Pastor Wood teaches about the Protestant Reformer, William Tyndale. Being a Christian is not about belonging to the right organization, it's about belonging to Christ.
There are a lot of scary things going on right now in the world. What should we be afraid of? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage means that instead of obeying fear, we will live by faith. There will be times in our lives where all we have to go on is God's word. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you will go through some horrifying things. If you don't follow Jesus, you should be terrified, for there is no hope for you. Are you ready to meet Jesus?
When Paul's assistant, Epaphroditus, became ill, Paul said Epaphroditus' death would have been sorrow upon sorrow. Sometimes, God lets people get sick and stay sick for a long time. Sometimes God miraculously heals people from their sickness. When we go through hardship, it can be a result of Satan, however, God is always in control. God will allow sickness and hardship if it brings us or others into a right relationship with Himself. Our bodies are amazing and one thing we realize is that sin has entered the world and death is upon us. Sometimes God uses our sickness so that other people can be a blessing to us. Though Epaphroditus was not and evangelist, but only serving and evangelist, he almost died serving Christ. Epaphroditus was in the will of God and still got sick. We should be like Timothy and fulfill the needs of others and we should appreciate someone who genuinely cares about us.