2 Timothy 1:1-14

Well, good morning everybody.

How’s everybody doing today?

It’s been a little bit since I’ve been up here.

It’s good to be with y’all.

Lots of changes happening as you can see

everybody met Chapman Hunley

if you haven’t courage, you get to know him

he’s gonna be the man in charge for quite a while here

So as I was thinking of an illustration for this sermon today.

Several movies popped into my head

and you know I think one of the best things about movies is,

you can kind of witness and see what appears to be

real life relationships happening in real time.

But one of the things that that I love about mentorship type movies

is the unique bond that is created between the two characters 

you know take for example if you look at karate kid,

you’ve got Daniel LaRusso and you’ve got Mr. Miyagi,

and throughout the series you get to see this unique relationship

form where a kid who was struggling

a kid that was lost and getting bullied,

is taken in by this wise karate teacher

who essentially becomes Daniels mentor

not only karate but in life.

And so as you see the series continue

you see Daniel struggle with women,

his career,

even foreign cultures

but through it all there is Mr Myagi

leading and guiding Daniel in everything he does

ensuring that he is trained and successful in life. 

And what’s unique here today

is that this is the type of relationship you see between Paul and Timothy

as you see a veteran in the faith

a man absolutely determined to share the Gospel

is encouraging a younger man to carry forward what he has begun

And so today I want to share with you three points

On what Paul is encouraging Timothy to stick to

To hold fast to today

And that is to never be ashamed of the gospel 8-12

To Guard against false teaching 13-14

And to always keep that flame going

Now I’m gonna read this entire section of scripture one more time

and I’m not doing this just out of redundancy.

I want you to do me a favor

and as we read this.

I want you to begin to take this personal.

I want you to put yourself in Timothy‘s position

And begin to imagine as if you were reading this from a personal perspective.

Believe it or not There is something in here for every single one of us

you know I don’t care if you’re at the age of 18 or 85

every single one of us has been put on mission by God

to bring the gospel to the world

so if you can do me a favor,

I really want you to start to internalize the message

that Paul is preaching to Timothy here today OK

Starting at verse 3

2 Timothy 1:3–14 (NLT)

3Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 

4I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again. 

5I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. 

6This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 

7For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 

8So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. 

9For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. 

10And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. 

11And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News. 

12That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return. 

13Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 

14Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.

Remember What’s my number on the rule when I get up here?

Remember we always have to get into the context of the story.

We have to begin to understand the message that Paul is trying to relay to Timothy

so that we can be able to learn how to apply it to our own lives

and so if we get into this,

we begin to see that once again,

Paul is in prison.

And according to sources, this is Paul’s final letter

so second Timothy is the last letter that he writes chronologically in the New Testament

And He has a gut feeling. He is not going to survive this particular encounter

so keep in mind.

he’s in prison

he’s in Dire Straits.

He’s believing he’s not gonna get out of this

and I can imagine he’s struggling

and possibly quite a bit emotionally.

And Isn’t it interesting?

I think every single time that I have been up here preaching

it has been on one Paul’s epistles and Paul has been in prison

every single time in that fascinating.  

What’s unique is that this particular contextual understanding

plays a significant role into the importance of why Timothy

is so important to Paul

because as you will see,

Paul has been abandoned by nearly everyone

and he is relying on his young disciple here

to stay loyal and continue to remain steadfast in his loyalty

to not only Paul, but the faith. 

So what you’re reading here is almost a plea

as you can kind of see Paul is saying

I have been abandoned.

Everybody has left me.

You’re the only one I have left.

Please don’t go

and you see this inverse number.  15 

“You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.”

2 Timothy 1:15 NIV

And so as you look at the opening verses,

and Paul is so encouraging and so loving and appreciative of Timothy,

you can kind of see how a man who is in prison

who has been abandoned by by nearly everyone

is looking at Timothy and sort of saying please stick with me.

I promise you everything’s gonna be OK.

But then you’ve gotta look at Timothy as well.

Because one of the first things that we learned about Timothy within the book of 1 Timothy

is that Timothy is young.

He’s a young man.

He might even be in his 20s.

It all depends, but Timothy might be struggling with in the situation

because he’s going up against a bunch of older men

who may be looking at him and telling him that he hasn’t had enough life experience

to be able to lead the church

and so you also see Paul in 1 Timothy

encouraging him to continue on with his pursuit of leadership

in the church and to continue on with the mission

And so as always you see Paul opening up with his words of encouragement,

saying that he is thankful for this young man

that he prays for him all the time.

You also begin to see how Paul is encouraging him to continue to fan the flame

To provide oxygen to the fire

gasoline to the fire

because it is so easy to let that fire go out

amen.  

So let’s look at this passage real quick let’s

Let’s just see what it’s talking about so that we can potentially relate this to our lives.

“Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again. I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

2 Timothy 1:3-7 NLT

How many of y’all remember when you first became a Christian

how many y’all remember how on fire you were for God?

You know, I remember when I first got saved

I remember feeling the Holy Spirit within me

impressing upon my heart the need to share the gospel

with everybody and anybody that I encountered

on top of that I had this urgency to read the Bible every single day.

I wanted to know that everything there was to know about God,

but what unique is that as time progresses

things get normal

things begin to calm down

and what you’re seeing here is Paul recognizing the relaxed nature

that every single Christian goes through

and he’s encouraging Timothy to continue on in the faith

and one of the reason he’s doing that

is because of the fight that I can imagine he is going through on a daily basis within the church

And this might feel a little bit of a rebuke on some of us older individuals in the church

as we don’t allow the younger men to take charge all the time

sometimes we look at them and we say they don’t have enough knowledge.

Sometimes we look at them and feel as though we’ve got to guard the body from you.

We’ve got to guard the church against these younger men and their ideologies

rather than allowing them to lead the church

and so Timothy, as you can imagine

a younger man trying to lead a church amongst a Pagan city

is probably growing tired and frustrated

when it comes down to the in fighting,

when it comes down to the doctrinal issues that he’s constantly battling,

and if he has anything like me,

he just wants to relax at times

and I can even see Timothy thinking in the back of his mind.

I love you, Lord, but I’m exhausted.

And so you can see Paul sitting here saying

I remember when I sat there with you and your family

I remember the enthusiasm you had for the faith

and I’m encouraging you to continue to push through

because God has given us a spirit of courage

one that does not quit

one that realizes the war that we have enlisted into

and one that realizes that you will get your rest,

but for now continue to push forth with everything you’ve got

I want you to think on that real quick

because how many of us look at Christianity as a battle

how many of us look at this is actual spiritual warfare

do you realize that Satan your enemy

has been alive since the beginning of time and has been fighting for thousands of years

fighting against the faith

fighting against the church

fighting against anyone and everyone

that is on Gods side

And so what you’re seeing here

is you’re seeing Timothy being worn down and Paul encouraging Timothy

to continue on

something that I would encourage each and every one of us to do today

to include myself.

I’ll be honest I get tired.

I get exhausted and I understand,

but the same time we are looking at eternal battle.

Second point I wanna make

And something that I feel is really truly relevant

to the modern day church and that is

Pauls encouragement to never be ashamed of the gospel.

If i was to look at my own life

Do you realize how often I get made fun of

for what I believe

I have been told that I believe in magical sky fairies

I get told that I am anti-science

anti-education

that I just would believe in anything fictitious

Which I always answer said individual

you have never really studied this book have you

because I’ll be honest with you

the more you study this book

the more you realize that it is based upon fact,

it is based upon logic

it is scientifically sound,

and I can guarantee you

You just gotta take the time to research what your arguments are

what Paul is saying here

what he is encouraging Timothy to push away from

is exactly what we face here every single day

to not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ

and why

because what we believe in is completely and totally counter culture

Really think on this

a god that would send his only son down to die on the cross

for the forgiveness of sins

do you realize that this is the antithesis

of nearly every single religious system

that has ever been created by man

to say that God loves you so much

that he’s sacrificed his only son on that cross

so that you could be afforded eternity in heaven through the forgiveness of sins

by the selfless act that was carried out by Jesus on that day

that is a polar opposite to nearly every single religion in the world

As every other religion tells us

that we have to earn our way to heaven,

that there is no other way to get to heaven

other than YOU becoming the sacrifice

we are the only religious belief

that says our God became the sacrifice to satisfy what was required to get into eternity.

The gospel is something that is completely contrary

and completely opposite to what this world is familiar with.

It requires humility.

It requires a love.

It requires a devotion to God, not out of fear out of thankfulness for what he has already done.

Which leads me to my last point here and uniquely one of the most controversial points

that I have seen in modern day church.

That is Pauls encouragement to guard the doctrine and keep to the original understanding .

How many of us have recognized that we have a problem

within today’s church when it comes down to understanding the Bible.?

How many of us recognize that the illiteracy rate

amongst the faithful is shockingly high when it comes down to biblical knowledge?

You know I did a test one day it’s kind of unique.

I just simply walked around my battalion in Germany.

And I just started speaking with the fellow Christians

the ones that claimed to be Christians.

I asked them just to give me a brief understanding of the gospel

of what their doctoral truth truly held. 

You know what I found fascinating

was that I didn’t get a straight answer from almost anyone

there was only maybe two guys in the entire battalion

that could tell me the gospel in it’s entirety

with complete and total understanding.

Everyone else had some kind of mixed in version

where they were earning their salvation

where they were guaranteed a spot in heaven because of their good deeds.

Several of them said that Christ can be found in any other religion

in any other belief, and when I told them about John 14 6

where Jesus says I am the way the truth in the life

no one comes to the father by me

and the exclusivity of that particular passage

they almost look confused.

What do you mean Chaplain

What do you mean that I can’t be saved if I’m a Christian and a Buddhist at the same time

what do you mean that I can’t find Christ in Hinduism?

And I guarantee you right now there are some in here

That are hearing these words and are now wondering if I am telling the truth

Doctrinal misunderstanding or doctrinal illiteracy

leads to immature Christians.

It leads to an immature church

and it leads to eternal suffering.

If you can imagine Paul here

who is again encouraging Timothy

to continue to teach the faith

continue to teach the true doctrine

to continue to correct those who claimed the wrong thing

don’t be bashful don’t be shy,

correct those as needed,

but do it in love

don’t worry about what they’re gonna think about you.

So long as you represent Christ in an honorable manner

Do everything you can to ensure they hear the truth from you

I can hear Paul now

Yes, They’re gonna insult you

Yes, they’re going to want to correct you

but you must hold fast to the truth,

you Timothy continue to preach the truth

you continue to bring the gospel to the world as I instructed

and you do so as you have done in the past with fire and conviction

continue with that motivation that you started off with

And so as we turn a look at our own lives

as we begin to look into how we ought to conduct ourselves as Christians today

I want to encourage you,

there is a world out there that is suffering.

There is a world out there that is in desperate need of Christ.

There is a world out there that is not needing to hear, motivational speeches.

They are needing to hear the truth that comes from the word of God

and I encourage each and everyone of you

to do that here today

To bring the truth of the gospel to everyone that you see.

And don’t get me wrong

I recognize it not every single one of us

is going to be able to carry out the mission of Paul or Timothy or Billy Graham,

but you know what you can do

you can pour into somebody’s life this week.

You can pour into somebody’s life this month

and you can begin to make a change.

You can begin to see this world make a change for Christ

so if you take away anything from the sermon here today

as we go into communion here in just a moment,

I want you to really begin to look into your own hearts

look into be your own lives and begin to ask yourself.

How can I continue the fan of flames?

How can I continue to be courageous in my faith?

How can I encourage myself to never be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ

and how can I begin to play an active role in the kingdom of God?

Let’s close in prayer and then we’ll get into communion