Being Good Anscestors

This morning we are continuing our series celebrating our 125 anniversary. We are glad to be a part of a congregation that goes back that long and even more grateful as a reminder of the church that spans back 2000 years old.

We are not just a group racing into the future, we have our arms stretched backward into history as well

We didn’t just arrive one day and made up this Christian faith. This is not our invention

That is part of what we want to communicate this month.

We need to be reminded that, even in the midst of our culture that shifts around us, we are a part of a line of people that have endured and lived joyfully for the Lord.

This morning I want to look at the Apostle Paul’s greeting to Timothy and the things that he brings up.

The reminder through this series is that Christianity isn’t something that we add to our lives, like a hobby or a new car or something. When we realize how far reaching Christ’s Kingdom is we have to wrestle with the fact that we don’t add Christianity to our lives, but rather Christianity, the Kingdom of God on the earth, embraces us and invites us in. We become part of something greater.

a number of years ago we visited the grand canyon and on our way out we went through the most American of conventions, the gift shop. I bought a magnet for our fridge that is still there to this day.

Imagine though that we had driven all that way to the grand canyon and I went into the gift shop, having not seen the canyon itself, bought the magnet because I thought it was good enough” got in my car and went home.

Sometimes the way we understand Christianity is kind of like that magnet. We fit our idea of Christianity into our own lives, something that can work easily into our lives or fit around our schedule. We believe that if we can see it and we are reminded of it then we are ok.

But buying a magnet from the grand canyon gift shop is not the same thing as looking out into the grand canyon.

We don’t work Christ into our lives, He has invited us into His. We are called to be swept up in the current of Christianity in the world and throughout time.

Our faith must be recieved individually but be shown generationally. It is much larger and greater than any one of us but it takes all of us.

- Let’s look at some things that Paul shares with Tim.

- Timothy was a protege, maybe like a apprentice of Paul. Paul took it seriously to coach and mentor Timothy as a younger pastor. And in doing so we see some places that Paul points to and says, remember and pay attention!

Remember and pay attention to what God has done to produce faith

The mystery of faith

even though we can exemplify faith it does not mean that faith is not without mystery. Or that it is not without difficulty.

It spans farther than we can see on our own

Look at the origin of faith

2 Timothy 1:9 ESV

who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

God’s own purpose and grace

In Jesus.

That is where faith comes from and that is also the object of our faith

We are caught in a great loop where faith resides in Christ, is offered to us as a gift and then goes back to God Himself. He is the starting and finish line.

It’s important to recognize it so that we don’t think that as long as we have faith that we are ok. We don’t have enough capacity to muster up enough faith to get us very far.

We need the work of God in Christ, and to recieve His gift of faith.

When we understand that mystery, that it comes from God, through us, back to God, then we exemplify it

the reason Paul tells timothy to remember is because we need to see just how beautiful faith is. That life and faith in Christ, not just faith, changes not only people but also families, also generations.

Faith in Christ makes a difference in how we live.

Not that we live perfectly but that we have been unconditionally loved and saved. When we understand that, it changes everything.

Remember and pay attention to others around you who have exemplified faith

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Paul is reminding Timothy that faith existed before he did. Timothy didn’t think of faith or dream it up. Timothy didn’t catch faith from the sky or the culture.

Faith existed in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.

Paul is saying that faith, when looking at grandmother and mother, could be seen.

they could look at specific points in a person’s life and say, “I think this is what faith looks like.”

IT doesn’t mean that Timothy caught faith like a cold or through osmosis. Faith, while seen generationally, is only recieved individually.

Lois and Eunice could talk about Jesus and show what a life in Jesus was like but could not produce faith for Timothy.

Faith is an internal quality, an internal reality but it is practiced in real time.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Look at what faith is. It is assurance and conviction.

The application of assurance and conviction can be seen.

Paul is telling Timothy to remember and pay attention. To see the sincere faith in his family. And to see that it is that faith which also resides in him

Faith comes from God and it is seen in the church community. I owe my understanding of faith to watching people who have expressed faith the last 23 years of my life.

I had a small group of peers when I was first saved who showed faith

I had a mentor who met with me every week to show me faith

I have a wife who exemplifies faith

I had professors who showed me what faith was like

I worked under other pastors for years who showed me what faith was like

I have had friends in every state I’ve lived in who exemplify faith with and for me.

Here, many of you exemplify faith, not only for me but for others as well. You show us what a godly marriage looks like. What raising kids looks like. You show us how to celebrate in joy with faith and how to mourn in hopefulness with faith.

You are living examples of what faith is. You are the Eunice’s and Lois’s of this generation. Many of us have vibrant faith because of the sincerity of your own faith.

Annie Grace is in Africa because of God’s calling and exemplificaiton of faith

Sophia Gotta is going into missions because of the example of your faith

Stan and Jaynee Walker were here for a couple of weeks. They serve the entire continent of Africa, helping other international workers with travel and finances.

DO you know one of the first things I saw JAynee, who grew up here, do when they arrived a couple weeks ago?

She saw Lois Holt and gave her a big hug because Lois was her sunday school teacher.

Lois is an actual Lois!

Thank you for the way you model trust in Christ.

And we look for the next generation of people who will be Sunday School teachers and disciple our kids and support others, who will lead and care and speak and teach and serve with sincere and vibrant faith in Jesus.

Remember and pay attention to others around you who have no faith

2 Timothy 1:6–8 ESV

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,

Faith is not ours to keep or hoard.

Faith leads us back to God in the offering of our lives.

If faith leads you to hold onto things for yourself or to circle the wagons, it is likely not faith at work but something else.

Maybe something more sinister.

Faith is the ability to express our lives to God, to give ourselves over to Him and to express that kind of life in the world, offering faith to others.

We offer it in sharing the Gospel with others. In telling them that Jesus brings wholeness and redemption and forgiveness of sins. That He brings eternal life.

Faith in that sense is offered. It is something that we can show others as a way to live.

Look at 2 Timothy 2:2

2 Timothy 2:2 ESV

and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

What we have we entrust to others.

We take what we have and work to pass it on

That’s why you hear Robin talk about taking discipleship of our kids seriously.

That’s why we highlight baptisms

That’s why we serve in the city

To work to entrust the message of the Gospel to a new generation of people.

To take what we have and offer it to someone else.

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–30 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy (Christian) catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.