2 Timothy 4:5

Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

In all things be showing yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, be showing integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility,

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think about these things.

“I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

not as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.

For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”

Give diligence to present yourself approved by God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth.

I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you,

and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly,

Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,

Your watchmen lift up their voice. Together they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when Yahweh returns to Zion.

These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

For God’s Kingdom is not in word, but in power.

Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained.

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Unless Yahweh builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.

Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance.

His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.

See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

and will not rather tell him, ‘Prepare my supper, clothe yourself properly, and serve me, while I eat and drink. Afterward you shall eat and drink’?

For who is greater, one who sits at the table, or one who serves? Isn’t it he who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!

For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles,

Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.

But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.

but his delight is in Yahweh’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.

“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them (but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear),

“Yahweh says: ‘Stand in the court of Yahweh’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Yahweh’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Don’t omit a word.

Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Yahweh says,’ whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning;

“Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning.

and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

Therefore let no one despise him. But set him forward on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brothers.

Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty works.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;

But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

I commit this instruction to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which were given to you before, that by them you may wage the good warfare,

For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in your house:

having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation.

But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.

then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn’t heed the warning, if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.

“ ‘Yet the children of your people say, “The way of the Lord is not fair;” but as for them, their way is not fair.

A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.

On the next day, we who were Paul’s companions departed, and came to Caesarea. We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.

Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to people.”

Tell Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfill it.”

You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.

Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober.

Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.

Be diligent in these things. Give yourself wholly to them, that your progress may be revealed to all.

Watch and keep them, until you weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites, and the princes of the fathers’ households of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the rooms of Yahweh’s house.”

I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,

I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.

“Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, ‘When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;

“So you, son of man: I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warnings from me.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

“It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch.

What I tell you, I tell all: Watch.”

But Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce God’s Kingdom.”

Then he said to them, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest.

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will dress himself, make them recline, and will come and serve them.

As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”

Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.

But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;

in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God’s Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News of Christ;

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,

in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;

for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ,

of which I was made a servant according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you to fulfill the word of God,

Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.

Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

Wake up, and keep the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.