2 Timothy 4 - Preaching in Last Days

Tom Shrader explores Paul's solemn charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, emphasizing the need to preach God's Word with patience in a world where people are lovers of self, money, and pleasure rather than lovers of God. He addresses how believers must combat cultural myths like justification by death and salvation by behavior with biblical truth, while fulfilling their ministry purpose wherever God has placed them.

“What we know trumps what we feel - we know that God is faithful, that God keeps His promise, and that there's security in His sovereignty.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2014)

Recorded: 2014

Duration: 41 min

Themes: preaching, patience, scripture, ministry, purpose, worldliness, materialism, faithfulness, pastor, church leader, preacher, struggling with culture, facing opposition, ministry calling, young minister, spiritual mentor

Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-6, 2 Timothy 3:1-3, 2 Timothy 3:14-16, Hebrews 4:12, Ephesians 4:32, Matthew 5

Theological Themes: biblical authority, scriptural inspiration, last days, eschatology, pastoral ministry, sanctification, cultural engagement, biblical worldview

Full Transcript

If you have Bibles, open them to 2 Timothy chapter 4. We're going to get through probably about verse 14, and this may be our last session on this passage. We're in chapter 4, and as I study it, it feels like a continuation of chapter 3.

I remind you, if you go back to chapter 3 verse 1, Paul's talking about last days. Last days are that time between when Jesus ascended into heaven and when He comes again. So are we in the last days? Sure we are.

He said here's what it's going to be like, and there's a word that appears four times in verses 2 and 3—it's the word "lover." Men will be lovers of self and lovers of money and lovers of pleasure. Then I underline the word "rather" because here's the contrast: rather than lovers of God. So in the world you and I live in, as we start to understand people, they'll be motivated by self and money and pleasure—you can always put that in one bucket—rather than lovers of God, the one true God. But they do hold to a form of godliness. In other words, they'll be spiritual people who want to talk about spiritual things, but they deny its power. The power, of course, is the person of Christ in His death and resurrection.

The Antidote for Last Days Living

In the last days, this is what people are going to be like. Now Paul says to Timothy, you've got a big tool that you can use. He said in chapter 3 verse 14, "Continue in the things that you have learned and been convinced of, knowing from whom you've learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures."

What's the antidote in a world where people are lovers of self and lovers of money and lovers of pleasure? It's verse 16—it's Scripture. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness." Remember the phrase: it's good for teaching what's right, reproof for telling us what's not right, correction for how to get right, and training in righteousness for how to stay right.

So in this world that's confused, that's spinning around, where people are lovers of self, you and I who are followers of Christ are to live differently.

When God Doesn't Make Sense

There is in this world going to be this sense where there are times when you can't fully understand it, or you even begin to wonder, "Oh God, where are You?" I was in a church service not long ago, and the whole service was built around the idea that there are times that God doesn't make sense. It feels like, just for me now, it feels like we're spending way too much time on when God doesn't make sense.

There's kind of an undercurrent that He owes you and somehow is indebted to you to make sense. He's God, I'm not. It seems presumptuous when I really contemplate it, that He owes me an explanation or an understanding for all the things that He's doing. I can't possibly comprehend them.

Here's what I do know, and it's kind of one-on-one about anything that you tackle: If there are things I don't know, I go back to the things I do know. We know that God is faithful. We know that God keeps His promises. We know that there's security in His sovereignty. So the phrase we use is: what we know trumps what we feel.

A Personal Example of Faith in Difficult Times

Somebody just gave me today a dozen golf balls, which is always a good thing. Why you all don't do that, I don't know, but somebody did today. But then a little memorial card from a funeral service from last Saturday, and the dates on the card are born March 16th, 2014, died June 15th, 2014, with a picture. It's Larry Wright's grandson. Looks like Larry did kind of at the end of his life—no hair and a little smirk—and one of Larry's poems on the back.

There's no question, a moment like that, you go, "I don't fully understand it." Okay, I don't understand it, but I do know that God's in control, and that God either causes this or allows this, and that He has some reason that in specifics I may never get to, but in general I can—that it's done for my good and God's glory.

I can't imagine that. I was watching the boys the other night at their first football practice, and I've got the one grandson, Yale, who's got this attitude. He's Danny Ainge. You're gonna love him if he's on your team, but if he's not, I don't know that you're gonna love him. I watched him the other night, and he dropped ball after ball after ball. He's six—that's a big football. He finally caught one, and I thought, "Well that's good," and he just spiked it right at the guy. I thought, "Buddy, somebody is gonna kill you in this game."

Then his brother Brayden, who's quiet and compliant. Every time I see him, the first thing he says to me is, "I love you, how do you feel? Do you feel okay?" If this card had his picture on it, it would be devastating, but it wouldn't change the fact that God's good and God's in control. I may not be able to make human sense of what God's doing, but that doesn't change who He is, or my relationship with Him, or my commitment to Him.

A Solemn Charge to Preach

After all of this, in verse 17, Paul says, "Now you're equipped. Now you're ready to live."

Chapter 4, verse 1, as I said, is kind of the continuation of this. There's a solemn charge. Remember when we started the study, we said that Paul's writing specifically to Timothy with specific instruction for Timothy's life. He also has general principles, and in some cases specific instruction to us, but in all these instances, we can grab principles.

Paul's writing specifically to Timothy here, and he says, "I solemnly charge 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: preach the word." I don't think it's unfair to extrapolate out of that: we study the word.

He says, be ready, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. So He says, in these last days, here's what I want you to do. I want you to preach that word.

Why? Well, it's what we just looked at in chapter 3. That's the antidote for the world we live in, where people are lovers of self, and lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure. So we said, I want you to preach the word, because it's stronger than a two-edged sword. In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, and it cuts to the marrow, and it reveals, it's the mirror, it's God's word, it's the stable thing we have.

You go to the bookstore, and you'll frequently see a book updated and revised. You're never going to go to the Bible section, at least you shouldn't, and see updated and revised. Now, the last time I said that, somebody came in with a New American Standard that had been updated. Not revised, but updated. And what they had done is taken language, as we constantly see new insights in the language, that's why the translations you have now are so much better than, let's say, a King James translation was, that you really have two really accurate translations in your hands, when you have the ESV and the New American Standard.

The Uniqueness of Scripture

And so the New American Standard updated, but it's not updated informationally. There's some nuances of language. But this is a unique book, because the author is God. God wrote this book. Paul's moving the pen, but the Holy Spirit is the one who's moving Him. And He said in the last days, I want you to be preaching this word, and there's a sense here of intensity, in season, out of season, preparedness. I want you to preach that word. Why? Because doctrine is what's important in those last days.

The Problem of Unforgiveness

There's a show that Sandy and I have gone back and we're starting to watch the series, and I won't give you the series because I'm not sure based on what I've seen so far we should be watching it, though we watch it every night. But the characters in this show are so screwed up, and they said to Sandy the other night part of the reason they're screwed up is they can't deal with their past with a sense of forgiveness to it. You know it's the guy that when he gets in the fight with his wife she doesn't get hysterical, she gets historical.

Well it's that. They go back in every relationship they're in and these two gals keep calling each other their best friend and I'm going you're adults now, you don't have a little heart that you each have half and put it together, but they're the best friend but they can't get past the past. And the problem isn't that they need some counseling to sort this thing out, it takes you about five minutes to sort it out. The problem is this: they can't forgive because they've never experienced forgiveness.

So it's Ephesians 4:32: be kindhearted, tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you. So the standard line by every red-blooded American male and female is I don't get mad, I get even. The Christian should be I don't get mad and I don't get revenge because that's God's to figure out, I forgive.

Personal Example of Forgiveness

Why this is so easy for me: I've said there's a whole bunch of stuff I don't do well but forgive, I'm an expert. I really say this and people feel they've taken it on, it's a challenge, but you can screw me over and screw me over and screw me over and I just keep coming. I get back, I just keep coming back. Now I'm not going to want to go on vacation with you and I'm not going to invest in what you're doing, I'm not going to loan you money, but I'm going to forgive you. Not because you deserve it, that's the hang-up all the time, but they don't deserve it. I got it, but here's the point of Ephesians 4:32: neither did you.

While you were lost, while you were a sinner, this is why doctrine is so important. Doctrine is not so important so you feel smarter than everybody else or you can run a category on Jeopardy. Doctrine is important because practical living flows from it.

The Foundation of Grace

So I would draw a line in the sand and say salvation is based totally, utterly, completely upon God. That I'm saved by grace, that it wasn't anything that I did or anything I could do or anything that God saw in me where He looked at me and said, boy you got potential, I'm going to draft you and I think if we get you into some of these early workouts you could be a starter in two or three years. No, He looks at us and He sees utter complete failures, sinful, full of sin. Here's what He sees: lover of self, lover of money, lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God.

And then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit comes along and He changes your heart and you now become a lover of God rather than a lover of self, a lover of money and a lover of pleasure, though still there's a struggle there, right? I mean there's still the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. What's completely in God now I turn around to interpersonal relationships: how am I supposed to react with the people around me? Well I'm supposed to forgive. Well they don't deserve it. Neither did you. Forgive, He says that becomes the answer.

The Method: Reprove, Rebuke, and Exhort

And in this process what I want you to do is reprove and rebuke. It's the idea that we've looked at before, it's the idea of correction. It's correcting behavior and false doctrine and exhort and teach. Look at the last part of verse 2, there's a little underline or box there: how do I do it? With great patience.

Somebody was making a statement to me, and I think about me, though they didn't say it this way, but they said when a person has a little truth they tend to think they have the whole truth. I think he was talking to me though we didn't get far enough in the conversation. So I think what he would say and I know this, I know I've mellowed. I went back, somebody the other day asked me about something and I went back and listened to a tape from 15 years ago and man it was aggressive and entertaining, but I'm not sure people didn't come more...

Living as a Witness

Susan used to tell a story, and I don't remember it this way, but she insists on it. She said I would come home every day after God saved me in March—Susan wanted nothing to do with this—and I would say, "Did you accept Jesus today?" She would say no, and I would say, "Well, you're going to hell." She said we would have this conversation every night.

I heard her tell this story to a couple of different groups. Apparently one night I came home and said, "Did you accept Jesus today?" She said no, and I said, "You're going to hell." She said, "Are you going to be there?" I said no. Then she said, "Well, it won't be that bad then." We were apparently at a low point in our relationship.

But at the end of the day, after about five or six months, she said, "Here's the deal: I can't deny that he's a different guy." That's Matthew 5: let your light shine in such a way that people see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. My approach was completely wrong verbally—I need to communicate it with great patience.

Making the Invisible God Visible

The point we make is this: if you're a follower of Christ, you need to live in such a way that people see the invisible God because you make Him visible. Sue Wright said the same thing about Larry: "I couldn't deny there was a change, and I know him well enough to know he's not disciplined enough to pull off something like this for six months. So I know what the change is, because he told me it's Jesus."

This is evangelism to me in its simplest form: make the invisible God visible and speak the truth boldly. Those are inseparable. If you speak the truth boldly but you haven't made the invisible God visible, you're a hypocrite. If you make the invisible God visible but don't speak the truth, you're a coward.

That Francis of Assisi quote just makes me sick every time I hear it: "Preach the gospel, and if you must, use words." That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, yet everybody repeats it like it's really deep. It's stupid. Nobody's going to be won to God with a wordless sermon alone. I absolutely believe in preaching the gospel through a transformed life, but that's not the gospel—it's the power of change through your life. But they're going to say, "What is it?" and you're going to have to say, "It's Jesus." You have to say it. You can't just live it.

The Need for Great Patience

But I do this with great patience. Why? Because this is a really difficult situation. I had a guy I met with for 29 weeks—every Wednesday or Thursday, here for 29 weeks. That's not a life sentence, but that's a major investment. At the end of this deal, I said, "Do you get this?" He said, "Yeah, I kind of see it." You want to say, "Not interested? Do you appreciate the investment I made?"

He basically said, "Isn't that what you're supposed to do?" I guess that's a good point. You're going to have people you pour time into, people you meet with. You give them answers to every question they have. You say, "Are there any more questions?" They say, "No, there really aren't any more questions." "Would you want to respond to this?" "No, not really." You have to do it with great patience, without aggravation.

A Culture That Rejects Sound Doctrine

Here's the deal: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." This is the world you're in right now. People don't want to hear sound doctrine.

When you ask them about church, they'll say, "What are you looking for?" "I think I'm interested in church." "Where do you live?" "I live in such and such a town." "Well, there's a couple of churches there. What do you want?" "Well, I want good ingress and egress. I want coffee. I want something really good for my kids"—here's one that gets way too high on the list. "I want good music," which is totally subjective. Then at the end they'll say, "I hope the guy's got something to say."

What I look for in a church, number one, is good teaching. I used to do seven services on Sunday, and I'm standing by Mary—Mary's our receptionist—one day. I can only hear her end of the conversation, but you can fill it in. She said, "East Valley Bible Church, this is Mary. How can I help you? Sure. Eight, nine, ten, eleven, four, five, six." "What was the question?" "What time are the services?" She said, "Yes. Uh-huh. No, I'm sorry, those are the only ones we have. Rather than me swinging by the house and doing this in your bedroom, I don't know how to make this much easier for you." I'm sitting there. She got off laughing. I said, "Mary, they're just being difficult." But you ought to find a place with sound doctrine.

There are some guys who are friends of mine, guys that I see or see them post stuff, and they've made this thing so narrow that the only one who can stand in it is them. But there's a time coming where people—and we're here—when they don't want sound doctrine. They want to have their ears tickled, and they'll develop myths.

The Search for Comfortable Truth

She came back. She was meeting with one of her girls. Then last night, she has a study. There's a ton of things I love about Sandy. One of them is she can do the upfront gig with 250 women, but then she goes on Wednesday and works in kids' ministry at BSF where there's no strokes in that. Then she meets once a week with two gals who are going through a study, and has a ton of one-offs.

We never use names or specifics or violate confidence, but I'll hear this all the time. How did your meeting go? Oh, pretty good. I said, was I giving too much? What was the issue? She'll say this, and then she said, this is what I told her.

Then here's what you'll hear. I've heard that now. You're the fourth one that's told me that. You're the fourth person that's said that. You know anybody else I can meet with? Tell me what she's looking for. She's looking for somebody who's going to tell her what she wants to hear, because she's heard the biblical answer, and she doesn't want to do it.

I get it, too. I mean, if it's something you don't want to do, and that's how you handle it. I get that all the time. You're the third one, the fourth one, the fifth one. You're just running through that list to find these guys that'll tickle your ears, and you develop myths.

Common Myths That Tickle Our Ears

I made a list of this. It's not very long, and you could add to this, but I've got three or four of the myths that people like.

Here's the first one, and it's in theological terms: justification by death, meaning all you have to do is die, and you go to heaven. There was a guy that used to write for East Valley newspaper, and I would read him every week. Susan would say, I don't want you to read that. It just makes you upset, and I'd say, oh, I watch television. She'd say, oh, that's worse. Just go in a closet by yourself, and you'll be fine.

He wrote this one week: I can't wait to get to heaven to see all my friends, my Methodist friends, my Catholic friends, my Presbyterian friends, my Episcopalian friends, my Mormon friends, my Jewish friends, my atheist friends, my agnostic friends, and even some evangelicals. I'm fine. I mean, if he wants to put the Methodists in heaven, that's all right, I guess, but the lunacy of this...

What makes us Christians, and I'll be really bold here and say the only people in heaven are biblical Christians. What makes you a biblical Christian is what you believe, not how you behave.

The Reality of Biblical Salvation

So you've got a guy sitting over here that says, Jesus is my Lord and Savior, died on the cross, rose from the dead. This guy said, I don't even believe there was a Jesus. This guy says, there was a Jesus. He was a heck of a carpenter. Boy, if you get one of His tables, He had the best table in all Jerusalem. This guy here, a great teacher, this guy, a moral leader, and then this guy, which would be anything other than biblical Christianity, typically would say, and then if you do these things.

No, that's one of the great myths. The great myth is justification by death. The reality is that I'm justified by death, but not my death, Jesus' death.

I just finished writing what I want to do at Cannon Beach in terms of lessons, and one of the lines I use is we need to outsource our salvation. So we're outsourcing all these other things. I want to outsource my salvation. I can't do it. He did it.

The Myth of Salvation by Behavior

Here's another myth, kind of the flip of that: salvation by behavior. In other words, I'll be good enough. Is it possible for you to work your way to heaven? Without getting too into this, I would say no, but if you want to say you're going to do it, it requires perfection.

Now I think it's even bigger than that. I think you're born a sinner and a son of disobedience, so I don't think there's a shot, but I'll even give you one free sin if you want and get there, but now you got to live a perfect life. So you have people walking around, and they won't even talk about themselves, but they'll say, you know so-and-so. You know him. He's a great guy. You know her. Nana. I mean, we have those categories. Here's this great person. They're bound to go to heaven.

Yes, if you were the judge, but you aren't. God is, and if you want to do the behavior thing, it requires perfection.

The Happiness Myth

Here's another myth: God wants me happy. Larry used to tell me this, and I was suspicious. Larry was a little prone to hyperbole, and he would tell me this, and I would say okay, but then I started to experience it. I'd sit down with somebody, and this would be the logic: God wants me happy. My wife makes me unhappy. God wants me divorced.

Larry would say that, and I'd go, really? People aren't that stupid. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. People will say, God wants me happy. This makes me unhappy. Whatever this is, happens to be a spouse, then from this, God wants me to get rid of that.

That's like when they say, you know, we're fighting, and we can't get along, and we just want to do what's best for the kids, and that's for us to separate. No, what's best for the kids is for you to love one another. I think I saw the other day, 22% of the kids in the country are living in a house with their biological parents. That's not very high. With rare instances, that's devastating. That's one of the great myths.

Additional Myths in Christian Circles

Let's see if I have a couple more. I kind of put them together: you can't love others until you love yourself. That's not true. God helps those who love themselves.

Here's the big one, probably, in the Christian circle myth: God wants me healthy and wealthy. I wrapped up, without getting to the point where some of you would be engaged, and some of you would be bored, is the teaching, and I heard it the other night again, by one of the TV guys, is that Christ died to make you healthy. Now, we can split hairs, but he's not trying to split hairs. There's a sense in which healing is in the atonement, the death, and then ultimately I go to heaven.

But He didn't die so you would not get sick. He did in a spiritual sense. I turned on one of these guys the other day, the health and wealth guys, and he had a cold. It's a dark side of me. It just makes me sick. It made me laugh, but God may want you sick.

Why would God want me sick? Well, because history has taught us that you're more coachable when you're sick than when you're healthy. You go to the doctor and when all the tests are clear, you go, "Praise Jesus, let's go eat." But when there's a big old lump in there and they're gonna need Marco Crane to pull this thing out of there, all of a sudden you go, "I don't wanna eat. I wanna pray. God, what are You gonna do?"

So those are some of the myths. Why don't you just get a sense of the world you're living in? He comes back to the word, back to the word. Why? Because people are going to want, and by the way, you too, are going to have times where you don't want sound doctrine. Tell me what I want to hear.

Paul's Charge to Timothy

I'm going to be vulnerable. "You, Timothy," verse five, "be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." Now that's a specific call to Timothy. That word evangelist, by the way, only appears three times in the New Testament. It's always in the context of an office, like pastor, teacher, evangelist.

It doesn't mean that we aren't evangelists, but I can grab the principle out of this. Put your name in there: but you, whoever, be sober, be alert, and do the work that God left you here to do. I wrote a phrase: fulfill the reason you're here. The reason you live in that neighborhood, the reason you're at that job, the reason you work out at that gym, the reason you go to that barista. You fulfill that. God has you here for that reason.

The Importance of Thinking Small

I'm careful, because it feels to me like we're making you all feel more important than you really are. We're talking about, you know, like Jeremiah, you're here with a plan and all that, and you're something special. Well, you're nothing special. I mean, I'm a big advocate of average. By definition, you're average, or average doesn't mean anything.

I delivered an energizing motivational talk to some young pastors not long ago, and I encouraged them to think small, because they're all thinking big. They think they're going to have a church of 5,000, and they drive by CCB and First Assembly and Scottsdale Bible, and they think, "Oh, this is the goal." That's not the goal. You're not Tommy, and you're not Jamie, and you aren't Don Wilson. You're this little guy with a group of about 20 people, and to this point, all you do is organically farm together.

So don't be thinking... I mean, it's amazing to listen to these guys. Here's what I would do if I was you. I'd minister to the 20 people God's given you and be happy with that, and that may be all you're ever going to get, and that's fine. But I have the picture of the worship center taped to your mirror in the morning to motivate you. Really?

It's the same thing in your life. Just think small. You're a Haley. You're home with an eight-year-old, six-year-old, a three-year-old, and a two-year-old. If you don't get one more person in your ministry other than those four, that's pretty big. We think, "If I'm faithful in the little things, God will give me bigger things." So we think in terms of big. Here's what He may do. He may give you 12 people to minister to and to nourish their soul. How much bigger is He going to get? If He gave you 30, you couldn't do it. I don't have time for 30 people.

Paul's Final Assessment

Verse six, and here we go. Here's the classic: "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. The time for my departure has come." In other words, he senses here that he's going to die. And then his assessment of his own life: "I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith."

The three Greek verbs - fought, finished, and kept - have a completed action with a continuing result. That's in the Greek, the imagery there. The job is done, the effect continues. Fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith.

Let me grind on it a little bit. This is Paul's assessment of his own life. This is not God's assessment. This is Paul being able to say this. Now, I'm going to make an assumption here that I think I can prove from scripture: Paul just didn't wake up the morning he wrote this and go, "Oh, wow, it's the end of my life. I'll be dipped. Didn't that turn out great?" He had a plan. He understood.

A Picture of Intentional Living

I have a friend whose name is Dave Baker. Some of you, I don't know if any of you were around, Baker's taught in here before. Some of you were at Susan's memorial service. I've never been with anybody who when they walk into a room, the room stops like with Dave. He is big. He's about six-eight.

We were having breakfast a couple of years ago and I said, "Bake, no offense here, but you're getting kind of big. What do you weigh?" And he said, "You know, it's interesting." He was, at the time, the commissioner of the Arena Football League. He said, "I was in Dallas where they have big scales. I weigh 415 right now." He has the biggest head. His head is this big, or bigger. That is not exaggeration. If you were at Susan's memorial service, he walked in and my question was, "I don't know where he's gonna sit."

He just got a job. He just texted, he said, "Shrades, this could work out for you well. He's the new president operator of the NFL Hall of Fame." So that could be a good job. He's really cerebral. That mind of his is constantly going. I would stay at his house and I'd get up in the middle of the night and he'd be out laying on the living room floor with dozens of legal pads around him, writing a song, writing a poem, writing a memo, writing a sentence, always thinking.

He had a little period where he was struggling with stuff and he'd call and say, "I just need to get away. Can I come over and stay with you a couple..."

Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a decade. Most people think they're going to really get at it - have this meeting, do this, move this over here, start this study, start this business. That's a day, and you think a lot's going to happen. Now play with that a little bit. A day, a week, a month.

The Value of Longevity in Ministry

We're at a point in our church and I'm a longevity guy. I know it doesn't fit in this culture, but I think you have to take a job and just stay there for a while. If you're a pastor, these guys that move around - I get it and I get start, move and church plant. I get it. But the deep work's done when you hang in there, like Daryl did for 20 or 25 years.

Because what happens in there is like at summer camp now, we have kids who when we started were campers who are now volunteers who in two years will have their own kids going to camp. I'm doing weddings for kids that I did baby dedications for.

I was somewhere and this girl stopped me and she had a kid on her hip and one hanging on her pants and another dragging over here. She said, "Tom." And I said, "Yes." She came close. What you should do - just give you a heads up - when you see somebody in a context other than this, you should go, "Tom, my name is." You shouldn't create the awkward moment. I mean, I had a lady the other day said, "I'll bet you don't know me." Really? Nope, don't even want to at this point to be honest. I think that's so rude and insensitive.

But she said, "Tom, I bet you don't recognize me." And I thought, no, obviously like kids. Then she gave me her name. I said, "Oh my gosh." She was a little girl that we had around the church. She's got these kids all over. She said, "I'm married. My husband's in Afghanistan or Iraq or somewhere." I said, "Well, how are you doing? Is there anything we can do?" She said, "No, we're fine."

Then she stood there and did about five minutes of lessons that I did for the 12 years her parents made her come to church. That's why I say make your kids go to church. Keep them awake and keep their head up. Get your head up and eyes open, but you have to be there because some of this is going to get through. That's the long, long work of it.

The Future Crown of Righteousness

Why? Because there's a future crown of righteousness. All of this stuff, all of these difficult things, all this hardship, all this counterculture - here's the deal: it's worth it. This is but a moment. Going back to all the things we say, no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. This is a moment. This is a blimp. Paul compares it - momentary light affliction to all eternity. There's no comparison between those two.

Enjoy the time off and we will see you September 11th.