2 Timothy 1:1-5 Introduction to 2 Timothy

Jimmy discussed the difference between 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, with the latter being more personal and focused on Paul's relationship with Timothy. They highlighted the importance of Christianity as a relationship with Jesus. They talked about the Mamertine prison in Rome where Paul was held before his execution and the persecution faced by the early Church. The letter is emotional and personal, with Paul expressing his fear of being alone and his desire for Timothy to visit before his execution. Well, good morning. Good to see you all. I never liked to sit when I was speaking, but it is kind of nice. Well, let me say Carol Ann has already said thanks to you and we mean that profoundly. Let me just tell you what's happened. I had surgery on the 23rd of January. High hernia that had come out in a mass that just had come out behind the rib cage there and got to where it was aching. The doctor said, well, it's getting hurt. We better do something. Went to the surgeon and he said, well, we do need to do this because you're on blood thinner and I have been for 30 years. And he said, you don't want this to be an emergency surgery because you'd be fighting your thin blood while we're doing surgery. So we need to take care of it. So he did and took care of it. And actually, I've had very little pain from the surgery. But the day after the surgery, I had this brace, Velcro brace about this thick wrapped me up real tight. I fell into a bookcase in our living room. Now, the bookcase has a wooden frame on the shelves and a glass, books behind the glass. I hit the wood. You still see a little bit of the bruise right here. There was skin on the wood. So the truth is, most of the pain I've had has been from the fall. And so it's still having, you know, having, I can move, but it just takes me more time. In fact, I did a funeral Wednesday. Carol Ann's first cousin, who's been a friend to us for years, he was the controller at First Dallas when I was there with Dr. Criswell. And he passed away and had asked me to do a funeral. So my Uber driver, Randy, took us over there and we did that sweet service. And I felt fine, just a lot of aches and pains and just had to move a little slower and take my time and be careful I don't fall. Now, Dr. Terry fell on Saturday night last week, so it's been about eight days. They don't really know what extent it is. I talked to him yesterday. They're seeing the doctor tomorrow. Apparently, there was a cut on his heel some way. They haven't ruled out surgery, so they're hoping to get some direction on what will be the process. But they'll hopefully find that out tomorrow. And I told him, I said, look, I'm here, not going anywhere, so I'll teach the next several weeks. And if you can't do this after I do a couple weeks, you're still not ready to come back, I'll just teach the next time. So that's what we're going to try to do. We don't know how it'll end up. What I'm going to do today is, by the way, the good thing about what we're doing is it doesn't matter where we get through. Because wherever we get through, we'll start there next Sunday. So that's the nice thing about doing a spa story, teaching through a book. You just teach until time's up, and then you start again next week. So that's what we are going to try to do. But we'll incorporate a little bit of what Dr. Terry said in his notes that you have an opportunity to get today if you didn't get it. And we already are introduced to Timothy and to the culture in 1 Timothy, and so a lot of the things that we saw about that in the teaching with Titus has prepared us. This is Paul's last letter, and it is significantly different from 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy is more like a church manual. You know, how to do church, what are the qualifications for leadership, what's the purpose of the church. That's pretty well absorbed in 1 Timothy. 2 Timothy is much more personal. This book is filled with a lot of emotion, a lot of details. We find out more about Paul, a good portion. Well, I'm going to give you kind of a quick run through what we're going to look at in 2 Timothy. It's just important to realize the difference. In 1 Timothy, he was in house arrest in Rome. Now then, he is in the dungeon. In 1 Timothy, he had regular visitors coming and going in the dungeon. That's more limited, but he finds himself virtually alone, and he reveals the depth of his loneliness. It's a vivid picture of someone who had been deserted by everybody near to him. As we get toward the end of 2 Timothy, we'll see that in more detail. In 1 Timothy, the word apostle is used as a credibility to give him authentic authority to deal with the opposition and to pass it on to Timothy, who would be facing the same opposition in his ministry. In 2 Timothy, the opposition is not fully gone, but the word apostle reinforces the urgency of the appeals that Timothy sends to him and challenging him to stay true to what he'd been taught. In 2 Timothy, especially, the word apostle refers to God's chosen ambassador whose call is to proclaim the gospel globally. 2 Timothy deals more specifically with the divine origin and purpose of Paul's ministry. In verse 1, he says, So that's why he's written this, for this reason, for the sake of, and he focuses on the purpose of Paul's apostleship. His purpose was to declare that eternal life becomes a reality only through Jesus Christ. Paul often repeated, in Christ, which describes the life that is found only in Christ, and a reminder that Christianity is not just accepting certain things to be true or believing certain doctrines, but Christianity is to be a relationship between the individual and Jesus Christ, and that's extremely important. For many people, Christianity is a religion. For true believers, Christianity is a relationship. We know the Lord. He walks with us. He is with us. He guides us. He lives in us. He directs us. He's planted the Holy Spirit in us. And so Paul's purpose is to share the gospel of that relationship with Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy focuses primarily on the administration of the church, but this one really focuses on Paul's close relationship with Timothy, and his words are filled with personal emotion and gratitude that Paul has for Timothy. This second epistle also gives us this glimpse of Paul in his loneliness and isolation that he endured in the last days of his life. Here's my goal, seven minutes after eleven. I'm hoping we'll get through verse seven, but it doesn't matter. We're going to introduce it. I want to reach back and get some of the things that Jack didn't get a chance to teach, the culture, the context, the atmosphere of the world in which 2 Timothy was written. So we want to look at that just a little bit. It's interesting that when Paul started 2 Timothy, the first word is Paul. It's kind of interesting. That's a pattern. Letters like this always had a word about the author and a word about the recipient. So Paul doesn't waste any time. When Timothy opened this letter, he knew immediately that his mentor, his friend, his partner in ministry was writing to him. At this time, he is in the Mamertine prison in Rome. The Mamertine prison was founded in the 5th century B.C. It was not called the Mamertine prison until the Middle Ages. It was originally named after a couple of emperors that had the name Tullius. The original name was Tullianum. That was what it was called when Paul was there. It's where prisoners went before they were executed. It was a very secure prison for very dangerous prisoners. Very few people ever lived through the imprisonment. We have a prison system. Putting people in prison is part of the punishment for criminals in our society. They have a trial. They are convicted and they get a sentence given to them. Their punishment for their sin is their imprisonment. That did not exist in the 1st century. They didn't put people in prison to keep them there. You only went to prison to await execution or await trial. But once all that was over with, there was no such thing as someone going to prison for five years. They went to prison to await trial. After trial, if they were convicted, they were imprisoned to be executed. Very few people ever lived through imprisonment because of the philosophy of the prison there in Rome. It was known as the House of Darkness. It was well known for its neglect and darkness and its stench. No one survived. Paul was beheaded about 67 or 68 A.D. So we're in the 60s of the 1st century. Today, the site of Paul's beheading is marked by the Church of St. Paul at the Three Fountains. It actually is called a Latin or Italian name, but I would not venture to even try to pronounce what it's called. But it's essentially the entire language of the Church of St. Paul at the Three Fountains. He's buried at the two-mile mark of the Octean Way in a family tomb of a woman named Matrona Lucilla. Four months later, the exceeding wicked Nero was actually condemned to die. And he committed suicide in June of 68 A.D. So all this is happening now. Paul is in prison. And Nero is the one responsible for all the persecution, the beheadings, the crucifixions, the feeding to the lions, and all of these things. We're at the hand of Nero. And many historians believe that Nero himself set the fire that virtually burned Rome down. And then he blamed the Christians and the Jews for having caused that fire. And that was the beginning of the most severe persecution for the early Church. This is an emotional letter. It's a personal letter. And it's focused on the relationship between Paul the Apostle, the great Apostle, and Timothy. One-third of this epistle is instruction and encouragement and words of affection for Timothy from the 14th verse of the 2nd chapter through the 5th verse of the 4th chapter. Paul spoke of the future of the Church and the dark days that were coming. He was fearful that he was very much alone and he needed some things. And he was fearful that Timothy might not come before he was executed. I looked up the Greek again yesterday. And literally the Greek says, over the 4th chapter it says, some translations say, come soon, come quickly. But it actually says, come before winter. And the reason for that is the journey to Rome from anywhere else was very dangerous in the winter time. Weather changed, tides changed, the sea changed. It's very difficult. And so Paul was afraid that Timothy would not arrive in time before his execution, which he expected to be very, very soon. He wanted his cloak. It's interesting that he wanted his cloak that he left with Carpus and Troas, which means that he was cold. The dungeon was damp and dark and cold. And so he was cold. He needed some warmth. So he asked for his cloak. And then he asked for the scrolls and the parchments. Now, we can kind of surmise or try to draw some conclusions about what were the scrolls and the parchments. I think the best thing is that, number one, they were portions of scripture that he wanted. They also would be some of Paul's personal documents that he would have. And also some blank pages so he could write another letter. But he wanted the scrolls and the parchments. And that's why he wanted Timothy to come and come in time for him to be able to communicate with other churches through writing letters before his execution. Paul is his Gentile name. We don't think about this at all. But he was Saul until his conversion. Saul of Tarsus. And now he goes by Paul. And in all 13 of the epistles that he wrote, he used the name Paul. He did not use his Jewish name. In fact, Paul was a Gentile name. Saul was his Jewish name. Now, let me read you these first few verses. Paul and Apostle Christ Jesus by God's will for the sake of the promise of life in Christ Jesus to Timothy, my dearly loved son. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience as my ancestors did. When I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I recall your sincere faith that was first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and now I'm convinced is in you also. Therefore, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. And so he launches right into his very emotional description of his relationship with Timothy and his family. It's interesting, in 1 Timothy, he says that he bases his calling on God's command. And then in 2 Timothy, it's God's will. And that's very important. He used the phrase God's will in speaking of what he was doing, what the authority for him was doing. And he also uses this in 1 and 2 Corinthians and Ephesians and Colossians. And this was a solid reminder to his readers that every experience that Paul was having, including obstacles and hardships, were in God's will. He saw all of life as being in the hand of God. He realized that nothing would come into his life that God did not allow. Now, we all have things that we experience we don't like. Well, why does God allow it? Well, rather than asking why did God allow it, we probably would ask why not. Why not allow that into our lives? Because God has something to teach us, and he never lets us go into any experience that he doesn't go with us through every moment of that experience and every consequence of that experience. So he views God as sovereignly in control. It's his command and his will that he is preaching. And his relationship with Timothy is one that is of great significance for him. Now, Paul is not a devotee of some religious group. We'd call it some denomination. He was not just a part of a unique group of leaders that he was going to associate with. His joy was to see the churches flourish and grow strong and be strong in the faith. And it very disheartened him to hear of division and chaos and dysfunction in the churches and the compromise with heresy. And in the first three verses of this chapter, he refers to Jesus Christ three times. And so he's saying, look, you cannot have the life that God promises without Jesus Christ. So that's a very strong statement that he made, because without Jesus Christ, there would be no life, no grace, no eternal life. It just would not be there. Christ is everything we need. Someone said we don't realize that Christ is all we need until he is all we have. And we find that he's always all that we need. And so Christ is everything believers need. His is the only name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. Apart from him, there is no life, there is no grace, there is no hope, mercy, peace, rest, redemption, or joy. All of that is wrapped up in Jesus Christ. Now, it seems to me that not every person who identifies as a Christian has joy. They just seem not to be filled with joy. And I can only assume that's because they have embraced a religion and not a relationship. It's important to realize that Christ is in us. When we got saved, he put the Holy Spirit in us. And as I've told you many times, the Holy Spirit is there to direct us. In a little book I wrote a couple of years ago, it's now a rocket science. God put the Holy Spirit in us. And when he introduced the Holy Spirit in Acts 1, verse 4, he said, now you're going to receive the Spirit of God, and when he comes, he'll lead you to the ends of the earth. Sounds like the Great Commission, doesn't it? It's not our job to figure out how to do the Great Commission. We don't need to do that. God put the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit is more interested in the Great Commission than we are. Basically what Paul is saying is we need to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, pay attention, and be obedient. And the Holy Spirit will lead us to fulfill the Great Commission. He focuses everything on Jesus Christ. And Timothy is immediately reminded that Paul, his mentor and closest companion, was a man of dedication and courage and passion and suffering, uncompromising faith. No one in the New Testament after Jesus Christ has the stature that the Apostle Paul had. He is the premier example of what a believer should be. He wrote almost half of the New Testament. He once was a persecutor of the Church. It's interesting, in Acts chapter 9, when he was told what he was going to do, Ananias told him, you're going to preach the gospel. God said you will be his representative to the nation. He says immediately he preached the gospel. He went out and preached the gospel. And the gospel is the message that reached Paul and changed him from Saul the persecutor to Paul the spearhead of the early church. Now bear in mind that Paul is alone in this except for Luke. Luke, of course, was a good companion too. Luke wrote Acts and the gospel. In 2 Timothy, let me show you how alone he was. In the first chapter, verse 15, he says all those in Asia had deserted him. What does that mean? Well, no explanation. All those in Asia had deserted him, so he lost all those. Demas has forsaken him, according to 4, verses 9 and 10. Demas at one time had been a companion of Paul, a fellow worker in the gospel ministry. And during Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, Demas was also there, according to Colossians 4. There is also historical evidence that Demas was with Paul during the second prison term in Rome, at least for a while. Then something happened. Demas besieged Paul. He abandoned the ministry and he left town. Paul wrote about this sad situation in verse 10 of chapter 4. Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. The Greek verb there used in the original form that he had deserted him, one scholar said he left him in the lurch. He left him in a time of his greatest need. I mean, here is Paul in prison facing a death sentence, and that's when Demas chose to leave. It was a difficult thing. He was deeply hurt by Demas. By the way, it's never easy to see a friend and associate with whom you've placed your trust to forsake you in the midst of hardship. By the way, I was driving down the road in Tennessee years ago and was listening to a sermon by John MacArthur. Now, I know John. We had him come to LifeWay, and I preached on programs with him. I have a lot of respect for him. I love his commentaries. He loves studying words, and I love studying words. Now, he's got some wrinkles and things that I can't go along with, but I like him. I think John sort of needs to be like President Trump and shut up and not talk so much. President Trump, he just wouldn't say things, you know. But John, by the way, he's been in the hospital and just been released, and he's 85 years old. I was listening to one of his messages, and he talked about the thorn in the flesh that Paul had. Now, I'll mention that here in a minute. Paul said that he was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger. Well, the word messenger is a word that nearly always refers to a person in the New Testament. It's somebody. And John said, could it be that his thorn in the flesh was an individual who was giving him a hard time? And then he told a story about a young man that he had brought into his home to mentor him, lived with him for months and months. And after many months, John was on his way to the office to meet with the elders, and this young man was headed that way too, and he asked him where he was going. And the young man said, well, I'm going to this elders' meeting. And John said, why? And he said, because I'm going to ask them to fire you. And so he went to that meeting, and that young man did his best to get John MacArthur fired by his elders. As he described it, I wept, because what a blow to a person to forge your life into someone, and then he turned around and knifed you in the back. That makes sense to me. It could well be that it was somebody, but Paul is going to describe this in 1 Corinthians 12, and he says that I asked three times for my thorn in the flesh to be removed. God said, no. He said, God said, I'm not going to do that, because my strength is made perfect in your weakness. So Paul says, therefore, I will gladly deal with my weakness in order that I may be strong in the Lord. This is what Demas did. Demas forsook him at a time when he greatly needed him. So it was more than just walking away and not going anymore. It was a rebellion and opposition to him. So this was a very lonely time for Paul. He goes on to say here in 2 Timothy, Crescens, who used to minister with him, had gone to Galatia to minister. He's a person mentioned in the New Testament as a companion with Paul on his missionary work in Galatia. So we read about him in Acts chapter 10. Titus was serving in Dalmatia. Tychicus was a native of the Roman province of Asia and had been with Paul on his third missionary journey. He probably delivered the letters, the epistles, to Colossae and to Ephesus and probably delivered this letter to Timothy. He was very close. But now Tychicus is gone. Erastus remained in Corinth. He was a city treasurer. Erastus was the city treasurer of Corinth, a devoted Christian. But he stayed in Corinth. He wasn't with Paul. And Trophimus was in Miletus, according to chapter 4, verse 20. He'd been in Paul's group returning from Corinth to Jerusalem. It was a dark and lonely time for the Apostle Paul. In fact, in the fourth chapter, verse 16, Paul declared, At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amazing. But it teaches us that whatever God allows into our lives also comes with his presence for every step of the way. And that's what we find in the first Corinthians account of the thorn in the flesh. Just before Paul's death, he testified, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. He hung in there. He refused to be sidetracked by fables and myths and debates and preached the gospel. So Paul was the first one mentioned as the writer of this. But then he presents the recipient. Timothy, my dearly loved son. Now, Philippians 2, 19-23 kind of gives us the details of a unique bond that existed between Paul and Timothy. Here's what he said. Now, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you so that you too may be encouraged, that I too may be encouraged by news about you. For I have no one else like-minded who would genuinely care about your interests. All seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know of his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son of the Father. Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. Paul's many appeals to Timothy for things to do and references to their experience together indicate a treasured and unique bond between this weathered apostle and his younger son in the ministry, Timothy. Now, the first mention of Timothy is found in the 16th chapter of Acts, in the first three verses. That was early in Paul's second missionary journey. In that passage, he mentions Lystra twice. The reason seems to be that that was Paul's hometown, Timothy's hometown. Paul was so impressed with Timothy that he took him on his second and third missionary journeys. Timothy's father was Greek, according to Acts 16, and he was raised by his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. They demonstrated Christian faithfulness to him and effectively passed it down to him. He received the gospel and the truth of the gospel from his mother and grandmother. Now, it's not likely that Paul led Timothy to the Lord because it seems that he was already established as a believer and was greatly respected when Paul meets him. Now, in verse 2, he uses this threefold greeting, grace, mercy, and peace. It's interesting that Paul uses this threefold greeting in 1 and 2 Timothy in Titus, and the reason is that Timothy would certainly need all the grace, mercy, and peace that he could get to do what Paul asked him to do. In that greeting, he also mentions both God the Father and God the Son, and they're mentioned as co-sources of these qualities, which indicates and is just another affirmation of the full deity of both Jesus and the Father. In fact, these are three significant characteristics. Grace is a noun form of a Greek word for greetings. It describes the gracious gift of God to undeserving sinners, and grace removes all previous sin and removes the penalty of sin that the sinner justly deserves. Mercy is the result of grace in the sinner's life, which can never be deserved. It refers to the forgiveness and transformation of the new believer. It likely reminded Timothy of the sustaining mercy of God that he would need in the intense encounters that he was going to have with opposition. Peace, the Hebrew word shalom, we all know that, describes the result of grace and mercy. It's more than just simple inner peace, but rather a sense of completeness, of wholeness. That's the basis of the stability of our lives. Another thing that is interesting in this, we really know from 2 Timothy that Timothy is still in Ephesus, because Paul mentions many people in this letter, all of whom are from Ephesus. So he's telling Timothy to greet these people on his behalf. In 2 Timothy 1, verses 16 and 18, he mentions Onesiphorus. He lived in Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila lived in Ephesus. Hymenaeus was a false teacher in Ephesus, first mentioned in 1 Timothy 1 and also here in 2 Timothy 2. Other Ephesian false teachers mentioned were Philetus and Alexander the coppersmith. Ephesus was a center of false teachers and the church was born and existed in the midst of heresy. So it's obvious that Timothy was there knowing that he would soon die. He just wanted to see him again. Timothy wanted to see him one more time before he was executed. He just wasn't sure whether he could get there in time. So in verse 21 of chapter 4, he said, Come before winter. It was also a dark time for Timothy. It was a hard time for Paul. It was a hard time for Timothy. He was facing a difficult assignment in his ministry and he would soon be without his mentor. He soon would be without Paul. He faced great danger and opposition without the Apostle Paul to encourage him and to counsel him. Timothy was a great young man and if you weren't here, Dr. Terry spent a good portion of a lesson several weeks ago on the fact that Timothy was called a man of God. He is the only one in the New Testament to have that designation. It's frequent in the Old Testament, but it's not often used of individuals in the New Testament. But it is of Timothy, which Dr. Terry just pointed out, shows you the depth of Timothy's relationship with Paul and also the depth of his walk with the Lord and the reality of what a great individual he was. Paul had such enormous respect for him and he and Timothy were true partners. Timothy had proven his loyalty and had been faithful to the gospel that Paul had given to him and later would become pastor of the Ephesian church. Timothy and Paul were placed together in a spiritual ministry. They were referred to both in Philippians and in 2 Timothy as father and son in ministry. Timothy is urged to hold fast to the doctrine Paul had committed to him. Dr. Terry in his lesson last week in his notes quoted Alfred Plummer from one of the commentaries. I thought it was something we'd want to at least acknowledge. Here we have Paul, Plummer said, with his exquisite sympathy, sensitiveness and affection, his intense anxiety, his unflinching courage. We have the sincerity and insistence of one who knows his days are numbered. At the same time, we have the urgency and tenderness of one who writes to a friend who has faults and weaknesses but is trusted and loved in spite of them. That's kind of a good time for us to just be reminded, God doesn't use any of us because of us. He uses all of us in spite of us. And he's really good at it. Really good at it. Paul and Timothy together and now he is in his last days of ministry. Paul is and he can see some of the churches departing from the faith and heresy and corruption settled in. Paul's teachers had compromised the truth. He knew God had not failed but the leaders had failed. Here's the interesting thing. In 2 Timothy, Paul has no word for elders or deacons. No promises made about the restoration of the church. The message is pretty clear. Things are going to get tough. Hard times are coming and Timothy is focused not only on his relationship with Timothy but on the hard times that the churches are going to go through. Now this is interesting. In verse 3, bear in mind he's in a dungeon. He's going to be executed very shortly. He's been deserted by nearly everybody he trusted. Only Luke is still hanging around. And verse 3 seems kind of unusual for those circumstances. But look at verse 3. I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience as my ancestors did. Now let me just pause. Paul served with a clear conscience when he opposed Christianity because he was doing what he thought God wanted him to do. He had a clear conscience about it. He was just wrong. His ancestors were devoted to the God as they understood it but it wasn't necessarily embracing the rejection that his ancestors or his predecessors would have made of Jesus Christ. But he just said they were clear conscience. They served hard. He said that's what he had. He had a clear conscience. And the fact that here's a man who sacrificed all for the Lord and soon be executed for preaching the gospel and he can still thank God. It shows you the good quality that the Holy Spirit gives us of gratitude. Gratitude. So many people and so many of us are ungrateful. Just ungrateful. That is not a spiritual gift. Gratitude is something that comes from the heart of one who understands that apart from the grace of God he is nothing. That all the good things that come into his life are because of Jesus Christ. And he was thankful for that. It's amazing that here he was about to die but he could still thank God. And he reminds Timothy that not only did he thank God for himself but he prayed for Timothy constantly night and day. Verse 4 says he recalling the tears. He longed to see him because he said remembering your tears I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. It's likely that those were the tears that Timothy shed when he and Paul last separated. When they visited and then when Timothy left. But his loneliness and isolation added to his desire to see Timothy again. This is a cry from a burdened heart as he remembers Timothy's tears and longs to see him face to face one more time. He prayed constantly for him. Now he's going to see him again. Gratitude is a sacrifice that continually pleases God. Hebrews 13.15 talks about that. One of the greatest characteristics of every believer should be the gratitude in our hearts for the grace of God that has been given to us. In prison in his last day on earth he could have been depressed. He could have been morbid. He could have been complaining. Instead we find him thanking God for what he had done for him and for the memory he has of his faithful companion Timothy. It's like turning a light on in a dark room. It just brightens the whole scene. His awareness of thanksgiving and gratitude kept him from focusing on himself. Most of us are too preoccupied with ourselves. My daddy used to talk about people with ingrown eyeballs. That's a funny thing. He quoted a little poem. He said, I had a little tea party this afternoon at three. It's a very small three guests at all, just I, myself, and me. Myself ate up the cake while I drank up the tea and passed the cake to me. That's kind of the story of our lives. We are very self-absorbed. And we all fight that. Now, I have six doctor's degrees. Every one of them was given to me. I didn't earn a Ph.D. But I got colleges, crazy enough, from California to North Carolina and everywhere in between to give me doctor's degrees. But I never wanted to be called doctor because I feel that, number one, I respect the Ph.D. far too much. I mean, that's a tough, tough job. I've got a grandson now just starting into Ph.D., James. Most of you all know James. But he's starting in his Ph.D. It may take him six to eight years to get through that. So I never wanted to be designated as doctor because I don't need much help being occupied with myself. Well, Paul is, you know, he could have been occupied with himself. He was about to give up his life. He was going to lose his head. His ministry was over. But he thanked God. I don't know how long God's going to let me live, but I want to thank God every day that I live. I don't know how many times He's going to let me speak, but I'm going to thank God every chance I get. Gratitude is a great attitude. In fact, do you know, young people ask me, young married couples ask, what's the secret to a successful marriage? Well, if I have time, I discuss it with them. But if I don't, I say gratitude. Thank God for your spouse. Love your spouse. Treat your spouse correctly. Gratitude is a great attitude. Carol Ann, we've been married 68 years. It'll be 69 in July. Do you know every time we have lunch, we get up from the table, she says, thanks for buying my lunch. She doesn't have to do that. She's married to me. But I have to do that, because I want to appreciate it and let her always know how grateful I am for her. Gratitude is just a great attitude. It takes the focus off of us. It's a great example. Here's a man who is lonely. Here's a man who has blazed a trail all across the known world. He's a man who has no equal of individuals apart from Christ in the New Testament. He is without a doubt the dominant Christian character in the New Testament. He gave us half of the New Testament itself. And he was some mighty, but he wasn't occupied with himself. He was about to die, but he didn't think about that. He just thanked God for the privilege of dying for the Savior. The Savior had suffered for him, and it was a joy for him to suffer for the Savior. I have to tell you, I'm afraid that many of us have gotten over getting saved. There was a time when we might not be able to make it through the first stanza of amazing grace, but without a tear coursing down our cheek, we reflected on what God had done for us. It was overwhelming. But the longer we sang it, the less we noticed. Now we sing with gusto, amazing grace, without realizing how amazing grace really is. That someone like me can have direct access to the God of this universe. Not because of me, in spite of me, but God welcomes me into his presence at any time. Ryan's never busy. He's always there. He's never on vacation. He's never too busy for us. That's an incredible grace, and gratitude is an effective and necessary ingredient for our lives. So, verse 5 talks to us about Timothy's ministry. It was a genuine work of God. It was a reason for Paul's gratitude. And we're going to just stop there. We'll start with verse 6 next Sunday. It kind of is a switch, because in verse 6, he says, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of hands. For God has not given us spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound judgment. He's saying to Paul, Paul is saying to Timothy, God has given a gift to you. He says through the laying on of hands, the gift that Timothy had received was not caused by the laying on of hands. It was not the reason for his ministry or his call. It was simply a testimony, an illustration of the call. The laying on of hands referred to when Timothy was publicly noticed. We call it an ordination service. He didn't get the gift of God because he was ordained. He got the gift of God because he had already been ordained. And the ordination was just a public acknowledgement of what God had done. So he said, look, you got the gift. Don't mess it up. Rekindle it. It may have died down to embers, but stir those ashes and those embers into a blazing fire. That's what he's starting, really kind of a one verse summary of what he's trying to tell Timothy. We'll start there next week. Keep praying for Dr. Terry. I'll finish up, hopefully, this first chapter next week. And then we'll just see when Jack is able to come back. Until then, you're stuck with me, so we'll just keep on together until he gets back. But thank you so much for listening. And by the way, I do not like the way Dr. Terry and I teach. It's really more like a sermon. Good teaching involves giving thanks and interaction, and neither one of us do that. But if we ever scare up any snakes that we don't kill, and you want to know something, we'll make a note of it and let us know. We'll go back and deal with it. The problem that the preacher has, or the teacher, we assume that everybody knows everything we do. And it's just not true. I mean, I learn something new every week from Dr. Terry. I mean, I've been through college and seminary and grandfather and father preacher. I still learn every week from Dr. Terry because there's just more to learn. The most important thing for people at our age, know your limitations. Now, you may know them, but you don't pay any attention to them. Now, my mother was crippled, and we wouldn't let her drive. And sometimes we'd talk about it, and she'd say, well, I could if I wanted to. And she said that until she backed into my basketball goal at the end of our driveway coming out of the garage and knocked the basketball goal down. And we didn't have any more conversation with her after that. But the point is, none of us can do what we used to do. I used to bound up steps and sit down halls. I can't do that. But it's okay. God's still on His throne. He's still full of grace and mercy, and Jesus is still coming soon. What more can we ask? Just be faithful. That's what Paul's telling us. Father, thank you for Paul and Timothy, for the friendship they enjoyed, for the mentorship Paul gave to Timothy, for the maturity that Timothy received from Paul, and for their ministry together in the gospel. We thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.