, you will fulfill his calling for his glory in your life.

The application is that that is still 100% true for you and I today.

Paul goes on in verse 6.

I don't have time to do this, but Paul Paul goes on in in verse 6 through 8, and he talks about being poured out as a drink offering.

I don't want to just be the guy that says, oh, the Bible says if you really want to hear about all that, it's in Numbers 15.

You can go read about drink offerings.

It's the last part of the sacrificial offering system.

He says, I'm being poured out.

He's basically calling for the time of his death.

He knows that uh he's fought the good fight, he's finished the race, he's he's uh completed the course, and then at last he says, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.

So what does this, what does all this have to do with us?

This convoluted message that you've just set through.

What does it have to do with you and I today?

Paul gets very introspective in verse 6 through 8.

And he starts to look back over his life and he says, I'm being poured out as a drink offering, which is a metaphor for the fact that his life is ending.

He says, I've done all of these things, I've run the race, I've completed the course, I've done everything that God's called me to do.

And he gets down at the end, he says, the only reward I have left is the reward that God will literally bestow upon me when I meet him face to face.

He says, That's my reward.

He gets introspective and he starts to look over his life, and he looks over it with pleasure in the fact that he has gone from literally cursing God and persecuting people that loved him to a place where he wanted nothing more than to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And when he looks back over his life, he's filled with joy at the fact that even though he's sitting in a prison cell, writing these last words to his spiritual child, there's a joy and a peace that only God can offer.

For us, if we're to get introspective today and look in on ourselves, is there a peace like that in your life?

Is there a place in your life where even though hardships have come, even though we've turned our backs on the proper doctrine and run for myths, even though we've done all of these things, is there a place and a time where literally you've come to a place of realizing that Jesus Christ completed every single work for you on the cross.

And that his love and grace for you knows absolutely no bounds.

I pray that you don't leave this place today without knowing how much, how deep the Father's love is for you through Jesus Christ.

Father, we love you.

Thank you for time to open your word and to study.

Father, forgive me for all of it.

Being all over the place and making no sense.

So I pray you make sense of it for us.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for your word, and we ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.