Justin Taylor shares-

"Sinclair Ferguson on some of the things that concern him about churches today:

"There is the lack of prayer and of the Church praying. This is to me the most alarming, for this reason: we have built apparently strong, large, successful, active churches. But many of our churches never meet as a congregation for prayer. I mean never! What does that indicate we are saying about the life of the Church as a fellowship?

By contrast, the mark of a truly apostolic spirit in the church is that that we give ourselves to prayer and the Word together (Acts 6:4). No wonder “the Word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied” (Acts 6:7). If this is so, it should not surprise us that while many churches see growth, it is often simply reconfiguration of numbers, not of conversion. I greatly wish that our churches would learn to keep the main things central, that we would learn to be true Churches, vibrant fellowships of prayer, Gospel ministry and teaching, genuine mutual love. At the end of the day, such a Church simply needs to “be” for visitors who come to sense that this is a new order of reality altogether and are drawn to Christ." "

HT: JT

Donald Whitney writes:

"Most people pray.  In fact, most people pray often, or at least they say they do.  In the United States, nine out of ten people say they pray to God.  Four out of five adults who pray say that prayer is a regular part of their lives.  And of those adults who ever pray to God, almost six out of ten (58%) claim they pray every day and most of those say they pray more than once a day.  Even two-thirds of those who never go to church say that they pray.  And yet with all this individual prayer, there seems to be much less group prayer.  In the western half of the world, and particularly in America, the independent spirit prevails over the interdependent spirit.  The spirit of the discoverer, the pioneer, the cowboy, the space explorer, the entrepreneur--this is a major influence on our view of the Christian life.   As Gene Getz observes in Praying for One Another, “The hallmark of Western civilization has been rugged individualism. . . . The emphasis in the scriptural record is clearly on corporate prayer.”  Let’s look at the Scriptural record and see why it is important and beneficial to pray with the church.   

1. You should pray with the church because of the power of united prayer.

2. You should pray with the church because it shows your love for Christ.

3. You should pray with the church because united prayer is linked with the effectiveness of the gospel.

4. You should pray with the church because it helps to protect you from Satan’s power.

5. You should pray with the church because you love your church family.

 6. You should pray with the church because you need others to pray for you .

 7. You should pray with the church because it keeps you from becoming too spiritually independent.

            
Is corporate prayer important to you? If not, in light of the above, why not?  If so, then . . .

Will you become an active part of the prayer life of your church?"

Donald expounds from Scripture on each of these points here.

Sunday, we'll sing a song not in our current hymnbook, but a rich one, that complements II Timothy 4:5-8 well. 

Think about the lyrics:






The Son of God Goes Forth to War

The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His blood red banner streams afar:
Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in His train.

That martyr first, whose eagle eye
Could pierce beyond the grave;
Who saw his Master in the sky,
And called on Him to save.
Like Him, with pardon on His tongue,
In midst of mortal pain,
He prayed for them that did the wrong:
Who follows in His train?

A glorious band, the chosen few
On whom the Spirit came;
Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew,
And mocked the cross and flame.
They met the tyrant’s brandished steel,
The lion’s gory mane;
They bowed their heads the death to feel:
Who follows in their train?

A noble army, men and boys,
The matron and the maid,
Around the Savior’s throne rejoice,
In robes of light arrayed.
They climbed the steep ascent of Heav’n,
Through peril, toil and pain;
O God, to us may grace be given,
To follow in their train.

Paul's last letter before he was martyred is coming to an end in our Sunday series, but by God's grace the message will live in our lives as we make important what God makes important and live for what lasts. 


William Hendriksen summarizes the last chapter of the letter with the theme: 

"The Apostle Paul Tells Timothy What To Do In The Interest Of Sound Doctrine


Preach It                          'I charge you'

4:1-8     In season, out of season, for apostasy is coming.
                     Remain faithful in view of the fact that 'I am about to set sail.'

4:9-22   Items of personal information, requests, greetings."

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Hendriksen's synthesis of chapter four is helpful:

"Timothy must preach the sound doctrine. This is the final, most solemn charge which the apostle issues as he directs the assistant's attention to God and to Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in whose presence the charge is issued and received. Thus he places Timothy under oath to comply with the charge. If Timothy obeys, he will share in (and if he disobeys he will miss) the glory of Christ's Epiphany and Reign.

Timothy, then,must be a herald. He must forcefully and faithfully proclaim the divinely authorized message of salvation. Welcome or not welcome, he must ever be on hand with his good news. In this connection, he must reprove, rebuke, and admonish, doing all this with utmost longsuffering and painstaking teaching-activity. Let him bear in mind that the season will arrive--every age has such a season, but these seasons grow progressively worse--when men will not tolerate the sound doctrine. To be sure, they will still want to have teachers; in fact, 'heaps of them." But these teachers will be the kind that suit the fancies of men whose ears itch to hear interesting stories instead of the truth. Let Timothy then be sober, willing to suffer hardship, while he discharges to the full his evangelistic ministry. Let him do this all the more in view of the fact that Paul, who has fought the grand fight, has finished the race, and has kept the faith, is about to depart to the shores of eternity, in order that he may receive the wreath which he can justly claim as his own, and which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to him on the day of judgment, and not to him alone but to all those who have been looking forward with love and longing to the moment of their Lord's appearing, his brilliant second coming."