Own Your Faith

STOP RAISING HYPOCRITES – 2 TIMOTHY 1:1-7

INTRO: WHY 2 TIMOTHY?

This morning we start a new series in the book of 2 Timothy. The nameof the series is “entrusted.” I’ve chosen to preach through this book because Broadview has a unique strength that many other churches don’t have. We have a value of being a multi-generationalchurch. We have deliberately chosen to keep and promote environments that will appeal to unchurched young people AND unchurched older people. As a result, God has drawn not only a lot of young people but also many senior adults to our church who are incredible mature and strong in their faith. I believe God has a reason for that.

EXPLAINING THE SERIES: TWO WORDS TWO PEOPLE

2 Timothyis a multigenerationalbook. It was writtenby the Apostle Paul (a baby boomer) to a young man named Timothy (a millennial) for the purpose of encouraging him and maturing him in his Christian faith and ministerial calling. So the book has immediate relevance to a congregation led by a young pastor! But the book also shows the apostle Paul “finishing well.” The Lord used him to his dying breath. And I believe there are folks in our congregation who need to hear and believe that biggest impact their lives will have on the kingdom may notrest only in the pastbut possiblyin the future.

HOW WE WILL PROCEDE:

So for the next few months we’re going to let the apostle Paul speak to how older Christians finish well and how younger Christians persevere through suffering and grow in their faith. It’s a tremendous book and I believe it will play a pivotal role in our church as it relates to our future. I’ve called the series “Entrusted” because is displays how the Gospel properly gets entrusted from one generation to the next.

THIS MORNING’S MESSAGE: HOW NOT TO RAISE A HYPOCITE

This morning we start with the first seven verses and we’re going to answer the question, “How do we stop raising Christian hypocrites?” Nobody likes a hypocrite, right? You want your children to be authentic and true. You yourself don’t want to be a hypocrite. You want to believe what you say and live OUT of your convictions not in SPITE of your convictions. But for many people that’s not the case. They profess with their LIPS that Jesus is Lord but but their HEART isn’t there. They’re not sure about it.

A SINCERE FAITH: WHAT IS IT?

Paul saysof Timothythat he has a SINCEREfaith. The word is literally “without hypocrisy.” (ἀνυπόκριτος) Timothy had some issues. He wasn’t perfect. He had lots to work on. But he genuine and authentic. He owned his faith. He may have “learned” it from his mother but there came a time in his life where he OWNED it for himself. They say of my generation 18-29year olds (I’m on the edge) that 59% of them will drop out of church when they leave home and never come back. Of course, this age range always leaves church but they usually come back when they have kids of their own. Not anymore.

THE MILLENIAL PROBLEM:

They’re rethinking the big questions of life and they don’t see why they need the church for answers or help with their problems. David Kinnaman addresses this issue in a book called “You Lost Me” if you’re interested in hearing more. Howdo we keep this from happeningto the kids running around in our preschool and children’s wings? Our youth age children? I think 2 Timothy has some things to say that we can benefit from. How to pass on to the next generation a faith that sticks. A genuine faith. A non-hypocritical faith. Something real. Something worth believing in.

CONTEXT TO THE TEXT: WHERE’S PAUL / WHERE’S TIMOTHY:

Let me set the stage. The apostle Paul (church persecutor turned church planter) is in Roman prison writing this letter. More like a dungeon. It was a big holein the ground with a window on the top to let light in. He was chained to the ground. A sentence had already been stuck and he was waiting to die. Not exactly what you would call a “happy retirement.” Timothy was pastoring a church in Ephesus that Paul had helped plant. He was doinga good job but faced a lot of difficulties. You can read about them in 1 Timothy. Heresieswere springing up under his nose. People thought he was too young. Etc.

CONTEXT TO THE TEXT: WHO IS TIMOTHY?

Timothywas a young pastor. He was a gifted leader. He was an introvert, like me. He struggled with fear and what people thought about him. He struggled with health issues. He was like many of us in that he needed encouragement from time to time to stay in the game. That’s the purpose of this letter. Paul is writing to say, “Timothy, my time is up. I fought a good fight. I finished strong. Now I want to encourage you to do the same.” Paul showsTimothy how the Gospel and God’s calling is sufficient to help him endure.

READ THE TEXT: 2 TIMOTHY 1:1-2

Let’s start in 2 TIMOTHY 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, (the reason Paul calls himself an apostle to Timothy is because He expects this letter to be read in the church and want to establish his authority. Not because he’s trying to show off to Timothy.) 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: (not biological but spiritual. Paul led Timothy and his whole family to the Lord when at Lystra during one of his missionary journeys.) Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (words of grace. Mercy language unique to pastorals)

READ THE TEXT: 2 TIMOHTY 1:3-7

Paul continues, “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. (pretty intense affection!) 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded (third time he’s used the word remember!) 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. 6 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, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

FROM YOU, IN YOU, THROUGH YOU:

I want to look at three things from this text and I want to do it offof this word that Paul uses over and over again: remember. He uses the word four times in six verses. That’s not accidental. The secrete of breeding a sincere faith in yourself and in the people you love is done through the act of remembering. Being mindful of certain things. Allowing certain truths to not just be present in the back webs of your brain but instead FRONT and CENTER. Remember who needs the faith from you, who has faith in you, and what faith can do for you. From you, in you, and for you. First, from you.

PASSING ON THE FAITH TO THE NEXT GENERATION:

Did you notice what Paul said in v 5? “…your sincere faith first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” Let’s be clear. Your faith will be passed on to others (however weak/strong or misinformed it may be.) Everybody passes along some kind of faith because we all have viewsabout why the world is the way it is. (1) How did we get here? (2) What went wrong? (3) How do we fix it? (4) When will it happen? These a faith questions and they get passed down.

IS THE FAITH YOU POSSESS WORTH PASSING ALONG?

One of the ways to kill hypocrisy in the next generation and to kill hypocrisy in ourselves is to ask whether or not “OUR FAITH” – as it stands right now – is a faith you want passed along. It’s getting passed on whether you like it or not. Is what you’re passing on somethingyou can stand on?By the way, this is why many people DO come back to church when they have kids. Big life events or new responsibilities have a way of resurfacing the big questions and exposing the inadequacies of our current convictions.

HOW FAITH WAS PASSED DOWN TO ME:

I was blessed to have godly parents who raised me to not just learn facts about God but how to experience him relationally. They led me to own my faith for myself. They were never pushy or mean about it. They modeled for me what Christian faith looked like and raised me to value the same kind of virtues and faith. I know not everybody has that. But if you’re here this morning, one of the things we see from this text is our responsibility to play some role, in passing down “that kind” of faith to the next generation. Especiallyyour kids. “How do you do that” you ask? Let me just give you a few practical ideas.

HOW TO PASS ON YOUR FAITH: DAILY CONVERSATION:

Some of this I learned by watchingmy parents. Someof it from talkingwith others. If we want to stop raising Christian hypocrites we’ve got to do a better job of passing along a Christian faith worth owning for yourself. One of the ways you can do this is by bringing (1) Christianity up it up in daily conversation. (2) Show how the Christian faith/worldview applies to the things that your kids are interested in. (this implies you’re willing to be interested in what they’re interested in) Scripture addresses every facet of our life experience. Steer your daily conversation towards those ends.

I DON’T HAVE TIME: MAKE TIME! MODEL WITH YOUR LIFE

“I don’t have time to do that” you say? You make time to share biblical truth. (car time, sick time, bed time, meal time, vacation time, one-on-one time) You’ve got the time. You’ve just got to leverage it for the right purpose. The other way to pass on your faith is to (1) model it with your life. (let them see you readGod’s word and pray; tell your children how your growing and learning new things. Paul said he had a “clear conscience…” That he “continually serves (latureo – worships) God…” He was living a life worth imitating.) What you believe is best communicated not by what you say but how you live.

CELEBRATE WHAT’S RIGHT: NOT JUST REBUKING WHAT’S WRONG:

(1) Use positive reinforcement instead of only negative. Not just rebuking what’s wrong but celebrating what’s right. (2) Involve them in the life of the church. (make sure they see you enjoying fellowship with other believers. Our children’s environments are top notch!) (3) Pray with your children. (A.C.T.S. / Prayer Journal / Highs and Lows / Sentence prayers / Newspaper Prayers / Paul prayed “night and day… continually…”) (4) Read a devotional with them. (5) Speak spiritual blessings over your children. And lastly, (6) Model a grace culture. (when they’ve done something wrong)

WHAT KIND OF FAITH WILL THE NEXT GENERATION RECEIVE?

The reason a lot of people leave the faith or say they’re Christians w/o believing it in their heart is because the faith that was handed down to them wasn’t worth believing. That such a sad commentary on our time. But there’s still time to fix it. You may not be a perfect example but you can be a living example. You can start today, practicing these things. Passing along a faith worth owning for oneself. When you start doing so, you’ll see your own faith grow. You’ll see hypocrisy in your own life begin to wane.

REMEMBER THE FAITH PEOPLE HAVE IN YOU:

It wasn’t just the fact that a sincere faith had been passed down to Timothy that made his own faith sincere. Part of killing hypocrisyin the life of another is to remind others that YOU have faith in them. They’ve done 100’s of studies on millennials. When examining the most influential people in the life of a millennial their school coachesmake the top tenlist almost without fail. You know why? Because coaches have a way of convincing their athletes that they have “faith in them.” When you’re convinced somebody has faith in you it will change your life.

FAITH IN YOU: IN THE TEXT:

You see this over and over again in our text. Paul says to Timothy, “I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day…” (1:3) In other words, “I haven’t forgotten about you Timothy. I haven’t written you off.” Speaking of Timothy’s “sincere faith” Paul says, “I am sure [that this sincere faith] dwells in you as well…” (1:5)The idea is that Paul witnessedsome kind of external confirmation that Timothy was doing well and he wanted to remind Timothy “that’s why I believe in you!” He tells Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on on my hands…” (1:6)

THE LAYING ON OF MY HANDS:

This is probably talking about an ordination service of sometime when Timothy became the pastor or was first commissioned for gospel ministry. This is a tradition that has carried on over the year (in Baptist circles). I remember my ordination service and how humbling it was. Do you know why? Because prayer after prayer what I heard from people I loved and respected was “we believe that God has gifted you and is going to use you in a mighty way for the kingdom. We believe in you.” That’s a powerful gift for someone.

PAUL’S LEATHERY HANDS ON YOU:

Could you imagine how powerful that was for Timothy? An introverted, likely frail young adult who struggled with what people thought about him to have somebody like the Apostle Paul(the world’s greatestchurch planter) say to him “Timothy, you have what it takes.” Incredible. People leave Christianity often times not because of intellectual reasons but relational and emotional reasons. You may have that kind of influence over someone right now. And all you need to do is send an email and say “I want you to know I believe you have what it takes. You’re smart. You’re called. I believe in you.”

REMEMBER WHAT FAITH CAN DO THROUGH YOU: (FUTURE)

The last thing I want us to look at from this text is to remember what faith is doing for you. Last week we looked at Peteras a prototypeof what happens to a person when they really put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. It changed his life. He went from a coward full of doubt to one of the bravest leaders of the Christian movement. Why? Because saving faith transforms a person from the inside out. You shift from fear to faith, from weakness to power, from indifference to love, from addition to self-control.

JUST HAVING A GIFT DOESN’T MAKE YOU EFFECTIVE:

Evidentially, Timothy had a problem that many leaders possess. Passivity. That’s why his exhortation is “remember to stir it up! Fire up the flame! Rekindle what’s going cold.” You’ll never be effective in the kingdom of God by just drifting. Possessing a spiritual gift doesn’t automatically make you effective. You’ve got to play a part in what God is going to do through that gifting. How to you stir it up? (1) Put yourself in a situation where you’ll be forced to use your gift. You grow where you’re uncomfortable. (2) Open yourself to input from others about your gift. (3) Surround yourself with people who believe in you.

WHAT FAITH IS DOING IN YOU: REJECT THE FEAR OF MAN:

As you increase what saving faith in Jesus Christ is doing in you then you’ll begin to see changes in your life. Four things in particular. Look at v 7, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” The fear Paul is talking about isn’t a fear of “lions and tigers and bears oh my.” It’s a fear of man. A fear of what people think about you. A fear of “what if I’m not good enough, cool enough, rich enough, connected enough.” One of the greatest gifts of the holy spirit and a sincere faith is the freedom from the fear of man. When God is big, people are small (vis versa). Remember that.

YOU HAVE POWER TO ENDURE:

Saving faith is also giving you power. Not power to push other people around and beat them into submission. But a power to endure suffering without losing faith. A power like the early Christian martyrs had. That no matter how many threats they received, no matter how much social pressure that was inflected, no matter how intense the persecution became THEY endured such suffering for the sake of the Gospel. Paul is reminding Timothy, “Brother, you have the Holy Spirit. Christ alive in you the hope of Glory. If God be for us, who can be against us?! What can man do to you?”

YOU HAVE POWER TO LOVE:

You’ve been given power. Not power to abuse but to be abused and respond with love. Turning the other cheek as Jesus said in the sermon on the mount. Power to do the things that love does. “To be patient and kind instead jealous proud, arrogant, and rude. To seek the good of others instead of only yourself. To believethe bestinstead of assuming the worst. To put up with a lot because of your hope for a better future.” Love is the most powerful force the world has ever seen. And it’s IN YOU as a Christian if you’ll let it live.

YOU HAVE SELF-CONTROL:

Finally, the Spirit gives “self-control,” in the sense of self-mastery. This has been defined as “the sanity of saintliness.” Paul has in mind a measure of controlover one’s thinkingand actionsthat allows a balanced outlook on any situation. When everything is coming unglued, this quality of “levelheadedness” will keep the Christian focused calmly on the power and love that the Spirit provides, and so it makes perseverance in life and ministry possible. You don’t have to be led by anger or jealousy when you’re led by the Spirit.

ARE YOU USING GOD’S GIFTS?

God's purpose for is more than making money, being entertained, and being comfortable; it is for each of us to use the gifts He gives to touch His people and help a needy world. And when you possess a sincere faith the Holy Spirit resources you with everything that you need to do those very things. Can you imaginewhat would happen if led those kinds of lives? The problem of millennials leaving the church would disappear. This is the antidoteto hypocrisy. It comes when we remember. Remember to pass your faith down. Rememberwho needs it fromyou, who has it inyou, and what it’ll do for you.

CONCLUSION: REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER!

The truth is, even on our best day we fail miserably at all of these don’t we? Thank God there was one man who did it perfectly for us. And from him we’ve received grace upon grace, mercy beyond measure and peace that passes all understanding. He has passed on the faith of our forefathers with perfect living clarity. He is the invisible God made visible. When we were faithless he remained faithful and didn’t give up on us. And instead being controlled by the fear of man he was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And he did that so you and I could be forgiven and free to do the same.