On Monday we looked at the topic of making shipwreck of the faith. What does it look like to make shipwreck of the faith? What are some personal examples of those whose faith failed? Why does it happen? And how do people shipwreck their faith today? It's a common question. And we addressed it on Monday in APJ 1849.

But we didn't focus very much on the fallout. Spiritual failure at this level among those who love the world and thus abandon Christ for it, that injects tremendous pain into families, into marriages, into friendships, into local church communities, and into the ministries of people who are left behind. That pain, that relational pain of ministry, was a theme taken up by Pastor John in a sermon in 2012 as he reflected on the harsh realities Paul faced.

According to what he recounts for us in 2 Timothy 4 verses 9 to 18. Here's Pastor John to explain. Christian ministry is relationally hard. I'm thinking first about Paul and Timothy and vocational ministers. But I'm thinking of you too because you are all, if you're Christian, you're all ministers called upon to love other people for their good according to your gifts.

That's what ministry is and that's every believer. So I think this is for you when I say Christian ministry, that is Christian life, is relationally hard. And Paul seems to want Timothy to feel that because of how many he dumps on him. Here's five and there are more. Verse 10, "Demus, in love with the present world, has deserted me." He's gone to Thessalonica.

I think Demus was once a faithful partner because over in Colossians chapter 4, he says, "Luke, the beloved physician, greets you and so does Demus." Now he's gone and he's forsaken Paul. That's number one. Number two, just being alone in the ministry, not just forsaken, but alone in the ministry can be a trial.

So verses 10, middle of the verse, "Crescens has gone to Galatia." I don't think that means he forsook me. I just think there's some ministry things that I want him to do. "Crescens has gone to Galatia. Titus over to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me." So once upon a time, there was quite a team here.

And now it's just me and Luke and it gets worse. Number three, "Alexander the coppersmith," this is verse 14, "Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm." Verse 15, middle of the verse, "He strongly opposed our message." So ministry is relationally hard, not just because there's loneliness and sometimes abandonment on the inside, but there's opposition, verbal, on the outside.

And nobody likes to be verbally attacked. It's hard to be verbally assaulted, even by people you expect it from. Every moment of unexpected silence from a friend and every verbal blow from an enemy wounds the spirit of the Christian. And it happens a lot. So ministry is relationally hard.

Number four, verse 16, perhaps the saddest sentence in the paragraph or the book, "At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me." I'm going to come back to this, but for now, just feel the force of it. Luke, where were you? Number five, verses 20 to 21, "Erastus remained at Corinth.

I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. Do your best to come before winter." So sometimes strategic deployments take away friends. I left Trophimus. Sometimes sickness interrupts a planned partnership. I left him sick. Sometimes seasonal changes make aloneness all the more difficult. Please try to get here before winter.

Paul mentions those things surely to cause Timothy to feel ministry is hard relationally. Friends in the ministry can let you down and never return or care for you again. Verse 10, "Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Now I admit I do not know if he repented." There's nothing in the Bible that says he did or didn't.

There's no evidence that he did, but surely all of us, at least those who are older, know ministers who have forsaken their partners and left the ministry, left the faith, and as far as we know, never returned. We know people like that. I think Paul wants Timothy here to feel not only a preparation for this sorrow in ministry.

This happens, Timothy. I'm telling you it happened to me so that you'll be ready when it happens to you. I think he also wants to hear the cause so that he can avoid that and doesn't ever do it. In other words, not ever is abandoned and doesn't ever abandon because he's seen the cause here.

"Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me." There is a love for the world that makes ministry impossible. There is a love for the world that produces either the abandonment of ministry or the making of ministry so worldly it's useless. That happens as often. So if a minister starts to become worldly, he's got two choices.

Leave the ministry or make the ministry worldly. Then he can survive. Demas couldn't. Why? Because of Paul. It wasn't going to happen on Paul's team. So here's a caution to young and I say old, but I think especially young, culture-embracing evangelical Christians. You need to ponder Demas a long time.

"In love with this present world," he found ministry with Paul impossible. And he left it. There is a love for the world. There is a love for this present age, this God-ignoring, God-denying, God-demeaning, Christ-distorting products of culture that is mutually exclusive with real deep love for Jesus. There is a love for this world that is irreconcilable with ministry to the world.

The ministry of exposing the world, the ministry of witnessing to the world, the ministry of rescuing people from the world. None of that's going to happen very well if you just love it so much. And they think you're just one of them. So, young Timothy and young Bethlehem, remember, more people leave Christ and more people leave church and more people leave ministry out of love for the world than anything else.

I've wondered, what was in Thessalonica? "In love with this world," this present world, "Demas has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica." Was it a woman? Was it home? Maybe he grew up there and he was just nostalgic and was tired of this missionary life and living with the Apostle Paul and just wanted to go home.

Was it a business offer? "I got gifts for goodness sakes. I can make some money." Or was it just a comfortably safe distance away from this maniac Paul? We don't know. Here's what we know, Demas didn't leave out of love for Jesus, but out of love for the world.

That's why everybody leaves. He didn't leave to follow Jesus. He left Jesus to embrace the world, the pleasures of the world, the entertainments of the world, the kickback of the world, the praise of the world, the friends of the world. So some of your partners in ministry will do that.

Very very sobering to ponder Demas' life decisions and the pain that he caused in Paul's life as well. This clip was taken from John Piper's sermon, "He Stood by Me and Strengthened Me for the Sake of the Gospel," preached on August 26, 2012. The entire message is online at DesiringGod.org.

So speaking of the ministry, how much speculation should we bring into the pulpit in our sermons? In every text we're going to face unanswered questions. So what do we do with the uncertainties in our Bible text? Do we embellish? Do we guess? Do we speculate? Or do we just tell people what we don't know?

It's a great and practical question about a common dilemma all preachers and teachers face. That's up on Friday. I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we'll see you then. 1. John Piper's sermon "He Stood by Me and Strengthened Me for the Sake of the Gospel" is available as a free download at the DesiringGod.org website.

2. John Piper's sermon "He Stood by Me and Strengthened Me for the Sake of the Gospel" is available as a free download at the DesiringGod.org website. 3. John Piper's sermon "He Stood by Me and Strengthened Me for the Sake of the Gospel" is available as a free download at the DesiringGod.org website.