Everyday Mission: Rekindle, Re-form, Rely

A lot of people were away. That's okay. It's Memorial Day weekend. But you guys are the special ones. You guys are, you know, because I'm actually really excited about this message, you know, which isn't always the case, just telling you things that I think about that I shouldn't share with you. But I'm really excited about this morning. So last week, so if you were listening last week, we jumped into like a new series. It's called Everyday Mission.

And it was fortunate, not because of my great planning, it was just fortunate that the first Sunday of that series was also Pentecost Sunday. And so we kind of mixed the two. We had a Pentecost service, but also just like kicking off this service.

But it's fortunate because what's really clear to me is that Pentecost, that is the time when the Holy Spirit comes down, the disciples after them waiting, after the Pentecost, is the starting point of this new phase in God's mission to reach the world, to go into the world and spread the gospel into the world.

As the Holy Spirit comes down on the disciples, like not only do they, there's like immediately proclamation of the gospel and then there's immediate receptivity to the gospel and then there's immediate conversion. And we see like right in this Acts 2 moment that there's just this mass conversion and that trend just keeps continuing on throughout the book of Acts, right?

And it all starts because the Holy Spirit is at work in the disciples disciples, and that that wave just starts from that moment.

And so, as we talked about last week, I think it's really clear if we read Scripture, not only in the book of Acts, like the narrative of what happens, but also just like Paul's epistles and his teaching on the Spirit, it's pretty clear that if we want to be a part of this mission of God, if we want to be a part of what God is doing in the world, we need the Spirit. We need to depend upon the Holy Spirit. And the great news is that anyone who is a Christian has the Holy Spirit.

So it's not like, it's not actually necessarily something additive that you need. It's something that has already happened to you. His presence is already with you if you're a Christian. The Spirit is God's gift to you. It is God's gift to me. The Spirit is at work in you if you are a Christian, and He's at work in me. If you've given your life to Jesus Christ, if you have repented of sin, turned to Him, and you're giving your life to him, his spirit is at work in you.

Now, let me ask you a question. Do you really believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? It's just something to really sit with because there's a lot of controversy around the work of the spirit, right? And so maybe you say, well, sure, I believe that, but I believe it in this way and that's fine. But I think really we just need to sit with, what does it mean that the Holy Spirit is within us? And what does that have to mean?

Now, maybe you have some doubts because you question even the assertion that I'm making that every Christian has the Holy Spirit in them.

Maybe you think that's not scriptural. So let me just prove you wrong. Okay, so Romans 8, 9 through 11, Paul says this very clearly. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his spirit who lives in you. Paul is not saying, he's saying, if you are in Christ, the spirit is in you. These two things just go together. Christians, those who have given themselves to Jesus Christ, who have just turned to him, are like the spirit is living in you.

And I think that, I mean, this is just one example here in the book of Romans, I think throughout the Bible, we can really just see that this is just clearly, what happens. As far as Paul is concerned, there is no such things as Christians in whom the Spirit is not at work, in whom the Spirit does not live. If you are a Christian, the Spirit is living within you. To be a Christian is to partake in a relationship with Jesus by the Spirit.

And then we have like a life in him, and it's coming from him, and it's towards Jesus in him, him. And it's just this participation with him. And I think most of us get that. And I mean, it's really hard to read the Bible and not understand that and not have to accept that. But then there's that question. Still, again, this nagging question is, do we really believe? Do we really believe that?

And actually, I want to correct myself. That's not the question, because that is the worst form of a question for a Christian. Can I just tell you, don't ever ask yourself, do you really believe it? Are you really a Christian? It's an unhelpful question to you, and it kind of is going to get you into this place where you're constantly doubting yourself.

Let me propose an alternative question. I think a better question is, it's not do we really believe, it's is our belief leading us to faith? Is our belief that the Holy Spirit is in us, is it leading us to faith? Now, we tend to use the word faith and belief interchangeably, right? We think, well, that's the same thing. That's a tautological argument, right? I'm just saying the same thing over again. I don't think I am.

I don't think these words are interchangeable. To me, as I look at Scripture, faith is further down the line from belief. Faith is something, it includes belief, but it is not belief alone. It is not mere belief. And in fact, I would argue you that this is pretty consistently what faith is in the Bible. I have a little formula up. It is belief plus a commitment to act as if my belief is reality. You get that those are two separate things? I can believe things that are not

true. I have many things that I believe that are not true. I find it out all the time because I'm married. Sorry. No, no, that's not it. I believe lots of things that are not true, right? I sometimes believe things about myself that are not true because I don't actually live them out. And it is totally possible. In fact, humans are really great at this. I actually think this is a consequence of sin that we can believe things and yet not be committed to act as if they were true, you know?

But faith, what we're called to in Christ Jesus is to believe and then act according to that belief. We're called to something more than belief alone.

And let me illustrate this in 2 Corinthians 4.13. And this is not Paul's point. This is just kind of, I think, something that we can glean from the way he forms his argument. He says this in 2 Corinthians 4.13. He says, He says, since we have the spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believe, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we speak. Now, his point is not trying to illustrate the distinction between faith and belief, right?

But it's clearly on display. He has this understanding that the spirit of faith is this two-part thing. I believe, therefore I act. In this case, I speak. He's talking about what the Old Testament prophets did. They believed that the Lord was speaking to them. And so they recorded what they were saying and they prophesied to Israel and they called them.

They said things to God, to the people of Israel, like, thus saith the Lord, because they believed that God was telling them something to deliver to these people, right? They believe that they have this confidence. God is working in me. He's gifted me to do this work of prophecy. And so I'm standing before God's people audaciously speaking on behalf of God because of the great confidence I had.

Now, if they were just like people who are like, I know God's telling me this, but I'm not going to do anything with it. That would have been unfaithfulness on their part. They wouldn't have been taking their belief and moving it all into action. See, Paul understands this too. He says, I have this spirit of faith. And so I have this conviction, this belief in the Lord. I take it from scripture. I take it from the work of the Holy Spirit within me. And so I let that play

out into my actions. And so I speak to you on behalf of God, because I have this great confidence. Jesus Christ has appeared to me. I believe his gospel. Like I've opened up the scriptures and I believe he's speaking to us now. And so he takes his knowledge, his belief, his understanding, and he applies it. He speaks. He starts to act in the world. Not just speaking, it's going. I mean, Paul's talked a lot. He wrote a lot, but he also went a lot. And he did all these things in faith, right?

He would come across people and he'd look at them and said, this person, like, I believe the Lord is going to heal this person. And so he'd put his hands on them and pray and the Lord would heal, right? Now, if he just said, oh, I believe the Lord's going to heal him and then walked away, that'd be something else. Belief is one thing. Action is something else. Belief plus action is faith. Belief plus action is faith. because our beliefs need to touch reality.

When our beliefs touch reality, that is faith.

And here's the thing, like just talking about myself, I am sold at this point in my life, I'm almost 40 years old, I have a lot of theological education, I've had many questions over the years, but at this point, I am committed intellectually to the gospel as my basis for reality. I believe the gospel. I have had many questions.

I've pursued many answers to them. And I feel very comfortable saying that I believe 100% every, all this stuff in scripture, like, like if I have some nagging questions, sure, but they're, they're not consequential to my faith. Like I can say at this point, I don't have intellectual issues with the gospel, but let me tell you something else about me. That does not mean that I am always living according to what I believe is true. Anyone else? Is that just me? Should I just be ashamed of myself?

Right? You know, there's a difference between me having a confidence that, man, Jesus Christ is Lord. He's organized the world in a certain way. There's a difference between me being able to say that with confidence and be able to defend that even, and then me living that out in every part of my life. There is a difference between those two things. It's very common to man. I actually don't doubt, I don't have a lot of hangups or shame about that. I realize this is part of the human condition.

Because here's what I've come to accept, that doubt is corrosive to faith, right? We know that, right? Doubt is corrosive to faith because doubt can cripple your faith because it goes against your beliefs, right? I have a little another thing. Like, I mean, typically we think of doubt, right? Doubt keeps me from believing the things, right? I start to doubt intellectually the knowledge, the beliefs, right? I have, we think, this is, we're very common with this definition of doubt.

But I think actually, if we read scripture, doubt is also in this other area. Doubt is also impacting our commitment. So here's the thing. I don't have belief, doubt anymore. I have done a lot of work, and this is not patting myself on the back. Anybody can do it. I'm old, older. And when I was younger, I hadn't had the time yet or the motivation. But I still doubt. But most of my doubt is in this secondary thing. It's that I don't live according to the gospel. And I think that's doubt in

a biblical category. Let me illustrate that to you. James 1, 5 through 8, a passage you probably are familiar with.

I think what he's showing us is that doubt is both these things here. He says this, James, he says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him. Let him ask in faith without doubting, for the doubter is like a surging sea driven and tossed by the wind, the person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all of his ways. It's a bummer. James is not nice.

Look, I think what's going on here is that James is pointing out this reality is that doubt is this kind of full-fledged sort of thing that happens on both our intellectual level, but also in a level of our practice and our commitment to act as if it's reality. You know who I think explains this really well is Dallas Willard. You're surprised, right? I think he explains this passage really well. So I've got a little quote, just a little quote that takes up the whole screen.

He's explaining this passage. He says, what's going on here? Is it that God is simply punishing people for having doubts? Is he saying, naughty, naughty, I will give you neither. That hardly fits with the picture here of God as generous and unreproachful. So there must be something else involved. I suggest the problem is not on the giving side, but on the receiving side, because the double-minded are, as we say, on again, off again. end.

They're not able to receive what God is asking for, what they are asking for. They're unable to act upon it. One day or hour they are asking God for wisdom. The next day or hour they are relying on themselves or others. And while they're asking God, they have in the corner of their mind the thought that God isn't going to give them what they need, and so they must take care of themselves. They're really relying on two different and incompatible things.

And when they are trying to get wisdom on their own, they are thinking about the possibility of God giving it to them. On the other hand, they are undercut by their inner uncertainty about the reliability of God and God's goodwill towards them. I think what James describes is how doubt plays out in us. Yes, sometimes doubt corrodes our intellectual certainty about who God is, and we have questions, and we need them answered.

And that's great, by the way. If you have questions, great. Go get some answers. That is important to us. But I think what he's talking about, this doubled-mindedness, it happens to us all the time. I think it is kind of late-stage doubt.

Once you've gone past basic Christian maturity, you've kind of, I've talked about this a lot, you kind of just like get into like middle age Christianity and you sort of cleaned up your life a little bit.

I think most of the doubts we experience are on this like double-mindedness point where we're just like, well, but how do I take what I know and apply it and do so consistently and act as if God really is who he says he is and that his character is truly good and that he really is kind and he really does have my best interests in mind to the point where I can totally rely on him and not have plan B, always working in the background, which really, because plan B is actually plan A.

Because if I'm honest, I really operate as if I need to do everything for myself. You know, that double-mindedness ends up being doubt and that doubt ends up corroding our faith because our faith needs to lead us to action. And you can't do both. You can't both rely on the Lord and yourself at the same time. It's two things are incompatible. And I'm just like just describing a really normal problem. Everyone in this

room has this problem. I have this problem. You have this problem, which is great. It's great. We're in good company because I believe that God is good. And I believe that Jesus' life and death and resurrection, I believe that because of that, I'm forgiven and that I have nothing to prove and I have no one to impress but him. And I don't even have to impress him. Just like impress him like somebody who loves me and who's faithful and constantly good to me.

I know that I'm forgiven. given. I know that I'm adopted. I know that I've been given a life and a future and hope and security and all the things that people strive for in life. I just have those things in Jesus Christ. I believe that God is love, and I believe that He's gracious, and I believe that He's not angry with me, but He has literally taken the punishment for any wrong I could ever do. And so I can confess that, and I can teach that. I can stand up here and tell

you that, and I can say it, and I really believe it. I can say I really believe it. In my mind, I'm convinced that this is true, but my real problem is that I do have doubts, and those doubts play out in this level of action, and I'm not always ready to act as if what I confess were true. I don't know how to do that. And more often than I like to admit, and in so many ways, I'm actually quite blind to the fact that I am of two minds most of the time.

There's what I believe about who I am in Jesus and what I can expect from Him and what it looks like to rely upon Him. I believe these things are true, and I can tell other people that they're true, and I can tell myself that they're true. And then there's actually what I act upon, which is coming from a set of contrary beliefs that are just sort of I'm blind to, but are inside of me somewhere. We call that sin. We call it sin. And they're coming out, and I'm practicing.

They don't seem to live in my brain, but they live somewhere in me. And so I live contrary to what I say I know and what I actually really do genuinely believe. And that's just the normal human condition. It is something that we have to mature through. And you know what? My kids are in the maturity process. I've got a 13, 11, an 8, and a 5-year-old. And you know how quickly they're going to mature one year at a time.

And so what I'm just telling you right now is if you're sitting here and you're saying, I'm just not mature enough, I believe maybe the right things or maybe I have doubts and that's great, that's fine, like sit with those doubts, overcome those doubts, handle the intellectual questions you have first, get to those. And then what you're gonna see is you're gonna realize is that there's this whole even longer road of facing up to the fact that you don't act according to your beliefs oftentimes.

And you need to take that one year at a time, one moment at a time. Follow through. You know, one thing about like teenagers, right? They describe this phenomena that happens right now called failure to launch, right? You have teenagers and they are growing biologically, but not maturity wise. It's possible to just kind of hang out in the same spot. And I think a lot of times that what bogs us down and keeps us from maturing as Christians is that we feel so much shame about our failure of faith.

We feel shame about our doubts. We feel shame about the fact that we don't always act consistent with our belief. And here's what I'm just telling you. We're all in the same boat. Just like fess up to it. Let's be honest. Like you are a doubter. I am a doubter. I'm not saying, oh, it's no big deal. I'm saying mature through it. Don't turn from it. Call it what it is. Move past it. It's going to be okay. God is faithful. He's doing something in your life. It might take a little time.

But look at the problem. I think that's it. Let's be honest about the problem. You doubt. I doubt. Functionally, I live my life in contradiction in many ways, even ways that I'm not aware of, in contradiction to what I believe. Shouldn't be that way. God doesn't want it to be that way. He's going to bring me to maturity. And so that's where we're going. So keep going.

Now you may be asking, I thought we were, what does that have to do with mission? I thought we were talking about mission, right? This is a mission thing. Fair question. Very fair question. I do this every time I start a series. I'm like, I'm going to talk about something. And then I do two sermon series, like talking about philosophical ideas. I'm sorry. I just, I'm, I'm annoying. I know it. I know I'm annoying, but I think this is important because I think this is really related to mission.

I think it it has absolutely everything to do with Mission.

Because I think that our thought about, well, how do we become missional people? How do we become people who are effective at sharing Jesus with people? The first thing we go to as Americans, I think this is an American thing, we said, well, just teach me the method. Teach me the technique. We think method and technique will solve all of our problems, right? If we just learn how to do things the right way, the skillful way, then we will be effective in what we're doing.

But here's the thing. As far as I can read in the Bible, the missional movement doesn't look like hone your skills, become more eloquent, become more persuasive. And I'm not saying any of these things are bad. I think they can be added on to the fundamental thing. But the fundamental thing that comes before any of that is that we live like people of faith, that we develop our faith muscle.

As far as I can see in the Bible, the missional model, the missional strategy, the way to reach the world is normal people like you being filled with the Spirit, learning to live into reality through ongoing repentance, changing our minds about the things that we, the way we're falsely living and the false reality that we're living into, changing our minds and living into the reality that we confess.

And then having their identities formed into Christian maturity and to have their whole self, your core of who you are, be filled with faith and be an integrated person whose beliefs and actions are consistent. Because that's what I see God doing and what I see him doing on Pentecost, right?

He's filling them with the spirit and then they're just whole, as a whole person, everything they do, what they believe, what they act upon, the Lord is knitting them together and bringing them into maturity, right? God doesn't, on Pentecost, right? They spent seven weeks in the upper room. God isn't coaching them into the method of evangelism. And again, we will get to that in this series. We'll talk about evangelism later, but that's not the first thing.

God, what he's doing is he's sending the Holy Spirit. He's bringing life to them again. He's integrating them as people. He's making them full human Christians, just as normal people. And from that place of the Holy Spirit at work in them, of them like laying down their idols, moving past their double-mindedness, getting over their doubts, the Lord is beginning to use them.

If you do that, I think mission will follow. If you become the kind of person who just says, Lord Jesus, I want to overcome my doubts, both intellectual and like in my actions. Nothing will stop you from talking about Jesus. It'll just come right out of you. It really will. And people will just say, whoa, you are living this other kind of life. Like people will just ask you about your faith if you start to do this, if you move into integrated maturity.

But really, I think what we need to do, like what I see the Holy Spirit doing in these people, you know, and throughout Jesus's time with them is that they are having their identities settled. They're having their identities settled. And I think that what happens when we know something but we don't act according to it is that we are divided people who need identity formation. We need to grow up and to really be settled in who we are and understand who we are, really.

Because when we understand who we are and then we really live according to who we are, who we've been called to be, then things get worked out. We do need information to shape who we are, but if we want to live as everyday missionaries, then we have to have our identity shaped. Because once our identity is shaped, we're going to live from that in a greater sense.

And so for the rest of the morning, what I want to do is I want to just look at 2 Timothy 1. So if you've got a Bible, look at 2 Timothy 1. I'm going to have passages up here too. And what we're seeing in 2 Timothy 1 is Paul's writing a letter to a guy named Timothy. Timothy is a young man. He's been left in the town of Ephesus. Paul has been been traveling around. He went to Ephesus. He spent two years in Ephesus, started the church there, taught them all this stuff.

And then as he has left Ephesus, he's left Timothy behind. Timothy is, again, a young man. He had been traveling with Paul, excuse me. He had been traveling with Paul on his missionaries journeys, and Paul had trained him to be like a leader who would stay behind after Paul left. And so he's appointed Timothy as the leader of the church in Ephesus to help continue to grow this young church into maturity. And then Paul has left, and now he's writing. He's corresponding with Timothy.

We have 1 and 2 Timothy. Those are two separate letters sent to Timothy. And so here in 2 Timothy, we find we're just sort of reading into the circumstance. But from what we can tell in 2 Timothy, Paul is writing to Timothy, Timothy is discouraged. He's discouraged. He is finding the work of overseeing the church in Paul's absence very difficult, of living on his mission very challenging.

There are things that are going on in his life, and he's trying to do what the Lord has called him to do, but he's struggling. He's full of doubts. He's kind of stuck. He's feeling discouraged. Again, just reading into the context from what Paul tells him. And so Paul calls him in the midst of that discouragement to do the following, right? And I would argue that this is just identity formation stuff. Okay, so here we go.

He says, therefore, I remind you, rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power and love and sound judgment. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner. Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God. I just see, I see three things here and they all begin with the letter R. Isn't that wonderful?

Three things here going on that I think are really important. I think what Paul is doing is he's calling Timothy to recover his missional identity. And the first thing he tells him to do is to rekindle, right? He says, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you. Begin with the rekindling. And just think about this for a second, because I think it's really important because, I mean, Timothy experienced something special, right?

He had something special happened to him. Paul recognized that the Holy Spirit was at work in him and that he had particular gifts. And so Paul lays his hands on him and he prays over him to just kind of activate or call out those gifts. And he blesses what God, what Paul blesses, what he sees God doing in Timothy's life. And we can imagine, it seems pretty clear that Timothy walks away from that moment of prayer, just like recognizing the calling of God in his life.

He's like, yes, God has given me these gifts. I have been given this gift of God for leadership, to go out and witness to the Lord and to talk to people about Jesus. He's excited. And what happens? He goes out there with all of his zeal and his excitement. He says, it is on because the Holy Spirit is in me and I am living in this. I have the power of the Spirit. It's going to be great. I'm going to be bold. I'm going to do the stuff. I'm going to be unstoppable.

The Lord is going to just, just, wow, the seas are going to part before me because the Holy Spirit is in me. And a couple months go by, right? And Paul has to write, and he says, you need to rekindle the gift that was in you. It says like, because you were amped up and you were so pumped and the Holy Spirit was just like encouraging you and it was great.

But now you've faced difficulties and people aren't listening to you and people are fighting and you don't feel as as like effective in what you're doing. And Paul says, so here's what I need you to do. Not method, not technique. He gets to that later, but start with this. Rekindle the gift of God that's within you. Rekindle the gift that God was going to. He says, your fire is going out. The identity piece is fading. You're forgetting who you are.

You maybe know, you have the knowledge, but you don't know how to consistently act according to what God has called you to. So you need to remind yourself of who you are. You need to remind yourself of the Holy Spirit. You need to come back to the one who put the fire there in the first place and let him rekindle that fire and grow it and set you on fire. Let the breath of the Spirit blow on the flame that is in you. And here's the thing. I am so bad at this.

I have had, just by God's kindness and grace, really remarkable experiences. And kind encounters with the Holy Spirit where it's like, I wasn't even sure if the Holy Spirit was real. I have my doubts and like, I just, just like would come to God. And, and he like, just did some stuff in me to, to make it very clear to me that he's real and that he cares about me. And by the way, I believe he'll do that for you. If you need that, just talk to me afterwards.

Like, I'll tell you what I did. I went away, I fasted and I prayed and three days later, the Holy Spirit did something to me. That's all. You can do that. Right. If that's, if that's something that you want, right? But here's the thing. I had this totally transformative life experience. I've talked about it before, so I'm not going to go into the details or whatever, but I had this totally amazing experience of the Holy Spirit. And I felt like in the moment, like it totally shifted my paradigm.

I'd be like, oh, God is real. Like he loves me. He accepts me. He's like, he's like, he's like there. And then I, I, I just had this like moment like a couple weeks ago where I was like, it's like, I totally have forgotten that. Like I believe it's true. But I just forget. And I forget that the way that I first became super aware of the Holy Spirit is I just went to him and waited upon him. And I neglect doing that all the time now.

And then I get into this place of doubt and discouragement, mostly because it's raining still. Come on. Come on, shouldn't this be over now? And then I get out of sorts, and I just feel like things should be different, and God should be doing more things. And I just do not regularly practice rekindling, just reminding myself of who the Holy Spirit is and what He's done with me.

And I need to, and so do you. So do you. too. Because the fact is that if you're a Christian, you have fellowship with God by the Spirit. He's done something miraculous within you. He's bringing life into you. That's what the scriptures say. It says, if you believe, he's pouring out that life. And oftentimes, I think we don't know that because we aren't bothering to rekindle that, to be reminded of it.

And it's the simple practice of going back to God and just saying, God, would you really remind me of this? Would you remind me of what you've done in my life and how you've proved moved your faithfulness and your goodness to me. And just like go before God and just don't stop until he reminds you. Because Timothy was busy. I got to run this church. So I got to have all the meetings and I got to do all the things and I have

to have my different activities going on here. I got a lot of Bible studies to attend. And in the midst of all of that, he had neglected everything. You know, experiencing and being reminded of the goodness of God. And so, if you want to get over the doubt, move into maturity, then you need to spend some time rekindling. You have to have a habit of rekindling, reconnecting, asking the Lord to remind you of who He is. When you are discouraged, that's the first thing you need to do.

You don't need a new method. You don't need a technique to do your life better. You just need to go and wait before the Lord and just pray and seek his face. Like you, you really need that. That is your most desperate need. And the problem is when you're busy and discouraged, it feels like the thing that you can't possibly make time for. It feels like the thing that you, you wouldn't want to step into that because maybe you're going to be disappointed when you get there.

But I'm just telling you, like, just don't neglect it. Rekindle the spirit of the fire that, that, that, that he's proved to you already. And if you are a Christian, like if you've had a moment of like just acceptance in the Lord, like he's in you, He wants to be in you all the more. He wants to remind you of that. So go and spend some time. The second R, and this is the one I'm most proud of, is reform, not like reform school.

Although, yes, like reform school, because it actually just means to be formed yet again, to be formed yet again, right? Because Paul tells him, he says, let me remind you of what the Holy Spirit is doing within you. He's in your presence and he's not giving you a spirit of fear. So you've got this this fear and doubt and discouragement thing going on. He says, that's not the nature of the spirit.

That's not what he's doing. He says, I've given you a spirit of power and of love and of sound judgment. And actually that Greek word I think is funny. It's wisdom making, sound judgment. The wisdom making sounds weird. So we translate it as sound judgment, but he's given us a spirit to make us wise, to let us know what to do. But he directs us into those things. But the fact is that, again, how does a teenager come into maturity?

Their character is formed through trial, through hopefully good parenting, through education, through the things, the passageways that we know lead over time to a transformed person and a mature person. In the same way, you need to move past and let the Holy Spirit work in you and form your character. You don't feel powerful. You don't feel like you have love. Me too. You don't feel like you have wisdom. Maybe instead you feel fearful and doubtful a lot of the time.

And I'll just say again, welcome to the club. But the Holy Spirit, He's doing these things. He's shaping these things in you. It's going to take time. That's okay. But keep going back. Know that when you're discouraged, when you're fearful, He will pour out love and power and wisdom. And if you're doubtful, and if you're discouraged and you don't know where to go and you feel disillusioned and you feel unloving, okay, let him form you and shape those things in you.

The prescription to Timothy is not try harder, work more, do better, Timothy, you idiot.

The prescription is come back to the Holy Spirit. He's gonna pour those things into you. He's gonna face your discouragement and your fear and he's going to shape in you these other things that come along with his presence, power, love, wisdom. Because Timothy, you're writing to me and you're saying, Paul, tell me what to do. And Paul says, no, go before the Lord and he'll tell you what to do. I'm not going to tell you what to do. Although then he does tell what to do.

But he's saying like, you have a counselor, you have an advocate. The Holy Spirit is with you. He's walking within you. You need to go Oh, and you need to have your identity shaped more and more into trusting him into living according to what he's calling to you, to faithful living, to living it out. But it takes time and it takes returning and it takes hanging in there. And that's, you know, I love it when God fixes my problems in an instant.

It's so great. He's done that for a few of my problems, but so many more of my problems have not been like that, but he's still doing the work and he gets to do what he wants. He gets to mature us at the pace that he wants. I think oftentimes we just don't like that. We just don't want, we want everything to be solved. But you know what, guys? We hang in there with the spirit and slowly he is going to be pouring into these things into our lives.

He's gonna replacing fear and discouragement with love, power, wisdom, and it's good. He's faithful to his word.

And then finally, the last thing he tells them to do is just to rely. lie. He says, instead, share in the sufferings for the gospel, relying on the power of God. Because what Timothy is experiencing is he's discouraged and people are trashing Paul and saying, man, that Paul, he's an idiot. He's weak. He's not an impressive apostle like all these other apostles. And what Paul just says is, eh, don't pay him any mind. Share the sufferings of Christ because you know what? People didn't think Jesus

was very impressive either. And he died and rose again. So, you know, it worked out because what he did is he relied on the power of God. He relied on God to prove himself true. And I mean, to rely is to just get honest and real about your actual life and the way that you're living and to arrange your life in such a way that if God doesn't show up, then I will be embarrassed and I will have problems.

He's saying, yeah, go ahead and suffer. You know, suffering without any hope, of restoration or deliverance, like that's discouragement. But he's saying, yeah, you can suffer because you know that God is gonna show up in the middle of it. You can rely on him. You can put yourself into a vulnerable position.

You can put yourself to this place where you get real about your actions in the world, where you say, okay, I will organize my finances in such a way that God needs to show up, or I will organize my career in such a way that I need him to be my defender, and I need him to be the one who gets me, who sustains me. You can organize your life in such a way that you are relying upon God, and yet so much of our double-mindedness is trying to eliminate any risk that God might not show up.

So Paul just says, so just go ahead, lean into the suffering. It's fine because he's going to show up. He goes on, he says. He just reminds them of what's true, right? Because Timothy knows the truth. He knows all this stuff. Everything he's about to, Paul's about to tell him, Timothy could tell it back to him. So he says, but he says, so I'm going to remind you the truth and then I'm going to call you to live according to that truth. He says, he saved us.

He's called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began and now has been made evident through the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel, I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and this is why I suffer these things.

But I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to guard what he has entrusted to me until that day. So at this point... Paul reminds Timothy, as he's calling him to have his identity shaped into who he really is, he reminds him of what he knows is true, that intellectual stuff, that belief stuff. He saved us. He's called us. He's given us a holy calling. He's given you a purpose.

And it's not because of all your goodness or your works. It's according to his grace. He sent Jesus Christ. He appointed Christ to be our Savior before time began. And now we're seeing it and we're living into that reality. And so we just like need to throw ourselves in action and commitment to act upon the truth. And he says, and Paul does this to the point of vulnerability. He says, I'm not ashamed because I know who I'm believed.

I'm persuaded that he is going to guard me what has been entrusted to me until that day. So he just abandons himself to the truth of what he knows about who Jesus is and how he is in the world. And he says, and so I'm just gonna throw myself upon that. And as I throw myself upon that, and as you, Timothy, throw yourself upon that, and as you Christians, all 2000 years later, throw yourself upon that reality and just say, all right, I'm just gonna commit my life to this thing.

You're going to know and love and feel and experience like the goodness of God. And we desperately need to get over our doubts and have this great confidence that God will show up in our lives, because I think that's what keeps us stuck. It's what keeps us from not wanting to share Jesus. It's what keeps us just kind of always questioning ourselves, right? But we're called to faith, and we're called to step into something better.

So, I'm doing the worship leader thing this morning, so this is going to be a little awkward, but the worship team is going to come forward, and I'm going to move this guy over here. Worship team is going to come forward, and I want you to think about something, okay? So, So this is my challenge to you as we get into worship now.

Here's the thing. When I started to think about mission, and whenever I think about mission and like, okay, what has God called me to and who am I supposed to be and all these questions that I have, right? I am a person, and I think I'm very common. I think I'm very normal. I'm going to switch to this one now, Joel, is that okay?

I'm a pretty normal person. person and so a lot of my when i come before god i said god you know what am i supposed to do with my life what is this for what is my purpose and as i start to think through the different, answers potential answers to that question you know what i always start to think i better change some big big circumstance about my life and then i'll know my purpose anyone else feel that way, Oh, I better move or I better, you know, get a new job or I better,

you know, find better friends or change some big circumstance about my life, which, of course, is just me saying. Of confessing what I sort of believe in my heart, that God can't show up right now in the life that I have right now. So here's what I want to, I want to challenge you to think about this question. Because I believe you're called to live on, on everyday mission in your life, in your regular life. You're just like a normal person. And I believe that God can show up in your life.

So what is it, what can you identify today with the life that you have right now this morning?

Like how can you live out this identity how can you live out your calling as a christian today how can you express in your words and actions what you believe about who god is today in your life without changing your circumstances and so i want you guys to think about that for a little bit because here's the here's the thing is i really have this have this confidence that, that God doesn't need me to move across the country or change anything really.

God needs me to be a person shaped into faithfulness. And I just so often am not. I so often have my doubts. And what I need is God to kind of put together my inner life again and to remind me of who I am. And so, yeah, that's what I want you to do right now. I just want us to take some time to worship. I want you to think about this question. What can I do today? Today.

Within the next, whenever you go to bed, I don't know, 12 hours or so, what can you do today to express what you believe about God in your actions? Okay. So think about that. And we're just going to worship together here for a little bit. All right. So, uh, yeah, let's jump in. Music. And we're not looking for something in ourselves, Lord. We're not looking for more willpower, God. You know, we just don't have the willpower. That's our biggest problem, Lord.

But, Lord, we know that it will come as you come more into our lives, as we surrender more to you, as we seek you more, as we are reminded of your faithfulness and goodness, and as we experience your presence in our life. So, Holy Spirit, we just say, would you come, even right now? Lord, would you tie us back together? Would you knit us back together? Lord, would you make us whole people, people who know what it is to believe and speak, to believe and act, to live in faith and entrust upon you?

God, we are so good at breaking ourselves apart. God, put us back together. Put us back together, Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this place. Music.