Jesus Wants Steadfast Faithfulness # 2

II. We overcome fear and remain faithful by Remembering what Jesus has done in our lives (v.5)

It is easier to be faithful to God when we remember His faithfulness to us. The old song says:

"When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

As a people we have a tremendous capacity to forget. We forget that we are not where we are simply because of our own efforts. We forget what others have done for us. We forget what God has done for us. And when we forget what God has done for us we are tempted to believe that God has never used us and never will use us.

Paul points Timothy back to things in his life that demonstrate God's hand on him and his ministry. Notice two things:

1. Genuine faith

The apostle tells Timothy, "As I think about you, as God brings you to my remembrance, I am reminded of the genuine faith that is in you." The Greek word for genuine here is literally translated, "unhypocritical." In other words, Paul was saying to Timothy, "The faith I've observed in you is the real thing." Perhaps Timothy's timorous and fearful personality had led him to doubt his own salvation, perhaps he had begun to question whether or not God had really called him to service, but Paul says, "Timothy, I've seen a lot of Christians in my day, and from all of my experience, from all my observation, son you've got the real think, yours is the genuine article."

What an affirmation, what a help in overcoming his fears, to hear from someone like the apostle himself that his faith was recognizable as authentic.

But more than that, Paul points back to his upbringing. Look at the rest of verse 5.

2. Godly family

Timothy had been blessed to grow up in a Christian home. His mother and grandmother were both believers who, according to chapter 3:15, had taught the scriptures to Timothy from an early age. Paul was reminding him that this call on his life, this evidence of faith was not some anomaly; it was part of his spiritual heritage, part of the blessing God has bestowed upon him.

I've heard a lot of testimonies in my day. Some testimonies are dramatic, and we've all heard them. They tell of how someone was lost in sin, addicted to alcohol or drugs, or about someone who for years had walked on the wild side of life, and then one day God hit them like a bolt of lightening and they were gloriously saved. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes these testimonies tend to glorify the wickedness of their sin rather than the wonder of their Savior.

And then there are those of us who were raised in Christian homes who began going to church at an early age, whose parents taught them, from childhood, the great truths of Scripture, the wonderful stories of the Bible. And somehow we think that this kind of testimony is boring when compared to those whose conversion was dramatic. But friends, I'm here to tell you that the greatest testimony anyone could ever give is that they were blessed to have Christian parents, folks who loved Jesus and who modeled the faith in their home; a testimony that tells how they were spared from having to walk down the pathway which leads to destruction but from an early age realized that the straight and narrow way was the right way.

I thank God that I was reared in a Christian home, that I gave my heart and my life to Jesus at an early age. I thank God that I was spared a lot of the things other people had to go through before they came to Jesus.

Paul wanted Timothy to remember that God had been working His plan even before Timothy was born. God was bringing that plan to fruition in Timothy's life, and the reality of God's work through Timothy's faith and his family was something that should give him strength and enable him to overcome his fears.

We overcome fear by remembering what Jesus has done in our lives.

III. We overcome fear and remain faithful by rekindling the gifts God has given us (v. 6)

Doubts and fears have a tendency to cause us to let the flame of passion, the fire for action burn low in our lives. As Paul writes to young Timothy, who is probably in his early to mid thirties by this time, he tells him that if he is going to assume the responsibilities for which God has preordained him, he must keep the fire of passion for ministry alive in his heart.

Timothy had been called by God to oversee the ministries in the church. He was called to be a pastor and I can assure you that, as a pastor, there will always be those who want to test your mettle, to see how tough you really are. If the church at Ephesus was anything like most churches today, and we have not reason to believe otherwise, there were those who questioned Timothy's authority, who questioned his ability to lead and his judgement. They caused him to be fearful rather that faithful. To this Paul enjoins Timothy to resuscitate the fire of the gift that is within him, to go back to his call, to the realization that as he acted and as he led, he did so with authority from heaven itself.

Make no mistake about it, your pastor is not perfect, but he has been given authority from heaven, for which God will hold him accountable, and he is called by God to exercise that authority as he gives leadership and direction to the local church. That is what Timothy had been called to do. That was the gift that needed fanning back into a flame, his passion for ministry.

The Greek word here, translated "keep ablaze," or "kindle afresh," literally means "keep the fire alive." Allow me to suggest four things that I believe will continuously add fuel to your fire and keep it burning brightly within you.

1. Strong in your walk

This speaks to both your walk with God and your walk with the family of God. We have a tendency to grow cold when our quiet times with God fall by the wayside, or when we cease to have fellowship with other Christians. Our fellowship with God keeps us connected to the source of our fire, and God has given us other Christians to fan that flame, to hold us accountable, to encourage us, to exhort us and to work along side of us. If you want the flame for ministry, the passion for service to burn hot within your spirit, you must stay strong in your walk.

2. Spiritual in your worship

We cannot allow what we do for God to become perfunctory, or something we do just because we are supposed to do it. Worship should ever be personal and intimate. What we do for God should be the natural outflow of our relationship with Him. We should take our ministry personally. We should see it as a reflection of our love for God. When what we do for God becomes more of a ritualistic practice than a relational passion, the fire within us will grow cold and die.

3. Study in the word

It is nearly impossible to stay solid in your walk, to be spiritual in your worship and keep the fires alive when you absent yourself from time in the word of God. Like the prophet says in Jeremiah 20:9, "But His word was in my heart like a burning fire." If you want to keep the fire burning within you, study the word and it will ignite your soul.

4. Steady in your work

Keep your priorities what they need to be. The world is filled with many good things to do, but God directs us in that which is best to do. We are called to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. If we will stay focused on what He has called us to do, our hearts will stay where they need to stay. Proverbs 16:3 says, "Commit your works to the lord and your thoughts will be established."

Some of you are here this morning and you can look back and remember a time in your life when things were different, when you had a deep longing, a passionate fire within you to serve God, to accomplish something in His kingdom. And then life happened. It didn't happen all at once, but rather it was a process, over the course of years other things seemed to creep in and steal the passion from your soul. Maybe it was a bad experience you had at church or perhaps it was something that happened between you and another Christian, or maybe God did not answer your prayers as you thought, but I suspect that in most cases it was nothing really dramatic, but rather over the years the fire for ministry, the passion for service simply began to burn low.

To you, this morning, God is telling you that He wants you to rekindle the flame, to fan the embers back into a flame. He has never changed His plans for you. He still wants to use you, but He will not force you to be used, you must want it, you must take the initiative, you must fan the flame yourself.

Rekindle the fire and keep the flame burning and you will not give in to fear, because, as verse 7 tells us, fear is not in keeping with the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

~Calvin Wittman~