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We'll start in verse 9.

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Last week, as Paul was closing, he was giving Timothy some encouragement to not give up,

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to fulfill his race, to fulfill his ministry, to run the race, to finish the race, to fight

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the good fight, and to keep the faith.

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It was a word of encouragement as Paul is ending this final letter here to Timothy.

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And here in this last section, he just kind of covers the last few things that he wants

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Timothy to be aware of, give him some instructions on maybe some things that need to be done,

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and some messages for other brothers and sisters in Christ.

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And so that's what we see here at the close of the book.

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So let's pray and we'll get started.

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God, we come to you.

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We thank you for your word.

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I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to us tonight.

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I pray that you would help us, dear Lord, to see this community that Paul references

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in these verses tonight.

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Some were with him, dear Lord, and some abandoned him, God, but I pray that we would learn from

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Paul and his ministry that we would seek to be a community of brothers and sisters that

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we can depend on one another, dear Lord, as we serve alongside each other.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 9, make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas has deserted

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me because he loved this present world and has gone to Thessalonica.

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Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

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Now here we see in this closing remarks that Paul is writing to Timothy here.

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One, he says, I want you to come to me soon.

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And that's understandable.

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If we're ever in a bad situation, a scary situation, a tough situation, it feels good

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to have somebody you love nearby.

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It feels good to have family nearby.

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It feels good to have friends nearby.

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It's a good feeling in a time of trouble or just in general when you get to see those

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that you love.

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Now you can imagine Paul here.

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He's going from place to place.

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He's made a lot of friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, but Paul has suffered greatly.

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He's been in prison and it has been a really tough go for Paul.

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And so you can understand his desire to want to see Timothy soon.

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After all, it appears as though Paul may realize that his days are getting short.

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And maybe that's part of the reason why he tells Timothy to come soon is that he knows

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he may not have many opportunities to see him again.

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And perhaps he wanted to see him one last time.

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But he wants Timothy to come, one, because he wants to see Timothy, but two, because

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he said Demas has deserted him.

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Now we don't know much about Demas.

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We see Demas mentioned three times in the New Testament.

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Two times Paul mentions him favorably as one who seems to be serving alongside Paul in

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the ministry.

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But here, what does Paul say of Demas?

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He said that he has deserted him, that he has gone after the ways of the world.

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That at one point in time, he was serving alongside Paul and doing well.

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But at this point in time, he has deserted Paul.

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Now I don't know about Demas.

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Maybe he got his life back on track.

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Maybe he and Paul worked things out.

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I don't know.

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But in this instance, we see that one who had walked closely with Paul in serving the

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Lord appears to have stumbled and began to live for the world.

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And Paul, of course, was upset about that taking place.

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He goes on to mention some others here.

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And then he goes on in verse 11 to say, only Luke is with me.

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Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry.

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Now it's interesting that he would mention Mark here, or John Mark, as we sometimes see

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him referred to in the scriptures.

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Now you may remember, if you have read through Acts, or maybe even if you come to Sunday

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School more recently, we talked about this in Acts 15, that there was a little bit of

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a disagreement, that there was some butting of heads between Paul and Mark.

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In that instance, Paul was not happy with Mark because he had deserted him on one occasion.

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Now this is exactly what we just saw of Demas here, which is one reason why it gives me

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hope to think, well, maybe Demas is not someone like Mark.

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Maybe he deserted Paul in this instance, but maybe like Mark, there's going to be a reunion

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in the future.

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And so in Acts chapter 15, Paul did not want Mark to accompany him on some of his missionary

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journeys because Mark had deserted him in the past.

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And so they ended up splitting ways in Acts chapter 15.

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But here, by the time we get to the end of Paul's life in 2 Timothy chapter 4, we see

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this passage doesn't tell us much other than he says, look, bring Mark.

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And so obviously whatever differences they had had, they had worked out.

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It doesn't mean that maybe one wasn't in the wrong or the other wasn't in the wrong.

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It doesn't mean that one wasn't really a Christian.

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It doesn't mean any of that.

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It just means that there were two men of God and they butted heads.

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And sometimes that happens even among Christians, even among men of God or women of God.

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Sometimes we don't always see eye to eye.

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Sometimes we kind of butt heads a little bit, but it's important that there is a restoration

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that takes place in those relationships.

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Yeah, they parted for a time, certainly.

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But here we see that it doesn't appear as though Paul holds any grudges.

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He recognizes that Mark is serving the Lord and can be of some benefit to serving the

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Lord.

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So this is a positive ending that we see in the story of Paul and Mark because when we

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last saw them in Acts chapter 15, they went their separate ways.

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But it appears as though things have worked out for them.

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Verse 12, I have sent Tichicus to Ephesus.

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When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas with carpets as well as the scrolls, especially

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the parchments.

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Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me.

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The Lord will repay him according to his works.

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Watch out for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words.

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Now here we see a little bit of warning.

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Now Paul had told Timothy, you know, hey, do the work.

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You know you're going to face those.

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You're going to encounter some.

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He told him about that are going to try to stand in your way and stop you from doing

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the work of the kingdom.

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And here he mentions one specifically, Alexander.

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Now whatever harm Alexander did to him, it was obviously pretty serious.

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Maybe it was just in opposing the word.

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Maybe there was physical harm.

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I'm not sure.

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But Alexander had been enough trouble to Paul and it caused Paul enough harm that he gives

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Timothy a word of warning.

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Hey, you better look out for this guy.

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You better be careful because he greatly opposes the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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So you better be careful if you encounter Alexander.

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Verse 16, at my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me.

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May it not be counted against them.

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Now isn't that interesting?

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You know, Paul obviously had a lot of people that had stood beside him and that had seen

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that he was in love with the Lord and the work that he was doing and his dedication

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and service to the Lord.

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But isn't it interesting that when the going get tough, that people begin to desert you?

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This is not so unlike when Jesus was arrested and he was taken in for his trial.

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And what did the disciples do?

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They all split.

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Here they were all going to stand by Jesus and wasn't going to desert him, especially

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Paul, excuse me, Peter.

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And what happened?

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As soon as Jesus was in trouble, they deserted him.

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And sometimes that happens.

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And listen to what Paul says here though.

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He says, may it not be counted against them.

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Isn't that beautiful?

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That Paul could have said, look, all these people deserted me.

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I'm done with them.

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Let them be on their own.

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They're good for nothing.

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But that's not his attitude here.

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May it not be counted against them.

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Similar to what Jesus said on the cross, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

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And so Paul here obviously has done a lot of work.

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He's met a lot of people and he talks about a lot of these people and in this passage

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and in other passages, but isn't it interesting that so many deserted Paul in the time that

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they needed him the most.

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That's important for us to remember.

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We don't want to be those who desert people.

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Perhaps we have been.

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Perhaps there have been times in our life where there were people who really needed

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us and we weren't there for them.

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And it might just be because we were too afraid.

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Sometimes that's the case.

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Sometimes people need us, but we're kind of afraid to be there for them because we're

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not sure what to say and we're not sure what to do.

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And so we just kind of, we just kind of stay out of the situation, but maybe it's not about

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what we say or what we do.

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Maybe sometimes it's just about being there beside somebody so that they know that they're

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not alone, so that they know that they are not deserted.

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And so don't ever, don't ever be afraid to go, go check on somebody or go love on somebody

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because you're not sure what to say.

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He said, I don't, I don't know.

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And sometimes we just, we kind of desert those that we need to be standing by and here and

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in Paul's case, now perhaps they were, they were concerned about their own safety.

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That seems like a real possibility.

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If Paul is, you know, going to be beaten during prison, you know, maybe the people that were,

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that were close to him were a little bit selfish.

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And they said, I better look out for myself here.

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But there are times that we need to stand up for people and there are times that we

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need to stand beside people.

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And so we want to, we want to try to do that.

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And there are times that we probably have failed at that, but we want to try to do that.

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And we don't want to hold it against people when they fail us because there are times

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that we probably wish people were beside us and there for us.

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And we felt alone and it'd be easy for us to get mad at everybody and get mad at the

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world and, and get depressed and say, nobody cares about me.

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But, but Paul, Paul understood the situation.

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He knew what was going on and he probably knew the people and maybe they were not so

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unlike the disciples.

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Now the disciples, they love Jesus.

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They certainly were doing the work of Jesus even after Jesus was crucified.

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But in that moment, even though they love Jesus and had walked with him in that moment

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that he got arrested and the time that was probably the scariest time that he ever went

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through, they all deserted him.

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And so Paul understood that.

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And maybe these people who deserted Paul were, were good, good brothers and sisters in Christ

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that had a moment of failure or maybe they should have stepped up and they didn't.

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But nonetheless, Paul says, I'm not going to hold it against them that they abandoned

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me.

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Paul says, even when everybody else abandons me, God is still with me.

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And that is important for us to remember because there are times that we do feel alone.

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There are times even when there are other people around that we still feel alone, that

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we feel, still feel like nobody gets what we're going through.

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Nobody understands.

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Nobody can relate.

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Nobody can help me.

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But God is always there with us.

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He will not abandon us and he will give us the strength.

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And there are days that it probably feels like we cannot go on, like we are not strong

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enough and on those days we have to seek God all the more.

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On those days our prayer life has to be really strong because there are days that we want

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to give up, but we cannot give up.

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And it's beautiful to see Paul who had suffered in such great ways and he did not give up.

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He was continuing to run the race until he fulfilled his ministry and he knew that God

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was with him every step of the way.

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Verse 18, the Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his

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heavenly kingdom.

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To him be the glory forever and ever.

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Amen.

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Isn't that beautiful that the Lord will rescue Paul?

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The Lord will rescue you and I.

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So whatever we go through in this world, it is not going to be eternal.

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It's only going to be momentary.

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In the moment it feels like eternity.

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In the moment when we go through a year or two years or three years of struggle, it seems

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like an eternity.

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But when we get through it, it's amazing how quickly once we get through those things that

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things kind of get better.

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But in the moment it's really hard to get through those things.

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But we have to remember we're only here for a brief time.

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We're only here for 70, 80, 90 years if we're lucky.

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And so this time is going to pass by quick and then God's going to rescue us from whatever

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it is we go through in this world.

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So we have to keep fighting the good fight like Paul did.

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Verse 19, greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

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Erastus has remained at Corinth.

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I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

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Make every effort to come before winter.

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Ubulus greets you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers.

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The Lord be with your spirit.

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Grace be with you.

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Now he says here to make every effort to come before winter.

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You may remember earlier he said, hey, go get my cloak.

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He might have just wanted him to come before winter for a very practical reason.

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He might have been cold and he had already told him to bring his cloak.

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And so he closes here with these last words of encouragement and words of encouragement

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to his other brothers and sisters in Christ.

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And he gives a list of people to greet here.

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And so what we see a lot in Paul's writings, especially here at the end of this writing

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and some others, is we see these long list of lots of names of people, some names that

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we recognize, some that we see in other parts of scripture, and we know a little bit about

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them.

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Some are just mentioned briefly and we don't know anything about them other than they were

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obviously brothers or sisters in Christ that Paul cared about and probably had served alongside

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or helped him in some way.

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And I think that's a beautiful thing that we see here at the end of this passage is community,

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is Christian community, are brothers and sisters in Christ that care about each other.

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They are spread far and wide.

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They are at a bunch of different places he lists here, but they're all concerned about

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one another.

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They're all helping one another.

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They were all praying for one another.

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They were all supporting one another.

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And Paul recognizes the importance of community.

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And we see the love that Paul had for these people.

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And no doubt these people that Paul mentioned are people that had love for Paul in return.

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And if we get nothing else from this passage and closing, I think that's a beautiful thing

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for us to take from it.

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And we need to realize that there are a lot of people in our community and we want to

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be those who stand beside them.

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We want to be those who love them and who are there beside them and that they know that

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we love them and that they know that God loves them.

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And we need to be there to support one another and to pray for one another because life is

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hard.

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It's hard.

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You guys know it's hard.

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Everybody knows it's hard because you're just going through the stresses of trying to make

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it through life and to pay the bills and sickness piles up and people you love are sick and

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just things fall apart.

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Our world seems like sometimes that it's going to fall apart.

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You got all this election stuff and it's just, it's a lot that kind of pushes down on us.

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And then even today we had one death within our church family.

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We have another that's probably going to be soon to follow.

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And so it's just hard.

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It's hard.

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You feel that heartache.

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And I think for a community that you feel that heartache together, that when one person

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in the community hurts, there's a hurt amongst all of those who are close to it.

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And that's the way it should be for a body of Christ.

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But we want to make sure that we're reaching out for those in our community that have a

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need.

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Those who are not able to take care of themselves, those who are hurting in a time of loss.

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We need to make an effort, maybe even some extra effort to call them, to check on them,

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to take them food, just to let them know that we love them, to pray for them, to just give

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them a hug, to send them a card, whatever it may be.

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We want to take those efforts as a body of Christ that we can grow in the Lord and that

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we can grow stronger together.

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And we do that by being there for one another in our time of need.

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And a beautiful example of community here at the end of Paul's letter.

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And may that be true for us, that we would have brothers and sisters in Christ and this

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church and in this community that we can depend on, that we can trust, that we can call friend,

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that we can know will be there for us in our time of trouble, that we can celebrate the

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glory of God together, just as Paul did with this group that he talks about.

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Let's pray.

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God, we come to you, I pray God that you just would be with our church, be with our community,

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dear Lord, there is just, it's always so much going on for everybody, dear Lord.

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It's just life and life is just tough.

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And maybe there's a break tonight for one person, but dear Lord, there's somebody else

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that's right in the thick of just the stresses and the worries of life.

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And I just lift this whole church body up to you, dear Lord.

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I pray that you'd protect our folks.

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I pray for the ones who are sick.

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I pray for the ones who have lost loved ones, dear Lord.

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You know what everybody's need is, dear Lord, and you know we need you, dear Lord, because

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we are just, we're so helpless on our own, God.

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Life happens and we just have to trust you to give us the strength to make it through

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and to know what choices to make and to keep us encouraged, dear Lord, because there are

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days that it just be easier to give up, dear Lord, but I pray that you help us not to give

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up, but that we would get up, that we would trust you, and that we would see you work

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in a mighty way, that you'd work in our lives individually, dear Lord, that you'd work in

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our community, that you would help us to be a body of Christ that loves one another, that

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takes care of one another, that looks after one another, dear Lord, that we just keep

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one another on the right track, that we would be encouraged and strengthened through you.

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Amen.