WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.560 Now, for the month of August, in the mornings, we're looking at a series called Being an 00:00:05.560 --> 00:00:07.759 Ordinary Christian. 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:13.019 The first sermon we looked at, the theme of being, I am ordinary. 00:00:13.019 --> 00:00:17.719 Then last week, my life is a disappointment. 00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:23.140 And today we're looking at the theme, I am a spiritual failure. 00:00:23.140 --> 00:00:29.960 And looking at that theme, hopefully, through channeling our thoughts from 2 Timothy chapter 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:30.960 1. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:36.679 So the main focus of what I'm going to say today, or the main areas, because that's a 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:42.439 broad theme, you know, it's a theme that's found in many different parts of Scripture, 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:43.439 it's a broad theme. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:45.439 I'm going to focus on two things. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:52.760 The first thing is the question, what does God think of me in terms of being a failure? 00:00:52.760 --> 00:00:58.120 Do I think that God, do you think that God thinks you're a failure? 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:04.679 And that therefore colours your idea or your understanding or your perspective of who God 00:01:04.679 --> 00:01:07.479 is and what God is for you. 00:01:07.479 --> 00:01:08.959 What does God think of me? 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:17.079 And then the second question really is related to that, which I think is something we often 00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:20.400 feel in a Christian, like I'm really terrible. 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:21.599 It's a statement, not a question. 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:23.560 I'm really terrible at sharing my faith. 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:26.640 I'm a failure as a Christian, sharing my faith. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:31.400 I can't do it, I see other people, I've got a rub, you know, things aren't great, and 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:32.680 I can't share my faith. 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:40.040 So that's really the two questions, or two areas that I'm going to focus on particularly. 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:41.640 You know, what does God think of me? 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:43.159 Is He judging me? 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:47.719 I try my best, but I fail so often. 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:49.519 Therefore God must think of my failure. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:55.680 If that's what you think, can I say, right at the very beginning, that's not the gospel. 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:58.240 That's not what it is to believe in Jesus Christ. 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:02.120 Whatever else you think, that is not the gospel. 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:06.560 You try your best, you fail, therefore God thinks you're a failure. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:12.439 Or with regard to sharing your faith, I'm silent. 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:14.319 Nobody knows that I'm a Christian. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:18.159 I've got a rubbish testimony anyway, it's not really worth sharing with anyone. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:22.319 I really live two lives, two separate lives. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:26.120 I'm one person on a Sunday and I'm another person for the rest of the week, and I'm afraid 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:27.120 of sharing my faith. 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:28.120 I can't do it. 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:29.120 I'm a failure. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:35.959 Well, I think this chapter that we're looking at, I'm not going to do a detailed study of 00:02:35.959 --> 00:02:41.959 it, but this chapter does cover many of the themes that come up in these two areas, and 00:02:41.959 --> 00:02:45.680 may dip into one or two other parts of Scripture. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:50.919 But Paul is clearly speaking to Timothy about some of the issues that we've been raised 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:52.719 even in the introduction there. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:56.479 Now, immediately you'll say, well, Timothy is very different from me. 00:02:56.479 --> 00:02:58.479 Timothy is a church leader. 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:00.479 He's an elder. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:02.359 He's a church planter. 00:03:02.359 --> 00:03:03.759 He's not like me. 00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:07.079 That's true, maybe, if that's the case with you in your life. 00:03:07.079 --> 00:03:12.879 But it makes it even more interesting, because it reminds us that church leaders, ministers, 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:18.639 elders, deacons, others who are leaders in the church, do face these same issues. 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.000 Do you have these same issues? 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:28.639 And the principles and the answers and the direction that we take applies to all of us, 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.119 whoever we are in our lives. 00:03:31.119 --> 00:03:32.919 So what is this chapter? 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:35.079 What are some of the themes in this chapter? 00:03:35.079 --> 00:03:48.599 Fear, timidity, being ashamed, the gospel, deserting the faith, mums and grannies, encouragement, 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:52.239 senior pastor helping a young church planter. 00:03:52.239 --> 00:03:56.359 And these are some of the issues, some of the themes that he deals with in this chapter. 00:03:56.359 --> 00:04:02.719 It might not be what you would expect a second letter to a leading church planter in the 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.560 early church. 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:09.799 Might not expect some of the issues that are being dealt with to be dealt with in such 00:04:09.799 --> 00:04:11.120 a letter. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:13.079 So what are we reminded of? 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:22.280 We're reminded, as I said, that you and I, you share what is common to many, even church 00:04:22.280 --> 00:04:23.280 leaders. 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:29.960 And so you may look at church leaders and elders and maybe older, more mature Christians, or 00:04:29.960 --> 00:04:35.400 those that you deem to be very strong in the faith, and you say, they don't know. 00:04:35.400 --> 00:04:38.199 They don't know how much of a failure I am. 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:42.080 I wish I was more like them. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:49.599 God gave us 2 Timothy chapter 1 to remind us that we are all in the same boat. 00:04:49.599 --> 00:04:57.360 And we all share the same struggles, and we all need God to deal with the failures and 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:00.799 the struggles and the battles that we have in our lives. 00:05:00.799 --> 00:05:08.599 So I would ask you to stop comparing yourself with leaders or with other Christians or with 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:15.680 what you perceive other people to be able to do, and the strength of their faith and 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.640 the seeming success of their Christian lives. 00:05:19.640 --> 00:05:24.080 We all share the same battles. 00:05:24.080 --> 00:05:28.240 But it's important as we think about that question of failure, particularly in the light 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:34.160 of these two areas of God thinking I'm a failure or that my witness is a failure, we need to 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:35.800 know the gospel. 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:41.680 It's really important, a foundational level that we know the gospel. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:47.800 Because if you think today, if you think this morning that God's attitude towards you is 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:56.800 dependent on your brilliance, on your amazing testimony, or on the powerful words or works 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:03.040 that are evident in your life, then you will be enslaved. 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:09.400 You'll be enslaved in your life, and you will be living out a religion of works. 00:06:09.400 --> 00:06:13.319 It's not grace, it's works. 00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:19.160 And that will enslave you and make you feel like a failure. 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:22.439 That's exactly the reality for us, isn't it? 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:29.400 When we try, even our very best, it seems like before God and even before others, or 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:34.479 before others and even before God, it seems like failure. 00:06:34.479 --> 00:06:41.879 So what I want to stress as my response to really the first question about failure is 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:47.199 in Christ as believers, and I'm speaking to you as a believer, and if you're not a believer, 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:53.839 I would encourage you to think about what I'm saying with regard to Jesus Christ. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:07:01.239 Verse 13, follow the pattern of the sound words you have heard from me in the faith and love 00:07:01.239 --> 00:07:07.479 that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. 00:07:07.479 --> 00:07:12.319 You have to let that verse sink in if you're a Christian. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:18.519 You have to recognize that today, and I need to recognize that nothing that you can do 00:07:18.519 --> 00:07:28.319 today can make God love you more as a Christian, and nothing you can do today can make God 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:32.120 love you less as a Christian. 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:37.519 Hugely significant fact that we think that the love of God for us is dependent on our 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:41.879 success or failure, or on our obedience even or disobedience. 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:45.719 I'm not saying these things don't matter, at least disobedience and obedience, but 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:55.000 it doesn't change the relationship, the fundamental forensic relationship that we have with God 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:56.320 in Christ. 00:07:56.320 --> 00:07:59.440 It doesn't change by what we do. 00:07:59.440 --> 00:08:05.520 He loves us, and this chapter is gushing with that message to Timothy. 00:08:05.520 --> 00:08:12.120 This young, fragile, struggling church planter needed to hear this message because he felt 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:16.000 like a failure, and he felt ashamed. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.439 God has saved us, and it's His gift. 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:23.280 Verse 9 and 10 speak about what Christ has done for us. 00:08:23.280 --> 00:08:27.560 He's brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 00:08:27.560 --> 00:08:29.240 That's what we've received. 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:30.560 That's what we enjoy. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.600 We enjoy life and immortality. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:36.799 He's already done it for us on the cross. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:41.680 And the moment we have accepted Christ as Savior, we receive that gift, and we receive 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:47.519 from Him the reality that our guilt has been paid for. 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:49.399 Our debt has been paid. 00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:52.159 Our failure is understood. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:58.839 If we need to stop in our lives being driven by guilt in our Christian lives, how many 00:08:58.839 --> 00:09:03.079 of you came out to church today because you were driven by guilt? 00:09:03.079 --> 00:09:05.439 I really should go today. 00:09:05.439 --> 00:09:06.679 I should go to church. 00:09:06.679 --> 00:09:12.759 I better go to church, and it's a sense of guilt that drives us into the church, or even 00:09:12.759 --> 00:09:15.120 a sense or a desire to earn favor. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:21.199 Well, if I go today, I'll get some biblical brownie points, and that will do me for the 00:09:21.199 --> 00:09:22.599 rest of the week. 00:09:22.599 --> 00:09:31.639 A sense of earning favor or denying guilt can be what drives us in our Christian lives. 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:34.240 It's a battle we face from beginning to end. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:40.000 But Jesus has already earned all the favor that we need. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:49.159 He has already taken, He has assuaged all the guilt that is ours on the cross of Calvary. 00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:57.279 He's taken our sin, massive sin pinned on top of our lives being paid in full. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:09:59.840 God has taken these things. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:05.800 And the resurrection power that Paul speaks of here is the power that we need to know 00:10:05.800 --> 00:10:08.639 and recognize and receive. 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:10.280 We're not left alone. 00:10:10.280 --> 00:10:14.480 The Holy Spirit is with us, as it says in verse 14. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:21.000 And we need to turn again and again and again to the pattern of sound words in faith and 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.600 love that are in Christ Jesus. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:32.960 That's where our foundation lies, that God Himself has put right the wrongs. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:35.560 Be led by these truths. 00:10:35.560 --> 00:10:39.320 May they make and be the foundation of your life. 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:40.320 What is it? 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:42.080 What is it that we have in Jesus Christ? 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:47.320 We have, and I may be repeating myself here, I think I said this last week, but we have 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:49.620 come home. 00:10:49.620 --> 00:10:51.960 That's what the gospel is. 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:55.400 That's what we need to remember, we have come home. 00:10:55.400 --> 00:10:58.879 It's a domestic picture, the gospel. 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:07.700 We have come home to a living relationship with God, our Father, the author of life and 00:11:07.700 --> 00:11:10.800 everything good. 00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:18.040 We have come home because our guilty abandonment of God, our Father, has been justly dealt 00:11:18.040 --> 00:11:21.680 with and punished and paid for by Jesus Christ. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:23.399 God's Son. 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:33.279 So there's this, it's a domestic answer, a divinely domestic answer to this problem that 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:38.599 we have that is domestic at every level. 00:11:38.599 --> 00:11:45.319 We have a heavenly Father sending His Son to deal with our failure and our guilt. 00:11:45.319 --> 00:11:49.120 I'm going to ask you a question, just to keep you awake this morning. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:51.720 What is your picture of God? 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:57.120 Because that will very much depend on whether you feel a failure or how you live your life. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:11:58.120 What's your picture of God? 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:02.799 I'm not going to guess, I'm not going to pretend to come up with lots of answers that I might 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:03.799 know as a minister. 00:12:03.799 --> 00:12:11.519 Just, you think about what is your picture of God? 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:15.279 But at the same, when you think about that, what your picture of God is as a Christian, 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:22.799 I also want you as a Christian to stop trying to earn your favor with Him and look at Him 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:32.279 with the eyes of a poor, smelly, hungry and desperate prodigal Son. 00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:35.879 That's how I want you to look at your Father. 00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:40.839 What do you think the prodigal Son's image of the Father was as He was heading towards 00:12:40.839 --> 00:12:43.559 home in His great parable of the prodigal Son? 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:45.759 What do you think He had in His mind? 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:46.839 What was He going home to? 00:12:46.839 --> 00:12:49.719 Was He going to be in the outhouse? 00:12:49.719 --> 00:12:53.279 Was He going to be in this servant's quarters? 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:59.479 Was He going to be living a 14-hour day in the fields trying to earn His Father's favor 00:12:59.479 --> 00:13:02.079 back and His good books? 00:13:02.079 --> 00:13:05.319 Was it going to be for Him a life of servitude? 00:13:05.319 --> 00:13:08.559 Maybe that was in His mind, but nah. 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:12.839 What do we see when we have the picture of the prodigal Son and the picture of the Father 00:13:12.840 --> 00:13:15.800 that God Himself gives us? 00:13:15.800 --> 00:13:22.280 The prodigal Son sees His loving Daddy tucking His tunic into His belt, making a fool of 00:13:22.280 --> 00:13:29.600 Himself running with open arms and tears in His eyes with the biggest smile you ever saw. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:31.120 The root of true joy. 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:33.160 Say, you're home. 00:13:33.160 --> 00:13:36.399 You were dead and you're alive. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:37.400 Open arms. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:42.759 Now, last week, as a family, we watched a film together. 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:43.759 It was called The Impossible. 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:48.919 And if you've watched that film or seen it, it's a film based on a true story of a tourist 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:55.159 family in Thailand, Christmas 2004, when their beach resort, they were right at the beach 00:13:55.159 --> 00:14:02.319 in beautiful, expensive kind of luxury accommodation, was devastated by the tsunami that hit Thailand 00:14:02.319 --> 00:14:03.319 at that time. 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:10.120 They were separated, mother and eldest son, father and two youngest sons separated. 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:13.640 Each of them, presuming the other was dead. 00:14:13.640 --> 00:14:18.360 The film is a story of them coming together eventually, because it's a true story. 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:22.760 So you know, it's not just a kind of Hollywood makeup thing, but the great moving point 00:14:22.760 --> 00:14:29.760 in the story, the great fulcrum of the story is the father and the three boys meeting up 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:37.240 and then the father and the three boys finding the mother in a hospital bed. 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:43.000 Hugely moving scene when the father with open arms welcomes the sons that he thought were 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:44.919 dead. 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:49.519 And any parent will get that. 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:53.639 And any child with loving parents will get that. 00:14:53.639 --> 00:14:57.399 And even if you are a child without loving parents or a parent who doesn't love their 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:04.079 children, you still recognize and see that deepest longing that's in all of us for home 00:15:04.079 --> 00:15:13.559 and that great longing of love and protection and warmth and acceptance. 00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:18.399 And that is fulfilled when you come home to Christ. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:20.480 That's the message of the gospel. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:22.159 That's the gospel story. 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:23.919 That's the gospel image. 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:26.439 That's the gospel truth. 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:32.200 You can't keep on thinking you're a failure in the light of that, but the great paradox 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:39.360 is, yes, you are a glorious failure and so am I. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:43.160 Gloriously failed just like the prodigal. 00:15:43.160 --> 00:15:51.200 But Christ loves us enough to take our failure and set us free and never let us go. 00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:57.600 That's the foundation that keeps us from thinking and being driven by guilt and being driven 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:04.000 by a desire for acceptance when we are already accepted in Christ because Christ has taken 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:08.360 our failure and we are covered in His righteousness. 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:10.840 This isn't just bare theology. 00:16:10.840 --> 00:16:12.240 Please remember that. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:19.160 This is fundamental to living our lives, not lurching from failure to failure and lurching 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:26.319 from success to success or lurching from seeking to be accepted by God again and again. 00:16:26.319 --> 00:16:28.959 In Christ, it's already happened. 00:16:28.959 --> 00:16:31.799 It's already been done. 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:40.759 We can relax in Him and do consider always when you think of God, if you can, especially 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:45.279 if you're maybe more artistic and more imaginative in your mind. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:52.759 When you go to pray, just think of the Father tucking His tunic into His belt, girding up 00:16:52.759 --> 00:17:00.240 His loins and running to His smelly, poor Son and saying, You are dead and now You're 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:01.240 alive. 00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:03.000 That's the great message. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:04.200 Remember that. 00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:11.440 Remember that picture, that laughing, smiling, happy, joyous picture of the living God. 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:12.440 That's the first point. 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:16.279 The point is I'm terrible at sharing my faith, I'm a failure. 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:22.920 There are many more areas, I'm sure, that we could look at with regard to feeling like 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:23.920 a failure. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:24.920 Certainly I could. 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:30.320 These are two that I think may be significant and two that I've heard many times, partially, 00:17:30.320 --> 00:17:32.320 and I've experienced. 00:17:32.320 --> 00:17:33.320 I'm terrible then. 00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:35.799 I'm a failure at sharing my faith in the workplace. 00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:40.120 Wherever I go, I bomb when it comes to that. 00:17:40.120 --> 00:17:41.120 Why is it? 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:43.559 Why is it that you feel a failure in that area? 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:45.439 I feel a failure in that area. 00:17:45.439 --> 00:17:50.079 Is it because you think sharing your faith is like sharing a formula that you need to 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:52.639 remember and you can never quite remember what it is? 00:17:52.639 --> 00:17:58.039 Is it because you're fearful of not saying the right thing and getting it wrong or sounding 00:17:58.039 --> 00:17:59.039 weird? 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:02.199 You know, the greatest thing we want is to be accepted, isn't it? 00:18:02.199 --> 00:18:05.799 We've dealt with that at one level, but even in this world we want to be accepted. 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:09.559 So when you share your faith, you know it's going to sound weird to people who are not 00:18:09.559 --> 00:18:10.559 Christians. 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:15.679 Is it because you're afraid of not having the answers when people ask difficult questions? 00:18:15.679 --> 00:18:21.639 Or is it because it's not that real? 00:18:21.639 --> 00:18:23.799 I'm not that good with words. 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:28.119 I don't ever believe anyone who I share my faith will accept what I'm saying and will 00:18:28.119 --> 00:18:30.639 come to faith themselves. 00:18:30.639 --> 00:18:34.000 What can we say about that from this chapter as well? 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:39.559 There's a couple of things that we need to be challenged by and consider ourselves. 00:18:39.559 --> 00:18:42.639 The first is conviction. 00:18:42.639 --> 00:18:50.159 In verse 12, you know, Paul says, and as he's speaking to Timothy, he's a mature, older 00:18:50.159 --> 00:18:54.159 leader who's in prison himself, which is why I suffer as I do, but I'm not ashamed for 00:18:54.159 --> 00:18:59.279 I know whom I believe and I'm convinced that he's able to guard until that day, that which 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:01.039 has been entrusted to me. 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:02.919 So there's conviction. 00:19:02.919 --> 00:19:08.079 So conviction, you know, in terms of our lives, living our lives, conviction's really important. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:13.559 In other words, it has to be something in us that's real, that we're convinced by. 00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:19.519 If we are convinced by something, we are more confident then to share it with others. 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:22.879 We know from this chapter that's not always the case, don't we? 00:19:22.879 --> 00:19:28.399 Some, he says, sadly in verse 14, he says, some have abandoned the faith. 00:19:28.399 --> 00:19:34.159 They've turned away, Phygeolus in Hermonogy, he mentions them by name, turned away. 00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:41.840 And we know that that can be the case, and there's a warning there within that chapter. 00:19:41.840 --> 00:19:50.960 But you will turn away, you will turn away if your God is harsh, and if your God is unbelievable, 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:53.200 you know? 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:59.240 If you don't have a prodigal father for your God, then you will be tempted to turn away 00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:02.560 and you will be tempted to abandon him. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:10.399 You will never share your faith if your faith is in a harsh, oppressive God. 00:20:10.399 --> 00:20:12.879 That may be part of the problem, is it? 00:20:12.879 --> 00:20:18.799 But if it is real, and if you're a prodigal, and if you've been accepted in the arms of 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:30.159 the Father, whatever it is that we have done, then that conviction will drive your desire 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:38.759 for others to share that God of grace, and that God of forgiveness, and that God of love. 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:40.759 So conviction. 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:45.600 But also this chapter speaks about sincerity. 00:20:45.600 --> 00:20:51.880 In verse 4, as I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joys 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:56.640 and reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:59.800 your mother Eunice, and now I'm sure dwells in you also. 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:04.399 Which along with conviction, there's sincerity. 00:21:04.399 --> 00:21:09.039 This is a great little verse when we're talking about sharing our faith. 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:16.159 Who was it that brought the influential church planting young leader of the early church to 00:21:16.159 --> 00:21:17.159 faith? 00:21:17.159 --> 00:21:19.960 Who was it? 00:21:19.960 --> 00:21:23.680 It was his mum, and it was his granny. 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:27.480 His mum, Eunice, and his granny Lois. 00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:28.720 Yep. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:34.240 It was mums and grannies who brought this man to faith. 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:40.680 Not professionals, not experts, not seminary educated, not elders or preachers, not Paul, 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:42.039 the great apostle. 00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:44.559 It was his mum and his granny. 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:49.720 They were the ones who shared their faith with Timothy so that he came himself to faith. 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:58.440 And that was because they sincerely believed with conviction what they shared with their 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:01.160 grandson, and grandson. 00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:07.120 A pass down real faith and sincerity. 00:22:07.120 --> 00:22:13.320 Sincereity today and now in our 21st century society, but in the 21st century, sincerity 00:22:13.320 --> 00:22:19.160 counts for a lot as does conviction, and we can all have that. 00:22:19.160 --> 00:22:27.080 Sincereity of what we believe sincerely and seek to act out is tremendously powerful. 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:32.960 And as it was the case in Timothy's family, so as in our families here today, it is those 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:37.000 who are closest to us who are our first responsibility. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:40.919 We're sharing our faith in our lives, in our homes. 00:22:40.919 --> 00:22:44.199 That's a great place to be. 00:22:44.199 --> 00:22:54.240 And people in life, in your workplace, in your seminar room, wherever you are in your neighborhood, 00:22:54.240 --> 00:23:02.079 when they see conviction and when they see sincerity, they will ask about your faith. 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:05.079 They don't really want to be argued into a corner. 00:23:05.079 --> 00:23:07.559 They don't really want to be said, I told you so. 00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:12.480 They don't want to be threatened and they don't want to be shown any kind of self-righteousness, 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:16.759 but when they see conviction and sincerity, that matter. 00:23:16.759 --> 00:23:18.160 And you say, I can't do it. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:20.319 I can't share my faith. 00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:27.599 I think what God's saying here is saying, mums and grannies do it best. 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:31.839 And mums and grannies are just great people. 00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:36.439 And if surely we can learn from mums and grannies about how to share our faith. 00:23:36.439 --> 00:23:39.480 And Paul said, we don't need to be educated in a special way. 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:41.359 We don't need to know ten steps. 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:52.719 We just need conviction and sincerity and remembering that faith for us is a homecoming. 00:23:52.719 --> 00:23:57.919 But if your faith in Jesus Christ isn't a homecoming, if it's not a great place to be, 00:23:57.919 --> 00:24:04.159 if being in Christ for you isn't a great place to be, if you actually love not being with 00:24:04.159 --> 00:24:10.639 Christ more, it's going to be very difficult for you to attract other people to this Christ 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:12.880 you serve. 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:17.680 But we know there's a great temptation in all of us. 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:24.000 And Timothy, obviously there was a sense in which he was tempted because Paul twice says, 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:25.000 not to be ashamed. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:26.960 Don't be ashamed in verse 8. 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:30.720 And then verse 12 he says, I'm not ashamed because I have conviction. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:39.600 Shame and being ashamed is something that's very real to all of us as we battle with professing 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:43.639 to whom we belong, whose we are to whom we belong. 00:24:43.639 --> 00:24:48.959 So as I close then in this section and close altogether, I'm terrible at sharing my faith. 00:24:48.959 --> 00:24:53.279 What's our responsibility along with conviction and sincerity? 00:24:53.279 --> 00:25:01.079 Well I think we have to do what Paul encourages Timothy to do here, is fan into flame. 00:25:01.079 --> 00:25:02.759 Fan into flame the gift of God. 00:25:02.759 --> 00:25:07.959 Now Paul was speaking specifically about Timothy's gift of preaching and leadership 00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:11.680 as he was ordained and his hands laid on him in that special way. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:15.000 But there's a broader application there of fanning into flame, the gift of God that we 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:20.120 all have, our salvation, that is what we have. 00:25:20.120 --> 00:25:26.680 So we need to fan into flame our knowledge of the gospel as we live day to day. 00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:29.039 Remember that picture of the prodigal. 00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:34.319 Remember daily remind yourself, and I need to remind myself, it's not moralism, it's 00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:40.200 not perfectionism, it's not earning favor with God, it's not doing our best, it's not 00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:42.279 quid pro quo. 00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:48.399 It is that he has gifted us in his grace and his love, belonging and acceptance and adoption 00:25:48.399 --> 00:25:49.399 into his family. 00:25:49.399 --> 00:25:53.919 It's a homecoming, it's a feast, it's a family reunion of the best kind. 00:25:53.919 --> 00:25:56.399 Remember that as the heart of the gospel. 00:25:56.399 --> 00:26:02.319 And as you do so remember, and I must also remember to guard your heart. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:11.039 You know, in verse 12 he says, you follow the pattern of sound doctrine, and he's talking 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:15.919 about God, he says, God is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. 00:26:15.919 --> 00:26:20.240 And then verse 14 he says, by the Holy Spirit guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:25.519 So there's a double guarding going on, is that God's guarding us, we guard the gospel 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:27.480 in our hearts and in our lives. 00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:32.000 Do what he's doing, he'll not let go, let us not let go. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:35.960 There needs to be, I'm going to speak about this tonight, about persevering, keeping going, 00:26:35.960 --> 00:26:36.960 pressing on. 00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:42.480 And as we share our faith, learn to use, is it kind of more maybe practical, maybe? 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:48.200 And you have the opportunity to do so, learn to do so in terminology and language that 00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:50.160 people will associate. 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:54.880 That means when we get, it means knowing how people tick, it means knowing what their fears 00:26:54.880 --> 00:26:55.880 are. 00:26:55.880 --> 00:27:01.440 The basic human needs, prodigal needs, the needs for being home, their longings, they 00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:06.440 ditch the formulas, ditch the four or five steps to becoming a Christian, the jargons 00:27:06.440 --> 00:27:08.960 that sometimes we use. 00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:14.320 There's Bible concepts that we need to explain to people that they maybe don't have any understanding. 00:27:14.320 --> 00:27:16.600 Go a step back. 00:27:16.600 --> 00:27:21.360 Remember that the many people we will share our faith to, we're talking about a God, Son 00:27:21.360 --> 00:27:25.600 Jesus, it's not easy for them if they don't believe there's a God. 00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:29.279 God, Son may sound brilliant, but if they don't believe in God, then that's a problem 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:31.759 for them to believe in God's Son. 00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:37.920 So somehow we need to step, sometimes start further back and recognize where people are. 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:43.799 And it's not just a case of plowing out things in a formulaic way. 00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:47.399 Own our own mistakes. 00:27:47.399 --> 00:27:49.240 Ask for forgiveness. 00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:50.279 Tell people you don't know. 00:27:50.279 --> 00:27:51.559 We don't have all the answers. 00:27:51.559 --> 00:27:54.160 Be willing to learn and understand. 00:27:54.160 --> 00:27:56.920 Love people well. 00:27:56.920 --> 00:27:58.039 Love them well. 00:27:58.039 --> 00:28:00.839 That is the greatest pre-evangelistic message there is. 00:28:00.839 --> 00:28:03.200 If you want a formula, that's it. 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:09.079 Love people well with open arms and a wide smile, with obvious love. 00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:11.319 Pray for your friends. 00:28:11.319 --> 00:28:13.519 Pray for the friends that you're around. 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:15.799 There will be opportunities. 00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:20.559 Every day, every single day that you're in contact with another person, you're telling 00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:22.879 them a little bit more about who you are. 00:28:22.879 --> 00:28:27.680 By the way, you answer them, your responses, your attitudes, your behavior. 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:34.759 Every day we're unpacking a little bit more to people about who we are. 00:28:34.759 --> 00:28:38.039 And is Jesus ever there? 00:28:38.039 --> 00:28:39.920 Do we ever unpack that? 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:46.640 Or is it so deep within us that it will take 37 years, 18 days and 19 hours before anyone 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:51.759 will ever know that we belong to Jesus? 00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:57.560 Who is the main character in the book of our life whose chapters are being unfolded as people 00:28:57.559 --> 00:29:03.440 read them in our workplace and in our neighborhood and in our families and in our homes? 00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:07.440 And in our failure, take it to the living God. 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:12.599 Don't always feel that we need to be in the defensive with people about our faith. 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:15.639 Ask questions back. 00:29:15.639 --> 00:29:21.440 Find out about the thinking behind their questions, the fears and the assumptions, the shaky philosophy 00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:32.120 that sometimes they are pinning their hopes on and do so with love and with tears. 00:29:32.120 --> 00:29:35.840 We can't change their hearts, and we're not asked to change their hearts. 00:29:35.840 --> 00:29:44.920 We're simply asked to do what Timothy's granny and mum did. 00:29:44.920 --> 00:29:49.360 And remember that family, as I think is exposed here and throughout the New Testament, is 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:53.359 the best environment to share your faith. 00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:57.240 Your natural family and also your spiritual family. 00:29:57.240 --> 00:30:01.559 So we are adopted into God's family, and that's not insignificant. 00:30:01.559 --> 00:30:10.159 This is a church which is part of God's family, and that is a powerful place for Christ. 00:30:10.159 --> 00:30:12.359 This should be a lovely community. 00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:13.359 It is. 00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:18.559 And it can be more of a lovely community of God's people. 00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:20.440 Okay, I'm just about to finish here. 00:30:20.440 --> 00:30:27.519 But it's powerful, and it's to be a reflection of God's vision for society, okay? 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:32.759 A place of prodigality. 00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:37.759 A place where we accept people. 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:42.919 And we don't ask the questions as to whether they meet our mark or whether they reach our 00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:50.000 standard, a place of worship, purpose, forgiveness, debt, support, and diversity. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:52.640 And we battle to make it like that. 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:57.880 And we struggle and we fight to make it like that with the grace of God in our lives. 00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:03.840 And we share Christ together in the intentionality of our friendships, and we pray for one another, 00:31:03.840 --> 00:31:04.840 and we love one another. 00:31:04.840 --> 00:31:10.720 You see that love just oozing out of this chapter as he is concerned for Timothy and 00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:16.200 prays for him with tears longing to see him, with joy sad about those who have abandoned 00:31:16.200 --> 00:31:19.000 him and praying and praying and praying. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:25.720 May it be that we build each other up, and in so do, so do we experience real joy in 00:31:25.720 --> 00:31:28.400 our community as Christians. 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:35.680 And that sense of not only has God accepted us and loved us in the prodigality of His 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:46.720 grace, but therefore we do the same with one another by the impossibility of that grace. 00:31:46.720 --> 00:31:52.560 And if you're not a Christian, then I would ask you to consider with all your heart that 00:31:52.560 --> 00:32:00.240 picture of the Father, because if you're not a Christian, you're separate like the prodigal 00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:08.759 son was separate, distanced away from rejecting the Father's verdict on your heart and His 00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:11.720 solution of grace and goodness. 00:32:11.720 --> 00:32:18.480 So do consider Him and His love solemnly and seriously and openly. 00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:20.359 Let's bow our heads and pray. 00:32:20.359 --> 00:32:26.359 Father God, we ask and pray that you would bless your word to us and our thoughts and 00:32:26.359 --> 00:32:30.279 considerations around this theme. 00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:37.839 We thank you that the Bible doesn't present to us paragons of virtue unattainable believers 00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:47.559 who were high and lofty and free from failure, but even the apostles, the church planters, 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:52.879 those who you chose to use, even when you think back to the disciples and their doubts 00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:59.000 and their arguing and their separation from one another and from Jesus, all the things 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:07.600 they did remind us that if we regard ourselves as failures in a way that will paralyze us, 00:33:07.600 --> 00:33:09.440 we have not understood the gospel. 00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:15.920 May we meditate and may we luxuriate in your grace today, and may we take our failures to 00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:26.080 you and move on and grant us the grace of conviction and sincerity and help us, Lord, 00:33:26.080 --> 00:33:33.320 we pray, to fan into flame the great gift of salvation that has been given to us on 00:33:33.320 --> 00:33:36.200 a day-to-day basis as we move forward. 00:33:36.200 --> 00:33:44.000 Help us to renew our praise and worship as we sing together, our closing song in Jesus' 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:45.000 name. 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:46.000 Amen.