Fight for the Faith

Are you willing to fight for your faith?Do you want to fight well?

နဘၣ်သ့ၣ်ညါလၢနမ့ၢ်မတဂၤလဲၣ်.

၁ တံၤမသ့း ၁း၁၈ “ဖိစီၤတံၤမသ့းဧၢ, တၢ်မူလိာ်အံၤယဟ့ၣ်လီၤနၤ, ဒ်တၢ်စံးပာ်လၢ၀ံအကျိာ်လၢနဂ့ၢ်နကျိၤအသိး, ဒ်သိးလၢအဃိန့ၣ်နကဒုးတၢ်ဒုးလၢအဂ့ၤ.

Why did Paul called Timothy, “My son?”

Timothy is not his biological son, but his true son in faith. (v2).

And when we look at the whole chapter, it is mainly about Faith, Who Christ is, what he has done and how can we know God. The whole chapter tells us what is going on within the church, and who christians are supposed to stay grounded in their faith.

First, what is the meaning of Timothy?

Timotheos- Timi means horning, & theos meas God. So timothy means honrning God.

Usually, in the Bible, Names are very important. People were ought to live out there names. For example; Jesus means savior, therefore, Jesus saved us from the eternal death. Job means the prosecuted one, etc.

Basically, Prophecies once made about you were words given from God defining what kind of person Timothy was and would become.

Paul reminds Timothy who he is… he is to honor God. He belong to God’s family. Therefore, he instruct Timothy to fight a good fight.

Timothy is a soldier of Christ, and it is important for Paul to remind him. As long as he knows that he is the soldier Christ, he will always ready for the battle.

This fight is not a physical fight. It is spiritual fight. Eph. 6:12

Ephesians 6:12 CSB

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.

Ephesians 6:11 CSB

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.

the armor of God include; truth like a belt around waist, righteousness like armor on chest, sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. And in every situation take up the shield of faith. take the halemt of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which the word of God....

When we look at the armor of God. It looks like Roman’s soldier. The solder of Christ ought to look like that. Christian who does not live like Christ and equip themselves, they will lose the battle.

Often

Identity and idolatry are intertwined.

Richard Lints

Since identity and idolatry are intertwined, for most people, idolatry became their identity.

When Idolatry became your identity, you will lose yourself.

A lady from EU came to USA and shared her experience with us. She said she went to a Karen community in Germany, if i remember it correctly. She talked to a young guy. She asked the young guy why he is not learning his native langauge. The young guy told him, “What’s benefit for me to learn Karen’s language? I would not be able to find a job with that language?

What happened here is that the guy idol other’s culture, language, and life style more than his Karen. And he embrace the new identity without looking back.

As the children of Christ, it is very important for us to embrace the identity Christ gave us.

2. နဘၣ်သ့ၣ်ညါလၢနကဘၣ်အိၣ်မူဒ်လဲၣ်

To embrace the identity God has given you, believers must live in true faith

What faith is Paul talking about here?

It is about faith in the complete gospel.

This gospel Could be summarize it in John 3:16. In this context, some teachers misinterpret or teach the wrong doctrine the people. They mislead people.

Paul called it Hetro teaching- teaching another kind of gospel- untrue.

What are the false teachings?

Myth: Fairy tail, promote immorality (take stories from the past and use it to justifies their action contrary to God.

Endless geneologies: Histories and prophetic rising out of guesswork. Became special interpreter of scriptures they claimed special knowledges.

I remember a couple years ago, this bishop prayed and at the end of prayer he said Awomen, instead of Amen. He said it wasn’t fair for women… Because God could be a women as well. This is false doctrine.

False things seems so right in our ears now a day, it is important not to mix our feelings with the words of God. What is the true doctrine?

What is the standard of truth?

Old Testament, Words of Christ, and the teaching of the apostles.

Most untruth teaching recieved special revelation: Allen White, Muhammad, Joseph Smith… with that in mine, those people teach untrue gospels. Which is differnt from the bible.

If Christian grounded in truth, they can stop false doctrine to spread.

Moreover, believers must have a good conscience.

“good conscience slightly different meaning for the Ephesians than it does today in Western societies. 1st century people, conscience dealt with a person’s conduct within the chosen group. A good conscience man living according to the standards and practices which the groups (church) deemed proper and acceptable.”

You can have true faith but if you don’t live it out in your daily life it is futile.

Some people said, “what’s really important is the relationship between me and God, only God knows me better.” That is true, but if you only have faith and never live it out, it is impossible to delineate the glory of Christ.

3. နဘၣ်သ့ၣ်ညါလၢနကဘၣ်ဟးဆှဲးတၢ်မနုၤလဲၣ်

Have you guys ever heard of Joel Owestene, Kenneth Copeland, Joseph Prince, Todd White...

If you or anyone you know listen to these preachers, you are following false teachers. Well, you might say… they teach some good stuff and they have some positive stuff i can learn from, they got a different gift. They make people feel better when they feel down.

well, a pastor who is not preach about hell, and a pastor who does not preach everything in the Bible and only cover half true, they are a true pastor.

Last time i remember, the Serpent only spoke half truth.

When a person only accept half truth, they most likley to shipwreck their faith.

When a ship is wreck, everythig is destroy or it might still work but barely....

In V20. Paul talks about two people who do not share the same gospel as paul. THeir anmes are Hymenaeus and Alexander.

2 Timothy 2:18 CSB

They have departed from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and are ruining the faith of some.

Physical ressurection of the death is no loger needed. However, the scripture is clear in 1 Cor. 15:51-52

1 Corinthians 15:51–52 (CSB)

Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

Hymenaeos 2 Tim. 2:17; 2 Tim. 2:26; 2 Tim. 4:14.

Hymeaneous and Alexender were mention there and it didn’t seem like they are doing well.

Because of these false teachers, many peole confused on what they are ought to believe.

That’s why paul delived these people to Satan, so they may be taught not to blasepheme.

Paul once was blasepheme (ကတိၤဒုၣ်ဒွဲၣ်စံးအၢ) the Lord

--- what’s the difference between blesepheme and the blasepheme of the holy spirit?

--- well, when you blasepheme againt God and Christ, you can still be forgiven, however, when you blaspheme the Holy spirit, no forgiven to you. What does it mean to be blaspheme the holy spirit. . .

in this case, the people who blaspeme God still have chance to repent… so these two people handed to satan so that they may be able to repent.

that is why it is important to avoid the false teacher and seek the right teaching through the scripture.

As we can see in titanic movice, the captian saw the ice berg, but late to ture.... if you follow flase leader and to not try to follow the right then it wiull be too late.