Fulfill your ministry

Second Timothy in chapter 4. We'll read from verse 1 as we appreciate that Paul is giving instruction to Timothy. First Timothy, sorry, second Timothy 4 and verse 1. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word be as it is season and out of season.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come they will not endure a sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.

Verse 5 says but watch thou in all things endure affliction. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry.

For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.

I have kept the faith. 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 that love his appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me for Demas has forsaken me.

Having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Really what I was appreciating was what we find here in verse 5 in the very last phrase as Paul is speaking to Timothy he says make full proof of thy ministry and that's a little bit hard for us to understand today to simply this is fulfill your ministry or carry it out fully.

When I was young I remember a slogan that the army used it was be all that you can be. What they were trying to say was that there was huge potential in a person if they would join the military that they could learn to do things and they could go places they could become something they can make something out of their lives but for you and I today as believers what is our purpose what is our desire and what Paul is encouraging Timothy is to do that it's not be all you can be for the army but it's really be all that you can be for God that obviously Timothy was a special man who had been given a work but Paul is encouraging to carry it out fully to carry it out to the end and really there are four there are other names that we have mentioned here but you could say that there are four people that surround this little verse. Paul is writing to Timothy to encourage him to look forward and to do everything that he should be doing whether it is preaching the word a rebuking exhorting whether it is correcting wrong teaching is facing men that would come with false doctrine at preaching the gospel do this work he says but Paul he is looking backwards we have read that he has come to the end of his life the last words that this man would write in a man whose zeal is amazing to consider all the things that he suffered for the name of Christ and yet he's even going to have to lay down his own life for Christ's sake and yet so willingly comes to the end of his life and says I am ready to be offered that my life as it is given is going to be poured out simply as a drink offering on top of all that I have done for his glory the time of my departure is at hand Paul was very soon going to pull up the ten stakes or the ship was going to set sail but notice how Paul could come to the end of his days he says I have fought a good fight he stayed in the fight he finished the fight if you will he also says this as far as a race I have finished my courts so Paul is looking backwards and Paul really is a one that could say he was all that he could be for Christ the desire of his heart for me to live is Christ and Paul can say for me to die is gain as Paul didn't have to look back on his life so much with regret I know that there were things that Paul would have liked to have done and his only limitation was what others imposed on him because his heart is fully set to preach a gospel and to care for the people of God it was when they laid hands on him when they bound him but even then in prison Paul is writing letters to encourage but as far as Paul's life when he comes to the end of it did Paul die with regrets saying I should have done a little bit better I take it that Paul lived to the fullest with every bit of his being and might to please the one that had saved him Paul was not a lackadaisical Christian but Paul was one that could look back and now say I've come to the end and they read is it so much that I have failed to be what I should have it so much more could have been done but then there are other names that are mentioned in this demons verse 9 and what has happened to demons it says demons has forsaken me having loved this present age so here is not someone like Timothy that is looking ahead to the work that is to be done it's not like Paul that is looking backwards to the work that he has done but here is someone that's completely gone off course the Bible of course doesn't give us a whole lot of detail about this man demons twice over he is mentioned in other places by Paul and you notice he is mentioned as one of Paul's fellow laborers he writes about him into the Colossians and then in Philemon named right up there with Luke who is also mentioned here but you notice the words demons has forsaken me maybe this is more personal to Paul but what happened to demons in his Christian life was it all the hardship that Paul suffered because of his faithfulness to Christ being beaten and persecuted and being hungry being starved was it that that the demon says I need to preserve myself it doesn't tell us what happened to demons it simply says this that Paul was forsaken that Paul in all of his need was abandoned maybe it was because Paul was in prison but demons has forsaken me having loved this present age and if you look up the word it is the agape love it is not emotion but a decision that is made and the decision that was made by demons was to turn his back to Paul the Bible says this to to go on to Thessalonica I don't take it that Paul is writing because he was going to preach the gospel in Thessalonica Paul says he went there because of his love for the present age or the thinking of present age or the natural mind maybe it was self-preservation like Peter when he hears about suffering the Lord Jesus speaks of how he is going to go to Jerusalem and die Peter says no save yourself maybe that was what happened to demons the Bible doesn't tell us other than this that he was once named as a fellow labor and as if you look into this you'll find that this is very this is something that affects Paul and something that we know today that there are people that we work alongside and believers we appreciated it was great to be with them to see them grow and learn but where are they today they're no longer working with they're no longer present to help Demas has forsaken me having loved this present age but there's also another name that is mentioned in his verse 11 it says Luke is with me we won't speak about Luke but take Mark because this is also an encouragement because Mark was one of those like Demas and we of course don't know any more about Demas but thankfully Mark you read he was with Paul and he was with Barnabas he was a helper to them back in the book of Acts you'll read that the end of chapter 12 in chapter 13 but then you also read that there was a time that he forsook them maybe because of the mountains and the difficulty of the journey and the dangers and he went back but you notice how Paul writes of him now he says take Mark John Mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry there was a time that there was such great discussion that's not the word disputation between Barnabas and and Paul because of Mark abandoning them and here is someone that obviously had departed as well but he didn't end that way apparently he had returned he had been recovered and Paul could now say that he is profitable I don't know who is in the audience today that's the problem with a large group that there are many needs and difficulties but maybe you can identify with one of these men maybe you're someone that has a work to do and you need to be encouraged in it fulfill your ministry don't leave your work half done carry it out fully take the example of the Apostle Paul in the life that he lived the zeal that he could come to the end of life without regret saying I should have done better I should have dedicated myself more that wasn't the life of Paul oh we often say this when it comes to those that are in their sins that make sure that when you come to die the only thing you have to do is die everything else has been taken care of I would take that that was a life of Paul his mind was he was ready to die he didn't have any difficulty with it he had served his Lord to the fullest and he could say I've come to the end of the road and I have I finished the race so sad it is that there are people that are once on fire for the Lord but they're like Demas and they have veered off course but maybe there's someone who has been far away for far too long and but but here's Mark Mark who has come back and now he is profitable the thing that even though we might fail and God doesn't throw us in the garbage pail does our God is a God of recovery a God of restoration and a God who desires to use us so for you and I today who are we are we Timothy that we need to look forward to the work that needs to be done that we might all come to the end of our life like Paul and look back and say no regrets or we like Demas off course loving this present age or maybe like Mark bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry God is a God of restoration