Thankful for Growing Relationships

Today, we are looking at the second core value that we have here at Immanuel Baptist which is Growing Relationships.

2 Timothy 4:9–15 ESV

9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

There is something that is different about a Christian and their relationships. It is special. Well, it should be. Because I don’t want to paint some fairy tale picture for you that is not reality. I heard a pastor say one time, “how do you think you are going to spend an eternity together in heaven when we can’t get along here on earth?” But instead of dwelling on the reality of some relationships between Christians, I think that by going through and painting a picture of what healthy, growing Christians relationships should be will deal with what they should not be as well.

I want to use the words of Paul in this letter to Timothy as a basis for why we need growing relationships with other Christians. The first thing that we see to set all of this up in what Paul writes is that...

1. Growing Relationships need Godly Friends

To set the stage somewhat here, Paul is staring death in the face. He is writing this letter from a desk in a Roman prison cell. He knew what was coming to him, which is death. So he reaches out and asks Timothy to come and see him.

2 Timothy 4:9 ESV

9 Do your best to come to me soon.

Although he was around Roman guards that were possibly Christian at this point, he knew that he wanted to be with Timothy. We all probably have that one friend that we gravitate towards. And for Paul, that was Timothy. Timothy was a son to Paul. Not a biological but a spiritual. So there was this bond between them. And they continued to work together. They knew the mission that they shared, to make disciples. And they were together in this.

As we go through this, we will see that Paul did not always stay in touch with people that he may have once worked with and not all of the people that he came in contact with shared in the mission to make disciples. But there is something that we know for sure, Timothy was a Godly friend to Paul. Also, he tells us that Luke is with him. But he still wants Timothy to come. And it is because they had just a different relationship. They were tight.

We, as believers, should have that person too. I bet that if you do have that person, they just came to mind. Or maybe it was a couple of people. But I would argue that for the person who does not have this, they struggle all the more. We need each other. Christianity is not a lone ranger religion. It is a relational religion. We need to cultivate these relationships. And what better place to do that than the local church. We take time out of our week to gather together. Let’s continue to build these Godly relationships right here, together.

And we need Godly friends.

2. Growing Relationships May Fall Apart

It would be misleading if we thought that all relationships work out perfectly all the time. Because they don’t. I have had great friends in church before who were on fire for a short time and the flame go out. That is what we read here about Demas.

2 Timothy 4:10 (ESV)

10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

He says that Demas is in love with the world. Paul doesn’t really give us details to the situation, but we can tell that it isn’t good. He uses a very strong word when he says that he had deserted him. This verb means to “utterly abandon”. He left Paul. His friend. Gone.

We could almost relate the relationship of Demas and Paul to Judas and Jesus. But without the betrayal. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around this. He sat under the teaching of Paul. He was around a guy who wrote a good portion of the New Testament. And he deserted him. Did Paul see it coming? I don’t know. But I can tell you from experience that sometimes you are blindsided by people deserting you, but other times you can see it coming for some time. What we as Christians do not get the luxury of doing is letting it change how we love these people even when we know that they are pulling back.

I can say, as a pastor, that oftentimes it is the ones that you pour into the most that leave you. All of the phone calls, meals, home visits, and hospital visits won’t matter. When they leave, none of that matters anymore. But that cannot change how we treat people moving forward. We cannot have this mentality that we are not going to pour into people if they are just going to leave. We don’t know the impact that we may make on them. There is always that chance that, even if they leave, the love that we have shown them will stick with them and they may come back someday.

But understand that Growing Relationships may Fall Apart...

3. Growing Relationships May Get Distanced

If you look at the end of verse 10 and then in verse 12, we have 3 names of men who have left Paul as well. These are different than Demas though. These 3 men were seemingly sent out by Paul rather than deserting him. Crescens, Titus, and Tychicus. Them leaving and going other places is not a bad thing. This would be like us raising up people in our church to send out to be missionaries or to go to other churches to serve there. This is something that should happen naturally in the life of believers and the life of the church.

These men all had specific tasks that they were doing. Crescens went to Galatia, Tychicus went to Ephesus, and Titus went to Dalmatia. Now nothing else is mentioned of Crescens in the New Testament so we really don’t know much about him. Tychicus was the one who delivered the letter to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. What an honor that would have been to be able to deliver a letter to a church that would one day be part of the biblical canon.

Titus is probably the most well known of these three men. Titus earlier would have been stationed in Crete and apparently has finished his work there and is now moving on to another mission. Paul had a wonderful relationship with Titus. In Titus 1:4, Paul calls Titus “4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith. The task that Titus has in Dalmatia would likely be the same task that he had in Crete. Titus 1:5 “5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—” He had the ability to strengthen churches and raise up leaders.

About 15 years ago, I began attending a weekly bible study. It was for 17-22 year olds. At one point, we were having around 30 people attending regularly. For me, I built lasting friendships. There are 3 men in particular that to this day I still talk to one a regular basis. Although I have only seen 1 of them in the last year. We still talk to each other and sharpen each other. Because we believe what Proverbs 27:17 “17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” This is what relationships are about, whether they are near or far.

The distance between Paul and these men did not stop the friendship that they had. Have you ever had the person in your life that just moved on. And then one day they come back and it was like you never missed a beat. That is how we can imagine the relationship between Paul and these men. Growing Relationships may get distanced.

4. Growing Relationships May Get Restored

We see Paul talk about Mark.

2 Timothy 4:11b Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

This shows the work of God in these 2 mens life to bring them back together. Because they had a rocky past. When Paul is talking about Mark in this passage, he is talking about John Mark, one of the eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.

After the conversion of Paul, he begin what we call his missionary journeys. In his very first missionary journey, Mark went with him. It was on this journey that Mark left and went back home. Now we aren’t sure all of the details about it, but we do know that after this happens, Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them again and Paul would not sign off on it because he saw Mark as a deserter. So there has been some disagreements between them.

But that isn’t the end of the story. Because they come back together and get restored. Mark was even there at one of Pauls imprisonments. Colossians 4:10 tells us this. And later on, Paul even calls Mark his son. What a beautiful restoration.

I think of one of my personal pastors that I have had in my life. Before he was a believer, he and his wife got married at a young age. He had gotten wrapped up in some form of substance abuse. She had been through enough that she told him that if he didn’t clean up his life, that she was going to divorce him. Well, that conversation did not do it, and she divorced him. Now, if I just stop right there, that is a sad story. But that is not the end of the story. After their divorce had finalized, he came to faith in Christ and his life was radically changed. Him and his wife reconnected and eventually remarried.

Restoration is something that is extremely beautiful. I would argue that it is even more beautiful when Christian brothers and sisters are restored. Today, we are going to be taking the Lord’s Supper. This is one thing we as believers must look at before we take it. We are to look inward when we take the Lord’s Supper and part of that is looking at our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Restoration is a beautiful thing to happen in the local church. Many local churches suffer and die because of people failing to reconcile and restore relationships with one another. I pray that we can see the relationship between Paul and Mark and the beauty of restoration and be made right with brothers and sisters in Christ.

5. Growing Relationships May Not Always Happen

2 Timothy 4:14–15 ESV

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

If you study the life of Paul for any short amount of time, you will know that he had a lot of opposition against the spread of the gospel. Here, he names one of his opposers, Alexander. Paul tells Timothy that he strongly opposed the message and to watch out for him. You may wonder how great of an opposition he would have been. We don’t know a great deal about him, but Paul does put one important detail in here.

He says that Alexander was a coppersmith. This holds some importance to what Paul is saying because Paul would have been hurting his business. Coppersmiths would have had some business in making false idols for people. So he would not have appreciated Paul coming in and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. That there was one God and one way to God through Jesus Christ. People who convert to Christianity would no longer be buying idols and therefore hurting his business. So he would have been an opposition to Paul. Some believe that he had something to do with Paul’s second arrest.

In our lives, it doesn’t take much convincing on my part to get you to see that not all encounters with people turn into growing relationships. If you have spent much time at all sharing the gospel with others, you will see that often times, you seem to make enemies rather than friends. But what I want to encourage you with once again, don’t let that stop you from trying to build a growing relationship with someone. Yes, it doesn’t always work out. But just remember the one person who may have went out on a limb for you to build that relationship that has changed your life.

6. Growing Relationships Have God at Their Center

This point right here have all of the other positive ones hinging on it. You will not have a lasting, growing, Godly relationship with someone without first having a relationship with God. The man who wrote this passage was one of the worst opposers of Christians that you could imagine. But what changed in him was Jesus Christ saving him. And maybe you want to know how to be saved. (Gospel presentation)

And just like Paul, we can have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And Paul gives God the credit.

2 Timothy 4:17–18 ESV

17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

In this passage, Paul is not talking about the relationships he has with other people. He is talking about what God has done in his life. This is what brings us together though. Our faith in Jesus Christ. Think about the man that wrote this. Paul had been the one who was killing Christians, and now he was one. Do you think that he would just be able to strike up a friendship with these godly men if it were not for God saving him? Absolutely not. But because of the witness of Paul, they believed that he was a changed person. They truly believed 2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Because of this, they loved Paul. Not because they liked the same sports team, not because they lived in the same neighborhood, not because they ate at the same restaurants. But because of the gospel of Jesus Christ changing Paul.

And they opened up their arms for one another.

Conclusion

Is this something that we do well. I said that we as a church value growing relationships. There is no doubt that we value the relationships that we have had in the past. But what about new ones. When Immanuel Baptist is welcoming in new people into the flock, do we value growing relationships with those people? Or do we ignore them and continue with the same comfortable relationships we have always had? I want to challenge you that if you plan to eat a meal out this week, look around here today and ask someone you don’t know well to grab a bite to eat. Let’s cultivate growing the relationships that we have here.

Prayer

The Lord’s Supper

Today, we have the great opportunity to partake in what we call the Lord’s Supper. This was instituted by Jesus at what is commonly known as the Last Supper. It is represented by crackers (body of Christ), and juice (blood of Christ). We do this to remember the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The beliefs that unite us together as believers in Christ. The Lord’s Supper is only for baptized believers who are not under church discipline. So, even if you may not be a member here, if believe that Jesus lived a perfect life, died the death on the cross in our place, and defeated death by rising from the grave, and you have been baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ, then you can partake. I want to read a passage for us this morning that teaches us about the Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 11:24–29 ESV

24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

We are doing it a little different this morning than we have in the past. We have one tray and in it will be 2 cups stacked. The bottom cup with have the cracker and the top will have the juice. We are going to ask you to stand and come down to the front and get your cup. If you are not able, please raise your hand and we will bring it to you.

1 Corinthians 11:24 ESV

24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Take the cracker and eat it

1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Take the juice and drink it.

Prayer.