The Gospel Messenger Part – 2

This is Anne Graham Lotz. It's wonderful, good news. That's what the gospel means. It's good news.

And if ever we needed good news, it's today. It's the basis for salvation. Thanks for joining us and welcome to Living in the Light and the weekly Bible teaching message from Anne Graham Lotz. This week in 2 Timothy chapter 2, what it means to be a gospel messenger, here and now. In writing to Timothy, Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.6, for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God.

It's where Anne begins in today's message. Paul says to fan him into flame and I think he's referring to what took place in the old days when, you know, they didn't have a switch at the door where they could turn on a light and they didn't have a knob on the stove where you could turn on the heat. There was a central plaza and every central plaza there was a fire that was kept burning 24-7. So if you needed heat or light in your home, you went and took a fire brand from the central fire and you took it to your home and that's how you did that. So that central fire was considered so vitally important to the life of the village that they hired a fire keeper. And it was the fire keeper's job to keep the fire going 24-7 if for some reason he let it go out.

You know, if the rain came along and drenched it and the fire went out, or if he just went to sleep and through neglect it went out, it cost the fire keeper his life. And Paul is saying, Timothy, you're the fire keeper in your life. You're to keep the fire burning in your heart.

And you do that by just letting him loose and giving him control. The Holy Spirit is on fire. So if you just let him loose in your life, you will have a passion, you will have a fire. Your heart will burn with love for Jesus and love for a lost world and love for the scriptures and a love for the gospel. And is your heart on fire for Jesus? Is your heart on fire for the gospel? Is your heart on fire to win a lost world?

No. I mean there has to be a disconnect between you and the Holy Spirit. That's what Paul is telling Timothy, fan him into flame. Don't grieve him through your sin. Don't quench him. Don't neglect him.

Turn him loose. Surrender your life to him. If you don't, you know, you'll never lose him. He'll never completely go out and never, because he says in Hebrews, I will never leave you.

I'll never forsake you. If you've been born again and he lives in your heart, that's forever. But you'll think you've lost him if you sin and you don't confess it and you don't keep short accounts with God and you just sort of clog up the artery, the spiritual artery, and the Holy Spirit is confined to one small place in your heart and he will become so silent and so quiet that you'll think he's not even there. So if that's you, just get on your knees and tell the Lord you want the fire to burn once again. You want your heart to be softened and tenderized and you want to fall in love with Jesus all over again and ask the dear Holy Spirit to point out if there's sin in your life that you don't even know about, that you haven't confessed, if there's something that you've done, the last thing he told you to do and you didn't do it and you've been disobedient, or there's some habit, some attitude, I'll tell you, unforgiveness, bitterness, meanness, selfishness, unkindness, you know, I mean I could just go on the list, but ask him to search your heart and whatever it is you let it go, bring it to the cross, crucify it there.

It's not worth the trade-off because you're holding on to that sin and what you're losing is the fire of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Paul says, Timothy, you have the power because you have the Holy Spirit and I'm going to tell you, you have the power also because you have the Holy Spirit. If you've received Christ as Savior, you have the power to make an impact in your world for Jesus Christ, to share that message of the gospel, to be a messenger who's effective. So turn the Holy Spirit loose, fan the fire and the flame. And Timothy, Paul was saying, don't be afraid, be courageous. And Timothy could look at the old Apostle Paul living in that same Roman world, buried in a hole in the ground awaiting his execution and saying, Paul, well, what about you?

You know, you're safe underground in that hole, I'm out here on the streets where the crucifying people are throwing into the lines and crucifying them and, you know, what about you? And he could look at the Apostle Paul's example. The first time I think Timothy met Paul was in Lystra, which was Timothy's hometown. And Paul was on his first missionary journey and he'd come and preached in the synagogue and the people had become so enraged that they rioted and they dragged Paul outside of the city and they stoned him, they thought, to death.

In fact, some people think he was stoned to death. And when the people went back into the city, they believed that Paul was dead. And the believers gathered around that pile of rocks, and I think that included Lois and Eunice and Timothy, and they gathered around that pile of rocks and they were praying for Paul and the rocks began to move. Paul came up out of the rocks, dusted himself off, went back into the city, have no doubt that he finished his sermon.

The next day, it says, he went on his journey. So, he was somebody Timothy knew, was never afraid, always courageous. So, what does the young Timothy see in your life? The young Timothy's who are watching you, and they're watching, you may not know it, but you're being watched. What do they see? Do they see somebody who's not afraid to be a messenger of the gospel?

You've had the preparation, you have the passion, you have the prayers, you have the power of God in your life, and so you just do it. And can I tell you this? It doesn't mean when I say don't be afraid that you don't feel afraid.

I'm sure Paul many times felt afraid. I can be up here and my knees can knock and my heart beating out of my chest and I feel sort of weak and wobbly, but I still come up here. So, I can feel afraid, but I don't be afraid.

You see the difference? So, don't worry if you're doing something that God has led you to do and you're sharing the gospel and you think, oh my goodness, I've prayed that God would give me peace and I prayed that God would give me the words and why is my heart beating out of my chest and why am I scared to death and why are my teeth rattling and I'm still, you know, but that's okay. I love what Jill Briscoe says. She says, just do it scared. You know, great definition of courage. You just do it scared. So, you can feel afraid and I expect Paul felt afraid, but he didn't act afraid. He didn't give into the fear.

Do you see that? So, just don't be afraid. It's okay to feel afraid. We all feel afraid.

That's perfectly acceptable. Just don't give into it. Be courageous.

Secondly, don't be ashamed. Don't be embarrassed to share the gospel and he says in verse nine that it's through the gospel that God has saved us. It's the basis for our salvation. Faith comes by hearing.

Hearing comes by the word of God. How are people going to know that they can be saved if you don't share the gospel? It's the basis for salvation and so all these people today who have the little boutique religions and they're going after this one, they're going after that one and everybody has their own gods and they have their own religions and, you know, you see these bumper stickers with all these different religious symbols and the cross is just one out of many different religions and so you can pick and choose. How do they know? There is one true living God who loved them so much that he created them to know him and sin has separated them from him. He loved them so much he sent his own son to die on the cross to be their savior, to take away their sin that they can know they can have forgiveness and reconciliation with God and peace in their hearts and the hope of heaven when they die and purpose to live for in the meantime.

How will they know? It's the gospel that tells us. It's the basis for salvation. They can be saved from that judgment.

Remember we talked about the ark and the flood and took everybody away who was outside of the ark. They can be saved from the wrath to come. They can be saved from hell.

They can be saved from an empty way of life. They can be saved from all this muck and this mire and it's the gospel that tells them. It's the basis for salvation. It's wonderful good news. That's what the gospel means.

It's good news and if ever we needed good news it's today. It's the basis for salvation. It's the basis for what I would call sanctification.

In verse 9 it's through the gospel we're called to a holy life and when you receive the Holy Spirit he begins to work in your life to make you holy and that means to separate you from the sin in your life and to be holy. The definition of holiness is just to be like Jesus and that means there are some places you don't go anymore. There are some ways you don't talk anymore. There's some things you don't do anymore.

There's some magazines you don't look at anymore and some movies and television shows you don't watch anymore. Some people you don't go with anymore because you are holy and you're separated from that world around you. Yes we live in the world.

We work in the world. We're sharing the gospel with the world but I'm talking about for your own satisfaction and your own lifestyle and there has to be a separation. Don't be ashamed of that. Don't be ashamed to be different.

It's okay to be different. In fact if you have the Holy Spirit of the living God in you you ought to be different. How can you be like the people in the world if you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you? The Bible says be holy as I am holy says the Lord. Without holiness no one will see the Lord. So let the Holy Spirit do his work in your life.

Separate the world's pace and pattern and priorities and pleasures. They're not ours anymore and when the Holy Spirit comes in if you let him loose in your life he's going to take away your appetite for those things and you may still be with those friends but they make you uncomfortable. You'll still hear them talking the way you used to talk and it's going to be offensive and and he'll begin to separate you if you let him. So it's the basis for our separation and putting it all on the table is the basis for suffering. Verse 8 and verse 12 Paul says that's why I'm suffering as I am and when you share the gospel when you're a messenger of the gospel I'll just tell you flat out you're going to suffer for it. There'll be people that will be offended there'll be people that come back at you there are people who ostracize you criticize you marginalize you that's okay. Jesus said in Matthew that when you're persecuted not if. So persecution is part of the normal experience of a messenger of the gospel so you can just expect it. I think we have to be careful that we don't deserve it in the sense that we're not being persecuted because we're self-righteous or judgmental or somehow lording it over them or you know how Christians sometimes can be so obnoxious in their self righteousness nobody would want to be a Christian because the way they see us so we want to be loving and winsome and kind and helpful and good so you win people by the way you love them.

So you really can't pass the baton I guess you know you can extend it but the other person has to receive it. So we're the gospel messenger but they have to receive the message. Our responsibility is just to give it out and it's God's responsibility and that's a wonderful thing in John 16 when it says that the Holy Spirit it's his responsibility to convict them of sin and the need to get right with God and judgment if they don't so that you and I are free to love them and share the gospel is the Holy Spirit's responsibility to convince them on the inside of the truth of what you're saying. So sometimes we take the burden on ourselves and we need to relieve ourselves of that burden it's the Holy Spirit's job to work on the inside of that person. So don't be ashamed of the gospel and don't be ashamed of God's grace and I'll just touch on this but it says in verse 9 because of his own purpose and grace this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time just the gospel of grace and I think we can be embarrassed if we want to call it that by God's grace because it's so easy it's so simple we want to make it complicated and several years ago daddy sent Marana to Rome to be his emissaries at Pope John Paul's funeral very interesting experience and when we were in Rome everywhere we went people were saying the Holy Father is in heaven the Holy Father has gone to heaven and so I was and so I would ask them well why is the Holy Father why do you think the Holy Father is in heaven and they said oh he's such a good man he did so many wonderful things he said of the church and I say well and this was cab drivers and people in restaurants and people we met and the different people in media and people around us who had gone and and said well do you think when you die you'll go to heaven oh I don't know you know and I said why well well I haven't done as many good things as the Holy Father I haven't done you know I haven't been that good a person I try I hope I'll go to heaven so then when I share the gospel they look at me with a blank face and and I say you know it's not about what you've done or not done it's just because Jesus died on the cross and Jesus paid it all he's finished all you have to do is put your trust in Jesus and and they just don't get it because they've been trained that you have to earn heaven you have to deserve heaven you have to work for heaven and not just the people there but people you know other religions other it's just so hard to think that all you have to do is put your faith in Jesus Paul says Timothy don't be ashamed of the gospel and then Paul says in verse 12 he says I'm not ashamed because I know whom I have believed I'm convinced he's able to guard what I've entrusted to him for that day what did Paul entrusted to him I think is ministry he's getting ready to exit life and he has entrusted his ministry to God first of all and then he's tapping Timothy to take over and he's confident that God is able to keep it so I thought what am I entrusting to God in my life and I entrust in my family and my ministry and my very life and God is able to keep it and the verse that my mother wrote in the first Bible she gave me was Jude 24 and 25 that God is able to keep me from falling and present me one day faultless before his throne and God is able so don't be ashamed be confident of the gospel message Timothy could look at Paul and say well what about you you know have you ever been ashamed of the gospel and I think of the apostle Paul I can't ever imagine Paul being ashamed of the gospel and even on this trip to Rome he had appeared before governors and kings Festus Felix king Agrippa and when he stood before king Agrippa and he was sharing his testimony and king Agrippa said Paul your great learning has driven you mad and Paul who is manacled lifted up his arms and you know his chains were dangling from his arms and they rattled as he lifted them up and he said king Agrippa I wish that you were like me except for these chains I would wish that you could be like me I would give my life if you would put your faith in Jesus and Paul cared that much about those who were lost he would say I would give my life if you would come to faith and king Agrippa said almost you persuade me to be a Christian almost but he walked away lost but Paul was never ashamed to share the gospel never ashamed to be a messenger of the gospel in fact in fact every time you know he went into one of these trials instead of thinking about oh how can I defend myself how can I get out of it what can I say that you know they'll let me go instead he just saw it as a platform that was his transfer zone that was his passing zone that's when he was going to share the gospel with all sorts of people he otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to share the gospel with so the passing zone for you may be when you're suffering it may be when you're on a hospital bed it may be when your spouse walks out it may be when your child rebels and that's your passing zone people watching you people looking at how are you going to handle this and that's when you have opportunity to give reason for the hope that's within you so don't be ashamed and Timothy could look at Paul and he was never ashamed so when the young Timothy's are looking at you what do they see they see that you have that opportunity in the passing zone and you don't take it you send a message to them so be like Abel so convinced of the gospel that he had the courage of his convictions and he laid down his life for what he believed in don't be ashamed be that confidence that you would risk your reputation your friendships your job whatever it is to just share the gospel be a messenger of the gospel thirdly and very quickly don't be apathetic in verse 13 he says what you have heard from me keep is the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus and what did Timothy heard from Paul I expect he had heard what we have read in Romans and first and second Corinthians and Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, first and second Thessalonians you know all the books that we think of in the New Testament that Paul has written that was the pattern of sound teaching that Timothy had heard so he's saying Timothy don't be apathetic towards the word of God and I want to challenge you don't be apathetic towards the word so when you leave the cove just even before you leave decide what time of day you're going to spend with the Lord and how much time you're going to give him and where your prepared place is going to be and have your materials there so when you spend time you've got 15 minutes you've got 30 minutes and you draw a side and you're just picking a paragraph decide where you're going to start maybe in Mark and start with Mark chapter one or maybe go back to second Timothy and start with the first verse or maybe go back to Genesis and you're going to start there but just a paragraph what does it say and you list your facts and what do those facts mean and you draw a lesson from the facts and what does it mean in your life and you turn the lesson in the form of a question and what you take away and date it and live it out don't be apathetic towards the word when you keep the word it doesn't mean that you keep your Bible up on a shelf and once a week you dust it off and you take it to church it means you keep it in your heart and you keep it on your mind and you keep it in your lips and you keep it ready to give out how many times after my devotions in the morning and I've been in the word during the day there's somebody that comes across my path and they need the very word that I got that morning in my devotions and I have it right on my tongue right on my mind to share with them so if you're not spending time with the Lord in the morning and somebody comes across your path what do you give them don't be apathetic towards the words and don't be apathetic towards the work in verse 15 he says everyone has deserted me including five jealous and homogeneous and I don't know who these two men were they were co-workers with Paul but I know they quit they walked away from the work and I don't know why maybe they went on vacation just never came back maybe they thought they could make more money in a secular job maybe they were tired maybe you know I don't know what the reason was but I just know when it was a critical time they walked away from the work there's somebody here who's thinking about walking away from serving the Lord and you know when we reach retirement age we retire from our jobs and sometimes we just think well you know I'm going to retire from serving the Lord also and just spend the rest of my days I see so many people my age when they retire they're so self-centered and they live their lives for their own pleasures they're traveling their pastimes you know doing things they didn't have a chance to do when they were working in a secular job and forget all about the mission of sharing the gospel and making an impact on other people's lives one of you asked this morning the impact of my husband or my children and let me tell you my husband was 78 when he went to heaven and when he was 50 he came down with adult one diabetes just hit him very suddenly went on insulin dependency immediately by the time he retired from 40 years in dentistry at the age of 65 three months after he retired he was having difficulty with one of his eyes and ended up going blind in one eye and then because of his diabetes he began to take over he had heart disease he had five stents in his heart went through multiple heart catheterizations he was on dialysis three times a week five and a half hours each time for six years he was on dialysis three times a week had I won't even go into some of his other issues it was incredible and my husband until the day he went to heaven he was still serving the Lord he had the Friday morning Bible study with about 100 guys he'd let every Friday and he would be on his walker and they would get him to his seat and he would sit down and then the guys would let me know afterwards and as soon as he sits there and he starts to lead the Holy Spirit comes on him and it's just fabulous they his Bible said he grew while he was that feeble and then he had a Bible study on Thursdays that he did in Chapel Hill and he met with those guys on Monday the Monday that I found him he had just gone to lunch with some of the guys that he has in that Bible study he was continuing to disciple them they called him God's gladiator and if ever anybody had an excuse to walk away from the work my husband did but he never did and I looked at his father 80 years old preaching in the Bronx last time I saw him preaching he was almost blind and he would have a bright light on his Bible and he would lean right down he'd read the scripture then he'd rare back and he'd just preach his heart out you know until he couldn't stand anymore I think of my daddy as long as he had strength as long as he had breath he was serving the Lord so don't be apathetic about the work and if I jealous and homogeneous they go down for all eternity as two men who walk they're saved I'm sure but they just walked away from the work when it was a critical time to share the gospel with a lost and dying world don't walk away from the work and then he names a Nessa for us and he's a man that made the Lord show mercy to the household of Vanessa forest because he often refreshed me was not ashamed of my chains on the contrary when he was in Rome he searched hard for me until he found me may the Lord have mercy on him and that's the forest with somebody I don't know that he was a preacher but he came alongside Paul to refresh him be committed every day that you have breath don't quit you don't retire you continue serving the Lord until you see him face to face at your death or until he takes us in the rapture and Timothy could look at Paul and say well Paul what about you and Paul gives this testimony then when he says I have fought the good fight I have finished the course he's run the race and Paul finished strong never was apathetic about the work still preaching his heart out through these letters until they dragged him out of that hole and took off his head so what does your young Timothy see about you do they see you working for the Lord when it's not convenient when you're tired when things are going wrong things are falling in on you but you're still making it a priority to serve the Lord and I don't know what the work is remember we talked about that you're not going to know what the work is until you start walking with God and let him show you what he has for you I know he has a work for you to do something outside your home as well as inside your home so ask him what the work is but I know the overarching thing is that we're to be a messenger of the gospel taking that gospel message to the world that's between our own two feet so as you take the gospel don't be afraid be courageous and don't be ashamed be confident and don't be apathetic be committed until you see Jesus face to face you receive his well-done good and faithful servant you've been listening to living in the light and when you go to and Graham lots org there are free resources to help you in your study of God's Word and desire is that you embrace a God-filled life step-by-step choice by choice living in the light you