My name’s Mark, and I’m supposed to preach for you for awhile, so we’ll do that. If you’ve got a Bible, go ahead and go to the book of 2 Timothy. If you’re new, what we generally do is we go straight through books of the Bible. We just finished 1 Timothy. We’re doing 2 Timothy this quarter. This summer we’re gonna do 1, 2 and 3 John. And then in the fall, in September, we’re gonna start the book of Genesis, and we’re gonna spend at least a year probably in the book of Genesis, and so that’ll take us through the next 18 months, and I’m excited.

So tonight we’ll just do 2 Timothy chapter 2, but that’s where we’re going, 2 Timothy chapter 2, so I’ll pray and we’ll have a good time together even though the Mariners lost. They just look terrible. We should call a prayer meeting.

Response: Amen.

Amen. Father God, we love you. We thank you for an opportunity to gather in this home that you’ve provided for us. We thank you that we get to be a church that gathers around the risen Lord Jesus Christ and to learn from him, to receive grace through him and by that grace, to walk with him, ultimately, to be like him and one day to be with him.

God, it’s our prayer as we open the Scriptures tonight that you would send the Holy Spirit. God, we know that he has inspired the writing of the Scriptures, and we ask you now, Holy Spirit, to illuminate our understanding of them. It’s always our prayer, Lord God, that we would come to the Scriptures and we would be interpreted by the text, that we would walk away with a new understanding and a new zeal and a new desire to be about your Kingdom business.

And God, tonight specifically we pray that you would give us the grace to live up to that which you’ve called us, and we seek that in Jesus’ good name. Amen.

As we get into 2 Timothy tonight, give you a bit of a backdrop. Timothy’s written by an older pastor named Paul to a younger pastor named Timothy. Timothy’s been in ministry at this point about 15 years. He’s probably right around my age, early to mid-30s. I’m 33. He may have been a few years older than me, but he’s probably in his early to mid-30s. They are separated. Paul is in prison. Within a few weeks, they’re going to chop his head off. This is the last letter that the great Apostle Paul gets to pen at least that we have privilege to read before his death.

Timothy’s burned out, tired. He’s laboring in a difficult time under a difficult circumstance, and he’s just sort of gotten weary. It’s been a hard season for him. And so what Paul does is Paul reminds him that his life is very significant and that he is on a mission from a loving God to bring the love of God to people.

And as we read this, I think there is a proclivity for many of us to read this as good instructions for those who are in ministry, and I would like to just extend that to say that each one of us is in ministry. The Bible says that we are a kingdom of priests. There is no such thing as people who are in ministry and people who are not in ministry. Everyone who claims to be a child of God, everything that they do is either done under the Lord as ministry or not done under the Lord, which is sin.

And so everything you do is significant. Some of you, your ministry is in large part working your job and paying your bills and feeding your family and mowing your lawn and changing diapers and washing your car and sitting in the cubicle and not loading your gun and killing the people that deserve it the most. And for that, that’s a very important ministry. Somebody needs to do that.

And as you go out into your life, I want you to understand that God has sent you into this world and that you have important and significant things to do in this world even though they may not seem that way right now. If you do them with and for and through the grace of God, they become very significant things. They become things that demonstrate your love for God and your love for people.

And so as we get into this tonight, it’s really a good season for us all to reflect on and evaluate our life. And what you find about your existence is that all of us go through a very hard, arduous, difficult and painful season. We call that season life. That is unbelievably hard. Before birth and after death, it usually goes better. It’s the middle that’s really the complicated variable. And that’s the thing we’re talking about tonight.

And you knew it was gonna be this way because when you came out of the womb, they grabbed you by your feet buck naked in front of strangers and whacked you until you cried, and pretty much, that’s a pattern. You’re gonna stick with that until you get to the end, okay? And so there will be hardship. There will be suffering. There will be difficulty and strife. And the question is how are you gonna deal with that?

Now, some of you believe this myth. Maybe it was at summer camp when you were in junior high and really naïve. They said accept Jesus and life will get better. And some of you signed up for that. They lied. You could still be saved, but they lied to you. They broke one of the commandments to get you to pray a prayer so that you would be a Christian. They told you a lie.

The truth is that your life if you love Jesus might end up looking a lot like Jesus’ life. You go no, don’t say that. And only in America could we think that somehow Jesus is a cosmic piñata that we whack for goodies. Only an American could come up with that because the God that worship is a God who was born to a teenage virgin mother in a dumpy rural hick town, something like Kent.

And then he throughout the course of his life was despised by people who mocked his mother as a tramp. Ultimately, he was a homeless guy without a wife, kid, job, place to lay his head. His best friend betrayed him for a few bucks, and he gets murdered, okay? And only an American who undergoes a hard time, difficulty or strife would look up at the sky and say, “God, I love you. I thought my life was gonna be just like … Jesus. Oh, doh!”

Your life is gonna be filled with hardship. It will be filled with suffering. And just because you’re a Christian, it doesn’t mean that you life will not be filled with hardship. And in addition to that, if you love Jesus, it shouldn’t shock you that your life in some ways follows in his wake, and his was known as a man of sorrow, was familiar with suffering and familiar with grief Isaiah tells us.

Not saying that life is impossible, but it takes someone who is wise and committed to navigate through faithfully. So I guess I wanna lower your expectations. I wanna lower your expectations. We’re not all gonna drive escalades and make MTV cribs, all right? Some of us are just gonna wear a cup all the time because life keeps giving it to us.

And there’s a way through that, and the apostle Paul is talking about it, and he’s a faithful at the end of his life who is about ready to get his head chopped off, but he’s learned some lessons, how to walk with God through hard times. And he wants to share that with us so that our lives are meaningful and valuable, and the first thing that he has to say to his dear friend Timothy is this. “You then, my son” – father to son relationship – “be strong, be strong.”

First thing you gotta know if you’re gonna make it through trial, hardship and life here on Planet Earth, you have to be a strong person. People who wilt, people who crumble, people who give in, give up, those people just don’t make it. They just don’t. You have to be strong. You have to be strong to deal with your sin. You have to be strong to deal with the sins that have been committed against you by others, both of which are paralyzing effects. And if you allow them, they will prohibit your ability to draw near to God, to grow spiritually and to make any progress, so you have to be strong.

All of you know this. And there’s seminars and philosophers and lots of philosophizing and psychologizing about how to get strong. There’s only one way truly to have enduring strength, and he tells us right here. It’s in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It is in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. God’s grace comes in a number of forms, two of which are saving grace and empowering grace. Grace is unmerited favor. It’s undeserved love that God saves you by grace, and he empowers you to live a transformed life by grace.

See, some of you have been raised in churches or theologies that say you’re saved by grace, but maturity happens by you working really, really hard. And it is true that as a Christian – we’ll see this in a few moments – that the Christian life requires discipline. It requires work. It requires striving. But even the ability to achieve such work is accomplished by the empowering grace of God. That’s why Jesus can say incredible things like, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What he’s saying is your life can be carried provided you’re empowered by my grace to do so.

We need grace, empowering grace, so that we can be strong, strong enough to follow the life that God has intended for us, whatever that life be, to navigate through the hardship and the suffering and the trials that come. The problem is that many of us don’t know where grace comes from. He tells us right here it comes from Jesus. That’s where grace comes from. Jesus Christ is the sum total and source of grace. You can’t get grace apart from Jesus. If you need to be strong, then you need grace. To achieve grace, you have to be in Jesus Christ because in Christ is where grace is to be found.

So the key to your whole life, first of all, is a relationship with Jesus, him giving you the empowering and saving grace that you need to walk with him faithfully. That will make you strong enough that you’re equal for any task that comes your way. And I’ll tell you this. I know this about myself personally. I am in way over my head, okay. I am not strong enough or capable enough to pastor this church at its present size. I know that.

I do not have the strength to lead my family, to provide for my family, to do the writing that I need to do for the books I need to do. All of my responsibility – I’m in over my head, okay. On almost everything, I’m in over my head. There’s a few things I don’t think that I’m in over my head on, and I think on those things I’m in denial. I think that’s the only reason I don’t think I’m in over my head.

I’m in over my head, and I don’t have the strength to execute the number of responsibilities that I have. And each of us, I would submit to you, is at that place. We’re in over our head. There is more to be done than we can do. There is more that’s left undone that needs to be tended to. We’re not strong enough to make it through the circumstances that we find ourselves in and to achieve maturity and to take it to the next level. We’re not. But it’s okay because Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect” in what? Weakness. So you don’t need to be strong. You need Jesus. He’ll give you grace. That makes us strong.

To be honest with you, I don’t worry about executing as a husband, father, pastor or anything else. I worry about being in Christ. And know that if I’m in Christ, then whatever I have to deal with, God’s grace will enable me to rise to the level at which I can meet the challenges that God brings for me. So I don’t need to worry about anything other than being very close to Jesus with my hands out ready to receive whatever grace he would give me because then he will enable me to be and do whatever it is that I need to do.

He says, “You be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” And there’s a reason that you and I wanna be strong. There’s a reason that you and I wanna endure. There’s a reason that you and I wanna get through circumstances and suffering and trials in life. Go back. He tells us in verse 2, “And the things that you’ve heard me say in the presence of many witnesses and trust to reliable men” – the word there is mankind, so it’s men and women – “who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Here’s what you want. You want to take whatever circumstance, trial, suffering, opportunity or obstacle that is in front of you. You wanna draw near to Jesus Christ. You wanna walk with him faithfully. You wanna receive from him empowering grace. You wanna somehow find your way to the other side of that thing that is in front of you. And then what will happen is God, through those circumstances, will make you wise. You’ll learn something. And when you’ve learned something, you’ll be ready to teach someone. It’s what Paul says to the Corinthians that it’s an opportunity by which we can comfort others with the comfort that we’ve received.

There is a great, great myth that happens in almost every church, and that is that guys like me know what we’re talking about. It’s a deep and pervasive myth. There are a lot of things I don’t know what I’m talking about. Some of you have seen it. There are a lot of things that you can only know by experiencing them and walking through them and leaning into Jesus Christ and getting the grace you need to make it through.

There are a lot of things that, quite frankly, I haven’t been through. I have not. I have never been drunk. I don’t know how to overcome alcoholism. I haven’t. I have never tried drugs. I do not know. Some of you have done terrible things, and you’ve learned how to stop doing them by God’s empowering grace.

I know in this room there are pedophiles. There’s are rapists. There are sex offenders. There are thieves. There are liars. There are addicts. I know there are. And some of you were, but by grace, you no longer are. Because of that, you have an opportunity, having walked through experiencing the grace of Jesus Christ, to have wisdom to then extend a hand to someone else and to instruct them and teach them about the goodness of God and how God can enable them to live life with him and through him and for him and by him.

What that means is that the experts are in the room. The big myth in church is that what happens on the stage is the most important thing. What happens out of this building with you walking with Jesus by grace, learning things and teaching others, that’s the most important part of what we do.

The other myth is that I’m the best teacher. I’m not the best teacher. There are things that I understand and know, but the experts for most things are, quite frankly, sitting in this room. They just are. We aspire that everyone in this room would in one way or another be a teacher. Some of you are shy, and you don’t wanna sit on a stage like this.

You want to sit down one-on-one over a cup of coffee and speak to a woman who was sexually abused as child and has made it through so that when you are dealing with your own trauma, you have a friend who extends a hand and then helps teach you about the empowering grace of life in Jesus Christ so that you, too, may one day stand on the other side with her and then reach back and extend a hand of the loving friendship to someone else.

Give you another example. The big issue in our church right now is infertility and miscarriage. Big issue. That’s not me. I’m not a woman. My wife miscarried. I observed it. I felt what it’s like to be the husband who lost a child. But those people that are best equipped to teach women who are struggling with infertility or have lost a child through miscarriage are those women who have walked through those dark shadows and have come out on the other side in the arms of Jesus.

Do you see what he’s saying? He’s saying, friends, that your whole life matters. Some of you say, “I have suffered much. I have endured much. I have sinned much. I have been sinned against much.” Well, then, let’s not waste that. Let’s not let all of that go in vain. Let’s not just let that be for you to learn a few insights so that you can move on. Let’s let that be the beginning of your ministry through which you were able to teach others.

You be reliable. Walk with Jesus by grace. Learn something, and then love someone, impart it to them. They will impart it to others. That’s why you and I are here tonight. This process has been going on for thousands of years. Someone learned something through the experience of life of Jesus, imparts that understanding to someone else who imparts that understanding to someone else, and here we are tonight, I don’t know, 700, 800 strong.

This really works. It’s far more important than what I do on the stage, far more important. The experts are in the room, and you are the expert. And those of you that have some of the most deepest scars are those people that will best equipped to be the most tender and forthright instructors of the rest of us.

See, if this isn’t the case, then your whole life is in vain. It doesn’t accomplish anything, and when you leave, all the lessons learned go into the coffin with you. But with Christ and with ministry with Christ and the church of Christ and people of Christ, there is an opportunity for your life and your learning to be imparted to others so that it is worthwhile.

It helps us keep focused on why we want to mature, why we want to endure, why we want to progress: because we don’t want others to taste what we’ve tasted, to shed the tears that we’ve shed, to make the mistakes that we’ve made. We love them.

So Paul goes on then. He’s gonna give us three analogies by which we can look at our life and evaluate ourselves. He’ll talk about a farmer. He’ll talk about an athlete, and he’ll talk about a soldier in reverse order. So he says first thing, “Endure hardship.” Doesn’t say avoid hardship.

Some of you like to avoid hardship. Don’t avoid it. And please do me a favor. Don’t fix it. Something or someone in our life creates hardship. There is a proclivity among most of us to try and fix the person or circumstance, thinking that if we resolve that issue or the issues involved in that person, thereby we would be free of our hardship.

The problem is this: There are just some things you can’t fix. Quite frankly – I hate to say it – there are some people you just can’t fix. Now, God can do anything, and God could change anyone. God can do whatever God pleases, but you and I, we’re not God. Some things are, quite frankly, just out of our hands. Faith is where we just leave those things with God, and we sleep as though we believe that he’s good.

What I would like you to see is this: When hardship comes, most of us have a problem-solving mentality that tries to fix the problem and eliminate the source of the hardship. I am not saying that you don’t deal with problems, but what I am saying is this: I believe that the preponderance of the time that hardship comes, God’s objective for us is not to fix the problem but ourselves to learn something.

I see this all the time with parents and teenagers, right. Parents of teenagers, something happens with the child. The child is driving them crazy. That’s basically the job description for a teenager, right? They’re driving the parent crazy, and the parent thinks I need to fix the child. Perhaps the whole reason that God has that circumstance is so that you would learn to endure with the child, love the child and change through enduring out of love for the child.

If you’re struggling in your marriage – I’ll give you another example – you may think, “My spouse is giving me hardship. I need to fix my spouse.” I don’t know if any of you have tried that. That doesn’t work. You can either say, “Well, I’m going to avoid hardship by fixing the spouse or endure hardship by loving the spouse, whether or not the spouse ever gets fixed or the hardship goes away because I’m coming at the circumstances asking God how can I learn? How can I grow? How can I be made more like Jesus, rather than asking you’re screwed up. How can I fix you?”

Do you see the difference? One comes in thinking that there is nothing here for me to learn, just things for me to do. The other comes in assuming that the experience is a crucible in which character will be formed. You see this all the time.

Parents have kids. The kids are always the wrong kids. Have you ever noticed that? They’re not like the kids that you wanted. These kids are – they’re like midget demons. They swim in the toilet. They do everything they’re not supposed to do, and the parent thinks the kids, the kids. There’s something with the kids. They’re giving me hardship. I need to fix the kids. Well, perhaps God is trying to birth in the parent love, endurance, patience, faithfulness, prayer.

It may not always be about the hardship. It may not always be about the difficulty. It may not always be about the other person. Sometimes we need to just endure it, just walk through it with love and kindness. And we may never fix certain things. We may never fix certain people.

Some of you are holding out a reservation in anticipation that someday someone will apologize or they’ll make amends for what they’ve done, and then you will move on with your life. What if they don’t? You still have to endure, and you need to endure with them out of love for them. This happens all the time, happens all the time.

There are certain things you can’t get around. There are certain things you just have to endure through. That’s the way that it is. That’s just the way that it is. And what you’ll find is it is those experiences that form your character so that you’re more like Jesus. And if nothing else, on the backside, you’ll be a person who is reliable and faithful and competent to instruct others so that they will follow in your wake.

For those of us who avoid that, we invariably spend numerous years driving around the cul-de-sac learning the same lesson over and over and over. That was hard. I avoided it. Well, this is hard. Now, I’m gonna avoid it. This is hard. I will avoid it. And the lesson is never learned. The character is never built. The person is never forced to lean into the grace of Jesus. They don’t endure suffering and hardship. There’s no fortitude in their character.

So he goes on, “To endure hardship with us” – he’s not a hypocrite – “like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” I know some of you are pacifists. Here your Bible is gonna use a soldier as a good example. Some people say, “Well, I don’t like war. I believe in peace.” I believe if you kill your enemies, then you get peace, so I’m a pacifist, too. Once all the enemies are dead, you sleep better. That’s my theology. I believe God’s that way. He’ll kill all his enemies, and then it’s peace, so he’s a pacifist in the end. In the middle it’s pretty bloody.

But anyways, he goes on to say, “No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He only wants to please his commanding officer.” What he’s saying is this. Think about life as a war. Hypothetically, life is a war. Do you, do you personally have an enemy? You do. I’ll tell you. You have Satan. You have demons and the world, not to mention maybe a few people that don’t like you either, right? I got a few of those. You do have some enemies.

Internally you also have an enemy. The Bible calls it your flesh. It’s the seed of rebellion that was deposited in you from Adam. You have enemies. You’re gonna need to learn how to fight. Otherwise you will give into sin and temptation and death and folly, and your life will be destructive and chaotic and untethered from God, so you have a fight on your hands. It is a war. It is a war.

Additionally, he says, look at the life of a soldier and assume not only that you’re at war and not only that you have enemies, but that either you will put to death your sin or your sin will put you to death. You need to stay in this battle until you’ve made victory. And you think about it. A soldier fights their enemy until what point? Until they’ve conquered them, until they’ve killed or detained them.

If you are struggling in life, if you have faced hardship or temptation or if you have been sinned against and you have deep wounds and scars, you need to endure through that until you’re triumphant over that. Otherwise, it will come back and destroy you. He uses the analogy of a soldier. You have to be strong and courageous if you’re gonna walk with God through this life.

And Christians and non-Christians will face the same circumstances, and what he’s saying is that the Christian needs to come at it with an attitude of combativeness and courage and faith.
The second analogy he uses is that of an athlete. Similarly, he says in verse 5, “If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.” So the first thing he says is for everybody who picks up a sport, the first thing you need to learn is the rules so that you can compete according to the rules. How many of you hate a cheater? How many of you are the cheater? Okay. You guys shouldn’t play anything together ’cause one’ll die.

The way this works, though, is if you don’t play by the rules, there’s no victor’s crown for you in the end. He’s talking there about reward, and let me distinguish this. There’s a difference in the Christian life between grace and reward. You’re saved by grace, but you’re rewarded for faithfulness. You can’t lose your grace, but you can lose your reward.

Here he’s talking about a crown at the end. You cross the finish line at the end of your life. Jesus says, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and he gives you a crown. He says that you have run and performed well with the duties that he has entrusted to you throughout the course of your life.

A lot of people think, well, I’m saved by grace. Why do anything? Well, because your life matters, and there is a reward at the finish line. And lots of people lose their rewards due to unfaithfulness. Didn’t say you can lose your grace, but you can lose your reward. He’s talking here about your reward. And the way that you receive your reward at the end is, first of all, you know the rules by which you are supposed to lead your life.

When I was in Little League, my first team, there was a girl on the team, a nice girl but she would hit the ball and run to third. She would skip first and second. She thought, you know, that’s a lot of running. If I go to third and back, I could score more frequently. Pretty good thought, really, but you never get any points for that. You know, only in her mind is she actually scoring.

And a lot of people are like that in life. They want God to reward them and bless them when they’re not playing by the rules that God has established. This is the person who says, “Well, God, I know the rule is that I’m supposed to marry someone who loves you and is a believer, and I know that we’re not supposed to have sexual union until our marriage night consummates our covenant. And God, I know that we need to conduct ourselves in a way that his holy and honorable, and there should not be a hint of sexual immorality among us. Those are the rules. But I met this guy, and he doesn’t know you, Lord Jesus, but I think if I have sex with him long enough, he will. So would you reward us? Would you bless us, Father?” And the Father says no.

There’s no reward for the children who don’t play according to the rules. You have a loving Father. When he establishes rules for you to live by, it is not that he’s trying to take away joy or fun. In fact, just the opposite. God wants to bless his children. He only, however, can bless those children that are obedient. Otherwise, God is rewarding sin and in rewarding sin, he is encouraging more sin.

Give you an example. I’m a father. My kids come to me. If they throw a fit for ice cream, do I give them ice cream?

Response: No.

No because if I bless sin and rebellion, then what I end up doing is encouraging more sin and rebellion. I’m habituating my children to believe that tantrums lead to rewards. Some of you live your life that way. You disobey all of God’s rules. You ignore, as it were, the playbook, and you find yourself outside of the bounds of the game that God intended for you to be in, and you’re standing there yelling at God saying, “Would you bless this? Can we have a reward? Where’s our ice cream?” God says, “I gave all my kids ice cream, but you ran away from home.”

God is a good God. Athletes come into a game not arguing the rules. That’s the first thing the athlete learns. There’s a difference between the athlete and the umpire. You ever see a guy strike out and cuss out the empire? You ever see the umpire go, “My bad. Whatever you say, that’s what it is.” No. What he says is, “Take a shower and go home. You’re done. I’m sovereign. I have dominion here. This is my field. You don’t play by my rules, you don’t play at all.”

This world belongs to God. God is the umpire. He makes the rules. It’s not anything until he calls it. If he says you’re in sin, you’re in sin. And you could cuss him and look up at the stands and take a vote. It really doesn’t matter. The guy in the shirt with the stripes rules.

And so the point simply is this. Do you know the rules you’re supposed to be living your life by? Do you have the book open, and are you finding out the place that the Father blesses? And are you obeying the Father and putting yourself in the place where at the end you’ll get your crown? You’ll get reward?

There’s a lot to be learned from athletes. We live in a culture that’s very peculiar because we idolize athletes, but we don’t imitate them. You ever notice the least healthy people in the world are sports radio jocks? These men are huge, huge men, huge men. They sit at the ballpark. They eat nachos and beer and hot dogs and yell at people because they’re not fast. Least those people are upright, you know? I mean, these are not healthy men. And it’s amazing to me because they spend their whole day observing well-trained athletes and not imitating anything that they do.

Most Americans have very little discipline, very little self-control, very little physical exercise, very little goal setting, very little that is together. The athletes among us do, and especially you Indy Rockers, like we hate them. So we sit around and smoke and we have like this jocks versus rockers thing going on. It’s just silly really. It’s a really weird culture that we live in.

What I wish they would do rather than just showing us the games, I wish they’d videotape and show us the practices. I wish they’d show us the Olympic sprinter who’s at home not eating foods that end in ‘itos’ and watching television all day. I wish they would show us, you know, the guy who is not home getting drunk after a game because he knows that it’ll affect his eyesight when he’s gotta get up to bat the next day. I wish they would show us the sum total of a skilled, high-caliber athlete’s life so that we would tie performance and discipline together.

All we see of them is at their best moment. That was amazing. Then we get up and try and do that. And they have spent years disciplining themselves, habituating themselves toward a particular goal. What’s your goal? What are you here for?

Jesus says it’s here to love him and love other people. If that’s your goal, is your whole life focused and organized and disciplined to achieve your objective? You taking time and energy and money and just happenstance wasting it like buckshot out of a gun with no focus? There’s a lot to be learned from athletes.

What I would encourage you is this. If there’s an athlete that you admire their performance, learn something about their training routine. Figure out their self-discipline, how their whole life is organized so that they can be effective at something that they’re passionate about. And they may not even know God, but there are some things to learn from their process.

I would say this as well. As you watch sports learn. Everything in life is about you learning spiritual principles to be closer to Jesus, including sports. And Paul here uses the metaphor of an athlete. And I really love sports. Were any of you jocks in high school? I was a four-year letterman in baseball. Baseball is the game that God made. That’s the best game of all games.

Response: Amen.

Some of you were jocks and now you go to get your letterman’s jacket on, right? You got your reunion coming up. Ugh, ugh, the jacket shrunk. No, the athlete grew. It’s been awhile, but some of you were jocks.

I like baseball because it’s a wonderful game for thinking men. I like boxing ’cause it’s brutal and violent. I like hockey ’cause sometimes it looks like boxing. I like – I don’t like tennis, but I like the grunting. Ugh, ugh, ugh. And it’s like that. Reminds me of kung fu. I don’t really like golf, but I appreciate the fact that golf takes all the old white guys and centralizes them in one piece of land so we don’t have to deal with them. So I don’t like golf, but I really like what golf does. It’s helpful.

Other than that, though, there’s a lot to learn from sports and from athletics in general Paul says. So you wanna be courageous and a hard fighter like a soldier. You wanna be disciplined, and you wanna have an ordered life like an athlete. The last thing he says is you wanna work hard like a farmer.

A lot of you are not farmers. There’s a reason we’re not farmers. It’s hard, right? You could be a farmer, but it’s a lot of work. So we program instead, right, ’cause it’s – oh, carpal tunnel. The farmer’s sitting there going, “I wish I had carpal tunnel. I got carpal everything.” Verse 6, “The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive his share of his crops.”

Farmers work hard. You ever meet a person that works hard? Probably not but if you do, you could learn something from them. Christianity is about people who are self-disciplined like athletes who are strong and courageous like soldiers and are hard workers like farmers. Are you a hard worker?

See, the thing with all these people: A soldier doesn’t fight when he feels inspired. I just feel inspired. You gotta fight whenever there’s need, and you gotta fight till you win. An athlete – I feel inspired. I haven’t run in seven years, but today I’m sprinting. You know, it’s about discipline and getting up and getting it done. Some of you pick up the Bible. I feel inspired. Woo, one verse out of Leviticus. I’m good till next year. Woo.

Don’t feel inspired? These people don’t do their life out of inspiration. They do it out of discipline, out of discipline. The farmer’s that guy. The farmer in the morning – at least what I’m told. I come from a long line of red potato farmers and diesel mechanics from North Dakota. As soon as my dad could afford a full tank of gas, he left. That’s how I got to Seattle. That’s what happens.

Farming is hard work. The farmer has to get up when? Early or late?

Response: Early.

Early, very, very early, very early. Very early. For you single guys, before there’s double digits on the clock. Single digit getting up, wow. Wow, single digit getting up. Cockle-doodle-doo. Up goes Farmer Ted. Off he is to do whatever Farmer Ted’s gotta do. Now in the middle – now does Farmer Ted work hard all day? As long as it’s – and then night comes. What’s Farmer Ted do? He’s gotta chop wood. He’s gotta do whatever Farmer Ted’s gotta do, fix his machinery, spank his kids. He’s got a lot of stuff to do.
Then in the middle of the night let’s say an animal gets sick or a coyote shows up or some pestilence or plague or act of God. God hates the farmer, so an act of God comes in the middle of the night to Farmer Ted’s farm. Does he get to call in sick? “Hey, I have carpal tunnel. I can’t make it. I feel sick. I feel bloated. My allergies have kicked in. I don’t do weed. I have hay fever.” Farmer Ted’s just gotta – he’s gotta put his cup on and get in the game, and he’s gotta take his shots, and he’s gotta get it done. That’s what Farmer Ted’s gotta do.

And what he says is that Christianity is a lot like the life of Farmer Ted. You gotta get up. You gotta get it done. You gotta go to bed, and if something else happens, you gotta get up and do that, too.

A lot of people just work out of inspiration, but they’re not inspired very much. These people grow to maturity. They endure. They get to the other side of things because of devotion and discipline, but it’s not just because they’re hard-working and organized. It’s because God has given them the grace in Jesus Christ that enables them to become mature, enables them to build – so that the end they don’t boast and say, “Look what I’ve done. I’m Farmer Ted. I have a huge pumpkin” or “I can run a 4-4-40” or “I can kill you with a spoon.”

They’re not arrogant people. They’re people, who like Paul to the Corinthians, says I’ve worked harder and achieved more than anyone, but it wasn’t me. It was the grace of God that was with that enabled me to do that. That’s what it is.

So here’s what he says. Here’s what he says at the end. “Reflect on what I am saying for the Lord will give you insight on all of this.” Reflect, meditate, contemplate. If you drink tea, this is steeping. If you’re a redneck, this is marinating, okay? Let it soak. Let it get in you. Let it stick a little bit. Reflect.

A lot of your Bible is poetic images that you really need to be reflecting and meditating on. Okay, I want my spiritual life to be as disciplined as an athlete. Maybe in our culture he would say a musician. God, I want to have the courage of a soldier. God, I wanna have the work ethic of a farmer. What does that mean? What does that mean? Reflect, meditate, contemplate.

And what that means as well, as you go out in your life, you will see people that are successful in certain things. You need to make it a habit to bug those people. Ask them questions. You have achieved success. I want to know how. People who are successful, he told us back in verse 2, like to teach. They like to teach. They’ve learned a lot, and they like to share what they’ve learned.

I make it a habit to bug people who are successful because I’m curious. There’s a handful of pastors in the country that are very successful, that I respect very much, and I bug them. I’ll call them up. Hi, I’m So-and-So. I’ve never heard of you. I know. I’m trying to fix that. How did you put your church together? Authors that I appreciate when I go to write my book, I called them. Okay, tell me how do you do this? Guys that have successful families and ministries, loves their wives and their kids, juggle their responsibility. How do you do that? How do you do that?

The experts are in the room. The experts are out of the room. Some of the experts don’t even know God, but there are good lessons to be learned from the lives of successful people. That’s why as well it’s so important for you to read biographies, people that have succeeded. Read, figure out. How did they put their life together and then spend some time reflecting on that.

Reflect on your Scriptures. Reflect on the poetic images of your Scriptures. Reflect on the lives of the people in your Scriptures. Get to know people who are successful. Learn the principles from their live, people that are like successful farmers and soldiers and athletes. Learn from them as well. And once you’ve reflected on all of that, you’re ready to tackle your life. You got a little wisdom. You’re inspired. You’re motivated.

Now he tells us the most important thing. “Remember Jesus. Remember Jesus.” Life gets busy. Life gets hard. Life gets arduous between family and ministry and friends and work. Suffering comes. Hardship comes. Difficulty comes. Strife comes. Responsibility comes. We get weighed down. We start to pull out. We say, “Okay, I’m gonna stick close to Jesus. That’s my goal. He’s gonna give me empowering grace. I’m gonna be able to successfully proceed forward in my life with him. I’m gonna learn how to be disciplined like an athlete, courageous like a soldier, hardworking like a farmer. I’m gonna spend time meditating on my Scripture and meditating on principles from people’s lives that I admire and can glean wisdom from.” But don’t forget Jesus. It happens so easily.

People get their grace from Jesus, get their wisdom and then go ahead and live their life without him. He says remember Jesus. Remember Jesus. That’s why I’m telling you the most important thing that happens in this church is not what happens in this room. It happens when you leave this room and you remember Jesus. In your friendships, in your work, changing your kid’s diapers, mowing your lawn, changing your oil, paying your bills, forgiving your spouse. When you’re doing the stuff that life requires, you remembering Jesus, that’s the important part of what we do. It’s the most important part of what we do.

He goes on to explain this a little further. “Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, descended from David.” Do you guys know that Jesus is alive today.

Response: Yup.

He’s not dead.

Response: Right.

Some of you say, “I know that.” No, seriously, he’s alive. He’s alive. A lot of churches there’s a big cross with a crucified Jesus on it. I grew up in a church that had that. Not opposed to that. Jesus did die, but he’s not dead. If I saw him today, it wouldn’t be crucified. It would raised victorious. A lot of theologies are built on a theology of the cross. I really think that we should be building a theology of the empty tomb.

It’s not just about the death of Christ. It’s about the resurrection of Christ. The death of Christ means nothing apart from the resurrection of Christ. Had Jesus not risen, then his death would just be another good guy who got killed. His resurrection proves that he was God, and all that he said was true.

The continual refrain of the early church through the book of Acts is not necessarily the theology of the cross. It’s the theology of the tomb. Jesus Christ is alive and well. He conquered Satan. He conquered sin. He conquered death. He said he was God. He’s proven it. It’s all about Jesus. Remember him. Remember him.

And I appreciate the cross, but I really appreciate the tomb. He says “Remember Jesus Christ raised from death, triumphant and victorious, descended from David.” Goes back to 2 Samuel, think it’s chapter 7, where the promise is made through the line of King David would come another king, King Jesus, and King Jesus would rule and reign over all of creation, all peoples, times and places.

What that means is this: Today the tomb is empty, but the throne is not. That the tomb is empty, and the throne is filled by the risen Lord Jesus. He’s the King of kings and Lord of lords. This is good news for us, as he is the King of kings, the descendant of David who rules and reigns over all. What that means is there’s nothing and there’s no one that is not under his jurisdiction.

This is so important. In a lot of religions like Hinduism there’s a pantheon of gods. And if you’re having trouble maritally or financially or with your health or your children, you go to this multiplicity of gods and you have to find which God has jurisdiction over that aspect of your life. It’s silly. Jesus is King over all.

What that means is it does not matter what in your life is hard, where in your life you are suffering, what obstacles are before you, Jesus is good for everything, that the answer to every question ultimately in one way or another is Jesus. This makes it incredibly simple for us. One God on a throne, risen and exalted, King of king, Lord of lords, wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, the most important thing is to remember Jesus because he relates to everything because he is over everyone, so remember Jesus.

It’s not just about having principles for successful living. It’s about having a relationship with your King who gives you grace so that you can live life with him, not just for him to please him but with him like a child who’s going to work with their parent to be about the Father’s business. Says, “Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, descended from David.” He says, “This is my gospel.” I love that. It’s personal for Paul. You need to be able to say that. That is my Jesus, right? This is my Bible. This is my faith. This is my relationship.

It can’t be that you’re borrowing in from someone else, someone in your family or someone in your circle of friends or just by being part of a church. You need to be able to say this is mine, not that you own it, but that in a way you belong to it, and it’s imparted unto you. It’s personal. It’s personal.

Says, “This is my gospel for which I am suffering.” And he is. He has been beaten, shipwrecked, homeless, left for dead, left to drift on the open sea. He says elsewhere, “I bear the marks of crucifixion on m body.” This man is scarred and bent and broken. He’s in prison. He’s in chains, and he’s a few weeks from getting his head chopped off, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But here’s good news, Mars Hill. “But God’s Word is not chained.” Well, there’s good news.

Hebrews tells us that this Word of God is living and active. God is the living God. God’s Word is the living Word. The living God takes the living Word, and he unleashes it into our lives so that we will be given life. And nothing can restrain or constrain the powerful Word of God. Isaiah tells us that it proceeds from his mouth, and it accomplishes whatever he intends for it to accomplish.

And I know that some of you, you’re frustrated because you’ve seen false teachers and heretics. You’ve seen pastors malign the Word of God with their lifestyle or even with their own doctrine, but I’ll tell you what. God’s Word is still free. It still does its work. Nations can outlaw it. It doesn’t matter. People can misquote it. It doesn’t matter. Heretics can misteach it. It doesn’t matter because in the end the Word of God is not chained like the servant of God.

The servant of God, like Paul, can be bound, can be constrained, can be restricted. The problem in the Roman Empire, they thought that if they killed Jesus, they would silence the Word of God, if they killed Paul, they would silence the Word of God. The don’t understand that the word of God is never chained by human hands. It’s free.

Do you read your Bible? Do you read your Bible? You wanna be free? Read your Bible. You wanna be alive? Read your Bible. You wanna remember Jesus? Read your Bible. The whole point of your Bible’s Jesus. Some of you think it’s about morality or rules or regulations or religion. It’s not. It’s about Jesus. It’s about God who came, rose from death, descended from David. He’s your King, died for your sins. He adores you. He loves you. He cares for you. He embraces you. He pursues you. He wants you to be with him, and he wants you to have the grace that you need so desperately. Guys, from Genesis to Revelation every page is about God loving you through Jesus. That’s the point of it all.

And those people who don’t remember Jesus I am convinced it is simply because they have closed their book. If you are a person who keeps the book open, you will always remember Jesus because if you read rightly, you will discover him on every page. What Paul is saying is this. “I’m in prison, but I have my Bible open, and I’m thinking about Jesus. And he says that even when they chop my head off, his Word will still continue doing its work.” I betcha Paul’s smiling while he pens this. He knows that his life’s not in vain. He knows that his work doesn’t cease with his breath.

Guys, there is nothing on earth like the Word of God. Nothing. It comes from God. It’s inspired of God. It’s perfect and sacred and trustworthy and true. We’re a Bible church. We don’t worship the Bible. We worship Jesus, but we meet Jesus through the Bible. This is the means by which God reveals himself so that we could get the grace that is in Jesus. And so the relationship with God includes the Word of God.

I just implore you, I beg you, I’m asking you, I’m pleading with you. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. And don’t hear me say you have to read your Bible. Hear me say you get to read your Bible. You get to hear from God. So many of you would love it if God spoke to you. He did, and if you pick it up, he will. And through the course of your day you won’t be thinking about your hardship or your suffering or your struggle or your strife. You’ll be thinking about Jesus. You’ll be remembering Jesus. You’ll be building your intimacy with him, and then he will you grace that will enable you to rise to meet whatever circumstance is before you.

And it may not even be that he fixes it, but he gives you the capacity to endure it, and on the other side, you say, “Well, what was that for? That was so hard.” And he says, “Would you like to teach So-and-So? They’re going through something very hard, and you could love them and be an encouragement and a help.” And you go, “God has redeemed all things. Nothing in my life is wasted. If I remember Jesus, it’s all significant and purposeful, even those parts that are most painful.”

So he says remember Jesus. “Therefore” – see, this is the summation – “be strong.” Get grace from Jesus. Endure hardship like a soldier. Discipline yourself like an athlete. Work hard like a farmer. Run hard till the end. Play by the rules of God so that you will receive your reward, your crown in the end. Spend your time in meditation so that the Scriptures seep into your soul. Learn from the examples of those who are successful and whom you admire. Don’t forget Jesus. Keep your Bible open.

Therefore – why? Why would you do all of this? So you could be successful? So you could be victorious? So you could be triumphant? So you could achieve your personal vision? So you could get a book deal? So you could make CNN so people would think you were wonderful? No. This is the most convicting part.

Paul says, “Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of whom …” He didn’t say for the sake of Paul. We live in possibly the most confused culture in the history of the world. We believe that there is no ethic higher than self-devotion, self-esteem, self-love, self-actualization, self-fulfillment, self-help. Not grace but self. What do you want? What do you need? What do you see? What do you aspire?

We live in a world that holds as its highest ethic the worship of the self and the ignoring of the neighbor. Bear no mistake, friends. This is a world that does not love you. The vast majority of people who pretend that they do are simply using you for something that they find most advantageous to them. Very rarely do you find someone who is pure-hearted, sincere and cares about you. When you meet such a person, they are completely disarming, and we distrust them because we assume that there is something wrong or that they’re faking it incredibly well.

When you look at what Paul endured. He tells us why. It’s not for Paul. Are there any elect in the room tonight? Any children of God? Any Christians? For whom did Paul “endure all things for the sake of the elect that we, too” – that’s you and me, friends – “may obtain he salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Paul is in prison getting ready to get his head chopped off.

They look at him, and they say why do you do this? He says, “You know what? There’s this guy in Ballard who, in a few thousand years, is sleeping with his girlfriend, and Jesus loves him and wants him to get his head on straight. And if I don’t get my head chopped off, we’re never gonna get to that guy, so off my head goes ’cause I really love that guy ’cause Jesus loves that guy. Jesus died for him. I’ll die for him, too.”

Paul is remembering Jesus. He’s remembering Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve. He didn’t come to take but to give his life as a ransom for many. He didn’t come so that he could show us his potential. He came to love us and to empower us to live transformed lives. Jesus Christ came with humility, not pride. Jesus came selflessly, giving himself for us, not taking from us. Paul is remembering Jesus, and he’s imitating his example.

Guys, I’ll tell you what. I believe that Seattle is filled with elect people, people that God loves, is pursuing. He’s already involved in their life. They don’t know him yet. I believe that Seattle is filled. I believe this room is filled with elect people. But I believe it will cost us something to get to those people. It will take time. It will take money. It will take prayer. It will take love. It will take energy. It will take.

You know, right now driving on the backside of the building on Leary is probably some guy or some gal that doesn’t know Jesus, but Jesus knows them. Jesus loves them very much. He cares about them very deeply. They may be among his elect. And it is a great honor to give, as Jesus has given to us, so that then they will receive the love and the truth of Jesus and that they, too, may obtain salvation through him.

So oftentimes people think, “Well, I don’t need to read my Bible anymore. I think I got enough for me, and I could get by.” No, you’re not reading for you. You’re reading for that guy. “Well, I don’t think I need to pray real whole-heartedly. I mean, my life’s together and I pulled it together.” No, you’re praying for that guy. “I don’t know if I need to serve. I mean, I feel like I’ve served and I’ve accomplished a few things and I feel pretty good about it.” No, you’re serving for that guy.

Jesus says if we lose our life we find it. It’s a selfless ethic. The parent that has children for themselves and not for the child destroys the child. The spouse who marries so that their needs will get met rather than an opportunity to serve and to pour themselves out for the love of the other destroys the marriage. The friend who comes into the relationship because they’re aspiring to take rather than to give destroys the friendship. The church that comes into the city with the aspiration to take rather than to give destroys the city.

The friend that remembers Jesus builds the relationship. The spouse that remembers Jesus builds the marriage. The parent that remembers Jesus builds the family, and the church that remembers Jesus builds the city. That’s the way it works. That’s the way it always works. But to understand that and to come with the question of what is best for you, not for me, what must I give so that you might be blessed, that will require us continually having our Bibles open and remembering Jesus so that we don’t just appreciate his example, but we follow it by the empowering grace that he affords us.

Now, at this point, it is truly encumbent upon you and I to determine what our lot will be. Paul then closes with three types of people that were in his day that are here in this room with me tonight. He says, “Here is a trustworthy saying.” Here is his conclusion. “If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him.” Those are faithful Christians, not perfect but faithful. Jesus died for their sin. They have put to death by grace their sin. They now live with him. They endure with him. They one day will die and reign over the new creation with him. They begin their reign by reigning over their life here, and their jurisdiction extends on the other side of their grave. And these are the faithful Christians. These are people who live with Jesus. One day they will see him face-to-face, and he will say to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Some of you need to be encouraged tonight. You’re in hardship. You’re in suffering. You’re in a difficult place. You’re not trying to work around it. You’re trying to plow through it, and you’re pressing into Jesus, and you’re using every ounce of grace that he has afforded to you. You’re working on your motivation of being disciplined and hardworking and courageous like a farmer and a soldier and an athlete. You got your Bible open. You’re remembering Jesus. You’re giving something of yourself so that someone else might be blessed, and you’re hoping that on the other side you’re a wise person who can become a teacher that comforts others. You are the faithful.

There are people in this room that love God more than me. There are people in this room who walk with him more faithfully than I. There are people in this room that are an encouragement to us all, and just like Paul pouring himself out, they have poured themselves out, and we all have been blessed by that, so thank you. Thank you.

Perhaps some of you are in the process of looking at your own life saying, “I don’t understand.” Well, we don’t either, but we’re sure grateful for who you are and how you persevere and what you endure and what you share. We’re blessed. We appreciate that.

Those of you who are faithful, be encouraged and continue to endure.

The second group is those who are non-Christians. “If we disown him, he will also disown us.” Some of you are not Christians. You’ve disowned Jesus. You do not belong to him. You don’t love him. You don’t worship him. You don’t follow him. You don’t obey him. You don’t play by his rules. You don’t lean into his grace. You don’t follow in is example. You don’t serve for his glory. Your life is for you and that is all. You have disowned your maker. God made you. He made the earth. He put you on the earth. He knew that you needed him after you sinned and so he came and he lived and he died and he rose, and he is giving you the opportunity tonight to hear about his affection and his love. And he’s called you to respond to him with trust so that he could love you and forgive you and give you his grace, make you a new creation, give you a new life. And at this point, all you can do is accept what he has done or disown him. You are in a precarious place, and you are in a very dangerous place. And I tell you that, not because I hate you but because I love you and I’m worried about you. I pray for those people in the room tonight all the time.

My four-year-old son probably prays the most for you in my family. He prays for you guys who come here and disown Jesus all the time. He has a particular burden for you. Those who disown Jesus their whole life, they live without him. They ignore him. They disobey him. Those people at the end of their life, just as surely as Jesus got out of his grave, will come out of their grave. They will come before God the Father.

And for you people it will come down to one simple issue. Do you love Jesus? It truly is no more complicated than that. If you love Jesus, you’ll hate sin. If you love Jesus, you’ll obey him. If you love Jesus, you will bear much fruit, fruit that will last. All things will happen if you love Jesus. And you will come before the Father, and the Father will say, “Do you love Jesus?” And you will say, “I do not love Jesus.” And Jesus will look at you and he will say, “Then depart from me. I do not know you.” And you will get exactly what you want. You won’t have to obey Jesus. You won’t have to be with Jesus. You won’t have to worship Jesus. You could just go to Hell and get exactly what you want. And you can be with all the other people who have disowned Jesus.

And that’s why I’m so worried for you. Do you have any idea what you are doing? Do you ever reflect on these things like Paul says? Do you ever think about this? The good news is you’re still alive. You’re still here. There’s still opportunity for you to be in Christ, receive grace, to become Christian. This is a great night for that. Really comes down to you and Jesus.

The third group is where I’m assuming the majority of us are. “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself.” Some of you have large parts of your life that are disconnected from your faith. You do not trust that God will provide you a spouse, and so you’re pursuing a relationship with someone who is unfit out of faithlessness. You do not believe that God will give you a job that will enable you to make some progress, and so you are slouching at the job he has given you faithlessly mistrusting that there is anything more for you.

Some of you do not have the children that you wanted or the spouse that you wanted or the life that you wanted or the health that you wanted or the appearance that you wanted or the income that you wanted, and so you are living a life apart from faith. And you believe that God has wronged you, so there are parts of your life that belong to you and not to God, and you’re free to sin in those areas of your life. And those areas of your life are areas in which you’re operating apart from faith, and you’re faithless, faithless, but you are Christian. You do belong to Jesus, and he has made a promise to love you. And so even though your are utterly faithless, he is completely faithful.

You may not love Jesus. He loves you. You may not pursue Jesus, but he pursues you. You may not care about Jesus, but he cares about you. You may not endure with Jesus, but he endures with you. He has been absolutely faithful to you. In Romans we are told that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. What that means is this. God is nice until we’re different.

This section opens with grace. This section closes with faithfulness. Those are the bookends of your life, God’s grace and his faithfulness. Tonight is a wonderful opportunity for you who are the faithless to become the faithful, to be as disciplined as an athlete, to be as hardworking as a farmer, to be as courageous as a soldier. What do you need? Grace? Forgiving grace. Empowering grace. Where you gonna get that? Jesus. So now I’m gonna leave you with Jesus. You’re gonna spend time in prayer. The faithful need to thank him for his grace. The faithless need to ask him for his grace. The unregenerate, the non-Christian, those who have disowned him need to ask him for saving grace, apologize to him for sin and begin the relationship tonight.

When you’re ready, we’ll give of our tithes and offerings. If you’re not a Christian, don’t give. We don’t want your money. We’ll pick up the tab. We love you. We’ll partake of communion, which is remembering Jesus’ body and blood shed for sin. If you are a Christian or you become a Christian tonight, feel free to partake of communion. If you are not a Christian, do not partake.

And then we’re gonna sing and we’re gonna celebrate because tonight we remember Jesus. Tonight because of his grace we endure. Tonight because of his grace we have the opportunity to rule and reign with him, to hear at the end “Well done, good and faithful servant. Here’s your crown.” Let me pray for you.

Lord Jesus, we do love you. God, for those of us who are faithful, please continue to empower us with grace.

God, I thank you for some of the incredibly faithful people in this room that I personally know and am blessed by. I thank you that they have given of themselves so that we might be blessed. They’re selfless people who do not look at circumstances as an opportunity to justify sin or to rebel but an opportunity in which to be conformed to your image and to serve others and to become wise teachers. Thank you for faithful people, God. There are faithful people, and your grace has made them faithful.

God, for those who have disowned you, I pray tonight that they would reflect on what they’re doing and not doing, that they would come to you, Lord God, because you love them and you care for them, because you seek to give to them, not to take from them, because you seek to be the first honest, earnest, heartfelt, passion-filled, selfless relationship that they have ever had.

And, Lord Jesus, for those of us who are faithless, we are Christians, but we are weak and we are timid and we are undisciplined and we don’t remember you and the book is closed and life does not look as if it were put together by grace, I pray you’d give us empowering grace to begin afresh and to begin anew, to begin life and to begin anew. We love you, Lord Jesus. We come to you. Amen.