2 Timothy 3 - True Significance
Tom Shrader examines Paul's warning about the last days in 2 Timothy 3, where people will be lovers of self and pleasure rather than lovers of God. He contrasts this with the healthy self-esteem that comes from walking with God, showing how sin distorts our view of ourselves and leads to seeking significance in people, places, and things rather than in our relationship with the Creator. Through 2 Corinthians 5, he demonstrates how reconciliation with God through Christ provides the foundation for true significance and enables us to serve others rather than seeking to serve ourselves.
“If you think there's something that's gonna satisfy you, person, place, or thing, you're absolutely wrong, because the minute you'll have it, you'll realize it wasn't enough.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2014)
Recorded: 2014
Duration: 39 min
Themes: significance, identity, selfesteem, reconciliation, consequence, authority, discipline, service, struggling with identity, parent, seeking significance, new believer, feeling unworthy, raising children, young adult, mentor
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Genesis 1:27-28, Genesis 1:31, Genesis 3:8, 2 Corinthians 5:17-20, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Theological Themes: sanctification, biblical authority, reconciliation theology, anthropology, spiritual formation, sin nature, christology, pastoral theology
Full Transcript
This is session six of an eight-session series. I've gotten into this series the longer we've gone, and by gotten into it, I mean the more I see almost a bigger application. I look around and see the world we live in, and I see the topics we have and their absence in the world as at least a partial and maybe substantial explanation of why we are the way we are.
Here are the topics we've thought about as a culture. If you don't have a sense of consequence, if you're raising kids and you don't teach them principle of consequence—Haley's youngest daughter Harmony is in a stage where she is physically very strong. Sandy's taught kindergarten for 12 years and has spent lots of time around kids, and she will just say Harmony's the strongest little girl I've ever had. She had me at the ballgame the other night. She grabbed my bad hand. I was ready to give her whatever she wanted, and she's dragging me down the first baseline.
Well, she's equally strong-willed, so she just arbitrarily starts throwing these fits. As a parent, you know that she knows. So Haley stopped over last night for something and said in an hour and a half, if when we get to dark, if Harmony hasn't thrown a fit—she had to go a day without—she gets her blankie back. Her blankie is like my remote control. Her blankie is everything. She's gone like six days without it, and she just won't stop.
I just kept telling Haley, "She said I'm not sure, you know, I wish mom was here I could ask her." I said, "Buddy, I can't help you much. I don't know what to do. I'd burn the thing right in front of her and teach her a lesson. I don't know what I'd do. I think you're doing the right thing." So she sent me a picture last night, and Harmony's got the biggest smile on her face—she made it and got her blankie back. Now I don't know if that'll translate until today, but if you just go "oh no blankie" and then the harder she digs in, if you start to quit, you're raising a delinquent.
The Necessity of Consequences and Authority
There has to be consequences and authority and duty. If a culture doesn't get these, or a business doesn't get these, or there isn't a discipline in this, you can't function. So what we're looking at today is one that needs a little help maybe in definition.
If you have Bibles, open them to 2 Timothy chapter 3 today. You have your outlines—on that outline you'll see a date that says July 14th of '05. That's when we first introduced this series, I think, but it's the principle of significance.
If I could use some terms that in my day we talked about a lot: self-esteem, self-identity, who I really am, where do I find significance. The answer to that question is going to determine a lot of how you live. There are competing views in 2 Timothy, one of my all-time favorite books. I think it's because it's Paul's last writing that we have.
I love those last day books. I love "I've completed the race and here's what I learned." I love those much more than "I was born in Des Moines and my dad was a farmer." I like what I learned books. Paul's writing, and this book has really broad application, but he's writing specifically to his protégé Timothy.
Understanding Timothy's Challenge
I think it's helpful to climb into Timothy's shoes for a second if you can. We talk a lot about transitions, and you see them in your business. You know, you're at Ping, and Carson's making his little putters in his garage, and then he's out making them on Peoria where I went years ago. But they were up and running, and there was a room about this size with ladies in it who were—so if you buy your clubs with an orange dot—they were hand painting the orange dot. Not because there wasn't a more efficient, cheaper way to do it, but Carson was committed to these ladies and their jobs and just the personal touch.
Well, now you've got—here's a word I've grown to hate—iconic. This iconic guy Carson. Now you have to pass that business. How's that going to work in a family business? How do you move from Jack Welch to the next generation? How do you transition?
Well, in church you have that. I mean, one of the amazing stories that probably won't be written because people don't care enough is the way that SPC transitioned from not its founder but really its growth agent with Daryl to Jamie. That's a tough deal. Jamie's been there eight years now. Following Daryl—you know that would be hard. A little iconic.
How about this? You're the young pastor. Think with me now—this is good. You're the young pastor coming in to follow Paul. Can't you hear them in the small groups in that church? "Well, he's a new guy, but you know Paul—he spoke with more authority. Paul..." And you're Timothy, and you're young, so here's the older guy: "Well, he's just young. That's what you have in every organization—he's young, he doesn't know much." Advantage one, maybe.
And he's timid. This is a tough, tough deal. So Paul's writing him kind of a note that's saying, "Hey, watch out for this stuff," and he's giving him all sorts of personal things that are unique to him but have application to us.
Warning About the Last Days
But in chapter 3, verse 1, Paul warns Timothy—and it's not inappropriate for us to draw this same kind of opinion—that things are going to be tough. He uses the term "last days." Last days are used to describe that period from when Jesus ascended into heaven until He'll come again.
So are we in the last days? Well sure we are. We've been in them for a while now. But I don't know when the end is going to come, but we're in the last days. Paul describes the last days, but he doesn't describe the circumstances—he describes the people.
Now here's what people in the last days are going to be like: they will be lovers of self.
Almost at that point skip down to verse 4 the second part and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and everything in between kind of defines that so here's what it's going to be like people will be lovers of self lovers of money boastful arrogant revilers disobedient to parents ungrateful unholy unloving that that word doesn't mean they don't care it means they're without natural affinities that 1.3 million moms a year kill their babies unloving irreconcilable your trees hanging over my wall I'll see you in court I say that because I got a neighbor with a tree malicious gossips we can't shut up without self-control brutal.
I'm listening driving in today and I'm on my satellite radio so I'm listening to the TV news and they're describing that gang rape of the girl that apparently was unconscious and they're filming this and they said within 10 feet there were hundreds of people around watching this the brutality of it filming it not stopping it. It's almost every day in the news three young kids beat up an 85 year old lady pushing her grocery cart home there's a brutality in the culture. They are haters of good - it's not that they love sin, they hate good. They're treacherous, reckless, conceited.
Now look at this: they love pleasure rather than love God. But nobody can just boldly deny God, so they hold to a form of godliness, although they deny its power. Avoid such men as these. He's saying in the last days, here's where people are going to drive their value from themselves, from pleasure, from stuff. They're going to try to find identity in a person, a place, a thing, things like prestige and power. I'm going to find my worth in those, and that's a never-ending quest.
Four Consequences of Finding Significance in the Wrong Places
I'll give you, on your outline, you've got up at the top four things. If you don't get significance, and by significance in this whole process, if you don't understand that my significance is in a right relationship with God, here's four things you're going to have.
You're going to have, number one, prejudice toward others, and I don't just mean racial. There's little words that we use that really say more than we want them to. So you'll describe somebody and you'll say, "He's just the janitor," "She's just a secretary," or this is when it gets really dangerous, when you start to use it. I see it a lot when I talk to women in women's ministry, usually during the day, they'll say things like, "I'm just a stay-home mom." All of a sudden you're making those judgments. If you think there's power in the org chart, "I'm a CEO, you're just..."
Here's the second thing. You express dissatisfaction with things you can't change. I love this story. I'm going home in June to see my mom, and when we moved my mom, one of the things we found was a raincoat that my mom and dad bought for me in eighth grade. I played first base up through, in ours it was Little League, Pony League, Colt League. Up through Pony League, I played first base because I was the biggest kid. Now you talk in terms of I'm the whitest kid, but not the biggest kid. And my mom and dad bought me a raincoat, and like you did, they bought it big and we folded the sleeves up and pulled them tight so you'd grow into it. And when we were moving my mom, we found that raincoat and the sleeves where they were folded still fit. I just stopped. It's really scary.
And you don't know. I mean, I'm at the Little League game the other night, and you see these kids, and the one kid, he's nine. I wanted to say a two-time All-American and father of two. I mean, he looks like he could have drove the bus to the game. I mean, he's huge. But I just looked at him, and I thought, I've been there, done that, buddy. I'd like to be 6'4", but I don't spend any time thinking about it. If I'm trying to find my identity in these things, I'm dissatisfied with stuff I can't change.
The Prison of Never Being Good Enough
The third thing is all my difficulties are a result of personal deficiency. Never good enough. I'm never going to excel. Never going to meet.
And the last thing is I seek relief from this growing pressure. This was a huge story in my life. I was 12. My father was an interesting guy, and certain things were really important to Him, and the way our lawn looked was really important. And we had a—you go back now, like you've done it, and you go, that was it. But it seemed like this massive backyard. We used to play baseball in it, and this terrace in the front. And He loved it cut, but we didn't have a motor on our lawnmower. It was push, the old push.
And so one day, it's a summer day, and there's not much going on, I decide I'm going to cut the grass for my dad. But I know the responsibility of this. He liked the sidewalks trimmed. Remember the old, the hand, you know, those things. They were hurt, you know. And so I started, and I'm cutting the terrace, and I'm doing everything, and my mom is doing laundry, so she's hanging out clothes. We don't do that much anymore. And she had sheets, and she hung them out in a U. So when it came time to cut the grass, I knew if I went under them, I'd kick grass up into the U, and that's a hassle. I'll just come back and get that.
And so you can write this story. I'm the proudest kid on the planet. I'm sitting there waiting for my dad to get home, and He got out of the car in the garage, and He said, "What's that?" And I looked, you know the story, right? I forgot to go back and get them. I said, "Oh, I forgot to do that. You know, mom had them." And here's what He said to me. "If you can't do it right, what? Don't do it at all." But I thought, I'm all right. I'll take option B.
And I mean, it was a defining moment for me. I thought right then, screw it. I'm never going to get there. I'm never going to get enough age. I'm never going to cut the grass, right? You know, I could go three for four or two for four, but it's not four for four. I would say some of the most insecure people I know are highly successful people. I'll tell you a little dark secret. Some of the most insecure guys in the planet are these pastors of these big churches.
And oftentimes, it's somebody along the way whose dad said to them, "If you can't do it right, don't do it at all." And they said, "I'll show you." But you start to go, listen, I can't get there, so I'm either going to work, work, work, work, work, work, or I'm going to back off.
Well, open your Bibles, and we'll get you to where you find identity, to Genesis chapter 1. This is where I should find my significance. We get where people will be lovers of self and lovers of money. That's natural, man.
Designed for Healthy Self-Esteem
Here's how you were designed on your outline. When you walk with God, you have a healthy self-esteem, a healthy view of self. If that were self-esteem, I hate that, but you understand the context we're using it.
Genesis chapter 1, verse 27, 28, 31: God's creating. He makes man in His own image. He says, be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth, rule over it. And God looks at all He made, and He says, it's very good. He's taken man, and He's put him in a place we call paradise. There's no codependency, there's no counselor, there's no divorce, there's no battle, there's no death, there's no pain, there's no suffering. It's paradise.
If I were to be cynical and go for the cheap joke, you would say, it's paradise, and call that because there's only one law and no lawyers. But I'm not cynical, so I don't use cheap stuff like that.
The Scene in Paradise
So you got the scene, right? God creates this, and He lays down, not the law, a law, and He said, "That tree over there, don't eat from it."
Now, make sure you get this picture. I'm having this fantasy about driving to Coronado. It isn't going to happen, but I'm thinking about it. And I love the drive, which is just goofy. I love stopping at the Circle K in Helabend, and I love stopping at Five Guys or someplace in Yuma. I love stopping at the Golden Acorn Casino and getting gas. But you're out there, and you look, and there's nothing. You're in El Centro. You're in El Centro with a big water thing that says sea level, which feels wrong. And then you see nothing but one tree. And I get that. I think of Adam and Eve like it was that. Like, here they are in the middle of El Centro with one tree, and God says, "Don't eat from it."
That's not the scene. They're in paradise. They're at Augusta with growth all around them. And He says, "You can have any of these, but not this one." It's not about nutrition. It's about control.
The Fall and Its Consequences
When you walk with God, you have this healthy esteem. When you disagree with God, you have this inflated view of who you are. The woman says to the serpent when he comes to tempt, "You must not eat from the fruit of the tree of the garden. God said you'll die." The serpent says, "No, you will not die." And the woman, and this is our ultimate sin, takes her will and puts it over God's will. Her desire and puts it over God's desire.
And ushers in, number three in your outline, the first recorded abnormal behavior in all humanity. Genesis 3:8: "The man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord." They were meant to walk with Him. Their shame, your shame, is based on what? Our sin, our distorted view of who God is and who we are. We're lover of self and lover of money.
Poor Harmony, all she's got to do is not cry and she gets her blankie, but she's such a little sinner that she's going to cry and cry and cry and cry and say "mine" until you have to somehow break her will but not her spirit. And say, I want to take all that determination and I want to focus it, but it's about me.
The Unending Quest for Satisfaction
And so naturally, we look at our life and we think that we'll find satisfaction that we're created to in a person, place, or thing. That's this unending quest.
I loved watching Jordan Spieth last week. I don't know this kid from a post, but man, he just seems very likable. And that color blue he was wearing, that was a great blue on Sunday. That was a great new color. He could wear that every Sunday like Tiger wears red. But you know what? They haven't even altered the green jacket yet and they're trying to figure out what he's going to do at Hilton Head this week. Let him go and have a burger. Let him shoot a hundred.
See, if you, and here's the tension in your life. If you think there's something that's going to satisfy you, person, place, or thing, you're absolutely wrong. Absolutely wrong. Because the minute you'll have it, you'll realize what? It'll be like Robert Redford at the end of The Sting. It wasn't enough. You're playing for a Super Bowl and you're making $40 million and now you're sitting in prison, life with no parole, and you can look out the bars and see Gillette Stadium. It just goes on and on and on.
The Real Problem
That's what's wrong. What's wrong with people? It's not education. It's not get more education. It's not economic, give them more money. It's not relational. Trade this wife for that wife, or this guy for that guy. It's not success. It's not achievement. What's wrong with you is Pascal's God-shaped vacuum. You were meant not to go it alone, but to be in right relationship with the creator God of the universe.
The Solution: Reconciliation
Last passage of the day, 2 Corinthians chapter five. Familiar to some, new, and therefore exciting to others. Verse 17: "If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things have passed away. New things have come." Look at verse 18, 19, 20. In my Bible, I have circled the word reconciled, reconciliation, reconciling, one, two, three, four, five times. This is about reconciliation.
Okay, now let me go back to our story. I don't want to leave that narrative. If I say to you, okay, that Clarkie and I have been reconciled, that's all the information I give you. Clarkie and I are reconciled. From that, you can deduce that there were pre-existing hostilities. May not know what the severity of them is or who caused it, none of that matters. That statement tells you we've overcome that. We're back together.
Man is alienated from God by his nature and at birth. Okay, harmony isn't the...
She's not the exception to all this. She is merely living out what all of us have. Eight grandkids, they all did the same thing. I did the same deal. Rather than say, I got a chance to serve my dad and cut that grass, and I don't care what difference does it make whether I got that or not, and I'll cut it and tell him I'm sorry and do it right next time. It was a defining moment. I can't do it. I'm not going to do it all. I, I, I, me, me, me. It feeds right into that self.
I Need Reconciliation
I need reconciliation. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a big fall. All the king's horses, all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I remember one Sunday teaching that poem. If I remember, Humpty Dumpty was a cannon that fell off a wall in some British fort. You all are going to Google it and send it to me. You don't need to. But it's some, I'm pretty close.
I would say, you sat on a wall and you fell off. Here's the key: you couldn't put yourself together again. That's the key right there. Because all of life is trying to help put yourself together again.
But if I am, verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 5, huge phrase. You know, summer's coming. Your small group stopped meeting. You're looking for something to study. Work on this phrase. If anyone is in Christ, what does that mean to be in Christ? Paul uses the phrase in his writing something like 60, 65 times. It becomes really the definition for us of what it means to be a Christian, to be in Christ. To come to Him in repentance and faith.
If you want to take yourself on this giant journey of study, simply get a concordance, which you could go online and find one, or you can buy one, it's about this big. Just look at the phrase "in Christ." What's he saying? Here's what he says here. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. I love that one.
A New Creature
I had that kidney stone last week. I saw more Masters golf than Jim Nance and Frank Nabilow combined. I saw so much Masters golf. But I can't tell you how many times you're sitting down there and you've kind of hit it around the corner at 13 and the pin's in that back right. And you know you got to get it up right and feed it down. But you got a little, if you've been there, you know it's like this and it's slanted. It's a hook stance. So you're kind of compensating. And if you don't close that down, boom, you're right in that creek.
I don't know how many times I saw last week somebody hit it and you could see him say, oh, if I could just have that back. I feel that way every time I play golf. But I feel that way in conversations. I was in a conversation yesterday and I started talking and I'm on a roll and I can't shut up and I just keep talking. Finally I said something and when I said it, I thought, oh, if I could take it back.
In golf we call it a what? Mulligan. How about a mulligan that's not just a single shot mulligan but I get to start all over. I'm a new creature. The old things have passed away. I'm in Christ. That means I've come to that point that I believe Jesus is who He said He was. I'm who He says I am. And I give up my efforts at reconciliation and I accept His.
God's Work of Reconciliation
He defines Him in here now. All these things are from God who He's doing the work. He reconciled us to Himself. He brought you in right relationship. It's not religion. We'll talk about this Sunday. It's SBC. My section's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Seems like that's the appropriate place for it. It's Him reconciling. It's not me doing religion. It's Him reconciling to Himself.
But He's not done at that point. Look what He does then. He gives you the ministry of reconciliation. Namely that God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And He's committed to us the word of reconciliation.
So you have a new title, verse 20. You are an ambassador for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you be reconciled to God. There's the shattered self-image.
The Bible as Our Guide
If I go back, and you don't need to turn there, but if I go back to that 2 Timothy passage, as Paul rightly identifies the people in your world as lovers of self and lovers of pleasure, the solution to that is 2 Timothy 3:16, to understand all scriptures inspired by God and good for teaching, reproved correction, and training in righteousness. So in our clever little way of remembering it, the Bible tells us what's right, what's not right, how to get right, and how to stay right. That's how I'm going to unpack the world around me.
But I was watching TV last night, and there was this guy, I don't even know what show it was. It was something on movie stars. And I don't know who the guy was, which probably adds insult to injury to him, because I'm sure he's famous, and he was talking about how empty all of this was. It all is. And you know it at some level.
Even if I succeed, what I'm trying to do in that instance, what I'm trying to do is have a person, place, or thing do what only God's designed to do in my life.
The Tingle Phase
I'm at this phase with Sandy. And I hate to talk about it. It's like my mom would say, don't say flat tire. You'll have one. I'm at this tingle phase. It sounds weird. Our third anniversary is next month. But I see her. I'm standing there yesterday in the office, and I see this girl walking this way. And I don't know why. I just looked at her, and I said, wow. And I didn't realize that it was Sandy. Now, I probably just confessed sin. I don't know. I wasn't a lustful thing. It was I saw her, and she just kept walking. And I got this incredible thing.
She's every day. She's smarter than I thought. She's prettier than I thought. She's a servant every day. But I have to be careful in this, because I can't look to her to be my God. You see what I'm saying there?
I got needs, but God meets them. Now, sometimes through Sandy, but God's who I turn to. I was laying there last week, and I was thinking, what would I do without Sandy? And I'm really cautious about this, because
I tell her, "I don't want you to be my health care provider and administrative assistant. Now, do we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and how are we going to get there?" But I mean, I don't want you to be that. I want you to be whatever a soul mate is. I don't understand all the stuff they write poems about. I want you to be my friend, and I want to love you.
But you see that? That's our crutch. We can even take a good thing and turn it into a bad thing. I'm only going to get my ultimate need met through a person named Jesus. And now I'm in right relationship with Him. That's what we just learned. Now I'm reconciled to Him. Now I've solved my problem.
Five Principles for Living in Reconciliation
Okay, now I need to live. Let me give you five things real quick. Number one, you need to cultivate your relationship with Him. I need to have a vibrant relationship. How does my relationship with Sandy grow? I spend time with her. I understand her. I know when to back off. I know when to say the next thing. She used to say to me all the time, "You always go one sentence too far. You won't leave it. You always go one sentence. You just can't stop." I think I haven't heard that from her in a while, so I'll take that to mean I've changed. But I don't know if that's true or not.
Recognize Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Here's the second thing. Recognize your weaknesses and your strengths. This is really difficult to do, is to honestly figure out what you're good at and what you're not at. And then, I don't know how you do this, but I think it's wise to spend your time getting better at things you're good at than trying to get better at something you're never going to be good at.
Now, that doesn't mean you don't work on your weaknesses. But if you've got something you do that's a two, and you invest X in it, and you get it from a two to a 2.5, I don't think that's as wise as saying, "I got something that's a six. I can invest X in it, and I can get it to a nine." But to acknowledge my strengths and my weaknesses.
Value Others More Than Yourself
Number three, value others more than yourself. You will never serve someone with a servant's heart if you're looking down on them. You may serve them. We have a gal in our church who runs a restaurant. And it's a good restaurant with good food. I say that because there aren't that many of them, I don't think. No quinoa on the menu. And she said, "Oh, we're talking about serving." And she said, "It's easy to be a servant until somebody treats you like one." Well, that's the test, is when somebody treats you like one.
Express Gratitude for Who You Are
Here's the fourth thing. Express gratitude for who you are. "God, thanks for making me this way. You did it for a reason." We had a guy in our church on our staff who was coming to church one day, one Sunday morning, and had this massive headache. And went to the hospital. They did scans, and there was cancer in his brain. So they did the surgery, he's down at Barrow's. And another one of those, "Do you have a good doctor?" "No, I got a quack working out of his van. That's my doctor." Yeah, I got a good doctor.
And for two and a half years, he just slowly deteriorated. His last trip back into church was to speak to our staff. And he moved slow, and he looked slow, and he said, "In everything, give thanks." It's to thank God for the suffering, thank God for the pain. Thank God for the blessing. Thank God for how He made you, and where He made you, where He created you, and where you were born, and who your parents were. If your heart's filled with gratitude, it's pretty hard, difficult, to get bitter and angry.
Utilize Your Gifts to Benefit Others
Here's the last thing. Utilize your gifts to benefit others. Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians chapter one: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comforts, who comforts us in our affliction... so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we have ourselves been comforted by God."
It's that ministry of reconciliation. All of a sudden, instead of being a lover of self, and a lover of money, and a lover of pleasure, rather than a lover of God, you become a lover of God, and therefore a lover of people who see yourself as there to bless the people around you.
Living Out Reconciliation in Practice
I know I talk about it all the time, but in the boys playing Little League last Tuesday night, we had to play Mr. Burger, and he just waxed us mercilessly, almost unchristian, really, in the way he did. That's not true. We couldn't throw a strike. If you can't throw strikes, you don't win. It doesn't matter what level.
But they were talking about after the game, and after the previous game, one of the moms came up and apologized to one of the coaches for the way she behaved. And that's because these kids start every game with "here's why we're here." Not to win, we're here for others. We're here to bless. We're here for others. The parents are here for... they hear this over and over again.
That's reconciliation. God's using those four or five teams, those Graced teams, to touch the people around them. And all they're doing is living their life, and they're seeing it around you. And when difficulties come to these parents, I can tell you where they're going to turn, and it'll sound weird to you, they're going to turn to the Little League coach. And those coaches are going to be able to say, "Here's what I had, I had this. I know what you're going through."
That comfort that you've experienced, now you can say, "Hey, here's where you're going to find comfort, even in the midst of your pain." The ultimate comfort and ultimate healing is that when that pain goes away, and you die, you'll be with Jesus. That's great stuff.
Next week, the opportunities that are all around us. Father, take these truths and drill them deep to us. I think we know them. It feels like we talk about this all the time. But that's because it's...
Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that You reconcile us to Yourself through Him, and now You say to us, go be My kids in this world. Give us the courage to do that. We pray in Christ's name, amen.