Morning, brothers and sisters.
Let’s pray.
Father, we come before Thee right now because we can, because You made it possible for us to come. Thank You for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom You sent to bring us back to You.
And we will honor You this morning by coming back before You, coming into Your presence, sitting at Your feet, and asking, Lord, that You would speak to us from Your Word.
Lord, I am asking that we can hear Your voice in Your Word today, and that Your voice will be that which draws us to You, strengthens us, and makes us love You. We ask for Your Holy Spirit’s help, in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.
This will be the last time I want to speak on 2 Timothy during this time that I have been speaking. I want to be really different this time. I do not have some type of teaching, like we have been saying: here is Paul’s last letter, and these are the things he really wanted to get across to Timothy.
Some of the things we have seen are that Timothy needed to know he was beloved, and that there was prayer for him. We even talked about how the Lord Jesus intercedes for him and intercedes for us.
We have also seen what the Lord has left for Timothy: the Holy Spirit and the Word. We have seen that Paul gave him instructions to stir up the gift that was in him, to be diligent, to do the work of an evangelist, and to fulfill his ministry.
Especially, we talked about fulfilling the ministry as that one-on-one relationship. That is all of our ministry. It is the most important ministry we have: the ministry between us and the Lord. All other ministry comes out of that.
This morning, in closing my thoughts on 2 Timothy—and that is what these are, my thoughts on 2 Timothy—I want to talk about three people Paul mentions.
When you read, as Roger was opening today, some things strike you and some things do not. I think the Lord uses that in a lot of ways. In reading Timothy over and over again, these three people struck me.
There is no teaching behind this, really. It just struck me: why did Paul talk about these three people? We can look at what Paul thought and then ask, “How does that apply to us and the Lord?” That is the way I look at it. As I looked at what Paul was saying about these people, it made me think, “Lord, what are You saying to me?”
I do not know how you look at Paul. I remember when I first started reading the Bible, especially the New Testament, Paul was a hard guy.
They did a TV movie on Peter and Paul back in the 1980s, and Anthony Hopkins played Paul. We think of him as Hannibal Lecter, right? But he nailed what I thought Paul was like. He was just a hothead. It was almost like nobody could like this guy. He was always pushing.
When you first start reading the Bible, you think, “This man is so conceited. ‘Be like me.’ How can you say that?” But the more and more you read the New Testament, you see that Paul is hard.
I remember studying Philippians a few years ago, when I still lived in California. The thing that struck me was Paul saying to the Philippians, “I love you with the affection of Christ.” Paul had affection. You see him as a hard-nosed teacher, and here he has affection.
Sometimes I think that when we look at our heavenly Father Himself, we look at Him as though He is looking down at us and He is never pleased with us. Sometimes that is an image we have, and we have to get through that.
We think He is never pleased with us. We know He is pleased with His Son, but then we think, “Well, He is not pleased with me.” That is why what Roger said was so wonderful this morning: He has taken away those garments that are unpleasing to Him and put on us garments that are pleasing.
But what is the Lord’s heart really after? The three men I want to talk about are Onesiphorus in 2 Timothy 1, and Demas and Mark in 2 Timothy 4.
The things that struck me about these three men were, first, the way each of them had touched Paul personally, and that he knew their names. Out of all the people he knew, through all his travel and missionary journeys, he knew these men.
Not as a passing thing. He did not just know their names. At the beginning of the school year, I know my students’ names because I memorize the roll book. But at the end of the year, I know my students’ names and the characters they are, just from being with them.
Paul knew these men. In the same way, the Lord knows us. He knows us. I think that is important for us to know.
Let us look at these three men and see what they meant to Paul, and then ask how that applies to us.
In 2 Timothy 1, beginning with verse 15:
This thou knowest, that all that are in Asia turned away from me; of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.
The Lord grant mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus: for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain;
but, when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently, and found me
(the Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in that day); and in how many things he ministered at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
What did Onesiphorus mean to Paul? He refreshed him. He was a person who refreshed him. He loved Paul for who he was. He was not ashamed of the chain Paul was wearing.
At this time, all those in Asia had forsaken Paul. Why? Because he was a prisoner. This was Paul’s second imprisonment.
His first imprisonment was almost like house arrest. I do not want to make it sound light, but he had visitors coming in and out. He was able to share freely. I do not think he was looked upon so much as a criminal, but more as someone people wanted to hear. Then they let him go.
His second imprisonment was not like that. Onesiphorus had to search for him. Paul was guarded in a different way. This was not easy street, so to speak. I am not saying his first imprisonment was easy, but I think it was much easier than the second.
Unless you were really searching for him, you could not find him. But this fellow, Onesiphorus, would not be stopped from finding Paul so that he could minister to him.
That touched Paul’s heart. It was not that it impressed him; it touched his heart because he knew that this was who Onesiphorus was. Paul says, “You know how he ministered to me personally in Ephesus.” I want to put that in there: me. Paul knew it was meant for him.
We can say he may have ministered in monetary ways, but it had to be more than monetary. What was Paul going to do with money while he was in prison? Onesiphorus came after him because he loved him and wanted to bring him some type of comfort.
That comfort could have been fellowship: telling him how the saints in Ephesus were doing, letting him know, “Hey, Paul, I am praying for you. I brought some things for you.” But he came to minister to Paul.
Now, what does this mean for me? Big deal—a guy comes and ministers to Paul. I started thinking about what the Lord notices. If Paul noticed this about one brother doing something to minister to him, what is it that the Lord notices—not just notices, but really desires?
Verse 17 is what really struck me:
But, when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently, and found me.
He sought me out. He came looking for me.
To seek means you are looking for something because you want it, or you like it, or it has value to you. What was the object of his seeking? I think this is the most important thing: he was seeking a person.
Onesiphorus was seeking Paul—Saul of Tarsus. He was seeking that person. In the same way, I think that is what God wants of us. He wants us to seek Him as the Person He is, not for the things He offers, but for who He is.
Seek Me, and live.
Not, “Seek My blessings.” Seek Me. “I want you to know Me.”
I think Tack talked about it the other time when he spoke from John 17: eternal life is to know God. Well, how do you know God? You have to seek Him, and seek who He is—not His ways, not His blessings, but the Person of who He is.
As little kids, we do not seek the person of our parents because we know we can get things from them. We seek things from them, and we seek their affection. But as we get older, we start seeking who they are, and who they are begins to minister to us.
“How did you do these things? How could you love me through this?” We begin to find out from our experiences who it is that brought us into this world and gave us this life.
In the same way, I think that is what the Lord wants from us. He wants us to go through babyhood. That is part of life, is it not? That is part of growing up. But He is not satisfied with us remaining in that baby stage.
He wants us to come to that mature place where we have a relationship that goes beyond, “Gimme, gimme, gimme,” beyond, “I am hiding behind Your leg because I am afraid,” and comes to the place of saying, “I want to know You for who You are. I want to see You for who You are.”
That is what changes us. We do run for cover. The Lord does not have a problem with that. He does not have a problem with blessing us, but He desires us to desire to know Him for who He is.
That is why He created us: fellowship. That is why He has called us into the fellowship of His Son. “I want to share Myself with you, and I want you to share back with Me.” That is what He is after.
Where was Onesiphorus seeking? We know that he sought to minister to Paul in Ephesus. Ephesus was the normal place to seek Paul because that is where he lived. It was easy to seek Paul in Ephesus.
I look at Ephesus as the place where we usually seek the Lord. We seek Him in His Word. We seek Him when we come together in prayer and ministry. These are places where we seek the Lord and seek to know His Word.
But Onesiphorus also sought Paul in Rome. Rome was not nice to Christians at this time. This was the beginning of Nero’s reign, and there was beginning to be a turn against Christians.
He sought Paul in a place that was outside the usual place. The usual place is church stuff: reading the Bible, praying, and meeting together in fellowship.
The unusual place is where you go to work, where you are at school, and in the problems and circumstances of life that you face.
The seeking is not merely saying, “Get me out of here. Lord, just get me out of here. I have got to get out of here.” Or, “Give me an answer. Give me relief. Just give me relief in this.”
Instead, it is asking, “Where are You in this?” All that other stuff is where I am, and what I want. I want to get out, or I want an answer. That is very adolescent: “Me, me, me. I, I, I.”
But now it is, “Where are You? Where are You in this thing? Here I am in this mess. Here I am in this school. I see nothing around me except worldly influences and other things. Where are You?”
That strikes me like when Daniel was taken to Babylon. He did not cry out in anger. He said, in effect, “You put us here, Lord. What for? I want to be faithful to You in the place You have put me. How do I do that? Where are You here?”
Then it says that Onesiphorus sought Paul out very zealously. That is another word for diligent. It is the same Greek word we used last time when we talked about diligence. He sought very diligently, or very zealously.
We seek hardest for the things we value most. If things do not matter too much, we do not look very hard.
When was the last time you overturned your house looking for something? Can you remember what it was? I will bet you it was not anything frivolous.
My wife saw me go crazy just the other day. I was buying airplane tickets, and I could not find my little gold card. I went through a drawer, went upstairs and looked, came back downstairs, looked here, went back upstairs, looked in another drawer, and came back down to look again.
Finally, I found it on the floor, because I had dropped it while looking somewhere else. It took me a good half hour and a lot of aggravation because I could not find it. I was really upset—not that it is hard to picture me upset, mild-mannered as I am. Right, Jamie?
But we seek hardest for the things we value most. If we do not value something, we do not give it much time.
I have been caught cutting time with the Lord short because the Dodgers are on that night. “I will just finish up now, Lord, because the Dodgers…” It is terrible, is it not?
I think the problem with us is the era we live in. We live in an era of immediacy, of immediate gratification. If we do not get something right away, it is almost like it is not worth waiting for.
That is the way the world is, the way the generation is today. If I do not get it right away, it is not worth waiting for.
Because of that, we lose the sense of desperation that makes us seek. We never want to be desperate, but when we are desperate, that is when we look the hardest.
The time we live in is robbing us of that. “I am not desperate anymore.”
Think of Hannah if she had lived in this generation: “Oh, Lord, if I could have a child.” Well, I can get in vitro fertilization. I can take fertility drugs. No problem.
No doubt she might have had seven kids in one sitting because of fertility drugs, as we have seen many times. But out of desperation, she cried out, “Oh God, give me children.”
Then the Lord was able to give her what she wanted and get what He wanted. There is a mutuality in what comes out. We get what we want, and He gets what He wants. But notice: He gets what He wants first, and then He gives what we want.
We have lost that desperateness. We have lost the sense of waiting for the pause to be over before He speaks. We are just too impatient.
But Onesiphorus sought very zealously. Then there is this wonderful word in verse 17: and found me.
Seek, and ye shall find.
Sometimes it means, “Keep seeking.” Keep seeking, and you will keep finding.
We get to areas where we think we want to plateau: “Okay, this is enough.” But keep seeking, and you will keep finding, because He is eternal. He is big. There is so much more to find.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Another thing about seeking is that He says they will find Him when they seek Him with their whole heart. Do you know what that means? It is like the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
That “pure” means whole: a wholeheartedness in our seeking. It is something that cannot be put to the side. “Oh, I will put it to the side now, God.” It is a wholehearted desperation that says, “I must find Him.”
Onesiphorus would not be stopped. “I must find Paul.” In the same way, I think the Lord desires us to have that desperation in us: “I must find Him.”
Then Onesiphorus ministered to Paul. When we find the Lord, the Lord lets us minister. I am not talking about speaking up here. There are all sorts of ways to minister, because our ministry comes out of what we see of Him.
Our ministry comes out of our personal seeing of Him. I have told you about the job I hated. I remember saying, “Oh, Lord, please get me out of here. Get me out of here.”
Then one brother came and said, “Maybe the Lord wants us here.” We started to change our prayer. At first it was, “Get us out of here,” but then it became, “If there is anything You want…”
Later, I was saying, “Why do You want me here?” Because I hated it. “Why do You want me here?”
I found out in that job that these kids—the ones who had been kicked out, the ones people considered the dregs—started asking about the Lord because I was always saying, “Well, the Bible says…”
Finally, one day, one of the kids—I think his name was Louie—asked, “What does the Bible say?” Okay, you asked me. This is a learning moment.
I remember Caesar. Caesar was almost as big as I was, as an eighth grader. He was a big gangster wannabe. His mom came in and said, “I do not know what to do with Caesar.” I said, “I do not know what to do either. Do you want to pray for him?”
We prayed, and he was sitting in the corner saying, “Do not pray for me. Do not you be praying for me.” By the rest of the year, he was like a kitten. It was so weird.
It was like the Lord was saying, “I have been here all the time. I have been here all the time. Now that you have found Me, this is what I wanted. I love these people. You might not like them, but I love them, and I want them to know.”
You look for the Lord, and He shows you Himself. Then He has ministry. That ministry was to Him, and out of that ministry to Him came a witness to others.
In 2 Timothy 4:10, we have Demas. This is the third time Paul mentions Demas in Scripture. He mentions him in Colossians and Philemon. He is a fellow worker, greeting other saints.
But beginning with verse 9:
Give diligence to come shortly unto me:
for Demas forsook me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica.
Here is a fellow worker with Paul, and now he has left him. I do not want us to get the wrong picture about Demas.
If you read Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan uses Demas. You meet him at the hill called Lucre—filthy lucre. A lot of you do not know what lucre is, do you? It is money.
The idea is that Demas loved the world because he was after money. That makes him look like he had left the Lord completely. I do not think Demas left the Lord completely. He just loved the world.
The word “forsaken” means to withdraw. You can withdraw right away; you can kind of slink away into the night. But it can mean to withdraw from someone’s friendship, to withdraw from helping someone, or to withdraw your companionship.
Let me put in some spiritual words: to withdraw one’s fellowship, to withdraw one’s intimacy. It is just saying, “You are not enough.”
We use “forsaken” like, “That is a God-forsaken place.” Usually we are referring to a desert. We mean that God does not care for it anymore, that He is showing no care for it at all. He has withdrawn His blessing.
But here, it is us who are withdrawing the blessing.
“Demas has forsaken me.” I think this is the way the Lord looks at it. It is a personal thing to Him—not personal in the sense of, “I am going to get him,” but a personal hurt.
“Demas has forsaken Me. He has withdrawn from Me. What have I done?” That kind of feeling: “What have I done that he has withdrawn?”
It is like God becomes the third man out in a relationship. Have you ever been in that place? You are somebody’s friend, but someone else comes along, and suddenly you are eating your lunch while they are talking.
That is what forsaken is. All of a sudden, you are not in the place of relationship. You are not in that place that was meant for you to have.
He loved this present world.
For those of you older people who read your Bibles, we can compare this to Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh not wanting to enter the land because they were satisfied with what they had on the other side.
“We like what we have. You do not have to give us that. We will just stay out here.”
Or we can look at the Jews who stayed in Babylon after the captivity was over. They were told, “Whoever wants to go back to Jerusalem and build, go back.” Only a remnant went back. The rest said, “No, we like it here. We are making money. We have the Babylonian dream—two chariots in the garage, pet jackal. We are doing all right.”
It is like Dana shared at the Toronto conference from Hebrews: the good is the enemy of the best. We settle for what is good, get filled with that, and bypass the other.
It is like snacking before meals. We get filled up with something else, and we do not want the main course.
We could call it like the Christians in Laodicea: “We have need of nothing.” We have good worship. We have everything else. We are rich and wealthy. This is cool for us.
For younger people, look at it this way. It is like breaking up with the person you have gone with for a couple of years, and that person says, “I just want to see other people.” Or, “We are breaking up, but I want to be friends.”
That is all well and good for the person breaking up, because he is getting what he wants. He will still have you as a friend. But for you, you have been forsaken.
This hurts the Lord. It hurts Him, not in the way that it makes Him mad. It hurts Him like the person who has been told, “I want to see other people. You are just not enough for me.”
Demas left. He loved the world. Again, I do not think he lost his salvation or something like that. I think he stopped going on with the Lord because he settled for what is here. “This is good for me. I like it here.”
The one I really want to talk about is Mark. The next verse says:
Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is useful to me for ministering.
Get Mark. Let us give a little history of Mark, shall we?
Where do you find Mark mentioned? You find him in Acts—perhaps chapter 12, perhaps even before that—because when Peter gets out of prison, he goes to John Mark’s mother’s house. That is where they were having the meeting.
There is some dispute about whether he wrote the Gospel of Mark. If he did, then he was pretty close to Peter.
We know he was a cousin of Barnabas, another great church leader. He also went on the first missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas. What a great heritage. You can understand why Paul says, “He is useful to me for ministry.”
But we left something out, did we not? He deserted Paul and Barnabas on that first missionary journey. Could Paul have said of Mark, “Mark has forsaken me”?
That is why I think when we come to these things, we can suddenly throw everything out and say, “Well, that is the end of him.” But it was not the end of Mark.
This is where our hope really is. For some reason, Mark left. Maybe it was too hard. Maybe he missed his mother. Maybe he did not think it was going to be like this. Maybe it was too strange for him. Maybe he just did not like Paul. Maybe it was a personality conflict: “I cannot stand this guy. I am leaving.”
Whatever it was, he left. Maybe it was like the rich young ruler. “What do I have to do?” “Follow Me.” “Oh, man, You are asking me a pretty tough thing.”
After Paul and Barnabas returned and reported to Jerusalem everything that had happened, they were ready to go on their next missionary journey. Barnabas said, “I want to bring Mark.”
Paul did not actually say this, but it was kind of like, “Not over my dead body. He left us last time. I am not bringing him. This is important stuff. I am not going to bring a guy I cannot trust. Who is to say that we will get out there and he will not just leave again? I do not want him.”
They had such a disagreement that they split from each other. We could say Barnabas was just a really nice guy: “Oh, come on, let us have Mark. Give him a second chance.” But they were so adamant about their decisions that they separated.
I think they had to split on good terms. I really do, because I do not think they could have gone on their missionary journeys apart from each other while being at each other’s throats.
But we do not hear about Mark again until Colossians. Paul says, “Mark is with me.” What happened? This is what I say happened, and this is our hope.
Mark had to get R and R. You can find R and R in his name. Wait, wait, wait—Mark: M-A-R. Oh, wait, it was John Mark. J-O-H—yeah. Where is the other R?
It is in his name, really. John means, “the Lord has been gracious.” Now, where is an R in that? You can say there is an R in “gracious,” but the R is this: when you find John Mark in Colossians, he is with Paul.
What does that mean? It means that they have been reconciled. That is an R.
For some reason, Paul has reconciled with Mark. Remember, it was Mark who had done something against Paul. It is Paul who was offended, and Paul who has now been reconciled.
That is why I think Maury read this morning from Romans 5. We have been reconciled, and we have been reconciled while we were yet sinners.
I do not know how they got reconciled, but they got reconciled. That is a big thing, because without reconciliation, there is no service. You have to be reconciled first; otherwise, God can have nothing to do with you.
But He has taken the first step to reconcile us. Mark lived in that reconciliation, because we find him with Paul in Paul’s first imprisonment. He was reconciled.
Without Romans 5, there is no Romans 12. There is just no service.
The second R: do you know what Mark means? I looked it up in the front of my Bible. It means a large hammer.
That sounds kind of scary, does it not? Here comes a large hammer. But a hammer is a tool. It is a tool that has been formed and made to do something specific. It has been made for a purpose.
This is the second R: redemption. We are reconciled to God, and through that reconciliation we are redeemed and brought back to a place where He can use us, where we are serviceable to Him.
Mark is a hammer. He is a tool. He is not the one who wields the hammer; he is the hammer. He was formed.
How was he formed? God has His ways of forming that tool. Here is a man who had forsaken Paul, forsaken the work, and forsaken what the Lord had called him to do. Yet we find Barnabas bringing him along to go with him again.
I think there are many circumstances and people in our lives whom God uses to form us into the tool He wants to use.
What does Barnabas’ name mean? Son of encouragement. Here was a guy who went home after failing. How did he feel?
There is false encouragement, and there is real encouragement. Real encouragement is not saying, “Oh, you failed. I am sorry. You will do better next time.” It is saying, “You did fail, but this is not the end.”
There will be consequences to that, but that is not the end. That is encouragement. That is hope.
If Mark was the one who wrote the Gospel of Mark, who was his mentor for that? Peter. What did Peter know about failure and redemption? Oh, man.
There is a great verse in Galatians:
Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.
If someone is in sin, you who are spiritual, restore that one. Here is a guy who failed. You who are spiritual, restore him.
Who better than Peter? The Lord knows exactly what is needed to form us into the things He can use.
When I was a carpenter—and I was not a very good one—you would be banging nails. There are different things you can do when you bend a nail.
First, you can yank it out and throw it in the trash heap. Or you can take it out, put it in a vice, grip it tight, and take a wrench to it. But that is not really nice.
It is not the easiest thing to do, either. It comes out really tweaked.
Or you can take your hammer and tap it until it gets somewhat straight, while keeping it in the foundation. You keep it where it already started.
Then you straighten the part that is above it. When you have tapped it a little, tap it a little more to get it started, and then you can finish driving it. That way, it fulfills its purpose.
That is the way I think God works. He keeps us in the foundation. The foundation we are in is that we have been reconciled.
Oh, I cannot tell you how important it is to know this, to believe this, and to live as though you are reconciled. That is so needed today.
There is no fear for those of us who are in Christ Jesus about losing our salvation in that sense. You can lose reward, but put it this way: God loves me. God has reconciled me.
I should walk as though I have been reconciled. I should be in His presence and let Him fix me if I am out of order. Let me come into His presence, and let His Spirit deal with me there.
Not coming in presumptuously, but coming in as Hebrews says: I can approach boldly. Boldly means without fear that the hammer is going to fall on me.
Mark is a picture of God’s redemption: somebody who had forsaken, who has been reconciled, and who is useful again. That is redemption. That is our hope.
Maybe you have screwed up. Maybe you have screwed up really bad. But God can make it right. Come back to Him and say, “I have blown it.” Take His forgiveness, and then say, “Let me come back.” Come back.
Here is a verse I have always had trouble with. This is what I am going to close with:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day;
and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
I can never picture that for me. I have the hardest time picturing that for me because I know myself. I know all my failures, my propensities to fail, and my propensities to go off this way and that way.
So when I look at that, I say, “I wish. That is for Paul.”
But it says He will give it not to Paul only, but to all those who have loved His appearing. There is the second thing: love His appearing.
When I think of His appearing, sometimes I think, “Oh, the hammer is going to fall now.” That is the way I think. Maybe it is my Catholic upbringing; I do not know.
But do you know why I think that? Because I do not fully believe that He has reconciled me. That is why I think that way. I do not trust Him all the way in the sense that He is completely reconciled with me.
All His wrath has been poured out on His Son, and I stand holy and blameless.
In that verse Roger read this morning, Joshua the high priest is standing in his own rags, and Satan is accusing him. It is God who speaks out: “Dress him up. Just dress him up. Take away the other things.”
Can I believe that for me? Because that is what God has put before me in Jesus Christ: “I have reconciled you completely. Why do you not just come into My presence?”
We have this feeling that we have to do something or clean something up, thinking that will make it right. That is not right. We are to come as we are into His presence because He has reconciled us.
We are supposed to come in by faith because He has reconciled us, and then let Him do the things He needs to do. He will point out the things He wants done in His time.
He will redeem. That is His work. We are His workmanship, created anew for His work.
He wants us not to draw back.
My righteous one shall live by faith:
and if he shrink back, My soul hath no pleasure in him.
Sometimes I see this with little kids. Their boldness is a wonderful thing. They are so bold to come in, so willing to accept forgiveness.
Have you ever noticed that you can discipline a child, and at first they are kind of gun-shy for a little while, but before the day is out, it is as if that did not happen? Have you noticed that with your own kids?
It is like it never happened. Why is that? Because they trust your love. It is the simplest thing: they just trust your love.
I think that is what Paul is saying to us at the end. We have to trust the Lord’s love for us, fight through all the things that are against us, and come.
Just like the prodigal, we may come with the idea, “At least make me a servant.” But come with the understanding, “I have sinned,” and come back. When we get back, we find that we are reconciled.
That is the wonderful thing about reconciliation:
I have nothing against you.
I have nothing against you.
Come.
That is how I want to end 2 Timothy. Let us pray.
Our heavenly Father, we want to thank You that You just want us in Your presence, and that You have made Yourself available to us through the sending of Your Son.
It is not that You just want us in Your presence; You want to use us as those fully redeemed. Oh, Lord, I pray You would come against that spirit of unbelief in our heads and hearts that says, “It just cannot be true.”
I pray You would help us every day this week, as we wake up, just to come and say, “Lord, I am coming to You not because I feel good, but because You told me to come, because You have made it possible for me to come,” and then simply to come into Your presence.
Father, I pray that You would draw us out to seek You, to seek You in a way that we find You, and find You as more wonderful than merely a Reconciler. Help us find You for who You are.
Lord, as powerful as You are, we want to know You. You have made it possible for us to know You, and we desire to know You.
We do not want merely to lay on Your breast, Lord; that is not it. We want to know You in a way that we can walk, do Your work, know Your mind, and simply be with You. We want to be Your companion.
We do not want to be like Demas. We do not want to withdraw. We want to come after You.
Lord, the things that are out of joint—all of us have personal things that are out of joint and make us walk crooked—we bring to You, and we say, “Here they are.”
We cannot fix them. They are the way we are, but we come to You anyway with them and say, “Lord, here we are. Do with us as You would have done with us.”
Make us Your servants. Make us those who love You, who are desperate for You, and who find You. Thank You, Lord, that You are One who will be found and who wants to be found.
We give You our lives, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.