Hello, and welcome to this
message from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque. We love hearing how God uses
these teachings to reach people around the world. If this message impacts
you, let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/giving. The apostle Paul knew
the value of having true friends who stuck with
him during difficult times. Timothy and Epaphroditus
were two guys who helped shoulder
Paul's burdens and brought him great joy. In the first installment of A
Little Help from My Friends, Skip considers Timothy's
friendship profile. Now please turn in your Bible
to Philippians 2 as he begins. Father, we thank You for our
very breath that we breathe. Thank You for the life
that You've given us. And Thank you for
the opportunities that You set before us. Father, we pray now that Your
Spirit would speak clearly to us broadening
our understanding of Your will, Your design
for our very existence. In Jesus' name, Amen. The great missionary to
India, E. Stanley Jones, said when I met Christ,
it was as though I had swallowed sunshine. Isn't that a great statement? He was speaking of the joy that
he experienced in meeting Jesus Christ. And then there was C.S. Lewis,
a person that we've all probably read, that great
British scholar, who said joy is the
serious business of heaven. And while I like
that, I have to say it's the serious
business of heaven, but it can be seriously
challenged on Earth. And the greatest challenge
usually is from other people. People can challenge our joy. That's the way it was
with Paul the Apostle. He is in prison. But if you remember,
back in Chapter 1, he spoke about those people
who stir up trouble and make his chains even worse,
his incarceration worse, than it was. However, the right kind of
people can add to your joy. They can increase your joy. They can enhance your joy. Why? Because they ease
our burdens and they take the grind out of life. And I would add to
that and say that as technology
increases in our world, and as personal touch
decreases in our world, that good friends, the
right kind of people, are going to be in
even greater demand. Now let me have you take
a test this morning. I'm going to ask
you six questions. You can just answer
them in your own mind. But number one, name the five
wealthiest people in the world. Just see if you can. You might come up with
the first one or two, but can you name the five
wealthiest people on Earth? Number two, name the last
five Heisman Trophy winners. I probably lost a lot of
you right on that one. Number three, can you
name the last five winners of the Miss America contest? Number four, name 10 people who
have won a Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. And, number five, name the
last half dozen Academy Award winners for Best
Actor or Actress. And then, finally, number
six, test is not over. Named the last decade's worth
of World Series winners. Now I bet you didn't do
very well on that test. Even though these
people represent the best in their
fields, the truth is we forget
yesterday's headliners. But there's more to the test. I'm going to ask you
six more questions. You're going to do
better on this part. Number one, list a few teachers
who helped you in your journey through school. Number two, name three
friends who have helped you through a difficult time. Number three, name
five people who taught you something worthwhile. Number four, think
of five people you enjoy spending time with. And number six, name
some heroes whose stories have inspired you. I bet you did great on
that last part, right? You probably got
all A's on that. Here's the point. The people who matter
to us are not the ones with the most trophies
or wealth or beauty, but those who make the
most impact in our lives are those who have cared the
most for us in our lives. You know, it's easy
to forget that people like Paul the Apostle
also needed friends. And Paul had friends. Can you think of a few? I immediately think of Luke,
who was a companion of Paul the Apostle. I think of Barnabas. I think of Silas. I think of Aquila and Priscilla. Those were all Paul's friends. But here in the
book of Philippians, he names two more friends-- Timothy and Epaphroditus. I know you've heard of Timothy. Epaphroditus, some of you
are a little sketchy on him. But you'll learn more
about him next time. Timothy and Epaphroditus
were both friends of Paul. They were both servants to Paul. And they both added
enormous joy to Paul's life. Now I'm going to bring you
up to speed in this book before we jump into our text. Paul's theme is still
humility, lowliness of mind he called it,
serving one another, loving and caring
for one another. And he has given
us two examples-- the ultimate example,
Jesus Christ. He said let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus even though He was
in very nature God, yet He humbled Himself. So that's number one,
Jesus, first example. Second example, Paul
himself, who said, I am willing to pour
my very life out on the sacrifice of your faith. However, it would be easy for
a reader like the Philippian church to read his letter and
look at those two examples and say, well, I
could never be that. I can't be exactly like Jesus
or even the great Apostle Paul. Those are lives that
are out of reach for me. And so Paul puts the cookies
down on the lowest shelf so to speak. He says, OK, let me give
you two more examples. Timothy is one and
Epaphroditus is another. So we're introduced in
verse 19 to an ordinary guy named Timothy that Paul
was sending to them. Verse 19 says, "But I
trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly,
that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like-minded
who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their
own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know his
proven character, that has a son
with his father, he served with me in the gospel. Therefore I hope to send
him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me. But I trust in the
Lord that I myself shall also come shortly." Let me give you a little bit
of background on Timothy. Timothy was a young man who
became a protege to the Apostle Paul. Paul met him on his
first missionary journey. His first mission trip he went
through Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. And he went into a
little town called Lystra and then another
one called Derbe. It was probably in that first
town that he met Timothy. Timothy was the son
of a Jewish woman and the son of a
unbelieving father. But on Paul's
first mission trip, young Timothy gave
his life to Christ. Later on, he will become
part of Paul's mission team. On the second
missionary journey, when he comes through
town, he invites Timothy to join the
greater Paul the Apostle evangelistic organization
and he starts traveling now with Paul the Apostle. So over time, this young
man matures spiritually. And because friendship, like
Rome, is not built in a day, it takes time to
cultivate a mature love and a mature friendship. So what I want to show
you out of our text are four qualities
of a good friend or four qualities of
mature friendship. Now as we're going through this,
here's what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping that as we
process this together, you're not thinking man
I need to find somebody like that who will be that
kind of a friend to me. But I'm hoping you'll
say I need to learn how I can be that kind of
a friend to somebody else. So let's consider now these four
qualities of mature friendship. Number one, a good friend, a
mature friend, is reliable. He's reliable. Verse 19 Paul says, "but
I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly
that I also may be encouraged when I know your state." So Paul makes the
announcement that he plans to send Timothy
on a journey to them. Why? Why Timothy? Simply because
Timothy is reliable. Timothy is the first
person on a two person list of exemplary,
faithful friends of Paul. I want you to think about that. I bet when it comes
to your friends, you can count on one hand
those who are reliable friends. I bet it's a very short list. You might have a lot
of friends on Facebook, but Facebook friends
are different from faithful friends. Timothy was faithful to Paul. He was reliable. I found a little
interesting tidbit in the Journal of National
Academy of Sciences that said most people
tend to have between five and eight close friends. So here's Paul's short list. And first on the
list is Timothy. Timothy was reliable. It was Timothy that was
sent by Paul from Athens to Thessaloniki,
1 Thessalonians 3. He was also sent from Ephesus
to Corinth, 1 Corinthians 4. He was sent from Ephesus
to Macedonia, Acts 19. Now he's sending him
again on an errand to go all the way
from Rome to Philippi, which is about 800 miles. It takes somebody
reliable to pull that off. Now go to verse 22
and notice something. Look at the very end of
that verse, verse 22. It says, "He served with me in
the gospel--" now watch this-- "therefore, I hope to
send him at once as soon as I see how it goes with me." I want you to get
that therefore. I want you to get
that thought here. What Paul is saying is because
Timothy has been so reliable, Timothy is therefore
become more valuable. He is valuable because
he is reliable. Now Paul wanted to go
himself to Philippi. He announces that. I want to come, if I get
out of here basically, if I see how it goes with me,
if it goes well, I'll come. But if I can't
come, the next best to me actually going to
see you is to send Timothy. Now how much of
an honor is that? To go from Paul's
son in the faith to Paul's servant in the
faith to Paul substitute as he is being sent
from Rome to Philippi. You know there's a principle
in that I want you to get. Faithfulness is what will open
the door to more fruitfulness. The more faithful you are, you
just stay at it, stay at it, stay at it, that will open
the door to more fruitfulness. Now that's a servant's
reward by the way. A servant's reward is
getting to serve more. If you're not a servant,
that is not a reward. People who are not
servant-hearted, when they get asked to serve,
they go oh, again? You want me to-- I've already done stuff. Do I have to volunteer? Get somebody else. A servant says,
I get to do more? Awesome. And they're in it to win it. And they'll see
that as something that is a blessing not a curse. There are two
parables that Jesus gave in the Gospel of
Matthew about this-- Matthew 24 and Matthew 25. In Matthew 24, it's a parable
called the parable of the two servants. And Jesus makes this remark. "Blessed is that servant whom
his master, when he comes, will find so doing. I say to you that he will make
him ruler over all his goods." Faithfulness leads
to fruitfulness. The second parable in the
next chapter, Matthew 25, is about the parable
of the talents. Now don't think of
talents as the ability to like sing and dance
or something like that. We're talking about
monetary commissions. So he gave talent-- five talents to one,
two talents to another, one talent to another. This is money, bags
of silver or gold. Jesus said, "Well done,
good and faithful servant. You were faithful
over a few things. I will make you ruler
over many things. Enter into the
joy of your Lord." You remember that? Enter into the joy of your Lord. Most people think
that means heaven. But I think what it means
is you've been faithful, so now you're going
to be more fruitful and the joy of your Lord
is expanded service. That's the joy of your Lord. You get to do more. So the principle is the
more reliable you are, the more valuable you become. And faithfulness will
lead to fruitfulness. So then the first quality of a
mature friend is a good friend, a mature friend is reliable. Second, a mature
friend is compatible. In verse 20, Paul says, "For
I have no one like-minded--" mark that word
like-minded-- "who will sincerely care or
naturally care for your state." In friendships, in fact
in any relationship, we talk about compatibility. Are they compatible? What we mean is there are
personalities that are better suited to other personalities. And some personalities
that just aren't suited to different ones. Even Aristotle, the
great Greek thinker, noticed that there is what
he called a natural affinity and friendship. That people will get
together or gravitate toward other people who like
the same thing they like. There's a compatibility
of interest or a compatibility of goal. So Paul uses the word,
notice, like-minded. And the reason I'm
having you notice the word is because the
only single time it appears in the New Testament is here. It's never used anywhere else. The Greek word [SPEAKING GREEK],,
[SPEAKING GREEK] literally means equal souled
or like souled. We are of one soul. Paul is saying of Timothy. It's sort of like
David and Jonathan. You remember in the Old
Testament 1 Samuel 18, we were told the
soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. They were like
souled, equal souled. C.S. Lewis once wrote
true friends don't spend time just gazing
into each other's eyes, but they face the same direction
toward common projects, interests, goals, and above
all toward a common Lord. So get this, Timothy and
Paul had the same goal. Their goal was to serve God
and to serve God's people. But here's what's remarkable. There were hundreds
of Christians at this time in
the city of Rome. And Paul probably
knew a bunch of them. In fact, at the end of
his letter to the Romans, Romans 16, Paul lists personal
friends, personal names, 27 personal names. So he must have
known a lot of them. But what he's saying is of all
the ones that I know at Rome, there is only one person who
shares the same soul that I do. We are soul mates in that
he has the same interests and the same goal
for Christ that I do. 1 Corinthians 16:10,
Paul describes Timothy, he does the work of
the Lord as I do also. Twice in the very
last letter Paul ever wrote in his
life, 2 Timothy, he writes to Timothy saying
twice you have carefully followed my doctrine,
my manner of life, purpose, faith, suffering,
love, and perseverance. Those guys are like
souled, like-minded. So find someone who pursues
Jesus Christ as much as you do and walk into the
future with that person. That's what I did with my wife. My wife Lenya and I, we're very
similar in certain respects, but very, very
different in others. But of all the differences
that we have-- and I remember at first in our marriage,
there were things that we did that
sort of irritated us, now we sort of laugh at
them and we enjoy them. We've learned to accommodate. But one thing we agree on, one
thing we are like-minded on, and that is our
pursuit of Christ. We are like souled. So a mature friend is reliable. A mature friend is compatible. Here's the third. A good friend, a mature
friend is thoughtful. Thoughtful. In verse 20, he says, "I have
no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your
state--" verse 21-- "for all seek their
own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus." Now we're back to that
servant thing again and Paul's been harping on
that for several verses. And perhaps just when
you thought it was over and you could move on. You were thinking,
Skip, I remember we had a couple of
weeks of telling us that we had to serve one
another and love one another and be humble with each
other and all that stuff. And I'm just so glad
we're done with that. We can move on to real life. Well, evidently to
Paul, you're not done. Because he keeps bringing
it up and using example after example and application
after application. And so he said let
this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. But he said as his
premise, let nothing be done through selfish
ambition or conceit, but in humility or lowliness
of mind let each of us esteem others
better than himself. That's a wonderful passage. Trouble is, it's hard. That's difficult to actually
esteem, prefer others more than ourselves. Well one who did
that was Timothy. "He will sincerely
care for your state." In other words, he genuinely
cares for your welfare. The word sincerely simply
means he's the real deal. There's nothing fake about him. There's nothing phony about him. There's nothing hypocritical. He actually cares. Timothy didn't plaster
a fake smile on him, so that he could
sell you something or that he'd get a bigger tip. He actually genuinely cared. I think you can tell if somebody
is sincere in their care. I mean animals can. I found this funny little
study on a scientific journal where they took dogs and
put them in MRI scanners with something to
read brain waves. And they noted dogs care about
what we say and how we say it. I found it fascinating that
they can process word meaning and intonation. Now they don't have
a big vocabulary, but they get the basic
rudimentary commands and things that you say. But they listened to the
words they're familiar with, but also how you say them. Now this has nothing at
all to do with my study, I just thought it
was fascinating. [LAUGHTER] Except for this, I
think if animals know and they can tell if
we're sincere or not, certainly human beings can. And Paul knew that of Timothy,
that he esteems others better than himself. He's not self-centered. He's not thinking what about me. He's thinking what about them. So a friend of mine signed me up
for this thing called 23andMe. Have you heard of that? You know what that is? 23andMe. It was a gift that
was given to me and you send a sample of saliva
in and they test your DNA. They find out what
your background is. What percentage of this
ethnic group you are. And I thought, well,
that'd be fascinating. But not only do they
do genetic research, they want to find out
behavior patterns. So they ask you a
series of questions. And they have sent
me several emails, could you answer
these questions? Thank you, you answer more
than a large percentage, would you answer more questions? Well, I got one yesterday
that asked me a few questions. I just wanted you to
hear the first two. Number one, they
said how narcissistic do you think you are? That was the question. And they gave you
different options. I'm not at all
narcissistic, which only a narcissist would say. I am very narcissistic, which I
don't know who would say that. And then something
in the middle. I'm somewhat narcissistic. So I looked at it
and thought, who is going to answer
that honestly, ever? How narcissistic do
you think you are? So I thought most
people would probably say somewhat narcissistic. That's safe. That's how I
answered it at least. Second question
that they sent me was on a scale of
one to five, how much do you like helping
other people? And again I thought I wonder
how many people are really going to be honest with this? OK. So now look at verse 21. He goes from saying, I
have nobody like-minded who will really care. Now he makes a
contrasts in verse 21. "For all seek their own, not
the things which are of Christ Jesus." That is an amazing statement. For everybody seeks
their own, not the things that are of Christ. The Moffatt translation
puts it this way. Everybody is selfish. The new Living
Translation renders it for all others care
only for themselves. Now we're not actually sure
who Paul was referring to here. But a surface reading
of this, most of us would think, well, he's probably
describing the unbelieving world, the unconverted world. People generally in the world
are selfish in their living. I don't believe he's
referring to that. I believe, that my
strong conviction is, he's referring
to Christian people. You know how I believe that? Because he has just
written in Chapter 1, he said that some in Rome,
who were Christian people, were preaching through envy and
strife and selfish ambition. He noted that. And he said they're making it
worse for me while I'm in jail. You see Paul had
been around people. He knew people. And he knew that sometimes
people, church people, just want you to think
they're church people. They speak Christianese. They got it down pat. God bless you, brother, sister. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I'm reading my Bible. They just say all
the right stuff. But they have their own agenda. And Paul knew from
personal experience I got a group of
people here in Rome, who are preaching from envy,
strife, selfish, ambition, for all seek their own, not
the things that are of Jesus. Timothy, however, really cares. Remember in the
Gospel of John, Jesus was gaining a large crowd. And we are told this. "Many believed in His name
when they saw the signs that He performed. But Jesus did not
commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. And He had no need that
anybody testify of man." I think Paul knew men, too. But he knew that Timothy
was a breath of fresh air. Some of you may be
familiar with the person I'm about to announce. He was a French cleric
over 1,000 years ago. His name was Bernard,
Bernard of Clairvaux. And he made some very
interesting observations about us as human beings. He said there are four
stages of Christian maturity. See if you can relate to this. Stage number one, love
of self for self's sake. That's about as
basic as you can get. It's all about me. I love myself. How do I look? How do I feel? How do you make me feel? It's love of self
for self's sake. That's stage number one. Stage number two, love
of God for self's sake. Stage number three, love
of God for God's sake. And stage number 4, love
of self for God's sake. Now without going
through all those stages, let me just say that my
observation is that many of us Christians are still
at stage number two. We love God for our self's sake. We love God because
God makes me feel good. And as long as God
keeps giving me what I think He
ought to be giving me and blessing me like He
ought to be blessing me, well, I'm going to love Him. But if He doesn't,
that may go away. It's love of God for
the sake of myself, not for Him, not for His
glory, it's all about me. Think of it this way. All of us, all of us,
live in one of two places. We either live in Philippians
1:21 or Philippians 2:21. Philippians 1:21 reads "For me
to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 2:21,
you just read it, "All seek their
own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus." You either live in 1:21 or 2:21. Think of it this way. You are turning 21. Which 21 are you turning? 1:21 or 2:21? Seeking your own, not Jesus
or for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. We all live in one of two camps. A gal by the name of Ruth
Calkin wrote a piece that has stuck with me for years. Let me read it to you. It's a prayer. She says, "You know,
Lord, how I serve You with great emotional
fervor in the limelight. You know how eagerly I speak
for You at a woman's club. You know how I effervesce when
I promote a fellowship group. You know my genuine
enthusiasm at a Bible study. But how would I
react, I wonder if you pointed to a basin
of water and asked me to wash the calloused feet
of a bent and wrinkled old woman day after day and month
after month in a room where nobody saw
and nobody knew?" I was deeply convicted
when I first read that. And I still am
when I read it now, because only the Lord knows
if I'm in 1:21 or 2:21. But I think we could all
say I want to be in 2:21. I hope that we're
going from level 2 all the way up to 3 and 4. Well, a mature
friend is reliable. A mature friend is compatible. A mature friend is thoughtful. Let me give you a fourth
and we'll close out. A mature friend is loyal. I'm going to have
you look at verse 22. Speaking of Timothy, he says,
"But you know his proven character, that as a
son with his father, he served with me
in the gospel." His point is this, Timothy was
not a novice, he was seasoned. He had maturity. He had mileage,
spiritual mileage, under his spiritual belt. He
said he had proven character. Now that word proven
character, it's just a single word in
Greek, [SPEAKING GREEK].. And it means to prove
something or make something known as
valuable after it has gone through a testing. And so they would test metals
or they would test horses. And once it was
tested, then it was proven to be valuable, because
it's gone through the test. And today everything's tested. Your car, they just
didn't sell you your car and cross their fingers and
say, man, and I hope it runs. They took it to a factory. They put a dummy-- not one of us-- a
crash dummy in it. And they rammed
it up into a wall. And they wanted to make
sure the airbags deployed and the electronics
work, et cetera. It was tested. Everything from toasters
to toilets are tested. And it's the testing that proves
the worth or proves the value. So Paul didn't just add Timothy
to his evangelistic team day one after his conversion. He waited a couple of
years, until he came back through Lystra and Derbe-- and saw him a second time. And we are told in
Acts 16, "Timothy was well spoken of
by the brethren." It was that endorsement that
caused Paul to say, Tim, I want you to join my team. And so young Tim
joined Paul's team and followed him throughout
Macedonia and Corinth and then to Jerusalem
when Paul brought a special offering of
money for the suffering church in Jerusalem. The point is this. There must be waiting
before there is working. There must be a testing
period before there is a teaming up with another
person, especially in ministry. Because rapid
advancement in ministry can cause someone
to become proud. This is why Paul said Timothy,
he wrote to Timothy 1 and 2 Timothy, he said, when
you choose up leaders, make sure they're seasoned. His words, not a novice
less being puffed up with pride he falls into the
same condemnation as the devil. You know, I have
noticed over the years that whenever somebody famous,
some rock star, some singer, some actor makes any overture
of belief in Jesus Christ, the church wants to immediately
platform them, bring them in. Have him stand up and
share his testimony. No. Don't have him do that. Have him get rooted and
grounded first and grow. Otherwise, he'll become a
tree whose branches go out further than his roots go down
and that tree will topple. And when that tree
topples, the world is going to look and go,
aha, another fake one. So Paul made sure
Timothy was loyal. And that loyalty turned into
a long-term reliability. And so he mentions
him 24 times, Paul does, in all of his writings. And I love this
relationship how it's said "as a son is with his father." Paul thought of Timothy
as his son in the faith. And he writes about that here
"as a son is with his father." I'll close with this. I don't know if you
know who Henry Luce is-- L-U-C-E. Henry Luce was
the founder of Time-Life Incorporated, so that great
communication enterprise. Henry Luce probably
influenced world opinion more than any single
publisher in recent history. In fact, when he was alive, he
was called the most influential private citizen in America. Well, he talks about
his early life. He said he was raised the
son of a missionary in China. Raised in China, his father had
enormous responsibility running a school, running his mission. And he said every evening my
dad would take me for a walk. But he said what was interesting
is my father spoke to me as though I were an adult.
He said I was just a kid walking next to my dad. And my dad talked about
the philosophy of education and things that I didn't quite
know, but it just elevated me. And I felt like, man,
I'm not just a kid, I'm not just his
son, I'm his friend. He felt so honored that his
father made him a friend. What an honor to be called a
friend of Paul the Apostle. It's an honorable title,
just a friend of anyone but a friend of
Paul the Apostle. And do you know who was
called a friend of God? Can you think of his
name in the Bible? Anybody? If you know it, shout it out. Abraham. Abraham was called
the friend of God, only one who had that title. What an honor, huh? For God to say, hey, do
you know My buddy, Abraham? My friend, My good friend. And here's the truth. When Jesus Christ
becomes your Savior, He brings you into a
relationship with His Father, so you become a child of God. But more than that, a friend. Jesus said to His
followers, from this day on, I don't call you just my
servants you're my friends so I'm looking at friends
of God children of God. And if you don't
know Jesus Christ, this would be a
good day to enter into a relationship with Him. Let's pray. Father, we just
make consideration of what we have read. These simple words of
Paul endorsing somebody he's going to send to
a group that he loved. Timothy, a friend
who was reliable. A friend who was compatible. A friend who was so thoughtful. And a friend who was loyal. Lord, some of us are
in desperate need of good friendships,
healthy relationships. And we hear these
words and we think, oh that I had those kind
of people surrounding me. But if we would turn
from that and say, boy, if I lived in 2:21
rather than 1:21, I could be mature to the extent
that I would bless other people and my life would become
even more fruitful as I remain ever faithful. So we're asking You, Lord,
to change us individually, to make us these kind of
mature people, children of God, friends of God,
friends to one another. And I just want
to pray for anyone if they don't know
Christ personally that now would be the
opportunity that they would seize upon to put
their trust personally, definitely, intentionally
in Jesus Christ. As our heads are bowed, I'm
going to leave my head up and my eyes open
for just a moment because I want to invite you if
you've never said yes to Jesus, authentically committed
your life to Him. I'm not asking you
are you a good person, a nice person, a
religious person, have you gone to
church all your life? I'm asking do you know
Jesus Christ personally? Have you asked him
to be your Savior? Have you invited Him in? Have you turned your
life over to Him? If you haven't
done that, but you want to do that, you want to
know your sins are forgiven and He'll give you a whole
new start, a whole new life, I want you to raise your
hand up just for a moment, just raise it up
high so I can see it. God bless you, ma'am, right
there in the middle to my left. Anyone else? Raise that hand up. Say yes to Him. Surrender to Him and be
His friend, His child and his friend. Anybody else? Raise that hand up
so I can see it. And then right where you're
at, if you raised your hand, would you just say, Lord Jesus,
come into my life right now. I know that I'm a sinner. I ask You to forgive me. I believe that You came
from heaven to earth and died on the cross for my sin
and rose again from the grave. I turned my life to You. I repent of my sin. I turn to Jesus to be
my Savior and my Lord. Help me to follow You
today and every day. In Jesus' name, Amen. Timothy possessed many
qualities of a great friend. Did this message
challenge you to consider how many of these qualities
are present in your own life? We'd love to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/giving. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque.
