Would you take God's Word tonight and open, please, to the book of 2 Timothy? As you know, we're studying 2 Timothy on Sunday night, and we're actually coming to the last few verses of chapter 4. It's what we're going to look at, 2 Timothy chapter 4. And tonight, we're going to look at verse 6 down to verse number 8, verse 6 down to verse number 8. And tonight, I want to talk about a reflection of a godly life, reflections on a godly life. On May the 12th, 1962, one of America's greatest soldiers was giving his final speech as farewell address to the cadets at West Point, one of my favorite characters in history, General Douglas MacArthur. And he gave a great challenge. Most people don't realize he was a great orator when he spoke. And let me just read you a few words of what he said here. He said, the shadows are lengthening for me and the twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone intense. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday." And he goes on to say, in my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory, I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes duty, honor, and country. And then he says this, today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know when I cross that river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps. I bid you farewell. And then that was the last speech of this great general. Now, when I read that, I think about these words here that were written by the Apostle Paul. We could say that this these are the last words of another great general, a general in God's army, God's greatest general, you could say. And these are the words that Paul gives to Timothy. It's his final farewell address to his young cadet, Timothy. And Paul is nearing the end of his life, and he knows it. You know, God seems to give faithful servants a sense of when their time has come. It is said that when Erasmus was growing old, he said, I am a veteran and have earned my discharge and must leave the fighting to younger men. And Paul, this aged warrior now, is kind of laying down his arms in order for Timothy to pick up those arms and to continue on and to be faithful. And so, these words that Paul gives to Timothy are designed to encourage him to continue to be faithful and to finish well in the Christian life. You know, as we talked about when we were studying 2 Timothy, Timothy at times was prone to discouragement. He was tempted at times to quit when things got difficult. And Paul is basically saying to Timothy in these words, follow my example, Timothy, and be faithful to the end. Now, Paul had already provided reasons for Timothy to stay faithful in ministry, God's certain return, the increase of falsehood and wickedness, and his own commissioning. There are other reasons that Paul gave. But here Paul knew that he was going to die soon, and Timothy had to carry on the work. He had to continue to be faithful. So in a sense, Paul is basically saying to Timothy, Timothy, follow my example. What you have seen in me, I want you to follow and do. Now, that's not arrogance. Paul knew he was what he was by the grace of God. He knew that. But he was also someone who was supremely confident that in his own life, he was following the footsteps of his Lord. And he had confidence that anyone that examined his life could follow those footsteps and be faithful. And so many times Paul understands that younger Christians need a spiritual mentor. And many times Paul would refer to this in 1 Corinthians 4. He said, though you have 10,000 instructors, yet you have not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. And then he says this. Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me." Follow me. You have a lot of people that can teach you, but you only have one spiritual father, so follow in what you've learned from me. Follow in my footsteps. The word for followers there is where we get our word mimic from. Mimic is the Greek word, mimic. Mimic me. What you see me do, mimic that. And so, in 1 Corinthians 11 again he says, And so, Paul has said this several times throughout his letters. you might want to write these verses in your margins, Philippians 3.17, "'Brethren, be followers together of me,' he says to them." And then in 1 Thessalonians 1.6, "'You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation.'" And then again, Paul, we can go on, but Paul was not on an ego trip when he said these things. Again, he understood that he was the chiefest of sinners and that he was what he was by God's grace. He was put into the ministry because of God's grace. But he understood also the principle of discipleship, that when you disciple someone, that you're actually modeling for them what they should be. And a disciple becomes like their leader. They become like their teacher. And so this is what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, Timothy, mimic me. Be like me, because I am following in the footsteps of Christ. Can I say that? Can you say that? Can we say to younger believers that God may send into grace, look, if you want to know how to live the Christian life, just follow my example. Just do what I do. Follow what my pattern of life is. You know, I can't help but refer to our founding pastor, Pastor Johnson. He lived a life where he was faithful to the very end. And I learned so much from him. I find myself so many times in the office just asking the question, what would Pastor Johnson do? You know, what would he say in a situation like this, you know, and so I'm grateful for his example of Following the Lord and helping me mentoring me to do the same Having problem with this ear thing here. Sorry All right stay in place One thing I can do to follow pastor example is use this and not this I So anyway, can you all hear me okay? All right, good, thank you. I'll get this right here in a minute. So as we transition into this passage here, I want you to see just basically three things that we can learn from Paul here as he's ending up his life, he's coming to the end, And three things from this passage that reflect a godly life. It's worthy of our imitation as believers. First of all, just write down this. Paul looks around. At the end of his life, Paul looks around, and we see here the resolve of a godly life. The resolve of a godly life. Look again at verse number six. We're looking at verse six. Now, as Paul looks around, he realizes that his time was short. He knew that his death was imminent. This is Paul's second Roman imprisonment. On the first Roman imprisonment, when Paul was to appear before Caesar to defend the gospel, he had a sense that God was going to allow him to live. He knew that when he stood before Caesar and gave a defense for the gospel, Caesar, being a tyrant, he could choose to end Paul's life. And so Paul wrote to the Philippians while he was in that prison there. He got many of his prison letters, the book of Philippians, Colossians and others. But Paul wrote to the Philippians and he basically said this in Philippians 1.25, and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. There was a sense that Paul had that he felt like God was not done with him. that there were still things for him to do. And so he said to them, I know that I'm gonna continue on, I'm gonna abide and continue with you, because I need to be here for the furtherance of your faith. And he knew, again, there was a sense where if he died, he said, if I live, it's Christ, if I die, that's gain. And yet I feel like God's not done with me yet. But this is Paul's now second Roman imprisonment. And Paul doesn't have that sense of God's not finished with him. In fact, he has the opposite. He has the sense that he's coming to the end. And again, I think that there are times when God will give to his faithful servants that sense where they know that God is ready to call his faithful servants home to be with him. Some of you may remember when Pastor Johnson, before he passed away, our founding pastor, that one Sunday morning, I don't know if you were here on that one Sunday morning, when Pastor would sit here on the front And after service one Sunday morning, he said to John, bring me a mic. And John brought him a mic and he announced to the church, this will be my last Sunday here with you. And if you want to say goodbye, come on by and say goodbye. And you may remember on that Sunday, people were lined up around the auditorium to go and say their goodbye to Pastor Johnson. And it wasn't too many days after that that God called him on to heaven. And again, I think that God gives His servants a sense of when He's ready to call them home. And so, Paul has that sense. That's why he says in verse 6, I'm now ready to be offered. Now, Paul did not tremble at the prospect of death. There are actually two words that Paul uses here that tells me that he had absolute faith and confidence when it came for him to go to heaven for his time to pass on. And the first word is offered. In verse six, I'm now ready to be offered. So Paul pictured death as an offering. The word offered here, splendo, literally means to be poured out like a drink offering. It speaks of a libation offering. You see, when a priest sometimes, after the animal was put on the altar, the worshiper would also take a glass or a cup of wine and pour it out on the altar into the fire, and it would immediately, of course, be burned up, but it would give a sweet smell. That was called a drink offering or a libation offering. And it came after the animal was placed on the altar and was sacrificed. And Paul is now comparing his death to a drink offering poured out on the altar, which gives a sweet aroma to God. Paul looked at his whole life as a service to God, and he had the battle scars to prove it. We don't have to go into the catalog of all that Paul went through as a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ. But when it came time for him now, he had the sense he was going to be executed. He was staying in a Mamertine prison, which was a cold, dark dungeon. They're not too far away from where they were actually having court hearings there in Rome. He could actually look out of that Mamertine prison and see the place where they were going to make a judgment. He could probably also see from that Mamertine prison the actual gallows upon which he would be sent and he would be beheaded. That would be the ruling for Paul. And so he had the sense that, you know, this was going to happen to him. And he looked at his death, and that is something that was unfair, you know. Paul didn't come to death by saying, you know, here I have been a faithful Christian, I have been serving God, and now here I am in these last days, I've been forsaken by all, and now I'm going to die like this? That seems unfair to me. That's not the attitude that Paul had. It was quite the opposite. Paul said, you know what? This is going to be like an offering poured out unto God. I would say that Paul's whole life was like a living sacrifice. Remember what Paul wrote in Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. That as we lay ourselves on the altar and we say, God, you have all of us, And that was Paul's whole life. Paul's whole life was a living sacrifice unto God. And now, however, to follow with that sacrifice, Paul's whole life has been on the altar. Paul now views his death as a libation offering being poured out unto God, which would give off a sweet aroma. This was, I think, in Paul's thinking, this is the perfect way for me to end my life. as a sacrifice unto God. I've lived my life sacrificially under the service of the Lord, and now my death will be an offering poured out. I'm now ready for that. I'm ready to be poured out like a drink offering. And again, for Paul, this was not something that he entered into with fearfulness or trembling. I think the Apostle Paul looked forward to being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had no fear of death. But then also, he uses the word departure. Departure. I'm now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. Now the word departure, is one of the most interesting New Testament words that I have studied. It's only used twice in the whole New Testament. Both of these times, it's used by the Apostle Paul. And Paul used it once in the book of Philippians when he was writing to the Philippians, and he was thinking that he could die. You know, he was thinking, you know, I could live if I live as Christ. I could die if I do. That's gain, because to depart would be far, far better. And he uses that same word there. If I am called home, that's a whole lot better than staying here. But I still have a sense that God's not done with me. Well, now here he's going to use this word departure again. And here with the sense that he knows that this time he actually will depart. It's a very, very rich Greek word. Now, Whenever a word is used only two times or one time in the New Testament, automatically what you do is, if you're doing a word study, what you'll do is you'll go to other sources to find out how this word was actually used in that same day. And the way you do that is you look at some classical Greek literature books. and find out how this word was used in that time in classical Greek literature. Let me tell you how this word was used. This was a nautical term used by sailors, and it meant to untie a ship. It's the idea of being launched forth A ship being launched forth from its moorings sets off on a voyage. And Paul is using that as an analogy of death. What is death like for a believer? It is going on a voyage. It is leaving this shore and going to the other shore. I love that song that we sing, you know, in a sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful what? Shore. Well, that's so true. We here on this side say, there they go. And on the other side, they're saying, here they come. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace when he was dying, said, I'm like a person going on a journey who expects its arrival at any moment, and I'm frequently looking out the window. And then this word was also a martial term that was used by soldiers, and it meant to take down the tent, to loosen the tent pegs, to fold up your tent. Paul, speaking of death, said this in 2 Corinthians 5.1, This body that we have here is like a tent, and it's going to fold one day. Peter said in 2 Peter 1.14, knowing that shortly I must put off this, my tabernacle. And so for Paul, death was moving out of a tent, moving into a mansion. This was a political term, and it meant the loosing of a prisoner, setting a prisoner free, taking off the shackles. And there's a sense in which, you know, as we get older, as we age, someone said that getting old is not for sissies. And I think that's true, the older I get. You know, the things that we deal with. Well, there comes a point in time where the body just gives out. This outer man, what does the Bible say? It's perishing, but the inner man is still renewed. But there comes a sense in which this body becomes a prison, and we can't do the things that we once could do. And when we die, we're freed, we're released from a prison. And that's what death is like for a believer. And this term was also a term used by a farmer, an agricultural term, and it meant to loose the oxen on their yoke to lay down their burden. And that, again, is what death is like for a believer. We lay down our burdens and we go and be with the Lord. Those that go to be with the Lord Jesus, they have no more burdens. I've often said the greatest day in the life of a Christian is when they go to see Jesus Christ, when they go into the presence of the Lord. And then this is a term that was used by, a philosophical term used by philosophers or scholars, and it meant to unravel a mystery. when a philosopher had some deep problem, some Gordian knot philosophically that they couldn't seem to untie. And finally they were able to get the answer to it. This is the idea here. They were able to get the plain answer and they would use this word like the mystery is over. Like, you know, it's the idea that you can't understand something and then finally it dawns on you. It's like the man who stayed up all night wondering what happened to the sun and finally it dawned on him. And I think Paul here is saying, soon I'm gonna understand it all. There are questions that we have here in this life we can't know the answer to, but I believe one day in heaven we're gonna know the answer. It's all gonna dawn on us then. And then this term meant to set free from a cocoon or a shell. It was a biological term. And this body is like a shell, like a cocoon, and one day we'll be set free from it. Again, that's describing death. And so, you know, here Paul says, I'm ready for that. I'm ready for my departure. I'm ready to go to the other shore. I'm ready to take down this tent and move into a mansion. I'm ready to be set free from a prison, to lay down my burdens. I'm ready for the mysteries of this life to be unraveled in the presence of Christ and to know all things. And so, Paul looks around. And he knows the end is there, but he's resolved that he's done all he could, and he's lived a godly life, and he's going to stay committed to Christ. Like he said, for me to live is Christ, and to die, it's gain. But then here's the second thing. Not only does Paul look around, but Paul looks back. I call this the review of a godly life. Look at verse number seven. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Paul offers three statements here in this short review of his whole life. And again, I think he means here to inspire Timothy and really to inspire all Christians to faithfulness. This should inspire all of us. I don't know about you, but I want to finish well. I want to stay faithful to Christ until my last days, until the Lord calls me home." And this is such a beautiful passage that has vivid pictures and imagery here of Paul being faithful unto the end, all the way to the end. First of all, he was a good soldier. He said, I fought a good fight. The word fight, agon, where we get the word agony, fought a good fight, we could say is the word agonizumi, we could really translate like this, I have agonized the agony. This is a picture of a soldier who faced the ravages of battle and war and was faithful in the fight. Paul was a faithful soldier. He never retreated from the battle. When he called it the good fight, he was talking about the fight of the gospel, facing the enemies of the gospel, those who were against the truth of the gospel. Paul fought those enemies of the cross his whole life. was dedicated to the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so this is a beautiful epitaph of a man who was faithful. I thought a good fight. I got to tell you, I resent people using this epitaph on those who really it doesn't, it's not appropriate because they weren't faithful in the gospel fight. And this is referring to the gospel. Many people call themselves Christians and they never engage in the battle for the gospel. They'd never do anything for the kingdom of God. And so, what fight are you talking about when you put on their tombstone that, you know, I fought a good fight? This is referring to the gospel. And so, the question is, are you and am I currently involved in this struggle for the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ? There are people living primarily for their own comfort, living primarily for their own affluence. They're focused on getting all the things that they want here in this life, all the material comforts and pleasures of this life. Their whole life is devoted to that. But friend, if you have no time for the gospel, no time to invest in the kingdom of God, you're not fighting a good fight. The fight of the gospel demands your involvement. It demands sacrifice. It demands work. But then also here, We see another image. Paul said in verse six, I finished my course. He was a good soldier. He was a good sportsman. The word course here is a word which means race. Paul says, I finished the race. This is the image of a runner in a race. And by the way, it's not a hundred yard dash. It's a marathon. The Christian life isn't a hundred yard dash. There are some Christians that start out well. After about a hundred yards, they quit and sit down. They rest the rest of their Christian life. You know, it's a constant race. It's a long marathon, a long race of life. Paul didn't drop out of the race. He stayed in the race until the very finish. And as Paul's writing these words here, he can see the end. He can see the finish line right ahead of him. And he said, you know, Fought a good fight. I finished my course. I've run this whole marathon, and I've given it everything I've had. You know the word marathon comes from a geographical place. This is a decisive battle that took place between Greece and Persia in 490 BC. If the Persians won, that would have changed history dramatically, but we know that the Greeks won that battle. And the legend is that after the battle, a Greek soldier ran the distance from Marathon all the way to Athens to give the news that the Greeks had won. And the miles from Marathon to Athens was about 26 miles. And this runner ran And when he finally reached Athens and announced the victory, the legend says he died at that moment, he fell dead. And in the ancient Greek games, they had this race, the marathon, in honor of this one runner who ran the distance from marathon to Athens. But again, the Christian life is not a quick dash, but it's a long marathon. And by the way, there's no such thing as a easy marathon. You ever run long distance? That's not an easy thing to do. A lot of people drop out of long races. And it's the way it is in the Christian life. This is a long race. And God wants us to be faithful even to the end. And so Paul says, I've run the race. I finished my course. But then also he's a good steward. Notice again in verse 6 where he says, I have kept the faith. And this is the image of a steward. He was a faithful steward. Kept means guarded or retained, been faithful to the faith. That speaks about the whole of Christian theology, of Christian doctrine, all of what the 66 books of the Bible teach, the propositional truth of Scripture. That is all the faith. And so, Paul was entrusted with this revelation of God, with the faith, and Paul said, you know, I've been faithful to that. I've guarded it. I haven't given it up in any way. I haven't compromised the faith in any way. Paul was a faithful steward of the truth that was given to him. And likewise, we have to be the same. We have to be faithful stewards. of God, stewards of the mysteries of God, stewards of the truth of God. And again, I don't ever want to compromise what the Word of God says. I want to be sure to give the whole counsel of God and to stand firmly on what Scripture says, knowing that one day I too will have to answer to the Lord Jesus for what kind of stewardship I've had with regard to the gospel. Not all keep the faith, not all end well. I was reading about this story in 1945. It was an absolutely great year for young evangelists. And that year, there were three young evangelists that were packing out stadiums. Billy Graham was 27. He was noted as a gifted preacher for Youth for Christ. But then there was also a man by the name of Chuck Templeton and Bron Clifford. You probably never heard those two names. Templeton preached one evening to an auditorium of thousands. He was called the most gifted and talented young man in America for preaching. In 1946, there was an article about these men who were best used by God. And the article highlighted the ministry of Chuck Templeton, and it never mentioned Billy Graham. They said that in that article, Templeton was the Babe Ruth of evangelism. They said Bron Clifford was a 25-year-old fireball. Many believe that Bron Clifford was the most gifted young evangelist and powerful preacher that the church had ever had for centuries. That's how they portrayed him in this article. That same year, Clifford preached to an auditorium of thousands in Miami, Florida. People lined up 10 to 12 deep outside the auditorium to get in to hear Bron Clifford preach. And that same year, he preached at Baylor University. He preached for two hours and 15 minutes. Can you imagine that? I'm going to see if I can eclipse that tonight. Just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you. And basically, the university ordered that the school, you know, turn off the bells for classes and to let him finish preaching. All these young men, these three, Graham, Templeton, Clifford, they were shooting stars. Now, you've heard of Billy Graham. But how come you haven't heard of Chuck Templeton or Bron Clifford? Just five years later, Templeton left the ministry to pursue a career in radio and television, later as a newspaper columnist. And then Templeton decided that he was no longer a believer in Christ. That he was no longer orthodox. He no longer believed what the Bible taught. By 1950, the future Babe Ruth of evangelism wasn't even in the game. He no longer believed in the claims of Christ. He ended up leaving his wife, their two Down syndrome children. At 35, this once great preacher died of cirrhosis of the liver in a rundown motel on the edge of Amarillo. His last job was selling used cars in the panhandle of Texas. And so he died. Unwept, unsung. So both of these men, the reason we don't know about them is because they both ended up out of ministry. They dropped out. Not all end well. Some don't hold on to the faith. They're not good stewards of the gospel. May we determine to say like Paul, when our time comes, I have fought a good fight. I've finished the course. I've kept the faith. But then let me give you the final thing here. Paul looks around. I call this the resolve of a godly life. Paul looks back, the review of a godly life. But then Paul looks ahead. I call this the reward for a godly life. Look at verse number eight, what Paul writes here. He says, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." The apostle Paul now looks forward to what awaits him in heaven. And Paul knew that his reward was just ahead. He knew that. Paul uses the word crown here to refer to the believer's reward. The word for crown is Stephanos. This was the victor's wreath that was given, made of ivy, put around the victor's head. Any winner of the games back in that day that they competed in would get the victor's crown. And not all received the crown, only those who won. And the Bible teaches that while salvation is a free gift, God's rewards will be based upon our faithfulness and service to Him. You don't automatically get rewards just because you're saved. You go to heaven because you're saved, and you'll get a robe of righteousness. But you don't necessarily get the crown of righteousness. You won't get crowns just because you're a believer. Those crowns will come because of your service to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible is very clear that when we get to heaven, in that day, we will stand at the beamless sea, and the Lord will judge our works. They'll be tested by fire. Some of our works will burn up and others will remain. That's what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 3 when he said, we need to make sure that our works are not wood, hay, and stubble, but gold, silver, and precious stones because they're going to be tried with fire. You see, I'm a believer. I know Jesus Christ. I don't fear the fire of hell. I fear the fire of heaven. I want to make sure that the work that I do is rewarded. And so three things about this crown, the preservation of it. Look at verse 8 where it says, laid up for me, there's laid up for me. It has the idea of being safely stored, carefully guarded. There is a storehouse in heaven of rewards ready to be presented to faithful believers. those that run the race well, but they're not given automatically, you're going to have to finish the race. You're going to have to earn that. It is possible for a believer to lose their reward, a reward laid out for you, but you lose that reward. Remember in 2 John, when John was writing and he was warning a woman there, he was writing to a lady in the church. Why was he writing to her? She was entertaining false teachers. You know, in the name of Christian love, when a person came by claiming to be a true preacher, true missionary, she didn't really ask any questions. She would just bring them in. There were a lot of false prophets traveling back then. And John said, you need to make sure that when you entertain one of these people that they're not a deceiver. Because if you entertain deceivers, you endanger yourself of losing your reward. He said this in verse 7 of 2 John, for many deceivers are entered. into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a what? A full reward. God wants all of us to receive a full reward. You don't want to lose that reward, the reward that's laid up there in heaven waiting for you. But also, not only the preservation, but the presentation in verse number 8, where it says, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day. When a faithful believer gets to heaven and is given his reward, I'm grateful. It's not going to be an angel up there handing him out. It's going to be the Lord Jesus himself. Can you imagine taking a crown from his nail-scarred hands and hearing him say, well done, good and faithful servant? The Lord himself, he will reach out to you. Imagine that. And this is called the crown of righteousness is yours because you've lived out the righteousness of Christ in your life. You've been faithful as a believer. Again, we're all going to wear a robe of righteousness, but not all will get a crown of righteousness. You're going to have to earn that by living out a faithful, godly Christian life. And Jesus, the righteous judge, will be the one will determine whether or not we earn that crown when we stand before the Lord at that day. But then also not only the preservation and the presentation, but the people look again at verse eight, what he says. And not to me only. But under all them that love his appearing, you know who the ones are who love his appearing. It's the believers that are living a godly, righteous life. This morning at 945, we were talking about the five different views of the rapture. If you weren't here, come next week, we'll finish it up. We were talking about, there's a view out there called the partial rapture view, and that's the idea that when the Lord comes back, you know, he's only going to rapture those believers that are faithful, you know. Others, if you weren't faithful, Or if you weren't watching and ready for his return, he was just gonna leave you here at the rapture. Now I don't know about you, but I'm glad that that's not the case. God is gracious. The rapture is not a reward for faithfulness. The rapture is part of the gift of grace that God gives us. And so I think when the rapture happens, all believers are gonna go. But I will say this. Not all believers will love his appearing. And what do I mean by that? Well, if the believers are not living faithfully for the Lord Jesus Christ, if they're somewhere they shouldn't be when the rapture happens or when the Lord calls them home, that's a lot to answer for in the presence of Christ, being someplace that you should not have been, doing things that you should not be doing. The Bible says that this crown of righteousness belongs to all those that love His appearing and are ready for His appearing. I'm ready. If the Lord wants to dismiss this service tonight, that's all right with me. You know, it'd be great to be called into heaven right from church, you know, one service to another. That's a good place to be when it happens. But there will be some believers, they're not looking for His coming. They don't really long for His appearing. They don't love His appearing because they're too distracted. by the things of this world. And so, Paul says, this will be for all those that love his appearing. And so, Paul, we see here a great example for all of us on living out a godly life. Paul looks back. We see the resolve of a godly life. He looks around. Then Paul looks back, the review of a godly life. Then Paul looks ahead, the reward for a godly life. This is really Paul's obituary here. And not too long after he finishes these words, he'll be called home. I read of a journalist who was in charge of obituaries. And one day when he didn't have any desk to record, he pulled out a blank sheet of paper and he found himself writing his name at the top. And he found himself typing his own obituary. And he was talking about, you know, what he would want it to say. He was writing it out. I've been a good husband. I've been a good father. I've been a man of integrity. I've contributed this many causes and so on. He just wrote out a list of really good glowing things about himself. And then after he got done writing it, he had to confess that it wasn't accurate. But then he thought this, I'm going to live a way to where this will be accurate, to where this will be said of me. And it could be said honestly. And when Paul writes these words out, he's saying basically to Timothy and he's saying to us, let this be your obituary. You one day need to say these same things. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept the faith. Timothy, be an imitator of me. Follow in those footsteps. Finish well. Perhaps your circumstances seem difficult, kind of dismal today. Maybe you're considering dropping out of the Christian race. Well, Paul from his dungeon would call out to you and he would say, don't quit. Stay faithful. You can finish well, and God wants you to finish well. Let's bow for prayer together. Father, thank you for these wonderful words from the Apostle Paul. Lord, I pray by your grace that one day I'll be able to quote Paul here, quote his obituary, and say, I can say the same thing by God's grace. I fought a good fight. I've been in the gospel fight, and I fought the good fight. I did not shrink back from any challenge, but stood firm in the word of God. I finished my course. I didn't drop out of the race. I've just continued on trying to be faithful. I've kept the faith. Father, may that be said of all of us here. Help us, Lord, to continue in faithfulness. We know that's what you honor. We live in a world today, Lord, where so many people are dropping out, going AWOL. They call themselves believers and Christians. coming up with every excuse in the world why they can't do what, Lord, You call us to do. Lord, may that not be said of us. God, help us to be faithful. And we pray in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.