2 Timothy 4:1-18 "I Pray the Lord my Soul to Take"

I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom: preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables. But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry. For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. From now on, there is stored up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing. Be diligent to come to me soon, for Demas left me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. 12 But I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus when you come, and the books, especially the parchments. Alexander, the copper smith, did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds, of whom you also must beware; for he greatly opposed our words. At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me for his heavenly Kingdom; to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. When we were children we prayed the prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray to Lord my soul to take Amen. This should be the Christian life. Jesus Christ said on many occasions that he is coming back. This was repeated by the angels at the Mt. of Olives. But Paul is warning Timothy that people will fall away from the faith. They will create a new kind of gospel that satisfies their sinful self. But the reality is Jesus is coming back as he said and God has given him authority to judge all flesh who are not protected by the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the Christian it involves suffering just as a woman in labor suffers to bring new life into the world. For the believer who is in Christ he need not fear the return of Jesus, because this is his blessed hope. For those who have not fought the good fight for Jesus, they will be judged by him.