2 Timothy 1:6-14 - Spiritual Gifts

Tom Shrader examines Paul's charge to Timothy to kindle his spiritual gift and live boldly for the gospel. He explains the importance of discovering and using our spiritual gifts, defines salvation as entirely God's work rather than our efforts, and encourages believers to live with confidence knowing that God is able to guard what we have entrusted to Him.

“In your life you need to be at the same time a mentor and a protege - you constantly need an older man or older woman, and you need that person in your life that you can just live life with.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2014)

Recorded: May 29, 2014

Duration: 39 min

Themes: boldness, courage, gifts, mentoring, salvation, grace, confidence, testimony, young pastor, new believer, mentor, protege, timid believer, struggling with confidence, discovering gifts, ministry leader

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-2, 2 Timothy 1:6-14, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter, Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 13, John 10:25-30, Titus 3:3-7, Ephesians 4:32, Romans 8, Philippians 1:6

Theological Themes: spiritual gifts, charismatic gifts, soteriology, salvation by grace, sanctification, holy calling, biblical mentorship, discipleship

Full Transcript

We have Bibles, why don't you open them to the book of 2nd Timothy, week 2. We're spending six weeks in this book, do a little bit of a summary, but let's look at the passage 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verses 6 through 14. Let me read them and we'll come back and pull some of what I think are the big ideas out of here.

2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 6: "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 and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and 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 suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you."

The Mentor-Protégé Relationship

Paul is writing - we see it in chapter 1 verse 1 he identifies himself. Paul is writing to verse 2 his beloved son Timothy. This is not a biological father-son, this is a relational father-son. We assign the terms hopefully just for clarification for handles that Paul is Timothy's mentor, Timothy Paul's protégé. They become really almost synonymous in terms of biblical church language for an older guy or gal with a younger guy or gal.

Let me emphasize not necessarily chronologically, though most of the time it'll be that. We think Paul is plus or minus 65, 66 here, Timothy plus or minus 36. That's typically what we see - an older guy chronologically or older woman chronologically with a younger guy or gal. Not always that way. I think I've used the illustration before - I was doing a funeral for a lady and her husband got up, I think he was like 70, and he said "I want to thank my mentor Luke" and Luke was 28. So it can happen that way.

Here's the takeaway: in your life you need to be at the same time a mentor and a protégé. Not necessarily in the same relationship obviously, but within your life you constantly need an older man or older woman - men with men, women with women, we don't mix this. You need that person in your life that you can just live life with, bounce stuff off.

What Mentoring Looks Like

Whenever I mention Larry is my mentor, people ask what we did and they're looking for a class or a curriculum. What we did by and large is just talk. Larry had a favorite little book he used and it was pretty good - there's some theology in it I probably wouldn't buy - a little book called "The Green Letters" by Miles Stanford. Each chapter was about five or six pages and we'd read a chapter a week. The idea was we'd then talk about it.

Some weeks we did, some weeks we didn't. Some weeks the chapters were better than others. But we would inevitably come with no agenda and we would just chat. We would meet every Tuesday morning at six o'clock at the Humpty Dumpty on Central just north of Camelback - classy little joint. We usually would be out of there by eight, but there were days we'd go all the way through lunch. We would just talk about life.

I would say, "I got these two girls, you had three - what do you do when there's this?" "I have this wife, you have this wife - what do you do when she does this or she needs that or how do you work that out or how did you do work or how did you do life?" You need that.

The Value You Bring to Others

Simultaneously, I think most of you would be shocked at how much input and value you have to the young people that God's brought into the world around you. I talk about it all the time - you sit with these guys or gals and they have some of the most basic questions. Just statistically, for most of them you're just reparenting. You're giving them some insights and wisdom that their parents were either never around or never imparted to them, never shared with them.

A Generation That Didn't Express

My generation, and that's many of your generation - at my father's funeral there was a Catholic priest and he said, "Oftentimes we have a family member speak. Maybe one - there's four boys - maybe one of you boys want to speak?" I had determined to stay out of this thing and my brothers all at once said, "Well Tom will talk." He said, "All right, I'd like to meet with you after and go through some things." I said sure.

Afterwards he said, "We find that a lot of people get nervous at this point, so I'd suggest you write it out and maybe get me a copy." I've talked once or twice and I don't do real well writing out, and I'll be fine. So I met with my brothers and I said, "Part of this is filling in a portrait of dad, and I wonder if any of you could tell me something dad said to you that really impacted your life positively - other than 'I'll give you a reason to cry,' that kind of thing." The four of us could not come up with one thing.

It wasn't that he wasn't positive - he just wasn't expressive. In retrospect, he was a quiet guy who taught us through Christmas clubs - do you remember those things? - and saving dimes. He taught us thrift, taught us to live in a budget. He never said "I love you." He did say "You get to sleep here and stay here and eat," which was his version of "I love you." So a lot of us just needed some...

Understanding God's Gifts to Us

Paul had passed down these fundamental principles to Timothy, providing clarification of what those things are. Now you have these truths for a generation that is befuddled by basic fundamental principles like work and compensation. If you borrow money, pay it back. Look somebody in the eye.

I was in a coffee shop the other day and they were pointing out how they're trying to design it so it forces you to make eye contact. That's a lost art. They're even going to train people that when you buy something and you say thank you, they're going to say you're welcome. This is revolutionary stuff that they're training them here.

All of these things you can play a role in, and many of you with your grandkids. These grandkids live four houses away, and last night I was going home and I saw Sandy's car in front. I went down and the boys - I'm there maybe five minutes and they're jumping on the car and telling me about their day and asking me if I'm going to the track last night, meaning the track at Mesquite, not the racetrack. This track at Mesquite. What did you do today? Are you going to graduation tomorrow? When are you going to Coronado and can we go? There are a lot of no's that you have to communicate along the way, but all around you are people that know less than you. God may have put you in their life so that you can help.

Paul's Reminder to Timothy

Here's the Paul-Timothy relationship. Verse 6 is where we pick up today. Paul says, "For this reason I remind you to kindle" - I think some of your translations say "stir up," it's continuous in the Greek - "stir up afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands."

Let's work it backwards. There was nothing about this laying on of hands that was mystically significant. He's saying here's this gift that a group of people came around and commissioned you, or identified as a gift, or affirmed as a gift in you. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit - spiritual gifts.

The Gift Versus the Gifts of the Spirit

Spend a second here. As you work your way through Scripture, you'll read about the gift of the Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself. We saw that later on in the passage, that He had saved us and He had given us this Spirit. It's the Spirit of God. It's that moment of salvation when the Holy Spirit invades your heart.

In many of the people in this room right now, you are biblical Christians. At the moment that you were saved - we'll talk about what that means in a minute - at that moment you received the gift of the Holy Spirit. What he's talking about here are also the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is something that we find identified in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 and 1st Peter.

The gifts of the Spirit - and this is my definition - are a special enablement to perform a function in the body of Christ with ease and efficiency. At that moment, God gave you a gift. Now I want you to use your gift for a very selfish reason: that I benefit from it. That's the concept of the body.

How the Body Works Together

Some are an elbow, some are a wrist, some are a knee, some are an eye, some are an ear. We may look at them and say, "Boy, the eye is way more important than the foot." But if we're all just one big eye, we as the body would see real well, but we're not getting around very well. All these gifts come together and we work as a body. That's what we see in the concept of the church.

Some are teachers, some serve, some administer. It makes sense - I think, I hope, I shouldn't have to argue this very hard - that as God's given you a special enablement, you ought to know what it is, one, and you ought to be using it, two.

Discovering Your Spiritual Gift

There are a variety of ways to know what it is. SBC for a long time - I don't know if they still do, I know it was important to Jamie when they first got there, and I don't think he lost that. It may be that it's run its course and time to come back up - but there were classes on spiritual gifts. That's one way to find it: take a class.

Another way, I'll give you a real simple way: what is it that you enjoy doing that when you do it, even when you're tired, it's a good tired, and you're ready to go do it again? In the language of our day, it's when you're doing it, you're in your sweet spot.

A Story About the Gift of Service

I had a guy in a study, and I got a call from him one night. He said, "I'd like to have lunch, and let me tell you why I want to meet." I said, "All right." He said, "I'd like to know my spiritual gift." I said, "Perfect, meet you at such-and-such, be there, see you then."

I say perfect because it was really easy. It was a Wednesday night study. He'd be the first guy there. He'd come in the room, he'd get the music stand ready, the stool ready, bottle of water. He'd have the air conditioning on, he'd have all the seats lined up. When people came in, he kind of moved them around. He would make sure that the sound was set. He did all the logistics. This guy has the gift of service, not just in that setting, but I'd seen him in other settings.

We sit down, and he said, "I'd like to talk about my spiritual gift." I said, "Well, let's order first." So we order, and I said, "I've been really thinking and praying about it." Now that's not totally true, because I didn't really have to pray very hard, because I knew what this gift was. I said, "Well, you have the gift of service." He said, "Well, that's not right." I said, "Well, it is right. You do this and the music stand and the stool and the air conditioner." He said, "Well, it's not right."

I said, "Well, you have the gift of service." He said, "I don't." I said, "Why do you say you don't have the gift of service?" He said - now listen to the logic here - "Because I enjoy it so much." The thought process was, if I'm going to have to do something for God, it's really going to be miserable.

Well, no, it's just the opposite. Think about the definition. If I'm working in my sweet spot, it's that thing...

Where Your Gifts Come Alive

I learned this lesson about finding your sweet spot through years of summer camp ministry. For over 20 years, I took a group of five or six hundred junior high and high school kids to summer camp at Point Loma. Now that I'm not in that role anymore, I don't go—I'm actually teaching here that Sunday instead.

We would go over Thursday, the buses would come in Friday, usually arriving about two or three. We'd do a little organization, kind of an orientation, then a session. Then we'd go down to the field and have In-N-Out come in with one of their trucks or pizza or whatever, followed by the Friday night games. We'd get up Saturday morning, do a summary, do a Saturday morning study, have free time at noon, then a Saturday night study. By Saturday night at 10 o'clock, I felt like I'd been there a month.

Now the student leaders, when it was time to come home, didn't want to come home. I was trying to figure out how to come home Saturday or Sunday morning. The crew dads—a group of dads who took vacation time and paid their own way—built all the sets and provided security. They were like living out their lives over there in one giant game. They were in this serving opportunity where they not only were good at it, they enjoyed it.

Finding Your Spiritual Gift Through Experience

Here's my recommendation: Find out what you think that spiritual gift is, then be praying in that process. Make yourself available, and then honestly evaluate the experience.

Teaching is, to me, the easiest one to do this with. A lot of people that I meet seem to feel they have the gift of teaching. How do you know? Well, here's how you know: Get a classroom and start to teach. If the first week you have 40, the second week 30, the third week 20, the next week 10, and the fifth week it's you and your dog—here's what you don't have, likely. You don't have the gift of teaching, or you haven't found anybody with the gift of listening. You have the gift of disbursement, is what you have. That's why I say honest evaluation.

We had a guy who just wasn't a very good teacher. I sat down with him and said, "I just don't think you're very good at this." I don't mean that critically—I think it's good news. Because on the list of gifts, we can cross this one off, so we're narrowing in on your sweet spot. He said, "No, no, no. If you let me teach more, I'll get better." I said, "If we let you teach much more, we've solved our parking problem and our space problem, because you're not very good." That's not a criticism.

People say, "Well, that's so harsh." It's not harsh. The loving thing to do is to say, "Listen, this isn't your sweet spot, but you need to find that gift." Take that discernment. Find out where you're gifted. Stir it up. And the laying on of hands, again, is people who affirm that—what do people tell you when you do that? They go, "You know, you're really good at that. That's really special."

A Spirit of Power, Not Timidity

Verse 7: "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and discipline."

Look at verses 6 and 7 and tell me the shift you see there. In verse 6, he said, "I remind you to kindle afresh." Verse 7, he shifts to the plural pronoun "us." That's a tricky part of this letter. We have to be clear—Paul's writing to Timothy and delivering information to him. Some of it is specific to him, but most of it is stuff we can apply to ourselves as well.

He said God has not given us—those of us in the body of Christ—a spirit of timidity. It's the only time that Greek word is used in the New Testament. It's not just timid or shy. He hasn't given us a spirit of cowardice or shame or weakness or made us fragile or fearful.

The Gospel Entrusted to Weak Vessels

He's saying, "Listen, God's given you a gift." He's about to talk about the gospel that's been entrusted to you to communicate to the world. You could read through First Corinthians and see that as kind of a common thread Paul's communicating—He didn't pick the strong and the rich and the wise, but the weak of the world. He's put in this earthen vessel (that's us) this valuable treasure: the gospel.

He said, "Now that you have this gospel, I didn't give you a spirit of timidity here. I don't want you to be fearful or shy." Romans chapter 1 verse 16, Paul writes, "I am not ashamed of the gospel"—it's the same idea—"for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

Dynamic Power and Love

In verse 7 of Second Timothy 1, he didn't give us a spirit of timidity or shyness—not to be ashamed. I think he's telling us this because in the natural, that's how we tend to operate. There's this battle. He said He didn't give you the spirit of shyness, but of power—dunamis, the Greek word from which we get the English word dynamite. But let me give you a better word here: He gave us a spirit of dynamic, not destructive power, but constructive power.

He gave us a spirit of power and a spirit of love. It's not that we move away and change the message; it's that we operate in a spirit of love. I'm reading a book now—actually two books that are totally secular—and in one the guy is defining love. As he talks about it, it's like a lecture on First Corinthians 13, though he doesn't know it. Ultimately he gets to the definition that love is in a relationship when you think about the other person more than yourself.

Paul says it this way: "Love does not seek its own." Love is this idea that I'm going to think first and foremost about you. Sandy and I were last night with calendars out, trying to figure out what we're going to do this summer. June is kind of set, then in July we go to Cannon Beach and teach, and then I'm doing a coaches conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This has turned out pretty well for me.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we finish on Sunday, we're going to stay Sunday night. Monday morning we're going down to Iowa City and we have a guy that's taking us through - they've just built a new 60,000 square foot facility for football, and we have a guy that's taking us through the whole thing and the Iowa Hall of Fame and all this. Sandy's so excited about it. And then we're driving two miles down to Newton, that's where Maytag was - was is the operative word - and then south to Sheraton, town of 4,300, where my mother was born.

We're driving down there, spend the night at the hotel called the Shady Rest, and then get up the next morning and drive. I'm going to go - that's where my grandma lived, and that's where my grandpa worked, and that's - that used to be a Hardee's, and we're going to swing by the cemetery, and that'll pretty well knock out an hour. Then we're going to drive to Melrose, it's a town of 237, who in 1937 won the state basketball title when there were no divisions. It's kind of a Hoosiers story. Then we're going to go to Oskaloosa, Ottumwa - that's where Tom Arnold and Roseanne Barr built a big house.

Then we're going to Washington, where in the middle of town there's a little park where we used to meet and have our picnics. And then we're going to go to my brother's house, be in Davenport, a couple days. And then down to Springfield for a day at the Lincoln Museum, and then to St. Louis. And we're going to do the Arch - I've never done the Arch - and there's some museums and a bunch of stuff that several of you have pointed out to me, and Forest Park, which I just think is as cool as can be.

A Picture of Love

So we're last night trying to do our calendar, because there's a lot of flexibility in here. And I said, listen, we can just go - I want to go to the university to see the football thing, that's a given. My family, you know, we can go from Iowa City to St. Louis. Well, I don't want to do that, I want to go to your grandma's house. You don't want to go to my grandma's house.

And it was really interesting, because neither one of us wanted to force our schedule on the other one. And I thought, as awkward and difficult, and as long as this is taking, it really is a picture of love. It's when Sandy decided that she was going to go to Israel with our trip, our group from church earlier this year, and people were saying, well is Tom not going? And Sandy's answer was perfect. She said, he loves me enough to let me go, and I love him enough to let him stay.

That's this power of this idea of you first, and of discipline. It's this conscious mission of understanding to take this gospel, and He picks it up in verse 8: "Therefore do not be ashamed" - apparently the natural tendency is toward that timidity or shyness - "of the testimony of our Lord or me as prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God."

The True Power

There's real power. It's the gospel. It's the power that has the ability to bring life to death. I was in San Francisco, went up Saturday afternoon at 5, and came back Sunday at 5 to visit a church up there, that's a church that we were really instrumental in starting. And I'm with a guy, and we're talking about the city. I mean it's just an interesting place, and he said there's a book that you should read that defines a turning point.

I didn't know much about San Francisco, but it's essentially an Irish Catholic town, and strong labor unions, and there's this kind of pivotal moment where everything switches, and it becomes kind of the San Francisco that we identify today. And he said this book is phenomenal. So I got my Kindle, I loaded it on, and I'm reading it, and I'm right in the jaws of the end of the 60s.

And so it's all the names you know - the Grateful Dead, and John S. Joplin, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, maybe some groups you didn't know, Moby Grape, some of the others - and it's the whole city coming together. And in the middle of this, they're talking about how kids were coming from all over the country to San Francisco, and what it was doing to the infrastructure. Well that's the plotline of the story, but what comes back again and again are these kids by the thousands in an endless search for meaning in life.

And the answer that was being presented was, just throw off all of the restrictions. Free was the operative word. They would say, come on in and live with us, you can't steal from us because none of it is ours. And then they couldn't sustain the free part of it, of course.

The Only Source of Life

The true power in life, and it's totally explainable - all of these people were looking for meaning, joy, pleasure, happiness in a person, place, or thing. In this case it was drug, sex, and rock and roll. And the power to save - that's what He says in verse 9 - it's the power of God who, verse 9, "saved us, called us with a holy calling, but not according to our works, according to His own purpose."

Here we are by nature, lost children. So you're going to see it at kindergarten graduation today, it's going to be so cute. I already got the little man's picture with his cap and gown, and he's got this big smile and his teeth are missed, and he looks cute as can possibly be. And all - I don't know how many kids there are, way too many - but they're going to look so cute. But you, ironically, they're dressed in a blue cap and gown.

And we've used this picture before. If sin were blue, we'd all be Smurfs. That's who we are by nature. By nature, I'm a sinful person who cannot save himself. See what He says there in verse 9? God saved us, and He called us, but not according to our works. That's religion.

The Most Constant Theme

This theme has to be the most constant theme that we preach in here on Thursday morning - there's nothing you can do. So you may be new or newer to our discussion, or maybe today's the first time it's ever clicked for you.

I can tell you your thought process, and that is there's some part of you that you just know is wrong. That's sin, and the result of that sin is not that you're just a little messed up, it's that you're separated from God, and your flinch is to try to fix it, and you can't. Your flinch is to say, well, I'm going to go to work, I'm going to start working at Food for the Hungry, I'm going to start going to church, I'll start coming here on Thursday, and the idea is I'll do enough things to get myself acceptable to God, and the reality is you can't.

There's only two ways to get to heaven. One is to be perfect, and our discussion has already acknowledged you aren't that. The other is through Christ. In the world we lived in, what we say is we would outsource our salvation. He's going to do this for us. That's what He did in the cross. And He calls us and He saves us. And it's entirely, utterly, completely a work of His.

God's Sheep Hear His Voice

In John chapter 10, the Jews come to Jesus and they say to Him, verse 25, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. The implication is we've been hanging around and you've been too obscure and oblique in this teaching. Tell us specifically. And Jesus says in John 10:25, you don't believe, I've told you, you don't get it because you're not my sheep. Verse 27, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them, they follow me. I give eternal life to them and they shall never snatch them out of my hand. And the Father who's given to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one.

That's the message that Jesus delivered that Paul delivers through the New Testament. It's the entire New Testament message that God and sinner are separated. You're in 2 Timothy, flip to the right to the book of Titus, Titus 3:3, should by now be marked up in your Bible, that we were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasure, spending our life in malice, envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love to mankind appeared, when Jesus showed up, He saved us.

Here's the same idea we just looked at, not on the basis of deeds which we've done, but according to His mercy, by the washing and regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us. God saved us. When we think of thanksgiving, meaning a spirit of thanks, or worship, the easiest way to see that generated is not to darken the lights and play this beautiful music. The easiest way for that to almost spontaneously rise up in you is to contemplate who you were and who you are and understand it's not as a result of self-discipline, but as a result of God working in you, through you.

The Reality of Eternal Life

That's what He said. He saved us. He called us. He's appeared, verse 10, and He abolished death, and He brought life and immortality to light. That's what He's done. He's taken away the penalty of our sin.

I was at a funeral memorial service yesterday, and the message was, Barb's in heaven. And you hear that. That's not unique among, really, memorial services. I think we talked about this last week. Virtually every service I go to, even amongst the most renegade, repulsive of people, they're going to go, you know, Bill's in a better place. Well, Bill's not in a better place. Not all dogs and not all people go to heaven. God's given us eternal life. He can say yesterday, Barb's in heaven, based on God's promises and her proclamation of belief.

So Sandy and I drive over. I had the car checked out and the tires are, and the pressure's checked. If a tire blows out between Casa Grande and Yuma, and we flip it into a ditch, and I die, you don't need to be mournful for me, because I'm in heaven. That's what He said. He's given you life. He's given us eternal life.

Trusting God with Everything

But one of, I think, the mistakes we make is to focus on the eternal, the heavenly part of it, and neglect the part of salvation that's here. Look at what He says in verse 12. For this reason, I also suffer things, and I'm not ashamed, for I know who I have believed. I know God, I know who He is, I know what I believe, and I'm convinced He is able to guard what I've entrusted to Him until that day.

There's the practical side of the theology. I know God, I understand that He saved me, I understand that He's all-powerful, I understand He's made these promises, I understand all that's true, and as a result, I can live, verse 12, with a certain confidence, because I'm convinced of this, He is able to guard what I've entrusted Him.

So here's what we ask. What is it that you've entrusted to Him? The answer should be everything. Not just my soul and my salvation, but my today. I've trusted to Him my present, the relationship that I'm in, the body that I have, the doctor's appointment, the banker's appointment, the lawyer's appointment, the going home for dinner, the interaction with my kids, my neighbor, my friend, my life. I've entrusted all the present to Him, I've entrusted the future to Him.

God Uses Failures

When you look at the life of Peter and the life of Paul, you see lives that are marked early on by failure. You can't get much more than Peter going to the little servant girl when she said, you were with Jesus, and he said, no, I didn't know Him. But Paul, who at the moment of conversion is not seeking God, he's already convinced he's on God's side, he's on the way to Damascus to annihilate the Christians. He slaughtered these Christians. And now God doesn't just save him, He forgives him and He uses him. And maybe this is the point to say that same thing to you.

One Sunday I was going in to teach and we have a greeter and some of our greeters are excited to be greeting and I walk in and he said, how you doing today, Tom? I said, I'm doing well, thank you. And he said, it's going to be a great day. I said, yeah, it's going to be a great day. And he said, special treat in

There she was, and I didn't recognize her. I said, "Hey, how are you?" She replied, "I'm fine." She shared that we had dated a couple of times, and I didn't remember that. I didn't remember alcohol being involved. I don't remember anything else. I just said, "This is not a good day. I'm going to get up here and go through this whole thing and she's going to sit down there and she's going to go, 'What a jerk and a hypocrite.'"

Then I realized that's who I was. It's not who I am. You've entrusted them with your past.

The Power of Forgiveness

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32—one of those verses that you need to at least take and get in your heart: "Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other as God in Christ has forgiven you."

Sandy and I are on Netflix trying to find these old series that we missed, and we can watch a couple of sessions a night. We're watching one now, and it's got some great plotlines, but I sound like you now—I'm trying to justify watching it. But it's amazing how screwed up the people in this show are. Their overriding problem is they can't get out of the past.

I said to Sandy the other night, "This is Ephesians 4:32. They can't, in this whole soap opera life, forgive one another. They've never experienced it."

He Is Able to Guard

Our close is you take all of the things that you have entrusted to Him. In essence, it's everything. He is able to guard them.

What can separate us from the love of Christ? Romans 8—nothing. He who began the good work in you will continue it to the day of Christ Jesus—Philippians 1:6. Those are those wonderful truths that He has you and He's holding you.

That's the old spiritual: "He's got the whole world in His hands. You and me brother, you and me sister, the little bitty baby." He's got you, and you can live with a freedom and a confidence there because He's able.

Now here's the thing: He saved you. He brought you into His kingdom. He's given you a gift. And He says, "Now live the redeemed life."

Pick up right there next week.