2 Timothy 1:7-18 - Stirring Up Your Gift and Not Being Ashamed
Tom Shrader examines Paul's encouragement to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7-18, focusing on stirring up spiritual gifts and not being ashamed of the gospel. He explains how to discover and use spiritual gifts, emphasizing that God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power, love, and discipline. Shrader highlights that salvation is entirely God's work, not based on our efforts, and encourages believers to trust God with their past, present, and future.
“God saved us, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Find Meaning in a Collapsing World (2000)
Recorded: 2000
Duration: 38 min
Themes: gifts, courage, mentorship, shame, power, love, discipline, gospel, young pastor, ministry leader, feeling timid, new to ministry, mentor, protege, spiritual guide, church worker
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:7-18, 1 Corinthians 12:7, Philippians 3, Revelation 2
Theological Themes: spiritual gifts, charisma, holy spirit, pneumatology, salvation, soteriology, sanctification, biblical mentoring
Full Transcript
We would guess that at this point Paul was about 66 years of age, and we would say that Timothy was about 36, reminding you that Timothy was Paul's protégé. We made this point to you before: in your life you need to have a mentor, and in your life you need to be a mentor.
My favorite illustration of this happened when I was talking one day about something I wanted to wrestle through, so I called Larry. I said I needed his help on this deal, and he said go ahead. The other phone rang and he said go ahead and get it. I said listen, whatever their problem is, mine's bigger than that, so let me talk to you. He said no, go ahead and get it. So I put him on hold and went to line two, and it was somebody who said "Tom, I need your help." It was one of those great moments that reminded me of this principle because on line one I was a protégé, on line two I was a mentor.
In your life you need to have that even now. You need to have people who are your mentors, and people whom you are mentoring. Paul writes to Timothy and he understands the end of his life is here, and it's got to be one of those incredible moments in a way.
Paul's Passionate Love for Timothy
Paul speaks, as we saw last week, passionately. "I pray for you night and day. I long to recall seeing you again. I remember your eyes and your tears and I want to be filled with joy." There was great passion and love between these two men, probably not just an affinity for each other but an affinity for the work that God had given them to do as well.
So with that backdrop Paul begins to lay this stuff out. What we saw last week, and we'll make this the last point by way of recap, is that Paul comes back again and again to the idea that the gospel is the issue. He says here's what I want you to do: guard the gospel, suffer for the gospel, continue in the gospel, proclaim the gospel.
In 1992 Bill Clinton ran for president and his message was "It's the economy, stupid." If we take Paul's message here, there's a sense in which he's saying "It's the gospel, stupid." It's the gospel that we come back to. Paul says this is one thing I do, this is one thing I preach, and that's Christ crucified.
Kindling the Gift of God
It's against that backdrop that he writes this letter, and we said that throughout this letter there are these words of encouragement and admonition all rolled into one warning combined. Here's what he says, and we'll pick up where we left off in verse 6: "And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands."
Now here's what he's not saying. He's not saying that by laying on of hands there was some power that was transferred here. It wasn't that the gift was transferred through the laying on of hands. He said there was probably that time, probably what he's thinking about, where we laid our hands on Timothy.
If we're sending Mark out here on a mission field, or for example, we're just getting ready to bring some elders on at the church, we'll lay hands on them. We're not transferring any power to them. What we're doing is identifying with them, showing that we are part of them and they are part of us. We're confirming the call that God's placed on their life. It was at that moment when they laid hands on them that Paul takes Timothy back to, and that's the moment where we confirm that gift.
See what he's saying? Kindle this gift, stir it up—it means literally keep it alive. The Greek is in the continuous sense: continue to stir this gift up, continue to keep this gift alive. Do you remember the gift? Remember when we pointed out to you that you had this gift? It was at that time where there was the laying on of hands.
Understanding Spiritual Gifts
Let me take a second just to talk about spiritual gifts. When we talk about—and you hear this—if you're around a little bit, you'll hear people talk about "the gift of the Holy Spirit." Have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit? Well really, what they're saying biblically is, have you become a Christian? When I become a Christian, I am indwelled by the Holy Spirit. I receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the gifts, plural, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul writes to the church at Corinth, and he talks about these gifts. Here's what he says in 1 Corinthians 12:7: "But to each one is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." Then he begins to use the illustration of the body. "For even as the body is one, yet there are many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body," and then he goes on to use the concept.
Here's what he says: there are these gifts, and there are gifts that are given to different people. Not every person has the same spiritual gift. What is the spiritual gift that we're talking about?
Let me take two or three different definitions that men use and see if we can get a picture. Chuck Swindoll says it's the ability to function with ease in the body of Christ. The ability to perform a function, and the idea is doing it with ease.
Discovering Your Spiritual Gift
This is great. I got a call one day from a guy, and he said, "Can we meet? I'd like to meet." I said, "Sure." I almost never ask what it's about, because especially if it's somebody I know—unfortunately now we've gotten to the point where we're a little busier, so we have to do some level of screening just to make sure we understand what we're doing, how much time. But I didn't ask this guy. He said, "Let me tell you why I want to meet." I said, "Perfect." He said, "I want to meet because I want you to help me understand what my spiritual gift is."
I said, "Great." I hung up and said, "Oh, this is perfect. This is ideal. This is excellent." Because I was doing a study at the time. This guy—the study started at seven. He'd get there about six, six-fifteen. He'd set up the whole
room. He would get all of the overhead projectors set. He'd get the air conditioning just right. I would come in. He'd say, "Can I get you anything? You need any water? You need any ice? Is there anything I can do?" I mean, this guy's got the service gift. When it's all over, he's got to get everything cleaned up. It's so obvious.
So we go and we sit down, and we order, and you're going to see that this guy's in agony over this. He said, "Tom, what do you think my spiritual gift is?" I said, "Well, I've been praying a lot about this, and I've been really thinking and watching, and I think you have the gift of service." He said, "No, it's not that."
I said, "Well, I think you have the gift of service. I just think you have that service gift." He said, "No, I don't." I said, "Well, you do. I mean, here's the study. The study starts at 7, you get in there at 6, you set up the chairs, you get the ice, you do everything, you get the overhead, you're getting everything I want, you're there, you do everything. You've got the gift of service."
He said, "I don't have the gift of service." I said, "You absolutely have the gift of service." He said, "I can't have the gift of service." I said, "Really, why?"
The Joy of Operating in Your Gift
Now listen to this. See if you don't get a little insight into your own psyche. He said, "I can't have the gift of service because I enjoy it so much."
See, here's his thought: "I'm going to do something for God, so it's just going to be awful. I know it's going to be hard. It's going to be something I don't want to do." That's the perfect illustration of what a spiritual gift is—to perform a function in the body of Christ with ease.
Your spiritual gift has with it something that you just naturally do. I'm not saying that there's not any work to it, but you just slide into it. It's something that you do, and there's just affirmation all over the place. People say, "Man, when you do that, you really do it great. When you do this, you perform this function, you're tired, but it's a good tired when you're tired. You can't wait to get up to do it again." There's a confirmation you're in your gifted area.
Ray Stedman takes the definition a little bit differently, and he says it's a capacity for service.
Distinguishing Between Talent and Gift
Make a distinction here between talent and gift. I hear this all the time: "She's a gifted singer. She has the gift of singing, the gift of music." Music's not a spiritual gift. She has a talent to sing that God may use to encourage or comfort in some other way.
I get this with men all the time, especially: "I have the gift of making money." Let me help you out here. We all hope you have the gift of giving, but making money is a talent, not a gift.
Guys in the marketplace are out there, and they're presenters. "I think he's got the gift of teaching." No, he has the talent to present. We don't know if he can teach or not. Just because you have the gift of gab doesn't mean you're a teacher.
I remember early on, I wasn't at this very long, and I said one day to Larry, "I really do think that someday maybe I'd like to teach." Larry said, "Can I give you a tip?" I said, "You bet." He said, "I think this would be very helpful. Not all teachers follow this principle." I said, "Tell me what it is." He said, "It would be very helpful if when you teach, you had something to say."
I said, "Well, that would be good. I'm going to write that down." I hadn't thought about that. But that's kind of the attitude that you have. You go, "Gee, I'd get up and just talk." Well, I've learned that doesn't work very well.
The Heart of Teaching
The number one thing, because a lot of people fancy themselves as teachers—let me tell you the number one thing I believe to be a good teacher: you've got to love the people you're teaching. We talk about all these other things: you've got to know this, and do this, and present properly. You've got to study, and you've got to do all that. But you've got to love the people you're teaching. Otherwise, it'll become performance, you'll become arrogant, and you will grow away from people, rather than toward people.
So here it is. I now have the ability, the ease. It's a capacity for service, and the last thing is, it's effective.
Stirring Up Your Gift
Now, when you're performing in your gifted area, I want to make sure we remember where we are. Paul's saying to Timothy, "Stir afresh this gift." He says it to you: "Keep this gift alive, this area of giftedness."
I want to do something, and this is not designed to embarrass you at all. You ought not be embarrassed by this, but there's a bunch of you in the room today. I presume most of you are Christians, so let me ask you this question: How many of you know your spiritual gift? Let's see your hands.
So let's say maybe 15 percent? Not very good. We need to make a point here. Here we are. God's given you a special gift to perform in the body of Christ. If you're not doing it, I'm a big loser. I want you to do it for your own good, but I want you to do it for my good as well, and the body's good. God's given every Christian a spiritual gift.
How to Find Your Gift
How do I find this gift? Let me give you five things to do.
Here's the first thing: You better know what the gifts are. So you're going to have to do a little study. You can go to a Christian bookstore, get a little study. Chuck Swindoll has a series through Insight for Living. Swindoll's got four or five tapes on the spiritual gifts. They're very good.
Here's the second thing you need to do: You need to pray with an open heart. "God, I really want to find this gift. Help me. God, I know you've given me a gift because..."
You said you have. Please help me find it. Here's the third thing. You've got to be available. You've got to be willing. You've got to be listening as opportunities come, and even in some instances where you create them.
So now you know what the gifts are. You're praying for your spiritual gift. You're available. Here's the fourth thing. Now when the opportunity comes, you have to take it. So you just do it.
So now here you are. You're out there. You've identified what you think the gift is. You've prayed about it. You're available for it. You're starting to use it. Here's step five. This is the hardest thing. Now you have to honestly evaluate whether you got the gift or not.
Evaluating Your Gift Through Practice
I picked teaching because it's kind of the easiest one to identify. You know, you start a class, they put it in the bulletin, and now 50 people show up the first Sunday, 30 people the second Sunday, 10 people the third Sunday. What we've determined now is you have the gift of disbursement. God hasn't given you. You've got the ability to tell people what not to do. Well, it's a problem. But that's a good thing.
That's a really good thing because it may mean that we need to hone that skill, or it may mean we need to study, or it may mean this is even better. We can check that off. Well, that's not one of them. But what we do know is you've got to take this gift, and you've got to sharpen this gift. You've got to begin to use it.
Let me tell you one of the real problems. At our church, we don't do long studies on spiritual gifts. We don't try to spend a lot of time helping people find their spiritual gift. We think if you just do this right here, you'll figure it out. One of the reasons is a lot of times you find out what your spiritual gift is, and for people it becomes an excuse to not do something.
A need comes up, and you say, I'm sorry, I'm not gifted in that area. Well, you don't need a particular gift to help clean the parking lot. Sometimes when there's needs in 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, 3rd grade, you don't need a particular gift there. You need a willing heart there. So I have to balance these things out.
Keeping Your Gift Alive
But what Paul seems to be saying to Timothy, and this is even bigger than finding the gift is, keep it alive. It may be, remember I said this last week, a lot of times in here, it's a fine line between Paul warning him, and Paul really picking something up, and he's saying there's a deficiency here in Timothy, and I don't know if that's what he's doing. I don't know if he's looking at Timothy and saying, you know what, Timothy, already you're letting this gift grow cold. That may be what he's doing here.
You've got to stir this baby up, Timothy, because you've gotten it down cold, and now it's become cold. What would be interesting is, if that's the case, we get to Revelation 2. Remember what happens to the church at Ephesus, the church that Timothy's pastoring? Jesus says to this church, you've lost your first love. You've grown cold. Go back and do what you did at the beginning. Isn't that amazing? Here you go. So He starts with that. He begins to deal with that whole issue.
God Has Not Given Us a Spirit of Timidity
Verse 7, He says to us, God has not given us a spirit of timidity. It's the only place in the New Testament that that word timidity appears. When I say timid to you, you think what? Shy. Shy, introvert. That's not exactly what the word means in the Greek. In the Greek, it has with it the idea of being a coward, or being afraid, of being ashamed, even being embarrassed.
God has not given us a spirit of embarrassment, but a spirit of power, love, and discipline. Again, and you know, oftentimes in the English language, we can have a word that has three or four different meanings to it. The same is true in the Greek. The word power here has with it this idea, somebody who's conscious of a specific assignment. Love just means gentleness, the word softness, understanding. The word discipline here means literally one who controls himself in the face of panic.
Now doesn't the sentence make sense to you? God hasn't given us a spirit of shamefulness or embarrassment, but He has given us a specific assignment to carry out in love and understanding, and we need to do that in the face of panic, in the face of obstacles, and challenges, and trials. And that makes all the sense, because He goes on to say, Therefore don't be ashamed of the gospel of our Lord, or me, one of His prisoners, but join with us in the suffering. Don't be ashamed, don't back off, don't be timid, but come on in. Jump in the pool, the water's fine, we're all going to come in here, and we're all going to suffer together. We're all in this thing together. Don't be ashamed of this. Be bold.
A Historical Turning Point
I mention this to you, there are a couple of times, key times I think, you know in history, we always love to talk about this, in my generation, I graduated from high school in 1968, and many sociologists and experts would say 1968 was a turning year. And I've shared with you before. I really think there was a turn that took place in 1960, 1960 when John Kennedy went before those Protestant pastors and said, and you understand the issue at the time was as a Catholic, people were afraid that the Pope would run the country, and that was never really in danger at all.
And Kennedy went in front of the pastors of these Protestant churches, and here's what he said. He said, My faith will not affect the way I govern. Now that was a true statement by the way. Bill Bradley comes along, and I'm not being judgmental here, but Bradley comes along and says, I'm not going to talk about those things. Those are private matters. Well, no they aren't. They're deeply personal, but they aren't private.
Imagine this. Imagine you are interviewing a guy, and in the course of this you say, you look familiar to me. Well, yeah, I've seen you somewhere. You go to Scottsdale Bible Church? Well, yes I do. Wow, well let's talk about
That. There's some Christians in Scottsdale Bible Church, aren't there? Well, a few, a dozen or so up there. Well, that Christian faith that you have, is it real? Oh, it's real. But I want you to know something. As you're considering hiring me, I want you to know that my character and my faith, my ethics, will in no way affect the job that I'll do for you as my employer.
Well, how stupid is that? That's the very reason I'm hiring you. I'm hiring you because of your character. I was talking to a group of singles the other night, and I said, can you imagine that? Especially as somebody who really wants to understand where you are with the Lord as you begin to date, that seems to be what Scripture says. Can you imagine saying, well, you're a Christian, and say, you know what? That's a fair question, but I want you to know that that's a very private matter, and I don't want to talk about that as we date.
Our Faith Is Personal But Not Private
Here you go. It's a very personal matter, but it is not a private matter. That's what Paul said to Timothy. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. It's very personal, but it isn't private. Don't be ashamed of it.
Why do you think he says that? Because there's a tendency, I think, to be ashamed. There's a tendency to be embarrassed. It's very hard to talk with family and friends about issues like that. And you've got to admit, sometimes what we say has with it, when you just go, and you're the ultimate skeptic and the ultimate cynic, you can make this sound pretty stupid pretty fast.
Really? You believe God wrote this whole book, and it's infallible? Really? That's interesting. Christ died, when He died on the cross, He somehow paid for your sins, and now you're forgiven, and now you're righteous? That's an interesting concept. And you have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is where? He's with you? Like Harvey? Like Harvey the rabbit? He had this invisible, and you know He's there because He leads you and directs you?
I mean, in all fairness, as a society, we take people who have invisible people with them, who are directing and guiding them, and lock them up at 24th and Van Buren. That's what we do. And it's cynical way, doesn't it? But we know it's true. And every person in here who's ever shared their faith has had that experience of sharing that faith and having somebody just ridicule you in the process.
Don't be ashamed of it. I've gotten to the point where it frankly doesn't bother me, because I understand the guy on the other end, if God hasn't given him ears to hear, it sounds stupid. It just does. And even harder than that is to really understand that this book is alive and vibrant and vital and infallible. That's even more difficult. But don't back away, Timothy. Don't be ashamed, Timothy.
The Power of God Revealed in Our Salvation
Therefore, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, but join in the suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. What's the power of God? Verse 9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, and has now been revealed by the appearing of our Lord Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life.
Here's what he's saying. We're not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel is the power of God. The demonstration of that, verse 9, God who saved us. We need to make sure we understand this concept.
Let's put it in a real simple three-word sentence. God saved us. You can go ahead and put your name in there at the end. I'll go ahead and put mine in there. God saved Tom.
Understanding the Grammar of Salvation
Now let's make sure we can diagram that sentence, make sure we understand the words. God is the actor. God is the noun. God is the subject in this sentence. Saved is the verb, the action, the predicate. Us, in this case, Tom, is the direct object.
So you've got the noun, the action, you've got the verb, the actor, you've got the direct object. What's the direct object's role in a sentence? The direct object's role in a sentence is that he's simply proud to be part of the sentence. He doesn't do anything. Direct object, just hanging on to the end of the sentence. That's what a direct object does.
So here's the sentence. God saves me. God did the work. God initiated the work. He's the actor. He does the action. And I do nothing but receive that.
Here's what we're saying. God saved us. By saved, we mean He delivered us from our sin. Interesting phrase in there, abolished death. Well, wait a minute, we're going, abolished death, there are people dying all over. There are a hundred, what did I read the other day? Was it 10,000 or 1,000, either way? I think it's 1,000 World War II veterans dying every day. We have hundreds of thousands of people dying around the planet every day. Abolished death, not physical death, abolished spiritual death. For those whom God saved will never experience eternal separation from Him.
Salvation By Grace, Not Works
God saved us. Why? Not according to our work. This is a huge deal. How come you're a Christian today? Because of your works? Are you going to stand before God one day and say, let me tell you something, God, I went to church every day. I was around every... God, I gave you money, I was involved in church, I was a servant, I was a good person. I paid my taxes, voted Republican. I did it all. I did everything I was supposed to do, everything I could do, God. I did it all.
He's going to say, no, that's not why you're saved. You're saved, it's in there, for my purpose and my pleasure. This is an incredible concept and really interesting because this gets into doctrines that are kind of sticky wickets for some people. This leads us into areas like election and predestination. What the Scripture teaches, by the way, very clearly, is that God saves. God chooses. You don't choose Him. There's a point at which you come to that choice, but
you come to that choice only because He gave you new life. That choice is a result of God putting that choice in your heart. So we get into all these deep questions. Nobody argues from the Scripture, but argue, "Well, why didn't God save Aunt Mary?" That's not the question. The question is, why did He save you? Because there was nothing good in you.
You know what this does? This moves you to a spirit of humility and thanksgiving. If you think you chose God, for a long time, here's what I thought. I honestly thought this with all my heart. I thought I chose God. I thought I had a mustard seed of faith. Granted, I didn't do much, but I had the mustard seed. I was pretty proud of that mustard seed. God comes along and says, you couldn't even have a mustard seed of faith if I didn't give it to you.
Salvation is totally, entirely beginning to end a work of God. God, let me say it again, God's the actor. He saves you. It's the action. You're the direct object. You're just proud to be a part of this whole thing. You're just hanging on.
Our Motivation for Not Being Ashamed
Now He says, there's your motivation. See how He tucks it in here? There's your motivation for not being ashamed. There's your motivation for continuing in the midst of suffering and trials and hardship. God saved you, not because of you, but because of Him. God did all the work. God is the one who called us. God is the one who begins this. God is the one who will finish this.
Verse 12: "For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed." Listen to this: "For I know whom I believe." Isn't it interesting? He doesn't say, "I know what I believe." Some of you, I can get that way. Some of you are very proud of what you believe. You know the book of Romans. Paul wrote the book of Romans. You know these epistles. Paul wrote them. He doesn't say, "I'm really proud and really happy and really content with what I know." He said, "I'm not ashamed because I know whom I believe." I know Christ. I have a personal relationship with Him.
Having known Him, here's what he says, not being ashamed: "I know whom I believe, I am convinced He is able to guard what I've entrusted Him until the day." So I retain the standard of sound words, and so on through the end of this chapter.
What We Entrust to God
He says there's a couple of things. I know, first of all, who I believe, and I know that I can trust Him with the things I've given to Him. What has Paul entrusted to Him? Well, he's entrusted today. Doesn't every day start that way? Don't we start the day by saying, "Father, all that I am, all that I have, it's Yours. God, it's Yours. We want You to have this. We understand it's Yours. I'm here to serve You."
Ultimately, in the context for us, we've trusted not just today to Him, but we've trusted our future to Him. We say, "God, we don't know what this future holds. We don't know if we're going to be here a day, a year, decades. We don't know. God, we've trusted You with our life." We plan. We're diligent. We trust You with our life.
But ultimately, we've trusted Him with our soul. Ultimately, what we're saying is, there's this point. I was talking to a guy the other day that was at a funeral, and these funerals are very interesting, and I presume you get the opportunity to go to some. It is amazing how quickly they get these people to heaven, especially these people that clearly aren't going there. The guy leading the service the other day said, "I know that Robert is in heaven tonight mixing cocktails with God."
The Seriousness of Eternity
Well, let's run down this list. I'm sensing that may not be true. I'm sensing Robert's in hell, and God's not in heaven mixing cocktails. See, there's a whole... this is serious. This guy walked away and he said, "This is so sad." He said, "You had people in there actually buying into this thing, actually going, 'He was a great guy and he was a lot of fun.'" Man, this is serious. This is serious. Stop! There's hell at the end of this. There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. We aren't just playing around with this.
Paul says, "I'm trusting Him. I'm pursuing Him. I can't wait for the day when I get my crown of righteousness, and you can too." That's all done by God's work. That's all done by what God does. See how He ties it all together? I'm saved by what God did. I know who I believe. I've trusted Him with today. I've trusted Him with my future on this earth. I've trusted Him for my future in heaven.
Trusting God with Our Past
Let me give you one more component to this. Paul's also trusted Him with his past. I deal with so many people who became Christians as adults. I am one of those. I spent 30 years of my life just fiddling away, just wasting time, drinking and messing around and just kind of slopping around through life. There are points. I had this great... This is one of my favorite stories too.
I was teaching a Sunday school class once, and it was a big Sunday school class, and we had this guy at the door, and he was the antithesis of me. He was real nice and real cheery and real upbeat and all this stuff. So every day, he's like, whatever. So I'm coming in one day, and he said, "It's going to be a great day." I said, "It's going to be a great day." He said, "Special surprise today." I said, "Really, what is it?" He said, "There is a girl here, just came in, she's visiting, who says she went to high school with you."
I said, "Oh, I don't know. I don't feel good. I'm not... I don't... Somebody else. Here are my notes. Good luck." Because all that does is conjure up a lot of that past and a lot of those ugly things. So many people that I meet, especially non-Christians, but even some Christians, are just being held hostage to that stuff in their past, spending hours, and going to see these guys, only cured when their insurance benefits run out, to just go through the past over and over and over and over and over again.
In a sad way, you even become comfortable there. Because as painful as it may be, at least we're talking about your favorite subject, you. As screwed up as you may be as you diagram it, at least you're talking about me.
Have you noticed how people love to do that? It is amazing to me, as I travel, on planes, in airports, how often I'll say to somebody, "What do you do? Tell me about your life." And how often they never say to me, "What about you?" Or how easily I can say, "Well, I do some stuff in Phoenix, tell me again about your family." They don't care. They want to talk about themselves. Even if they've got to pay a guy $150 an hour to sit there and go, "Uh-huh, uh-huh, really? How did you feel? Our time is up, we'll see you next week." And you go away, and you feel no better.
You know why? There's no power in that. John Daly, when he was in town, talking about how he's drinking again, and talking about all this counseling—and I don't think John Daly's a Christian—but listening to John Daly and just talking about how empty that was and how senseless that was, sure it is. Because all they're doing is telling you to unlock the giant within you and talking to you about the power that you have. You don't have any power. The you that got you into this mess is not the you that can get you out of it.
The Power That Comes Through Christ
You need to understand the power that comes through knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Paul says, "I've entrusted Him with my today, with my future here, ultimately with my future in heaven," which is the most important of any of this. But Paul also says, "I've trusted Him with my past."
Here's what he says in Philippians 3: "I forget what lies behind." Now there's a healthy sense—we need to remember how sinful we can be. I'm not having any problem with that. I'm talking about being enchained to that past.
When I became a Christian in March of 1980, I went through three or four months where all I did was look back and say, "Look at the people I've hurt, and look at the time I've wasted for 30 years." And finally one day I realized, there's nothing I can do about this. Why am I wasting one ounce of energy on this when there's nothing I can do? I might as well try to wish this sun not come up through these blinds. I can't stop it. But I can take captive my thoughts and my life for the day, and I can entrust my life to Him and move forward. Isn't that amazing?
You Can Do This Work Too
Let me remind you this one more time as we close. I'm sure that many of you look at that and go, "Wow, I read that. I would have never gotten this stuff out of there." No you wouldn't, until you start to work. I did nothing today that you can't do on your own if you go study. You can do this stuff with the right tools and begin to apply. In fact, you can do it better than I do it. I believe that. You just need to go and you need to work at it.
Looking Ahead to Practical Application
So Paul gives us a lot of what we might call theory. Now He moves in chapter two to some really practical application. He starts to use illustrations from everyday life. He starts to talk about farmers, and He talks especially about a soldier. And one of my favorite verses is a verse we'll look at next week. I can't wait to get there. We'll see you then.
Father, please help us apply this to our life. Help us understand the truth of this. God, would you please help us understand that we can entrust you with today, with our future, ultimately with our future being secured in heaven. God, don't let us be ashamed, but let us be bold and firm. Let us understand the assignment you have for us. Let us execute it in love. Let us not be afraid in the face of suffering and trials. We pray that to you in Jesus' name. Amen.