2 Timothy 2:8-13

I’m grateful to be with y’all this evening. I know there’s a lot of things going on and there’s a lot of places that we could have been tonight, but to be together, to come together in worship and singing, to study God’s Word together, and just to be in this fellowship, what an honor and blessing. I know that for us, it’s just another Saturday where it’s convenient, or it could be convenient for us to just come and to be in this place to sing and to worship our God, but for a lot of the church, a lot of our brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s something that they have to fully prepare for, and so I don’t want to take this opportunity and this time for granted. I don’t know if y’all have been on social media, but there’s this clip of a pastor down in Houston that’s been going around, and it’s an Indian pastor, and he said, don’t squander the time that you have. If you only have 10 minutes, you spend 10 minutes talking about Christ and Christ alone. And so that’s really what I want us to do tonight in the next 30 to 40, whatever time that we have here as we’re going through this portion.

So we’ve been in this series, Legacy of Faith. It’s in the book of 2 Timothy, as we’ve been studying the last several weeks now, we’ve been going through the first couple of chapters, and so where we’ve kind of been so far is Paul is writing this letter in prison. He’s writing to his protege, Timothy, and the main purpose of this letter that Paul is writing, not only to Timothy, but to other pastors, elders, teachers, heralds of the gospel, is to encourage them to continue to endure hardship for the sake of that gospel, right? Paul’s encouragement is all of us should continue to press into suffering, to persecution, knowing that it’s going to be difficult when we are following Christ faithfully, and so he’s really encouraging the audience of this letter just to continue. Last week, we heard from Danny on the first part of chapter 2 of what it means to have hope if we endure, that we are a soldier that should not be entangled in civilian affairs, that we should run the race seeking the prize at the end, that we are a farmer who will have the opportunity to gather the first fruits of what’s sown. And so that is just an encouragement for all of us that compared to what eternity offers, all of the suffering, pain, hardship, challenges of today are small things, are momentary afflictions for us.

And so we’re going to spend the next portion in the second part of 2 Timothy 2, and the focus is the current motivation, what’s going to keep us going while we’re here. If we have hope that there is a reward at the end, and we have that to look forward to, what is our encouragement for today? What is our motivation for today? How can we continue not only for what’s coming, but to have strength for today? And so this passage is a little personal for me, especially, I think this series has been kind of personal for me as well. I know we’re going through, like, Legacy of the Faith, and it’s kind of timely that all of our deacon terms are also coming to an end. So the last few weeks, I’ve been questioning a lot of, like, what is my legacy of, like, what am I leaving behind? Have I done anything of good value? Not just, like, being able to show up and help run a good service, but, like, is there any spiritual significance in the things that’s going?

And so I say this passage specifically is personal because a few years ago when I first started this term, there was a couple things that had popped up on my, like, social media feed or on YouTube that I had listened to that was, like, the encouragement to continue. So the first one is, I don’t know if we assign homework here in Encounter, but I’m going to assign us homework today. The first song is this song called Bury the Workmen. It’s an old song. It was, like, released back in 2014, but this version is, like, something that released in the last, like, six months. It’s a song that focuses on martyrdom, which is, like, something we don’t sing about in congregational worship for some reason. But this is, like, something that, you know, three years ago just popped up that’s,like, stayed in my heart for a long time, and then, like, a few weeks ago on Instagram, it, like, popped up again.

So I encourage you all to listen to this, and then the second one is this message by Shilin. There was a Together for the Gospel conference, the last one that they’ve ever done back in 2022, and he actually speaks on 2 Timothy 2:8, and he spends 35 minutes going in-depth on just one verse, and it’s so powerful. I’m going to try really hard tonight not to plagiarize his words because I’ve listened to this message, like, 100 times at this point, but it’s so powerful. I encourage you all to listen to it, but it’s just verse 8 that he’s going through. So let’s read together 2 Timothy 2:8-13. So this passage, as it’s staying on the screen, as we have read together, there’s a few things that we can pull from this portion of Scripture specifically to focus on today.

The very first thing that Paul is commanding to Timothy is this, to remember Jesus Christ, right? It can seem like—and this is where I’m going to start plagiarizing, and I don’t mean to, but this is something where it’s just, like, why does Paul have to remind Timothy, his protege, who has been a pastor at Ephesus, who has been raised in the gospel, who knows who Jesus is, right? He was raised in the truth. He should know everything about Jesus at this point. Why does Paul remind Timothy to remember Jesus Christ? And it’s just a very simple truth. It’s because Timothy, like all of us, in the midst of persecution and suffering and hardship, tend to forget about Jesus, right? God’s people, in all of history, God’s people have always been the biggest amnesiacs for no reason. As soon as they see God’s faithfulness, His power in His hand at work, they immediately turn away to idolatry.

They immediately turn away to their own sin. They think they can do it better than God. And so, God’s reminder for the people in both the Old and the New Testament has always been to remember. God commands us, all of us, to remember, not just with our minds, but to create physical spaces and physical things that force us to remember and stumble over in days to come, right? So that even if we forget, you know, in the moment of God, when we turn away, we see other things that remind us of Him. We see this in Joshua 4:2, 6-7, where it says, God commands Joshua, take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priest’s feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight, that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask in time to come, what do those stones mean?

Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. We see this again in Numbers chapter 15. The Lord says to the people, speak unto Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all of my commandments and be holy to your God. Not only do they do physical things, but God commands them in their festivals and holidays and celebrations that they should do things that cause them to remember Him as well.

Deuteronomy 16, when He’s giving the commandments for the feast of unleavened bread, He says this, you shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. For you came out to the land of Egypt in haste, that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. And so this has been the Old Testament call, right? The Israelites, and as a New Testament believer, like I don’t know for me personally, like looking back, it’s like, oh hey, like these people in the wilderness, they had the pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud, they saw all these miracles happen. They have to be so dumb to immediately forget the faithfulness of God, right? It’s so like obvious and powerful and evident among them, right? And yet for us as well, we do the same exact things.

We may not have the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud before us, but we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, right? And we have welcomed Jesus into our hearts and He is indwelling in us, and yet we still stumble away and we still turn away from Him. We still fall short of the calling that He has. So in our times of suffering, we should also remember Jesus Christ. And this is not just a, oh, like I just happened to think about Him and so I’m going to focus on Him. This is a command of like, you put the thoughts of Jesus at the very front of your mind, that when you think, all you see is Him first and then the other things that are happening. And so we should remember Jesus’ example. John 14:12-15 says, When He had washed their feet, He put on His outer garments and resumed His place. He said to them, Do you understand what I have done to you?

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done. We should remember Christ’s example and how He lives His life. We should remember Christ’s posture of humility. Philippians 2, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Being found in human form, He humbled Himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We should remember Christ’s endurance. He is not just calling His servants to suffer, but that He also suffered.

1 Peter 2 says, For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows by suffering unjustly. For what credit is it, if you sin, when you are beaten for it, you endure? But if, when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you may follow in His steps. Paul’s command in this verse, Paul’s call for Timothy, call for us as a New Testament believer, is this first thing, this old commandment, remember, remember God, remember Jesus Christ. If that’s the first thought of your day, and the last thought of your day, everything else will fall into place. We don’t have to worry, have anxiety, stress about the things of life, because we know that God has already secured those things for us.

Remember Jesus Christ in those moments. The first characteristic that Paul asks, as he is telling Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, is this characteristic, that Jesus has risen from the dead. Right, Jesus has risen from the dead. Why should we remember that Jesus was risen? In the resurrection, we see the display of God’s power and God’s promise of a future hope. In the resurrection, every other promise has been fulfilled. If God is able to raise Christ from the dead, surely He’s able to do every other thing that He has promised unto His people to fulfill as well. Resurrection was the hard thing. All the other things are just extras that are bonuses given to His people that are there. The second half of today’s portion is going to talk about that. We’re going to stay in that portion for a while, but we also see this in 1 Corinthians 15.

If Christ had not been risen from the dead, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. In Christ we have hope in this life only. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. Paul is saying, if we only have Christ’s hope for while we’re here on earth, then we have no hope for the future. We are people that are pitied because we’re sacrificing too much for too little. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end where He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. So Paul’s first characteristic to remember, remember that Christ has risen from the dead. Remember that He has already defeated death for Himself. And He has promised that all who believe in Him, that He will defeat death on their behalf as well. The last enemy that’s promised to be destroyed is death. And we see that in Revelation as death is thrown into the pit, that He comes out holding the keys in His victory. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

Remember Jesus Christ descended from David. This is the second characteristic that Paul is asking Timothy and all of us to remember and recount. That Jesus’ lineage comes from David. So not only do we read that portion and should be reminded of David, but we should read this portion and we should be reminded that God is a God of covenants. David represents not only him as an individual, but the promise that God made to David of all the people of Israel, that concerns all of creation. 2 Samuel 17 says this, I’m sorry, 2 Samuel 7 says this, when your days are fulfilled, this is God speaking to David, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you. He shall come from your body and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

I will establish the throne of this kingdom forever. This is not just a normal person that God is promising to David. This is someone who’s going to live forever. That the final enemy that’s defeated is death. That promise is also given to David here. And so when we read that covenant to David, we remember David’s lineage. 2 Samuel 17, David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah. And we should connect that to this prophecy that Micah has near the end of his book. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, that you are small enough among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. And how timely it is, like last Sunday, we just wrapped up the Jacob series and we read about Judah, that we saw this promise coming into fulfillment, right?

Genesis 49, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples, right? Remember Jesus Christ descended from David. This is not a promise just about David. This is a promise that was given all the way back in Genesis 49, at the very beginning of the story, right? This is the promise that was given that the king of all the nations, the king of the universe would come through Judah, right? And we remember that this promise, that this blessing that Jacob is giving is still a covenant promise that was given to Abraham before him, right? That all the nations of the world shall be blessed through you, Abraham, right? And if we want to even tie it further back, that this promise to Abraham was a promise to Adam, right?

That there will be enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman, and yet one day the serpent will strike the heel and the seed will crush his head, right? Remember Jesus Christ descended from David because this promise that’s there is the first promise that God gave to His people, right? One day I will give you victory. One day the head of the serpent that separated you from me, that separated you from paradise, will be crushed, right? Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, descended from David. For all of us who are here, who are true believers, we are reminded in just this one phrase, that God’s promises, God’s Word will always come to pass. It will not return empty or void. That He’s going to work all things in His timing and His ways, right? What a powerful truth and evidence for us to hold on to.

It’s not just, hey, in the previous portion in 2 Timothy, hey, there’s hope for you in the future, trust me, bro, right? That’s not God’s Word to us. God’s Word for us is there’s a hope in the future for resurrection and you can trust me because I have already started the work in the life of Jesus. So Paul continues that he is bound like a prisoner, like a criminal, yet he is preaching a gospel that cannot be bound. There’s a, in this portion, in these few words, there’s a huge irony of like, when Paul was like early acts, when he was responsible for murdering other people, that he wasn’t called a criminal then, right? But now that he starts to preach a word and gospel of peace and reconciliation, that’s when he started to become a criminal, right? And that the world’s favor turns against him.

It wasn’t that, you know, he’s responsible for the death of dozens and hundreds of people. It’s the fact that he proclaimed the death of one man that makes him evil now, right? That makes him unworthy in the sight of the world, right? That the teaching of Christ stands in stark contrast to all that the world says is good and true. But the word of the gospel is unbound, right? It cannot be held down by chains. I mentioned at the beginning of that song, Bury the Workman. If you listen to it, the words are just telling the story of one workman to another, right? One death of a martyr to another. And the chorus goes, I’m not going to sing it because I’m not going to, that’s not for tonight. But the chorus of that song goes, you can bury the workman, but the work will continue.

You can end the voice, but the song will continue, right? That’s the gospel unbound, right? Every single one of them that lives for the truth and for the gospel meets a horrifying end in one way or another. In the early church, definitely for the early church. And yet their story is not of failure, right? Their story is really of victory, right? That they found themselves, they went away joyful at their affliction because they found themselves worthy of bearing the same suffering that their master bore, right? And so this is from a commentary. The Bible has been attacked more than any other book throughout history. It has been burned, banned, mocked, twisted, and ignored. But the Word of God still stands forever. The Bible has been attacked more than any other book in history. It has been burned, banned, mocked, twisted, and ignored.

But the Word of God still stands forever. It is this promise in Isaiah, how many thousands of years ago, this promise in Isaiah, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever, right? The fact that we can’t quote other kings in the same time period as Isaiah, but we’re able to quote the Scripture, right? Because of preservation that the Holy Spirit has for His own words, right? That the words of God will be kept for the people of God, right? There will be a day, hopefully a long time from now, but there will be a day where restoration in church will not exist. But the Word of God that is proclaimed from this pulpit, if done faithfully, should endure, right? That when we get to heaven, generations will come after and that will meet because of your faithfulness, right?

Because of your ability to yield to the Spirit and to trust in Him, to live sacrificially, to live in a way that the world says is foolish, right? The Word of God has not changed. This is another commentator. No government, no religious authorities, no skeptics, no scientists, no philosophers, or no book burners have ever been able to stop the work of the Lord. Yet if there’s any sense in which the word has been bound, it is bound when supposed friends abandon it. When pulpits sound more like self-help books than places where it proclaims God’s Word. When Scripture is used sparingly like a spice in a message instead of being the core of one. When pastors put themselves a chain around the Bible, right? That’s when the gospel, that’s when the Word of God is bound, right?

When those of us who are supposed to faithfully proclaim it use it as seasoning for, and I hope I don’t make this sound like it’s something current because it’s always been happening, but people who use the Word of God as seasoning for their own selfish political agenda and ideology, right? When the church pushes a candidate more than it pushes Christ, right? When the church is more concerned about the local service project and not concerned about the soul and salvation of the wholeness that they’re serving, right? We preach Christ and Him crucified first. And if we truly believe that to be true, the rest of our life is going to reflect that naturally, right? The reason why we stand against abortion, and this is not planned so I’m kind of terrified to say all this stuff on recorded camera too, but I’ll be bold.

The reason we stand against abortion in a world that says that choice matters is not that we’re mitigating an individual’s choice, but that we believe that the child in the womb bears the image of God. That’s the doctrinal truth. That’s the theological foundation, right? And because that child bears the image of God, it is murder to end their life. It’s not a clump of cells. It’s not a fetus. The reason why we care for the homeless, and the widow, and the orphan, and the poor is not so that our streets stay cleaner, right? And to make ourselves feel good. It’s because they bear the image of God, right? We think we’re better than them because we have nicer clothes and a place to live, that we smell nicer, that we can present ourselves in such a way. And then when we stand before the throne of God, what is our good works to Him?

Filthy rags, right? As if we can do anything, as if any of our effort or work was good enough to stand before Him and think, I deserve to be here. And then we look at another human being and think that they don’t deserve to be there. Man, that is binding the gospel. That is a false gospel. That is not what, hopefully, this pulpit ever will proclaim, right? Hopefully, we always, if we are trusting in the Spirit, and we’re yielding to Him, and whether everyone abandons us or these pews and chairs in the future are filled every single seat, it doesn’t matter, right? If we trust that God is going to do what He wants to do in His way in His time, and we’re going to proclaim His words, whether we get the applause or not, whether we get the acclaim or not, whether our lives are comfortable or our lives are full of suffering, right?

Paul may be bound in these moments, but the gospel is not unbound. And then he ends this portion with what is very likely a hymn. So he says this saying is trustworthy, and a lot of scholars at the time are saying, as he’s saying this, he’s like, the next portion, the next few verses are just like a verse of a hymn that they would have known, that they would have sung, right? So he says this saying is trustworthy, this saying is true, right? If we die with Him, we also live with Him. If we die with Him, we also live with Him. For us in this room who believe in Jesus, we have already taken the first step of that. If we die with Him and we proclaim that truth in water baptism, we will also live with Him for all of eternity.

But that promise is true for us in maybe a hard moment to come. If God calls us to die for His name’s sake, if we die with Him, we will also live with Him. You may bury the workman, but the work will continue. You may end the voice, but the song will continue. If you die with Him, you will surely live with Him. If you endure, you will reign with Him. For those who continue to press on in hardship, in affliction, in trial, there is a, and we read this in last week’s portion, there is a crown promised to you, a crown of righteousness for you to reign, to be co-heirs and co-rulers with Christ. It is a trustworthy saying, if we deny Him, He will also deny us.

How many of us will live a life that is our Sunday proclamation of faith and then our Monday retreat into work and school? How many of us will be afraid to claim God as King? How many of us will be able to think of the next faithful step in a moment? When our friends and our coworkers bring up a hard situation, when they ask for advice, when they ask what we would do, would we give the easy advice that would stop the conflict or prevent us from being in an uncomfortable conversation, or will we proclaim truth? How many Christians will stand before God at the throne and say, Lord, Lord, I did all these things in your name. Lord, I went to political rallies to proclaim your gospel. Lord, Lord, I did these things to raise awareness for the poor and the broken.

I did all these things that are Christian-ish. Isn’t that good enough? I didn’t say your name. I didn’t declare you as King. But is my work not good enough? And the Scripture says in those moments, people who have cast out demons and have healed people, Christ will say to them, I never knew you. And I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve never cast out demons or healed people. Man, if we deny Him also in our words, if we deny Him in His authority over our lives, He will also deny us. And if there’s any good thing in this moment, it’s this last promise. If we’re faithless, He remains faithful. For all of us who are, like me, timid, cowardly in the face of the world, who has boldness standing on this stage preaching, but is way too shy when I go to work on Monday morning to be as bold about the gospel.

And for me, definitely praying and hoping, trusting in God to give that boldness. But in these moments of faithlessness, in these moments of cowardice, in these moments of weakness, even though I am faithless, He remains faithful. As if my work doesn’t matter, but His work on the cross is the only thing that matters. He cannot deny Himself. This saying is trustworthy. To quote C.S. Lewis in his book, A Problem with Pain, a man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell. This saying is true. Though we are faithless and cowardly and weak, He is faithful and He will not deny Himself.

A few weeks ago, we went to this speaking conference with John Piper and Shane and Shane. And at the very end, John Piper had this Q&A moment, and he asked us, he asked the crowd, what guarantee do you have that you’re going to wake up tomorrow morning as a Christian? What guarantee do I have that I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning as a Christian? And if my answer, as it was that night, was, oh, I’ve been waking up as a Christian all these other days, what’s one more warning, right? We minimize the power of God. We trust that the next day that we will wake up as a Christian, not because of our record of faithfulness or our record of obedience, but because God will hold us, right? God will keep us. God will help us endure, right? By the power of His Holy Spirit in us.

It is God, His Holy Spirit in us, that keeps us Christian when we wake up tomorrow morning. And at this conference, he quoted this Scripture from Jude. Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time now and forever, right? To Him who is able to keep you, to Him who is able to hold you, who is able to sustain you, to Him be glory, power, authority, majesty before all time now and forever. This is the command, right? This is what Paul is imploring all of us in these words, that the Holy Spirit preserve this letter for these words specifically as well. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended of David, right?

It is a trustworthy saying that all these things will come to pass. As I’m ending, let’s all stand in the presence of God, and we’re gonna go back into singing. This series, we have been going through the legacy of faith. We have been going through the words of Paul in this letter to Timothy. And this second part that’s coming up is really just a focus of commands that he’s gonna give to us, to Timothy, to the other heralds, now that the identity of those in Christ are secured, right? Now that he’s laid this foundation of why we should endure, why we should have hope, why we should trust God’s Word and in His resurrection, right? Now he’s gonna start giving us all the commands in these next portions of the Scripture. But before we get to these commands, this is the legacy of faith that church tradition tells us from this letter and from these men that we’re hearing about.

So we’re going to be in another book of Scripture. There’s another man who is introduced named Onesimus, right? Onesimus was a runaway slave who meets Paul, who walks with Paul, who hears the words of the gospel and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and is saved. And because he believes, Paul encourages Onesimus to return to his master that he ran away from, right? And he gives Onesimus a letter to take home with him to his master Philemon, right? And that’s the letter that we have in the Bible. Church history tells us that Onesimus becomes the elder of the church of Ephesus when Timothy passes. Now Timothy, who this letter is being written to, he’s a half Greek, half Jewish man. He’s a protege of Paul. Timothy is martyred the same way that every other disciple gets martyred, right? In the early church.

Paul has encouraged Timothy over and over again to speak the gospel boldly and to stand against idolatry. And so Timothy did that. In a pagan festival day, church history tells us that Timothy stands in the streets and he proclaims the gospel and he calls these pagans to repentance, to turn away from idol worship that day. And during the festival, these pagans take clubs and bars and beat him to death. Timothy, who is a protege of Paul, Paul the Pharisee, whose history went around killing believers, yet one day encounters the Lord Jesus on the road to Dismascus. And in that encounter, he is blinded. He loses his eyesight. He has to go to another man for prayer. And as the man prays for him, for his sight to be restored, he is also, in that moment, professing his faith to Jesus.

Paul, who was the ultimate opponent against the gospel, now becomes the greatest advocate for it in that moment. And if we remember Paul’s introduction in Scripture, it’s this portion. As we’re hearing now, Paul’s about to die. He is going to be beheaded. He is another martyr, right? Because our first encounter with him is all the way back in Acts 6, right? When Stephen, a deacon and a faithful man, stands against the Jewish elite at the time, and in that moment, he says, you are the ones responsible for the death of Christ Jesus, the Messiah that you had been waiting for. And the Jewish elite, the Sanhedrin, take him outside the city and stone him to death. And it says that Paul was holding the coats of those who had went, and he approved of what they had done. That’s the legacy.

That’s the legacy of faith that we have. That’s the legacy of faith that’s in this letter. That’s the legacy of faith that’s in the church of Ephesus. If there’s anything that’s true in these men’s lives, it’s the call that they were workmen that were buried, yet the work continues. And that’s the call for us today, right? They’re not gonna remember me. They’re not gonna remember you in a hundred years. But how many generations will turn to Christ and believe because of our faithfulness, right? That’s the call. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you, we praise you. Lord, we pray in this moment as we sing and remember of your sacrifice on the cross, as we sing and remember of the work that you’ve already done, and that we remind our hearts and our souls that it’s not us, it’s not our work or effort, it’s not our goodness or our desire to serve you faithfully.

It’s only because of you. It’s only because of your Holy Spirit in us, Oh God. Will you remind our hearts and our souls of Jesus Christ. Will you remind us of the goodness, the goodness that is in your Word, that all your promises are true and faithful, Oh God. That there is hope for tomorrow in the resurrection, but there’s also a strength for today that we can trust in your Word because you’ve already done the hard work, my God. We thank you and we praise you. We pray this all in the name of your Son. Amen.