Biography of a Beloved Brother

Ordinary Means and the Extraordinary Work of God

Hey man, it's quite an ordinary thing that we do in what some senses the confession talks about ordinary means. It's like we're just singing and preaching and given and praying. It's quite extraordinary things that God does with these things by his Word and through the Holy Spirit.

We are in Ephesians 6. I know that you have Been before on a vacation you've visited friends or families especially think about the Extended vacation you might have like a week or two and as it gets closer and closer to the end There's there's kind of a dual sense that you have in in in one sense.

You are ready To move on another sense. You're kind of sad to leave and to pack up and to go home and it's it's kind of hard. Well, that's how I feel like with Ephesians. Here we are. We're at the end.

We only have a few more Verses in fact after this week only two more verses to consider. This morning. I want to talk about a lesser known brother in our text Tychicus now you might pronounce that differently.

I.

Think I've heard it tick a kiss tick a kiss. I don't know. I'm gonna say Tychicus. I'll avoid trying to say the the Hick tachi kiss, but Tychicus. That's how we're gonna go. Okay, so I want to look at this morning a biography of a beloved brother Ephesians 6.

We're going to look at verse 21 and 22. Let's stand as we read that so that You also may know how I am and what I am doing. Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything I've sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage Your hearts.

Let's pray father. Would you help us to understand this brother help us to understand this morning? Why you gave this and that why didn't the text just in in in verse 20? Yet you've given us more verses here to consider and let us not be Given over to the temptation just kind of pass them by.

Oh, well the letters over and move on we pray that we would Remember that in your divine wisdom. You've given us these verses and there is much for us to consider a lot of practical things to consider about.

How we should love the church and we pray that Christ would be exalted from this text this morning. We pray that Tychicus would point us to the loveliness of Jesus. We pray it all in the name of Christ.

Amen. You may be seated. This is one of those sermons That reminds us of Just the greatness of God's Word. Here we are at the end of this letter and we think well, you know, is there really much left?

Could we just maybe move on what's going to be next in our church's preaching? Schedule. But I believe as I've studied this passage that there's a lot here for us to consider. And so we're going to look at the biography of a beloved brother in the first point.

I Have for you. Number one is Tychicus loved the local church. Tychicus loved the local church. Now get your Bibles ready and we're going to do a little exploring. This isn't the only time Tychicus is mentioned, but let's let's read verse 21 again.

So that you may know how I am and what I am doing. Tychicus the love brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything so Tychicus has come. Tychicus is the one that has carried this letter from Paul and Paul's letting the church know.

Hey, there's anything else you need to know. And so that you will know how we're doing very transparent. We'll get to that later. You can ask Tychicus. Tychicus will will let you know and the text calls him the beloved brother.

Now I want to just talk about for a moment under this point Tychicus loved the local church that there are four other places that this brother is mentioned in the in the New Testament. So let's look at those.

So get your Bibles out get them ready. And some of you I'm looking on the front row you can scroll but the rest of you can turn to pages now. It's okay. If you got to look digitally, we're not going to be too hard on that Acts chapter 20.

Let's go there. Acts chapter 20. Whether you scroll or flip a page. It's the Word of God. Acts chapter 20 verse 1. Acts chapter 20 verse 1 after the uproar ceased Paul sent for the disciples and After encouraging them he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement he came to Greece. There he spent three months. When a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria.

He decided to return through Macedonia. Sopater the Berean son of Pyrrhus accompanied him and of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and secondess and goddess of Derby and Timothy and the Asians. Tychicus and trophimus.

So I just want to make a comment here that There are so many names in the New Testament. They pop up in Acts. They pop up at the end of letters that that the that the authors write. They're they're everywhere and one comment.

I just want to make is that Christianity in the New Testament is not merely Theoretical but experiential right and practical it's not just the New Testament is not just a theology book, right? I mean it certainly is a theology book, but it's a theology book that talks about a real brotherhood.

Real people these are real people. You're gonna meet these people in heaven. There's real friendships here. Christian life is is not to be alone and and Tychicus is among this Family, we don't know when he was converted.

We do know he was an Asian according to the text and probably from Ephesus born and raised in Ephesus is our assumption and The text our text in Ephesians calls him a beloved brother. So he's part of the family of God.

He's born again. He's in Christ. And so this New Testament the New Testament is the Word of God, but it's also a real collection Historical documents that that show us the real lives of real people. Real people by the way who like Tychicus love the local church more than that in a minute.

So he pops up in Acts 20 now go to Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4. Tychicus. You understand that Ephesians and Colossians we call those sister letters. They were most likely written and delivered at the same time.

Colossians chapter 4 Says this Colossians chapter 4 in verse 7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I've sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts and with him Onesimus our faithful and beloved brother who is one of you they will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

So.

Consider that this is pretty similar to the ending of Ephesians that we read except we learn here that with Tychicus was Onesimus now. Do you remember Onesimus. Onesimus is the slave of Philemon who had ran away and then he becomes a Christian and now Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon under whose care.

Under the care of Tychicus. So this speaks of the reliability and the Responsibility and the godly character of a man like Tychicus. Let's keep going to our right. 2nd Timothy chapter 4. 2nd Timothy chapter 4.

So we are just seeing Tychicus in the Bible. 2nd Timothy chapter 4. He is here. 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 12 short verse. Tychicus. 2nd Timothy 4 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. So what I want to mention here is that Tychicus shows up in Acts chapter 20 and then maybe not quite but close to 10 years.

Later, he shows up in 2nd Timothy 4 so there's about maybe a 10-year gap maybe not quite a 10-year gap between Acts 20 and 2nd Timothy 4 and What you notice is he's still helping Paul. He's still a servant of the church.

He is still faithful and he's a servant of the gospel. And then lastly he's in Titus now. Titus is Chronologically before 2nd Timothy, but in the canon it's after so Titus chapter 3 he pops up. And it's Paul says when I send Artemis or Tychicus to you do your best to come to me at Nicopolis for I have decided to spend the winter there.

So I'm just trying to point out here that Tychicus is a servant of God. He's a servant of the church. He's willing to spend and be spent in the service of the Lord to be used by Paul as a humble servant he sought to minister to and encourage and help and build up and strengthen local churches, I'll just say this as a as a Side note and we'll get to this more later.

Like that's what we're about. What is the mission of the church? The mission of the church is churches, right? The mission of the church is to make disciples to strengthen to help to encourage to build to plant churches.

And there's something to be said to about godly partnerships and godly friendships. Now back to our text in Ephesians verse 21 Paul calls Tychicus a faithful minister now. The word there is the same word for deacon and Tychicus loved the local church.

Because he was a faithful servant now. He's not a deacon In that sense. He's not in the office of deacon, but he was a servant. The thing about this all believers whether you're an elder or a deacon or you're a member you ought to be a servant of the local church.

Now now Paul could trust here that Tychicus had the church's good on his heart. So he's able to send Tychicus. How weighty. How weighty of a task is it to hand the only copy of the scriptures to a person.

And think about that the only copy of Ephesians the only copy of Colossians the only copy of Philemon. He hands these to Tychicus now most likely Tychicus on his journey would have memorized these letters.

By the way, let me say this. It's not like driving to Little Rock right like big deal travel. I don't like to travel you understand that travel always carries a bit of risk, but in the first century Especially carries a bit of risk.

But Tychicus was willing to do this in service to Paul in service to the Lord in service to the church. Furthermore, it's likely that when Tychicus shows up to Ephesus He would have preached as it were this letter.

He would have he would have he would have expounded it now. He wouldn't have taken 140 sermons to do that. But one sermon right, but wouldn't it have been great to sit under that preaching like you got a quick Hey, hey, whoa Tychicus.

What did Paul mean when he said this and Paul entrusted Tychicus to say Tychicus to say well. This is what he meant. He's a faithful and trustworthy brother. And I might make a comment here that the New Testament was written.

Are you listening to this? The New Testament was written in order to be preached. Okay, so it is meant to be read you're meant to have your personal Bible time. You're meant to study it to memorize it to talk about it to do all these things.

But don't forget that unequivocally and unapologetically the Bible is meant to be preached. So God encourages and equips and builds up his church through the preaching of his word. Don't minimize. I'm just a little bit of a tangent don't minimize the preaching of the Word of God.

We can we cannot come up with something better to replace Preaching and this is true in all times in all places. And by the way with all ages children teenagers. Adults, we need the preaching. We need faithful preaching of the Word of God.

One more thing to note here. We know Tychicus loved the church because he was an encourager. Look at verse 24. Now. I'm gonna read this and I want you to. I want you to think sorry verse 22 We're not finishing yet.

I have sent him to you for this purpose that you may know how we are and That he may encourage Your hearts now listen to me. I want you to ask yourself. I want you to be real with yourself for a second if the Apostle Paul is standing in our church This morning and if he's looking for someone there's another church in another place and he needs to send someone from our Church to go to that church to be an encourager.

Is he going to choose you? I'm afraid that there's too many people even people among us even people who claim to be reformed in their theology. They think they have the gift of discouragement or the gift of criticism.

Is there a time to correct error, of course. Actually what time what what it's always time to correct error, right? But there is patience and prudence that we need to exercise as believers and sometimes listen in a situation in a marriage in Discipleship situation in a church situation.

There's time to sit back and say okay. There is so much wrong here, right? But could I start with maybe some things that are right? Could I start with some of the evidences of God's grace some of the work that God has made so obvious.

Can I start there and encourage hearts there even as I do not neglect. To address the error you see what I'm saying. I'm just saying that we need listen. You need to be real careful how you talk about a person's a man's wife and The bride in the church is the bride of Christ, right?

So let's be careful. Let's think through that Tychicus loved the local church. All right, secondly, let me say this Tychicus was willing to learn. Now, let me read the text again and just make an obvious point so that you may know how I am and what I am.

Doing Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything I've seen him to you that for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your heart now.

What you're getting from this text is Tychicus at a mature level in his life. But you need to understand he didn't wake up as an encourager. He didn't wake up being trusted by Paul to expound the letter to Ephesians.

He didn't wake up knowing everything that he needed to know he had to be discipled. Now we don't know his testimony in one sense. But in another sense we do. Your testimony your salvation testimony has three primary components.

Who you were apart from Christ. What happened to you and who you are now. So in one sense, I know Tychicus is Testimony first who was he apart from Christ Ephesians tells us go back to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 it says this.

And You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons. Of disobedience not all that was just a church.

Listen to verse 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body in the mind and were by nature children of wrath. Like the rest of mankind, you know who Tychicus was apart from Christ lost.

No one is born a believer. You understand. No one is born Reconciled and right with God. We are born dead in our trespasses and sins and Tychicus was no different. He was dead in his sins hating God. Probably worshiping the false gods and idols in Ephesus of his day as a young boy.

Probably enjoyed the the festivities and the idolatry that happened or that were going on. But something happened in his life and we don't know the specific details that happened. But we do know this at some point in his life.

He moved from death to life at some point in his life. He came underneath the saving influence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he repented and he believed this gospel that glorious blood-soaked Gospel of the Apostle Paul.

Perhaps he was sitting under the very preaching of Paul himself. Perhaps as Paul was preaching in the public square on the streets. Young Tychicus walks by and he hears of his need for Christ this glorious gospel that Jesus is the son of David and the Son of God that he came into the world to save sinners that He was obedient before God willing willing to suffer of for his people fulfilling all righteousness.

That in his death upon a Roman cross suspended between heaven and earth God made him who knew no sin to be sin. To be imputed with our sins to be our propitiation. Paul uses that word our wrath satisfying sacrifice.

So that we might become 2nd Corinthians 521 the righteousness of God. Jesus died the death of unworthy sinners as our substitute and he rose again in victory and is now reigning on highest King in. Paul did not tell Tychicus to ask Jesus into his heart.

He did not tell Tychicus to try out Jesus and see if it makes your life a little better. He told Tychicus what he told everyone. God commands all men everywhere to repent. To turn away from your sins to turn away from yourself and to put your faith to holy rest upon the finished work of Christ.

I Remind you this morning even in this gathering. You don't have to live your life on the broad road. Salvation is accomplished in Christ and Just like Tychicus. The opportunity set before you even today to repent of your sins and believe the gospel.

So at some point in Tychicus his life the Holy Spirit opened his heart. Convicted him of sin broke his heart as it were drew him to Christ. Tychicus repented of his sins. Repented of his idolatry and he came to Christ and he pledged himself to King Jesus.

And who is he now? Well now he is an adopted child of God. He is a churchman and he's one concerned with the kingdom of Christ. And what's interesting is you read the New Testament. He keeps popping up in these letters.

Presumably this man spent a lot of time with Paul. Almost it's as if whatever was going on. Like how did he spend so much time with Paul? How's he traveling Paul? How's he doing these things? Because whatever else it was before going on in his life that got put on hold and he gave himself holy to Christ and so his desire now is to learn from Paul and To serve the people of God.

He became a disciple of Paul now. Yes, first and foremost, we're all Christians are disciples of Christ. But there are people that God providentially places in our life to disciple us. You shouldn't you shouldn't Ignore the providence of God on that.

There's two questions. I would have about that one. Who are you discipling? Who are you investing in who are you pouring the scriptures into who are you meeting with? It's hard, right? It's hard. But now it's a priority for you because you have a new king.

Yeah, the God of this world and God of whatever. Is not your God anymore that your God is the King of Kings in the Lord of Lords. So you you do the hard work of making disciples because disciples make disciples.

The other question is who are you being discipled by? So this is a critical aspect of the Christian life. Tychicus needed to learn we all need to learn. We need to learn about God more. We need to learn about the gospel more.

We need to learn these great words of the Christian faith. We need to learn more about the church and where did Tychicus learn this stuff from from Paul. Which brings me to a very important point in this sermon a very important point.

Where did?

Tychicus.

Learn.

To give himself to the churches. Where did Tychicus learn the priority and primacy of the local church. Where did Tychicus?

Learn.

That Christianity and the church to go together. You can't separate him. Where did he learn these things. He learned them friends from Paul. Now this is something that you might be tempted to look over or forget if we weren't taking a moment to remind ourselves of it now.

There is a profound change in Paul's life. Go to Acts chapter 8. Let's look at this for just a moment. Acts chapter 8. Now I want to I want to show you something that needs to grip your heart. Acts chapter 8.

And Let's just read Verses 1 through 3. So stay in Acts because we'll go to chapter 9. To Acts chapter 8. And Saul approved of his execution. That is the execution Stephen. And there arose on that day a great persecution Against the church in Jerusalem and there were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles.

Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. Now listen to verse 3. But Saul you understand that's Paul.

Saul.

Was ravaging the church in Entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Here is Paul Hating the church. If he could he would have eradicated the church. You get one chapter later Acts chapter 9.

Flip there and we learned of what happened but Saul verse 1 still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord went to the high priest and Asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus.

So that if he found any belonging to the way men or women he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven Flashed around him and falling on the ground.

He heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul. Why are you persecuting me? By the way, Jesus does not. Jesus does not separate himself from the church. That is he sees Paul Ravaging local churches and Jesus says you ain't just ravaging local churches.

You are persecuting me and he said who are you Lord? He said I am Jesus whom you are Persecuting so I just want to make a note here that is rather obvious. But we're gonna run with it for just a moment.

Paul went from hating the church to loving it. He went from he went from persecuting the church Ravaging the church to saying things like this in our text in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 21. So that you may also know how I am and what I am doing.

Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything I've sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. Listen for just a moment Paul went from hating the church.

Wanting to kill the church wanting to drag men and women away from the church and to throw them in change and if he could Execute him to now he has this great burden on his heart. He cares about the believers in Ephesus.

He cares about what they think about him and the ministry and the furtherance of the gospel and Christ and all this great Theology and all these wonderful truths he care that we've read in Ephesians. He cares about their marriages.

He cares about their children. He cares about slaves and masters. He cares about the unity of the church He cares about all of these things. Why because God changed him.

He went from hating the church.

To loving it all the great affection Paul has now for the church and Tychicus learned this from Paul. And let me just man I don't want to go in too much of a tangent, but I need to speak to something.

A quick point here that missionaries Should love the church a so-called missionary or evangelist or whatever ministry there there may be. Who are not in love With local churches should quit. Any kind of ministry you talk about a ministry and we've had people before.

Hey, I'd like to come and talk to your church about this or that ministry. Okay, what church are you a part of? Oh, we don't know. We're so busy with the ministry. We're not part of a church. Well, then you're not welcome to speak here.

Because we love the church here. And let me add this. Gonna meddle just I'm gonna prepare you. So let's just just know the preachers gonna meddle for it's just gonna be a quick second. Churches should know their missionaries.

So that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing. Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything I've sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and.

That he may encourage Your hearts.

Paul was transparent With the churches as to his condition. It wasn't hiding behind trying to hide behind league out. He wasn't saying well, you know. You don't know how things are in the corporate world.

So why should you know how I am just keep sending your money, right? Is there any kind of analogy we could have today? Yes, sir. Absolutely. Yes. The Southern Baptist Convention, I believe as a whole.

I hate to say it. But it's not every when I say that. I'm not saying every single person within the Southern Baptist Convention. Not every single missionary not every single church planner. I'm not saying it all.

I'm about same as a whole you show up and you say hey, can we know what's going on in this institution? No, you cannot. Can you imagine Apostle Paul saying that He's transparent. He wants the church to understand how he is doing.

So that was just my quick meddling. That's why we can't in good conscience give to the cooperative program because if the whole Institution is as a whole is gonna say no, you can't know how things are and that's a problem for me.

And it should be a problem for all churches. In fact, I would I said in one second two seconds if more churches would stand up and say no, this is not okay things may change. Churches should know their missionaries and Missionaries should know their churches and there should be reciprocal love between them.

Now what we're reminded here from Paul and what he had passed on here to Tychicus is this? Grand truth. Churchless Christianity is Really Christless Christianity. Do you understand? Churchless Christianity, you know, this is very very very hard.

Because we see so many friends so many neighbors so many loved ones and we're just like yeah. But they say all the right things and they yeah, they seem to be doing all the right things except well. Except they abandon the church, but other than that everything's okay.

But I'm trying to argue from the text that churchless Christianity is a whole different religion. We may call it Churchless sanity. It's hard to say but that's probably why no one's coined it before but it's not Christianity if you say that you have love in your heart for Jesus.

But no love in your heart for the local church. You are either Willfully lying you're lying or you're just greatly deceived. Neither one of those scenarios is good. You just can't get around it. It's everywhere in the New Testament.

These people were risking their lives their fortunes their futures. Everything all in service to the church. And what some of you want to do today is you want to have your church life over here and your normal life over here?

But I'm just telling you in the New Testament. They were one in the same in the New Testament Christianity and the church they go hand in hand. Now some of the things that people say about the church today would have made the unconverted Saul blush the way that the church is.

Mocked or ridiculed or.

Disparaged or neglected and and these are people who sometimes want to say they mocked the church and ridiculed the church they Belittle the church they neglect the church and in the other side of the mouth.

They want to say oh, but I love Jesus. Well, let me be. Uh, what's the guy's name Mari? Is that his name? Let me be Mari if he was a Christian I don't know. I don't have no idea. I just want to use this one line from Mario and that is the New Testament has determined that is a lie right if you say that you love Christ but you disparage the church the New Testament has determined that is a lie.

Now when Paul encountered the gospel he went from raging against the church According to 2nd Corinthians 1128 to carrying around the daily pressure of the anxiety of all the churches. They were on his heart that they would be healthy that they would practice right membership that they would practice church discipline that they would understand Unity in Christ that they would understand sovereign grace that they would understand the gospel.

I'm Traveling around. I'm being beaten. I'm being beaten. I'm being prison and at the whole time I'm thinking about the church of Philippi Yodia and Syntyche and their Disagreement man. I just wish those ladies would agree in the church.

They just need to agree and I'm thinking about the church at Ephesus and they need to be reminded to to love Christ and see The beauty and glory of who they were apart from Christ and what God has done.

I'm thinking about the crazy people at Corinth, but that church doesn't need to disband. They need to reform they need to practice church discipline and I'm thinking about the all the all the other churches I'm writing to.

I'm thinking about Timothy and and what he's doing in Ephesus and I'm thinking about Titus and this is the life of The Apostle Paul. He could not break himself from caring about the church. This is New Testament Christianity now, I can't make you believe that I can't reach into your heart.

And say this is what you. I can't just flip a switch for you. But I can just present to you the truth. This is the truth. Titus loved the church because God had changed his heart because he was discipled by Paul.

He saw firsthand this man's love for the church in such a way that encouraged him To risk his own life and limb. For the good of the church to see her built up to see her healthy to help her to encourage her.

Let's move to our third point. Tajicus loved the church. Tajicus was willing to learn. This is a short point, but important. Tajicus refused to leave. Just there's so much I could say here, but go back to 2nd Timothy.

I just make a mention I'm not don't misunderstand me and saying that There's never a time to leave or to move, okay, but you understand. The bigger picture here is what you need to understand 2nd Timothy chapter 4.

I'm actually already already read verse 12. Where Tajicus is still in service to Paul and so Paul sends him 2nd Timothy 4 12 for some reason my Bible sticking together. Tajicus he sent to Ephesus. But look at verse 9.

He says to Timothy do your best to come to me soon and look what he said in verse 10 for Demas in love with this. Present world has deserted me. Demas is a sad case and in Colossians Demas is mentioned as sending him as sending his greeting to the church but by 2nd Timothy Paul says he's abandoned.

He's in love with the world. He's deserted Paul. So let me speak. Plainly soberingly very real practically to you for just a moment. And that is something that we we probably don't talk about enough. It was mentioned in our confession on the perseverance of the Saints this morning.

But here's the reality some people Leave it happened in the New Testament and it happens today. They don't Lose their salvation. That's not what we're saying. They don't become they weren't regenerate and they become unregenerate.

Rather they show that their faith was never true. People give all sorts of excuses for leaving your church is mean. I just disagree. I don't need the church. You handled that wrong. You're a hypocrite.

I've been called a lot of names and you be a Christian long enough. You will be called a lot of names. But what you need to know this morning is at the root of apostasy is love for the world love for sin love for self.

Listen to all these people today that talk about Deconstruction, right? You know what deconstruction is. It really is. You know what? I love my sin too much to leave it. And that's the reality. Some people I don't say this to like.

Be a Debbie Downer. No offense to any Debbie's in the room. I Say this as a reality. Some people will leave Demas left. But listen to this. Some people stay. Tajik has stayed. So some people see the beauty of what Christ is doing and building healthy churches.

Some people get the gospel. It has really gripped them. They get the church. They understand it. They get the Lord Jesus Christ. They love him. They're like Peter when Jesus says are you leaving too? This is from John 6 and Peter looks at him.

I imagine just bewildered. He's like Lord to whom shall we go? Where else could we possibly go than to be right in the middle of what God is doing in the world today in? Building healthy churches. Demas left.

Tajik has stayed. I need to encourage you with something since you're hearing this you don't have to leave. You don't have to be a demons. God has given us means to prevent Demases if you will. But you must make good use of them.

You must Commit to sitting under the preaching of the word and the ordinary means of grace as it were. Don't leave. Tajik has stayed. This brings to our last point. Tajik has loved the local church. Tajikist was willing to learn.

Tajikist refused to leave and finally Tajikist is one we should aspire to be like.

So.

Let's give this faithful brother his due and Let's consider again the text it says so that you may know how I am and what I'm doing. Tajikist the beloved brother and Faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything I've sent him to you for this very very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.

Okay. Let's put some application on the sermon from the life of Tajikist first. Do you trust Jesus like Tajikist did. Tajikist is referred to in the text as a beloved brother and faithful minister and this is only because of God's sovereign.

Grace.

This is not me in the sermon telling you go out and be a better person. Go out and do five steps to be a better you go out and do All those programs that are that are in churches today go out and just just do your best try your best.

That's not me. This is me. Simply asking you. Do you trust Jesus? Do you won't get to this in verse 24 grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you love our Lord Jesus Christ. Tajikist did.