II Timothy 1:8-18 - If your life is fully submitted to God, you don�t need to be ashamed.

II Timothy 1:8-18

Thesis: If your life is fully submitted to God, you don�t need to be ashamed.

This is my last scheduled chapel. Before I get into the text, I feel like I should address an issue and explain my observation. I�m not scolding or judging you, but How many of you have your Bible with you? How many have a pen?

I want to take a moment and give you some instructions. You see there�s a difference between preaching and teaching. I was asked to preach in chapel. But I don�t consider myself to be a preacher, a teacher maybe, so from that light let me teach you something about preaching.

I used to think that perhaps preaching was antiquated, you know, out of date. I thought, perhaps it was an oral custom that became popular in a time when the majority of the population was illiterate and needed someone to read and explain the scriptures to them.

But now we live in the information age, where we�re accustom to a movie screen that changes every seven seconds. There are thousands of books and videos on doctrine, application and spiritual growth.

Why and how do we expect people to come, sit and attentively listen to one person stand and speak for 20-60 minutes? Wouldn�t it make more sense for us to just have worship and pray and perhaps watch a spiritually, motivational video and share some recommended readings?

I was wrong. In I Timothy, when Paul talked about Timothy�s spiritual gift he mentioned preaching, and I don�t think spiritual gifts are limited by time. They are timeless.

Preaching the Word is a timeless command from God, but the distinction I want to make here is the difference between preaching and teaching. I�m a little slow , so this has taken quite a while to surface. But this is what I�ve concluded thus far.

Teaching is a person explaining his or her thoughts.

Preaching is God explaining His thoughts through a person.

Which do you think is more important to take notes on, the thoughts of a man or the thoughts of God? You take notes in class because you want to remember the important stuff. Well, what could be more important than the Word of God spoken directly to you.

(pass out pens)(fold paper twice)

I want to challenge you to never go to church or chapel without a pen for notes and life�s text book.

Now, as far as the tendency to go to sleep, if anyone can relate to you that would be me. I have a sleeping disorder called narcolepsy. It�s like the opposite of insomnia. I can go to sleep just about anytime, anywhere and often involuntarily. Friends from the past used to refer to me as �Nark-boy.� So I�m not passing judgment on you for that, but the voice of experience is telling you that a pen and paper can help keep you awake.

The speaker will usually have a main idea and at least three points to back it up. See if you can figure out what those are, and more importantly, write down any interesting ideas that stand out to you and figure out what thoughts God might have for you specifically.

With all that bit of teaching out of the way, let�s see if we can get to some preaching.

We�re looking at II Timothy.

Shhh� We�re listening for Bible pages turning.

I found II Timothy to be a sad book. Paul seems to be really hurting, not just physically, but emotionally. He�s been abandoned by many people he thought were friends.

Now, frankly, Paul used to annoy me, how he seems to brag about his sufferings, and accomplishments, and it seems that anyone who opposes him has turned to Satan.

�No wonder you don�t have friends, Paul.�

But I have to understand that his seemingly offensive personality has to be filtered through the difference in cultures and my own worldview.

Paul was a self-sacrificing servant, simply trying to do the lord�s work, and his friends were ashamed of him.

As I read the second half of the first chapter, I want you to listen for references to being ashamed.

2 Timothy 1:8-18 (New International Version)

8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life�not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

13What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you�guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

15You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

16May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

Do you hear his loneliness and hurting? If you flip a couple pages over to the end of the book, he talks about this person deserted me; this one left; and this one� It�s like he�s writing to Timothy to say don�t be ashamed of me or our message.

Shame defuses power and effectiveness. God wants us to be humble, but not ashamed of ourselves. We�ll get into that in a little bit. But, if your life is fully submitted to God, you don�t need to be ashamed. And there are particularly three things that you shouldn�t be ashamed of:

your friends,

your faith, and

yourself.

Now, when I was putting this together, I typed up a quick rough draft of my outline, and I handed it to Dr. Woods. I moment later, I noticed the room was awkwardly quiet, and I looked over and he was staring at the wall behind me, with his mouth open. For those of you who don�t know how to read doctorate-level body language, that either means you did something profoundly insightful or total heresy. As is my tendency, I struck on the latter.

He read, �When you give everything to God, you have nothing left to be ashamed of. Such as: friends, faith, and self. You�ll have no friends and no faith and so on.�

Friends

So let me clarify. Surrendering everything to God does not mean giving up your friends. I would hope that, as you mature and grow, all your relationships will mature and grow. They should get deeper.

(Lollipop story)

I want to tell you the story of the giant lollypop. You see I have this friend; her name is Sharron. She�s the worship and arts pastor at my church. And you see, at my church I am considered a conservative, and she would probably be accused of being a liberal Christian. I really enjoying spending time with her because she sees things from such a different perspective than I do, and often she exposes flaws in my thinking. And the giant lollypop tragedy did just that.

She was given this giant lollypop. And she kept it in her office, which is just off the sanctuary and usually unlocked. One day she found me upstairs and she was holding her lollypop, still in the clear plastic wrapper but broken into a bunch of pieces. This was before church, and there weren�t many kids there yet, so it was likely that my kids knew something about it. She wasn�t upset about the lollypop; she was upset that someone didn�t care enough to apologize. I tracked down the kids, and all the stories lead to one mischievous second grade boy. Evidently, several of them were in her office and found the lollypop in plane sight. His comment was, �I wonder what will happen if I dropped it.� When it hit the floor, everyone scattered. I explained it to Sharon, and I encouraged the boy to apologize. Sharon warmly accepted his humble apology, but noticed that he was still upset about something. She asked, �What�s wrong? I forgive you.� He said, �Nobody wants to be my friend anymore.�

When Sharon told me about it, I was like, �Trouble tends to follow him, and there�s guilt by association. So I�m glad my kids are smart enough to stay away.�

Well, this lit the fire in Sharon�s compassionate heart, and she racked me over the coals.

Christ became like the lost in order to save the lost. How are we going to reach the world unless we�re willing to get our hands dirty and associate with them?

Paul had so-called friends that were abandoning him when he needed them the most. Don�t ever be a so-called friend. As a Christian, you should always be a faithful friend, especially to those that are dangerous or hard to love.

If you�re ashamed to be associated with someone, you either have the wrong motives or a self-absorbed heart.

Faith

As far as being ashamed of your faith, Paul is not the fist to warn against this.

Can I get a volunteer to read?

Mark 8:38

38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Now this same quote is found in Luke, but because Mark is so short and simple, I like to give him some credit when he competes with the big gospel books. Anyway, this was important enough to be mentioned twice, and Paul says it a couple more times.

Can I get another volunteer?

Romans 1:16

16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Yesterday, I met this guy at church that was a first-time visitor. I made an obvious effort at small talk. I sat with him before the service and tried to make it clear that he was welcome and I was glad he came.

I used to be apprehensive about coming across too strong or appearing as though I have an agenda. But you know, I do have an agenda. I want people to come to church and hear the gospel, and if necessary, I�ll tell them myself.

God loves you, He suffered for you, and he wants you to love Him back and share that love with others.

I�m not ashamed of that agenda.

8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner.

But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life�

Self

A holy life is a life surrendered to God, and surrendered does not mean defeated. Being ashamed makes you defeated. Being surrendered makes you more than a conqueror.

If you are ashamed of yourself, how can you lead others to Christ. Being humble and being ashamed are not the same things. We can be ashamed of who we used to be, used to be being even two minutes ago, and we can be a humble servant, but you should live with confidence knowing that your strength and value comes from God, not your past and any talents you may or may not have.

Sharon once said, �I�m good, I know.� And it wasn�t like a bragging, �yah, I�m good, uhuh, You know that�s right.� It was just a matter of fact.

And I looked at her as if, �That was rather bold of you.�

And she explained that we should acknowledge our talents and use them as much as we can provided we keep in mind where the source of our talents is. Give God the credit, and be bold in service.

I have another friend that has made some stupid mistakes, and she continues to trip over herself because she lives in the regrets of the past. She basis her self-worth on the past and not on the present love God has for her.

It�s new every morning. Better yet, I see it as new every minute.

12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able

Andrew Murray once said, �God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.�

So remember, If your life is fully submitted to God, you don�t need to be ashamed.

Not of your friends;

not of your faith; and

not of yourself.

Christ has taken away all guilt and shame, so that you can live confident and free in His grace and power.