2 Timothy 1:6-12

Speaker 1: All right. Well, take your calls if you have them and turn to the book of Second Timothy. Second Timothy chapter number one is where we're going to be tonight. And if I could just say, it is so good to see all of you back from spring break. You've you do mean if you were here last week, man, that was a bummer. I was glad that you came. Those of you that were here. But it just wasn't the same without the kids back in the back and the teenager. There were a few teenagers missing, a lot of folks. And so I'm glad if you were able to get away and spend some time with the family. But I am glad also that you're back with us tonight. Second, Timothy, chapter number one. If you found your place, if you wouldn't mind, join me in standing in honor of reading God's Word. We're going to get back to our series You Didn't Miss. In Ms.. One of the messages from the series last week, if you thought you were getting out of one, you didn't. I did a one off message. So back to that tonight. So it's been in chapter one, verse number six. Is where we're going to begin. The Bible says, wherefore I put the in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in the by the putting on of my hands. God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. Be not thou, therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, the beadle partake, or of the afflictions of the Gospel, according to the power of God who has saved us, called us within holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ. Jesus for the world began. But is now made manifest by the appearance of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and have brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Where unto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, or I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed under him against that day. Old fast the form sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed under the Keep by the Holy Ghost. Which dwell in us. Let's pray. Well, I asked you to help us now as we look into your word. I pray that you give me the words you have me to say. The folks that are here to listen right here to their lives, in Jesus name that I ask these things. Amen. Maybe see it. Originally in my head, I had this going in a certain way. I would try not to spill this. I probably should be more careful. Then as I was thinking about this, I thought, you know, it probably wouldn't be good to try and convince people to drink the Kool-Aid in a religious service. I'm not going to ask anybody to drink any Kool-Aid tonight. Okay. Fear not. See, I even brought extra cups because I thought I was going to have people come up and do it. But, uh, so anyways, what I got here is it kind of looks like the Kool-Aid, man. Oh, yeah, but it's just like a little bass, but it's, it's. It's obviously water with Kool-Aid in it, but I haven't stirred. It's just I just poured it in and left it there, and it's been there all morning. Uh, the ladies were here preparing for the meal, and they were looking at giving me a weird looks and, like, try to figure out what I was doing. But. But that's what this is. It's just Kool-Aid that's been dumped in here. The powder has settled to the bottom, but I have not touched it since then. Okay, so I'm going to pour now. You see, it looks red, you know, it looks like Kool-Aid. I'll pour myself a little bit. It's pretty bland. Pretty much just water. I mean, the Kool-Aid is in there. I can't taste it. To me, that's just like drinking of off colored water. What do I have to do if I want that Kool-Aid flavor to permeate what's in this vessel? I got to stir it up. Okay, so we're going to stir up the Kool-Aid. And you guys know how to make Kool-Aid, right? You've done it before. Okay. Again. Just want to make sure that until I explain the process to anybody. All right. Let's try this again. Now that I've stirred up the Kool-Aid and the powder has gone throughout the vessel and as mixed with the water, let's see if we get a. Better result here. So, you know, it's sweet, Ryan, as we know from his imaging, I know she likes to put Kool-Aid and then two skips of sugar with it on top. So I'll turn this over to you. After we're done, you can fix it for me. But I just. Yeah. See, that's good. That's a lot better. It works, right? I mean, if you're going to drink Kool-Aid and you put the glade into the water and you don't stir it up and you haven't done the job, the Kool-Aid is in there, but it's not. You can't taste it. Why? Because it's just settled into the bottom. You have to stir it up. You have to activate the flavor that you have placed into the vessel which you hope to drink. So I'm glad. Now I got some Kool-Aid here. I might not a water bottle tonight, but I've always thought of that whenever I've read this past passage in Second Timothy chapter one, where Paul tells Timothy to stir up the gift. Stir up the gift that is that God has given to you, which is in you. You see, Timothy had received a life changing gift, much like Kool-Aid. Being placed in water absolutely changes the flavor, the look, the nature, the make up, the smell of of that water. Timothy had received a gift that changed everything about him or should change everything about him. And so Paul wants him to realize that there is a difference between possessing the gift and actually using the gift to its fullest. There's a difference between pouring Kool-Aid in and stirring it up. And so fear, as we mentioned before on Sunday, fear is going to be a big part of tonight's message. Fear represents a threat to Timothy's employment of the gift that he has received from God. Now, if you're really afraid of something, it's probably because you sense that there is some level of danger or risk associated with what you're about to do. How many guys like roller coasters or you did like roller coasters back in the day? Okay. How many of you like watching scary movies? Okay. All right. Very good. How many of you like, I don't know, doing, like, dangerous things, like rock climbing or something like that? Any thrill seekers? You just. I'm just a thrill seeker. Okay. You know, part of what gives you that thrill? Part of what gives you that. That shock of adrenaline is the idea that, you know what? This could be pretty dangerous. I could really hurt myself. And the adrenaline starts to rush. And you do feel that fear swelling up within you? Well, I would assume, since Paul is dealing with the issue here in the passage, that Timothy must have been dealing with some feelings of fear in connection to the gift that God had given him. And so Paul reminds Timothy in this very well-known verse, verse number seven, that God is not the source of this particular fear. And that's not to say that God is not that God doesn't give us the spirit of any fear. Because let's be honest, God has given us some fears that are built into our nature. You know, if you if you see a nail sticking up off the floor, you're probably not going to step on it. Why? Because you're afraid it's going to go through your foot and you're going to get rabies. God is giving us some instincts of preservation. But this fear that Paul is talking about does not come from the God. And it's related to the gift that Paul or the Timothy has received from God. And when it comes to this gift, God has given Timothy and every believer a different spirit rather than fear that should motivate and compel us. And so if you could imagine Timothy's life being the vessel with water in the gift is the Kool-Aid. It's been poured in. Timothy has the spoon. He's about ready to reach the point of no return. Because, let's be honest, once you stir up the Kool-Aid, there's no going back. Right. And so he's he's about to do it and something stops him and he's afraid of what will happen if he out and stirs up the gift that God has given to him. And Paul says, Look, that fear isn't from God. The gift is from God. He wants you to stir it up. He wants you to maximize its results. The fear you have of selling out to the Lord isn't from God. God give us that kind of fear when it comes to the gift. God gives us a different kind of spirit. The Bible says in verse number seven, God has given us, rather than fear, a spirit of power, a spirit of love and of a sound mind. Now we're going to get more into those. Towards the end of the message. But for now, I just want to say this fear counteracts all of these benefits for what Timothy already possesses as a recipient of God's gift. The gift that God has given to Him will naturally, naturally produce power. Love. Sound, mind. Clear thinking. Fear will squelch all of those things. And that's why Paul tells Timothy to stir up the gift. Don't think. Don't stop. Don't be afraid. Stir it up and let it do. Let it do its work. You see, the gift that Timothy has received provides a more noble way of life as opposed to a life of fear. Well, what happens when we're afraid of the roller coaster? We don't get on. We miss out. What happens when you're afraid that your parachute won't open and you don't jump out of the plane? You miss out. We ever seen anybody here been skydiving? All right, cool. I rather Joe wants to go. I think he's crazy. Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane? He hasn't asked me if I wanted to go with him because he knows the answer already there. Well, you're making your point. You're going to miss out. I'm okay with that. Maybe during the millennium I'll go skydiving, you know. No danger, then. Now I keep mentioning the gift. Has anyone, like, figured out what the gift is? What the gift was that Timothy received. I believe based on the amount of times it's repeated in this passage, I believe it's the gospel you see, in addition to calling it the gift of God. In verse number six, Paul also calls it the testimony of the Lord. He calls it the gospel also. He calls it the form of sound words. And then he also calls it the good thing that you have received. Now, think about this with me for a second. What about the gospel would cause Timothy to be afraid? Well, if you look at our summary, what had the gospel done to Paul? It was for the gospel sake that Paul was a prisoner at the time of this writing. And perhaps for Timothy, he was afraid that if he stirred up the gift, if he allowed the Gospel to take take over his life and define him and characterize everything about him, he possibly could have been afraid that he would end up like Paul in prison. And let's be honest, there's not too many of us that are lining up saying, hey, I'd really like to go to jail. I mean, it's on my bucket list and I would just like to scratch that off. So if I go to prison, that would be great. Not to many of us doing that. Fear of affliction can prevent someone from developing the spirit of love, the spirit of power, the spirit of a sound thinking that the Gospel inherently produces in our society. Are Christians generally depicted in a honorable way or a dishonorable way? Dishonorable. I've said many times, you know, growing up as a home schooler, a lot of things, life. I just I just want to be normal, you know? Just wanted to be normal. Still just want to be normal. Don't you know that being a Christian means you're not ever going to be normal? That's not the way the world defines it. It's just not going to happen, you know? And so for a lot of people, there's the fear of, well, if I if I really sell out to the gospel and I really let God change me the way the pastor keeps talking about that, I'm going to be weird and people are going to notice and I don't know if I'm going to like the extra attention for being that church guy and the the goody two shoes and the do gooder and the the Christian. I don't know if I want that. And so fear prevents us from stirring up the gift. Paul tells Timothy then he needs to eschew fear, but he doesn't tell him that he has to reject fear in his own power. Look at our summer, he says. But be thou partakers of the afflictions of the Gospel, according to whose power? God's power. You see, it's not up to you and me to try and drum up the. The needed power and willpower and energy to. To sell off to the gospel and to make it through affliction. God says, no, no, no. I've already given it to. How many of you think I'm smart enough to come up with a recipe for powdered Kool-Aid? Anyone. Somebody. I just told you I was homeschooled. That means I'm, like, super smart. Still. No. You're right. I can't change the way this this water looks. I can't change the way this water tastes. I need someone else to give me these materials. And sure, I poured it in there. And, yeah, I stirred it up. But changing this water wasn't me. Somebody else did this, you know, and I don't you know, it's it's still tastes good. You can't separate the water in the vessel from the the good flavor that's been added to it. Like kind of like, you know, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Okay. Paul's son, Timothy, to defeat beer, to defeat shame through the same power that saved him. Power of God in the Gospel was sufficient to save Timothy. But it is also power and full enough to embolden Timothy. To combat fear, Timothy needs to rehearse in his mind the power that God has already displayed in his life. Verse number nine Speaking of the power of God, speaking of God and what He's done pulses this. He says, who has saved us and called us with and holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Is he God saved. Timothy rescued him from the power of sin over his life. God was the one who forgave Timothy of the debt that he could never repay on his own. There is no way Timothy could drum up enough righteousness to begin to pay back the penalty that he had amassed with his sinful nature. God was the one who did that. Jesus died on the cross and paid a debt that Timothy and and every other sinner could never pay. So it was God's power that had saved him. It was God's power that had called Timothy and given him a holy calling for Timothy. His calling was directly associated with his call to ministry, to preach and to pastor. But don't you realize that every Christian has a responsibility to represent the gospel to the world? Remember, we don't just believe the gospel is a get out of hell free card. The gospel is a way of life. The Gospel is a representation of Jesus Christ to the lost of this world. And so all of us have this calling to represent the gospel to people who have very weird ideas about what the gospel actually is. Saved him. Gave him purpose. He showed him grace. He gave him purpose. But neither of the gifts were credited to Timothy's works. God wasn't watching. Little Timothy is this half Jew, half gentile, little boy running around through the streets of his pagan city and thinking, You know what? I see a lot of potential in this kid. I'm really impressed with this Timothy guy. I think I want to make sure that Paul shows up because I really need Timothy on my team. Wasn't anything that was good in Timothy that that that God said, you know what? I just I really needed oh, god supplied Timothy with the grace and purpose to change his life and destiny. And I had nothing to do with the good works that Timothy had done. This is why I believe the gospel is the gift that he received. It was the gospel that that that Timothy needed to stir up in his life. You see, if we if we're not careful, some of us will take our vessel and we'll get saved. We'll pour the Kool-Aid in, and then we'll just leave it there. Now, could we say there's Kool-Aid in the in the vessel? Yeah, the the powder is there. But is it doing any good? You got to stir it up. Yeah, stir it up if you really want the full effect. The same is true about the gospel. There's a lot of people who receive the gospel. They get saved. They're on their way to heaven. But they are missing out on 9/10 of what the gospel is offering them. Jesus said, I am come that they might have life and they might have it abundantly. You see, it wasn't just grace that. Timothy received. What did he say in verse number nine, according to his own purpose and grace? These are things that God infused into the life of Timothy. When Timothy got saved in God's gift to Timothy, according to verse number nine had been planned since the world began. See, I understand why we think this, and I'm even guilty of thinking it myself if I'm not careful. But Jesus, dying on the cross was never the backup plan. It wasn't plan B. It was always plan A is the lamb that was slain. What were the foundations of the earth? God knew that we would need this gift of the Gospel and he determined to offer it to all he predetermined to receive whosoever would come to him in faith. Romans five gives a great explanation of how the gospel works, how it comes to us one of these days when your pastor is older. We'll study the book of Romans together. It's kind of like Hebrews. I'm glad my wife's doing Hebrews with the ladies and the Bible study. I just don't feel mature enough to tackle a book like Hebrews. I feel like I'm ready to tackle a book like Romans, but maybe, I don't know, maybe after I turn 35 or something like that. The gift of salvation, though. Think about this. It wasn't just a well intentioned plan. It was something that God followed through with. Haven't you known people who have really great intentions? If they've got great plans that they intend to one day put into practice, like preaching through Romans or Hebrews. They don't always follow through. The one thing if God said, Hey, I've got this plan for when humanity falls and they never follow through on it, or you wouldn't be God if that was how he responded. And so Paul tells Timothy, he said, Look, God knew what we were going to do. He had a plan. That plan was made manifest through the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus came. He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross through which he abolished death and has brought life. And what? What does that word? Immortality. I mean, don't really think about immortality. This is like a comic book thing. Here it is in your Bible. And really, that's what Jesus offers us. Immortality. It's brought these things to light. Through. What? You're what? The Gospel. The Gospel, the gift, the unspeakable gift that we have received from God, the gospel, the gospel that if we would stir it up in our lives, we would experience life now. So see, some of us are are stuck on this immortality thing and that oh, yeah, you know, when we die, we're going to go to heaven and we're going to live forever with Jesus. And that's going to be great. We can't wait to see all the rewards in heaven that God has planned for us. But you know as well, it's pretty much just going to stink while we're here on the earth now. Isn't he the good shepherd? Isn't a big part of the good shepherds. Care for the sheep. The journey to the house. I skipped over this part. Can I just throw it in there real quick? Jesus defeated death, which is every man's greatest fear. Before even public speaking. We fear death. So because of the gospel, Timothy had no cause for fear. God had proven his power. God had proven his faithfulness. See if God could save Timothy through work of his own. What can I do for Timothy? And if God created man knowing we were going to fail, and yet He had a plan for our inevitable failure, then don't you think? If we're going to stir up the gift and we're a little concerned about what that's going to entail, how that's going to change our life, whether or not we're actually going to be to carry through on some of the things that that we know we're supposed to do. Don't you think God's ready for us when we fail, that he stop making plans to to to to take the the evil of humanity and work it for good. Oh, he's still in that business. What I always quote with Romans 828. We know that all things work together. Got them to look at. Then they're called according to his purpose. We've already seen purpose once in this passage. Are we think of all things, work together for good, don't we sometimes think, yes, somebody is doing bad things to me or that's just talking about, you know, economic hardship or health issues or loss or a time of crisis. Couldn't it be that we've made a royal mess of things through our own decisions? God is able, in His power, to reshape our lives and even use our bad decisions for His glory. Timothy had not only received the gift, he not only knew the theology about who God was, but Timothy had also been given an example to follow. Verse 12, Paul kind of shifts his focus to himself not in a weird, proud way, but just to remind Timothy of some things. Timothy knew Paul's testimony of how he had received the gift of the gospel there on the road to Damascus. Timothy had personally benefited from Paul's fearless display of God's gift on a number of occasions. And so now, even many years later, Paul shows Timothy that despite the the affliction and the suffering that he has, he has undergone, he remains unashamed of the gospel. Says which cause I also suffer these things. What things? Well, his imprisonment. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. You see, it has legitimately cost Paul something to stir up his gift. The benefits and power of the Gospel, though, outweigh the costs. Paul had entrusted his life and his eternity to God, and throughout all of the ups and downs of Paul's life, his confidence had not wavered. Timothy will need the same steadfastness in the Gospel. He needs Eric there of his savior. But he also needs to be aware of the examples of others. So the gospel is a good thing. It is not something that produces fear. Produces power, love and a sound mind. Paul gives one last reminder to Timothy in verse number 14. Says the good that good thing which was committed under the keep protect by the Holy Ghost which dwells in us, like they said us, not you, not me, us. There's a communal aspect to that. If you're a believer, you've trusted Jesus Christ as your savior. You've asked Him to forgive you of your sins, and you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. We can say tonight, as brothers and sisters in Christ, that we have the Holy Spirit in us. Holy Spirit is a part of the Gospel. Holy Spirit dwells within all believers, and when we allow him to, he will strengthen us and give us courage. No matter where the Gospel takes us. See, Paul wanted Timothy to stir up the gift of the gospel within him in order to combat the fear that he was feeling. Don't you know that the gift of the gospel is still our best weapon to fight against fear? You watch the news, see what's going on in the world. How easy is it for us to be consumed by fear, fear of the unknown, fear of what the future holds for our church or for us as individual Christians? I would assume that you probably have moments where where you. Are faced with the the situation, the circumstances. And you say, I don't really know what my life is going to be like in the next 5 to 10 years, you know? Are we going to have the same freedoms that we've always enjoyed? What is ministry going to look like in 2040? David. What is be the Christian going to look like for our kids when they're our age? You know. What am I preparing my kids to have to do? I don't know. And the more you think about it, the more the possibility creeps in. Maybe I should be afraid. Maybe I should fear for my own safety. Maybe I should fear the costs that it might cost me to be a Christian, to be associated with the name Jesus, to stand in a pulpit on a Sunday and attempt to share the Word of God with you, or for you to go to your place of business and attempt to be a witness to the people you work with. What's going to happen when when you get reported by a coworker for going to church on Sunday and your your credit cards and your debit cards are shut off? Are we ready for that? Be afraid of that. The Gospel. Combats that fear. God is not giving us the spirit of fear when it comes to our witness being afraid of what it means to be a Christian. That feeling doesn't come from Jesus. Well, what did Paul say? His grace is sufficient. His undeserved favor is sufficient for anything that I go through. I will never leave nor forsake. Titus was trying to memorize Deuteronomy 31 eight this morning in the car. And so we have the Ohana CDs on Spotify. And so we pulled up and it's like 30 seconds long. And so we listen to it and we hit back, listen to it, and we listen to it back and listen to it. And we hit back. You know, his verse was saying. Here it is. That goes before you. He will be with you. You will not feel the need to forsake. Sorry. I think they cut out there. Be not afraid. Neither be dismayed. God's God's message to his people has always been. Don't be afraid. I'm with you. Fear not. I am with you. And don't you know it's a little bit different for us than it was for the Israelites? God being with them. He was, you know, the the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. It meant he was the kind of glory there on the tabernacle, still with them, but distant. Paul says in verse number 14, What you have the Holy Ghost in you. He is more present with us than he has been with the people in the Old Testament. He lives within us. And so the Gospel is our best weapon to fight fear. But unfortunately for too many. It's sitting at the bottom of the vessel. It's lying dormant. It's there. You have everything you need for life and godliness. But it's sitting settled. It needs to be stirred up. We possess it. We need to stir it up. And when you stir something up, especially when you're talking about the gospel in your life, it gets distributed throughout the vessel until it affects everything else. The Gospel doesn't just want to affect your eternity. The Gospel is to change everything about you. How do we stir up the gospel in our lives? Well, we need to be reminded of the essence of the gospel. The gospel? Is about God doing for us. What we couldn't do for ourselves. That's what it's about God doing for us. We couldn't do for ourselves whether that means changing our eternal destination or changing our behavior. In her heart and her thought processes. We express that poverty of spirit in the moment of salvation. Lord. Save me. I can't save myself. I need you to forgive me because I'll never be good enough. And probably most of us in here have expressed that to God. Right? Then a few days go by, we begin to drop. That self-sufficiency. Drop that self poverty for self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is why we can go days, weeks, months, maybe even years without depending upon God. You see whether that dependency is expressed through prayer, going to his word for help or submitting ourselves to a time spent with our Christian community. Forgoing these avenues of dependance leaves us more and more reliant upon our own self-sufficiency, our own abilities. The more we neglect to express and to acknowledge our need for God, the more we have to rely upon ourselves. Right. Surely I'm not the only one who has grown distant from God and had to come smack in the realization that I've been trying to live life on my own. And you know what happens when I live life on my own? I fail. I fall into sin. My mind gets all warped. My heart gets drawn more and more away from the Lord. So God gets my attention. You see, our own abilities are insufficient. It shouldn't take long for us to realize that. We realize that we aren't smart enough, we aren't strong enough. We can't put together a good enough plan for our lives. So we stress we grow anxious. We get discouraged about the prospects of the future because when we're distant from God, when we're living in pride and self-sufficiency, when we're living against the Gospel. Then everything depends on us. If I'm going to make it, if I'm going to succeed, if I'm going to heal, it all has to come down to me. That is antithetical to the gospel. See in reality as a Christian. We already have everything we need to combat this. Those things I said before, if I'm how am I going to make it? How am I going to succeed? How am I going to heal from this? All these things are based in fear. The Gospel is the antidote for self-sufficiency. The gospel is the antidote for fear. You see, when we stir up the gospel within us, we remember the same things that Timothy had to remember. Remember, God has the power to cleanse your sins. God has the power to give you a heavenly purpose. You had not earned such a position. Not worthy. I'm not good enough to stand up here and. Are you all? God had a plan for our failure before we were even created. God had has introduced life and immortality into your world. When we understand who God is and what He's done, what do we have to fear? Unless we're trying to do it on our own, we can even look at other people. Like Timothy looked at Paul and see the power, love and sound thinking that comes from living in the gospel. I don't understand how you get through what you've been through and still love God so much. Yeah. Neither do they. But it's the gospel. I don't understand how you raise those kids to serve the Lord and be disciples of Him and be faithful to God. Yeah, they don't know either. It's the gospel. Spiritual examples who faced affliction and suffering, but faced them with the gospel. You learn a lot about what someone believes when they face affliction and suffering. Not sure how I would respond if I was in Paul's situation, but I would hope the Gospel would help me respond with words like. I am not ashamed. I wouldn't change a thing. For. I know who might have believed. I know the character of my God. Knowing him makes me persuaded he is able to keep that which I've committed to him my soul. Against that day. Real quick in closing. What will it look like in our lives when we stir up the gospel? How will that change us? Well, in the absence of fear, we will have power. Power that flows from God, not from our own abilities. It was God's power that saved me. It'll have to be God's power that works in me enables me to do what I could not do on my own. Whether that be victory over sin. Spiritual warfare. Or ministry to others. In the Gospel, I am free from the fear of insufficiency. I am. I don't have to worry about the fact that Gary Void isn't enough. If I'm doing things in the power of the gospel. Okay. If I spend time with God and for me personally, you don't necessarily do. This applies to yourself, but for me, I spend time with God. I try to get a message from God. I make sure that message is based on the Word of God. I'm relying on God as I deliver that message to hopefully use this Holy Spirit in your hearts. Then it doesn't matter if any of you say anything about the sermon at all. I can go home and know, Lord, it was you. Anything happened, it was you. And if nothing happened, they were saying no to you. I don't to worry about whether or not I'm good enough or eloquent enough. Funny enough, creative enough. Because none of those things I. It's not me. Has to be God. The absence of fear. We have power. And the absence of fear. We can show love. What does that look like? Well, try this one. We can love those that society thinks we as right wing fundamental radical Christians should hate. I can love people that society tells me I should hate. I can lot of people who look different than me. I can love people who've seen different than me. I can love people who hate me and wish me evil. Why? Well, because in the Gospel I am free from the fear that my love will not be reciprocated. In the gospel. I don't have to worry about whether or not that person that I'm loving is going to love me back. That's not why I'm showing love. I don't have to have them reciprocate that love. Because not to sound cold and unfeeling, but I don't need their love. I have all the love I need in Jesus. The Gospel is my source of love. So if that person that I'm showing love to you never reciprocates it, it's okay. Jesus loves me. I know. And you know what else helps? If you have a of a community of believers who love you also. Society may hate what we stand for. And they become more and more antagonistic towards our way of life. But we ought to be able to come to church. You know, when I'm at church, I don't have to worry about those things because there's a group of people that love me. And that enables us to show love to others who will never show love back. The Gospel helps me to love finally. The absence of fear. We think clearly. We need to view our lives from the proper perspectives. Life is short. It is as a vapor. It is a hand. Breadth will not last. Everything good in our life comes from where? God any suffering or affliction that we experience in this life. It is as nothing compared to the blessings of God. We are never alone. We're never alone. That's thinking clearly, you know this to be true. In moments of fear, you forget that you are never alone. And we deserve nothing. God doesn't owe us a thing. I don't care how many doors you've knocked on. I don't care how many times you've read your Bible. I don't care how much money you've given to this church. God doesn't owe you anything. We have to have the right perspective on life. We need to think clearly about our holy calling. Also, remember, he gave this holy calling to us to represent the Gospel. And I may exist. I may live my life under a number of different titles. But regardless of my title, I have one mission. Represent the gospel. You see, at one time people knew me as. Just a child at one point knew me as a martial arts instructor. At one point, people knew me as a college student or a youth pastor or a warehouse worker. Regardless of the title. My mission as a Christian has always been the same. Represent the gospel to the people of this world. You and I don't have a different mission because I stand here and you sit there. All of us are tasked with representing the gospel. Monday I went over to Kenny Bacon. I brought him some invites to the Easter Egg Hunt. It's a weekend. He's not coming to the Easter egg hunt. No, none of those residents are going to come to the Easter egg hunt. No. There are some nurses and workers there who all seem to be fairly young. I don't know if you know this or not, but Brother Kenny is pretty personable. I said, Brother Kenny, I bet you've got some friends in here, don't you? Oh, yeah. I bet you would pass these out for me if I left them here, wouldn't you? Oh, yeah. I have no doubt that if you were to go see Brother Kennedy tomorrow, there would probably be a very small stack of those left. Why? Even as a resident of a senior living center. Really, Kenny has the same mission that all of us do. The Gospel, I'm free from the fear that I am missing out on something the world has to offer. I know my God is good. I know God will not betray me. I know what my purpose is. That helps me to think clearly. We have been given the gift of the gospel. If we stir it up in our lives. We can be rid of the fear that prevents us from being who got to be. It's the gospel stirred up in your life tonight. Or is it sitting stagnant there? You're not. Putting it to its full use. You're not experiencing the full effect, the full power, the gospel to have in transforming your life. How will the spirit of power, love and a sound mind manifest in your life? This week, let's break. Only father, we think, for the day. I think for the folks that are here and their good attention. Thank you for the gift that we have received. From you. What? I pray that you help all of us, Lord, to. Examine and consider whether or not that gift is stirred up in our lives. Lot of things have grown stagnant spiritually in our life, and we've allowed the benefits of the gospel to settle. Lord and no affect us as they once did. I pray that tonight we would stir those things back up. That we would. Re access the power that you have offered to us, Minister, and to live this life of a holy life. Or that we would seek to show love knowing that we are. Ultimately loved by you. We can then go and love others who will may perhaps never reciprocate that love. Or that we would think clearly. But our time here on this earth and our mission while we're here, what I pray that the Gospel would take hold of our lives, change us to be good representatives for you. In Jesus name, they ask these things. Amen

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