Fighting for Joy in Journey

If you have your Bibles with you, open them this morning to Book of Tewod Timothy, two Timothy, Second Timothy, chapter four, Second Timothy, Chapter four, Two Timothy, as you know, is a it's a beloved book for me. I wouldn't say it's my favorite book in the Bible. I think having a favorite book in the Bible is like having a favorite child. Even if you do, you don't say a man, but it's it's been. It's been like a dear friend. All the pastoral epistles first, two Timothy, and Titus, these books that the Apostle wrote to men whom he was sending into pastoral ministry in these church plants have really been meaningful to me, probably most meaningful from the time planting of GFBC, but they've grown more meaningful still even over the years. And it's been interesting sort of to watch the progression, you know, in the beginning of me learning to appreciate the pastoral epistles, and specifically two Timothy, it was as a Timothy and a Titus. And I'm reading these words of Paul and being encouraged by these words of Paul as though the Apostle were encouraging me as the young minister who was going and doing the work and planting the church, and then later on there was a transition, and in that transition, I found myself looking at the epistle from the other perspective as an older minister who was encouraging young minister in the faith and sending them out and now and an academic setting doing that as well, seeing this epistle from that perspective. But lately it's just been encouragement for me in my walk, and specifically the last part of the epistle. Usually when we talk about Two Timothy, there are certain passages in it that are just there. They're the juicy passages that we go to and you know that we memorize and they are wonderful passages throughout this book. Even in chapter four, we get excited about Second Timothy chapter four, and usually those those especially those first eight verses in two Timothy chapter four. But lately I have found a great deal of encouragement in the last half of Two Timothy chapter four, the part that we just kind of sort of glance over as the sort of anti climax after we've had this great triumphant text in the first eight verses. It's kind of like we've come in for a landing and now everything is finishing up and there's not a whole lot to be seen here, But there is. There, really is, especially in terms of fighting for joy in the journey. And that's what I want us to focus on today, fighting for joy in the journey. Not just finding joy in the journey, but fighting for joy in the journey. There are times in the Christian walk when we do just sort of we find joy in the journey, these amazing things that are just there right. But there are other times in the Christian walk where we find ourselves in a place where that joy is something that we have to not only seek out and root out, but it's something that we have to fight for, that we have to war for because it's just not there and it's not easily found unless we fight. Can anybody identify with that those moments where if we're not careful, we feel guilty because there have been those times in our walk when we've just found joy in the journey. We're just walking along the way and all of a sudden, there's something that we see and that we find and we say, ah, joy, not even looking for it. God is so good, Joy and then there are those other times when those things are still and we see them and they don't bring us joy, and then we feel guilty because we feel like, you know, that Christian that I was before was so much more of a Christian because that Christian could just find joy in all of these things. And now I'm seeing these things that I know are supposed to bring me joy, but they're not bringing me joy because my circumstances, my situation, whatever it is, is so overwhelming that I just don't see the joy that I used to see. And that's when we have to fight for joy. And the journey doesn't necessarily mean that you have less faith, doesn't necessarily mean that you were walking in sin or disobedience. It just means that you're in a season where you have to fight. Join me two Timothy, Chapter four, beginning in verse nine, Do your best to come to me soon, for Demus, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonika. Cressens has gone to Galatia, tiedus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me in ministry. Tichichus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Karpas at Troaz, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Greet Priscilla. Oh, greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onycypherus Erastus remained at Corinth. I left Trophemus, who was ill at Milidus. Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudence and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit grace be with you again. Normally something that we pass by, lied through because all the good stuff is gone. But it's not. There's good stuff here as well. I want us to look at two sides of this. First, I want to see what we fight when we're fighting for joy in the journey? What is it that we fight? And there's not an exhaustive list here. There are many things that are not listed here that we could list. For example, sometimes there's personal illness laws and he doesn't really discuss that here. He discusses it elsewhere, but he doesn't discuss this here. So this is not an exhaustive list of the things that put us in that position where we have to fight for joy in the journey. But I want us to see what we fight, and then I want us to see, lastly, why we fight, why we don't just give up and curl up and die. First, let's look at why we fight. Among the things that he lists here, and he doesn't really lift them, he alludes to them. Among the things that he alludes to here is loneliness. Loneliness and it's quite ironic, is it not. As Christians we are part of a community of faith. As Christians, we are part of a church, we're part of a family, we have friends, and all these other things. However, there are times when we are lonely. Even in the midst of it all. There are people right here, right now today, in a room full of other followers of Christ, who, because of their circumstances, are incredibly lonely. In fact, there are times in your life when being around more people feels more lonely than being by yourself. There are times in your life where there are things that you are walking with, that you are struggling with, that you are dealing with on the inside of you, that are not necess necessarily for public consumption. And the fact that you have to deal with that in the midst of a crowd of people who do not and or cannot know, makes you feel even more lonely and more isolated. Notice what he says here, first, do your best to come to me soon. In verse nine, verse twenty one, do your best to come before winter. But again, let's put these things in context. Go back to the beginning of the letter, go back to chapter one, chapter one, and look at verse three. I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience. As I remember you constantly in my prayers, not and day, as I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. There is a loneliness here, and this is a loneliness even in the midst of other brethren, because there are brethren with him we see down there. Toward the end he sends greetings from those other brothers who are with him. And yet in this moment he is experiencing loneliness as it relates to his relationship with Timothy. Look at the end of verse ten, Cressns has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Verse twelve. Tichikus I have sent to Ephesus. Go down to verse twenty. Erasts remained at Corinth. This is back in chapter four. Erastus remains in Corinth. I left Trophimus, who was ill at Melita's. Again, these are not bad things. In fact, for the most part, these are good things. And yet the reality is there is a sense of loneliness. It's interesting, you know, every time I come, and today was no different, being back here and seeing brothers and sisters that I miss terribly and who if I'm to believe what you say, miss me also, And that's part of the sweetness, Isn't that just a sweetness when you see people and you can hug their neck after a long absence, and you see children who were this big and now they're this big, and people who you know were just you know, kids doing their thing, and now you watch them walking around here with their own babies. And it's an incredible thing. But it's also a reminder that the Christian life is not a life where we go through like a magnet, constantly attracting others to us and them never going anywhere. But it's a life that we walk through where God draws us into relationships that are meaningful and beneficial, that are nourishing and nurturing, and then, for whatever reasons, has people go their separate ways, sometimes for wonderful reasons, like going to serve Him. Amen. We talked about this before in terms of church plants and things that just again, it's a wonderful thing, and you even feel guilty. This is great. It's a wonderful thing. And you might even find yourself before the Lord confessing Lord, I love you and I love your Church. I'm grateful that you are sending so and so to do thus and such in whatever place to expand your kingdom the Lord, Lord, this hurts. Lord, this is hard, and I feel guilty because I love you and I love your kingdom, and I want the advancement of your kingdom, and I want to just be able to say, ah, this is exciting, praise the Lord. I'm all for it, But my heart says, this distance hurts. It's real, and there are some of us who suffer from this more than others. There are some who just believe no one should ever go anywhere. I can't say. You ought to say, ouch, right, no one should ever go anywhere. But that's not the reality. And even if you are able to achieve that, even if you know by by by some miraculous set of circumstances, you are able to be that Christian who lives the Christian life and only has people come and never sees people go. No one ever moves away for a job, no one ever moves away from missions, no one ever moves away for whatever. People are just always there. Even if that were the case, people die, and eventually you have to bid farewell. And in those times, we have to fight for joy in the journey. We have to fight for joy the journey. There's a second thing here. Not not only is there this this loneliness, but there's also this disillusionment that causes us to have to fight for joy in the journey. Look at the passage here, verse ten, for Demus in love with this present world has deserted me. Demus in love with this present world has deserted me. We see Demus mentioned two other times, one in the book of Philiment Filelyman twenty three and twenty four. A Praferus, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demus, and Luke, my fellow workers. He's mentioned at least one other times in one other time and New Testament literature at least one other time mentioned by Paul as a fellow worker. And now we read here in our text that Demus, in love with this present world has deserted me. And isn't this interesting? And notice how Paul puts this, because it goes back to the first point, the point, the point of his loneliness. Because Demus being in love with this present world means that he's deserted the Lord. Amen. But right now Paul's talking about something very specific. In the end of this letter, Paul is buring his heart, and he's talking about his own difficulties, and his own difficulty has to do not just with the fact that Demus is in love with this present world, but that Demus, his friend and his co laborer, in love with this present world, has deserted him. We were fighting this fight together and now you're gone. There is disillusionment. And when we experience that disillusionment, we have to fight for joy in the journey, and sometimes you fight the wrong way. And I want you to notice how he writes this, for Demus in love with this present world has deserted me. He doesn't make any declarations about you know who Demus is as an insider or an outsider. He doesn't know, He can't declare. He doesn't even talk specifically about in this case, what Demus's desertion actually means. It's enough to say that Demus has deserted. He loved the world and he deserted. And here's one of the things that I find fascinating about this Demus and love of this present world. And again this is toward the end of Paul's ministry. He knows it's toward the end of his ministry because in the last paragraph he talks about the fact that he's being poured out like a drink, offering he's in prison and he's going to die. It's toward the end of his ministry. Demas was with him earlier in his ministry. Now toward the end of his ministry, you find out that Demus, in love of this present world, has deserted me. But here's what doesn't happen. Demis is not expunged from the scriptures. Was Demas a brother? I don't know. I can't know. I don't have to know. Did things that Demas did before count for anything? Apparently they did, because his name is still in the Bible at least three times. Amen. Somebody the old preachers, you say it this way. God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick. Amen. So people don't have to go around wondering, well, I mean, you know it, Demus taught me this. Do I throw it away? Now? Was it true? If it was true, hold to the truth, Amen. And there's a lot of that going around these days. A lot of people wanting to expunge certain individuals from history. I had a conversation with a woman on yesterday. You know, she's having all this angst, right, all this angst about Jonathan Edwards and you know, what do we do with Jonathan Edwards? And you know, and here's Jonathan Edwards and so on and so forth, and you know, he Jonathan Edwards was a slaveholder? What do we do about that? What do we do with Jonathan Edwards? And I said, what do you do with David? And she goes, yeah, well, you know, yeah, David and Bethsheba and yeah, all that, but you know, David kind of repented at that and so on and so forth. I was like, yes, but David owned multiple slaves for his whole life. You see, if you're looking for people from whom you can learn whose lives are not tainted with sin, you won't find them. You won't find them. People can disqualify themselves, and when they do, we acknowledge the fact that they're disqualified and they're removed. But you are not going to be able to Nor do you need to expunge every piece of truth from your mind that they ever taught you, Nor do you have to answer unanswerable questions like well, were they in or were they out? Was it knowing or was it unknowing? Was it that you can't know that and you don't have to look at the next one verse fourteen. This next disillusionment comes from a different source. Verse fourteen. Alexander the copper Smith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. Alexander the copper Smith. Again he's named here. This is a man who strongly opposed the message. This is an individual and we don't know what his relationship was with the apostle, but we know that this is an individual who didn't just have a different opinion, but he strongly opposed our message. This is the troll who won't leave us alone on social media. Amen, somebody right. This is the individual who continues to go at it again and again and again. This is the individual who will take a snippet of something and use that snippet and turn it into your huh. This is that individual. This is the individual who hates God and everyone who loves God. This is the individual who hates the Gospel and everyone who preaches the gospel. This is the individual who may claim to love the Gospel, but on this particular aspect of Christianity, he has a problem with you. And so rather than going after sin in the world, he goes after you because on this particular issue, you're more of a problem to him then lostness and sin in the world. That's Alexander the Coppersmith. And Alexander can make you have to fight for joy in the journey. Amen. Alexander can make you sit there going you know what. It'd be easy to respond to that, But I'm not going to respond to that. Why because Alexander got thirty seven people listening to him. But if I respond, it will be thirty seven hundred. So I'll swallow hard and take it. Disillusionment, disillusionment, Lord, I'm serving you. Why disillusionment, But that's not all Verse sixteen. At my first defense, no one, not any one, No one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. Again, it's one thing, right, You can be disillusioned when Demas demonstrates that he's actually in love with the world and he's gone that that that's painful. But we can put that in a category and Demas is gone. It's another thing when Alexander the Copper Smith opposes our message. That's fine, he's identified himself as over there and we're over here. But this is not that. This is the apostle, this is the church planter. This is the one who introduced Christianity to these folks, and he goes to his first defense and not one, not one stands with him, not one. This can bring about disillusionment. Certainly, there's certainly there's some It's not as though they didn't know. It's not as though they weren't aware. Certainly there's somebody. Certainly, certainly one of those people who was on their way to hell but heard the gospel because I was on that boat that came to shore, or because I spent six months, eight months, twelve months, eighteen months proclaiming the gospel and establishing the church. Certainly one of those individuals. Certainly one whose family was rescued. Certainly one whose loved one I comforted while they slipped off into the darkness of death. Certainly one. Certainly, no at his first defense, not even one. This is what we fight. This is what will cause you to have to fight for joining the journey but I want to remind you of why we fight back up with me. And look at verse eight. Verses eight and eighteen have to be seen together. Paul tells Timothy that he's about that he's being poured out like a drink offering. In other words, he's getting ready to die. That's another thing that will cause you to have to fight for joining the journey. Amen about to die. I'm not happy right now. I'm about to die. And so he starts there in verse six. That's verse six for I'm already being poured out of his drink offering in the you know what, this has happened to me On another occasion, I lost the whole line. Okay, all right, we're back. No, seriously, like the whole there's a whole verse that just wasn't there anymore, And to turn to this side, turned the back up so the verse would be there. Last week, I was preaching somewhere and I was reading through the passage. And I read through the passage and and it didn't make sense. There was something, and I read through it again, and I was at the church that had three morning services, and so I had to preach the same message. And then in the second service, I'm reading and it was there. And then in the third service, I'm getting ready to come in and I'm looking and the verse is not there. Again, something told me just reorient, soor I did it sideways, flipped, I did it back up front, and then the verse was back there. So anyway, I just wanted y'all to know why I had that little moment that I had up here verse six. For I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I have kept the faith now verse eight. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Look at verse eighteen. The Lord will rescue me good verse seventeen. First, but the Lord stood by me. This is right after no one came to his defense. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever I'm in. That's why, That's why two things. Number One, we fight for joy in the journey, because no matter what loneliness or disillusionment or anything else that we're dealing with, we are not on this journey for the sake of ourselves. It's for the sake of the gospel. It's for the sake of the gospel. Look at what he said, and that all the gentiles might hear it. That's what this is about. Why are you doing what you're doing so that all the gentiles might hear? Paul is an apostle to the gentiles. Paul's desire is that Christ might have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Paul is serving the Lord Jesus Christ to lay down his life to save his people. He died on the cross, taking upon himself the penalty that was due to his people and imputing to them the righteousness that he earned through his obedience. And because of his active and passive obedience. His active obedience in living a sinless life as passive obedience. In dying on the cross for the sins of his people, Christ offers redemption to all who will hear the Gospel and come to Him and repentance and faith. And the way that that happens is through the proclamation of the Gospel. Go back with me and look again at chapter one and live, beginning at verse eight two Timothy one eight. This answers it. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our God, about testament about our Lord, nor of me as prisoner. But share in suffering for the Gospel by the power of God. Share and suffering for the Gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to like through the Gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. Which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day. What has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me. In the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Preserve the Gospel, proclaim the Gospel. That's why we do what we do. That's why you don't curl up and die. That's why you fight for joy in the journey, because the journey is not about you. The journey is about the Gospel. The journey is about Christ having the fullness of the reward for which he died. That's what the journey is about. That's why we fight for joy in the journey. The sake of our calling, for the sake of those who desperately need to hear. That's why. But there's a final reason, and you've heard it here. You've heard it. You fight for joy in the journey because of the destination verse eighteen. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. Why fight for joy in the journey because of where the journey ends, because of where we're going. That's why. Because the journey is not the end, it's a means to an end. And so we fight for joy in the journey, rather than curling up on the side of the road somewhere and not continuing on to the celestial city. We fight for joy in the journey. We remind ourselves and again this is why. So when you go to the loneliness, what are we fighting the loneliness? Why fight that? And how do we fight that? We fight that by reminding ourselves that God sends people into other parts of the vineyard for the sake of the greater calling, and we rejoice in that. And when we get to see them again, we hug their neck real tight and we tell them we miss them, and we squeeze every bit of joy we can out of that reunion. And then we send them all on their way so that Christ might indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died. When the disillusionment comes, when we see individuals apostatize in love with the world, what do we do. Do we just curl up in a ball, and do we sit down somewhere and say that's it. I'm done with the journey because somebody is it finishing well, because somebody let me down, because somebody has forsaken their testimony. Therefore, because somebody forsook their testimony, I'm just going to curl up and die and not continue in the journey. If you were going to do that, why'd you start? Because there's people in the Bible who did that. You think that there'd be people in the Bible who do that, but not people in your life who do that. Help you is real, It happens, It hurts, weep and mourn. Use it to remind you. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Let it reminds you. Let it be that reminder for you. Let it make you cling even more tightly to the cross. But fight for joy in the journey and soldier on when there are people who are opposing you. Remember people opposed Christ, Amen, and he even told us they hated me. They're going to hate you when people oppose you, Fight for joy in the journey and soldier wrong. When you're brethren forsake you and they're not by your side in your hour of need, remind yourself of the one who is fight for joy in the journey and soldier on because the journey is about the person and work of Christ. It's about the glory of Christ. And the fact of the matter is, we really don't know what's happening, can't see the entirety of the journey. Who knows Paul may have been ushered into that heavenly kingdom and found Demus there, Demus who was rescued and redeemed before the end. We don't know. He may have found Alexander the Copper Smith there, because I don't know about you, but I have met some Alexander the Copper Smiths who've been radically saved after being enemies of the Gospel. Amen. We don't know. We do know that he met some of the brethren who didn't come to stand with him. And what we definitely know is that he met the Lord, the Lord who says, oh, you think you were lonely. I left heaven to wrap myself in flesh. You don't know lonely. Oh you think you think you were You think you were disillusioned. I was nailed to a tree by individuals into whom I breathed the breath of life. You think you were abandoned, you were forsaken. Really is that what you think? Christ is the one in the garden, sweating drops of blood, saying, if there is any other way, let this bitter cup pass from me, loneliness, disillusionment, fear, anxiety. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And because he finished his journey, we two can finish ours. Find joy in it. Let's bring