A Charge for the New Year — 2 Timothy 1-4

0:00 Well, good morning and happy New Year once again as we kick off the very first Sunday of two thousand nineteen. I haven't heard a lot of talk this year about New Year's resolutions. I don't know if they're becoming a thing of the past or not. You hear some but not a whole lot. But you know I think New Year's resolution is good, right?

0:25 Anytime that you evaluate yourself, kind kind of do an overview, a self check, a reset, set some goals, I think all these things are good and healthy and can be appropriate for us all. I'm not sure what your experience has been in our... In the study of Timothy and first Timothy, second Timothy. But today, we get to continue that study in second Timothy. And and if I would say this, the verses have fallen to us in a good place for a New Year's message because Timothy is gonna receive a charge.

1:08 Okay? Paul is gonna write, he's in in chapter four and he's going to write to Timothy and he's going to charge him with some particular things. Makes a very good circumstance or verses to consider for self evaluation, for this particular reset. You know the prophet Jeremiah said... Tells us that God's mercies are new every morning.

1:34 Paul also writing in other places says that our inward man is renewed day by day And so it is good to evaluate and take a charge daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. So today is our annual, okay. Here comes our annual today. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of second Timothy. We're going to be in second Timothy chapter four, but I'd like to read just a few verses at the very beginning of the chapter back on chapter one.

2:13 Chapter one. Go to two Timothy chapter one just for a few introductory verses. I'm gonna begin reading in verse seven. Second Timothy one seven, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved us and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

3:05 Verse 10, but now is made manifest by the appearing of our savior Jesus Christ who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And so this describing the new life that we have in Christ and describing describing the future, describing if you will, life unlived. That's a... That could be a definition of the future. Right?

3:34 Life unlived. Things that we are going to experience yet today, tomorrow, in the coming time, as as each of us are alive and given given the gift of every new day. Go now, if you would, to second Timothy chapter four, and I want to read the the portion that we're going to handle today, and I'd like to pause for a moment of prayer, once we read these verses. Just for the sake of context, as we, before we read chapter four, let's slip up into chapter three and verse 16. So second Timothy chapter three and verse 16 is where we'll begin reading.

4:18 All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Chapter four and verse one, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables. Verse five, but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof thy ministry.

5:53 There are some things that we'd like to see happen differently. And we know that you give us wisdom from above. We know that we have your Holy Spirit that can lead us and guide us into all truth. We know that you're you're working to establish your kingdom. Father, we we pray that we would be sensitive to your leading and talking to us right now.

6:21 We pray that you would allow the scripture and the study that's been taking place to to to begin to culminate and provide us a message that gives direction as to how we might live our life in a in a God honoring way. How we might bring glory to the Father and to the Son through the through the Spirit. So father, we're asking for help this morning. We pray that you would give us good understanding as we spend this time together in the scripture. In Jesus Christ's name, amen.

6:58 We'll go back up to verse one, chapter four verse one. The word charge, we might think of it on the battlefield, right, that's where you most typically hear that, charge. And here Paul is writing to Timothy and how many Timothy's do we have here in our group? See Wayne you're safe, your name's not Timothy. We've got Timothy back on the South.

7:30 Is there any other Timothy's? Middle name Timothy? No? Wow. Okay.

7:36 Now this is one of those places in scripture that you can insert your own name, alright. In fact, Timothy is not mentioned even though we know that Paul is writing to Timothy, he says I charge thee, he doesn't say Timothy, so I'm saying let's today, let's insert your name, alright. Every one of us who are a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we could insert our name to receive this charge. And so when we read this and we we hear him saying, I charge thee, let's receive it for ourselves. Okay, so as he does this, notice how he opens this closing portion, I charge thee therefore before God, God is a witness, God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, who will judge judge the quick and the dead, and this the word, you might have the word living, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

8:35 Now, we won't want spend a lot of time on this fact, but this is future, right? Will judge mankind, will judge us all at his appearing. And so let's catch the fact that there is a coming day when when the Lord Jesus Christ will appear. That's the future. That's that's a goal for all of us.

9:01 And you know, Philippians describes it that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the coming day. We are on the path, we are on the track for that to happen. It says, he will judge at his appearing and his kingdom. You you remember when when the Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray and gave us the model prayer, he said, hallowed be thy name.

9:33 When you pray say this, hallowed be thy name. The word hallowed is for reverence and it's saying, it's that same concept that you would bow before him. And what you're asking for there is that God in this world, would your name be hallowed? May it be true, may it be so, may your name be hallowed. It's not true today, is it?

9:57 Every knee is not bowing today. Every every person is not hallowing, not respecting the Lord Jesus Christ or or God the Father. But there's coming a day that that will be true. Hallowed be thy name. What's the next phrase?

10:15 Thy kingdom come. And so he says, this very first verse says, at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom, thy kingdom come. God's got a plan, God's working his plan out, Redemption is part of that plan. You and I are part of that plan to see others come to know Christ as his plan of redemption. He's given you and I the responsibility to tell others to build his kingdom.

11:21 It's a reference back up to the to the portion that we read in chapter three, talking about the scripture. The scripture was inspired of God and it's profitable. That's the key thing to catch. The scripture is profitable. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, instruction, and righteousness.

11:40 It's also profitable, we see, as as we would focus on the word that we would receive that rebuke and exhortation. We all have the opportunity to take in the word. It's up to you how much you take it in. It's up to you how much advantage you take of the word that's available. He's saying, look, focus on the word, preach the word, concentrate on the word.

12:09 It's it's got truth. Doctrine is truth. Doctrine is a line of thought. Doctrine is teaching. Doctrine is truth.

12:16 Here it is, align your life and actions with the truth of the word. And then he goes in verse three there to say, for there will come a time, and notice what this is, this is a turning away from the truth. There will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will, after their own lust, shall heap up to themselves teachers having itching or tingling ears. What are they doing? They're being lured away from the truth.

12:48 For they shall turn away their ears from the truth and they shall be turned to fables. This is a warning. This charge includes a warning. It tells us some things, it forecasts the future, it tells us to concentrate on the truth, be grounded in the truth, and then it gives us a warning. Go to verse five.

13:12 But watch thou in all things. Notice the action that that is here. But watch, the first action word we see. Watch thou in all things. Endure afflictions.

13:24 The second action word is endure. The next action word is do, do the work of an evangelist. And then another action word, make full proof of thy ministry. So we've kind of, we've talked about these first five verses as an overview. What I'd like to do is to use this verse five as a little bit more of an outline to help us understand the context where we're reading.

13:59 Is there anybody here like in driver's ed or freshly out of driver's ed, like a new driver? Katie. Katie's a bit in... I see Joe... Noah, Jeremy.

14:13 Yeah. Alright. Good.

14:15 Not me, Jeremy.

14:16 Jeremy, you're driving? Do you have your license? Temps? Alright, anybody else? We got two up here.

14:23 John Maddock just stopped.

14:25 Oh, where's John? He's not here. Oh, He'll

14:28 need a test tomorrow.

14:29 Oh, wow. So have you all been through the class? Alright, so I've asked Timothy, since he's the only one named Timothy in here, I've asked him, go ahead and scroll to the next screen. We're going to put up a few, we want to create a little list here as a group. Oh, that's the wrong one.

14:48 Alright. Here we go. So can you guys tell me in your driving class, in your driving instruction that you've had so far, what are some things that your instructor tell you to watch out for? This is just laid out there.

15:06 Kids running

15:07 Kids running the street, okay. You can write kids or pedestrians. You know, we're making a list of these. We're capturing this, all right. So, Jeremy, you got one?

15:21 Bad Bad weather. Okay. Got another one? Remember, you all got to drive here soon, alright. Come on.

15:32 Got another one? Noah, you got one? Bumps. Bumps. Look out for bumps in the road.

15:39 Let's see, Gabe, you got one? Stop signs. Watch out for stop signs. Let's see, what's your

15:47 name? Well,

15:49 no, behind me, I'm sorry. Right here. I'll get to you next summer. Yeah, what's your name? Trevor.

15:54 Trevor, what's something that you would watch out for while you're driving? Okay. Are you an offensive or a defensive driver? All right. Mary, you got one for us?

16:06 Taking turns too fast.

16:08 Okay. So watch your speed, is that what you would say? Taking turns to, you know, watch the speed you're going. How are doing Tim? All right.

16:20 Well, does anybody have something on their mind they'd just like to raise their hand and... Christian?

16:25 Watch out for those parked cars inside of the freeway that have those little...

16:33 Watch out for the authorities. Hey Olivia, get me some water. Now what I would like to do here, is there anybody here that's been driving for over thirty years? There's a few hands. There's a few hands.

17:04 Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Bingham. Mr.

17:07 Bingham, what is something that we should watch out for while we're driving?

17:13 Erratic driving by another driver.

17:16 That's They're drunk,

17:17 they're distracted.

17:18 Alright. Well, we're to keep that one, oh yes, that's fine. Distracted driver. And that's similar to our didn't we have other drivers, yeah. Okay.

17:29 But that's good. That's good. How about, where's another 30 year old driver? Or a... Joanne?

17:41 School buses? Alright. Buses. Right. School buses.

17:46 Oh, my. Oh, my. Audrey. Icy We Icy roads. Had weather conditions.

17:56 You all look at the list before you say a new one. Didn't we have... Yeah, bad weather. Alright, bad weather. Jennifer?

18:06 Oh yeah, dear. I should have checked this out, but I wonder like how the Ohioans driving records are. Because All right, so Janelle what are you saying? Okay. Alright.

18:34 Alright, good. So check your own car, what does that mean? Okay. Most vehicles now have these little air gauges. They have a gas gauge, right, and you have a, in fact, Don, where's Don?

18:58 There's Don. Don and I were driving the other day and his temperature gauge went off. We were low on radiator fluids. Right? Mrs.

19:07 Weeks were you going to I

19:08 learned to drive fifty years ago, but my father taught me to drive backwards and to parallel park before he'd ever let me drive forward.

19:21 That's good. That's good. Yep. So, with this exercise, okay, did we get to make sure, what I want you to put there, Tim, is I want you to put erase that 11 and put watch the dash. Okay, so that's your control panel.

19:43 You can put watch the dash or control panel, right. All our instrument ratings, right. I'm going to conclude the list section unless somebody's just got something really that's been itching to get out that they hadn't said yet. Maybe?

20:00 I'm going to say I survived driving in India for three years before I came to America.

20:07 Okay. Gotcha. International driving. So here's the thing I want you all to understand. Whether you're new aspiring drivers or whether you've been out there on the road for a while and Lisa, know, having a birthday the day of the message is really good material.

20:31 Whether you've been driving as long as Lisa has or if you're a driver. Will we agree with this? There are a lot of things to watch while we're driving. I mean, think about it. If I told, if I would tell Katie, let's say, look, you got to watch for kids, you gotta watch for the bad weather, you gotta watch for the bumps in the road, you gotta watch for these stop signs, you gotta watch for the other drivers, you gotta watch your speed, you gotta watch for the po po, you know.

21:05 You gotta watch for distracted drivers, school buses, deer and other animals, You gotta... And you... By the way, while you're watching for all that stuff out there, you gotta keep your eyes on your dash. Don't run low on blinker fluid. Okay?

21:18 And don't... Keep an eye. Keep... You don't check your blinker fluid? Oh, yeah.

21:25 So there are all kinds of things to watch out for, right? And guess what? We're scratching the surface. Are we not? Are we really not scratching the surface?

21:39 What about your rear view mirror? What about your speed? What about where you're going? Nobody put that up there. Right?

21:49 Nobody said that. So there's a lot to watch for. And Paul is writing to Timothy, hear the statement, hear what he says. He says, watch in all things. You're in the driver's seat of your life and there's a lot to watch out for.

22:13 We can we can take this analogy and say, hey, we gotta watch out for others. We got to watch out for our speed. We got to know where we're going. We got to know how how that fuel. Are we hanging in there?

22:33 Are we running on e? Am I running on fumes? Watching all things. We talked about, we joked about defensive or offensive drivers. Some people are out to get you.

22:46 You've got to watch out to get away from them. There is a sense of authority and sometimes that's a good thing. We want to keep mind of what the authority is telling us. Watch thou in all things. That's charge.

23:06 Now, I think everybody's capable of this. I want you to peer out like you're watching. Okay. Peer out, give me a watch, alright. So on the count of three, on the count of three we're going do the motion and we're going to repeat the charge, watch thou in all things, okay.

23:27 On the count of three, one, two, three, Watch thou in all things. Very good job. Very good. Now, let's go to our second phrase here. The second phrase says to endure afflictions.

24:08 The concept of sober, being sober minded, to watch, to walk circumspectly, Paul says it in another place in Peter, or no, Peter says it, and he says to to watch and keep watching. Be sober, be vigilant. It means to watch and to keep watching. It's a New Testament principle. Watch thou in all things.

24:29 The second phrase that we want to pay attention to is endure affliction. This is the charge, endure afflictions. I'm going to say, Tim, you don't have to write these down, just so you know, but I'm gonna say a person and I want you to tell me what you remember about this person. Joseph in Genesis. Joseph in Genesis.

24:55 What's something, let's do a raise of hands so we can keep a little bit of order. Carl?

25:00 He interpreted

25:01 dreams. He interpreted dreams. Dave?

25:05 He was in jail.

25:06 He was in jail and let's just, let's clarify, Justly or unjustly? Unjustly. Wayne? Code of Had the Code of Minute Colors. Wayne, what happened to that Code of Minute Colors?

25:21 They put blood all over it. Yeah. Got stolen, ripped up, put blood on, ruined, you could say. How about another, Zach?

25:29 His brothers.

25:33 His bros, right? Yeah. Left him for dead, sold him into slavery. We'll take one more.

25:43 He became second in command.

25:46 Okay. Yep. Became a ruler of Egypt. Now, how about I'm going to give you another name. Who says I'm not politically correct?

25:58 Naomi. I'll give you a female. Katie? Faithful. Faithful, yes.

26:05 Good. Hey front row, let's hear from you all up here. What's something you remember about Naomi? Okay. Death.

26:14 Who died? Speak loud so I can hear you.

26:18 Husbands and his son.

26:19 Her husband. Alright, yep. Two sons died. Anything else you want to say about that you remember about Naomi?

26:27 She had traveled to a new land.

26:28 Yeah. Do you remember why? Famine. There was a famine in the land and so she's traveling to it, having to leave her home, go. Pretty, in fact, does anybody in here have two sons?

26:44 You have two sons? Yeah. Jack and remind me of other name. Dan. Dan.

26:52 And so how old are they now? They're in their mid-20s? 25 and 27. Yeah, 27. Think about Lisa, think about this.

27:01 We're thinking about Naomi. She lost her husband, she lost her two adult sons. That's heavy. Who wants to trade places with Naomi in life that kind experience, right? Moses, give me a thought about Moses, something you remember about Moses.

27:23 He found the 10 Commandments.

27:25 Okay, found the 10 Commandments. Something else, Heidi? Okay, let them. Was that a joyous bliss or kind of a drag, kind of a hard thing. Joey?

27:43 Okay. So let me ask you this, where did he lead him to? Did he get to go in? No, he didn't. Yeah.

27:54 He didn't get to go in, right? Mary the mother of Jesus. Let me ask you about her. What's some things you remember about Mary the mother of Jesus? Joey?

28:10 She was a virgin.

28:11 Okay, good. She was not married, right Andy? Teenage mom. Teenage mother. Very, okay.

28:23 To be Joseph was going put her out.

28:26 Right. We don't get to read a whole lot about that, but just think about the weight that that would have been on her. That to wonder, and do you think people talked? Do you think people gossiped? Do you think she was probably looked down upon?

28:42 I mean, that was a heavy thing. Bob?

28:44 Well, scripture says she treasured these things in her heart, the memory of her son

28:49 Yeah. Yep. That's true. I saw one other hand over here. Lisa or Laura?

28:55 She was submissive to the Lord.

28:58 Yeah. Very good. Devin? Wow, that's an experience. Now let me...

29:05 Mrs. Clever. It's just what I was going get ready to bring up. What would that be like? What would that be like?

29:17 To see your son on the cross. To watch these soldiers straight up. And she knew, she knew he was innocent. She knew he had not done anything wrong. She knew who he was.

29:34 But she didn't understand that he had to die, but she had to watch it. Paul is writing a charge and we wonder, I scratched my head, I'm like, why does he put it in here? Endure afflictions. I don't like that. I want to erase that.

29:56 I don't like that charge. But let me ask you this, of the people we've mentioned so far, Joseph and Naomi and Moses and Mary, we could name others, Job. Think about Hannah. What about Hannah? Crying her eyes out.

30:14 I mean, her heart out. Asking for a child. Barren. Being being prodded at home by another by another woman. These people, can we say that they were having affliction?

30:35 Let me ask you this, did these people endure? We look back and we get to see Naomi change her name from bitter to a woman that is praising God. We hear about Joseph, mean what, how could we relate to being betrayed by his brothers, being separated from his father, being sold into slavery, being let down so many times like the baker and the butler forgetting him and like all these things but then we have Joseph who is given a place of prominence. So these people, these folks give us, they give us an example of ones that did endure. Listen to the definition of this enduring affliction, undergoing hardship, suffering trouble.

32:29 Zach? Zach's had his uncle and aunt moved in with him. They've got a debilitating Parkinson's in the latter stages of life. It's a hard circumstance. Thank you, Zach, for sharing that.

32:47 Zach's been a help to him. Who else? Got a hardship that you don't mind just sharing with the group that you're going through right now. Joanne? Yeah, thank you.

33:04 How many of us, this is your daughter, how many of us have a child, a son or daughter, and I'll even say an adult son or daughter that you wish were sitting right beside you right now? It's a hardship. That is tough. It's a tough thing. I love the Woodhams.

33:30 Who wants to trade place with Dave right now? Brother, you're an encouragement to us. Praise the Lord for you. But it's a hardship that you're enduring. Amen.

33:48 Amen. Joanne, we know you all are together in that. Your children are together in that. These are real things. These are real things.

34:10 Every one of us are going through hardships in our life. And here it is. I'm just... I'm sharing you... I'm sharing with you what the bible says.

34:20 It says to endure it. It doesn't say to tap out. It doesn't say to turn your back on God. It doesn't say to... It says to endure.

34:31 To endure these things. Now look, we're not alone in it. I will never leave you nor forsake you. We talked about the Lord Jesus on the cross and what Mary was watching. The Lord Jesus suffered in our stead.

34:55 The Lord Jesus suffered on our behalf. He endured affliction. We're in chapter four. Go back over to chapter two please. Go back over to chapter two and verses verses eight.

35:21 Eight through 10. Look look at this. Second Timothy chapter two verses eight. Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even as unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, this is Paul writing now who who's writing about Christ and what he had gone through and what he had suffered and now Paul himself writing this says, therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

36:07 Paul says, I endure all things. The admonition, the charge is to endure all things. Go back, go over to chapter three. Chapter three and verse 11. Look at this, it says, persecutions, afflictions, there's our same word, persecutions and afflictions which came unto me, but notice the last phrase of the verse.

36:30 Okay. What persecutions, they're they're the ones that were in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra, but what persecutions I endured. But out of all of them the Lord delivered me. Hear that phrase and hang on to it. Out of all of these afflictions the Lord delivered them.

36:55 Endure afflictions. I've got a list. In fact, I put my email address up here. Tim, can you scroll to that next one for the email? I've got a list, I won't take time to read it now because we're coming to the end, but there's 10 principles, 10 things, in fact, maybe I will just, I want to give you a little, taste of what it would be.

37:23 10 things that I found helpful, they're in a document, I can email these to you. I didn't make mass copies for everybody. The reason why we're suffering, we just read about it. These are all based out of second Timothy. Remember that you're a prisoner of Christ, not your circumstances.

37:39 Keep going back to the things that you know to be true from God's word. Keep doing what God has called you to do. Trust God to deal with those that oppose the truth. Remember the times in the past when the Lord has delivered or rescued you. Rely on the resources God has given you.

37:57 And these are... There's there's an explanation to every one of these bullet points. Remember that you're not alone. No matter how difficult things are today, you can face the future with hope and trust the truth of the scripture. In your suffering, remember the Lord Jesus Christ.

38:15 So if you want that document and these things that might be an encouragement to you, just let me know. Alright, man. My New Year's resolution was to allow the hour to last longer. We're at 12:00. We've got a...

39:09 And so you're paddling like this. And so let's everybody paddle. Everybody paddle. And on the count of three we're going to say this next phrase with our motion, alright. And it's going to be endure afflictions.

39:26 And so on the count of three, one, two, three, endure afflictions. We're going to watch in all things and we're going to endure afflictions. The next thing we come to it says to do the work of an evangelist. Boy, I'd love to spend a little bit more time on this. It's work.

39:47 Evangelism, there is a gift of evangelism in the New Testament church described by Paul and listed out, but that's not, it doesn't mean that only the evangelists do the work. The evangelists teach us to evangelize. We are to do the work of evangelism. And so I'll leave it at that because of time. Do the work of the evangelist.

40:10 It's sowing seed and if we wanted to do the motions and everything I would have a little story to go with that, but we're just going to skip it. Alright? But do the work of the evangelist. So what would it be like if you saw a person saved in 2019 as a result of you sharing the gospel with them? This is the charge.

40:39 Do the work of evangelism. When the Lord Jesus used the illustration of the seed and the sower, you'll remember we won't tell all types of the soils, but just because of time, there were four types. Three were no good for growing, one was. That meant 75% of the seed that was being cast out fell upon poor ground. What's part of the work?

41:05 What's part of the work? It's spreading 75% of the seed that's probably not going to germinate. The seed is the word of God. The seed is the gospel. The word here and the phraseology, if we look it up and study out what it means is do the work of the evangelist.

41:23 Another way to paraphrase that would be the a teller of the good news or the gospel. And so I'm going leave it to you all to do the work of an evangelist, to examine how can I do the work? How can I increase my seed distribution in 2019? Tell, write, call, There's there's lots of ways. Move on.

41:53 Make full proof your ministry is the last phrase. Make full proof your ministry. And in this this last phrase is... Well, the concept here is just to carry out fully or to bring to full measure. Andy and Janelle, we're standing with Andy and Janelle, they use spring water from White House Springs.

42:19 Anybody ever go to White House? Right? To get your water. And so we're filling up these five gallon buckets and you can't coordinate the water level to hit right at five gallons. It's going to be either too much water or not enough.

42:35 So Andy, being the sharp fellow that he is, he's developed a plan to where he fills it up to a point and then he fills another jug up to top it off or to bring it up to full measure. We read a phrase like this in scripture that says, make full proof your ministry and some of us say, wait a minute, I don't have a ministry, I'm not in full time ministry, I'm not a preacher, I'm not of this, I'm not of that, but guess what, all of us have a ministry. Remember, he's telling, it's a charge to all of us, make full proof your ministry and we'll... We can isolate our ministry to our spiritual gift for this purpose or this discussion. You all got a spiritual gift, do you agree with that?

43:13 Paul tells us in in first Corinthians chapter 12 that your spiritual gift, everyone has at least one, maybe multiple, and and the purpose of that spiritual gift is to profit all, to profit the whole body. And so, make full proof your ministry, bring it to full, bring bring bring it bring it to full completion, bring it to maturity, exercise, do your spiritual gift in the context of the local body. More could be said on that, but we'll leave it at that, these four charges that they have. Watch thou in all things. Endure afflictions.

43:53 Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof your ministry. There's a closing exercise I'd like us to do while we're going to transition into this lunch, and this won't take long. Now we're over time. Assuming the clock is right, and it is.

44:28 Watch, endure, do, and make. Those four action words that we got. So what I'd like you to do is you can, I'd like you to pick a partner, and I kind of would like to encourage you maybe not to pick someone you're really, in fact, let's just do this. Somebody from this side of the room, you go find somebody on this side of the room and vice versa. Meet with somebody, I want you to get together, two of you get together and pray for the other person in these four areas.

45:10 So Noah, if I'm... If my partner is Noah, I'm going to pray for Noah to watch in all things and what that entails for the Christian life. I'm going to pray for him to endure. I'm going to ask him, hey, are you going through any hardships? Well, how can I pray for you in an area that's hard for you right now?

45:28 I'm going to pray for him. Then I'm going to pray that he would do the work of an evangelist. And then I'm going to pray he would make full proof of his ministry. Right? And then then you reciprocate.

45:39 Does that... Everybody understand that?