The Gospel Messenger – Part 1

This is Anne Graham Lotz. Hebrews 7.25, I love. It says that Jesus ascended into heaven, He sits at the right hand of the Father, and He ever lives to make intercession for you. Jesus is praying for you.

Isn't that precious? You're listening to Anne Graham Lotz in an introduction to this week's message from God's Word and the reminder that prayer is such an integral part of being a messenger of the gospel, under the power of the Holy Spirit, who is interceding with the Father on our behalf. From 2 Timothy chapter 1, here's Anne. You know, my grandparents were believers, both sides. My parents, of course, were Christians.

I'm a committed Christian. My husband was. His parents were. Our children are.

Our grandchildren are. And people ask me, Anne, how was that passed from generation to generation? I can tell you it wasn't by an accident.

You know, it wasn't just by osmosis. My husband said, just because you're born in a garage doesn't mean that you're a car. You know, and just because you're born in a Christian home doesn't mean that you're a Christian.

It's not automatic. There has to be an intentional passing of that gospel baton into the next generation. And yes, I have to receive that for myself. So I shared with you that I had received Christ when I was a little girl, and I did that intentionally. But mother and daddy prepared me for that, about what they had taught me in the home, about what I saw in their own example. And they used that opportunity of the passing zone when I was within their home to prepare me to the point that I wanted to receive Christ as my Savior.

So I just want to challenge you, if you have children within the home, don't miss the transfer zone, okay? But then also, outside the home, just with other people, there can be an opportunity that you have, like I had this last week, had an opportunity to share the gospel, and it just came so unexpectedly, and I wasn't prepared for it, and I should have been. And it was after I had missed it, I thought, it makes you feel really sick at your stomach, doesn't it? That you didn't take an opportunity that God gave you. So the only thing I know about that, the comfort I give myself, is sometimes God lets me go through something like that, and it's a setup, because he's going to give me another opportunity that's going to be maybe harder or more challenging. And this time, I'll be much more alert to take it, because I just missed that one.

So if that's you, just be encouraged, like I'm trying to encourage myself that all is not lost, that there'll be another opportunity to come, and I'll probably take it a little bit stronger and better than what I would have done in the one I just missed. But I point this out because, if you'll turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1, which is our passage, Paul is passing not just the baton of the gospel, but the challenge to be a messenger of the gospel to Timothy. And so he's in the transfer zone, because Paul's at the end of his life, and he's getting ready to, actually he's facing his execution, and so he knows he's going to die, and so he's tapping Timothy to be his successor. He's passing not just the gospel message, but the challenge to be a messenger of the gospel to this young Timothy. So it would be similar to Moses tapping Joshua, or David tapping Solomon, or Elijah tapping Elisha, or let me put it this way, it would be like Billy Graham if he came here and said, I want you to be my successor.

And your face would go white, and the blood would drain, and your knees would knock, and you would say, whoa, I can't do that. But did you know that that's what the cove is about? That mother and daddy established this place, and the purpose was to train up men and women in the gospel to the point that not only you would be familiar with it, but you'd know the scriptures, and you would be able to share it with others, that you would be, in a sense, daddy's successor. I remember at Amsterdam, the Congress for our Tenant Evangelists in 1986, and there were 10,000 evangelists in the Ross Center in Amsterdam, and they'd been asking daddy, who's going to be your successor?

Who's going to be your successor? And daddy stood up, and I remember him standing up on the platform, and he just threw out his arms, and he looked at these evangelists, and he said, you are my successor. So he was passing the baton to the challenge to be a messenger of the gospel to those 10,000 evangelists, and that's what he's doing through the legacy that's left here at the cove.

To all of those who come to these seminars, the purpose is to equip you and intentionally challenge you to be a messenger of the gospel. So that's what Paul is doing with Timothy. He's challenging him to be a messenger of the gospel, and if you're going to follow the Apostle Paul, if you're going to be successor, then if ever somebody needed to be mature, it would be Paul's successor, but Timothy was so immature, Paul told him, don't let anybody despise you because you're young.

He must have been letting people despise him because he was young. And then Timothy was so weak, you would think the successor, the Apostle Paul, would be strong and have to do so many things and travel, and Timothy was so weak, Paul told him to take a little wine for his stomach. And then you would think somebody who took over after the Apostle Paul would be somebody who would be very bold and courageous, and Timothy was so timid that Paul said God has not given you that spirit of timidity. He's given you a spirit of power and love and self-control, and so if you're thinking you cannot be a messenger of the gospel because you are weak and you're timid and you're immature, that doesn't seem to make any difference because that's the person that Paul was tapping to be his successor. And you know, one of the things that says to me is that it's not by might and it's not by power, it's by God's spirit that this is done. And a person who is timid and weak and immature is somebody, and they're called to be a messenger and you're called to be a messenger. But a person like that is someone who's very dependent on the Lord.

And I know, and when you're very dependent on the Lord that he comes through and your ministry is powerful. So let's look at Timothy for a minute and what Paul tells him in this first chapter. This is the last thing that Paul ever wrote, last thing that we know that he ever said. He's telling Timothy, challenging him to be a messenger of the gospel. He says don't be afraid to be a messenger, don't be ashamed to be a messenger, and don't be apathetic about being a messenger.

So first of all don't be afraid. And he was telling Timothy that Timothy was living in a Roman world and Nero was the emperor at that time. Nero was getting ready to execute Paul. Nero was a madman with absolute power.

Nero was somebody who was crucifying Christians on crosses and throwing them to the lions and burning them at the stake. I mean it was dangerous not only to believe the gospel but to be a messenger of the gospel. And so the first thing Paul says to Timothy, Timothy don't be afraid to be a messenger of the gospel.

And you have four reasons you don't have to be afraid. First reason, you're being prayed for. In verse three he says, night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Can you imagine the encouragement it would be to the young Timothy to know that the great old apostle Paul was praying for him 24-7. Who's praying for you? Do you have somebody who knows what you're going through, knows what you're battling, knows what your joys are, what your heartaches are, and they pray for you and they, I mean they really don't just say I'll pray for you but they pray for you. You need to be prayed for.

The world is so wicked and it's so dangerous and it's getting so hard out there. We need to pray for each other. When I first started my itinerant ministry, I asked the Lord to bring me some women who would pray for me and I was teaching at the time a class of 500 women and I thought I'd just have a lot of people who'd want to come alongside and pray for me and actually I just had seven ladies who came to me one by one not prompted by me or anybody just the Holy Spirit saying Ann we want to pray for you. And so I challenged them, God called them and I started out with that prayer team and they fluctuated a little bit over these 20 years because some have moved away and some have dropped out because of illness but still have seven women who are praying for me and they pray for me every day on their own. Once a week they gather together and pray for me on their knees. When I speak, they'll pray and fast. They'll call each other on the phone and pray for me and so every week I send them a prayer letter. So the one I sent it out Wednesday to them and it's emailed out to them because they meet together on Thursday and I share with them the specific answers to prayer from last week's prayer. So everything I asked them to pray for last week I make sure I let them know how the Lord has answered it and then everything I'm asking them to pray for this week. So this week's was several pages long because it included you all and all the ins and outs of the details of this seminar and we've seen so many answers to prayer and I can't tell you I could not stand in this podium. I could not do the things I do if I wasn't being prayed for. And people say, Ann how do you do what you do?

That's how. You know it's the spirit of God but it's an answer to prayer. You need somebody to be praying for you. Who do you know that you can pray for?

And your pastor is an obvious choice, your Bible teacher, your Sunday school teacher, people that are messengers and but maybe it's just your next door neighbor, maybe another mother who's got children your ages and you're struggling with some of the things. Just pray for each other. Pray for your children.

Pray for your schools. And Timothy was being prayed for by the Apostle Paul and I need to say that in my ministry itself after I had my prayer team for myself and I'd had that for years I was sort of late to the party and several years ago I realized my prayer team prays for me but they're not really praying for my office and my staff and our business and so I asked the Lord to bring me some women who would pray for my office in my ministry itself and God brought me again seven women. I think it's now down to five but they meet every Thursday morning and in my office I designated one room in the middle of my office. It's in the heart of my office. We call it the meeting place. Nothing takes place in that room except prayer and it's roomed with chairs so that you know everybody can have a seat.

I have a kneeling bench on one end and a cross that's made out of mirrors so if you kneel on the bench and you look at the cross you see yourself reflected in the cross. A little table with cards so when people write in and they want to be prayed for then we keep it in a card file so the staff when they have a few minutes they can slip into the prayer room or into the meeting place and pray for people who need to be prayed for and so that prayer team prays for the staff. Once a month they bring in a staff member to just pray over that staff person. They go to her office and pray over her office and it's just such a blessing isn't it? Seeing the answers to prayer and seeing how God moves and works in response to their faithfulness to stand by me in prayer. You need that too and if you're in a Bible study or in a church then your leaders need that too so just ask the Lord to show you and maybe it's your spouse but sometimes you would share things with a friend that maybe sometimes we don't share with a spouse or just ask the Lord if you would put somebody on your heart and maybe it'll be somebody you'd find this weekend who would be your prayer partner at least for a year and so I'll let you decide how often you contact and what you do but but we've had prayer partners like my husband had a prayer partner that was from here that they they called each other for years got to see each other and the guy was from Canada but he made a point to watch after my husband and come down and see us and it was a precious blessing in my husband's life so so God may have that blessing for you and if nobody is praying for you and you say and I just wouldn't know how to go about that and I'm isolated and I can't do that and Hebrews 7 25 I love says that Jesus ascended into heaven he sits at the right hand of the Father and he ever lives to make intercession for you Jesus is praying for you isn't that precious and he knows your thoughts he knows your struggles he knows your hopes he knows your dreams he knows your fears he knows your sorrows and he prays for you and I know one of the things he's praying is that you're going to be an effective messenger who gets a firm grip on the gospel and that you'll be available for him to use to share that message with the people that are in your world that you come into contact with and Jesus is somebody who knows how to get answers to his prayers so you have a prayer partner so he's praying for you take comfort in that but it may be that you need you know he works through visible people so there may be somebody specific that you can ask to pray for you and with you and I encourage you to do that and it's sort of a humbling thing isn't it every time I write that prayer letter and I share with them some things I'm going through and and I share with them things I'm going through and and it's sort of humbling to be vulnerable and let people know that you need something like that but that's what the body of Christ is that's what the family of God is I trust those women they keep it confidential and they pray for me and God is poured out his blessing and answer to those prayers so ask God to give you somebody who you can pray with also Paul said Timothy you don't have to be afraid you're being prayed for and then secondly he says you've got the passion for it and I'm reading into this but in verse 4 he said I recall your tears so I just asked myself why was Timothy crying so I wonder if it's because he was so tender-hearted you know he just really had a heart for a lost world that was going to hell and all these people in the Roman world worshipping their own gods and didn't know that there was a one true living God who loved them so much they had sent Jesus to die on the cross to take away their sin and so was he just weeping over a tender-hearted concern and passion and love for the lost world and I wonder if he was crying because he was broken-hearted because of the way the gospel is rejected by those same people and you can share the gospel with somebody when they reject it and you know they're going to self destruct and it will break your heart and was he weeping because he was broken-hearted weak because he was faint-hearted mayor is terrified Paul I cannot do this I cannot go out there they're crucifying people they're throwing the lines I'm scared to death and so the one thing that the tears tell me is that Timothy cared he wouldn't be weeping if he didn't care so can I ask you when was the last time you wept over somebody who was lost so sometimes when we weep like that it's because we care and Paul is saying I see that you have a heart for what you're doing what about you you know I remember several years ago actually it's quite a few years ago when a large organization they're having their 25th celebration anniversary and they asked me to come speak and I asked them why have they gotten my name and they said well we know you have a heart for the gospel and I said well you know that's interesting and I hung up and I thought why did they say that and the only reason I could think of that they said that is because I'm Billy Graham's daughter they just thought automatically I would have a heart for the gospel and so I started examining myself and do you have a heart for the gospel and what I discovered was that my heart for the gospel was very small and I consider myself a Bible teacher and somebody who disciple people but as far as the gospel was concerned my heart was small for that and so I asked the Lord I prayed deliberately and intentionally God enlarge my heart for the gospel to the point that today when people describe me sometimes they call me an evangelist I'm not an evangelist I don't have the gift of evangelism but what they're seeing is that God has given me an enlarged heart for the gospel ask him to give you an enlarged heart for the gospel that you would care about a world out there they do some of the craziest things and their sin is getting more and more blatant and listen don't blame them for that that's what sinners do they're good at sinning you know but the sin is not going to bring happiness or purpose or peace or joy or hope and they need Jesus so ask God to break your heart with the things that break his and give you a heart for a lost world that you might want to reach them with the message of the gospel Paul said Timothy I recall your tears and I think Timothy was weeping because he cared and that's that is one reason you don't have to be afraid because you just let what's in your heart come out on your lips and Timothy not only was being prayed for he had the passion for it he had the preparation and Paul says in verse 5 I've been reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and then your mother Eunice so Timothy obviously came from a Christian home where he'd been taught the scriptures from the time he was small raised in the faith and that was preparation for him now to be a messenger of the gospel he knew the scriptures he had the example of his mother and his grandmother and you're raised in a Christian home that's preparation for you to be a messenger so think about what think about your experience think about your upbringing think about what you saw in your parents and that's preparation for you now to be a messenger but let me point out something else Timothy's father's not mentioned Timothy's father we believe was a Greek and I won't go into the reasons for that but we believe he's not a believer and so Timothy was raised in a home where his mother and his grandmother were believers but his father was not and did you have a home like that when one of your parents was a believer and the other was not so your parents were unequally yoked and if you've seen up close and personal the tension that brings and the difficulty the conflict that can be in the home because one spouse is not saved that can give you a heart for the gospel that's preparation for you to go out and reach other people with the gospel to bring the unity and the reconciliation there should be and let me just add a little parenthesis to that because please note that it was Lois and Eunice who taught Timothy the scriptures remember the question about what do I do when my husband or the father is not teaching and am I usurping his authority when I'm doing it and he's not no you're not it was Lois and Eunice who taught Timothy that prepared him for ministry not his father so I don't want to put fathers down and all of you fathers out there please don't misunderstand me take the role that God has given you and be somebody who would teach your children by your example and by your words but the mother can instruct also in such a way that the child is raised in a way that's strong they're strong in their faith and able to serve the Lord when they grow older so Timothy obviously was taught by his mother and his grandmother even though his father wasn't saved so I don't know what your upbringing was maybe in your home neither neither parent was saved maybe you were raised in a completely secular or maybe a hostile to Christ home and family maybe in your family there was abandonment or abuse or adultery alcoholism or divorce disease I don't know and think about it for a minute that itself is preparation for you to go out and reach other people who are going through a similar situation because you know what it feels like you can relate to them in a way that others of us couldn't and God wants to use that so that when you present the gospel message or a messenger that other people will listen to who have that same situation so do you hear me look into your home look into your family look into your background what's there God is not whimsical he doesn't just guess his way around he just doesn't play games everything in your life is very intentional and God is very intentional about the home in which you're raised and what you've been through and it's not to make you miserable and not to take away a blessing it's to prepare you to be a messenger who's effective as you share the gospel with other people today so Paul says Timothy you've been prepared right there in your family and then he said you've been prepared by your friends he said I myself have laid my hands on you and Paul was Timothy's pastor or his professor his mentor and he had come alongside Timothy to help him grow up in his faith so who is that person in your life who's been your mentor your pastor somebody who's helped grow you up in the faith and the wonderful thing today is that you don't even have to know that person necessarily although it could be your pastor or a missionary or an older person in your congregation or maybe it's your own parent or you know an aunt or an uncle or somebody somebody who's a more mature Christian who's come alongside you and helped you grow in your knowledge of God and your knowledge of the scripture and praise God for those people in our lives and the Lord has given me some wonderful ones and I thank God for them but sometimes you don't have somebody like that in your life but but today because of the videos and the audios and the books we can have a mentor we've never even met before we just listen to them or we watch them or we read their books and that's would be very careful you know who you expose yourself to but it's very important that we are careful about who we listen to but there's some wonderful ones out there and and there's no reason that you and I can't have a mentor today or somebody who would come alongside and help train us and teach us because there's so many out there that are available so ask God to open your eyes to those who can be your mentors and we need each other in that way we can always grow from somebody who's older comes alongside fourth reason that you don't have to be afraid Timothy you have the power of God in verse six he says for this reason I remind you to fan and deflame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power of love and of self-discipline and there's nothing magical about Paul's hands okay so let's just put that on the table nothing supernatural about laying on of hands I think that Paul was there when Timothy was converted and when he laid his hands on Timothy that was at the moment Timothy was confessing a sin telling God he was sorry claiming Jesus as his Savior inviting Jesus to come into his heart and at that moment he was given the gift of God and the gift of God is the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is God and you see him in chapter 1 of Genesis verse 2 the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep preparing the planet earth to receive God's Word and be transformed in six days that's the same Spirit of God when you pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart he comes in you in the person of that same Spirit of God that was in the beginning in the person of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is a living person he is Jesus without his man's body he's Jesus living inside of you but he has all the power of God that he had in the beginning so think about it you have the Holy Spirit of the Living God within you if you've received Christ by faith and he comes into you and you have the power the share of the gospel an effective way remember it's not by might not by power it's by the Holy Spirit that this is done and you and I need to let him loose in our lives Paul says you need to fan into flame this gift of God and the Holy Spirit is not a fire but he's symbolized by fire so the Holy Spirit is invisible we wouldn't know he was present except he's symbolized by something so at the baptism of Jesus he was symbolized by dove at Pentecost he was symbolized by flame of fire at the end of history and the book of Revelation he's symbolized by this branch of candles that burns before the throne and the fire that burns before the throne that's the Holy Spirit and so he's considered the fire of God because listen to me the Holy Spirit is on fire for the gospel he's on fire for the things of Jesus he's on fire for the things of God and he inspired the Bible every word is God-breathed the Holy Spirit inspired every word of this book he's on fire to show you the things of God and so you and I need to fan him into flame let him loose in our lives when we receive the Holy Spirit can I tell you when I was a little girl and I invited Jesus to come into my heart I didn't understand about the Holy Spirit but I invited Jesus to come into my heart Jesus understood what I was saying and so he placed the Holy Spirit within my life Jesus can't possibly come into anybody he's in a man's body up in heaven getting ready to come back and reign and rule on this earth when we invite him to come into our hearts he comes in in the person of the Holy Spirit and when I was a little girl and I received the Holy Spirit and he came in to me even though I didn't know his name he came into me I had all of the Holy Spirit I'm ever gonna get you know that you don't get him in pieces the Holy Spirit is a person so the newest believer the youngest believer has as much of the Holy Spirit as the oldest believer has you have all of the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get living in you this has been living in the light please take advantage of all the free resources at and Graham Lots org to help and encourage you and your walk with God and in your study of his word join us here each week for living in the light