2 Timothy 3:10

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. These persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Heavenly Father, we dig into your word today, and we pray that you would speak to us, Father God. Reveal truth to us, strengthen the things that are weak, and bind up the things that are broken. Lord, may you be glorified through what we learn and, more importantly, how we put it into practice. So, Father, we give you this time. We ask that you would move mightily in it. We pray these things in your name, Jesus. Amen.

All right. So, Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, who was working in the church at Ephesus at the time. The first question I asked myself is, why do we bother to write letters? Nowadays, it's almost a lost art. How often do we sit down and handwrite a letter? For me, about the only time I sit down and handwrite anything is for birthday cards and other mediums where you can't copy and paste. If some of you are like me, you have atrocious handwriting. I've had it since I was a kid, and I don't know that it's ever going to get any better, so I try to type as much as I can.

Paul sat down and wrote these things out. When we write things down and commit them to a permanent medium, why do we do that? I think we do it because we believe that it's valuable, that this should last longer than just our spoken word. Some of the things that were going on in Paul's life when he wrote this are significant. Paul writes this to Timothy at a time when he is fairly certain that he is at the end of his life. He talks about it in the last chapter of this book, how he is poured out like a drink offering and that his time is coming to a close. He has been moved from house arrest to a dungeon, and he is actually...

In chains and while in a dungeon, Paul writes this letter partly to encourage Timothy and, through Timothy, to the church at Ephesus. He wants them to be more prepared for the persecution that is coming and is likely going to get worse. I find this ironic because if I were in chains in a dungeon, I don't know that my thoughts would be focused on encouraging others. I think I would probably be having a pity party for myself. Thank God it was him and not me. Although, I guess we never know until we're in that situation.

Paul is letting Timothy know that persecution is coming and that it will intensify. He also expresses his loneliness. Sometimes we forget that the people we read about in Scripture were just that—people. Paul talks about how everyone has deserted him; Luke is the only one left with him. He writes to Timothy twice in this letter, urging him to come quickly and visit. This shows that Paul is feeling lonely and knows that this is likely going to be his last chance to speak to Timothy. Through Timothy, he wants to reach the churches he loves and founded, giving Timothy his final instructions—essentially a guide to surviving the impending persecution that will attack the church.

In this section, Paul contrasts Timothy's conduct with that of the outside world and those within the church who are contrary to Jesus. In the first half of the chapter, which Myles covered last week, we see descriptions of people who are lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, and without self-control. The list goes on and on. Paul advises Timothy to avoid such people.

He then begins naming names, which is always interesting and can make people uncomfortable. In contrast to those individuals, Paul writes to Timothy, saying, "You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. From all of them, the Lord rescued me."

Paul is the one who led Timothy to the Lord. He trained him on how to follow Jesus, brought him along on his journeys, and eventually released Timothy to serve at the church in Ephesus. For a good portion of Paul's ministry, he has been a mentor and guide to Timothy.

He did life with Timothy. They were connected; they were together. So when Paul lists these things in verses 10 and 11, the things that Timothy followed, he is not talking about a series of seminars or classes. He is not talking about how they sat down and did "My Aim in Life 101." He is saying that Timothy saw these things and learned these things because they did these things together. Day to day, through ups and downs, good, bad, and ugly life together, that is where Paul was able to pour into Timothy.

Timothy follows Paul's teaching, conduct, aim in life, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, persecutions, and sufferings, not as a student taking classes, but as a son or an apprentice learning from their father. The first question I had is: Who are we following? Who are you following? Who am I following? Paul has given Timothy a living, breathing example of what it is to follow Jesus. Paul follows Jesus, Paul leads Timothy, Timothy follows Jesus, and Timothy leads the Ephesians. The Ephesians follow Jesus. We have this pattern here.

So often in our culture, we are not good at following people. Unless we are talking about Twitter or Instagram, then we follow plenty of people. But the actual act of finding somebody to mentor us is not something we excel at. It is not a hallmark of our culture to find people we want to be poured into because we tend to be kind of like lone rangers who prefer to do things ourselves. However, we are created to follow in the same way that we are created to lead. If we do not learn how to follow, we will never learn how to lead.

The thing is, we see that Timothy is following Paul, but Timothy is also leading the church at Ephesus. We are called to do both of these things. Timothy is not just an observer but a participant in Paul's life and work. Paul specifically mentions the persecutions he went through in three places: Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. In Antioch, Paul was chased out of the city by Jews who were opposed to his message. Paul generally followed the same pattern: he would go to a city, teach in the synagogue—because Paul was Jewish and loved the Jews—he would pour into the Jews there, preach to them, and, pretty much, the same general pattern would occur. They would get upset, not like what Paul had to say, and then they would chase him out of the city.

In Antioch, Paul and his companions were chased out of the city by an angry mob. They then traveled to the next town, which was Lystra. The people from Antioch followed them to Lystra, stirred up the locals, and hatched a plot to kill Paul. Paul was taken out of the city; they snuck away and then went to Lystra. I think I did that backwards. Anyway, they arrived in Lystra, where they actually caught Paul. He was stoned and left for dead.

That evening, Paul got up from the ground, walked back into the city, and the next morning, they headed off to a town called Derb. They spent some time in Derb, raised up a church there, and then Paul and Timothy returned through those same three cities. Timothy was not just learning remotely from Paul; he was there. Timothy probably had the blood spatter on his clothes as Paul was being stoned. He was intimately connected with Paul.

When Paul calls Timothy to follow him, it is not just about observing; it is not like learning by watching a video. Timothy learned because he was a participant in Paul's life and work. Paul tells him in verse 12, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."

Paul points out that everyone who desires to live a godly life in Jesus will be persecuted. That is a promise. Everyone who fits the following criteria in that verse is included. It is pretty clear: everyone who desires. However, it is not desire like, "I desire pancakes." I shouldn't do that to you guys at this time in the morning, but it's like saying, "I can really go for some pancakes." That is not the kind of desire being referenced here.

When it says "desire," it means a will that is full of purpose and resolve. It is more along the lines of a wedding vow than a fleeting wish. So, everyone who has that same resolve and purpose to live a godly life—a life that glorifies God by loving Him, following Him and His instructions, leading others to Him, and training them to follow God—is included.

Now, there are a lot of people who live for many good reasons. Good reasons are not...

Good enough. This is following Jesus Christ. If you fit those categories, if you are someone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, you will be persecuted. It's not a possibility; it doesn't say you could. It says you will. It's a promise from God. You can embroider it on a pillow, put it on a mug, set your Bible up with a flower, and take a picture of it for your Instagram story. It is a promise from God.

Generally, it's not one of the promises that we highlight because we prefer the happy promises, but this is also a promise from God. This is going to happen. However, this is a gift because if we know this is going to happen, we can get ready for it. We can be prepared. We might be surprised by the circumstances, but we won't be surprised that it happened. So, this is a gift—the promise of knowing the future. How often have we wanted that? Here, Paul gives it to us. The Holy Spirit, through Paul, says you are going to be persecuted.

Some of us might say, "Well, I've never been persecuted." Well, one of two things could be true: either it hasn't come yet, or you should go back and run through that criteria to ensure that you are among those who are truly following Jesus. Remember, Paul is telling Timothy about people inside the church who may even think they are following Jesus but do not. We have to be careful to know that we are part of those who are genuinely following Jesus.

If you are super glued to a life where Jesus is evident, yes, there will be persecution. But if you live a life that is compromising and hiding your light under a basket, you are probably not going to see persecution because you are no threat to the devil and no asset to the kingdom of God. These are hard words, difficult things to face.

He goes on in the next part and says, "And all the while, evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." Here, when he talks about evil people, he refers to those who are opposed to Jesus—those who are actively fighting against Him. This includes those who are openly speaking against Jesus, such as Jews and Gentiles who oppose Him.

He also mentions imposters. Imposters are those who make a show or a pretense of following Jesus but, in fact, do not. There were plenty of those working their way into the early church. Just like in the early church, we see the same thing now. There is power to be had, and there is money to be made.

Followings build up inside the church, and people with false intentions will come in and try to take those things over. He says evil people and imposters will go on; they will keep doing things, and they will keep doing those same things from bad to worse.

This is something that we see. In my own lifetime, I was thinking about this while looking at the example of abortion. Originally, in 1973, the battle cry for abortion was "safe and seldom." We wanted it to be safe, and we didn't want it to happen hardly at all, but we wanted it to be safe. Where we are now, it is considered a basic human right for many people. This shift has occurred in just my lifetime, and we see things go from bad to worse. Evil people outside the church and imposters inside the church both focus on deceiving God's people. Their lies are many, well thought out, and often very convincing.

Working with high schoolers and hearing about the things being taught in schools is really incredible, especially right now in the area of gender issues and homosexuality. The lies being presented are numerous and effective. When you couple those things with persecution, it becomes very dangerous. That's why Paul warns them, but notice what he says: they are deceiving and being deceived.

The thing that we need to remember is that we don't fight flesh and blood. We have a tendency sometimes to make the people on the other side of the issue the problem. They are people made in the image of God, people that Jesus died for and loves. We need to remember that when we're fighting these things, we are fighting principalities and powers and Satan. We don't want to make them the enemy because Jesus grieves for them, and we should as well.

We need to ensure that we are not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as it were. We see this even in Jesus's life as he hangs on the cross. As they are putting him to death, he says, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing."

They are being deceived. So we have to be careful that, as the church, we don't present the face of hate to these people. Instead, we should present love and truth—absolutely, yes, truth—but truth tempered with love, offered up together with love. If we offer hate, that's not what Jesus stood for, and it's not attractive to anyone. We need to focus on those things.

Now we come to verse 14, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the meat of the chapter and arguably the meat of the whole book. This is the end-time survival guide, as it were. This is the focus. This is where I'm going to park and spend the most time, and this is where I see the heart of the message totally laid out here in verse 14.

"But as for you, continue on what you've learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it." I'm going to break this out by phrase. He starts out by telling Timothy, "As for you, Timothy," not those people over there, not the imposters, not the evildoers. "As for you, Timothy," because the "you" is the key. I can't control your actions, but I'm called to control mine. I can't change your thoughts, but I can deal with mine.

Anyone who's a parent knows that I can occasionally change what my kids do, but I can't change their hearts. God has given all of us the free will to decide to follow or not. When we're tempted to look at all the other things that are going on and all the other people, we find ourselves in a 24-hour-a-day news cycle where things hit all the time. We get wrapped up, and we have curated feeds because many of us are getting our news online. The news is curated; it is built for you specifically based on your preferences and the things that you spend time with.

So online, platforms like Instagram learn what you like and feed you what you like. We tend to live in this cycle where we say, "Oh, I'm upset about this" or "I'm upset about that." We start worrying about everybody else when the key is, "What am I doing?" Others are going to go from bad to worse, but the key is not what they will do; it's what we do.

Can do as individuals. It says, "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it." To continue means to keep going.

The first point in your outline today, if you're taking notes, is to continue to keep going. It means one more step. It's like a hike—a tough hike. We went to Yosemite a while back with the high school and college group together. The thing is, Yosemite is fantastically beautiful. It's incredible. Everywhere you look in Yosemite, you'll turn and see one beautiful thing after another. It's amazing.

Another thing you notice is that anywhere you go from the valley in Yosemite is up. It's all up. Everywhere is up. So we went on this hike, and it was a lot of up. It was like seven miles of up. When you hit about mile three of up, you think, "I can't conceive of another mile, much less three miles of up." Fortunately, being in Yosemite, they have all these beautiful overlooks. We went to one that was kind of crowded, but there was a gap wide enough for a couple of people. The guy I was hiking with and I stood there, looking at the beautiful scenery, when we realized that someone, through overexertion, had thrown up right where we were standing. That's why nobody was there.

While that's not the important part of the story, it does stick in my mind. The important part is that when you're faced with that situation, you might not be able to conceive of going another mile, but you can go another step. It's a matter of taking one more step, and one more step, and one more step to continue on.

Now, another thing: the person I was hiking with and I got up, up, up, up, up. We reached a slight downhill, and I thought, "Oh, thank you." He said, "Oh, great. This means we're going to have to go uphill again when we go down." I told him, "Dude, you are looking at this the wrong way. Enjoy the downhill. Enjoy the times when there's not persecution and difficulty. Enjoy the times when family and friends are around and things all seem great. Enjoy those times. Don't borrow trouble from later on. It's not going to help you continue on."

Downhills will come, but make one more step. Matthew 6, verse 34 says, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Don't borrow tomorrow's problems; continue today.

As for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it. What has Timothy learned? Jump back to verse 10, where we started: "You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Which persecutions I endured; yet from them all, the Lord rescued me."

Timothy had been discipled by Paul, not in the "let's go to Starbucks for 45 minutes once a week and sit down with a book" kind of discipleship, but in the everyday, in-and-out, ups-and-downs, good, bad, and ugly, living life together kind of discipleship. Timothy had not just heard about following Jesus from Paul; he had followed Jesus with Paul. It wasn't head knowledge; it was a commitment to do this together. They were connected, and their relationship was centered on Christ.

So the next question I had was, who are you connected to in Christ? Who are you learning from? We tend to be a very self-sufficient, individualistic group of people. Maybe it's just me, but finding someone to learn from can sometimes be difficult. The reason this is important can be illustrated through my experience coaching football for a couple of years when my two oldest sons were playing.

One thing we did at every single practice was run tackling drills over and over again. It's not enough to know in your head how to tackle correctly; you have to know how to do it properly, and you learn that through repetition. You need to do the right thing every time because it's dangerous. You learn to drive from the legs, keep your eyes on the thighs, lead with the shoulder, and drive through, with your head trailing the body to avoid injury. So we would practice that over and over.

Over and over, it needs to be cemented in our heads that this is how we tackle things to avoid injury. It's not enough just to read it; we have to live it out for it to take root in our lives. We must actively practice these principles.

Recently, when I was talking to the high schoolers, we discussed setting up our own advisory council. While it may sound a bit hoity-toity and pretentious, my intention was to create a space where we all have someone we can call, someone we can talk to, and someone we can ask, "Hey, I'm thinking about making this decision. What do you think would be the right thing to do?" From my own experience and from observing others, I know that when we make decisions on our own, we can fall prey to significant blind spots. Often, we make choices that, had we consulted someone else, they could have pointed out and said, "Yeah, no, don't do that."

How much easier my life would have been if I had found people to speak into my life—people who love Jesus and demonstrate that love through their actions. If you find someone who shows evidence of loving Jesus in their life, grab them and ask, "If I have a problem, can I come talk to you?"

For this to work, we must be willing to be vulnerable and open—two things we are not always good at as human beings. We need to allow people into our lives and be open enough for them to truly see us. That’s why we at Cross Connection emphasize connect groups. These groups are a great place to find people who love Jesus and who will grow to love each other, doing life together and forming meaningful connections. In these groups, we can minister to one another and grow strong together as a community of believers.

Point number two in your outline, if you're following along, is that learning shows its value in the doing. There is a definite difference between reading instructions for something and actually doing it. I drive a truck that is about 25 years old, and there’s something that happens to trucks around that age. It’s similar to what happens to people at 40. Things stop working the way they’re supposed to, and they need to be adjusted, fixed, or simply lived with. For Chevy full-size trucks, around 20 to 25 years, the doors start to sag.

As the doors sag, they get harder and harder to close. You end up pulling the door harder and harder, and then other issues start to arise. So, I decided I was going to replace the door hinge pins. Well, it's the bushings, really, but you don't need to know that kind of detail. Anyway, I'm going to replace these. I'm going to fix it so that my door shuts the right way.

I watched YouTube videos, and they made it look easy. It's great to read instructions. Thank God for YouTube, as opposed to the old Chilton's books. Has anyone else ever done that? You get one picture for a thirty-two-step process in the old book, and you're like, "Okay, I'm so lost." But yes, YouTube is a great resource if you want to take a small problem, make it bigger, and then pay somebody else to fix it. However, I did get this one right.

I can tell you there was a drastic difference between watching it and actually doing it. I had the theoretical knowledge of how to do it, but I did not have the actual practical knowledge of how it works until I actually did it. At one point, I ended up holding the door and yelling for one of my kids to come help me because doors are heavy.

Timothy had learned from Paul by doing life with him. The next question I had is, who are you teaching? Who are you reaching out to? Who are you dragging along with you like Paul and Timothy? Who are you pulling into your life, saying, "Hey, follow me as I follow Jesus?"

Some of these relationships are built-in; we have spouses and children. But beyond that, who are you teaching? Who are you pouring into? Who are you grabbing hold of and saying, "Hey, come with me?" We are all part of this chain that goes all the way back to Jesus, consisting of people who are leading us and people we should be leading.

So, find somebody. Find someone who is newer in their walk, or maybe someone who doesn't even have a walk at all. How awesome would that be? Grab them, drag them along with you, do life with them, and let them see Jesus.

As for you, verse 14 states, "Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it." This is the phrase we're focusing on right now. What have you firmly believed? The thing about having to firmly believe something is that it often means it's something we are likely to doubt.

I don't have to firmly believe in gravity. When I wake up, I can believe in gravity without any problem at all. I've never had to remind myself, "Well, there's gravity." Think of the first things that we do. You sit up...

Your feet hit the floor. It happens. You brush your teeth, and the spit goes in the sink. Gravity is there; we don't have to think about it. I don't have to worry about it.

But if I have to firmly believe something, it means it's something I'm going to be tempted to question. So, point three in your outline: remember your milestones. Timothy had shared milestones with Paul. Some of those were Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Timothy could, in difficult times, look back and see and remember—probably even hear in his mind and smell in his mind—what it was like in those places at that time. He could see the power of God and how things had worked out. When in difficult times, he could draw strength from those memories.

So, set your own milestones. The Yosemite hike that I talked about is a milestone for me. When I'm tempted to quit something, I can tell myself, "One more step. Just take one more step." Don't worry about a mile; worry about a step. If you don't have any milestones yet, make one. Do a 24-hour fast. I did one recently for the first time in a very long time. Hard to believe, I know, but I did it. It wasn't as hard as I thought. It was way worse in my mind than it was in practice. But that's a milestone. I can look at that and say, "No, I can do that."

I keep this piece of wood in my office. It's a fairly nondescript piece of wood, but it is one of my milestones. I got this piece of Mopani wood from Mozambique when I went there in 2013. On that trip, we saw some amazing things, did some amazing things, and were part of some amazing experiences. We have a shared experience together, those of us who went. We went to places that had never seen white faces before. We brought the gospel to people who had never heard the Word of God before. It was an absolutely amazing trip.

So, when I'm tempted to get lazy or doubt what God can do in somebody's life, I just have to look at my desk and remember. I remember the sights, the sounds, and the smells. I remember Mike jonesing for papaya. If you ever need to get a gift for Mike Phillips, get him papaya. We learned that on the trip; it's one of those things you just remember. Also, Rich Wall, who I don't see as often as I did before because they moved away.

I can think of Rich putting the same septic system in twice in the same day with a smile on his face. It was amazing. We need these milestones because there are going to be dark times. There will be moments when we feel like doubting, times when we question whether it is true or if we know what we are talking about.

I found a great quote from a man named V. Raymond Edmond: "Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light." That's why we need our milestones. When things get tough and we start to wonder if we really believe, we can look back at those milestones and remind ourselves, "No, I have seen this. I have done this. I know what it is." Life is full of dark times, so we must hold on to the light.

As for you, verse 14 again says to continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it. Timothy had not just read about the life of Paul, watched a movie, or listened to a sermon. Those are all good things, depending on whether it’s a decent movie or a decent sermon. Timothy had walked with Paul. He had seen what Jesus did in Paul's life and had been a part of what Paul did.

So, point four in your outline: shared experience in Christ is shared strength in our lives. Who are you connected with that you are learning from? Who are you connected with that is learning from you? All of us are part of this same connectedness that runs all the way back 2,000 years.

Think of chain mail. Let me switch gears for a moment. When I was in junior high, the Society for Creative Anachronism came to our school. If you have heard of them, you know what they are. If you haven't, the name doesn't give you much information.

When we heard these people were coming, most of us thought, "Oh boy, here we go." Typically, when visitors come to your school in junior high, it’s never good. However, these guys showed up dressed like medieval knights, wielding big padded weapons, and they beat the snot out of each other. It was the greatest thing I had ever seen in my life up to that point. I thought, "I have found my calling. I know what I'm going to be. I'm going to be a knight."

And so, the first thing you need when you're a knight is a...

I started fashioning all sorts of horrific weaponry in my room. But then, you also need armor. So there we are, and I'm deciding, you know what? I'm going to get some chain mail. I went and looked for chain mail, and here's the thing: chain mail is expensive. It's very expensive. Being a good Dutch boy, I decided the thrifty way to do it would be to make my own.

Do you know why chain mail is expensive? It's very, very hard to make because you have all of these little links, and they're all linked up together. It takes a lot of work and a lot of effort. I didn't end up making any chain mail; it's daunting. We are all part of that same chain mail, that same suit of armor that God is creating in the body of Christ. We are all connected like that. Who are you connected to?

Now, this does not happen without effort. There's a quote that goes around the office that was shared quite a while ago. It wasn't starting out as a quote; it was more of a cry, but life in connection is exhausting. It is. It's a lot of work to stay connected with people. We all have days where it's like, "I don't want to people anymore." I want to go home and shut the doors. I don't even want to interact with the people in my house right now.

Find those people to be connected to. Put the work in. Join a connect group. I'm going to keep emphasizing that because you need to find a group of people that love Jesus and love you. Find the people, because shared experience in Christ is shared strength.

In verse 15, since we just came out of verse 14, it says, "And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation in Christ Jesus." Timothy had a culture and a heritage that centered around the Scriptures. He had been raised in them. Because he had a history of Scripture influence, he had an advantage in his future.

Parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, set the children in your family up for success by exposing them to Scripture early and often. There are so many great resources, especially for little kids. There are many good Bible storybooks and other excellent materials for children, but here's the thing.

They are only going to see value in it if they see you value it. It doesn't do any good to say, "Here, go read this." Let them see you love it. Let them see you living through Scripture. Let them see you reading it. When they see that, it pulls them in. The people that I love love Jesus, and I want that.

Timothy learned from Paul through shared life. He learned by watching Paul and walking with him. Share it with them. Timothy had no doubt read Psalm 119, verse 105, where it says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Who needs a lamp? People who are in dark times. Timothy is heading into very dark times, and Scripture is part of the lamp that lights his way.

Point five in your outline: The word of God is the lamp that lights our path to Jesus. The last part of that verse speaks of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The worship team is going to come up, and the ushers are going to get ready to pass out the communion elements. We are just about done, which means it's a pastor trick to make you keep paying attention. But no, we really are. The whole point of this is salvation through faith in Jesus. Jesus is the one who died for us. He paid our debt, a debt we had no ability to pay. He died a death we could not die. He lived a life we couldn't live. He rose from the dead to bring us freedom. That's what we remember in communion. That's why it's so vital that we do this.

Now, communion is not a magical process. The bread and the juice are not magical; they are milestones. It's something that we can remember. Jesus said, "Do this as often as you think of it, in remembrance of me." So, we are going to share this milestone together.