I am convinced He is able
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· 25 viewsDo not let fear determine the intensity of your faith-walk
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Every person, 10 people, 1 year
Every person, 10 people, 1 year
Bringing renewal, starting small
Someone has said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” This vision to be “oasis makers”, to bring renewal in the world around us, is big but it doesn’t start with a pastor or a church program. It’s starts with you. You get to be the one who brings renewal. So, during the course of this next year, we are going to go on a journey together. We are going to learn how to bring Holy Spirit-empowered renewal by stepping out in faith together and investing the next year into bearing witness to the Father’s love and power to 10 people.
What it is and what it is not
This is not a program, it’s a practice. It has as much to do with your “being” as it does your “doing”. This is a way for us, together, to work out our faith and calling in a small, practical way.
I’m not going to tell you how to do it.
What I will do for you
Here is what I will do. I will preach the word of God to you, believing that the Holy Spirit speaks the most clearly to us through His Word. I will pray for you and with you. I will share with you my experiences with my 10 (good and bad). I will do absolutely everything to build a team of people who will work to equip you for this ministry and for all the ministries that the Spirit will entrust to us.
2. What we will do together
Together, we will create an environment on Sunday mornings that is all about Jesus and that makes room for the Holy Spirit to minister to us and renew all who come, believer and unbeliever. We will welcome everyone who walks through these doors with a welcome from Jesus Christ himself. We will ask each other this question over and over and over again:
“How is it going with your 10?”
We will share our experiences, good and bad, with each other. We will allow the gifts of the Holy Spirit to work through us so that we will all be encouraged and built up. We will pray for and with each other. And in doing all this, we will become the church that we long for, a community unified in the Spirit and in His ministry.
3. What you will do
You will pray for your 10 people. You will fast for them. You will seek the Lord for wisdom and insight and opportunities to show the love of the Father, to speak the truth in that love, to serve them and demonstrate that love. You will partner with the Holy Spirit in bringing life to those 10 people. You will encounter God in new ways as you go on this faith adventure with Him over the next 12 months.
What is the goal?
To demonstrate the love of God in this Time of Mercy
To learn by experience, by doing
That each person will experience seeing at least 1 of their 10 people finding new life in Jesus in the next 12 months.
Write your 10
We’re now going to take about 5 minutes. On each of your chairs is a stack of 10 pieces of paper. We’re going to pray and ask the Lord to bring 10 people’s names to mind who are now far from Him and then we’re going to write those names down.
play background music
I am convinced he is able.
I am convinced he is able.
end background music
In just a few moments we’re going to bring those names and place them in the middle here. We’re going to pray a prayer of blessing over the people those papers represent And then we’re going to pray for each other and commission each other for this ministry for the next year. But for now, I want to ask you to hold those names in your hand or place them in the fold of your bible.
Turn with me in your bibles to 2 Timothy 1:6-12
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 the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.
That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
Paul was the spiritual father of Timothy. In these verses he encourages Timothy: Do not let fear determine the intensity of your faith-walk. He gives this charge to Timothy, he roots that charge in the gospel by showing its power and beauty, and then he offers Timothy hope from Paul’s own experience.
The charge to Timothy
Do not let fear determine the intensity of your faith-walk.
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.
“fan into flame”
growing intensity (“stir up that inner fire”)
stewardship of a gift
this was about Timothy’s personal faith and calling (gift in you) even though it had a public expression
2 Timothy 1:7
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Paul recognized a tendency in Timothy to be timid or fearful
We don’t know where that timidity or fear came from (his age?)
When it comes to the public working out of our personal faith and calling, what causes us to be timid or afraid? (rejection, performance anxiety, etc.)
“mogen” vs. “moeten” and what that signals
whatever it is, Paul says to Timothy that timidity (fear) is not from the Spirit
power
love
self-discipline
2 Timothy 1:8
So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.
Do not be ashamed
Timidity/fear produces shame.
We expect the thing we fear and so we let that fear change the way we behave. That change of behavior Paul calls “shame”.
Paul is not accusing Timothy of shame, but he’s reminding Timothy, like a good father, to not let fear creep in and produce shame
Don’t be ashamed:
of the message of Jesus
of His people
It’s very interesting that Paul does not say to Timothy, don’t worry about it, it will all be okay
Quite the opposite, actually. He says, what you fear might actually happen.
Embrace what you fear and join me in suffering for the sake of the gospel.
the consequences of being a witness to the gospel
by the power of God
What a statement! This is not a “come to Jesus and all your problems go away” message.
I don’t need to remind you that your faith and the working out of your calling are not taken seriously in this present age. I think Resurrection Sunday is a day that makes that very clear.
But Paul, like a good father, encourages us to not let our fears of rejection or failing or whatever to determine the intensity of our faith-walk.
And then he tells us what should.
The powerful Resurrection Gospel
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
Let your intensity be determined by the power of the gospel.
the gospel
what it is
He has saved us
He has called us in/for holiness
we didn’t earn it (“I brought my gift to give to him...”)
it is His purpose and grace
the foundation of this purpose and grace
not in your work
in Jesus Christ
before time began (it was yours before you even knew it was yours, before you even drew your first breath, before time began. This eternally existing Christ had an eternally existing purpose for you and that purpose was that you would receive his grace)
but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
the revelation of this purpose and grace
it has come by the power of God
his appearing (the incarnation)
destroying death (rendering it powerless) 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel (before the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, eternity was a far-off idea. Now “The Gospel first gave to a future world clearness and distinctness, shape and outline...The future life was not an image before the Gospel: the Gospel made it an image. ” We now see that “the Age to Come” has broken in now into this Time of Mercy in which we live.
God has come among mankind. Death has been defeated. Grace and mercy has been poured out upon us and eternal life has been given to all who would receive it.
Belief. Calling. Power. Hope. (Paul’s, Timothy’s and ours)
After encouraging Timothy (and us) to
not let fear determine the intensity of your faith-walk
rather let your intensity be determined by the power of the gospel
Paul now uses his own life as an example
And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.
Paul’s belief
the powerful gospel overwhelms my fears
Paul’s calling
I am a living witness of this (powerful, eternal, death-defeating, life-giving) gospel
That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
I will experience suffering because of my faith and my calling
but that’s no reason to let fear and shame determine my intensity
Paul’s power
Why?
because I know whom I have believed (not a religion, a person)
I am convinced that he is able (power)
to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day
Paul’s hope
What did Paul entrust to Jesus? What can we entrust to Jesus?
his life
to fill up every lack and heal every brokenness that produces fear which produces shame
Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.