Good afternoon, brothers and sisters.
Could you please turn with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5? We will start in verse 15.
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Then, if you could turn forward to verse 25:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that she should be holy and blameless.
Then chapter 1, verse 22:
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
And then, if you could please turn to Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 10.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,
to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father;
for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Then Hebrews chapter 13, verse 1:
Let love of the brethren continue.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Verse 3:
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.
And then finally, the book of Genesis, chapter 4. We will read verse 9.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.”
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we are thankful to You for all of the things that You have been doing these days. Lord, we come before You again this afternoon, thanking You, for we sense that Your presence is among us.
So, Lord, we pray this afternoon that You might have all of our hearts—the speaker and the listener, Lord, all of us before You. Lord, we pray that You would have an open way to reach us.
Thank You, Lord, for loving us so much. Thank You, Lord, that You are God, filled with purpose. In Your grace, You have made it so that men and women could play a role in that purpose.
So, Lord, we lift Your name. Have the highest place among Your people. We give You praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So, brothers and sisters, we have been considering the question of redeeming our time. In Ephesians 5, Paul wrote to the brothers and sisters in Ephesus, “Redeem the time. The days are evil. Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Now, brothers and sisters, we would like to spend some time today talking about what the will of the Lord is. Yesterday, we spoke about sonship. Today, our focus will be on what it means to be brothers—brothers, of course, and sisters—but we will simply use the term brothers.
We cannot talk about purpose without talking about brothers. The enemy has taken something that was very high in the heart of God and made it very low, very cheap. But in the heart of God, this issue of being brothers has always held a very high place, a very special place.
We shared yesterday that when Adam and Eve sinned, they cast down sonship. Being heirs meant nothing to man anymore. Soon after that, in Cain and Abel, we cast down what it was to be brothers.
Cain asked the Lord, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Essentially: “Is he my responsibility?” You see, brothers and sisters, from the very beginning, brothers were brothers’ responsibilities. Our well-being was bound together because, in the purpose of God, brothers should be bound together. We were responsible for one another.
But the enemy caused the life of Christ—the life that was in the tree of life—to be cast down and counted as having no worth. As he did that, not only did we lose in our hearts what it meant to be sons; we lost what it means to be brothers.
So, by the Lord’s grace, this afternoon we would like to see why it was so important for Him to mention to us that we are brothers, and that we are responsible for one another.
I will start with a verse that is very curious, a verse I have contemplated for some time. It is Hebrews 5:8. The Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus learned obedience through the things which He suffered.
Now, this was a very curious verse for me. The reason it was so curious is this: How can the Lord learn something? Is He not perfect? As I read through the Bible more, I realized there are multiple verses that speak of the Lord Jesus being made more perfect. That raises a very important question: How can the perfect be made more perfect?
Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus, when He came to this earth, came to seek and save the lost. I think when Timothy was charged by Paul to go to Ephesus and take care of the brothers and sisters, he must have thought, “I need to go there to maintain their well-being, to help them grow, to help them face life, and to help them make it through life and bear a testimony.”
Brothers and sisters, we all start the same way. We think that the Bible, or the letter to the Ephesians, was written for us. But I think at some point, as Timothy was studying and reading and preparing, he began to realize that this was all for Him—that this whole Bible, all of these books that were written, and everything he was to do in Ephesus, was not for Timothy himself. It was for the Lord.
I wonder whether, when Timothy realized this, he went back and read it all again. All of a sudden, there was a depth to what he was reading. All of this, from the beginning, was for Him.
Now, brothers and sisters, our Lord is perfect. We know this. You cannot find a more perfect man in every way. But by His choosing, He chose to come to this earth to save you and me.
Would it not have been easier if the Lord had decided to come as a twenty-year-old? He could have skipped all the angst of the teenage years. Would it not have been easier to come later? Would that have diminished the perfection of His nature, or the fact that He is the perfect Lamb of God?
But the Lord decided, in His wisdom and counsel with His Father, “I will go.” When He came, He decided that He would come as a baby, grow up, and learn obedience through the things that He suffered.
He had never suffered this way before. But He came so that He could learn obedience through the things which He suffered. Now, brothers and sisters, why would He do this? If the objective were salvation, and that were the only objective, it would have been easier to skip all of that—skip the suffering.
But brothers and sisters, we know from reading the Bible that He had in His heart that He would be a perfect, merciful, and faithful High Priest. If one day a teenager were to come to Him and ask Him for help in time of need, the Lord knew in His heart, “I need to be able to tell My sheep that I understand, that I have been there before.”
Brothers and sisters, how can the perfect be made more perfect? It was because of His own choosing. He had a longing in His heart. This was not a requirement of being the Son of God. Of His own choosing, He loved the church and the bride.
Now, brothers and sisters, there was a hole in His heart, if we can say it this way—and I do not mean to be flippant. In terms of quality, He could not be made more perfect. We know this. If that were not the case, when He was crucified, you and I would still have no hope.
But brothers and sisters, whenever the Bible says that He was made more perfect, it was because He was moving forward toward the fulfillment of the anxious longing in His heart. This is a huge thing.
We cannot share about this topic without sharing about brothers. We can speak all we want about our personal relationship with the Lord, and of course how important that is. But at some point Timothy realized, “This is all for Him. This is all for Him.”
Everything that we are doing, every day that we have been given, the life that the Lord has blessed us to live—everything we are doing is unto Him. It speaks of purpose, and it speaks of meaning.
Brothers and sisters, we remember that in the book of Hebrews we read this before. Let us turn to it, because it can be confusing—especially if I butcher it when I say it from memory. Hebrews 2:10:
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,
to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
Now, who exactly is the Holy Spirit referring to in this verse: “to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings”? He is speaking about our wonderful Lord Jesus. How can He be made more perfect? It was that He was bringing many sons to glory.
Then verse 11 says:
For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
So, brothers and sisters, what we see is that in bringing many sons to glory and in being made brethren, He was perfecting the Perfect One. There was something of being made complete in saving us.
Now, brothers and sisters, knowing ourselves, how could this be? It speaks of this longing in His heart for us. It is a singular bride, made up of the life of Christ and many brethren, many sons. It is an incredible thing, brothers and sisters.
This anxious longing was so much in His heart that the verse reminds us: “for whom are all things, and through whom are all things.” We know from the Bible that all of creation was for Him and through Him.
What we see in Romans 8 is that this longing was translated from the Creator to the things that He created. The Bible tells us that there is an anxious longing in creation for the revealing of the sons.
So, brothers and sisters, all of creation is waiting for the fulfillment—the being made perfect—of this desire in the Creator’s heart. Everything was made for this reason. All of this, all of this, was for Him. It was all for Him.
Our brother last night mentioned that if we could have a glimpse of the Father’s love for His Son, I think if we caught a glimpse of that for one moment, it would give us meaning for the rest of our lives.
Brothers and sisters, this was all for Him. How old was this longing? It was in Genesis. If we turn to Genesis 1:1, we see the Creator creating.
In verse 4, He saw that the light was good. In verse 12, the plants, vegetation, and seed were good. In verse 18, there would be day and night, and it was good. In verse 21, it was good. In verse 25, it was good. All the things the Lord had created were good.
Then, in Genesis 2, the Lord created man. In verse 18, we see that the Lord God said—before man sinned, before temptation had come, even before Eve had been created—He looked at man and said, “It is not good.”
Brothers and sisters, what was not good? There had been no sin. There was no sin. Sin had not yet been introduced into the world. But as the Lord looked upon Adam, I think what happened was that this longing in His heart, which had been there from the beginning when He breathed His life into Adam, was translated into Adam.
Adam was wandering around, taking care of the garden, and the Lord looked at him and realized that something was missing. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we look at our children and see in them something of ourselves. I look at my sons and see in them, sometimes, my own failings or idiosyncrasies. I realize, “Poor guy, he is just like me.”
But brothers, something happened. The Lord saw Adam in the garden, and He knew that it was not good. Not sin—it was that something was not complete.
So He put Adam to sleep. Out of his side, He removed something, and from that He created Eve and brought the two together. Then, in Genesis 1:31, He looked at all that He had made and said, “Behold, it was very good.”
Brothers and sisters, what we are sharing is that this is an old longing. It is from the beginning, and it has governed everything that He has done and everything that our heavenly Father is doing. It is an amazing thing, actually.
In Ephesians 5, right after our theme verse, Paul wrote a paragraph. It was not simply because he knew Timothy might be marrying Brother Joe and Sister Jane’s son and daughter. These verses in verse 25, we associate with getting married—and they are.
But if we start in verse 25, what we see is that the Holy Spirit included the history of all mankind in three verses about getting married—or what we thought was about getting married.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that she should be holy and blameless.
Then verse 28:
So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
because we are members of His body.
For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
Brothers and sisters, if we look at these verses together, we could say that in the beginning Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.
If I had to guess what present time is, I would say it is verse 26: sanctifying, working on this. Then verse 27: that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.
So what we see, brothers and sisters, is that from the beginning there was this anxious longing, and He has been at work from then until now on us. What a great privilege this is.
We come to a very important fact: this work cannot be done by just one person. It cannot be accomplished by one son’s relationship with his Father.
We finished yesterday with a wonderful parable about two sons. We shared about how one of the sons had fallen away. The father waited for his return, and when he returned, the father ran out to meet him. He took the fattened calf and killed it, gave him the robes of sonship, and gave him the ring of the authority of the house.
The older brother came, and he was not happy. He said that he had always been with the father, and that he had been faithful to his duties as a son. But he said, “When this son of yours, who wasted your money on harlots, returned, you killed the fattened calf for him.”
The father had to correct him. It was a gentle correction, but the older brother had spoken the words, “This son of yours,” meaning, “This one belongs to You. He is Yours.” The father had to correct him and say, “No, all of what you said is true, but this brother of yours, he had been dead and has begun to live again.”
What did this mean, brothers and sisters? What was the difference between “this son of yours” and “this brother of yours”?
What the father was saying to us is, “No, no, he is not just My son. This brother belongs to you. He belongs to you. He is your responsibility.” This ownership is real.
We cannot share about the purpose of the ages if we do not understand that the Lord desires for us to be brothers. He was telling him, “This brother of yours, he belongs to you. Your purposes are joined together, so much so, in fact, that we cannot move on without him.”
It is a unique and heavenly term. It is not spoken of lightly. It is founded on one life.
We can choose whom we are friends with. We can choose whom we marry. We can choose many things in this life. But we cannot choose who our brothers and sisters are. As long as the life of God, the life of Christ, has been deposited in a person, that person is our brother or sister. We have no choice.
In these days, the enemy is actively at work to undo this. We have divisions, opinions, my ministry versus their ministry.
I remember when I was studying Timothy. In 1 Corinthians, when Paul was sending Timothy there, he said, “I expect Timothy to be among the brethren”—not above, not below, but that we are all one.
In these days, the enemy would have it such that there are different ministries and different factions. Thank the Lord that in these days He is doing an incredible work to hold His people together. If it were left to us, we would have headed in many different directions. He is actively at work in holding us together.
This term brothers is a heavenly term. It applies in our best moments, and it applies in our worst moments.
Who could have been more dangerous than Saul of Tarsus? Saul had gotten permission to go after the believers. He was on his way when the light shone down from heaven, and he was knocked to his knees.
He saw something—no, not something; he saw it. He saw the vision of the body of Christ. When he was brought, blinded, to Straight Street, Ananias came right alongside him.
Ananias was somewhat nervous. He knew who Saul was. He knew that he was probably on the list. But Ananias came alongside him and said, “My brother Saul.”
You see, the name applies in our best times and in our worst times. It is a heavenly term. It reminds us that we are bound together by one life, and nothing can break that life or kill that life.
That life is what binds us together. It is not what we have seen, nor our culture, nor what language we speak. We are bound together by that life.
When Ananias saw Saul, the Holy Spirit put on his tongue this heavenly name: brother. It applies in our worst times and in our best times.
These two letters that Paul sent Timothy to prepare him are books about being brothers. What we are reminded of in these books is that to be brothers is heavenly, but it is also very practical. It is very down to earth.
You know, this term down to earth is a great term. My father, when we were younger, used to tell me that the Chinese language was so great. Those of you who grew up in Chinese families, your parents probably told you the same thing, right? The Chinese language is so exceptional.
He would say, “Look at this word. The top part means this, and the bottom part means this,” and it would have some spiritual meaning. Actually, it is true. It is kind of amazing.
But here is a term in English, brothers and sisters, that speaks of the Lord Jesus. He was heavenly, but He was down to earth. He literally came down to earth.
So this life, this reality revealed to us in being brothers, is not only a heavenly term; it is a down-to-earth term. It means: How do we interface with each other every day? How do we go on together?
If we had time to think about Timothy, we could talk about both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. But because of time, we are going to focus simply on the last chapter of what the apostle Paul wrote to the people of God. It was his last opportunity, by the Spirit, to write something for us: 2 Timothy 4.
Paul begins:
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom.
That is how our brother began the chapter. You know, if I tell my boys, “Boys, clean your room,” they will say, “Okay, Dad, I will get to it. I have to finish this level.” That means a game they are playing.
They will get to it eventually. But if I came to my boys and said, “Boys, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom,” they would stop and listen.
Paul meant business at the end. He wanted us to listen. He said, “I solemnly charge you. Listen to what I am about to say.”
He says several things. Number one: “Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.”
What he was telling Timothy was: Make the word of God ever-present among you—in season and out of season; when it is prepared and when it is not prepared; in an organized meeting or while grabbing a burger at the burger joint. Let the word of God be on our lips, in our mouths, in our hearts, and in our minds.
The word of God, brothers and sisters, is an amazing thing. It carries with it the power of God. It is meant to be used, and it is meant for the house of God: to communicate and to grow together.
Of course, there is a quiet time. We cannot underemphasize that there is a time for us to be dwelling in the Word. But that time of dwelling in the Word, again, is for the building up of the body of Christ.
I remember, just several months ago, I was at work and seeing a young woman. She was from a different culture and background. In the middle of my visit with her, she said, “Can I ask you what you believe in?”
I looked at her and said, “I am a Christian.” I did not know what to say at the moment. I said, “I am a Christian, and I think I am a devoted Christian.” I meant it, but she caught me off guard.
Then she said, “I somehow knew it.” At that point, I was so thankful to the Lord, because I had been having a horrible day. Does He not do this all the time? He does this all the time.
Then my sister said, “Can I pray for you?” I said, “Please.” She prayed for me, using words of Scripture, and it lifted my heart.
Brothers and sisters, the word of God is active. It is not meant to be buried. It is active, and it is useful to us. Paul was reminding Timothy, “As you go among your brothers and sisters, make the word alive. Make it valued. Let it have the highest place.”
The laws of the land will change. Etiquette changes. Courtesy and respect change. Culture changes. These things vary from one group to another. But the word of God stands forever.
We cannot meet together as brothers and sisters on shifting sand. We meet together on the unchanging authority of the word of God. That is what Timothy was being reminded of: when we go in, it is on the ground of the word of God.
We can build upon the word together. We can raise our children together on the word of God.
I am sorry for using this word, brothers and sisters, but there is a halo effect of the Bible being alive to us. When one brother has a living relationship with the Lord in the morning, and the Lord takes the word and makes it alive in his heart, every brother or sister he interfaces with that whole day experiences a little rubbing off of the word of God.
It is true. If we could see with heavenly eyes, we would see this flame of the Lord’s life influencing a halo of people around them. It is very alive. When we come into contact with it, we know it right away.
The word of God is active. This halo effect, brothers and sisters, is meant for the building up of the house of God. It is meant for the preparing of the bride of Christ, unto the fulfilling of the anxious longing of His heart, even today.
It speaks of the twenty-two-year-old lieutenant. It is today’s battle unto that day’s purpose. Brothers and sisters, the Word has to be alive to us.
If I may say, the word is useful for reproof. If we are going in the wrong direction, the word of God speaks to our hearts.
It is useful for rebuke. If we are doing something dangerous—not only to ourselves, but causing the opposite of that halo effect, causing damage to the house of God—the word can address that.
Sometimes we think that when the word of God rebukes, or there is reproof from it, it has to be some in-your-face confrontation. Oftentimes, brothers and sisters, a brother shares on a verse, the Holy Spirit makes that word alive, and it strikes into our heart. Immediately, we are convicted of our sins. The word can do that.
Sometimes a confrontation is necessary, particularly when there is danger to the flock. Brothers and sisters, we have to let the word of God be alive in our midst.
The other thing Paul tells us is that it can encourage, or exhort. “Reprove, rebuke, exhort”—and always with great patience. Encouragement or exhortation speaks of the lifting up of our hearts or our spirits.
Which one of us, on a Monday morning at six o’clock when the alarm clock goes off, does not need a little bit of encouragement? It is a hard life that we sometimes live, and the word of God is able to do that.
Just this week, as I was preparing these messages, my brothers at Alhambra were sending me text messages. This is what is so cool about text messages: you can exhort through a text message. They were sending me Bible verses in the mornings. It was very nice.
You remember that we do not stand alone as we go forward. Of course, the Lord’s life is injected into these words.
We remember that our Lord is the Alpha and the Omega. That means many grand things, but one thing it means is that, as He is working toward the fulfillment of His will, He will not stop until the very last brother or sister has been molded, grown, and matured to the fullness of the stature of Christ.
Each one will be fitted into the house of God, the bride of Christ, and finally she will be made ready. Alpha and Omega means that He started the work, and He will finish the work.
We need to remember that His tool in all of this is this word of God, always active.
May I say one more thing about the word? My brothers who are newly encumbered, or struggling through life, we bear responsibility to protect the flock.
What I mean is that we bear responsibility to protect the flock not only in our local meeting place, but also in our homes. Recently, on the West Coast—and actually, I think all over—there has been an overt attack upon our families.
Brothers—and I mean male brothers at this point—we bear a responsibility to dwell in the Word. We cannot let the enemy into our families.
Maybe we think that we have the stature to withstand his temptations, and so we let him in a little. We live in two worlds. Or we might feel that we can work eighty hours a week, or live for the glory or riches of the world, and it will not affect us because we have a solid foundation in the Lord.
Well, that may be, brothers. But what happens when he is welcomed into our house? What happens when he is welcomed at the dinner table? What will happen to our wives and our children?
Brothers, we need the sword of the Spirit. We need to be strong. In Ephesians 5, we need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
What this means, brothers, is that we need to be living in the Word. There is no excuse. We have to have the Word alive in our hearts so that we can protect the testimony that is in our homes.
The attack on the West Coast has been so strong that even the most foundational families have collapsed and fallen apart because we let the enemy in just a little.
Brothers, we need to be dwelling in the Word. We need to be worshiping the Lord every morning. Worship Him, and it will be a protection on our house.
We need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. This is not strength as it is described in the world. We need to be strong in the Word. We need to be strong in our relationship with the Lord.
The most important relationship in the family is the father’s relationship with the Lord Jesus. That relationship translates down to every relationship, even to the youngest child.
So, brothers, may we protect our families. In the places where we meet, may we set it in our hearts to protect the flock of God. We need to be in the Word. The Word is not meant only for us; it is meant for the protection of the flock.
The second thing Paul shared in 2 Timothy 4 is verse 5: “Be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
What does it mean to endure hardship? Brothers and sisters, families—the family of God—suffer together. There is suffering that every family endures.
When Paul was at Lystra, he suffered greatly. Because of that suffering, somehow down the road Timothy was saved. Our Lord Jesus, when He was here on earth, was attacked continuously by the enemy.
So much so that when He was crucified, even the man on the cross next to Him, while the other one was hurling abuse at Him, said, “You and I deserve this. But this man, He did nothing wrong to suffer like this.” And he was saved.
Brothers and sisters, the enemy’s intention is to destroy the life of Christ, to destroy the testimony, and to halt the building up of the bride—the making ready.
The life of Christ is often invisible to us. We cannot see it directly with our human eyes. But with spiritual eyes, if we could see, we would see in every brother and sister in this room little flames of the life of Christ.
I have the best vantage point. I could see all of these little flames of the life of Christ here. But to our human eyes, we cannot see it. I assure you, however, that the enemy can see it. He can see it from far away.
His intention is to destroy, confuse, and lead astray. If you exist, he certainly will not allow that flame of fire to bless another.
Brothers and sisters, this life of Christ was never meant in this world to go without suffering. The enemy would never let that happen. If our Lord Jesus suffered, it would be normal that those of us who have His life would suffer similarly.
In these days, some suggest that suffering means that the Lord’s blessing has left us, or that if the Lord loves us, we can live without suffering. Brothers and sisters, this is hogwash.
The life of Christ will never find a home here on this earth. Together, we are always waiting for our citizenship. Where we belong is with our Bridegroom.
We cannot settle down until that happens. But thank the Lord: while we are here on earth, among our brothers, there is a little sense of the house of God—that this is where my home is. Do we see that, brothers?
We go on together. We are willing to suffer together. We bear one another’s burdens.
I remember my grandmother, before she was saved. She would visit us in the house of God and say, “Why does that brother, who loves God so much, have so many difficulties?” I never knew how to answer her.
But the truth is, brothers and sisters, which came first? Sometimes the Lord is perfecting us in one way, and the only way for us to be perfected is to go through the cross. There has to be a perfecting through the cross in that direction. It is the only way for it to be a genuine work.
Brothers and sisters, suffering is a normal part of the life of the house of God. In Hebrews 13, we are reminded that when our brother is imprisoned or going through suffering, we have to consider ourselves imprisoned as well, for we too are in the body.
We are all together. I am so thankful in these days for our brothers and sisters who are maintaining a testimony in the Middle East, and in areas of the world where there is suffering and persecution.
Brothers and sisters, we are bound together, and we need to see this. For the preparing of the bride, we are bound together. None of us is perfect. All of us are on a journey toward being made ready, but we can be bound together in this way.
A brother recently visited us. He had lost his daughter. He is a young man—not so young anymore—but when he came to speak at our fellowship, he spoke with such life that all of a sudden I realized that my brother’s suffering was actually for the entire body of Christ.
It is an amazing thing. The Bible tells us that when we comfort one another, we comfort one another with that same comfort by which we were comforted.
What it means is that we have all gone through some suffering. The Lord bringing us out of that suffering is unto His glory, for the lifting up of His life in this earthen vessel, but also for the lifting up of the life of Christ in our brother or sister.
We are all bound together. This is the house of God.
What we see is that Paul was telling Timothy, “Do not avoid the suffering.” Many times, you are going to think it is easier to say, “Forget about these guys. These guys are so nuts. I want to go my own way.”
But why endure? Why go on? Because, brothers and sisters, none of this is for us. Everything is for Him.
The question is: Do we have a longing in our hearts for the fulfilling of the longing in His heart? Is that why we go on together? May it be so, brothers and sisters.
In this world, maybe I can share this with my younger brothers and sisters—unencumbered young brothers and sisters, or those in high school.
The days are passing by. You may think that you have many, many days to go. But brothers and sisters, every day is an opportunity for us to live for the purpose of God.
Choose what you are going to do. Do not allow yourself to love this world. Make a decision in your heart that you will live for Him.
Live a life that, when you look back, will have no regrets. All the days that have already passed for me, or for my brothers and sisters, I cannot bring back.
If you live this way, you will look back with no regrets. Can I tell you: if your generation lives this way, the Lord Jesus will return.
Brothers and sisters, may we live for Him. May we have in our hearts His desires, and may we see what it is to be brothers—to go on together.
Finally, Paul writes to Timothy in this last portion, the end of his ministry in letters: “I have fought the good fight.”
He told Timothy more than once, “Fight the good fight.” More than once, he told him to remain engaged in the battle. When we are suffering, there is hope, because it reminds us that we are still engaged in the battle.
Paul says to Timothy, “Fight the good fight.” Then he says:
In the future 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.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is not referring to a baby in Bethlehem. This is the anxious longing, waiting for His return because He has made ready His bride: perfect, spotless, with no wrinkles.
He is speaking of those who would live with this heart—to look forward to that day and to love His appearing. Brothers and sisters, may we live with that hope, and may we share this hope together.
May it always be on our hearts—in our ministry and in our serving one another.
When I was growing up in the fellowship, there were many brothers with whom I am thankful the Lord let me grow up. We stumbled together, and we went on adventures together. We had children at the same time.
I am thankful for those brothers with whom I have been paired in my generation. As we go forward, when we were younger, we always thought about this. Over a period of time, life became busier. Somehow, we still had it in our hearts, I think, but it became a little dull. Maybe that is not true for you.
May all of us have rekindled in our hearts this longing for His appearing, waiting for it. Brothers and sisters, may we live every day for this hope, looking forward to this purpose.
One day He will come again. All of His heart’s longing—this anxious longing that has been from the beginning—will be fulfilled.
There will be a joy that has no description, and it will pour out from the Father and the Son unto all of us. Brothers and sisters, that day is the day of days.
But from this day until that day, let us live for purpose, redeeming the time. Let us encourage each other onward toward hope.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You that You have included us in this desire of Your heart. We thank You, Lord, that of Your own choosing, You loved us so much.
Lord, we pray that this longing in Your heart may be satisfied. Lord, forgive us. We know we are holding it up. But Lord, we pray that You would continue to work on Your house, that we might be made ready for Your glory and for the fulfilling of Your joy.
We thank You, Lord. We worship You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.