Stir Up Your Gifts
Tom Shrader examines Paul's charge to Timothy to kindle afresh his spiritual gifts, emphasizing that God gives every believer unique gifts to be used with power, love, and discipline rather than timidity. He explores how God's grace in salvation frees us to serve boldly without shame, trusting Him with all aspects of our lives including past failures, present circumstances, and future outcomes.
“God saved you in spite of you, not because of you.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: CBCC August 2008
Recorded: 2008 at Cannon Beach Conference Center
Duration: 1 hr 4 min
Themes: gifts, courage, trust, forgiveness, service, faith, surrender, boldness, struggling parent, worried about children, difficult marriage, job uncertainty, feeling timid, new believer, facing failure, needing boldness
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:6-12, Daniel 3:17-18, Hebrews 11:35, Romans 1:16-17, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Philippians 3:12, Matthew 5:16, Titus 3
Theological Themes: spiritual gifts, charismata, sanctification, providence, grace, stewardship, biblical trust, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
There's nothing I can do about it. I don't lay awake at night trying to unpack it. Why? I've entrusted Him with my past. I've been forgiven. I will meet people periodically who say, "Oh I just can't forgive myself." I don't get that. If He forgave you, what is it you don't forgive? "Well you don't know how bad I've been." I don't really care. It doesn't really matter. He doesn't care. Can you get it? He saved you in spite of you, not because of you.
What have you entrusted to Him? Well that kid. It may just be that I'm getting older, but it seems I'm spending and encountering more time with people who've got kids who are just out of control. And it's so painful, isn't it? Somebody has said, once you have a kid, it's like there's a piece of your heart that's out there in the world walking around. And you got these kids and these kids aren't responding the way you'd like them to. I've entrusted Him with that.
I'm in this marriage and it just stinks. Well, I've entrusted Him to that. I've got this job situation. Now, I want to go just a little bit deeper. That does not mean that the kid's going to come to know the Lord, or the marriage is going to work, or the job is going to be fulfilled. Doesn't mean that. Doesn't mean you're going to get the promotion. I've entrusted Him to take care of that. That's His worry, not mine.
Entrusting Doesn't Guarantee Outcomes
Doesn't mean I'm apathetic, and doesn't mean I don't work. It just means the results are up to Him. There is a wonderful scene in Daniel chapter 3, where they are taking Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they're throwing them into the fire. And the king is giving them one more shot. Nebuchadnezzar gives them one more chance, and says, "Just deny your faith, worship this idol. And if you do, then you're spared."
And they said, "We aren't going to do it." And Nebuchadnezzar says, "What God can save you?" And here's the response, Daniel 3:17 and 18. "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace, the blazing fire. He'll deliver us out of your hand." Here's what I love, is verse 18: "But even if He doesn't."
One of the things I don't like about this story is these guys get out of the fire. Because now, we get in our mind, "Oh my gosh, if we just do this, or say this, or pray this, or act this way, God is somehow now obligated to turn things around, so they work out for what we want." That is not what Paul's saying.
Do you remember that backdrop of 2nd Timothy? He's in prison. He's going to die. They're going to kill him. I love Hebrews 11. And it's all these stories of all these people, and these wonderful things that are going on.
The Two Sides of Faith
In fact, I'll just flip there. And in the story you go, it's Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Sarah, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and Rahab, and all these guys. The author of Hebrews says this, and we'll close. "All this He said, who by faith conquered kingdoms, and performed acts of righteousness, and obtained promises, and shut the mouths of lions, and quenched the power of fire, and escaped the edge of the sword. From weakness they were made strong, and they became mighty in war. Women received back their dead by resurrection."
Here's my favorite part of that passage, verse 35b: "Others were tortured, experienced mocking and scourging, chained and imprisonment, stoned and sawed in two, put to death."
Here's what Paul writes to Timothy. He said, "There is this God, Timothy, who saved us, and who called us, and who has given us grace. And I'm not ashamed, I suffer for Him. But I know this, I know who I believe. I believe Him. And I know this, He is able to guard all that I've entrusted to Him."
Our Faithful God
That's your God. That's what, again, I'm reminded of over and over again. That's what I saw in the book of Ecclesiastes. Not that everything turns out the way we want, but everything turns out the way that God wants in our life. And we know God is able to cause all things to work together for good. That's the promise.
Paul writes to this young man, Timothy, and he says, "Timothy, here's this, kindle afresh the gift. You've got a power, not of timidity, a spirit of timidity, but of power, and love, and discipline. Don't be ashamed that." And He writes those same words, really, to you and me. You have a gift. Use it. God gave you, not a spirit of shyness, but of power, and love, and discipline.
And you know what? This is important to cling to. Everything you've entrusted to Him, your very soul, He's able to guard. You don't have to doubt, or worry. Sometimes it feels like maybe He's lost track, huh? Sometimes it goes like, "Man, there's seven billion people. Maybe He just missed this one today. Where was He? Where was He on the 9-11's of our life?"
Well, right where He was on 9-10, on the throne, in absolute control. I don't understand it, but He does. And He uses those things, even those yucky, stinky things that we would never have selected for our lives, and He uses them for our good, and His glory. A wonderful truth.
Sound. Isn't that a great sound? It just is. There's that kind of bluegrass, and then I mean, I really do love just that quiet. Just you and the guitar, or a string instrument, mandolin, or something would be just beautiful. So, thank you so much for sharing that. Actually, that works into some of what we're going to talk about tonight.
So, we're glad you're here, and if you have Bibles, why don't you open them to 2nd Timothy. We're going to hang in this book a little bit for these six sessions that we have together here at our time here at Cannon Beach.
The Context of Paul's Letter
We started this morning with a little bit of history, not a ton. These are guesses, but we think they're pretty close, that Paul is probably about 66 years old, Timothy about 36 years old, when he writes this book. Paul is writing to his protege, Timothy, and he's actually preparing Timothy for ministry.
I mean, you could even probably ask, why are we studying this book, and hopefully it'll become apparent to you. There's certainly within the context some strict interpretation of understanding. He's writing as senior pastor to junior pastor, but there's so many things that we can learn from this and really begin to apply in our own life.
The Need for Mentors and Proteges
We said this morning, and I really do want to challenge you with it, is you need to be in a situation where you have a mentor and a protege, and it's a difficult place to be. Even as I say that, I am lacking one. When Larry died, there was just this gap in my heart that really has never been replaced. He was absolutely unique to me, and so I don't have that singular mentor, but I do have a series of guys that I use for specific areas that I'm dealing with.
So I have those guys. I have a group of guys that are pastors. They have much more experience than I do, and I hang with them once a month as a group, and then there's a couple of them that I like a lot better than the others, and so I'll hang with them a little more than that. And then I have a whole bunch of young guys around. I love that.
This summer, one of the things I've done at church is freed myself up, so the org chart now has only one line to me. This is kind of interesting. The only area that I'm responsible is I'm the director of women's ministries at church, believe it or not, and all the other lines no longer go to me, and what I've tried to do with that free time, because my besetting sin is laziness. I'm really lazy. Like today, I don't know. Y'all probably went for walks or hikes. I took a two-hour and 45-minute nap, and I could go and sleep some more right now. In fact, I'm getting ready to allow some of you to be able to nap right here.
One of the things I was afraid I would do is with this free time I would waste it, so all summer I've had my calendar scheduled with some high school students and some college students and some young men and women who I'll just go over in the middle of our campus. There's a little cafe, and I'll go over and we'll have coffee, and we'll just talk, and they all have my email address, and they're all free to call, and I really want to have influence in their lives. The younger, the better, and to have that opportunity. Well, you need that in your life as well. Hopefully you got that this morning.
Paul's Forward Focus
There's this idea here, I think now as Paul turns the corners, I said really as he's dying, you would think he'd think about the good old days. He does not do that. He only spends really verses 3, 4, and 5 of chapter 1 talking about any sort of history, and now he jumps right into it.
We got that this morning in verse 6. He said, "And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and discipline."
The Call to Keep Gifts Ablaze
Paul is writing, let me read to you from the message. I like this again. Eugene Peterson, verse 6. He said, "And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed, keep that ablaze. God doesn't want us to be shy with His gifts, but bold and loving and sensible."
Four Key Commands Throughout 2 Timothy
There are, and I circled four of them, there's probably more here. There's kind of four key verses that Paul has peppered through this book. Let's look at them.
Chapter 1, verse 8. Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me as prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God."
Chapter 2, verse 15. Again, he's writing to this pastor, but it applies to us as well. "Be diligent and present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth."
Chapter 3, verse 14. Before he gets to this wonderful passage we talk about all the time, verse 16 and 17, he said this. "You, however, continue in the things which you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you've learned them."
And then in chapter 4, verse 2, he writes this. "Preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season. Approve, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction."
The Central Theme
In all four of those, in chapter 1, verse 8, he talks about the power, the suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. Chapter 2, verse 15, he talks about the idea of handling the word of truth. Chapter 3, verse 14, he talks about the things you've learned, and that again would be the things you've learned as you've seen them and heard them. Again, he's talking about the gospel, and then in chapter 4, verse 2, he's talking about, "preach the word."
Paul is communicating to Timothy, and he's giving him something that has been absolutely central in Paul's life. Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 3, verse 12, he said, "I haven't already figured all this out." He said, "I just press on," and he said, "here's what drives me. I press on to lay hold of that, for which I was laid hold of, of Christ."
Jesus. There's a sense there of purposefulness. It feels like every time I use the word purpose now, I owe Rick Warren ten bucks, but he didn't invent the word. There is a purposefulness. God laid a hold of Paul for a reason, and Paul says, now that's what drives me.
Brethren, I don't regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but here's what he says, this one thing I do. Paul tells us in other places that he says, I preach Christ and Christ crucified. Now, it's really important to get a grasp of this. Paul is saying there's lots of other things. We know he talks about parent-child relationships, slaves, masters. He talks about all sorts of things, problems within the church, all this. But the driving message, the context that moves Paul is this thing called the gospel.
Paul's Challenge to Timothy
Paul says, here's what I want you to do, Timothy. I want you to press on. I want you to kindle afresh the gift of God which lies in you. Now, I understand the context here. I think, how to interpret Scripture, generally. And the immediate context is Paul to Timothy. But the application, I think, is fair to place to us as well. That Paul says to us, I want you to kindle afresh, to stir up the gift that God has given you.
He says here, through the laying on of hands, there was that time, there was nothing that was transmitted supernaturally there. That is simply Paul and another group of guys coming around Timothy and saying, Timothy, we identify with you. We are validating and confirming the call that we think God's placed in your life. We're ready. We're going to plant a church in January. And, of course, part of that will be when we send Luke out. We'll gather together and we'll lay hands on him. And there's no supernatural power that we're conveying to him at that moment. That is simply us affirming his call.
God Has Given You a Gift
Paul's saying to Timothy, I want you to kindle afresh, to stir this up, this gift, this gift that God has given you. Do you see that? It's a gift of God. That's what I want to talk about a little bit as we start here tonight. Not that God has given Paul a gift, though He has, or that He's given Timothy a gift, though He has. He's given you a gift.
It drives me nuts when we read this book and we think, boy, that Timothy's really something special. Look at that Paul. No, there's nothing extraordinary about these guys at all. These are the guys who God has called, and they are living a life that is the normal Christian life. This is the way we're to live. Stir up afresh the gift that God has given you.
The Gift of the Spirit and Gifts of the Spirit
So as we work our way through the scripture, we'll see this idea of the gift of the Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit itself. At the moment that God saves us, the Spirit has invaded our life. It's the Spirit itself that opens your eyes and allows you to see the truth. So there's one day where you're sitting there, and you're listening to the gospel, and you don't believe it, you don't believe it, you don't believe it, and then all of a sudden, bam, it makes sense. What happened? Well, the Spirit of God comes into your life and takes a heart of stone and turns it into a heart of flesh.
So when somebody says to you, have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Your answer is, yes, I'm a Christian. That's the Christian experience. Every Christian has been baptized with the Holy Spirit. I know how that is typically used with something down the road or something secondary, but that's an inappropriate use of that term. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is God's identification with us, and we all receive the Spirit of God. So that's the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But there are also the gifts of the Holy Spirit. One author, and I think this is kind of a hybrid, I think I took a little Ray Stedman and a little Chuck Swindoll and a little of myself, and I wrote this. A spiritual gift is a special God-given ability which is sovereignly imparted to each believer on the basis of grace by the Holy Spirit. So a spiritual gift is something that is given sovereignly by the Holy Spirit. So for whatever reason, He gave you this gift and not that gift. He gives the gifts as He sees fit and He sees necessary. They're imparted to each believer. Everyone who says Jesus is Lord has a spiritual gift.
What's the purpose of the spiritual gift? It's for serving and edifying the body of Christ according to the glory of God.
Everyone Has a Gift and Using It Brings Joy
Let me give you a couple things here about spiritual gifts. Everybody's got one, and when you use them, there will be joy in your life. I got a call one day from a guy who said, I'd like to meet with you, and I knew him, and these are the old days. I don't do this anymore, but I used to never ask, why do you want to meet? I would never ask. It was just like, you want to meet, we'll meet. But this guy said, here you go. He said, I'm gonna tell you why I want to meet, because I want you to be thinking about it. I want you to help me figure out what's my spiritual gift. I said, all right.
I hung up. I said, this is perfect, because here's the deal. I taught a class on Wednesday night. This guy would show up early. He would get the air conditioning on, the coffee made, the water out, the chairs set up. He would get a music stand. I like a music stand, or this. This is fine. Either one of these work for me. Something like this, and a stool. He would have the stool for me. He'd have a little bottle of water. He would be there to make sure everybody had exactly what they needed. This guy's got the gift of service.
So we sit down for lunch, and we order, and he said, I've really been wrestling with this man, and I just want you to help me figure out my spiritual gift. I said, well, I've really been praying about this. No, I really hadn't, because I didn't need to, because I had the answer. And I thought about it greatly, struggled, wrestled with the Lord. And I think you have the gift of service. And he said, No, it's not that. No, why? I said, it's the gift of service!
I don't have the gift of service. He said, oh you have the gift of service! You get there early, turn on the air conditioning, set up the chairs, you get the water, you do the thing, you get the music stand, you got the stool, you got the gift of service. He said, I don't have the gift of service. I said, you do have the gift of service, and he said, I don't have the gift of service. And I said, why do you say that?
Now listen to this answer, and he said, it can't be the gift of service, because I enjoy it so much. So somehow we think—think about how distorted that thinking is—that if God's going to use me in some special way, oh it's going to be awful. I'm going to hate every minute of it. Oh, this will be terrible. God's going to ask me to do something.
God Gives You What Energizes You
No, God's going to give you that thing. What's that thing that jacks you up? And everybody's different. Last night, I met the guys that, you know, one is from Taiwan, and then the other is now in Afghanistan. I have no interest in that. Zero. None. And I don't even feel guilty about it.
I don't have any sense of adventure. I don't care. I don't really want to go. If I need a passport, I'm not that interested in it. Here's my approach, okay? Here's my answer to that. I have the Discovery Channel. I don't need to go. I don't care. I really don't.
And I don't mean to be flippant, but when you're like, here, come and see our ruins. Your ruins are in a trash. The only Colosseum I want to see is down there with SC playing UCLA. That's the only Colosseum I want to go. I'm just not that way. Now I'm glad that God put on this earth people who care.
It's like missions. My mission field, I really feel, is right where I'm placed. I don't have a passion for Morocco, but God has people that have that passion. There are these gifts, and you will have, when you begin to use that gift, you will have joy.
Gifts Are Different from Talents
I want to make sure here you understand we aren't talking about talents. I was thinking about this as related to music, and I see it all the time. Let's say Chris. Here's Chris. Chris is a really nice guy, and we want to get Chris in the band. What are we going to do with him?
He can't really play the keyboard because that takes a certain level of expertise, and he has too much personality to be a bass player. So he can't do that. This requires a level of expertise, so we invent this. Here's what Chris does. I was watching him really closely. Here was one of his key moves tonight.
And boy, when he really wants to light it up, it's amazing. That is amazing giftedness. Wow! Wow! I mean, where do you find people like that, honestly? They're not a dime a dozen, those guys. I'm not talking about talent like that. I'm talking about a gift. God's given you a spiritual gift.
How to Recognize Your Spiritual Gift
Now, I want you to find your spiritual gift. Here's why. I'm totally selfish, because we need your gift in the body of Christ. That's the way God has made it. It's not good for you to sit on the sidelines. How do you recognize your spiritual gift?
Let me give you a clue here. You've got to understand what those gifts are, so you're going to have to go and do a little bit of study. You have to go into 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, 13, 14. You're going to have to dig this out. What are these spiritual gifts?
And I will tell you this, think about your desires. What is it you want to do? Dream, man. What is that thing that when you do it, at the end of the day, you're pooped, but it's a good poop. And you go, you know what? And then people say to you, hey, when you do that, man, you are there. You're in the zone. God uses that.
Be Willing to Serve and Be Honest
And then be willing to yield to that, to serve. Listen and be honest. So let's say, here you go. You go, you come and you're at our church. You say, I think I get the gift of teaching. Okay. So we give you a classroom and 50 people.
And then after a week, you got 40. And after two weeks, you get 30. And after three weeks, you got 20. After four weeks, you got 10. And then it's like you and your spouse. Okay. Here's good news. You've got the gift of disbursement. Okay. You didn't get the gift of teaching. You didn't get it.
And there's nothing wrong with that. Some got it, some don't. You don't. And that's good news because now we can go, okay, we can take that off the list. Be ready to serve. Be patient. Grow. And all of a sudden, here's what you're going to experience. You're going to see God use you in a significant way in the body of Christ.
Give Up Gift Envy
And give up this whole gift envy thing. I have a thing that I do all the time when I go to the bookstore. I go to the bookstore a lot. And almost every time I'll go to the religion or Christianity section, and I'll pick up a Chuck Swindoll book. And I'll open the first page where in like two-point font, they'll list every book and pamphlet and letter and note and email that Chuck Swindoll's ever written. So that was the first page, just filled with his stuff.
And I do that for this reason. I'm never going to do that. Somebody, I hear that all the time. Why don't you write a book? I don't write my mother. Why would I write a book? It's a lot of work. I've tried it a couple of times. It's a lot of work.
I've been thinking about it for my 60th birthday, writing a book, calling it Life is a Rerun and things that I've learned. But then I go, you know, I think I'll watch TV. It's just a lot of work. So I look at all this stuff Swindoll's done, and I'm going, my gosh, I'm never going to do that.
And you know what, here's what's really helpful. And then you go to Borders and you say, do you know Chuck Swindoll? And I go, I don't know him. I go back to what I said last night. Just strive to be who God made you to be, which is in all likelihood, very average. Be content with the ministry and the giftedness He's given you.
I watch my girls right now, and Haley has Brayden's, I don't know what he is, I don't know, two and three quarters, and Yale's going to be a year this month. And then Sarah
has Gracie who's a year and a half plus, and Reagan who's four months. These lives are consumed with these kids. I want you to understand, that's as valuable a ministry as what I do in here, or what these guys do in front. We tend to do that and go, "Boy, that's more important." No, God's wired you and He's placed you in a significant place. That's what Paul's saying to Timothy: stir this baby up.
God has not given us this spirit of timidity. It's interesting here, it's in an aorist active indicative tense. It's saying something that happened in the past that God's done here. God didn't give you that spirit. He gave you this gift to use wherever He's placed you and to understand the importance of the moment in where you are.
The Thankless Work of Ministry
When I watch my girls, they've fundamentally taken chunks of their life and put them on hold so they can minister to these children God's given them. If you're a young mom here, let me just give you a little encouragement, because nobody else is going to. You have a job that is absolutely thankless. Absolutely thankless.
All my kids do all day is feed them and move them around and change their diaper. I know this: there's never been one time where the kid's going, "Wow, man, what a diaper, Mom. That's a good one. Look at that. That's never going to come loose. That's rock solid." And it's endless because I've watched them do it. They'll change a diaper. We got a poopy diaper. They'll change a diaper. That one will go away and they start taking care of this one. About the time they're fixing this one, the other one will come running across the living room. It just goes and goes and goes, doesn't it?
Well, you know what? That's not why you're doing it. You're not doing it for the recognition. Did you get it? It's sovereignly given gifts.
The Spirit God Has Given Us
God did not give us a spirit of timidity. What did He give us? He gave us a spirit of—do you see the words in there?—power and love and discipline. How are you supposed to live? Well, not the spirit of timidity. Timidity has this idea of fear.
It's interesting that when you look at Paul writing in 1 Corinthians, Paul's writing to this church and he says, "You know, when I came to speak with you, I came with great fear and trembling." But apparently there's something in Timothy's life. We don't know, by the way, here, if he's warning him, saying, "Watch out for this," or even addressing something that's already happened. My suspicion is it's a little bit of both, probably.
God didn't give us a spirit of timidity. He gave us this spirit of power. It carries with it the idea of something that's productive. Energy, raw energy. You've heard it before. It's the Greek word dunamis from which we get the word dynamite. The problem with that illustration is that's power that's destructive. That's not the word Paul's using here. That's not the connotation that he has. It's a power that's constructive. It's a power to lift up.
He gave us also this idea of discipline, literally a secure mind, a mind that is rightly prioritized.
The Need for Triage in Life
I went through a couple of years ago a Civil War phase, and I just read a ton of stuff on the Civil War. It was a fascinating topic. At the end of the Civil War, the state of Louisiana, I think it was in 1865, one-third of the state budget was dedicated toward artificial limbs. That's the massive destruction about this. I'm not in any way trying to minimize, for example, something like the war in Iraq where you have, what, 4,000 people who've died, and that's tragic. I got it, and I'm not minimizing that. But you had 55,000 people die at Gettysburg. You had as many people die at Gettysburg as you had die in all of Vietnam.
One of the things as you read is that the slaughter was so intensive. As you read these stories, and bullets are flying, and they're coming, and they were wicked. I mean, these little pellets would come, and they would just come and shatter limbs. One of the things you read about is that there was always, in these medical centers, this place kind of a triage. So they would bring a guy in, and they would look at him and say, "No, he's really badly wounded. Put him over there." "Yes, there's a wound there. We think we can fix it. Let's go over here and work on it."
What they were doing is saying, "Listen, he's really serious. I don't think we can save him. We have a finite amount of energy that we can expend, so we have to put it in the right area. We have to triage these things."
Here's what you need to do: You've got to triage your life. You've got to prioritize the things in your life. You've got a finite amount of energy.
The Impossibility of Being "Too Busy"
Here's what I hear from people all the time. Here's what I— "You know, Tom, we'd love to do this, but we are what? Too busy." Too busy. That's impossible. You can't be too busy. There is no way that God has given you something. Now think with me: there's no way God's given you something to do and not given you the time to do it. That makes absolutely no sense.
If you're too busy, then you've either overestimated what God's given you to do, or He's given you this, you understand it, and you've let other things creep into your life. You have to prioritize your life. That's what this idea discipline has. Life is really busy, and lots of things come in there. We are way, way, way too busy making life way, way, way too complicated, so we can't get into the things that are important.
What Really Matters at the End
Let me tell you about when you're dying. When you're laying on your deathbed, here's what you're going to talk about. I can tell you: faith, family, and friends. That's it.
Susan and I were up in the Chateau at Lake Louise, which is pretty good duty. If somebody calls and said, "I got an assignment for you. It's at the Chateau at Lake Louise"—go. We are there, and I'm speaking to a group. It was a couples group, and there's 1,500 people in this thing. Big room. Jammed. Room's jammed. I make this point the first night: faith, family, and friends. Well, the guys that
The Power of God's Gifts
God didn't give us a spirit or an attitude of timidity, but of power. It's constructive, effective, efficient, energizing power, and of discipline. A life that's prioritized.
I took a sociology class in college in 1968. I took it again in 1969. I wasn't much of a student. And people, I tell this to the students that they think I'm making this up. Here's what they said. The computer—they were just introducing the computer. And they said, with the advancements and development of the computer, by the year 2000, there'll be such a proliferation of the computer that there'll be nothing left for us to do. That the work week will shrink to 32 hours. That for us to maintain anything close to full employment, we're going to have to shrink the work week back. And the biggest issue that Americans are going to face is what to do with all their free time. That's what we studied in 1969.
Freedom or Slavery to Technology
Here's what I've discovered. There's nobody who's been freed by these things. These are an absolute curse. I got a phone and it drives people crazy. I don't answer it. I got a cell phone and I'll look at the number and go, I don't know that number. I don't need this. It's a tool there for me. And I have a phone that you call out on and call in on. You can't take pictures. You can't make coffee. It doesn't open your garage door. It's just like a phone.
So when you land, we're going to get a plane Wednesday at 3. When we get to Phoenix, here's what they're going to say. Well, I was going to say when we get to Phoenix at 5:30, but probably closer to 10. But when we get back to Phoenix, here's what they're going to say. We've landed and now you may use your phone. And I mean the first thing they'll do is, we're here now. I'm getting my bag. I'm walking down the aisle. No one cares, man. Just go.
But when all that comes in, when you go down here and you go down to get some taffy at Bruce's and your thing starts to shake and you pull it out and there's an email wanting to know what's going on, that's not freedom. These are tools that are there for you to use. Not for you to serve them. We are no more free because of this technology. Now, it's got great advantages to it. But you got to get priorities in your life, man.
God's Spirit of Power, Discipline, and Love
And then he says, it's power, discipline, and love. It's that right attitude toward God. That's what Paul wants us. That's what he's saying to Timothy. That's how we're supposed to live.
Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, His prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the power according to the gospel. Verse 9, suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, look at this, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our words, but according to His own purpose and the grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. Three times in verse 9 you see that pronoun us on the receiving end of this. God saved us and He called us and He's granted us.
Let me read verses 7, 8, and 9 from Eugene Peterson. God doesn't want you to be shy with His gifts, but bold, loving, and sensible. So don't be embarrassed to speak up for our master or for me as prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going after all by the power of God who first saved us and then called us with a holy calling. Listen to this paraphrase. We had nothing to do with it. It was all His idea, a gift prepared for us in Christ long before we knew anything about it. That's what grace is.
The Power of the Gospel
Here, keep your finger right there in 1st Timothy. Turn to the left to the book of Romans. Paul's writing this magnificent book to this church at Rome. It's a book that we constantly talk about the doctrinal aspects of it and is rich in doctrine, but it has such practical application as well. Look at chapter 1, verse 16. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek as well. For it was the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, and it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. That was Martin Luther's verse, by the way. It was Luther who said when he unpacked Romans chapter 1, verse 17, the gates of heaven swung open and I walked in.
Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Very similar again to this idea he has in 2nd Timothy when he says that I want you to not be ashamed of our testimony. What's the gospel? It's the power of God for salvation. What does that mean? That word salvation means to be rescued or delivered. There is salvation or deliverance in the gospel.
Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves
Here's what we need to do, and this is a new concept for some of you, I'll bet. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. We get the idea that we need to hear the gospel, respond to the gospel. Now I'm in. I've believed. I've been saved, rescued, delivered. But we need to be reminded of that every day. I need to preach the gospel to myself every day because God saved me. See how this ties together? For a reason, for a purpose. He delivered me. I strive to take hold of that for which I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Our relationship...
Our Faith is Not a Private Matter
Your relationship with God is a deeply personal matter. But here's what Paul's saying: it's not a private matter. This is really huge.
In 1960, I was raised Catholic. Catholic grade school, high school, and college. I was raised by the most misnamed organization of people God ever put on the planet. They called themselves the Sisters of Mercy. They were not familiar with the concept.
In 1960, if you were a young Catholic kid, there was one thing that was significant in 1960. John Kennedy was running for president. Because as a Catholic, the idea was, we'll never amount to anything. We have no shot. And here was this amazingly handsome man.
I was reading something the other day on Kennedy, and it was the first time I've read it. In 1960, John Kennedy came to Davenport. I went down to see Him, and His hair was this reddish tan hair. You see it as brown. It wasn't. It was very red. Somebody was talking about it in an article the other day. It's this red golden hair. Striking man. Very thin.
Kennedy's Houston Speech
Well, He had a problem. It's the same problem, a little different flavor that Mitt Romney had this year. So Kennedy went to Houston. I remember this. I was 11. He went to Houston, and He met with these Protestants. And we never had anything to do with Protestants. We knew that they weren't part of the chosen group.
So He went to these guys, and here's what He said. He said, "I will never let my religion affect the way I govern." Which, by the way, was a true statement. And I remember as a kid going, that doesn't sound right. That doesn't make sense. Here's this religion that was so, I mean, when I was a kid, so ingrained in me, such a key part of who I am and how I think, and it's not going to affect the way I govern.
Can you imagine sitting down, let's say you're sitting down, and you know that you're interviewing this guy, and He goes to East Valley Bible Church, and you're saying, "Well, tell me about yourself." "Well, you know, I'm married, and I got a couple of kids, and I like to play golf, and I like to read." "And tell me about your background." "Well, I had a successful business, and this and that." "Well, tell me about, I know you from somewhere. Where is it?" "Well, I'm not really sure. East Valley Bible Church." "You go to East Valley Bible Church?" "Yes, I do. But I want you to understand something. I go to East Valley Bible Church, but I want you to know my relationship with Christ will not affect the job I do for you."
That makes absolutely no sense. The greatest asset you have in the marketplace is your relationship with Christ.
Stir Up Your Gifts
That's what Paul's saying. Stir this up, man. Don't be ashamed of this. Don't be embarrassed by this. What separates you from everyone else is the living God who dwells in you and manifests Himself.
Isn't that what Jesus said? He said this. You're the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world. Let your light shine in such a way, Matthew 5:16, that men see your good works. In other words, there's supposed to be something visibly different about you and me. Not odd. Different. Unique.
In a world that says, truth is a relative thing, we come along and say, no, that's not true at all. In a world that's lost its moral compass, we come along with answers. That's one of the charges against us, biblical Christians, is that you're so narrow. Well, we are narrow because Christ was narrow. He is the one who said, "I am the way, the truth, the life." And when He says it in that fashion, He said, "I am the way." And by saying that, He's saying there isn't any other way.
And Paul's saying He's calling us to embrace that gospel, to proclaim that gospel, and when necessary, to suffer for that gospel. And you will. Because you know why? The gospel sounds really stupid if God hasn't opened your eyes to hear it.
The Gospel Sounds Foolish
Listen with me. This is pretty interesting. So I want to make sure I get this straight. God created a guy, and He took a rib, and He made a woman, and then He gave them instruction, but only one rule. See, that's how we know they were in paradise. One law, no lawyers.
So He's in paradise, and there's this one rule. Here's this tree, a little bit different than this plastic tree that we have here, but nonetheless, this tree. Don't eat from the fruit of this tree. And the minute He said that, Adam and Eve are drawn to that tree. And a serpent comes to the woman, and lures her in, and she eats. And she gives it to the guy, and then He eats. And then because they eat, this whole world is as screwed up as it is. And when they sin, I sin with them.
And God didn't then work several thousand years, and then God, the infinite God, became a man. And then He died on a cross, and then He rose from the dead. And when He did that, He did that for us. And if we believe in that, then all of that stuff is undone.
That sounds pretty stupid, really, doesn't it? And that's our message to a lost and dying world. And Paul says, don't run away from it. It sounds foolish. You want to change it, don't you? But Paul says, don't. That's the gospel, and in that lies the power. There's the power. It's in the person of Christ.
God Did It All
And one last thought, it's in verse 9. Do you see He did it all? I can't get away from that. I love this wonderful truth. God saved us. He called us. He granted us grace.
I mentioned I was trained by the nuns. They had us do this thing that, to me, made absolutely no sense. They had us diagram sentences. Did you do that when you were growing up? Did you diagram sentences? I don't know if they diagram sentences in school anymore. I think they're happy if they can read them.
But we diagrammed sentences, and they were complex. And the nuns had a way of doing it. You did it with a ruler. You did it with a line that wasn't right. They hit you. I mean, that was how they did it. Well, I never really understood. I remember going home. My dad was a banker, and saying one day, "Hey, Dad, did you diagram any sentences
God's Role in Our Salvation
At the bank today? And when I came to, I know you're a smart aleck. I'm just asking, because this seems really stupid to me. I don't think I'll ever use it. And I would never use it until God saved me, and then I used it to diagram a sentence, a three-word sentence. I love this sentence.
Here it is: God saved sinners. That's what verse 9 says. You see that? He saved us. God is the noun, the subject, the actor. Saves is the verb, the predicate, the action. And you are the direct object. If you ever aspire to be anything, be a direct object. No responsibility. You hang at the end of the sentence, and whatever the actor does with his action, is what happens to you.
Now, I get this everywhere I go. I'll go, God saved sinners. And all the Christians go, hey. But then, when I start to define it, they go, I don't know, I believe that. Well, here's what it says. God did everything relating to your salvation. You didn't do anything. That's what it says.
I believed. Really? Why? Because He opened your heart and put that belief in there. He did it. You're saved by what? Grace. What is grace, by definition? Unmerited favor. We can unpack this, if you want. We can go into Titus 3, where he says it again. We were saved, not by any action of ours, by the action of God. He did it all.
The Transformation This Truth Brings
Now, why is that important? That is important because it changes our view of God, and who He is, and who we are. He did it all. And what happens, we talked about it last night, is God gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and you get smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller. He did it all. He saved you in spite of you, not because of you.
God did not look down and say, well, look at that lady. What a lovely lady. She's got some issues, but if we can just work with it, she'll really be something. No, God looked down and saw a God-hater. That's you. Now, you may be a God-worshipper, small g, in that you may have invented a God that you liked, and you worshiped Him as an idol. But the one true God is understood only when God opens our eyes to see that truth.
This is a huge statement that He makes. Do you see it? He saved us. He called us. He did it all. He granted us grace.
We Are Saved by God, From God
Those of you, and there are many, it's been fun for me to have you say, we were here two years ago, we get your tapes, we do this. Well, you know this is familiar to you. We are saved by God, from God. Sometimes we forget that. What are we rescued from? We're rescued from His judgment. We're saved by God. He's the one who did it. He rescues us from Himself.
There's that moment in which we die, and at that moment, we are either in the presence of the Lord or separated from Him forever. It's appointed to man once to die, and then judgment. This is serious, man. And I know we're at a Christian camp, but I also know I'm in a lot of Christian places and Christian churches, and it's not always Christians that are there.
If you are clinging to any other hope, or any other thought, or any other concept, your life is in real jeopardy. If you don't know Christ in an intimate, personal way, if you've not acknowledged your sin before Him and accepted the gift of eternal life that is found in Christ Jesus and Him and Him alone, if you have not come to Him in repentance and faith, you will not spend eternity with Him.
The Weight of Eternity
A guy in one of our studies, and his mother died. And he was saying, he was telling me that, I hadn't seen him in the study for a while, and I said, what happened? He said, my mom died. I said, I'm sorry. He said, I got a great lesson out of this, Tom. I was sitting with my five-year-old, and the five-year-old was asking about grandma.
And he said, this is really tough for me, because this is my mom. And the five-year-old is saying, dad, grandma really never came to church, did she? No. Now, you can be a believer, I think, and not go to church, although that gets really dicey for me after a period of time. Grandma really never read the Bible, did she, dad? No. Grandma didn't believe in Jesus, did she, dad? No. Here's what the five-year-old says to his dad. Grandma's in hell, isn't she, dad?
See, that's the weight of this thing. This is the most important issue. I don't know what you have in your calendar when you get home, but this is the most important issue you'll ever have to deal with.
Living Life in a Whole New Way
But it's not just about getting to heaven. It's about how to live life. In a whole new way. When we're done here, think about this, when we're done here in just 10 minutes or so, we're going to go over there and eat ice cream. And I've added caramel and chocolate and peanuts and stuff. Oreos, Butterfingers, Snickers.
Let me tell you, 28 years ago, the last thing I wanted to do was go sit with a bunch of Christians and eat ice cream. Talk about Jesus. But now, I can take you, who are totally strangers to me, and in a short period of time, we can have a level of intimacy that you haven't had with some of your blood kin relatives ever. Why? Well, because we have something more important than a chain of DNA. We have the Holy Spirit living in our life.
And that's what Paul's communicating to Timothy and to us. He says, you have a power. And you have a discipline and you have a love. Don't be timid. Don't be obnoxious. But don't be timid. Don't be afraid. Because He saved you. And He called you. And He granted you grace. So now go.
How This Affects Evangelism
Well, how does that affect... Here you go. Take evangelism. How does that affect evangelism? I never sit down and try to argue or debate somebody into the kingdom. I feel no compulsion to have to try to ask them a series of questions. There are different ways to evangelize. Not my particular way. I don't feel compelled to try to argue them into the kingdom of God.
Nor do I feel embarrassed, or somehow I have to protect the gospel. Because God's called us to evangelize, to proclaim, to declare the truth. And He says, all I want from you, Tom, is that obedience. I'll
take care of the results. That's a huge sense of freedom. If Susan and Janet and I go tonight, let's say we're done here. Now we're going to go down to Bill's Tavern and have a drink. I'm just kidding. That would shake you. As my grandpa would say, that would jar your preserves, wouldn't it?
But let's say we're going to go down and have dinner. And we engage the people next to us in a discussion. So Janet ends up talking to one lady, and Susan talks to the other lady, and they lay the gospel out. Janet lays out the gospel, and this gal says, "These are the sweetest words I've ever heard. What do I need to do?" and prays to receive Christ. Susan's gal says, "This is stupid."
So I ask this question all the time, and you know the answer. Who is God more pleased with, Janet or Susan? And the answer, you know it, is both. It's not the end result. We are so results-oriented that somehow we think, oh no, Janet.
I was in a church a while ago, and they said, "We are a soul-winning church." I guess I understood what they were saying, but they said it so much that it started to bug me by the end of the night. You can't win a soul. God is the one who wins a soul. And in this comes this great freedom—the freedom to be the person that God called you to be.
The Gospel Brings Life and Immortality
Now look at verse 10, 11, and 12. He's granted us in Christ from all eternity this grace, but now He's revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death. What does that mean? Does that mean we're not going to die? No. He's talking about this spiritual death, this spiritual separation from God. Now we can be alive.
He's come, as Jesus said, that you might have life abundantly. And He's brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher. For this reason I also suffered these things, but I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I believed, and I am convinced He is able to guard what I've entrusted to Him.
The Richness of Verse 12
Let's spend a second here on verse 12. We got seven minutes. Verse 12 is a rich verse. One of the things that I love is for you to take a verse and tear it apart. Y'all ought to spend a week on verse 12, because there is a bucket load there.
He says, "For this reason I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I believe." Isn't it interesting he doesn't say what I believe? Because Paul believed a bunch of really important stuff. Thirteen of these books we've got here in this New Testament, he wrote. That book of Romans, which is just this pillar of what we believe. Paul could talk about Romans and say, "I wrote it." But he talks about whom he believes.
Can we come back to it again? It's relationship. I know Him. I know this God. And because I know Him, here's what's true: I'm convinced He's able to guard that which I've entrusted to Him.
Let me ask you this question. What have you entrusted to Him? The answer ultimately is everything, isn't it? I trust Him with today. I trust Him with my future. Here's a big one for me—I don't know about you all—I trust Him with my past. I got all that stuff in my past.
Trusting God with Our Past
I was teaching a Sunday school class years ago, and we had a guy at the door who was totally opposite from me. He was real positive, real upbeat, a real friendly guy. So he's working the door. "Hey, we're glad to see you. You know, how you doing? Oh, is there anything better?" And so I'm coming in one day, and he said, "It's gonna be a great day." And I said, "It's gonna be a great day." He said, "There's a girl here who says she went to high school with you." Not gonna be such a great day. He said, "She said she went out with you a couple times."
For 30 years, from my birth until roughly when I was 30 years old, I lived for one thing, and that was for myself. Totally consumed with myself. Here was my concept of the universe: Here's me, and then here's everything else that God put here for one purpose. Not to glorify Him, not to honor Him, not to serve Him, but for me to use.
So everything in my life became a resource for me. Now think about this. Everything in my life became a resource for me. Now, how do relationships work in that environment, when all you're concerned about is you? Not very well. So my life for 30 years is streamed with stuff that I'm embarrassed by, humiliated by.