Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Have you ever looked back over your life and wish you had done a few things differently?
Let's learn from this podcast to let go of the past and embrace the challenge to end well. If you had to answer this question in one complete sentence, how would you answer it? I am living for... How would you answer that?
And some of you would say, well, I really haven't thought about it. Or somebody else might say, well, I'm living to take care of my family or I'm living to do a good job or I'm living to become wealthy or I'm living to have a good time. I'm living to enjoy life. Is that all you're living for? If you don't give your life to Jesus Christ and you don't give yourself to Him to serve Him, I can guarantee you when you come to the end of life, you're going to be disillusioned, you're going to be disappointed, you're going to be full of hurt and fear. You can take every kind of situation, but without Jesus Christ and without living for God's divine purpose, you're going to end up miserable. You're going to end up full of regrets, looking back over life and thinking, where has my life gone?
What have I done with it? Is there any value in my having lived? Is there anything eternal going on back here as a result of my life? God says we ought to be living to worship and to serve the living God. All of us have a ministry.
That doesn't mean that everybody's found theirs, but everybody has one. We come to this passage of Scripture that looks like a whole list of Paul's friends, but if you get the truth of this message, your life can take on a whole new meaning and purpose and you're going to begin to understand how God can use you in wonderful ways. You see, everybody's ministry is not the same because we're not all equipped to do the same thing.
Now, what does that have to do with how you and I are going to end our lives well or in ruin? Well, I want you to see this because here's a beautiful example of what I'm talking about when it comes to ministering. Now look, if you will, beginning in verse seven, Paul commends these men the most beautiful way. He says, first of all, as to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother, faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord will bring you information.
I've sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know about our circumstances, that he may encourage your hearts. Now, we find this man Tychicus in Acts chapter 20, in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and also in the book of Titus chapter 2. Each time, you know what Tychicus is doing? Tychicus is going on errands for the apostle Paul who's a prisoner in Rome. He's sending him places, doing things for him. And it's interesting that he says to him that he's a beloved brother, a faithful servant and a fellow bondservant. He says, I've sent him to you for the purpose that he lets you know what's going on with me back here in the Roman prison. That was his responsibility. Take this epistle to the church at Colossae. Now you say, well, what's so significant about that?
I'll tell you. Suppose he hadn't done it. You see, here's the mistake we make. We're the ones who judge what's important, what's not important. Listen, as Paul received it from God, that was important. So it was important for somebody who was a trustworthy man to be willing to cross about a thousand miles of difficult travel in order to get that book where it would be copied and sent around to the other churches and copied and copied and sent around to the other churches until 2000 years later almost in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, which wasn't even in existence then. We're talking about the Apostle Paul and Tychicus 2000 years ago saved by the grace of God. You don't think that's important?
You see, that is our evaluation. Look, if you will, in verse 10, Aristarchus. Aristarchus. Who in the world is Aristarchus? Well, we don't know too much about him, but he's been with Paul in prison. He says, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner. He may have been in prison with him.
We don't really know. Then he says, sends you his greetings and also Barnabas's cousin, John Mark. And this is the Mark who wrote the book of Mark about whom you received instructions if he comes to you, welcome him.
Now, why would he say that? Go back to Luke chapter, Acts chapter 13 for a moment. And you remember that on Paul's first missionary journey, that he and Barnabas and those who were with him, they were preaching the gospel. And verse 13 of Acts 13 says that Mark had little problem.
And verse 13 says, now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John, that is John Mark, and John left them and returned to Jerusalem. That is, it got a little tough on John Mark.
He couldn't handle it. And he walked away and left. But what does Paul say? He says, concerning him, he says, about whom you have received instructions. And what do you suppose Paul must have said to him? He said, look, I know that he chalked out on us in the midst of a missionary journey. And the truth is that he and Barnabas got in a big argument about this. And the next time they got ready to go on a missionary journey, Paul wouldn't take John Mark.
Barnabas said, I'll take him with me. And Silas went with the apostle Paul. And so we have Paul and Silas and Philippi and the Philippian jail.
Listen, if John Mark had it bad over there, he would have had a hard time in jail, wouldn't he? Being beaten as Paul and Silas were. So he says, but receive him anyway. Then if you'll notice on down in verse 11, he says, and also Jesus, who is called Justice. Now, we don't know anything much about justice either, except that he says about Aristarchus, Mark, and Justice. He said that these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, that is, Jews.
And they have proved to be an encouragement to me. Now, remember that Paul is in prison. God is giving him these awesome revelations of truth in Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians and this letter to Philemon. And here are these men ministering to him, serving him, helping him, and as he says, encouraging him. These were godly men who understood the importance of ministry.
Not in a church building, not in a church building, but in a prison, in a jailhouse. They served the living God. Now look, the next one is Epaphras in verse 12. Epaphras was the founder of the Colossian church. In fact, Paul won him to Christ when he was evangelizing in the Asian area. And he founded the Colossian church and may have founded Hierapolis and Laodicea, I don't know that.
But listen to what he says. Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in prayers. And notice what he says about his prayers.
That you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Aeropolis. Now, what was the ministry of Epaphras to the apostle Paul? I believe it was a ministry of prayer. When he talks about how he prayed, how many times the apostle Paul must have heard Epaphras praying. And so having heard him pray, he says, I bear witness that this man has a deep burning yearning concern, a loving desire to see the church at Colossae succeed and the people grow in the Lord. What a tremendous witness and what a tremendous help Epaphras must have been. Listen, if I couldn't be a pastor and I could choose my ministry, I believe I would choose the ministry of prayer because it is the most powerful of all ministries.
You can reach anybody anywhere in the world at any time in any given circumstance. That is the power of omnipotent God working in the life of one who is a servant in spirit, who is willing to plead and intercede for someone else. And the very idea that a person says, Well, I don't have a ministry. Yes, you've got one. You may not have found out what it is. You may not have asked what it is. You may not be exercising your ministry. You do have a ministry and it's time you found out what it is and get involved in giving yourself away in that ministry. I want you to watch two things in just a moment.
Something significantly absent and something significantly present in this. Well, then he moves on down to talk about Luke. Luke, the beloved physician. Now, it's interesting what happens to the Apostle Paul. I want you to turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4 and hold it just a moment.
2 Timothy chapter 4. Now, Luke, he says, Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings. Now, Luke, you'll recall, is a doctor. And we find Luke with the Apostle Paul on several occasions. And in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 11, when Paul is coming down to the end of his life, verse 11 says, Only Luke is with me. He has sent the others some places, but he says, Only Luke is with me. Why do you suppose that God chose to send, to minister to the Apostle Paul in these years of his life, not only on his missionary journeys, but also in these last years of his life in prison, why do you suppose one of those men was a physician, a doctor? Luke believed that God's ministry for him was to go into that prison with the Apostle Paul and minister to him and help him and encourage him and probably doctor him whenever he needed it in order for him to fulfill God's great purpose in his life. This man who gave himself in ministry to the Apostle Paul there in prison ended up being the writer under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit of the whole gospel of Luke and the whole book of Acts, which is our only history of the church given by divine revelation of God. Here's a man who was faithful to the thing God called him to do.
Let me ask you a question. Are you too important to be somebody else's messenger? Are you too important to give of your time and your abilities and your talents to someone else in service expecting nothing in return? Are you too big and high and mighty and too important to stoop down to where somebody is hurting and forgetting your reputation and all that you are and all that you have and give yourself away to someone else who desperately needs Jesus Christ, a word of encouragement? I want you to watch this because the truth is we are all here in these two men.
You listening? Luke the beloved physician, I just described him, but I want you to hold 2 Timothy now and go back to Colossians chapter 4 and look what he says in the same verse. Luke the beloved physician sends you his greetings and also Demas. Now notice he doesn't say anything much about Mark or Demas.
Mark deserted him on his first missionary journey. But turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Writing this to Timothy now.
He says in verse 9, Make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Verse 11, only Luke is with me. Paul is coming to the end of his life. And here are two men. One of them ends well and one of them doesn't. One of them ends well. Luke, he's stuck with the apostle Paul unto his death.
God granted him the privilege of writing the book of Luke and the book of the apostles or the acts of the apostles. Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world and the things that are in it and he's gone to Thessalonica. Let me ask you a question. How many of you are not serving the Lord Jesus Christ because you don't have time? Your job, your family, your things, your places, your pleasure, your fun, your happiness, your this, your that. You know what you've done? You have forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ work for you. It's not how you start life.
It's how you end it. And here are two men who had the same privilege with the apostle Paul. And one of them served him to the end and the other forsook him having loved the things of the world which amount to nothing. Which category would you fall into today?
A Luke or a Demas? Is your life really counting in somebody else's life? Are you just living to have fun and to make money and to do things and to go places and to have friends and trying to fill up something in your life?
That's not why you're here. Created in Christ Jesus under good works which we were foreordained to walk in. What a selfish, self-centered life delivered only for myself when there's a world of hurting people and a God who loved me enough to give me the privilege of helping someone else. Listen to what he says. There's something glaringly missing in this passage. In all the things that Paul says about his friends, listen to what he leaves out. He doesn't say anything about their abilities, nothing about their talents, nothing about their skills, nothing about their vast experience, nothing about their looks, nothing about their wealth or their poverty, nothing about any of the things that we would consider as important to a man in the service of God. What does he talk about? Listen to these words. Beloved friend, fellow prisoner, faithful servant. What is he talking about? He's talking about men of character, faithful, loving, loyal, serving, giving, kind, sacrificial, dependable.
That's what he's talking about. Do you know what it takes to have a ministry? It doesn't take education for lots of ministries. Do you know what it takes? Faithfulness, love, a sacrificial spirit, a servant spirit, giving, kindness, gentleness, and all the things that all of us have the capacity to have because Christ has become our life.
How grateful to God I am for people who have a servant spirit and who see themselves as God's servants by serving each other. And I know that a lot of that goes on and I could name some folks. But I want to come back to one simple truth that I want you to let this just echo in your mind. Do you know why people don't end well?
There's one primary reason, lots of things that fall out from this, there's only one reason you don't end well. And that reason is pride. I'm going to do it my way.
I'm going to do the things that I want to do and if I have any time left, I may give God some of that. That is pure pride. And the result of all pride is rebellion, going to have it my way. Well, my friend, let me tell you something frightening. God has granted you the privilege to have it your way.
But with the privilege comes the warning that the consequences of having it your way is disillusionment, disappointment and ultimately destruction. You know what our problem is? We live just for today.
Somehow we don't take the long look. The truth is that all of us are going to die. Every single one of us is going to die. Some soon, some later. How we die, none of us know.
But it's going to happen. The question is, how are you going to meet the Lord? With a life invested by giving yourself away to Him and giving yourself away to others by doing it, investing and not spending, or do you choose, my friend, which you can, to just go on living your life the way you please? I can tell you this, you will be eternally sorry, eternally regretful. Because no matter what you believe about the Bible or Christians or the church, if you die without Christ, you're going to be eternally separated from God, from everything that is good, and the Bible says you're going to a place called torment. And you're not going to ever be able to come out because you died in rebellion toward God. You have rejected His only begotten Son. You have rejected the cross. You have rejected the appeal of the gospel. You have rejected the unconditional love of God.
And my friend, when you die on that stage, you are lost forever. A life fully wasted and a life eternally wasted. What a terrible thought.
What a terrible way to live life. Wasting it here and eternally wasting it in suffering away from God and all that's good. I appeal to you in Jesus' name for your sake and for your future to give your life to Christ. To ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and tell Him that you're receiving Him as your Savior, your Lord and your Master, and that you do believe that His death on the cross paid your sin debt in full and that the day you're giving up your life, you're turning it over to Him, you're receiving Christ as your Savior by faith. From that moment, the Bible says you become a new creation in Christ.
You can begin to live your life all over again, brand new, starting at this point, and you can invest your life and one of these days stand before God and not have the days left or years left and God will reward you for what you've done and what you did before you were saved is forgotten forever because the blood washed you clean. Thank you for listening to part two of The Challenge to End Well. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
