Empowered to Endure: Embracing the Gospel's Call

For God gave us a spirit not a fear but of power and love and self-control therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me his prisoner but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works but because of his own purpose and Grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. [00:01:04]

The power not to be great but the power to keep on when tempted to quit or to flounder and fail and there's going to be plenty that is before Timothy that will be so daunting to him that it will be important that he reminds himself again and again of this word of encouragement God did not give me a spirit of fear he will have occasion to say to himself but a spirit a spirit of power a spirit of love. [00:03:41]

Paul says you need to know that man in his wisdom does not find God it's not possible for that to take place and in the wisdom of God the world did not know him through human wisdom so how does a man or a woman come to know him he says through the Folly of what we preach because the message of Jesus Christ which we preach he says is a stumbling block to Jews and a Folly to gentiles for the foolishness of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger than man. [00:07:56]

Paul's concern is not only for the preservation of the Gospel but it's also for the progress of the Gospel and he realizes that humanly speaking Timothy has a pivotal role in this move from the apostolic to the post-apostolic church and therefore the call that he issues to not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord is a call that was a necessary call and it is one that reverberates down through time and remains as necessary today. [00:08:48]

William Booth who was the founder of the Salvation Army who had come out of a background of methodism and decided that this good news of the Gospel was important to be conveyed to a man I saw that he might discover the reality of who Jesus is and that he might also be helped with his physical and practical needs but as he was about to go the way of All Flesh and as the transition into the 20th century was about to take place they they asked William Booth what do you consider to be the chief dangers which confront the church in the coming Century that is in the 20th century. [00:12:04]

He was essentially saying if you become ashamed of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ the thing's over just in case you're in any doubt let me go on and quote something else that I had written down here this this is William Booth's perspective to get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a new pair of breaches to give him regular work or even to give him a university education these things are all outside a man and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labor. [00:13:44]

Paul could never be accused of sugarcoating the thing could he there's no he's this is now a soft cell he's on about this from from the very beginning here in verse 8 share in suffering in verse in verse 12. this is why I am suffering in you go into chapter 2 and in verse 3 once again share in suffering as a good soldier verse 9 is back about his own experience for which I am suffering bound with change as a criminal. [00:17:56]

Think about how important it is to understand the nature of the Gospel and to be able to distinguish between a gospel which calls for this kind of commitment where Jesus says if a man wants to be my disciple he should take up his cross every day and come and follow me and if he's not prepared to do that then frankly he shouldn't become my disciple a distinguish between that and a spurious gospel which is out there and there's available routinely. [00:19:14]

The great Promises of the Gospel are going to be fulfilled in the future not in the present now let me say to you again eternal life begins now but the promises of the Gospel are largely content concerned with the future and that is why incidentally this message does not play well to the current generation somebody totally unrelated to this series give me a book this week called families in faith how religion is passed down across Generations. [00:22:52]

The promise of God is that he makes everything beautiful in his time so that all the mountains we've got to climb and all the burdens we've got to bear and all the challenges we've got to take on board I've got to be set within the overarching reality of God's Redeeming Grace some of us need just to lay our burdens down the most worthwhile things in life often only come to flower over a long period of time. [00:35:15]

David Wells in his new book God and the Whirlwind says there are no shortcuts the knowledge of God is a lifetime Pursuit not an instantaneous download the knowledge of God is a lifetime Pursuit not an instantaneous download and part of our problem is that we've been seduced into thinking that it is an instantaneous download and therefore if we can't have it now and if we can't fix it this quickly and if we can't move on then something must be dreadfully wrong no something might be wonderfully right. [00:33:51]

You will even be able to thank God in the midst of pain and distress because you're privileged to share the Lord of those who are living in the light for we must never forget that he rescued us from the power of darkness and re-established us in the Kingdom of his beloved Son that is in the Kingdom of Light for it is by his son alone that we have been redeemed and have had our sins forgiven you see how so very quickly he goes again to the gospel. [00:31:46]