2 Timothy 4:1-8

Praise God, good evening to you all. I’m very grateful once again to God for this time that we have together. I hope everyone’s had a nice start to the new year. I hope that you know, we’ve all had a wonderful holiday season. What a wonderful way for us to come back together again for an encounter.

We’re in the last two weeks of the series that we’re in, in Second Timothy, Legacy of the Faith. And as we begin this year and consider, you know, the year ahead, it’s common for us to look ahead with, you know, what we want to grow in, what changes we want to see happen in our lives, what we want to reach in this life. And I hope that this passage that we go through tonight points us back to some important reminders of a way that we should approach our lives. I hope that these verses that we are studying through remind us of simple principles in God’s Word.

Tonight we’ll be in Second Timothy 4:1-8, and in these eight verses Paul is coming essentially to the closing remarks of his letter to Timothy. And we’ll see a few things here. We’ll see Paul strongly exhort Timothy. We’ll see him warn Timothy, and we’ll see him reflect on his own life as well as he nears the end.

Some of you in your homes, when you watch TV, you may see it on legal TV shows, or maybe you’ve watched a high-profile criminal trial, but essentially when a case comes to a close, whenever the prosecution is done presenting their case, when the defense is done presenting the case, when they’re done making their arguments, the jury is given the case to make the decision. They are given the case to deliberate. And right before they’re given the case to deliberate, typically the judge reads and gives to them what is essentially a jury charge. What’s called a jury charge.

The jury charge, the point of it, is to strongly guide them in how they’re supposed to have their discussion. It gives the law of what they’re supposed to consider. It gives them rules about the evidence and tells them what they cannot do. And Paul, similarly here, as he’s coming to the end, is giving Timothy a very strong charge. He’s giving him a very strong exhortation.

And we see that in verse 1 as you start. Verse 1, I solemnly exhort you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. He solemnly exhorts him. Or as other translations say, he is solemnly charging Timothy. And he’s given Timothy the same charge in the past and other letters and in different portions of his writing. And what he’s essentially doing is he’s emphasizing his point. He’s making it clear. What I’m about to tell you is extremely important.

And this solemn charge isn’t something that’s exclusive to how Paul communicates. Peter does this as well in how he speaks. When he speaks in Acts 10 to the Gentiles who were gathered in Cornelius’ house, when referencing Jesus, he says, and he ordered us to preach to the people and to testify solemnly that this is the one who has been appointed by God as a judge of the living and the dead.

So Paul is essentially, he’s essentially continuing in this charge. He’s essentially echoing what’s been said in the past to take seriously what I am saying to you, to take seriously what I’m about to charge you to do. And he not only says it to take it seriously, he says, remember that this is in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.

And think about this. Paul is writing this in a prison in Rome. He is in Rome near where the Roman Empire is based out of, and Timothy is away in Emphasis. But he’s saying, even though I’m here in Rome, and you’re all the way in Ephesus, consider the presence of God. Consider the fact that our God is an omnipresent God, as we read earlier. He’s a God that sees all things. He knows all things. There is no place he can go that he cannot see you. There is no place that you can hide that he cannot see you. God is everywhere. He’s omnipresent. So consider the presence of God as I am giving you this charge.

And not only is he omnipresent, but he is the one who’s going to judge the living and the dead. He’s gonna judge me. He is gonna judge you. He’s gonna judge everyone that is living. He’s gonna judge everyone that is dead. And even if you consider the imagery earlier of the jury charge, it’s almost like the judge is going back there with the charge and seeing if they’re following it. And so this charge is being given, this instruction is being given, and he doesn’t only stop there, he continues on. He says, and by his appearing, meaning that Jesus, the Son of God, who came once and is gonna come again, and he adds on, and by his kingdom.

So he illustrates all of these things to add some weight and authority to what he’s saying, to add some significance. Consider the fact that I’m saying this seriously. Consider the fact that God is always present. Consider the fact that God is gonna judge you and me, and he is gonna come, and he is gonna have a kingdom. His kingdom meaning that he has authority. He’s gonna have rule over all things. And so when you consider, when you listen to this charge, when you listen to what I’m about to tell you, consider everything about God and who he is, and what he’s gonna do, and what’s gonna happen in the future.

If you read the news today, you know that in Venezuela, the president there has been captured, and the country is going through a transition right now. And so if you were someone in Venezuela, if you’re a business leader, you’re thinking, huh, how can I make sure I’m in the right position with the next leadership so that I’m in a good position to go? Because someone else is gonna be in authority soon. How can I make sure that I’m in good races with that person in authority? In a similar way, Timothy is being reminded, look, Jesus’s kingdom is going to come. Consider that. Forget the Roman Empire. Forget whoever’s ruling now. Jesus’s kingdom is eternal. Think about that.

And the reason why he says that in this charge is this, verse 2. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction. Preach the word. Preach the gospel. Preach Jesus. Preach the scriptures. Preach the word of God. It’s not about preaching philosophy. It’s not about preaching tips on how to live a better life. It’s about preaching the word of God.

We see that in the book of Acts when the church begins, at the start of the church, what makes them significant is that when they come together, they’re given to the apostles’ teaching. Regular teaching allows them to learn and to grow and to be fed what they need to grow in the direction they need to grow as believers. And so Timothy, as a pastor in the church in Ephesus, begins the instruction, preach the word. Stick to this. Be ready in season and out of season.

Charles Spurgeon has a quote on this and he says, In season and out of season because the gospel is a fruit that is in season all year round. It’s not like the fruit trees that we may see here where it’s around starting the spring, maybe through the summer and harvest, and then as you look at it now, it’s empty and gone. The gospel is a fruit that needs to be given all at all times. Be ready at all times. There’s no time to take a break. Even if you’re sitting on the bench, you should be ready in season and out of season.

Correct, rebuke, and exhort. Jewel spoke on this a few weeks ago out of chapter 3, but consider these three things again. Correct and reprove means to scrutinize or to examine carefully, to expose, to bring to light. So, for example, when you take your car into an oil shop or to get an oil change to the dealership, they will do what’s called a multi-point inspection. And so the reason they do this is on the surface to see how your car is doing. They’ll run tests. They’ll check the fluids. They’ll see what’s happening in the car. And I mean the reason they do it is they want to charge you more money. So they don’t want to find more reasons to give you a list of charges. But what they’re doing is they’re examining what’s under the hood. They’re bringing a light to what you can’t see.

Correction through the Word is to examine our hearts and our lives. The Word is meant there to examine if our hearts and our lives, the way that we’re living, whether our conduct is being reflected in the Word. And rebuking, that happens from preaching the Word of God to help us. It warns us ultimately to protect us. No one likes to be rebuked. No one likes to be corrected. It makes you feel shameful. It makes you feel awkward. It makes you feel, you know, why is someone telling me what to do? But the rebuke from the Word of God is important. And it’s important to have teachers who will preach the Word that will correct us and rebuke us now better than living a life that does not line up with the Word of God.

And it continues exhorting, which is to urge strongly, to appeal the relevance of God’s Word. So we need the Word preached to us so that through the correction, rebuke, and exhortation of the Word, sin is exposed and brought to light, and we are therefore warned in an urge to return back to the ways of the Lord. We need to be urged to return back to the ways of the Lord.

And the end of chapter 3 reminds us of that, verse 16 to 17. All scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. So you may be fully capable and equipped for every good work.

We think about that amongst ourselves here. I don’t think anyone here would say that they’re not a man of God or a woman of God. But in order to be capable for every good work, for the way the Lord has called each one of us, we have to be given to strong preaching of the Word fully. We have to be given to being corrected. We have to be open to being rebuked. We have to be exhorted so that we may be capable and enabled to fully serve God to the best of what God is calling us to do.

And Paul is charging Timothy with these strong things, to do these things, to correct, to rebuke, to exhort, but also with great patience and instructions. Some translations say, with complete patience and instructions. Patience is hard. Patience means that you’re in a state of remaining calm while awaiting an outcome. You have to bear up under provocation. You have to continue in endurance.

In our lives, we’re not very patient. In the last 10 to 20 years, with the way technology has advanced, there’s been a lot of great tools with technology. There’s been a lot of advancement that’s helped people, that’s given them a lot of resources and a lot of things. But one of the negatives of technology is that we’ve grown rather impatient.

I don’t know about you, but when I get on my phone, if I’m loading a webpage, if it takes more than five seconds, I’m growing very impatient. I turn the Wi-Fi on and off. I’m toggling the airplane mode. I’m figuring out, why hasn’t ESPN loaded? Why can’t I see what’s happening, right? The way that technology has changed our minds is that we want to see something happen right now. But Paul is exhorting Timothy, when you are correcting and rebuking and exhorting, have complete patience.

Don’t stop the instruction. Calmly wait, continue in the call, be faithful to it, because the results won’t be evident right away. It’s like planting a seed in the ground for a plant, and you’re planting it and you don’t see the stem come up. It’s going to take some time. And even when the stem comes up, it may take some time for those leaves to form. But even when those leaves form, maybe you need to chop one off, you need to help it stand up. It’s going to take some time to see that fruit be bore of that tree. So have complete patience.

And even when you’re having that patience, continue in the instruction. Continue teaching the body. Continue in being ready at all times in teaching the Word of God. And the reason why Paul is giving this strong exhortation is because of the warning that comes in verse 3.

He gives a warning earlier in chapter 3 of how the people in the church, their character will change over time. They’ll be lovers of themselves, they’ll be lovers of money, they’ll be boastful, they’ll be hateful. And he’s saying that not only will the character change, but their response to the Word of God will also change. He’s saying, look, the time is coming. It’s going to happen. Your people in your church, they will not tolerate sound doctrine. They will not endure. It’s not something that they will be willing to listen to. It’s not something that they will be willing to accept.

But instead, they will want to satisfy their own desires. They will want to satisfy their own cravings. Why is he using imagery here of tickling their ears? I did a lot of research on this and there’s different takes on it. I think the best way to understand it is thinking about a child being tickled. When you tickle a child, what happens to the child? They smile. They laugh. They’re happy. You’re happy that they’re happy. They’re entertained. Essentially, in a similar way, people want to be entertained.

They want to hear something that makes them feel happy. They want to hear something that makes them feel so confident about themselves. They want to go to preachers that tell them, hey, you can live your best life now. You’re the best person. You’re March. You’re special. This season is your season. Don’t worry. It’s coming right now. It’s right around the corner. It’s right around the corner. I was looking at titles to add to it, but I felt convicted. But there was one title that stuck out to me. It said, maybe it’s plan C. Not plan A or plan B, but maybe it’s plan C.

There’s always something there to entertain, to make you feel special, to make you feel motivated. And Paul is warning Timothy, this is what people are going to be given to. Preaching that leaves you inspired and not convicted. Preaching that seeks to make you feel like you’re going to have a successful life in the world’s eyes and not one that is ultimately centered and solely centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what was going to happen in the church.

And we can say that. It has happened. Paul’s warning came true. We look in church history all throughout it. As the people’s desires change, as government desires change, the church and preachers in the church tragically has changed their message. They’ve changed it to satisfy the desires of the people who are listening to them, the people that will give them authority or power.

In the Vatican, there’s various statues of different popes that have come and gone. And there was one statue of this pope who was a pope for three months. And the reason he became a pope for three months is because the ruling families in Europe at that point were unhappy with whoever was in church leadership. And in order to satisfy that family, that big old family, they made this guy the pope. And obviously, he shouldn’t have been. All that system is corrupt anyways. But it illustrates how far the church had gone when it starts to satisfy people outside of the word of God, satisfying what people’s interests are rather than what the word of God caused them to do.

And it continues on. And so in order to satisfy this desire, they accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. They pile up teachers based on what their own wants, what they want to hear. What does this imply? The people look for teachers based on what they want to hear. They select their teachers of what satisfies them and they add them to their list. It’s like a Spotify list. They add up who they want to listen to, who makes them feel happy. But secondly, this implies that there are teachers whose only goal is to satisfy what people want to hear. Their only goal is to preach whatever people want to hear in their lives.

And nowadays, we see it’s really hard. It’s really hard and sad to see. How preachers will preach whatever it takes to make their views full. They’ll preach whatever it takes to get the most views, the most clicks, the most subscribers, the most followers. They will do anything to increase their following rather than staying faithful to the word of God.

Paul continues on in verse 4. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths. So these people in the church, they will not only accumulate teachers in accordance to what they desire. They ultimately turn away from the truth.

Paul warns of this similarly in Titus 1:13-14. This testimony is true. For this reason, reprimand them severely so that they may be sound in faith. Not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

So think about this. This warning is about people in the church. People who are supposed to be followers of God. People who claim to follow Jesus. These people, at some point in their lives, heard the call that was made in Acts. That God had raised up his servant for you first and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. So they’ve been given a call. Turn from your wicked ways and look to Jesus. And now they’re in the church and they say, I’m getting a little tired of looking at him. I want those myths again. I’m a little tired of looking at the gospel of Jesus. I want something to tickle my ears. I want something that makes me feel happy.

And when they go to that point, they ultimately turn away from the truth and turn to things that lead to speculations, that leads to wasteful talk, leads to the various things that Paul warns Timothy about earlier in chapters 2 and chapters 1. And because of this, because of what’s going to happen to the congregation, because of what Paul is warning Timothy about, he wants Timothy to be different. And he says this in verse 5.

But as for you, use self-restraint in all things. Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. First, self-restraint. Whereas other translations say, be sober. Paul is saying, be sensible. Use self-restraint so that you’re not so influenced to the point where your senses are impaired. Be free from mental and spiritual drunkness and confusion.

In fact, one of the ways that the self-restraint is used here is almost like an athlete that’s training and how they have to have self-restraint to be better trained to compete. If anyone here watches the NBA or if you don’t watch any basketball at all, everyone knows the name LeBron James. And LeBron James has been in the NBA for a very, very long time. He’s a very famous and accomplished basketball player. I don’t think he’s the greatest of all time, but he’s been around for a long time.

And he’s been playing since he was 18 years old, back in 2003. And as a few days ago, he turned 41, and he’s still playing. But what’s remarkable about him, and this goes to his ability as an athlete, is how much younger the players around him are now. Three of his own teammates were born after he started playing in the NBA. That means he lived his whole life, got drafted, started playing, and three of his teammates were born.

And one person decided to look all this up and found that there are 83 players in the NBA, almost one-fifth of the NBA, were all born after he started playing. And what this does is it shows the longevity of LeBron’s career, shows how his health has lasted this long. Several years ago, there was an article that spoke about how LeBron was training and doing all this to last a long time to play. How long is he playing right now?

And what they spoke about in the article is that he spends about $1.5 million every single year to maintain his body, to keep his body healthy and able to play as long as he’s been playing. And all that money goes to trainers, goes to chefs, it goes so that he has a specific diet of what he can eat, what he can’t eat, it goes to recovery tools, it goes to various therapies, and it goes to sleep optimization. He’s gone to extreme lengths, everything possible to keep his body in the best shape as possible to continue playing right now.

When I was looking this up, it said that he scored 31 points like day before yesterday at the age of 41. I can barely run up and down the court without getting really heavy breathing. I think the guys who want to play basketball this morning probably say the same thing as well. But it shows that as an athlete, his commitment, his goal, and his aim is, I want to make sure that my body is as capable to last as long as possible.

Think about the extremes that this man is going to play in a league that no one’s going to remember 300 years from now. And think about eternity and what God is calling us to, what God is calling Timothy to. He’s saying, use self-restraint, distinguish yourself, be different from everyone around you, and have self-restraint in your life.

I mean, self-restraint is something that’s easy for us to talk about. It’s the beginning of the year. I know plenty of people maybe have the goals to have a better diet, have a better exercise. Maybe someone’s making a goal to not eat any sugar. Maybe it’s a goal to not eat any junk food. And those are all good goals. And to be honest, you’re probably going to fail.

But spiritually, in our lives, do we care about our spiritual health in the same manner? Do we care about what is influencing our minds and our thoughts and our hearts? The things that we are listening to, the things that we are watching, the things that we’re participating in, because all of those things are things that cause us to not have self-restraint ultimately, but also to not be sensible, to not be sober because we’re so influenced by everything around us.

The warning here is don’t be so influenced that you are mentally and spiritually drunk. If you consider everything that we may listen or read through throughout the week, everything that ultimately is not of God is what? Of the devil. It’s of the enemy. And so those things are pulling us away from the Lord. Those things are taking our eyes off of Jesus.

Then our minds and our thoughts and our hearts are being what? Being influenced by things that are going to take our minds and hearts away from Jesus. And so we should be passionate and strive that spiritually that we are very healthy. And if that means being very different from the culture around us, that means being very different from the culture around us.

If that means at work or at school we can’t talk about the latest TV show that came on, that’s a sacrifice that requires it. That means that we don’t know what the latest songs are coming on, that’s a sacrifice that’s required. Do whatever is needed and is possible to make sure that your hearts and your minds are being self-restrained so that you are sensible to what the Lord is calling and teaching us to do.

He continues on. Endure hardship. Bearing hardship is not an easy task. The difficulties that Timothy is going to have of leading a church, proclaiming the gospel in a government that is pagan was no easy task. And Paul is speaking as one with a lot of experience with enduring hardship.

Look back at 2 Timothy 2:9. Speaking of the gospel, Jesus says, For which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal, but the word of God is not imprisoned. Paul’s ministry, what God had saved him and called him to, was preaching the gospel that would set people free. To the point where they would be set free from the chains of their brokenness and their sin and have a new life in Christ.

And the cost that Paul has to do is now physically he is in chains, he’s in prison, and he’s days away from losing his own life. That is enduring hardship. In our world today, we don’t have physical persecution as much here in the West. But when God calls us to a specific task, when God has equipped you and enabled you, enduring hardship is the minimum that we can do. Pressing on and looking and striving ahead is the minimum that we can do. And we’re called to do that because it gives God ultimate glory and enables us to depend more and more on him.

He continues on. Do the work of an evangelist. What does an evangelist do? They proclaim the gospel. That’s the task they have. That’s the work they have. We see this title given in the book of Acts to Philip. Philip the evangelist. And we see the work that he does. And he goes from place to place. He goes to Samaria. He proclaims the gospel. He sees the eunuch. He proclaims the gospel.

Then he’s taken near Caesarea. And what does he do? He proclaims the gospel. He is continually proclaiming the gospel. He’s doing the work that’s being called. And Timothy’s being reminded, do the work of an evangelist, proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Last part of verse 5. Fulfill your ministry. Complete the call the Lord has placed in your life. Complete the work that God has entrusted you to do. And as you listen to me tonight and as you think about these verses, you might wonder, what does some of these things have to do with me? I listen to the word. I come and listen to expository preaching. I listen to songs and sing songs that are Christ-exalting. I’m not turning aside to minutes and turning away from the truth.

But are you being faithful to what God has called you to? Think about it in yourself, in your heart. Are you being faithful to what God has called you to do? In Romans, Paul writes, however, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to use them properly. Each one, not some, not specific people, but each and every person has been given gifts by God’s grace, and you’re called to use them properly.

Everyone in this room, every single person in this room, has been given gifts by God. There is not a single person in this room. The question is, are you completing the call that God has placed in your life? Are you being faithful in the giftings that the Lord has given to you? Are you being faithful in what God has, what talents he’s given to you, what wisdom he’s given to you, what service he’s given to you, what people skills he’s given to you?

Are you being consistent and faithful in that? Are you honoring God with that? Are you doing it on a regular basis? Are you building up the church? The purpose of these gifts is not for you to stand and say, I’m great because I have this gift. The purpose of these gifts is to come into the body of believers and build each other up, to preach, to teach, to encourage, to support, to serve, to sacrifice, to love.

And there are many ways to do it. And so if there’s any goals that you should make in 2026, that should be one of your goals. To fulfill the call that God has given to you. To be faithful to his call so that at the end of your life, you can say that you have completed the ministry the Lord has done in the best way you’ve done it. You’ve strived at 110% by the help of the Holy Spirit.

We should be faithful. We should be faithful in encouraging. We should be faithful in leading. We should be faithful in planning. We should be faithful in supporting. We should be faithful in praying and honoring God with the gifts that he has given to each and every one of us.

Paul then shifts from giving this instruction to Timothy and kind of going essentially to a testimony of his own life. Starting in verse six, he says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and a time of my departure has come. The illustration that he’s using here is a powerful one because in the Old Testament, the idea of an offering, typically with a burnt offering, a bull is being offered and then there’s a drink offering at the end.

Charles Spurgeon, he says it this way. He points out how the bull is the main sacrifice and afterward there’d be a little bit of oil, a little bit of wine that’s poured in. And so he says, Paul is not calling himself the offering. Christ is the offering. Christ is the sacrifice that was on the altar. But Paul is likening himself to the little bit of wine, a little bit of oil that’s poured on top.

And Paul writes about this almost prophetically and in the book of Philippians 2.17, he says, but even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice in service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. And so he goes from saying, even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering, even if that’s to happen in my life to now saying, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering.

He was ready for it. He was willing for it. And when the Lord called him to it, he gave his life for that so that he was ready to be poured out, being in prison, being beaten, being marked, giving up everything that he can in his life so that the name of God would be glorified so that the saints would be strengthened and encouraged so that the church would be furthered for the sake of the gospel.

He continues on. And the time of my departure has come. He knows the end is near. Over the course of his life, as I said, he had been beaten, he had been mocked, he had been stoned, he had been imprisoned, he had run from animals, as he said. He’s gone through various challenges and turbulences and disturbances in his life, but he knows that now something is different.

In his life, he had been in prison once in Rome before he was out again and then he came back, but he knows that something is different this time and he’s ready for it. He knows that the time of his departure has come. This is the same Paul that has written before that to be at home in the body is to be absent from the Lord. And now he’s getting ready to be absent from his body to being present with his Lord.

And he says in verse seven, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. What a confident and firm ending. There’s no regrets. There’s no doubts. He is the example of finishing well. He knows confidently that he has fought the good fight. He has struggled. He has contended for the word. He has contended for the gospel to the very end. He has finished his course. His race has come to an end. And on top of all that, he didn’t just come there just straggling at the end, but he did it in keeping the faith.

And because of this, he’s confident of what comes next. Verse eight, In the future, there’s reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

First, in the future, there’s reserved for me the crown of righteousness. There’s reserved for me. The wording that’s used there is similar to a different wording that shows that all men are destined to die. So in the same way that all men are destined to die, and that’s a guarantee, Paul is extremely confident that in heaven, with the Lord, there is awaiting him a reward, the crown of righteousness.

And so despite the situation that he’s in, because think about it. I don’t know if you remember for the first week, but Pastor Sunil has shown the picture of the prison that Paul was in. And that prison that’s in Rome is near all the government buildings. It’s underground. You have to literally take some stairs to go down there. And so he’s sitting underground in this cold and dark cell.

He knows that the end is near, but he is so confident of what awaits him. He knows his departure is imminent. He knows that he’s about to leave this world, but he’s confident that when he leaves this world, that a crown of righteousness is reserved for him. And who gives that? The Lord, the righteous judge.

At the beginning of this chapter, he gives a charge reminding Timothy that the God who is omnipresent is the one who’s going to judge both you and I. He’s going to judge the living and the dead. And Paul is confident in the judgment that’s coming for him. Paul has no doubts. There is no little bit of concern in his mind. He’s not worried about judgment because he knows that he had been faithful by God’s grace, by the Holy Spirit’s power.

And as he breathes his last, as he departs this world, the Lord is going to judge favorably by giving him a crown of righteousness. And he continues on saying, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. This is not only the appearing that has happened, not only Jesus’ first coming, but also the second coming, the anticipation of Jesus’ coming.

And loving his appearing is not, you know, not to be confused, not with all those people who are guessing when Jesus is going to come back. You know, we see it on social media now, and it’s really sad how there’s new predictions and new dates. And that’s nothing new. These predictions have been happening for decades and years and generations. And it’s foolishness, really, trying to predict when Jesus is going to come back because they’re missing the point.

Because when you love his appearing, that means your heart is longing to be reunited with Jesus. There’s a danger, I think, that happens for those of us who are born in the church. And that’s playing church. When you grow up in church, at some point when you’re in elementary school, you’ve learned about who Jesus is, you learn about the Bible, and then you’re given a gospel call.

And sometimes in some churches, not ours, they’re told, hey, if you believe in Jesus, you’ll go to heaven and not hell. And which eight-year-old is going to say, I want to go to hell, right? Which eight-year-old say, yeah, I’d rather go to hell. No, they’d rather go to heaven. And so when you’re presented the gospel, sometimes children hear, man, I want to go to heaven.

And they grow up thinking, man, I can’t wait to go to heaven. I accepted Jesus, so I’m going to go to heaven and life’s going to be good and I’m happy. And that’s all I’m waiting for. I’m just waiting to go to heaven. That’s not what loving His appearing is.

Because the gospel is a transformation of our heart from being dead to being alive. The gospel is, we were people and humans who were separated from God because of our sin. We’re separated by God because of our wrongdoing. But God, through His love and through His mercy and by the blood of Jesus, has reconciled us back to Him. And now we have a relationship with our Creator.

And so if we have a relationship with our Creator, if we love the Lord our God, if the Lord our God is our heart’s devotion, if we are in love with being in His presence, if we love to seek His word, if we love to seek Him in prayer, then naturally our hearts are longing to be like Paul, present with Christ, to be present with God.

And so as long as we’re living, what are we looking forward to? We’re looking forward to His appearing, not to get to heaven and just to have a chill life, but to be with our Creator, to see Him face to face. That’s what it means to love His appearing.

So in our hearts, in our lives, as we live, it’s easy to get bogged down with the busyness of our lives. It’s easy to get bogged down with all the things that we have to do. It’s easy to get bogged down with all of our goals and our milestones, all the things that we want to achieve, and to forget the heaven means to be with Jesus.

And the distractions are real. It doesn’t matter if we’re old or young. I remember whenever I was in elementary school, I think fourth or fifth grade, we were going to go to India. And I was really excited to go to India at that age. I was really, really excited. And I remember praying, God, please don’t come back. Please don’t come back. I really want to go to India.

I mean, that was a desire of me as a kid, as a nine-year-old kid. I really want to go to India. And I was scared that Jesus is going to come back before and I won’t be able to experience that. That’s often, that’s sometimes, that’s how we live our lives. We really want to reach the next milestone. We really want to see the next thing happen. We really want to experience this or experience that.

And we forget that the whole point of our lives as believers is to have a relationship with God, to be with Him, to love Him, to know Him, to serve Him faithfully, and to one day be with Him for all eternity. That’s what it means to love His appearing.

And if we love His appearing, what awaits for us, like Paul, is a crown of righteousness. A crown of righteousness. That’s not something that’s earned based on our works. There’s no merits that we can all come together and accumulate to get this crown. It’s not like you go to an arcade and you get enough tickets and you buy the crown.

The crown of righteousness is literally something we do not deserve. There is no works that we can do that will be enough to get a crown of righteousness. The only reason that we have a crown of righteousness is because Jesus took on a crown of thorns. Jesus wore a crown of thorns, was crucified, beaten, mocked, and scorned.

And because He defeated death, because He resurrected, because He has ascended, what awaits for us is the crown that He earned. The crown that He has earned. And so if we love the Lord our God, if He is our God, if we love Him and are in a relationship with Him, and if we are loving His appearing, when our life ends, whether it be today, tomorrow, or 20 years from now, we can be confident that that crown of righteousness that was awaiting Paul will also be awaiting us.

I’m not sure how many have heard of this story about a man named Alexander Worm. But a few months ago, and you probably saw this, there was a Category 5 hurricane that hit Jamaica. And it caused major havoc. It caused major disturbance. There was many, many buildings and cities that were essentially destroyed. Dozens of people lost their lives. There were many injured. Millions of billions of dollars in damage.

And there’s this man named Alexander Worm. He was a pilot. He was a businessman. And he was a pastor. And he had a ministry. And a part of that ministry was transporting supplies. And he, as a result of this hurricane, the damage in Jamaica a few months ago, he was transporting supplies there.

And so he began making some trips there. And then in November of last year, he was making a trip with his daughter to take additional supplies. Tragically, what happened is when they took off, within five to 10 minutes, the plane crashed and they both passed away, the father and daughter. It’s a very tragic story. It’s very heartbreaking for the family. In the eyes of the world, it’s tragic.

You just think, what an end. Maybe people might think, man, why did you have to spend your life doing that? You had a pilot. You had money. You’re a pilot. You had a plane. You had money. You could have just enjoyed it yourselves. You could have gone on vacation somewhere else.

But this man was committed because of what God had given to him to be faithful in serving people, even when it’s not to be recognized. It was not on major stories. It was on CNN talking about how he was going to Jamaica, taking all these supplies. His story was essentially a byline of how he died.

But his death is a remarkable legacy. His death and his life will always be a legacy because he was faithful in the call the Lord had placed in his life. He had been gifted things by the Lord. He had been given resources by God. He had skills and talents and he was willing to give his life for that. Serving people he may have not even known.

That was his life. That’s the life that he lived to the very end. A legacy that now will outlast him because he was faithful to God’s call and God’s life. And many faithful men and women die without making the news or without being pilots or without having many resources. But what I ask and what I encourage us to think about as we start this new year, as we end this night is what we read about in verse one.

I mean, that kind of introduction, that kind of exhortation is something that it’s easy for us to gloss over because we know those things. We know that it’s important and serious thing that Paul is telling Timothy. We know that it’s in the presence of God. And we’ve read that maybe dozens of times, hundreds of times. We know that he’s a judge and we know he’s going to come again. He’s going to have a kingdom.

But do we actually walk our daily lives, live our day-to-day lives with an understanding about God’s presence? I think we think about God’s presence when we come to church. When we come to prayer meetings, when we come to conferences and revivals, it’s oftentimes to say, Jesus is here. The presence of God is here.

But God, as we read in Psalms 139, is present everywhere. He sees us when we wake up. He sees us when we go to sleep. If you were to fly on a bird or a plane, He would see you. If you were down in the depths and below the ground like Paul was, He sees you and He knows you. So God knows and sees everything.

The presence of God is everywhere around us, whether we are in a church building, whether we are in a conference or a camp, or whether we’re not. So if we think about the holiness of God’s presence, if we think about the magnitude and the greatness of God’s presence, do we conduct ourselves outside of the church in the way that we do inside the church?

Sometimes there’s a way that we talk and we say, ooh, you did that in church? Ooh, you said that in church? And it’s kind of funny. It’s kind of silly. But there’s a little bit of us that believes it, that the church is a sacred place and we should be honorable and respectful to the church. But do we view God’s presence like that when we leave the church?

Do we view God’s presence like that when we’re sitting at home on our phone? Do we view God’s presence like that when we’re on the way to work, when we’re stuck in traffic, when we’re at the gym, when we’re hanging out with friends, when we’re living our lives each and every day outside of a church or outside of a church service?

Do we consider the presence of God the way that we want to consider it in a church gathering like this? Because I think if we consider God’s presence in that way, with the way that we come in a church, our lives would be radically different. I think that if we view 2026, the idea that God’s presence is with me everywhere, he sees me when I’m going to sleep right now, he’s going to see me when I wake up tomorrow morning, the Lord wills, I think we would approach each day with a little bit more urgency.

I think we would approach each day with a little bit more commitment to God’s Word. I think we would approach each and every day of, am I fulfilling the call that God has placed in my life? Am I being faithful to the gifting that God has given to me? Because whenever the end of the year comes again, we’ll think and we’ll wonder, oh man, was I good at this? Was I good at that?

But let’s start with the simple thing. Let’s think about the presence of God. Let’s think about the holiness of God, the greatness of our God, because there is a God who has loved us and who has saved us and wants to walk with us in our lives and is available to us. But are we living our lives day in and day out in response to that?

These are simple reminders, simple truths, but ones that we should shape our lives with. Ones that should encourage us and move us to draw near to Him so that we are further sanctified by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit each and every day. That’s my encouragement to you. That’s my hope that as we go from here, as we continue on, that we consider the presence of God in how we live our lives.

Let’s pray.

Father, we just thank You for tonight. We thank You, Lord, for this passage and we thank You, Lord, for allowing us to study through this book and to be reminded, Lord, of Your love for us, O God. I thank You, my God, that Your Spirit is with us everywhere we go. And I thank You that Your Holy Spirit has been promised to be our counselor, our comforter, has become our…

As Jesus, You are as our advocate, Lord. We thank You, Lord, that You are with us at every point in our lives. And I pray that, Lord, in our lives that we live it in response to this with a sense of urgency in this year, Lord. I pray that, Lord, as we go from here, that we are reminded that Your Spirit is with us to guide us, to lead us, to convict us, to correct us, and so ultimately to walk in relationship with You.

So, Lord, I pray that You would help us, Lord, where we fail in that. I pray that You would help us to be aware of where we are blind to that, where we have let our guard down, where we need to be more self-controlled and more self-restraint, things that we need to say no to, things that we need to separate ourselves from, O Lord. I pray that Your Spirit would give us that awareness and that clarity and that conviction in our hearts and our lives.

And, Lord, if there is anyone in this room that has just been going through the motions of church and forgetting the purpose of loving Your appearing, I pray that, Lord, in this moment, that Your Spirit would create in us that hunger, would remind us of the beautiful appearing that is to come. Help us to love Your appearing. Help us to look forward to that. Help us to walk with You day in and day out so that we might love Your appearing to the fullest capabilities that You have given to us, O Lord.

Lord, we just thank You for this night, and we thank You for all that You have done, and we just submit our hearts and lives into Your hands once again. We thank You, Lord. Would You work in us? Would You move in us, Lord? Would You guide us, Lord? In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.