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(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to week four,
day one of our look through the New Testament. We are flying through the New
Testament as we're going one book at a time, one day at a time. Whether this is
your first time to do this through the New Testament or you've done it many,
many times, my prayer is that it's an encouragement to your faith as we look at
each of these books.

We ended last week with First Timothy, so we're obviously beginning this week
with Second Timothy. Let me start by reading Second Timothy chapter one, one and
two. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the
promise of life that is in Christ Jesus.

To Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord. Second Timothy we're going to see is a book about how to last. How
do you last in life?

How do you last in ministry? So let me ask you a strange question to begin.
What's the longest lasting candy that you've ever eaten?

Some kinds of candy, they're just made to last forever. And when you think about
lasting, some believers are like cotton candy. They're all fluff, they're no
substance, and they just don't last.

They just melt away when troubles come. Other believers are like, well, we used
to call them jawbreakers. They just would last forever and ever and ever.

Some believers have learned the secret of how to last. And Paul obviously knew
how to last. You can see it in his life in ministry through the book of Acts.

And he shares some of those secrets with us in Second Timothy. As we begin
looking at this letter, you might think of it in military terms, general, major,
and private. The general theme is the theme of assurance through this book.

You last because you have a sense of assurance of God's love. The major verses
are Second Timothy 1. 12.

"I know whom I have believed," Paul writes. "And I am convinced that he is able
to guard "what I have entrusted to him for that day. " And another major verse
toward the end of the verse is Second Timothy 4.

7-8. "I have fought the good fight," Paul writes. "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 day. " So there's the general and
major. The private is, it's a private letter.

It was written from a lonely prison in Rome. It's Paul's final and possibly most
personal letter. We see much of his thoughts and personal feelings in this
letter.

It's Paul's last letter, just before his martyrdom in Rome. And he thought that
he was writing his son in the faith, Timothy. But the Holy Spirit inspired words
for all of us as he wrote.

In this book, you see Paul's heart for people. There's a lot of people mentioned
in this book, and some that had helped Paul, some that had not helped Paul. A
checklist of for better or for worse, just quickly through the book.

You have Timothy, who had helped him in ministry. You have Phygellus and
Hermogenes, who hadn't helped him in chapter one, verse 15. Anissa Forest did
help him in ministry, he mentions.

Hymenaeus and Philetus did not help him in ministry. Demas didn't help him in
ministry. Then he mentions Luke in chapter four, who did help him, and Mark, who
did help him.

But then Alexander, who double, did not help Paul in ministry. As you walk
through this list, you see that not all of Paul's friends came through for him.
There were times that he felt let down, times that he felt no one cared, times
that he felt betrayed.

So how was he able to keep going? He based his assurance not on his friendships
with people, but on his love for Christ. As Paul writes, he writes about last
things in a way that teaches us how to last.

At last would be my outline of Second Timothy. And chapter one is about last
hope. That verse, I know whom I have believed, and he is my last hope, he is my
greatest hope.

Chapter two is a chapter of last instructions. Second Timothy two is one of the
great chapters in scripture for discipleship, for living out the life that
Christ has given us. There's seven different pictures of that in chapter two.

The picture of a son, and a soldier, and an athlete, a farmer, a student, a
utensil, and a servant. And these seven pictures all talk about how do you serve
God in significant ways in your life. It's a chapter that ends with this great
hymn of assurance that we have of God's love.

Chapter three is about last days. There's 20 different descriptions of the last
days in this chapter. Chapter 14 says you keep doing what you've learned.

No matter what's coming, no matter what's heading our way at the end, you just
recognize the power of God's truth, and you keep doing what you've learned. And
then chapter four is last words. It's Paul's final words, final charge to
Timothy in chapter four, verses one to eight.

Paul, as he writes about last things, he tells us, and this is what I want to
leave with you from this book. He tells us how to be the kind of person who
lasts. If you want to last in life, if you want to last in ministry, if you want
to last in your family, in your job, if you want to last in your faith, how do
you become that kind of person?

Well, as you look through the book, there are eight specific things that he
talks about. First, you want to last, number one, you reject timidity. Chapter
one, verse seven, Paul writes to Timothy, God did not give us a spirit of
timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.

Paul knew that his son in the faith, Timothy, had a propensity to timidity, that
he had this thing in him that would shrink back sometimes, rather than step
forward in faith. If you want to last, you have to reject that part of you that
wants to shrink back, and you have to decide, no, even here, I'm going to step
forward in faith. Second thing of these eight about how to last is you got to be
strong in grace.

Second of these two, one says, you then, my son, be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. It's easy for us in this world to be strong in guilt, or to be
strong in fear, or to be strong in selfishness, but people who last, they're
strong in God's grace, 'cause God's grace lasts. Third thing you got to do to
last is you have to entrust what's valuable to those who are reliable.

Second Timothy two, two is one of the most famous verses from Second Timothy,
the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these
things to reliable people who will be qualified to teach others. If you want to
last, you have to pass it along to other people. You want to last, number four,
Paul says, you have to endure hardship as a good soldier.

If you're going to last, you have to know you're going to face some tough times.
People who are surprised by the tough times we face in this world don't last,
'cause they think somehow God doesn't love them or is out to get them. They
don't realize that everyone faces tough times in this world, and that we endure
hardship in this world looking forward to the perfection of eternity.

You want to last, the fifth thing you do is you do your best to please God. By
the way, you want to not last? Do your best to please people.

That's how to not last, 'cause you can never please people. And even when you
think you have pleased people, all of a sudden they're not pleased anymore
because people are very fickle, but God isn't. He's faithful.

So you do your best to please God. You live for the audience of one. Those are
the people that last.

You want to last? Number six, Paul says, you have to cleanse yourself. Chapter
two, verse 21.

People who last are people who allow God to do this continual process of work in
their lives where he is cleansing you more and more of the sin in your life. And
he cleanses you, and you realize, and you think, wow, I've taken care of all the
sin in my life, and it's like he takes off a layer, and you see the motivation,
you see some of the ugliness that was under that, and you realize, no, there's
some more cleansing to do. But you allow God to cleanse that part of your life
as well.

You let him keep working, keep working in your life. That's how you last. Number
seven of these eight things, if you're going to last, you have to fight false
teaching.

There's false teaching that comes into our lives, all of our lives, that appeals
to our pride, that appeals to our passions, that appeals to our selfishness, and
you have to fight that false teaching. And just when you think you've got it
finished, you've got your doctrine all figured out, another false teaching comes
along that's designed just for you, and you have to fight that one as well. You
want to last number eight, probably the greatest thing you can do is from those
verses we read earlier.

I want to read them again in just a moment. You want to last, you look to the crown.
You look to the end.

You look to what's going to happen in all of eternity. Second Timothy four, seven
to eight, Paul says, this is how I lasted. I have fought the good fight.

He lasted. 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 me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all
who have longed for his apparent. Let's pray together. Jesus, we want to last.

We want to last in faith, in life, in ministry, in our commitments. So help us to
look to these things that Paul teaches us in Second Timothy. We want to get to the
end and say we have fought the good fight.

We have finished the race. We have kept the faith. So today, right now, we look
forward to what's in store for us, the crown of righteousness, the crown that
comes out of what you did for us on the cross, Jesus.

And the award of all that you've done for us and your love for us that we look
forward to is one of the things that's going to motivate us in lasting today. So we
look to it. In your name, we look to it.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look at Titus, how to make an impact with your life.