The Gift Of Salvation | 2 Timothy 1:8-14

• Sermon Transcript

  All right. Our first kids can be dismissed for first because worship as well. Now me at the time to go and as they're leaving, let me say that it's not Christmas. It's not Christmas until Terry Austin sings Oh, holy night. And so now it's Christmas time. All right, am I on my bid? Okay, there we go perfect. There was an art contest held, and a local school one Christmas season. A few years ago in East Texas. If you ever been to East Texas before, you may have an idea what I'm referring to, I have an idea of the area. And one of the prize winners was a picture drawn by a nine year old boy, showing three men offering gifts to the baby Jesus. And off to the side was their method of transportation in the picture, a fire truck. Nine year old boy, so they won the awards. And the principal asked the boy, now Son, why did you draw a firetruck? Right? For this picture of gifts to baby Jesus, a little boy in his heavy East Texas accent said Well, the Bible says the wise men came from afar. So you can ask the person next to you to explain it. It's amazing how a story of gifts to Jesus have transformed to this tradition of where we give gifts to each other. Right? I think about that when walk around Walmart on December 22, or something like that, right? Like, well, what is this what's happened? How's this occurred? Right? And we're talking today about the gift that we receive of salvation. One of the cool things about preaching through the entire Bible for one year, as we're doing this year is that you come upon passages of Scripture that you would never preach typically on certain days. And a normal situation. Normally, I would go to Luke passage or John passage or Matthew Mark about the or something about the birth of Jesus or something like that, right? Since the entire Bible is about Jesus, and all sermons should be talking on some level about Jesus in some form, or fashion or what he's done for us. It's it's not much of a stretch to find something to say about God, or Jesus Christ in any section of scripture. And today we find ourselves in Paul's second letter that he wrote to Timothy. It's just called one of the pastoral epistles, because Paul gives direct advice to Timothy, about how to pastor the church in emphasis. But the principles in this letter are far more beneficial and relevant than for just those in ministry. It's life giving for all of God's people, which is why it's in our Bible. So second Timothy chapter one. Starting in verse eight, he writes Timothy and says, 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 purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher, and apostle, and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day, what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, and the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us guard The good deposit entrusted to you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful Christmas Eve morning you've given us We thank you for those that are here today. Those that might be watching at home, wherever they are enjoying it, we thank You for this Christmas Eve we, we pray for our services tonight, our special Carol sings and band leading our worship and communion time and all that and here in the children and everything when we pray for that service tonight but today, this morning, we pray that we hear a word from you today, Lord, that my words reflect your heart, that your spirit preaches forth, and that the people here receive your word today, Lord, if we need to be encouraged, and will be encouraged. Lord, if we need to be convicted of sin, Lord will be convicted. Lord, if we need to be be felt loved and comforted through this passage, but we will feel the love and comfort that we need. And Lord if we need to be bothered by something, for not following Christ if we don't know Jesus, that our Lord and Savior, Lord, that those here today would be saved father, they would hear and receive your gospel. love, we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Today I want to give you three truths about the gift of salvation, three truths about the gift of salvation. Number one, we're saved. For the purposes of Jesus, were saved for the purposes, not of ourselves, not of our own desires, but that of Jesus Christ desires in our life. As I mentioned before, this is a second letter, Paul wrote, Timothy, Timothy was a young pastor in the church of Ephesus. And he seemed to have some fear, as he pastored his people, and stood strong for the gospel. And both of Paul's letters are written and meant to encourage him, as he finds himself ministering in a difficult church, and a difficult culture. And so he undoubtedly faced the fear of persecution, the fear of being silenced, the fear of being canceled. And so he encourages him to not have a spirit of fear, but to have a spirit of power, and of love, and of self control. And he urges in verse eight, this, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor have me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. The world will try to shame Christians into perhaps abandoning their faith. If we abandon our faith, then we can't make new disciples. We don't make new disciples. The church cannot grow. If the church doesn't grow, it shrinks. And then we're not obeying Christ's command. And when the church is not growing, it's not influencing the culture, the culture will morally decay more and more many of you have seen this occur in our country today. The Paul says, Don't be ashamed of Jesus, or even himself of Paul, for being in prison for the sake of the Gospel, instead, share in the reality that suffering will happen to Christians and an anti Christian culture. But he says you can endure the suffering. For the Gospel is the power of God. enduring suffering by the power of God comes with this gift of salvation, and it is a part of God's purpose in our lives, in our salvation, verse nine says that he has saved us and called us to a holy calling. When God saved us, He saved us to a holy calling, don't be holy needs to be set apart, to be distance away in some way and some reason all believers are to be set apart from the world were to be different. We're to be special. We're to be unique. And for what reason? It says here nine not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, were saved for God's purpose and were saved by His grace to do his purpose. And his purpose has been put into motion and eternity. The past look at verse nine, which he gave us in Christ Jesus, before the ages began. When you become a Christian, you're just hopping on the train, it's already moving down the tracks. That purpose has already been set in motion. You're just you're just hopping out, you just got a seat, on the train and even, even if it's on the caboose, you're just happy to be there. Amen. Well, before you were twinkle in your mother's eye, God had a plan for your salvation, and for your purpose in life. Every believer truly has a purpose. Consequently, a lack of purpose is a very difficult way to live. And many people living the lives their lives today, aimlessly with our lack of purpose, primarily because they don't know Christ. One quote says, We act as though comfort and luxury. Were the chief requirements of life when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. And if you can't be enthusiastic about Jesus Christ saving you. Amen. There's a story involving two baseball players. You've probably heard of them. Yogi Berra, well known catcher for the New York Yankees. He had all sorts of puns that were really funny. Hank, Aaron before he played for the Atlanta Braves play from the walkie Braves and they were in the World Series. And yogi is the catcher was always talking to the batters always trying to get him off their game, always trying to get an emotional rise out of them. And, and, and Hank Aaron came up to the plate. And he said, Henry, you're holding the bat wrong. You're supposed to hold the bat so you can read the trademark on the bat. And Aaron didn't say anything to him, he just ignored him and got up there and he hit the next pitch has a homerun in left field. And as you rounded the base, he touched home plate where the catcher yogi was at. He said yogi, I didn't come up here today to read. And see his purpose was to hit the ball with the bat, not read the bat, not read the trademark on the bat. But doesn't sometimes happen when people get us off our purpose. Sometimes we get criticized for doing things that we're not supposed to be doing. Oh, you have to read the trademark, no, my purpose is to hit the ball. Another quote says that more men fail through lack of purpose. Rather than lack of talent. It's not the talent that people feel. So lack of purpose. God has designed you unique. And part of your purpose is to build the kingdom of God. You weren't saved to read the writing on the bat. You were saved to hit the ball. And sometimes it's gonna be a bass it. Sometimes it might be a you know, a double. Sometimes it might be a homerun, but the swing is the same. Because you're not the one swinging. God is swinging for you, you are you are in worse saved for the purposes of Jesus. Secondly, we're saved by the work of Jesus, are saved by the work of Jesus. Verse 10 tells us which has now been manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life and immortality into light through the gospel. Christmas Day is the day where we celebrate this glorious appearing of the baby, the Christ child. God's grace was was manifest. It was shown in the coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. But Jesus wasn't just born. He lived. He grew up. He performed miracles. He performed healings. He did signs and wonders to show that he was the Son of God who came to to take away the sins of the world. And through his death, and through His resurrection, He abolished death and sin, his work on the cross saves us. Visions to a through nine says four by grace you've been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not a result of war. works so that no one may boast. Nobody gets credit for their salvation, because you didn't do it. Jesus did it. On the cross sector things 521 says this, For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Amen. We're saved by the works of Jesus, in this gospel is how Paul found his purpose. Look at verse 11. He says, this gospel is which I was appointed a preacher, and apostle, and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. Paul's calling led him to suffer. He does not suffer and shame because he had nothing to be ashamed of. First 12 I am not ashamed. For I know, whom I have believed. And I'm convinced that he is able to guard until that day, what has been entrusted in me, Paul had no fears about his life, because he was saved with a purpose. And he knows that God is going to guard that purpose until he's done guarding it. And that's the same for every believer. We know who we believed. And we can be convinced that he's going to guard that until that day, and in Scripture, it's written with a big D. which can mean they have judgment, day comes back with the day Paul's to be with him. We don't know exactly what it means. But until that day, it's over. He says, the purpose is God's, Paul had no fear in his calling, because God called him. And if God called him and gave him a purpose, and he calls you and gives you a purpose, he will guard when he's called you to do as well. He's gonna guard it. Just like I'm guarding some budget, our house and I want money. That's my candy, he'll get that. We get a little like that in our family when they're six people, a dog and a cat. Again, it's outdoors. But anyway, as soon as we get a little territorial with our food in our treats. The Amazing how our kids will claim certain things, they'll guard certain food. My wife said the other day, if you want some of these fries, you better eat now. So we know what the guard looks like. God is going to guard what he's entrusted to you until that day, amen. And he's a better guard than us. Number three, we're saved. For the love of Jesus. The love of Jesus, verse 13. Something to be able to tell somebody to do something like this. Look at Paul says follow the pattern, the sound words that you've heard from me and the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Paul modeled how a Christian should live and he was humble enough to tell someone this without being prideful about it. He says, Follow me. Follow me in the faith and love that are found in Jesus Christ, a gift of salvation is that through faith were changed into loving people. In his first letter to Timothy Paul writes systems in First Timothy two he says this, he says, I urge that supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions. He says, first of all need to be pray for everybody. Then he says, Why are we praying for kings and those opposition's verse two, so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. Godly and dignified in every way. This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Our world is noisy. It's chaotic. It's loud. And we're called to be quiet. are called to be peaceful, godly, dignified. See the Redeemed Christian, the safe person. The change person lives differently. We pray for our governing authorities. Why? Because God's goal is for us to live a life that's loving, where we're peaceful and quiet. and godly and then I want to break these down here in the remaining time number one, these four attributes peaceful doesn't mean to be peaceful. It literally has the idea of tranquility when people describe you as a when they're in your presence as being tranquil. So we're going to work for tranquillizer. You know, I can say that correctly, right? Sometimes you're around people, you might wish you're a tranquilizer. That's not what this is talking about. Do you give the idea of tranquility, we should put people at peace when we're around them. This is the extreme opposite of how you see the world behaving. The world doesn't want peace. Elections are not won on peace. Wars are not fought for those reasons. Quiet number two, has an idea of being silent. And gentle loudness, not talking about preaching loudness. Just being a loud, obnoxious person is not an attribute of a believer. Just not? Well, that's how God made me well. God now wants you to be quiet. A lot of things about my personality that God made that are not Christian like sometimes. He wants you to be gentle. Peaceful three. When we're this way, we're to godly. It means to be like God, now did you read this? How in the world? Or can we be godly, right? Can be godly, he's perfect. We're not means to train yourself to have the mind of God. Not the God of your own making. The mind of God. Not just taking a certain random Bible verse and claiming that God gave you this and this is what it means. And now it's time. You don't get to decide what the Bible means. Because you cherry pick a scripture verse out of the Bible and plop it on your Facebook page. You can't give it meaning. You can't say things well, well, God got angry. So I'm angry. Wrong answer. No. Godliness means being under control. And peaceful. Quiet. Yeah, that federal person's got going to come out every now and then. Right? Sometimes my children will say that was mean to them. I'll say listen, you don't know what mean is. You don't want to see dad mad. God's been working on me for years. peaceful, quiet, godly, forth dignified. This means to be respectful and honorable if anybody. Number four dignified if anybody in this world is going to be seen as respectful and honorable Lord, it better be Christians. Amen. There's not gonna be us who's it gonna be? All for these are the opposite of how we see the world work. The world's not peaceful, it's chaotic. The world is filled with loud mouths, insisting on their own way. The world is filled with ungodly people doing whatever they want, whenever they want, and sometimes putting a Bible verse on it. And a world is filled with undignified people who have no respect of or honor for anyone but themselves. And we are saved to not be like that we are saved to be loving instruments of Jesus Christ. We serve the Prince of Peace, not the prince of chaos. says why Christmas is a peaceful time. This is why even in the chaos of childbirth, and I've seen four of them. haven't experienced it but I've been in the room and the chaos of childbirth. When Jesus was born, there was peace. Imagine being in that manger that night. Birthing and looking in the eyes of the Son of God. So amazingly enough to see your own children come out and think yourself that one didn't look like me. But do you hang out? Right But then you see, Child of God face of a peaceful time in a chaotic moment where it seems like time stood still when Jesus came to the world we can be this way, verse 14 As we tap into the Holy Spirit, look at verse 14. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. Guard that good deposit entrusted to you. You know, I'd much rather go to the bank for deposit than it withdrawal, amen. It's more fun that money to go in and come out. God has deposited in our lives, the Holy Spirit. The great thing about the Holy Spirit being our bank account, it doesn't ever run dry. We're never going to overdraw the Holy Spirit, amen. In fact, we under draw it plenty of times. If you know what I mean. The Spirit lives within us. We are to guard that which God's given us he's put a deposit in our bank, we need to guard it. We need the two factor authentication. We need the passwords everything we can to keep people from tampering in there. Don't let the world take it away. Don't let the world make you angry. Don't let the world make you loud. Don't let the world make you ungodly. Don't make the world make you undignified guard. That deposit the God's giving you You're saved by the love of Jesus. And for the love of Jesus. Tonight, Christmas Eve. You remember that? When you're doing the last minute things you need to do to get ready. You remember that? In the morning, when a child or grandchild wakes you up at 4:30am You remember that? This Christmas? You're saved for the love of Jesus. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for who you are. In Jesus, we thank You for this Christmas Eve Lord, I thank you that that even though Christmas has become this worldwide thing that even unbelievers celebrate that it still gives us an opportunity to speak to the truth of what Christmas is. The we can speak to the truth of the reason for the season. It's a time yes that family get together. It's a time where we honor each other through gift giving us a time where we eat and and enjoy fellowship. But it's all about Jesus Christ. Lord, let us remember that tonight, and tomorrow in the chaos of Christmas Eve and the chaos of Christmas morning that we can look back at the first Christmas morning. And remember that even in that chaos of that birth, when your son came into the world, there was peace even in the crying of the baby. There was a victory. We love you. We thank you so much for Jesus Christ. We ask these things in His name. Amen.