Unashamed

And one Sunday he got to the church where he was going to be preaching and he was met by someone in the congregation who came up to him and said, pastor, don't look now, but today's going to be a special day. We have the president of the United States in the congregation, Andrew Jackson. Now I know that you're sort of a fiery preacher and I know that you get excited in the pulpit, but I just want to remind you to mind your P's and Q's. I mean for crying out loud, it's the president.

It's the president of the United States. You don't want to take this guy off. So the story goes that he got into the pulpit and after some singing he said, I understand our president Andrew Jackson is here this morning. And at the very beginning I'd like to say this, Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn't repent. Just blew the whole thing up right at the beginning.

And the story goes that as Andrew Jackson left the church, he went up to that brave preacher and he shook his hand and said, if I had a regiment of men like you, I would conquer the world. It's a great story of bravery. It's a great story of a courageous man. Don't you want to live like that? Don't you want to be unapologetic to the pressures of this world? I think so often we tend to live our lives fearing, man, don't we? You and I, we struggle.

We tend to struggle with what others think about us, whether we're respected, whether we're valued. You and I are so often beholden to the opinions of other people. And at the end of the day, it's a form of idolatry. And the result is that you and I, we actually become powerless. It makes us ineffective. It makes us as a church sort of turn inward on ourself and we become ineffective for the mission that God has given us to take our city. We're so concerned about what people think about us.

Don't you feel that this morning? Don't you feel that as you go to work? Don't you feel that in your community? I'm so concerned about how I'm being perceived. Even right now. There's part of me maybe let's say there's a small percentage of me that's so concerned about how you, what you think about me. We live like that. So concerned about what man thinks. Since we're not concerned about what God thinks, but we're talking about finishing strong.

We started a series entitled, it's always too soon to quit. We need God's help. We need God's grace to finish strong. And , and part of that is that we need to learn that we need to depend on what God thinks about us, not what man thinks about us. Now, at the very beginning, I want to just state this. I understand why we can be so fearful. I get it. I feel it. You and I live in a world that is hostile to the gospel. You and I live in a world that is hostile to the Christian life.

The Christian, the Christian life is lived in a world that wants to shut us down and shut us up and make us feel shame for Jesus in that true. It's an upside down world. It's a world where evil is paraded as good and good is paraded as evil. It's an unblocking world. Wasn't it Mark Twain who said that a man is the only animal that blushes or needs to know ? He was. He was right about about us needing to blush, but he's wrong about us being an animal. We're created in the image of God.

But I'll tell you what, we ought to blush far more than we do and it's an upside down world. A world that shames us over righteousness and we need God's strength to keep going. Over time, this world trains us to seek man's smile over the hidden smile of God and it's amazing. I feel it in myself that at different scenarios, different times, different settings, we're ashamed. We're ashamed of Jesus. We're ashamed of righteousness.

We feel it and we're learning what it takes to keep going and Paul is going to address that topic today. Last time we talked about the things that keep us going. We talked about a father's influence that a father's voice speaking into our life will help us keep going. And I said last time that every one of us needs a Paul . Every one of us needs a Timothy. We need those relationships that will give encouragement to keep us going.

I hope you left here looking for those voices and seeking to be that voice in someone else's life. Today we have our second means of continuing on in gospel fueled endurance. The second way to finish strong is living a life without apology. That's what I want to show you how to do today. I want to show you how to live a life without apology, a life that doesn't seek the acceptance of man, a life that doesn't fold under the pressure that man seeks to put on you.

I want to give you that dead set attitude where you will not capitulate regardless of whatever pressure man to put on you. I want to address the fear of man. I want to address our heart that's captive to what others think about us. That's no way to live. That's no way to die. And today I want to show you freedom from that. So let's take our Bibles. Let's stand together in honor of God's word.

We're going to do this week by week because we believe that the Bible is central to our life, central to our ministry here at central church. We're in second Timothy chapter one we'll start in verse six and by the way, before you read this, let me just point out the theme of this section that we're in. Look at verse eight. Notice it says, do not be ashamed. Do you see that? He's telling. He's telling Timothy, do not be ashamed of our Lord. And then skip down to verse 12 do you see it again?

But I am not ashamed. So Timothy, you don't be ashamed. I'm not ashamed. Now skip down to verse 16 he talks about Anessa forests. He often refreshed me, and here it is again, was not ashamed. That's the theme of the section we're in. You don't be ashamed. I'm not ashamed. He wasn't ashamed. And the message that we have for us today is that the people of God should not be ashamed of Christ, of Christ's messenger, of Christ people. We're not going to live with shame.

We're going to live a life of no apology. That's where we're going today. So let's look at it. Chapter one verses six through 10 for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit, not a fear, but a power and love and self control.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who saved us and called us to a Holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own saving of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Today, I want to show you three ways to live that way, to live the unashamed life, to live a life of no apology, three white , straight out of the text that we just read. Three ways where you could face that lost family member who sort of antagonistic towards the gospel with no shame. Three ways to face that college professor who fights you. Three ways to glorify God with no apology to this world. So may God bless the reading and preaching of his word. Thank you. You may be seated.

How do we live the unashamed life? How do we live with no apology? Let's just walk through this three points this morning. First of all, if you're taking notes, there's a handout in your bulletin. You can take that. I just have three words for you to fill in this morning that would help us live what chapter one prescribes. First of all, use the gifts God has given you. Use the gifts that God has given you.

You and I can't expect to face opposition to the gospel if we're not using and walking in our spiritual gifts. Do you know what your gifts are? Are you using them? Notice we see the topic of gifts. Gifts come up in verse six and again in verse seven and verse six he's going to tell Timothy, stir up your gifts and then in verse seven he's going to talk about God has given you what God has given. Some of you need to stir up the gifts that you've been neglecting for a long time.

You know what your gifts are, but you're not walking in them. You're not using them. Notice in verse six Paul has to say that to Timothy. Look at verse six he says, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. The image here is very powerful. It's the image of a dying coal. My son and I, we we enjoy building a good size fire.

In fact, on our previous property we had about five and a half acres and my son would and I , we would build these massive bonfires and we'd have fun with that and we would try to make a fire big enough to see from outer space. That's all we're trying to do. Okay. And so we would make a pretty good size fire. And what would happen is days later, actually a couple of days later , we would come back and it's nothing but ashes.

And we would sort of take the rake and we would start to stir up what was left. And we would notice there's still, after two days, there's still some smoldering coals down deep. And we would dig those coals up. We'd push them all together in a pile. And what would happen is we'd start blowing on it. And the fire would be reignited. That's the image of verse six dying Coles . Your gifts are sort of like dying Coles of a fire and maybe you've neglected them.

Maybe you have pushed them off to the side. You've not been walking on them. That's why you feel so weak at this point in your life. That's why you're folding under pressure and Paul is saying you've got to treat those dying gifts like dying Coles and you've got to stir them up again. You're going to blow on them and walk in them and that's going to help you proceed. In fact, that's the word in the Greek. It's literally Kindle, a fresh Kindle at a fresh blow on those coals that are dying.

For Timothy, he had gifts and he was neglecting them or he was about to start neglecting them and Paul has to tell him, fan those gifts back into a flame. You might write down second Timothy four two Paul names some of the gifts of Timothy. Second Timothy four two he'll tell him, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Those are Timothy's pastoral gifts right there in that verse.

Paul has to exhort him to walk in them. I think what was happening was Timothy, is that he was being tempted to be paralyzed by fear, so paralyzed that he wasn't walking in his gifts and Paul has to come in and stir him up to stir up his gifts. He's becoming an effective , that's a great point for us to just stop and say, has that, has that happened to any of us in this place? Maybe you've pulled back from ministering in the way that you know God wants you to.

You know your gifts, but you're not walking in them. You've become paralyzed by fear, and let me just say the Satan loves that. Satan loves it when we neglect the gifts that God has given us because it means the mission will be neglected. Some of you have been given the gift of mercy, but you're not walking in it and God is saying to you in this moment, you need to stir up that gift. You need to visit that person in their infirmity. You need to visit that person in the hospital.

You need to walk in that gift of mercy. You need to serve in that gift of mercy and you need to take steps forward. That's what's going to make you strong. That's what's going to make you not capitulate in the moment of pressure. Some of you have been given the gift of teaching. Don't let it grow cold . Find a place where it can be used. Maybe it needs to start in children's ministry. Maybe it needs to start in the various ministries that are asking for teachers and volunteers.

Find a place where you can contribute. Some of you have been given the gift of giving this morning. We heard that you could give to missions and support God's work around the world beyond regular tithes and offerings. You could give. Some of you have been given the gift of faith. I love the gift of faith. You believe God for big things and through you. God does crazy big things.

And my friend Pat is a pastor in Des Moines, Iowa and he's at Saylorville church and it's a , it's a rather large church and he has a problem that the church just won't stop growing. Every time he calls me, he's like, I'm trying to convince another 300 people to leave and go plant another church. And uh , I'm trying to convince half of my staff to leave and go plant another church. And they've planted like six churches at this point and all of them have just blown up.

But, but the mothership, the mother church won't stop growing and he's just always trying to convince people to leave. He said, Matt, here's what we realized. We have been using the lot of the pizza guy across the street for all of our excess parking. And one day I walked into the office and we had staff meeting and I said, guys, we , we've been doing this for 20 years. We've been using this guy's parking lot.

He's been allowing us to park our people there Sunday after Sunday, we got to do something to bless this guy. Let's come up with something. What could we do to bless this guy and just give him, give him a thank you for letting us use his parking lot. And the guys all thought about it and they brainstorm together and one of the guys says, I got it. We've been using their parking lot. Why don't we, why don't we give him a new parking lot? Why don't it looks terrible? There's potholes everywhere.

There's cracks throughout it. Why don't we seal and give him a new parking lot as a gift from the church? Pat said, I'll tell you right now, I love that. That's a great idea. What's it going to cost? Ten thousand twenty thousand dollars let's do it. So they go and they get the quote and the quote comes back at $90,000 and they're all, they're all like that. And they , they sort of sit around the table and they're all kind of quiet and Pat looks up and he says, I'll tell you this right now.

I'm all in. Let's do it. I think God has led us to this place. I think that's what he wants for us. So let's step out in faith. Let's make the decision. I have no idea where the money's going to come from. Let's do it. So they do it. And two days later, someone walks into the office with a check for $25,000 and two days after that, a young lady walks into the office. Her father has died, but he wanted a portion of his estate to go to the church that he loves.

And how much do you think the amount was for $70,000 within four days, they have the full 90 plus some four days. Now here's the fun part. One of the pastors walks over to the pizza guy and says, Hey man, you have blessed us so much by letting us use your parking lot. We want to bless you back. And the pizza guy says, what do you want to do? Do you want to give me a new parking lot? Joking? And the pastor says, yes, that's exactly what we want to do. Here's $90,000 let's get it done.

It's a great moment. Wouldn't have happened without the gift of faith. Wouldn't have happened without trusting God for big things. Some of us have gifts and if we're not walking in them, we'll miss the mission of God that he has for us and when you do that, confidence falls . Look at verse seven verse seven says, for God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self control. We need to make an examination of the ministry of our life.

If you are feeling fear in some aspect of your life, that's not from God. Amen. God doesn't give gifts of fear. God gives gifts of power and love and self control and notice it's past tense. He has given. He's given you these things already. They exist in full measure in you right now. His resources for your life and your confidence will come when you understand your gifts. Notice let's just go through the three things listed here. The first one is power. It's power.

The word in the Greek Dunamus. What does that mean? Well, it has to do with the energy that produces results. It has to do with the power that we have and it's the power of the Holy spirit. In fact, you might write down Romans eight verse 11 Romans eight 11 says, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

It's the idea that you have the same power dwelling in you that raised Jesus from the dead. Amen. Adrian Rogers said it like this. He said, when Christians realize that they're inhabited, they will be less inhibited. I like it. That's true. We need to realize the power that we have in us. Second, we've also been given love. Love will overcome your insecurities. Love will overcome the shame that you feel when you take a stand for Jesus. How does that work?

Write down first John four 18 such a great verse. It says, perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. How does that work? Well, if I lose my life serving God, I did it serving the one that I love the most. If I lose my retest , my reputation serving God, then I did it. Serving the very one that I love most. Love casts out fear and the presence of fear in my life means I need to stir up this gift of love for Christ.

He also gave us discipline. It's a unique word in the Greek. It's a hotbox, lagamma naan . That's a big word, meaning it only appears one time in the new Testament. It's a conglomeration of words in the Greek, so for no SMOs, this word appears only one time and and the meaning is very clear. It's self control. Even through pain. It means I know my priorities even in the hardest circumstances.

Even when someone shames me, even when someone hurts me, even at painful moments, I'm going to use my gifts as an opportunity in every circumstance. Preach Christ self-controlled , so sum it up. Paul is saying, you and I ought to know our gifts. We ought to access these gifts, and that's Paul's word to Timothy.

Timothy, when you're feeling shame, when you're feeling ashamed of the gospel, when you're tempted to feel that way, you need to stir up your gifts and walk in them because the gifts and the resources of God are more than sufficient to keep us going.

I wonder in the people of God who needs to hear that today, if you're walking in a very difficult place where you're often shamed for your faith in Jesus Christ, God has given you gifts and if you would stir up those gifts and walk in them, he would give you the strength to endure. You have God's resources. I like this quote from a Spurgeon sermon. He said this. He said, the other evening I was writing after a heavy days work, I felt very heavy and sore , depressed. You ever feel that like that?

You ever get depressed? Ever feel like you can't do what God's called you to do and then swiftly and suddenly as a lightning flash, the text came to me. My grace is sufficient. I reached home and I, I looked it up in the original and it last , it came to me this way. My grace is sufficient for thee , and I said, I think it should be Lord. And I burst out laughing, laughing at never understood what the Holy laughter of Abraham was until that evening. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.

It was as if some little fish was thirsty and was troubled about drinking the river dry and father Tim said, drink away little fish. My streams are sufficient for you. Over the or over the seven years of plenty, a mouse fear, it might die of famine and Joseph said, cheer up little mouse. My warehouses are sufficient.

Or imagine a man went away up yonder to a lofty mountain and said to himself, I breathe so many cubit of feet of air every year I shall exhaust the earth of oxygen in the atmosphere to which the earth replies breathe away. Oh man, fill your lungs forever. My atmosphere is sufficient for thee. God has given you a bundle of resources in himself, so walk in the gifts that he's given that will keep you going. If we're going to live a life without apology, it's using the gifts God has given you.

Second main point. Write this one down. We need to embrace the hardship the life brings. You use that word hardship, but you could also write in the word shame. Use the hardship, embrace the hardship. Embrace that shame. Don't try to run from it. That's what text is going to tell us. God has some of you in a very difficult place.

Maybe for some of you it's a mixed marriage where one of you is a Christian and the other one is not, and the one who's not a Christian is very antagonistic to Christ and to the church or maybe you work with someone who's antagonistic to your faith. I've, I've been in that situation when I was in college. I was ridiculed for being a Christian or maybe you're in college and and there's a shaming professor who tries to ridicule you at every chance. Don't try to run from it. I know it's hard.

We need to embrace that shame. That's what we're going to see in point number two. Life is hard. How do we keep going? Well, the biblical truth is that this is actually the normal pathway of discipleship. I'm going to give you some verses to write down. You can study them out this week. Romans eight 17 this is the normal path of discipleship. Romans eight 17 says, if we suffer with him or we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him right down.

Second Corinthians one five for as we share abundantly and Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort to write down Philippians one 29 it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but to suffer for his sake this confront say I'm a very prevalent mentality in evangelicalism. It's the mentality that if I'll just believe in Jesus, I'll have no problems. It's not true. It's just not true. You and I will experience shame.

You and I will experience persecution. Paul will say in this letter, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will experience the suffering that we're talking about. All Jesus promises a safe arrival, but he does not promise a smooth passage. There will be valleys of the shadow of death that we have to cross through and we need to be like Jesus embracing it and entrusting ourselves to the father.

In fact, he'll say in verse eight look there, he'll say, share in suffering for the gospel. That word is literally join up with me. In fact, the good news translation of the Bible says it like this. Come take your part in use in suffering. It's almost like, come on, take your apart. Join up together. Embrace it. Come join our ranks. Notice two ways to do that Paul gives to people to not be ashamed of. Look at verse eight first he says, don't be ashamed of our Lord.

Can I just exhort you in that right now? Don't be ashamed of Jesus. Don't be ashamed of Jesus. This is so subtle. It can. When you're out to lunch today and you pray for the meal and your head is bowed and in your mind, you're already thinking, I wonder what people around me are thinking of me. Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of your savior. This is, this is a fear of man and we need to embrace that shame.

In fact, Romans one 16 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes we need to think that way. How could I be ashamed of Jesus? The one hope of mankind love the story of the college student. He , um , he went out to his university and he did something, the sort of a lost art. He started open air preaching.

He started sharing his testimony in the courtyard of the university and he wanted everyone to know the difference that Jesus had made in his life. And as he was sharing the gospel, he was sharing his testimony. One of his professors walked up and just kind of listened for awhile . And then after that he listens and the professor shouts out and says, young man, you ought to be ashamed of yourself making a fool of yourself out here today. And that young man thought about it for a second.

He said, you know, actually I , I am ashamed of myself, but I could never be ashamed of Jesus. The one who saved me from my sins, the one who washed away, every sin I've ever committed, the one who made me whole again. I'll never be ashamed of Jesus Christ. You can't make me ashamed of my savior and that shut the professor up. Notice another way in verse eight don't be ashamed of Jesus nor of me his prisoner.

This might have been a very real temptation for Timothy to be ashamed of those who do the work. You think about it. Paul's in jail. In fact, he will actually talk about towards the end of the book how all around him, all the other Christians deserted him. He said, nobody stood with me when I was a trial. It was just this fear, and there might be that temptation to be ashamed of those who worked for the Lord, those who are bold in their faith to be ashamed of them.

We need to be the kind of people who support other Christians who are out there in boldness sharing the gospel. Sometimes we can just get stuck into this rut of criticism. We can be ashamed of of fellow Christians. Why do we do that? Well, it's easier to be a critic than to be out there sharing the gospel, isn't it? That's just easier. David Platt preached a sermon back in 2006 where he had people raise their hands if they've complained about anything in the church within the past month.

And then he had them raise their hand if they had shared the gospel in the past. And the difference was staggering. And he said this until we are a P a people more passionate about sharing the gospel and the mission over complaining and criticizing those who are out there doing it will never complete the mission God has given us. Now, no one's come to me with any complaints. All right , now granted, I've only been here two or three weeks. I know, I know that day is coming, but I'll say this.

We need to be a people who build up the servants of God, who are being persecuted, who are being hurt, who are out there giving their all shamelessly for the gospel. And Paul says that [inaudible] now you might be asking, how do I do these things? How do I embrace shame? That's not normal. Amen. That's not a normal thing to embrace hardship. Nobody runs towards that. But look at his mentality at verse eight this is so powerful.

If you'll see this, those two words at the, at the middle of verse eight do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me listen to it, his prisoner. Oh, that's, that is so powerful. If you can get this, whatever circumstance you're in, where you're feeling shame, whatever circumstance where you're in, where the world is trying to push you down because of your faith. Paul sees himself as God's prisoner. He's not a prisoner of his circumstance. He's not a prisoner of Nero.

He's not a prisoner of the courts. He's a prisoner of God. He sees everything that's happened to him as from gotcha . And if we start seeing our life that way, we'll be able to embrace hardship. We'll be able to embrace the shame. How do we stand tall? Unashamed. We use our gifts. We embrace the shame. We embrace the hardship. And our last point, this morning, we rest in God's power to preserve. We rest. This is how you and I can live without apology. We rest in the power of God.

We don't look at our own means of getting out of a difficult situation. We rest in the power of God. There's a great story from George Whitfield. Someone , uh , was , uh , he was constantly being false to falsely accused in his ministry. And uh , someone in his congregation wrote him a letter accusing him of wrongdoing. His reply went like this. I thank you heartedly for your letter.

As for what you and my other enemies are saying against me, I know worse things about myself than he will ever know about me with love in Christ George Whitfield. That's it. That's all he said. What was he doing? He was entrusting himself to God. He's saying, I don't have to fight these battles. I can rest in the power of God to preserve me. That's what Paul does in verse eight. Notice Paul where he rests, he says, share in suffering for the gospel. How?

By the power of God who saved us and called us to a Holy calling. Not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before the ages began. What is this? What are we doing? He's going through a doctrinal creed of salvation. In fact, some commentators say this may have been an early hymn of the church and he's reciting a him maybe, but he's reciting the doctrine of salvation. You have all of it right here in verses nine and 10 you have salvation.

You have sanctification, you have glorification. We're saved by his power in the past. You don't work to save yourself. This is God's work. He saves us. He calls us into a Holy calling and then he sanctifies us. Every Christian Christian who is truly saved, God begins to work and to change us. I like the saying that , uh , if there's no change, there's something strange. God sanctifies his people.

He starts to change us and then we see the end, the outcome of salvation, the appearing of Christ, the abolishment of death. We see life and immortality. And some of you are saying, come on. What's the point of all this lesson of salvation? Why are we getting into the doctrine of salvation? Why is he quoting this ancient him? I think what he's doing is this. It's the argument of greater to lesser.

If God worked to such an extreme to save you and he started this process in eternity past before ages began and he calls you and he beckons you and he regenerates your heart and he sanctifies you and he's coming back for you and we're going to live forever because death will be defeated. Oh, he most certainly do the lesser work of preserving you.

I mean, if you said all that, I mean, he did all that to save you, won't he most certainly preserve you through the little criticisms of man, he overcame sin. He overcame death. He overcame the devil. He will overcome the little voices around you that will push you down. Some of you need to meditate like Paul on your salvation. Just think about this. Paul is in prison. Paul is in jail, but his mind has has soared off into heaven. Maybe it's some of the hard moments this week in your life.

You need to do that. You need to let your mind soar off into eternity. And the God who sustains his people, it's like, it's like Paul has Timothy right there in front of him and he says, Timothy, I'm not afraid to die, not afraid of the shame. I'm about to die. I'm about to be beheaded, but I'm okay.

Some of you are going to face shame this week, but by the power of God,

his wife Elizabeth wrote in her book the shadow of the almighty and she records a journal entry from Jim Elliott maybe when he was a student at a Wheaton college in 1940 he wrote this, father, make me a crisis, man. Bring those I come in contact with to a decision. Let me not be a milestone on a single road. Make me a fork that people must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me. That's my prayer for all of you.

As you leave today, that you would be a crisis man or a crisis woman, that you'd be unashamed of the gospel, unashamed of your savior, and that you'd walk in the gifts and embrace the hardship and rest in the power of God as you face this hard, hostile world. Let's pray together. Heads bowed, eyes closed as the team comes

And if you would trust God's son who died on the cross for your sin, and you would repent and trust in him, God would save you right where you are today as the music plays. I'm going to encourage you to respond. If you need to come up to the front and pray at the altar , please do that. There will be servants ready to pray with you over here to the side and in the back. Maybe just need to speak with something. Speak with someone about something you're walking through. Today's the day.

Take this opportunity. I'm going to pray for us and we're going to end with worship. Father, we thank you for the gospel in this passage. We thank you for the truth that that we can live without apology in this world. The shame will come. The difficult days will come, but Lord, Lord, we want to walk with you, trusting you, knowing that you will be faithful to preserve us.

So father, help us leave this place with heads held high, standing tall, ready for the attacks, not because of our strength, but because of you. Father, for those who are lost, I pray you draw them now, save them from their sins. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.