God has a plan for our lives–he made us in a certain way, He gave us the gifts to do certain things, and He has already prepared those things for us to do. Problem is, amidst the day to day grind of life … it’s so easy to lose sight of all that. And when we lose sight of it … we inevitably lose our way

A Different Perspective

It’s such a blessing for me to be able to join you again today at the beginning of a new series and I have called this series, “Rekindling the Flame.” Because, I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get tired. I mean, I love doing what I do – I absolutely love it; wouldn’t be caught dead doing anything else rather than what I am doing right now. But even when we love doing what we are doing; even when we are serving God with all out heart, sometimes we get tired; sometimes we get rundown; sometimes so many things around us seem to be going wrong, that – well, we can lose our drive, or our determination or our direction or our sense of purpose in life. Have you ever found that?

Just this morning I was sitting praying, feeling as though I was getting close to running on empty and asking the Lord to fill me afresh, which He did. But this reality of being drained by life, by service, by all the things that we go through, is the reality that pops up again and again for most of us. Have you noticed that? So that’s why we are going to spend the next few weeks together in God’s Word, letting Him speak to us; letting Him into the deepest and darkest places in our hearts, to rekindle the flame.

And there is no better place to be doing that than the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his young protégé, Timothy. So let’s have a look at how Paul opens up his letter to young Tim. Tim has served with Paul all over the place – in Ephesus as a courier. They wrote a few letters in the New Testament together. So Paul was obviously Timothy’s mentor and as any mentor has for his protégé, Paul had a special place in his heart for Tim.

Why is this significant? Well, as you and I spend the next few weeks in this letter, my prayer is that in this fatherly warmth that we discover from Paul to Timothy, we too will experience the fatherly warmth from our Father God, who is speaking to us through Paul’s powerful words. So, how does Paul kick off the letter? Second Timothy chapter 1, beginning at verse 1:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to God – whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did – when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I want to remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

What a fabulous start! Remember Paul has been through so much in his life so far. He has been beaten, reviled, he has lost his position and status, he has had murder plots against him, riots, been run out of town, had to flee for his life! Unbelievable stuff!! And he starts with a statement, a feisty statement if you will, that his central purpose in life, to be “… an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus.”

Why does he do what he does? To bring the life that comes only through faith in Jesus out into the lost and hurting world in which he lives. The easiest thing for us to do when we are travelling through difficult times is to lose our focus. But nowhere … not once in any of his letters do we see Paul do that. He is called by God to be an Apostle; one sent out to do the will and the work of God.

As we are going to come to see, this whole tension between the trials and temptations and tribulations that we go through on the one hand, and the call of God in our lives on the other can throw us completely off course. That as it turns out, is what this letter to Timothy is all about. Because Paul wants something special for Timothy; his young protégé – there’s a special place in Paul’s heart for young Timothy. He wants a special blessing for this young man:

To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

You see that? Paul wants Timothy to experience grace and mercy and peace from God and this letter is all about showing him how. Paul has been praying for him, even though he himself has been going through some really, really difficult times. Paul recalls the tough times they have been through in Christ’s service together … the tears. And now he takes the opportunity to get Timothy focused on his purpose; focused on his mission.

Rick Warren of Saddleback church in the U.S. is perhaps best known for his book and teaching series “The Purpose Driven Life”. But this isn’t something Rick somehow invented in the twenty first century. He discovered it right back here in the first century through Paul and others who wouldn’t be shaken from the purpose that God had for their lives.

And God has such a purpose, not just for Paul but for Timothy. So Paul reminds him of three things. First: the trouble that God has gone to, to hand a deep and powerful faith down to Timothy:

I am reminded of your sincere faith; a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure, lives in you.

When we are going through tough times, we do well to remember what God has already done in our lives. The faith He has placed in our hearts. And secondly, in light of this faith, Paul calls Timothy to do something amazing, verse 6:

For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

Friend, we each have a gift – something that God has given us, which we can do better than just about anyone else that we know. And how easy is it for that gift, that ability, that dream to become obscured by the cares of this world … the sheer grind of living life? You have such a gift; you have such a dream!

And when you think about it, back in the first century, rekindling something wasn’t that easy. When there were just smouldering embers there, it would require the careful gathering of dry kindling, placing it carefully over the few remaining embers; fanning the flame, seeing it catch to the kindling, placing larger pieces of wood on to it and then even larger, before it again became a raging fire.

That’s what Paul is talking about; that’s what Paul is telling Timothy to do. This is what I believe God is calling us to do. Is it scary? Yes, sure it is. Is it difficult? Well, probably. We can only gather here, because of what Paul is saying, that Timothy was at risk of losing his way; at risk of losing the purpose that God had placed on his life. And Paul knows that what he is asking young Tim to do is a big ask. So the very next thing he says to Timothy. First Timothy chapter 1, verse 7:

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline.

Friend, over the coming weeks we are going to be chatting about rekindling the flame in your heart. Because I believe that many, many people have been drawn away from the purposes of God for their lives, by this imposter called “success”. And I believe with all that I am, that God doesn’t want us to waste our lives. He wants us to fulfil the destiny that He set out for us before any of our days as yet existed.

Don’t be Ashamed

It never ceases to amaze me how different God’s plan for success is, from the world’s plan for success. I mean, you and I, we know the world’s plan all too well. We have it shoved into our faces and dangled under our noses at least a hundred times each day. You are successful if you’re beautiful, if you are wealthy, if you have power and position, if you have a big house or a new shiny car – that’s when you are successful.

Just recently I visited Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, for only the second time in my life. And a good friend of mine, Ben, drove me around to show me the sights. One of the places he took me to was billionaire’s row – a few streets with some of the most expensive houses in the country. Now they were lovely houses but they were absolutely massive. They were built to make a statement. “Look at me; look at what I can afford.”

And this image, this model of success is what we have dangled under our noses so many times each day that, well, it’s very easy to start believing it. And that’s where we can get our wires crossed; that’s where we can start equating the blessing and favour of God with what the world says makes you successful. So then, when things aren’t going so well in our lives; when we are travelling through trials and temptations and sometimes even torment, we can so easily come to the conclusion that, obviously, we must have failed God – obviously He is not pleased with us. Obviously I’m on the wrong path or in the wrong place. Obviously, right?

So instead of pursuing that one gift that God has placed within us; that one call on our lives to go and to be what God made us to be and what God made us to do, it’s so easy to be ashamed of that failure.

I remember when I decided to toss in my rather lucrative career as an International IT and Management Consultant, to go into this full time ministry, one of my colleagues joked with me that I was pursuing a career of genteel poverty. It’s so easy to be ashamed when we are trying to live out our lives for God and things don’t seem to be conforming to the world’s ideas of success, to be pulled off course, to give up, to head off in another direction.

Now, I remember a time – not that long ago – when here at the ministry of Christianityworks, we were doing things really tough financially. Most of the staff hadn’t been paid for a few months and someone said to me, “Berni, maybe it’s God telling you that you are in the wrong place; maybe you are meant to be going back to consulting and earning some serious money; maybe you are doing the wrong thing being in ministry.”

This was the day after a young woman, Ami, who had come to my online blog at the point of suicide, had been pulled back from the brink because I was able to share the Word of God with her – because others who were visiting the blog encouraged her and prayed for her. Just the day before she had been at the point of taking her own life and then she posted this blog – have a listen to this – she said:

“Last night I had my first encounter with God. I could actually feel Him!!! Wow!! Seriously the best feeling ever!! He kept me up practically all night, and unlike last week where I was hiding my face in my pillow so my parents wouldn’t hear me crying, last night I was hiding my face in my pillow so that my laughter wouldn’t wake them up. I kept bursting out in laughter and song and dance while lying in my bed. I’d been crying out to Him for so long to let me feel His love and His presence and He finally answered me. I have never felt this good in my life. It is awesome!! Thank you all for your prayers and your words of encouragement and Yay! to God!!!”

So, listen, go tell Ami that we are in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing. You see how easy it is to be misled – to be drawn away from God’s greater purposes by mistaking a worldly idea of success for the real thing?

Now, this is nothing new! And as the Apostle Paul was encouraging his protégé, Timothy, to rekindle the gift that God had placed within him, Paul takes the trouble to talk about this whole tension around success and how you and I can be ashamed. Second Timothy chapter 1, beginning at verse 8. Paul says, look:

Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about your Lord or of me as a prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purposes and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel; this good news, that’s why I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am absolutely sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.

Paul suffered in order to bring the Good News of Jesus to a lost and hurting world. And before him, Jesus suffered. Jesus became an abject failure that you and I might have eternal life. We are not here to be successful in the world’s eyes. We are not here to get the glory. The one place that I have discovered real fulfilment and real joy and real satisfaction and real life is in taking that one thing that God’s given me – the ability to tell a story for Him and using that gift in the way that I am right now.

There’s an alternative … a clear alternative to chasing after the world’s brand of success. There is a true way; not a way that crosses the wire that equates worldly success with godly success, but a narrow road; an often times difficult road – a road full of trials and temptations that every Christ-follower is called to take. And that way is a way that Paul shared with Timothy as he was travelling through his own trials. Second Timothy chapter 1, beginning at verse 13. Paul said, look:

Hold onto the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. You are aware that all who are in Asia have turned away from me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he has often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me – may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well how much service he rendered in Ephesus.

See, everyone has deserted Paul in his trials and his afflictions, except one man. Everyone has gone a different way and in the face of all that, what does Paul do? Does he take the easy road? Does he chase after the mob? Does he go after public opinion? Does he renounce Christ? Does he base his actions on the opinion polls? No! He writes to his dear friend Timothy and says, “Look, their opinions aren’t worth anything. Stick to God’s Words; stick to the sound teaching of Jesus and guard the good treasure that has been entrusted to you with the help and the power and the grace and the mercy of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.”

Paul isn’t swayed by opinions; Paul isn’t swayed by being locked up in jail and deserted and all the trials he has gone through, he knows he was called to be an Apostle; he knows he was called to be sent out to take the Good News of Jesus to a lost and hurting world. He knows that Timothy was called to be a pastor and a teacher – one called to grow people in their faith and their relationship with God.

And Paul is not ashamed of the fact that he is locked up. He is not ashamed of the fact that he wears chains for Christ’s sake. And he is not thrown off course by some imposter called ‘success’. He counts as nothing what he’s left behind – his seat on the ruling Sanhedrin, the potential to grow a mega following as a leading Rabbi in the sect of the Pharisees. And he presses on to follow his calling to exercise his gifts as an Apostle.

And here’s the thing: two thousand years on, we are still talking about Paul. Two thousand years on, God is still ministering to us through Paul.

The Dream that Died

I want to finish up today by telling you about a woman with a dream; with a special gift that she had been nurturing. When she walks out onto the stage the audience just sneered at her. The judges rolled their eyes. She was forty eight years old by her own admission, never been married, never been kissed, she was unemployed and still looking, her hair was a mess, her bushy eyebrows reminded me powerfully of a forest, she was frumpy as best, her dress looked like something my mother used to wear, back in the sixties.

She had been singing since she was twelve years old, she told us and she had always wanted to sing in front of a large audience. After she pranced out on the stage and did a weird little jig – she was really quite eccentric, you know. One of the judges ask her what she dreamed of becoming. “A professional singer”, she answered. The judges and the audience were incredulous. “And why hasn’t it worked out for you so far?” one of the judges ask her. They all poked fun at her; they were brutal, but she stood her ground.

Again, one of the judges enquired, “What are you going to be singing for us tonight?” “’I Dreamed A Dream’”, from Le Miserables”, she said. And on her thumbs up, the audio technician pressed the button and music began to play. She opened her mouth and began to sing and we were all utterly gobsmacked. She sang with the voice of an angel. She sang with the power and the poise and the presence of a diva, who graced the greatest opera stages of the world all her life.

Words fail me in describing her performance that night. She brought the house down. Her name of course, is Susan Boyle – the show was “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2009. And within just a few weeks, just over a hundred million people had watched this video clip on U-tube – a hundred million!!

Now I have watched that video – it’s just seven minutes and seven seconds long. I have watched it on line several times now and not once have I finished with a dry eye. The world wanted to judge this book by its cover. But before she walked out on the stage she told the interviewer, “I am going to make this audience rock.” No one believed her! NO ONE believed her until she opened her mouth to sing these words from the stunning musical, “Le Miserables”.

I can only write them; I can’t sing them to you the way she did. But let the lyrics do their work in your heart anyway. She sang:

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life was worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted.
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted.

But the tigers came at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame.

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Those beautiful words touch us so deeply inside somewhere because they are the story of many a life. We start off with dreams about who we will be and what we will do and … And when we are young, they tend to be bold dreams; noble dreams, altruistic dreams; dreams that find their roots somewhere deep down in our DNA – dreams about living a life that somehow, we are meant to be living.

Friend, that dream comes from God because God made us to be who we are. God made us to do the things that He prepared for us beforehand to do. And, you see, this is why Paul goes to young Timothy. Timothy is ministering in a church – it’s a tough gig. It’s full of trials, it’s full of grind, it’s full of challenges. And the easiest thing in the world would be for Timothy to forget the gift that God gave him – to forget the call that God placed on his life. To wander off and say, “This is just too hard. I’m out of here – I can’t deal with these people.” And so Paul writes to him to remind him to rekindle the gift that God had placed within him through the laying on of Paul’s hands.

Friend, you have a gift. No doubt you have a dream. No doubt, it may be buried under years of neglect, it may be buried under layers of muck, but God has placed a gift in you. God has given you the ability to do something that you can do better than just about anybody else that you know.

And, can I ask you something? Why do you think God put that gift in you? Why do you think God made you a certain way? Let me tell you. Because His plan was always for you to use the gift that He had given you. Not just for yourself but for other people. For you to give that gift away; to touch other people with the love of Christ.

Most of us have a sense that there’s some plan for our lives, some purpose … or at least there’s supposed to be. But the easiest thing in the world for us to do is to be drawn off purpose; to find ourselves living a life that deep down, we know wasn’t the one that we were meant to be living.

A Soldier for Christ

I don’t know if you have been able to join me last week on the programme but we have been chatting about getting back on purpose. You can always tell a Christ-follower who is struggling because that would be the Christ-follower who has been drawn off purpose. They have become overly reactive to their circumstances, chasing after what the world says is the right thing, rather than persevering through the tough times and doing what God has called them to do.

I spent ten years as an officer in the Australian Army and at all levels of leadership, from junior to senior ranks, one of the key principles of war is the selection and maintenance of the aim, in other words – staying on purpose. In other words, knowing which hill it is we are about to capture. And when the bullets start flying and the shells start exploding around you, staying focussed on taking that one hill, which is the reason that we are out here getting shot at in the first place.

It turns out that being a Christ-follower – which is what a disciple is – is exactly about the same thing. And there are far too many who have been drawn off purpose and so have ceased following Jesus. Now, that may seem a little harsh and direct, so humour me and let me unpack that with you.

We are taking another look this week at the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his young protégé, Timothy, because it’s a letter all about maintaining our sense of purpose and focus, remembering what we are here for – despite the bullets that are flying around and the shells that are going off around us, despite our circumstances – be they a mundane grind, be they a challenge or be they wonderful.

Whatever our circumstances are, the easiest thing to do, especially when the going gets tough, is to lose our sense of the purpose for which God made us – what our gift is. And so Paul who himself is chained up in prison, counsels Timothy through that. The two verses that stick out for me are these. Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 6:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God which is within you through the laying on of my hands.

And verse 14:

Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

As I said, it’s the easiest thing in the world to forget the gift that God has placed within us – that one thing that you love doing; that one thing that you are better at than just about anyone else that you know – and to have the treasure stolen from us. God didn’t give us that gift just to bless us. He entrusted this treasure into our care to be good stewards of it – to use it.

But it can be hard to hang onto that gift, that purpose, that treasure when stuff is flying around through the air. So let’s pick up what Paul has to say to Timothy about this very thing. Second Timothy chapter 2, beginning at verse 1:

You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.

Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ. No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier’s aim is to please the enlisting officer. And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the first share of the crops.

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things. Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, a descendant of David – that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the the word of God is not chained.

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.

See, whenever suffering comes, our first instinct is to compare that against what the world says equals success and figure, “Well, I must be failing God somehow.” When we are hurting, we forget that over and over and over again, God’s Word promises that we will suffer, that we will face trials, that He will discipline us. So Paul, on the very premise of that suffering uses three powerful, simple analogies about staying focused on our gifting and our purpose through the suffering.

The first is the soldier who doesn’t get entangled in the day to day affairs of this world but who instead stays focused on what the enlisting officer wants him to do. The second is the athlete who can’t win the prize unless he actually competes according to the rules. And the third is the farmer who does the word who is then entitled to his first share of the reward.

In each case it’s the same thing: it’s about staying focussed on the end game – through the suffering and the battle and the hard work and the training and the ploughing and the planting, in order to be who we were meant to be; to do what we were meant to do and ultimately, to reap the reward of having stayed the distance.

Do you see the heavenly perspective – the eternal dimension? Paul is helping Timothy to take a step back and to see the bigger picture because when we are suffering our eyes are cast down to focus on the immediate. And then Paul goes on to speak of the power of that endurance – the powerful outcome in bringing people to God and ultimately, being accepted into the Kingdom of God with eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Time and time again I see people giving up because it’s tough. I see people pulled off purpose because it’s all gotten just too hard. And the picture that the Lord has given me is when I am following Jesus down that dusty road, sometimes it’s a lonely road – when it gets hard and I see other people pulling off to the left or to the right, parking on the side of the road, even turning around and turning back, I should keep going, following Jesus, even if I am completely alone, save for His presence.

The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure with him, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.

Let me encourage you to take God’s Word into your heart today. If it’s all too hard; if every fibre of your being is screaming at you, saying, “Stop, turn back, give up, don’t keep following Jesus. It’s too hard; it’s hurts too much …” You know what I am talking about! Take heart here from Paul’s counsel:

Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier’s aim is to please the enlisting officer. And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the first share of the crops.

Remember, when Paul wrote this to Timothy, he was sitting in a prison, he was chained up; he was in the worst of all circumstances, he was waiting to be executed and still he says, “Look, forget about your circumstances – don’t focus on them – remember what God made you to do.”‘

Rekindle the gift that is within in you through the laying on of my hands. Guard the treasure that has been given to you through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

With everything he is, Paul is saying to Timothy and I believe God is saying to you and me – don’t stop, don’t give up, keep going and do the things that you know God has called you to do.

A Firm Foundation

You and I, we manage to find all kinds of ways to … to wander away from that plan and then to miss out on the joy and the fulfilment that lies in God’s plans and God’s purposes for our lives. And one of the ways that that gift grows cold and the treasure wastes away is that we allow the little foxes into our lives – and it’s those little foxes that spoil the vine.

Most of us have this idea that there are these really big sins and then there are small sins. The big sins are like sexual immorality, adultery, murder, theft – they are up there on our hierarchy as being amongst the real “biggies”. But a bit of anger, or some arguing, or maybe this idea or that idea we get into our heads that doesn’t quite fit with God’s Word – hey, we all have that. They are the little sins. And as long as we keep away from the big ones, hey, who cares about the little ones? We may not ever have quite put it in those terms, but that’s how most of us think and operate.

But let me say this: the Bible knows nothing of this human hierarchy of sin. To God, sin is sin – it’s missing the mark, it’s missing the point for our lives. Now we can miss by a little way, or we can miss by a long way – but missing is missing, right? And so as Paul counsels Timothy about rekindling his gift and staying focussed on the purposes that God has set before him, he actually takes some time to deal with sins, many of which appear to be the little ones. Let’s have a listen. Second Timothy chapter 2, beginning at verse 14:

“Remind them of this,” he says to Timothy, “and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but ruins those who are listening. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.

Avoid profane chatter, for it will lead people into more and more impiety, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, claiming that the resurrection has already taken place. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness.”

So here Paul is telling Timothy how to shepherd his flock. And the big thing he is on about is to warn them to stop wrangling over words – to avoid profane chatter. Well, what’s the big deal here? Can’t people have an opinion? Can’t there be healthy debate? Smack bang here in Paul’s exhortation for Timothy to stay focussed; to rekindle that gift that God has placed within him; to guard the treasure that God has entrusted to him, why would Paul seemingly go off on this tangent, telling Timothy to tell his flock to be careful about what they say and who they listen to? Because it’s the little foxes that spoil the vine. Or to use Paul’s analogy here, this loose talk will spread like gangrene. Yuck! Okay, what loose talk?

It’s talk about the most important thing of all – truth. What’s true and what’s not. It seems there were some people with some rather long and difficult to pronounce names wandering around spreading the lie that the resurrection of the believers had already taken place – which, when you think about it, seems a bit silly, because by definition, the people spreading the rumours had missed out. Right?!

So what is Paul’s point here to Timothy and why, 2000 years on, are we talking about this, when the main topic of our conversation over these weeks is staying focussed on the plan that God has for our lives? Well, the answer is really simple. I have seen so many people led astray by others who throw a red herring into the conversation about truth and then people go chasing after that red herring and before you know it, instead of being focussed on what God’s calling them to be and to do, they’re off on a tangent, miles from where God wants them to be.

I know one man who spends his life being ultra critical of church structures. In his view, there shouldn’t be any leaders – we are all equals and there shouldn’t be a preacher, we should all just kind of sit around and chat together about the Word of God and debate it. So, when over coffee I have asked him to tell me where in God’s Word he comes up with that, he kind of fluffs around and gets back to his theme and … You know, this guy hardly ever comes to church and hardly ever participates in any sense of community.

Now it’s really sad, because he is a clever guy and in many respects, he is a delightful human being with so much to offer the rest of us. What he should be doing is offering his gift, his ability, his unique contribution to the body of Christ. But instead, he is off on some theory that ain’t in the Bible and he’s missing out on what God has planned for him.

Friend, we can pick holes in just about anything and let me tell you, church … church being full of a bunch of sinners on a journey, like you and me, is the easiest thing of all to pick holes in, let me tell you. But what happens when we do that is that, it’s like gangrene –it ends up robbing us of life.

The Good News of Jesus is pure and simple.

God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that whoever believes in Him won’t perish but will have eternal life!

That’s the firm foundation here. The firm foundation is that God knows which one of us belongs to Him and which one of us doesn’t. And when we belong to God because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we’re not there to argue about this or that or pick holes in this or that – you know what I’m saying?! That takes us way, way, way off course. That’s not how we rekindle the gift that God has put within us. That’s not how we make an impact in other people’s lives for Christ. That’s not how rivers of living water flow out through our hearts.

Let me encourage you today. If you are off on some “thing”, if you have a bee in your bonnet about this thing or that thing, take the bonnet off, let the bee out and get back to a firm foundation in Christ – by reading His Word, praying, learning, growing and serving, using your special gift and ability. For some people today it’s time to get your life back on track.

Set Apart for a Special Purpose

On the one hand, the world is always shouting at us that we’re special; that we deserve the best; that we should pamper ourselves and aspire to achieving this and aspire to achieving that. By and large, it’s the advertising industry reaching into our desire for significance. You realise though, that what they’re really doing is playing on our insecurities in order to get us to part with our hard earned cash, because, quite obviously, whatever it is that they are selling will help us to feel secure. Of course, it never does and so they try and sell us the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, which is how the whole system works.

The result of this inexorable cycle is that most of us don’t think we are anything special at all. And most of us have so much of the world’s dirt sprayed all over us, that any specialness we may have had, ends up being obscured – hidden under this layer of muck.

And yet, in each one of us there is something special. Let me say that again: in each one of us there is something special; something very special. Not because you or I happen to be super clever and we put it there. Paul tells us that he knows that in his flesh – in his human character – there is nothing good in there; he is rotten to the core. But the reason there is something special in us is because you and I are made in God’s image and He has given each one of us a special gift or ability to use for His glory – if only we can find it amidst all the … the muck.

And He made each one of us to be an absolutely perfect match, for what He has planned for us to do. Someone whose call in life is to work with kids is going to have a special mix of compassion and teacher and encourager in their makeup. And because that’s how they’ve been wired, they are going to absolutely love working with children every day. Whereas, that would drive me absolutely bonkers!

Now this is not just me saying this; it’s in God’s Word. God has brought us into His Kingdom through Jesus Christ, not just to bless us but to let our gifts and our abilities be blessings to other people. Have a listen – Ephesians chapter 2, beginning a verse 8:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is a gift from God – not the result of your works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus to do the good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to walk into.

So God has done this … this amazing act of grace by saving us from the death that is certainly coming through our sin. It is a glorious act of mercy and anyone who has received that mercy, man, we should be dancing in the streets. It wasn’t through our works, but it was a free gift from God so that none of us may boast. In fact, what He did was create us in Christ Jesus – we are what He made us to be and He created us with a purpose for the good works which He had already prepared beforehand for us to do.

So who we are and what He has made us to be, fit like a hand in a glove. But then having been saved, as we saw earlier, we seem to want to kind of fall straight back into our own ways. It’s like we have been led out of the mud, washed clean and then we want to race straight back and roll around in the mud again. We’re pretty good at it, actually! And as Paul sets out to teach Timothy, when we do that, well, we are hampering God’s plan for our lives. Have a listen to this sobering instruction from the old Apostle to his young protégé. Second Timothy chapter 2, beginning at verse 20:

In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for special use, some for ordinary. All who cleanse themselves of the things I have mentioned will become special utensils, dedicated and useful to the owner of the house, ready for every good work. So shun youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth and that they may escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

You know the picture that Paul wants to paint here for me? It’s that picture of a special vessel – clean and pure in God’s hands, made of gold and silver, being used by God to pour God’s Spirit and God’s love and God’s mercy and God’s grace into the life of another. I can’t go past that picture. To be such a utensil in the hands of God is just the most awesome thing. But some … you see, some utensils are clean and so they are special utensils and others are not and so they are just for ordinary day to day use.

And then again, Paul goes on to list what appears to be an excerpt from a “B” list of sins: youthful passions, stupid and senseless controversies and goes on and says, don’t murder and commit adultery and steal. But sin is sin and all sin acts as a snare of the devil and so renders us unfit for use as a special vessel.

God is looking, my friend, for men and women who are mature in Christ: those who pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace from a pure heart; those who are kind, correcting people with gentleness. That’s the sort of person that God is looking for to be a special utensil in His mighty and powerful hands. Because if we are dirty on the inside, He can’t use a dirty vessel to pour His love and mercy and power and grace and joy and peace out on someone else, can He? It’s obvious!

So here’s the sobering thing that God wants to say to you and to me today: we may well have a dream; we may well be aware of the gift that God has placed within us; we may have a great hold on the purpose that He has for our lives but persistent sin is going to hamper that plan. It’s going to hold us back from being a special vessel, set apart for a special purpose.

And friend, only God can clean us through our faith in Jesus as He forgives us, as He wipes our slate clean and through the Holy Spirit whom He would place in each believer as He grows us and matures us to make us ever cleaner; ever more fit to be used for this special purpose as a special utensil in the hands of God.

Some people today are missing out on living their dream. They’re missing out on exercising their gifts and seeing it having an impact on other people’s lives because they haven’t cleansed themselves through faith in Jesus Christ and through cold, hard, brutal repentance, turning away from their sin and turning back towards God.

And that – let me tell you – that is so sad!

It’s one thing to have a God-given gift or ability – we all do. It’s another thing entirely to use that gift for His glory when we’re facing stiff opposition in life. When everybody and everything seems to be against us. Right there in that place is where we want to give up.

Rediscovering the Gift

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been chatting about “Rekindling the Flame”; the passion in our hearts for being about the business that God has left us here on earth for – His business, God’s business. Many, many Christians love Jesus, they want to follow Him but they’ve lost their way. Not so much because they don’t love the Lord but because the way they spend their life and their resources and their time isn’t what God had intended.

What we believe and what we do are meant to be linked. That’s why faith without works is dead. What does that mean? It means that if we believe something with all our hearts and yet we fail to live it out with our lives eventually what we believe will start to die. And that’s what’s happening for many people who set out on this journey of loving God and following Jesus. Their faith has started to die because they’ve lost focus on what they’re meant to be doing.

Interesting how that strikes home. Interesting how we sometimes focus on our faith and forget about living it out. And then we wonder why our faith is dwindling, why we feel like a rudderless ship on an ocean being tossed this way and that way. Now can I say that’s something that many people go through so this week we’re continuing on our journey of “Rekindling the Flame” by opening up the second letter that the wise old Apostle Paul wrote back in the first century to his young protégé Timothy.

It seems that young Tim was having the same problem. Timothy was pastoring a Church and as anyone who’s ever tried to do that will tell you, that quite simply is not an easy job. And there are two verses in particular that really leapt out for me in what Paul was saying to Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6. He says:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that’s within you through the laying on of my hands.

And then down to verse 14:

Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Coming back to this concept that each one of us has been given a special gift or ability by God, it’s been handcrafted into our DNA by God Himself and He’s done that with a purpose. In Timothy’s case that gift was preaching and teaching so I guess I relate really well to what Paul is saying to young Timothy in this letter and clearly Timothy was finding things tough.

He was facing quite a bit of opposition from all sorts of people. And when things are tough it’s so easy for us to lose focus; it’s so easy to forget that God has given us a special gift, that God means for us to exercise and to use that gift, that God’s plans and purposes for this world and for the people around us and indeed for you and for me are intricately linked to the exercising of that special gift or ability that He’s given each one of us.

Is that really true, you might ask? Do I really have a gift and is it really important in the scheme of things? My answer to that is, “Absolutely you do!” and “Absolutely it is!”

Today we’re going to journey off to somewhere else to another letter of Paul’s, indeed his letter to the Roman Church. And I want to share with you this passage that you might find familiar because while I was reading it the other day something leapt off the page for me and into my heart, something that I’d never seen before despite the fact that I’ve written a whole book that revolves around this particular passage. Have a listen. It begins in Romans chapter 12, verse 4. Paul writes:

For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same functions so we who are many are one in the body of Christ and individually we’re members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exalter in exaltation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness. Let love be genuine, hate what’s evil, hold fast to what’s good, love one another with mutual affection, outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord.

Now what this is all about here is explaining how we, as men and women and children who love Jesus, should live together in a fellowship, in a community of faith. That’s how God changes us, that’s how God transforms us – in community. But how does that community function? Well quite simply Paul’s saying, “Guys we’re all different, one of you has been put there by God to speak His will into the community of faith, that’s what prophecy is. Another has been put there to minister or to serve, another to teach, another to exalt or encourage, another to give, another to lead, another to show compassion.”

You look at that list of seven gifts and it’s pretty comprehensive, it’s the way things are meant to be. But that’s not so much the angle that I want to come at this particular passage from today. As I said, I’ve written a whole book about this to help people locate their particular motivational gifting or as we might call it today their personality type. But will you please notice with me what Paul says that each of the people with each of these different gifts should be doing and we all have at least one of these gifts in our make up.

The prophet should do what? Prophecy according to his or her faith. The minister or the server should do what? Minister and serve. The teacher should do what? Teach. The leader should lead diligently, the giver should give generously. The one with compassion should show compassion with cheerfulness. In other words live out your particular gift, do what God made you to do. Do you see that in the text? It’s right here in front of us. God is commanding us to live out who He made us to be.

Why are so many people unhappy? Well simple, they’re trying to be someone else. They’re trying to do things they were never made to do. And it’s by living out this one particular gift that we’ve been given that we show genuine love and notice with me how Paul finishes this particular passage off, verse 11:

Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord.

Be zealous; be ardent in using your particular gift to serve God. Why are so many of us finding it hard to live out our faith? Why have so many lost the passion? Why has the flame gone out in so many a Christ followers’ heart? Because we’ve stopped living out the gift that God has given us to live out. It’s something we all struggle with. Timothy was struggling with it which is why Paul writes to him to remind him, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6:

Rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

And friend today God is reminding you, it’s time to get back in focus, it’s time to get back on purpose because God’s plan to bring this lost and hurting world back to Him includes you, it includes me and it includes our gifts, our abilities, Gods plan is to work through the person He’s made you to be, to work through the person He’s made me to be to share His mighty love with the people in our lives. That my friend is God’s plan.

In the Face of Opposition

I don’t know if you’ve picked this up in life but life ain’t always easy! Have you noticed that? We kind of figure to ourselves it should be, at least it should be easier than what it is. And yes there are some great things that happen in life, there really are but there’s always something there, some adversity that seemingly takes the shine off things. And I’ll tell you what that does to us. It discourages us, it starts to tear away at the hopes and the dreams that we had for our lives.

I have a dear friend Keith (and in fact Keith and I have written a book together) and his particular gifting is to be a teacher. Now he’s not the sort of teacher that stands up in front of a classroom and lectures, that’s not Keith. He’s more your life coach. Not a self-appointed franchise-owning life coach like those you find on the internet, but a naturally gifted life coach.

People come to him naturally for advice and encouragement and he helps them to understand their own giftings and their abilities to get their lives back on the right track. This is a God-given gift that Keith has and his hopes and his dreams for the rest of his life rests on this foundation of his gifting. It’s part of who he is. He understands that, he knows the stuff he’s not good at and loves, absolutely loves doing the things that he’s good at.

Back in the 1980’s he had a surfing accident, broke his neck and he was almost killed firstly by the surfing accident and secondly when the rescue helicopter crashed and some days Keith today still suffers terrible migraine headaches, totally debilitating. I phoned him the other day and he sounded like death warmed up. He told me later that he really thought he was going to die that day that the pain was so bad.

Here’s the thing about Keith, the adversity doesn’t distract him from living out that special gift of teaching and encouragement that God has given him. The adversity doesn’t rob him of the dreams he has for blessing other people through his God given gift.

Do you remember last week we chatted about this whole gifting thing through the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his young protégé Timothy who is struggling amidst the adversity of pastoring a growing Church and who was at risk of losing sight of his God-given gift. Why? Well adversity has a way of tearing away at you so let’s take a look at the adversity by listening to what Paul writes to Timothy. If you have a Bible grab it. I’m reading here from 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 1:

You must understand this (writes Paul) that in the last day distressing times will come for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of Godliness but denying it’s power.

Avoid them for among them are those who make their way into the households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, who are always being instructed but can never arrive at the knowledge of the truth. As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses so these people of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith also oppose the truth. But they will not make much progress because as in the case of those two men their folly will become plain to everyone.

Notice how Paul kicks this off. You have to understand this that in the last day distressing times will come. It seems that Timothy, maybe a bit like you and me wasn’t expecting adversity. It’s not something we hope for or look out for and invariably one of adversity’s biggest impacts on us is the sense of surprise. But Paul’s saying, “Look young man, don’t be surprised, this is the reality, this is what is going to happen to you.”

I mean what a litany of horrible things that people do. Do you expect to find those people in your Church or in your family or in your circle of friends or in your workplace? Is that what we expect? No. But Paul’s saying, “Don’t be surprised, they’re there and more often than not they’re a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing, they hold to the outward form of godliness but they deny its power.”

In other words they’re going to pretend that they’re holier than thou but in reality they’re out there to tear you down because on the inside they deny the power of God. And it’s in this context, in this reality, in this opposition that Paul says to Timothy:

It’s for this reason that I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that’s within you through the laying on of my hands: Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit who’s living in us.

Do you see this? Adversity isn’t our excuse to give up on doing good. Adversity and criticism and opposition don’t give us cause to give up using our God-given gifts to love and to bless and to encourage and to comfort and to lead those around us. To the contrary, it’s the reality in which we live and it’s because of that reality that Paul is calling Timothy and I believe that God is calling you and me to rekindle the flame, to rekindle the gift that He has placed within each one of us.

And that’s what I want to encourage you to do today because I know without a shadow of a doubt that for some the dream of using their gift has grown cold. I know without a shadow of a doubt that there are some who’ve pulled off the path that God has chosen for them because it’s all just too hard because people are criticising us, people are coming against us and they hold us back and all that stuff.

Imagine for a moment, just imagine where you and I would be today if Jesus had turned back from the cross because it was all too hard. Adversity is the very place where you and I are called to grow and to exercise our gift because here’s the thing, the gift we have is from God, that one special ability that we have to make a difference in other people’s lives invariably turns out expressing the love of God to other people who benefit from that God given gift.

Whether as in Keith’s case as he coaches people back onto the path that God has for their lives or as in my case as I use my gift of story telling to share the good news of Jesus with you and others or as in your case as you use that special gift that Gods given you to bless other people.

The Foundation of God’s Word

One of the people with whom I have been greatly blessed in my life is my good friend and mentor Graham. Graham would be twenty something years older than me I guess, we first met when he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian army and I was a brash young Captain. We hit it off and within a few years he and I and a couple of other ex military sorts were involved as partners in a management and IT consulting firm. So for almost two decades I worked with Graham and benefited so much from his great wisdom and insight.

To this day he’s seriously one of the wisest men that I have ever met and if you’re a regular listener to this program much of the wisdom that I’m able to share with you came through the experience of my friendship with Graham and now in my fifties as I reflect on life I realise that none of us can do it all on our own. We need to be surrounded by wisdom from somewhere else.

When the going gets tough and we’re tempted to race off in this direction or that having some wise, trusted counsellor close by, well you can’t put a price on that, you just can’t. And as we continue our look today at rekindling the gift that God’s placed in each one of us I’d really like to chat about that some more with you. Because when the going gets tough and we’re tempted to pull off the path that God has prepared for us to use our God given gift for His glory then right there in that place we need some good advice.

As we saw before the break Timothy was going through some tough times and it was for this reason that Paul reminded him to rekindle the gift of God that was within him through the laying on of Paul’s hands. Because God doesn’t want us to stop using the gift that He’s given us. Well that’s all good in theory I guess but when we’re in the heat of the battle, when emotion and exhaustion and misinformation is all around, when the fog of war envelops us how do we stay on track? What do we do to maintain the course that the Lord our God has set for us?

Well that’s the question that Paul now goes on to answer for Timothy. I’m reading now from 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 10. Paul writes:

You’ve observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings, the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured yet the Lord rescued me from them all. Indeed all who want to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted but wicked people and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.

But as for you continue in what you’ve learned and firmly believe, knowing from whom you’ve learnt it and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.

Well it goes back to what I was saying earlier on about having a mentor and in this case the first thing that Paul says to his protégé Timothy is “Look remember me, remember your mentor, remember the things you saw me doing through the trials and persecution, trials and persecution by the way that you’re going to go through too because we all do. Timothy follow my example”, says Paul.

As I look around and look back on my journey God’s put some of those people in my life too. Graham of course, who I mentioned earlier; Phil the pastor of the first Church I ever attended. What a powerful example that humble man has been in my life and several others and these are people who have acted as, well a signpost in my life keeping me on track to use the gifting that God has entrusted to me.

Were any of them perfect? Well of course they weren’t and yet God used them so mightily in my life. To tell you the truth I simply wouldn’t be here with you today had He not put these people along my path because I’m sure I would have wandered off in completely the wrong direction and the second thing, the second thing that God calls us to use powerfully to stay on course is His Word, the Word of God.

But as for you continue in what you have learned and firmly believe knowing from whom you learnt it and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

So many people imagine that they can follow Jesus without reading His Word the Bible for themselves. I’m sorry if you’re one of those who subscribe to that school of thought but it’s just plain wrong. God’s gone to an enormous amount of trouble to preserve with unparallel degrees of accuracy the sixty six books of the Old and New Testament so that you and I will what? Use them as a door stop or an ornament or something in the cupboard? No. So that you and I will open them up and read them and allow God to transform our lives through His wisdom and His counsel.

We set off on the journey of life where we hoist the sails of the good ship “my life” and sail off on this beautiful calm sea with the sun sparkling and all of a sudden a storm hits, all of a sudden the winter of life hits and all of a sudden we are drawn off course. God’s Word is the compass that keeps us going in the direction that God wants us to go.

Friend as I often say you can’t even make it through kindergarten on a twenty or thirty minute teaching session once a week. So what do we Christians imagine that we can do that, make it through life, make it through the storms, make it through the blue sparkling ocean that’s turned into this black foaming cauldron based on one short sermon on a Sunday. Come on, we can’t.

The Lord our God is so passionate about seeing you rekindle the gift that He’s placed within you and me, rekindle the gift that He’s placed within me, He is so passionate, He knows the adversity, He spoke through Paul, we’re all going to travel through persecution. Anyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

But as for you continue in what you’ve learned and firmly believe knowing from who you learnt it and how from childhood you’ve known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

God has put His Word in your hands so that you can continue on the course that He has charted for you through this life and into life eternal with Jesus. He has given us signposts, Godly men and women and above all He has given us His Word to keep us on His path.

Doesn’t matter what our gig is in life, when we choose to use that God-given gift specifically to honour God, to bless other people, on thing’s for certain – the going’s going to get tough.We’re going to hit opposition. And if that goes on for any length of time, the one thing that we really want to do, is just to give up.

Keep Shining

Over these last few weeks, we have been chatting about rekindling the gift that God has put within each one of us. And you know the exciting thing about that? When we use our gifts – I mean, when we take the things that we have been given in our makeup and put them to work, it is so incredibly satisfying.

I know myself, one of the things I really enjoy doing is playing the piano. In my younger years I practised hard all the scales and the arpeggios and sat the exams – practical and theory – but when I moved away from my parents’ home I went years – probably twenty years – without playing the piano much at all. Eventually my mother gave me the grand piano we had out in the music room and when it arrived in my home I started playing it again. These days it sits in my study where I pray, where I write my books, where I prepare these radio messages and a few times each day I will go and play for ten minutes or so. It’s just such a delight and a joy to be able to do that.

Now, that’s just one small example, almost trivial. But as we have been chatting about these last few weeks, I know I’ve been emphasising the fact that our God-given gift is meant to be a blessing to other people. I’m blessed through your gifting; the things that you can do that I can’t, and hopefully, you are blessed through mine. That’s how it’s supposed to work and it does.

But there is something so incredibly special about the enjoyment and the fulfilment that we get when we use our gift and we see it impact in other peoples’ lives. All my life I was looking for fulfilment in the things that I could get but I didn’t realise that fulfilment only really comes when we take what we already have and we give it away when we use it to bless other people.

About eighteen months ago a young teenager from a broken home contacted me in response to one of these radio messages that she had heard. She was only thirteen at the time and going through a really terrible time at home. But she also had a hunger for God and so she asked me some questions and I was able to share a few things with her. Within weeks she gave her life to Jesus and she was filled with His Holy Spirit and in the middle of all the bad stuff that happened, she had a joy and an excitement in her that she had never experienced before in her life.

While I was praying for her the other day so I sent her a quick email to find out how she was going. She came straight back to me to tell me she was powering on with God; that her whole life had been changed. Now I had just some small part to play in that but the joy and the sense of satisfaction that I gained from knowing that God had used me – me, of all people!! This fifty two year old man who has never met this young teenager, who isn’t what you would call, made to be involved in youth ministry. It makes me smile.

Does that make sense? It’s so easy to forget that we have to use it and when we do, even though it can be really hard work, it is so fulfilling to use the God-given gift that we have. And to emphasise this, the Apostle Paul, who is writing to his young protégé, Timothy, back in the first century, encouraging him to rekindle the gift that God has put in him, has this to say. I’m reading – if you have a Bible – from Second Timothy chapter 4, beginning at verse 1:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you to proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.

As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

And right here, Paul is getting Timothy – and us – focused on the big picture: one day soon Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. Time is short and because of that, I solemnly urge you to keep telling people about Jesus; irrespective of whether the time appears to be favourable or not. Be persistent; keep telling people; convince them; rebuke; encourage with the utmost patience – whatever it takes.

Now, Timothy’s gift; the one that he was being called to rekindle was the gift of teaching and preaching as an evangelist. Praise God, not everyone in God’s family is a preacher and a teacher. But do you see how this applies equally to each one of us, irrespective of what our particular gifting happens to be? If you are an encourager, it applies equally to you. If you are a giver, it applies to you. If you are a compassionate, pastoral person, this applies to you.

There’s great joy and satisfaction in exercising our gifts. I mean, look at the satisfaction with which Paul looks back on his life. But what we want to do is to pull up and take a breather when the time appears to be unfavourable. What we want to do is we want to stop using our gift when the going gets tough. And Paul is saying, “No, the time is short. People are dying and they are going to a Christ-less eternity. Jesus is planning on coming back sometime soon to judge the living and the dead. God has put each one of us where He has put us with whatever gift He has given us in order to make a difference in this world for Him; in order to bring people to Jesus; in order to see them growing; for them to realise their giftings and to start using those.”

And we need to be doing that because, “… the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and they will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander away to myths.” Ain’t that the truth?

It’s something we see all the time – people chasing after this and that; people trying to pull alongside so called ‘gurus’ who tell them what they want to hear. Jesus never told people just what they wanted to hear. Yes, He was often very sensitive to where someone was at and where they were coming from but He didn’t dress it up; He didn’t put any spin on His message because the truth is the truth. There is a heaven, there is a hell and many, many are heading the wrong direction, however enticing that direction might appear to them right at this moment.

Have you ever watched the news and heard some so called “Christian leader” tickling people’s ears with the sort of stuff that people want to hear? Just the other evening, I saw a Christian denominational leader standing side by side with a Buddhist Monk, a Jewish leader and leaders of other religions, proclaiming that there was more that binds them together than pulls them apart. Well, maybe that’s what the world wants to hear but that’s not what Jesus said – that’s not the truth. The thing that puts Christianity out there on its own is that it’s based on the truth that Jesus is the only way – that no one … NO one will come to the Father except through Him. And this is the reason that we need to continue living out our giftings, each one of us, for the glory of God – to share the truth of Jesus into the lives of people.

I know that there are those listening who have turned back; I know that there are those listening who have lost sight of their gifting – their one particular God-given gift – altogether. And today I believe that God is speaking especially to you through His Word. I believe that today God is calling you back to the plans and the purposes that He has for your life. And before you tell me it’s all too hard; there is too much weighing in against you, let me tell you this: inevitably, when we have seen amazing breakthroughs in the lives of people, here at Christianityworks – young Ami recently pulled back from the brink of suicide – the time for proclaiming Christ has never been favourable at all. We just went and did it in the face of the opposition and do you know what we discovered? Duh! That God’s grace was more than sufficient for us!

For some reason, more often than not, that’s a surprise to us. More often than not we are so focused on the adversity that we are facing, we lose sight of the fact that God is at work; that “all things are working together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” That’s God’s grace and it really is sufficient for us! I mean, it really is!

Despite God’s People

You know, there are parts of the Bible that I am prone to skimming over. For instance, the genealogies, they are so long and boring and dry – particularly the one that goes on for pages and pages at the beginning of First Chronicles in the Old Testament. I mean, who has time to read that? But one man did – a guy by the name of Bruce Wilkinson – and he stumbled across the prayer of Jabez; one of the most powerful prayers in the Bible and he wrote what is now one of the most read Christian books on the planet, “The Prayer of Jabez.”

And that’s how it often is with those bits that we would rather just kind of skim over. The introductions to Paul’s Letters or Epistles in the New Testaments – we always want to skim over those but there is such a richness and power in those introductions, we do so at our own peril. And finally the bits that I used to be prone to skimming over were some of the personal notes at the end of Paul’s Letters in the New Testament. He’d write all this rich meaty, theological stuff that you and I can apply to our lives and then, almost like a P.S. on the end of a letter, he kind of writes, ‘Well, look, say Hi to Fred and tell Betty to come and visit me soon and give my regards to all my friends in … you know, all that stuff.

But just the other week as we were together, exploring what it means to rekindle the amazing gift that God has placed within each one of us, we read this in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, that:

All scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

And so as we draw to the end of the Apostle Paul’s Letter to Timothy and we get to the personal bit, I am going to resist the temptation to skip over that bit because, as is always the case, there are some gems hidden in there that the Holy Spirit wants to take out and write on my heart and write on your heart.

Paul sets out the purpose of his letter to his young protégé, Timothy, back in chapter 1. Timothy is going through some really tough times, but as Paul reminds him of all the trouble God has gone to, to get him to this point in life, he writes in Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 6:

It’s for this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

And down in verse 14:

Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

It’s about rekindling the gift that God has put in each one of us and using it for God’s glory. Why? Not only because doing that is incredibly satisfying and fulfilling, which it is, but because the time is short and people are going to a Christ-less eternity, as we saw earlier. And I pray that you, like me, have been powerfully encouraged and motivated to rekindle the gift that God has placed within you over these past few weeks, as we have let God’s Word transform us from the inside out.

So, here we are drawing to the end of the letter and we get to this personal bit. What had the Holy Spirit have to say to us through this if indeed every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful in our lives? Well, I was having a bit of a read about what Paul has to say on the personal front – I am reading now from Second Timothy chapter 4, starting at verse 9. He writes to Timothy, look:

Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has also gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is left with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books and above all, the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You must also beware of him, for he is strongly opposed to our message.

At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me great strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Quite a devastating story, isn’t it? All these people who did Paul harm and deserted him and left him. Remember, at this stage, Paul, after many years of ministry in Jesus name, across the known world, is pretty much at the end of his career on death row in a Roman dungeon. He has been through court hearing after court hearing; he has served the Lord so faithfully, through so many trials and tribulations and now this? God’s people; the very people who should have stood by his side; the very people who should have been there for him, have either deserted him, en masse, or as in the case of Alexander the coppersmith, have done him great harm.

Can I tell you something? There is nothing that is more damaging than when the people who are close to you; the people who you should be able to trust; the people who should be caring for you and standing with you – God’s people after all – desert you and betray you. Our immediate response to that is, “This shouldn’t be happening”, and when it does, it ranks right up there as our number-one excuse for not exercising the amazing gift that God has given each one of us for His glory. It’s our top excuse, as we conclude that well, “You know, if all those other Christians in my church can’t get their act together, why should I?”

Ever had that roaming through your head, as though, because other people lose the plot, it must therefore be fine and dandy in God’s eyes, for us to lose the plot; for us to put our gifts and abilities on ice and let countless people head off to a Christ-less eternity?

Let me ask you: Is that what Paul did? No! He relied on the Lord and even when he is locked up, chained to a Roman guard, this is what he does: he uses the opportunity to tell the Romans about Jesus. Philippians chapter 1, beginning at verse 12:

I want you to know beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.

See, don’t you love that? Would the time have appeared favourable there, chained up in prison? Probably not! And yet Paul used his gifts and abilities to turn that around for good and bring Jesus to his jailers, for goodness sake!

I want to encourage you today, not to let anything – any disappointment, any adversity, any betrayal – stop you from taking your gift; your unique God-given ability back out of the locker and putting it right to work where you are, for the glory of God. Don’t wait for a better time, don’t wait for the storm to clear, don’t wait for God to put you in a much better place. Start using your unique gifting, right now, to be as Christ to a world that desperately needs a Saviour, whether they realise it or not. Because in all likelihood, there is someone close to you, someone that God has deliberately put in your proximity space who needs to hear about this amazing Jesus through your unique ability to tell them; through your gift of service or encouragement or whatever it is that is your shtick in life. And one day you will meet them on the other side and have all eternity to rejoice in Christ with them.

Friend that’s the plan!!

When the Flesh is Weak

I would like to finish up today’s message and indeed this whole series on “Rekindling the Flame” with an exaltation, because I know that from time to time our flesh is weak – we’re human, we grow tired and we want to pull over and give up. Serving God is hard! You know, I basically had three careers in my life. The first was in the Army – four years of tough training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. It was brutal, followed by six years as an officer in the Australian Army.

Then I went on to an I.T. and Management Consulting Firm that I owned and ran with my two other business partners. And there were times in the early days when we couldn’t pay ourselves and clients were demanding … Running your own business is not easy!

And then full time ministry, here as the CEO at Christianityworks, sharing the love of Christ through these radio messages and many other media outlets and activities. And without a shadow of a doubt, the hardest of those three by far has been full time ministry, because in the Spiritual realm, the enemy comes against you. Why? Because he doesn’t want us to use our gifts and abilities and resources to tell people about the amazing love of Jesus.

As I have shared Paul’s letter to Timothy with you and read the adversity that Timothy faced in ministry, I have so related to that. I have been blessed hugely by listening to God’s Word through Paul to Timothy too. It’s been such a great encouragement. And it’s not just in full time ministry, let me say. Anyone who believes in Jesus, who follows Him, who lives their lives out for Him is a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And when we step on that spiritual battlefield called “life”; when we do that for God; when we deliberately set out to use our gifts and abilities and resources for God’s glory, it’s going to get real hard, real quick, let me tell you.

And when that’s been going on for a while, you know what? Our flesh becomes weak – mine does, yours does – we are human. So I want to finish off with an exaltation again from the Apostle Paul, about our flesh; our human nature that craves security and comfort and rest; that hungers for its own way and recognition and reward and glory, because this is really important. First Corinthians chapter 9, beginning at verse 23, Paul says, look:

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body; I enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

There is a passion there; a focus; a discipline there, for Paul, in using his particular God-given gift for the glory of God. And I don’t care what our particular gift is – it may be pastoral care; it may be encouragement; it may be showing compassion – all those things sound warm and soft and fluffy but anyone who is in that space will tell you, it’s a tough gig and sometimes they grow weary and sometimes they want to give up.

But what Paul is saying to us here is, look, people will make sacrifices for all sorts of things: to run a race and win the prize – an athlete needs to make all sorts of sacrifices and that’s true. You and I make sacrifices for our career, for our family, for all sorts of things, all the time. Why wouldn’t we want to make sacrifices for Christ’s sake as well? If we are prepared to make sacrifices for a perishable prize, why wouldn’t we make sacrifices for an imperishable one?

So when the flesh gets weak; when all we want to do is to give up using our God-given gifts for God’s glory – and I’m sure there are some today who are at that point, right there; right in that dark place; right in the face of the opposition and the disappointments – it is time to rekindle the gift that God has placed within you and to keep on going and using it for His glory.

Friend, God has given you a special gift. Don’t give up; don’t stop using that gift to tell people about the love of Jesus Christ.