The Worst of Times, The Best of Us - No Reserves...No Retreat...No Regrets...

He was a Roman officer, and he was in command of a group of Roman soldiers. They were pretty far from their base. And you know, if you've ever seen old maps from centuries ago, there was a lot of the world that was unexplored, and they usually drew monsters and dragons Did uh why did they ever get explored? It's like that'll encourage exploration. We'll see the dragon. Um and he had to actually he had to go past the point. Where they knew what was there in order to accomplish his mission. So he sent back an urgent message with a courier to Rome and simply said, We have just marched off the map. Please send new orders. I thought, what a description of us in our time. See the uh the subtitle of this series. Empowered faith. For unprecedented times. Would you agree it's unprecedented times? Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I think we feel that way. We've just marched off the map, morally, politically, economically, mental health-wise, in so many ways. Parentally, we've marched off the map. So we say, Lord, send us orders. And he did in 2 Timothy. I don't know that they're new orders, but they're at least review orders, whatever In uh the fellowship of the ring, in uh Tolkien 's um uh Lord of the Rings, uh, and you don't need to know the story to understand There was a tough time, a very high uh evil was was taking over, and uh Frodo, who by the way is a what? Yeah, he's a hobbit. Um I try not to bring a hobbit and make it a habit to keep bringing this up, but He said, I wish it need not have happened in my time. Ever feel that way about what's going on? I wish it had not happened in my time. And Gandalf, the wise old man, says, so do I, and so do everybody who lives to see times like these. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time. That is given us. Good stuff. Unprecedented times. Stop lamenting them. Stop shaking your head. And being in a funk about it, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that has been handed to us. So where is all this going? Well, I have some bad news and some good news for you. We're going to start with the bad news because he describes a world that is dark and dangerous And amazingly familiar, sadly familiar. Let's take the first um Five verses of 2 Timothy chapter 3. But mark this, there will be terrible, now these this word in the Greek comes out dangerous, terrible, perilous Stressful. This translation says there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers. Of themselves, lovers of money. They'll be boastful. They will be proud. They'll be abusive and disobedient to their parents. They'll be ungrateful They'll be unholy. They'll be without love. Unforgiving. Slanderous. They'll be without self-control. Brutal. Not lovers of the good. They'll be treacherous. They'll be rash. They'll be conceited. They'll be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Oh, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, have nothing to do with such people. Now if that's all there was in this chapter, you would uh need to take some Valium, probably. It's like this is depressing. Yeah, imagine how Timothy felt. I mean, he's already sad. And then Paul says, this is the way it's uh this is the way it's going. The Secretary General of the United Nations said not too long ago, the world has never been more threatened or more divided. We are on the edge of an abyss. We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes. Dangerous times shall come, is what Paul said. And it's and why is it dangerous? Oh, nuclear weapons? No. It's not dangerous because of weapons. It's dangerous because of what people become. It's the what the people are that makes it a dangerous world. It's not the you know the bad news headlines of military things happening. It starts with three perverse loves. I don't know if you noticed this People will govern their lives based on three loves. Number one, lovers of themselves. They will that which is almost an oxymoron, because love by its very nature is about others, right? But no, they will love what they see in the mirror. They will love themselves. So all the rest of it comes from that, I think I uh it's all about me. Uh sound familiar? Okay. It's a selfie world Okay, the lovers of then they'll love money. Well, that makes sense. If I'm a lover of me, I'm probably going to be a lover of money. And then the third thing is they're going to love pleasure. In fact, they're going to love pleasure more than loving God. Their God will be pleasure. So out of those three loves comes a very dangerous world, an ugly world This is an example. I thought this was profound. This came out of World Magazine from one of their editors. Commenting on legal abortion, she said it's mass death as the price of copulating freely sacrificing tomorrow's human beings so that today's can avoid the inconvenience of sexual restraint. Wow. Lovers of themselves. Lovers of pleasure. Wow. Their God is pleasure, their new God, and it's a world that's totally about me. But beyond the three perverse loves comes what I call the loss of humanity. What is described in these horrific verses really is humans losing their humanness Now, in Greek, if you were reading this in the Greek, when you put a letter A, we do this in English, when you put the letter A in front of a word, it means without. So it's a it's just assume now there are words and they a bunch of them here that have that letter A in front of them. In other words, we had it, we lost it. Let me tell you what they are. First of all, no obeying parents. It is without obedience to parents. We lose that. In our world today, there's open defiance. Kids can actually legally emancipate themselves. You know, it's a legal process of emancipation. That they can say, I will no longer uh have be connected to my parents. Amazing. So it will be a world where parent that you can you can decide not to obey your parents Secondly, it's a world without gratitude. Everybody's entitled. I don't thank anybody for anything because I'm entitled. I got my rights So there's no thank you, and then there's no reverence. Without, it's a world without reverence. Nothing is sacred That's why it's a dangerous world. Nothing is sacred. And then it says, without natural affection But we see horrendous headlines these days of mothers killing their children and and and family I mean it just the the it's awful No natural affection. It'll be it's a world where people will have lost the affection that's always been held world people together. No forgiveness. You've been online lately? There's no mercy. There's no forgiveness. Remember when three strikes was out? Now it's one strike. You get my pronoun wrong And I will cancel you. Seriously. No forgiveness. It's an unforgiving world, just like Paul said. Canceled, deleted, one strike, you're out. No self-control. That's another one of the A words in here It is a world without self-control. It's everybody indulging their appetites. Because it's all about me. I just love me. Brutal. Constant violence. It's a world of constant violence. And finally, no love of what's good There's one of the devil's favorite tactics is what I call rebranding. He rebrands good things and makes them something bad And he rebrands bad things and makes them something good. Women's health Well who could be against that? What do you want? Unhealthy women? Code word, abortion. Women's health, isn't that nice? Women's health is nice, yeah, but not that kind. Listen to this. Um this is from Franklin Graham Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth. Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth. No love of what's good. And then some other words that are not in the category of the without, but treacherous, proud, slandering, savage. Would you call that a dangerous world when we have lost our humanity, our forgiving, our love, our natural affection, our gratitude? Unprecedented times. Yeah, dangerous times. Dark times You might need a little antidote for what I maybe what I just administered. How does this work? Nation will go to war against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes and there will be famines and there will be plagues in many lands and there will be terrifying things. The nations will be in turmoil. People will be terrified. Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. We've seen the end of the movie. It's a ugly movie, but I love the ending. I don't love the movie, but I seen this show You ever been uh been to a a movie that's kind of a scary movie and you decide you're gonna go back? The first time you went when all those scary things happened, you went, ah Jumped out of your seat. This time you watch everybody else. It's kind of funny you go, oh here we go, here we go. The whole theater's gonna be up out of their seat. Airborne, here we go. Yep, here's the screen. Ready? Ah! You're sitting there, calm as can be because you know the end of the story. You've seen the end of the movie. So, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 13. By now, how do you think Timothy is feeling? I mean, he has got a load. So here's the next step, Paul says. Now while evildoers and impostors, they will go from bad Too worse. What does this ever end? And they will be deceiving everybody, and they will, uh, in the process, they will be deceived. This is the worst of times. But you notice the title of this session? The worst of times. The best of us. But before we get to the best of us , I might take a bit of a detour, but not really, because there was something Paul said in 2 Timothy that made me think about what I'm writing my book about right now. Some people ask if I'm writing another book, and I only write a book when my heart is exploding, and I have to write it. That was with how it was with hope when your heart is breaking. I don't write books to write books. I'm not the I gotta be an author, no. And uh Let me tell you about an experience I had not too long a well, uh a few years ago now. Nick and I went to the cove together And I arrived early on purpose so I could hear Jim Cymbala , who's a friend and is a pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle in uh in New York. And uh Jim was having a pastors and wives gathering there, um, uh seminar, and at the end I got there for his last message and I was sitting in the back where I could see everybody, and he said, um, by the way, I'm going to close in prayer, and if any of you have a uh son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter that is away from the Lord and you'd like to have them prayed for, I'll be glad I'm gonna do that right now. And he said, if you You know, if you if you have that, if you want to come up here, that that would be fine and just kind of represent them or whatever. And there was a stampede This is all pastors and wives. And there were far more empty seats and filled. And the front was really flooded with pastors and wives. I have to say I was not surprised because I know a lot of pastors. But the visual I could not get over of seeing all of them up there. And thinking what they must be thinking. These are the shepherds, where their own lamb is gone. And how heartbreaking that is But then everywhere I go I I see this. I've never heard the word prodigal more times. then I I'm hearing it now. It is epidemic. And I know people I care about deeply in this room and people they care about deeply. who this is the great prayer of their heart. So the book, you know, I don't know what the title is going to be, but um it the heart of the book is Seven Ways to Pray for Your Prodigal. And those are in the back of your no no don't check. It's there, it'll still say the same when I'm done. Um but uh there uh I I did include those because I've talked about that before. But there was something in 2 Timothy, though it's not about this, I thought was tremendously applicable to it. And so I want to go to chapter 2 for a minute Because for many of us, a lot of this stuff I just read of all this darkness, it it has a name for us and maybe somebody we love. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I think you'll see Why this was somewhat reminiscent. And the Lord servant, he's talking about dealing with people who are opposed to their teaching. But he says, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. Notice his advice, it's relevant, must be but kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed Now look at this, in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth. See where the application is here? That's a prayer for somebody away from the Lord. And that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil. That's where they are They're trapped. They've been trapped by the enemy who has taken them captive to do his will. Huh. See why see why that got my attention? Now, uh just real quick, we don't have a lot of time to go into detail on this But just I put here in the notes, just before his dark world description, Paul speaks of those who oppose them, but his words are all too descriptive of many prodigal sons and daughters of our day. Since the beginning of time, the enemy has been trying to steal the children of the people of God. It started with a boy named Abel. The first child of parents. He tr he stole he tried to steal Abel. Samuel, the great judge, the great voice for God to the nation, his sons were amiss. His sons didn't follow the Lord. The enemy stole Samuel's kids. Eli, the high priest, that sort of discipled, in a sense, Samuel as he's growing up and supervised him growing up. Well, his sons slept with women at the temple and took for themselves whatever they wanted from the temple treasures Satan's been stealing the kids of God's people for centuries. Well, I don't have to talk about David's kids. I mean, how far do we want to go? This is nothing new. And Paul's advice to Timothy suggests guidance and hope. For the families of loved ones who are away from God, even though that's not what it originally was about, who are caught in the current of a culture running away from God. Just real quick, here's where I picked up. Not quarrelsome I like that. Not quarrelsome. Don't try to argue with them. Don't debate them. Sometimes the more we talk, the farther they get. Be about winning their heart, not winning an argument. Secondly, he taught us the word kind and gentle. And uh I'm thinking of some parents in Christian work whose daughter was pretty far gone and thankfully is back to the Lord now, and we're on the good side of that. But they said, I just wish we had spent more time connecting with them than confronting them. Be kind, be gentle Help them feel safe with you. Help them feel safe with you. You say, well, where's the hope, Brian? Oh, because it says pray that God will work in such a way that they will come to repentance and be rescued from the trap of the devil. That's hope, isn't it? He says that's what we ought to be praying for. Hope for a battle-weary parrot of a prodigal. Someone you love is away, but 2 Timothy talks about rescuing from the trap of the devil. Please get this in your heart. As long as there's breath, there's hope. As long as there's breath, there is hope. This is a chapter. This is not the book This book is still being written. There's a lot of books with some dark chapters that have happy endings. Don't give up on your praying. As long as there is breath, there is hope. And uh with that hope in your heart, I'm going to give you four hopeful steps to take. One, resist a double enemy. Victory. The devil is trying to get a double enemy. A double a double enemy. What did I say here? Double enemy. A double enemy victory, yes. Because he wants to take you out by taking them out. See, you might be the real target, the difference-making person. Because if he can fill you with shame I think of those pastors and wives down there at the altar with Jim Sibola. And how many of them are hearing a voice saying, who do you think you are? Trying to lead God's people. That's why I told you some of the history of him, the enemy trying to steal people and steal children. You're um uh this this i I I I see this all the time to try to get you to retreat And say, you know what? You just the wind goes out of your sails spiritually. You don't backslide, you don't go, but you don't fight like you used to. He's determined to take the fight out of you. Do not let him have a double victory. Do not take your stand against the devil's scheme. He is the accuser of the brethren day and night. Shut him up and walk away. And let this make you more determined to fight than ever before. Not to try to shame you into retreat. As the enemy uses your loved ones wandering to try to shame you or cause you to spiritually retreat. Secondly, pray the whatever it takes prayer. This is a scary prayer, it seems like to pray. Lord, do whatever it takes, but I want to add, within your perfect will. We used to, Karen and I used to just pray, do whatever it takes, and she one day said, Ron, you know what, that feels um what if something terrible happens to them tomorrow? So if you say, Lord, whatever it takes within your perfect will, we started to pray that way. Lord, do whatever it takes. Let me give you some scripture on that. Psalm 119. It is time for you to act, Lord Your laws being broken. Here's another verse. Psalm 119. 67. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word. It took affliction. To turn the corner, didn't it? That's what he says. And then the last thing, and then we're gonna get back to the worst of times and the best of us. Pray the mirror prayers. That is, the book is mainly about seven ways to pray for your your prodigal, but there are ways for you to pray for you too. And I only can just skim over them. Pray that God will help you see what he sees when he looks at that child. Pray that he will help you see them through his eyes. Pray that you he will enable you to love them like he does. A love that has no conditions Thirdly, pray that he will show you what may be broken and that you need to fix. That might be something the devil is using to keep them away from the Lord. Is there anything in you that's broken? And say, Lord, if there's any part of this, is me. You show me and I'll Lord you know show me if there's any offensive way in me. Show me where I need to forgive Show me where I need to forgive. Show me where I need to be forgiven. And help me keep trusting And I've given you three little encouragements here. Keep the light on, like the front porch light. Keep the light on so they're welcome home at any moment. Keep the light on. Keep your ears listening. And keep your arms open Is that helpful? Just a little encouragement to get back in the ring for another round. Now, you ready? The best of us for the worst of times. Timothy's gotten this gotten his all dark words here from from Paul, but now comes the turning point. Chapter 3, verse 14. Paul has one word for Timothy. But as for you, yes, the world is going to be bad. It's not only bad, it's going to keep getting worse. But As for you, none of that is you. That's them. Oh, whew! Okay. But as for you, what? Continue. It's the same word as the word for abide in Luke in John 15. Abide in the vine, abide in me. It's the same word. It means remain. It means stay. It means don't move. You're not visiting. You're moved in. Continue. So everything is going crazy and going downhill. You're not going anywhere. You stand where you are. You take your stand But as for you, continue. This is a great quote. I mean, the whole world may be uh speeding into deeper darkness But um this is uh I love this I think it's C. S. Lewis when the whole world is running toward a cliff He who is running in an opposite direction appears to be the one who has lost his mind. So everybody's going over the cliff, you're running the other way. Like you crazy, man. No, you going over the cliff. So um, but Listen, you know, uh there was a scene when that that awful tsunami hit Nepal, and I'm sure you saw it. I mean it would they showed it over and over again And just everything was torn up by the mass of floods. Well, not everything. That house! Stay! Every other house was going. And they said it was just built on a great foundation, anticipating there might be a flood someday. Well we stand on an unmoving foundation. And he said, when the world is a flood of darkness No matter how bad it gets, it ain't gonna change who you are. You be you. No matter what everybody else is becoming Continue. Stay. That's okay. Now this is going to be the best part. And we're headed in the home stretch, and I love where we're going to end. And so will you If you are in a hope-starved culture, we are, here's what we gotta do. You stand your ground. Ephesians 6, 10 and 11. Finally, be strong. We act this one out. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on. the full armor of God, so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes Take your stand. I should have you do it. Against the devil schemes. Yep. Stand your ground. There was a spiritual soldier named Demas, who did not. He was carried away by the flood. And what does that mean to stand your ground? Well, avoid small compromises. Notice small is in quotation marks. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 8. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. And find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with. No compromise. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them Where, you know the hymn, prone to wander? Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Sheep don't run away from a shepherd. They wander away. Sheepdunkle. He's not looking. They don't do that. He just go. Oh, a butterfly. Oh that grass looks really good. I wonder if there's more grass over the hill. That's even better. Let's see what's over the hill. One day they go, where's the shepherd? Where'd he go? He didn't go anywhere. And you didn't mean to get away. Doug talked to us about drift. That's the way we end up in places we never dreamed we'd be. We wander. We drift. It's the small compromises And you know what Jesus said in the last days, because of the increase of wickedness, it's going to be so pervasive, it's going to be so normal. Sin is going to be so normal. That it's just gonna erode. People are most of his people are gonna be cold, it says. It's just it's not explosion, it's erosion. And you've got to take your stand in your own life against small compromises. Now, this doesn't mean you're judgmental, this doesn't mean you're mean. This doesn't mean you're on the internet, you know, getting mad at everybody. This is personal. Avoid small compromises. And guard your heart. Proverbs 4. 23. Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. You ever watch on TV? Which you would never allow in your living room? Immorality, violence. Extreme profanity. Don't feed your dark side by what you watch or what you listen to It's just slow erosion. Continue. Stay. Stand. And then find some brothers and sisters. who have a no-retreat heart and pray with them. You need some people who say, we We've got to stay pure for the sake of everybody around us because we're the only thing, only way they're going to see what Jesus is like. So pray with brothers and sisters. When the surrender order came to the Alamo, Jim Bowie was had a fever and he had been in command of the 186th brave Texans and people really from all over that were there. And Colonel William Travis had become, was in command And after a couple of attempts to take the Alamo, Santa Ana, with the Mexican army, and it it was inevitable the next wave that they would break through, he issued a surrender order. And he said, we will order no quarter and we'll we'll kill them all, kill you all, basically And Travis got his people together in the plaza and he said, I have answered the surrender demand. With a cannon shot. Your heroism got ultimate victory, as you know. And the freedom of Texas, but I think that's how you need to answer. When the devil comes in and pushes one of your buttons, you answer with a cannon shot. We got a whole lot of cannonballs right here. You answer with a cannon shot. I ain't going there. It's worked before. I ain't going there anymore. Nope. So remember, no matter how dark the night Darkness has no power to extinguish light. You could have one little candle in a room And it doesn't matter how dark it is, that darkness can't the darkness can't do anything with the light. It can't put out light. But that little light will change the darkness. It doesn't work the other way. Darkness has no power to extinguish light. But light has power to dispel darkness. A little light can dispel big darkness. So here we go. When a Christ-filled you walks into a room, Joy walks in with you. Peace walks in with you. Hope walks in with you. I hope. Because to the extent that he is controlling you, you bring him into the room and all that he is And suddenly this world going dark has a light. This is, do you know how we, you know Many of you know that uh that I told our kids go mad when they left for school and that everybody thought I had. Um and but we knew it meant go make a difference. You know how that started Uh Lisa I think I think when we had that conversation in the kitchen you were like second grade or something like that. And Lisa said, Daddy, I really it's really hard at school because the kids are all talk dirty and they swear and they don't respect their parents and They're selfish and they're mean. And I said, honey, do you know one of the reasons that might be? Maybe they've never seen anybody be any other way. So they say, well everybody's like this. Everybody does this. Well what if what if you don't? Then everybody doesn't do it. And you could show them a different way to be. And maybe some of them will want to be that So instead of going to school to just make grades or make friends, go mad today, honey. And then her brothers grew up with that And now we have a podcast. Go mad with Doug and Brad. Go make a difference. That's the point. All of a sudden there's a light. Because you continued when everybody else is going crazy. They're going over the cliff. You're running the other way. But you're also grabbing them on their way to the cliff. That's not in there, but I just no extra charge. But you know what? Here's what he says to Timothy. Let's go here. This is the good stuff. Chapter 3, verse 14. As for you, continue in what you've learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have learned it from infancy. You've known the holy scriptures, because that grandma Lois and and Mama Eunice , which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. You know you know the scriptures, don't you? All right, here we go. All scripture, this is so important, and I saw something in this verse I've never seen before just a couple weeks ago. All scripture is God breathed. And is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. So he brings Timothy Back to you stay who you are, and how do you do that? He says, You got the scriptures, man. You got the scriptures So bring God's word. Bring God's word into the darkness. Marinate in God's word You know what happens when you do? You develop what I call God think. Now I don't mean you're omniscient. But I mean you begin to think about things like God thinks about them. You see a dark world through his eyes You see your neighbor through his eyes. You see that wandering son or daughter and you see what he sees. You see in that financial crisis what he sees. You see in in politics what he sees. You see in a dangerous world what he sees. It changes everything And that's through constant immersion in the Word of God, which helps you begin to think like God does about things. And then you begin to be alert for opportunities to share his word. Now, follow me on this. All scripture is God breathed. And this is when I was shouting hallelujah. Genesis chapter 2, verse 7. The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostril the breath of life. And the man became a living being. If the scriptures are God-breathed, do you know what the breath of God does? It gave life to the human life to the human race. God breathed and dust became a man. Unbelievable. How about the um valley of dry bones? The prophet is there and God says, tell these bones they're going to live. And it says, God breathed on dry bones. And it became an army. The breath of God is life-giving. All scripture is the breath of God. So when I give you a verse about a situation you are in, I am breathing God's life into that situation When you claim a verse, when you let a verse be the deciding factor in what you're about to do, you have breathed the life of God into that. Is that not exciting? Come on, hallelujah! Good night. That's I mean join me. I'm not gonna yell this alone. I was when I first I was like I started to think about what the breath of God does. Oh my gosh, this is awesome And it's all, and and this this isn't just words, man. This isn't just text. This is this is life. It is life-giving. I had a friend tell me not very long ago. He said we nothing could was helping our marriage. And he said we had been to five different counselors. And they did their best, but we didn't, and nothing was working He said, and we just had an idea. We every day said we're going to read God 's word aloud together and just alternate reading verses. And then we're going to pray as we go through the verses and pray that verse. They started with Psalms. So they'd be there a while. And then they went to other books of the Bible. They didn't make it to Leviticus. And Leviticus always gets a bad rap. It's terrible. But you know why? He said it's the only thing that ever worked. He said we got to the point as we started to work through scriptures aloud and then pray verse by verse for them as we went through it. Our heart softened. That's a whole different marriage today. What happened? In those verses was a breath of life. was the breath that made man come to life and turn dry bones into an army. Wow. So however dark it gets, that is blazing light. I have in my Bible God's breath. I I told you this was going to end fun. It's a dark trip, but man has it got a great destination. So the same breath that gave life to humans and brought dry bones to life and made them an army God's word is literally life-giving, and when you bring God's word into a situation, you are literally breathing life into that situation. So, our final accelerant of empowered faith is what I call scripture light or the light of scripture Because it it illuminates the darkness no matter how dark it has gotten. So your mission in a dark world. So we started, empowered faith in an unprecedented time. Your mission is to stand your ground. So they have a chance to see God 's different kind of life. They maybe think it's just like how everybody is now, except there's you And you are the contradiction to the narrative. That's just the way everybody is. Not everybody. And your mission is to bring his word so they can hear God's life-giving voice I have a very mysterious light bulb at my house. Probably never heard that word applied to a light bulb. Oh, we would use this one you would. Because I can't remember ever replacing it. It's on the front porch It just never burns out. I don't know what it may be maybe dead bugs uh provide energy. I don't know what it is But it just it's always shines. I'll go home and it'll it's on 24 hours a day, every day. Never goes out. It'll still be going when I get home. I don't know what the deal is with the light. But it doesn't matter what storm there is, doesn't matter how dark it is, doesn't matter if there's a total eclipse. The light is still on. That's you. That's you That's our calling. And that's where Paul left Timothy Yeah, the light named Apostle Paul was going to be gone, but there would be a light called Timothy. So in a very dark world We are the light that never stops shining until we've run our race We fought and we finished. And we're welcomed home. Room full of Light bulbs that never burn out. Right here before my eyes. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. I guess we should have known. That uh wondering how to live in a world like ours, it would come right back and we would be standing on your word. The rock that never moves, the light that never goes out that breathes life where there is no life. Even dead bones come to life. With the breath of God And when we hold your word, we speak your word, we read your word, we are filled with that life. How wonderful is that? So we leave here today with a holy militancy. To be bolder than ever, because we stand on this book. Our fear will not decide what we do anymore. Our faith will. For whatever our monster is, our God is big, our master is bigger than our monster. And that's what really matters. Give us courage, boldness. Compassion and tenderness and gentleness, but strength. And made the best of our days with Jesus and the greatest difference we've ever made, not be in our rearview mirror or in our scrapbook, but may it be ahead of us yet. Thank you for convening us so you could talk to us. We have listened. And we will obey. In Jesus' name. Amen.