Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, welcome to cc midweek.
[00:00:03] How is everyone tonight?
[00:00:06] You don't know this, but we have been praying for you with all our hearts that you were here tonight, that you're listening online. So I want you to know right off the bat, you are here for a reason. You are here on purpose, and you are here for this message.
[00:00:21] I want to do a huge thank you to Emily for an amazing sermon last week. I don't know where.
[00:00:31] Oh, yeah, there she is. There she is, right in the spotlight. The light of Jesus is right on her face, just as it should be. The beautiful angel. Let me pray.
[00:00:40] Dear heavenly Father, you are a mighty God.
[00:00:45] I sat and worshiped you, and I just, I just, I laugh because you are so faithful and you are so good, and I love you so, so, so, so much. Father, tonight, I am your broken vessel. I pray that you fill me, that you use me, and that these words are yours, because I believe that you have love to be shared with people in this audience, people listening whenever it might be. Father, I believe you want them to know that you have called them with a purpose, that you have chosen them, that they are yours, and that they are deeply, deeply loved. So will my words be yours? Can I preach in the kind of way that honors and glorifies you? In your mighty son's name, we pray. Amen.
[00:01:29] I saw and heard about this incredible story in 2008. It was September of 2008, Hurricane Ike hit, and some of you were just born, so you don't remember that, but Hurricane Ike hit, and it hit off the coast of Texas, and it hit strong and hard. And the waves were crazy and it was a ton of destruction. And it hit kind of specifically one town extra hard. And I think it was called Gilcrest, Texas. And in this development, there was about 200 homes. And I was reading the story of one family, and the man was saying, we thought we had time to get out, but at like 03:00 in the morning, the wind started. It was raining really hard, and they got up and they left. And they had just made it in the nick of time.
[00:02:21] What is interesting about this story is out of that 200 house development, 199 of the houses were wiped out.
[00:02:31] Only one house remained.
[00:02:35] This house stood in the midst of absolute destruction and rubble. They said it looked like a swamp. It looked like a bomb had gone off. I want to show you this picture because I think to really understand, you have to see it in the midst of absolute destruction. This one last house remained.
[00:02:58] It stood, it endured.
[00:03:02] And as I was looking at this, I was thinking about the landscape of my life.
[00:03:07] I was thinking about how this house was built. Different, obviously. Yes, this house was built to last. It was built to endure. And in fact, this house had already been knocked down just a couple years earlier from a hurricane, and the hurricane just demolished it. So they had someone come and rebuild it and put it on the right kind of foundation, the right kind of blocks that it needed, the right kind of stuff built so that when the hurricane came, it would endure.
[00:03:41] And as I was thinking about this for me, this lasting, firm foundation, I thought, man, do I want to share with you how to have a foundation that lasts when the storm comes and wipes things out. 199 I want us to be the last house standing. That's the house's nickname. The last house standing. I want us to build our life on a foundation that lasts, that endures, that withstands whatever life might bring.
[00:04:14] And I was studying in two Timothy, and I was just in awe of this book. I've been a christian my entire life, but I've been digging in a lot deeper in these past couple years because I'm going to be ordained, and I've been studying and studying, but I saw this book a whole new, fresh way.
[00:04:32] And I want to read to you second Timothy, chapter one. And I want you to just listen, and then I'm going to tell you the context of this story, because I believe the context of this story will shape us and make us want to be different.
[00:04:47] So it starts at two Timothy one.
[00:04:51] It says, paul I, paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child or son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience. As I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day, I remember your tears. I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Louis and your mother Eunice. And now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 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 the spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self control. Can I get an amen?
[00:05:46] 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 and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a 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 the day, until that day, what has been entrusted to me.
[00:06:39] Paul is the this man in the Bible who is like the A League top of the team. I don't know, sports analogies.
[00:06:50] What's a good player? Like the a player, okay. Of God's team. But until he gets there, there's this moment in Paul's life where he's younger, and he is, he is passionate, he is bold. He is a lot of things that is vibrant and on fire. But here's the deal. He does not believe that Jesus is the messiah. He believes in the jewish way, that God is God and Jesus is not. And there's this big movement called the way. And it's all these christians who are starting to follow Jesus. And Paul is grabbing them, and he's putting them in jail, and he's going out and he's persecuting them, and he's doing everything he can to stop this movement.
[00:07:38] And now there's this one day where he has this powerful encounter with Jesus Christ. It's a powerful encounter, and it changes him forever. And so the rest of his life he devotes to the way. He devotes to telling everyone he possibly can about the God of the universe that he knows he loves. And his savior, Jesus Christ. He devotes his life to traveling to areas that have never heard about Jesus and telling them all about Jesus. And in his travels, he finds this young guy named Timothy. And Timothy is young, and he has this jewish mother and grandmother who have taught him how to have an authentic faith, have taught him about God, have taught him how to follow the jewish tradition. But Paul shows up and teaches them about Jesus, and they give their life to Jesus Christ.
[00:08:29] Now, when we see this letter, this is a letter from Paul to Timothy. And it's late in life. And I want to set this scene because I feel like if you understand it, you feel the weight, you feel the heart, you hear the words differently. You see, this is the last letter that Paul ever writes. It's two Timothy. And he's writing to not just his coworker, not to just this guy that he's doing life with, but it is his beloved son.
[00:09:02] Some people, we don't really know anything at all about Timothy's actual dad. All we know is that in acts, it tells us that he was greek, so he probably didn't have a faith. Some scholars think he may have passed away, and that's why we don't hear about him. But regardless, Paul loved Timothy like a son.
[00:09:22] And now Paul is in prison because he has followed Christ. He's in prison in the name of Jesus.
[00:09:33] And he knows that it's not going to end well. You see, Paul's been in prison before. Paul's kind of like a lightning rod. Like, wherever he goes, lightning's going to be there, man, because he's going to preach bold. He's going to say things that disrupts people. There were riots when Paul spoke. He was in prison. He was beaten. He was literally stoned, not weed. You know what I'm saying?
[00:10:03] Just kidding.
[00:10:05] But listen, he was literally stoned. And they. He lived. And everywhere he went, there was just this electricity. And now he's sitting in prison and he knows he is going to die.
[00:10:17] From our best understanding, what we believe happened to Paul is there was this, and Nero was in charge, and he had to blame someone because a lot of Rome got destroyed and he blamed the Christians. And there was one of the largest christian persecutions that had ever happened. And we believe that in this time that Paul was most likely beheaded. And so now he is in prison. He knows he is going to be killed. And he is writing this letter to his son, to his beloved boy.
[00:10:53] And the first thing I noticed, I'm going to jump all over this verse. So if you're learning how to preach, don't follow my lead right now, because I'm going to be everywhere. Okay? The first thing that stuck out to me was that Paul says to Timothy, you have a calling.
[00:11:11] You have been called. And it's not just any call. It's a holy calling. And Jesus Christ has called you. And by the way, he knew it. Before the beginning of time, Jesus Christ was always the plan for us. Even before time existed, God knew that Jesus was our plan.
[00:11:33] And he's looking and he's writing this letter to Timothy, and he's saying, you have a calling.
[00:11:40] You are created for a purpose. And Jesus Christ has called you.
[00:11:46] And everyone here today, I want you to know that you are created by a divine creator with a purpose, with a call.
[00:11:55] It's a holy calling, and it's from Jesus Christ. You are loved and you are cherished and you are valuable, and the plan of God includes you.
[00:12:07] And I think too often in life, we let life put this pressure in us. We let life become school, or we let it become the job, or we let it become the guy, or we let it become the girl, or we let it become how much money is in our bank account, or we let it become everything it should not become.
[00:12:28] Because the bottom line is that we are not made for this world.
[00:12:34] I was in a group with our 20 somethings. We do a bible study at 04:00 p.m. on Thursdays, right here. If you're in that age group, come see us Tuesday. Don't listen to me. Just don't show up. So Tuesday at 04:00 p.m. here we do it. And we were talking about this eternal calling, like we're chosen by God. But how often do we feel like a discontent in our heart? How often do you feel like you don't fit in and you don't belong? How often do you feel like there's suffering inside of you? And it's because we are not made for this world. Something in our soul is telling us and letting us feel it that we are not made for this world. We exist for heaven. We exist for relationship with Jesus Christ. And there's suffering and there's pain, and there's these holes that we try to fill and we. We try to build our foundation on things that don't matter.
[00:13:35] We try to build our foundation on things that are not going to fill us, that are not going to help us endure, that are not going to help us be the last house standing.
[00:13:48] You are called by an incredible and mighty God, and it is a holy calling.
[00:13:55] I also love here that he says, by the way, do not be ashamed.
[00:14:02] Don't you dare be ashamed.
[00:14:05] You have a story of a savior who loved you, who gave his life for you. And now I'm sitting in prison, and I can understand how that would be hard.
[00:14:15] I can understand how you would feel shame in that. I can understand how there would be emotions in that. But don't you dare be ashamed. Because, listen, I know whom I have believed.
[00:14:31] I know who he is. I know who that God is. I think there is this really cool thing in nature.
[00:14:41] And I learned it this week, that zebras, when they have their babies, the mom will take them away from I don't know sports and I don't know animals. The flock, what do you call the herd? So they took them from the herd. And we're really learning a lot together tonight. Guys, you and me. You and me. The mom will take them away from the herd and she'll be alone with them because each zebra has unique stripes that are just to them. And it's really right up here around this spot that you recognize who your family is or who your mother is or who your child is by this space. And so the mom will take the child away from the herd and spend like three weeks so that the baby can learn its stripes, so the baby can see the stripes of its mother, and then she'll bring it back to the rest of the herd. And now the baby knows exactly the stripes of its mother and church. We gotta get around Jesus Christ. We gotta dig in. We gotta get around him, because if we don't know the stripes of Jesus Christ, if we don't know that by his stripes, we are healed. We are going to live a life that hurts. We're going to live a life where we're constantly longing for something more. You see Jesus Christ, there is something so powerful when you know the character of who he is. Because the Bible says when you see the character of Jesus Christ, when you know him, then you know the father.
[00:16:13] This is all one God who loves us with all of who he is. He loves us.
[00:16:21] And when I look at the stripes and the character of Jesus Christ, I see a God who said, you are mine.
[00:16:28] I see a God who gave his life.
[00:16:31] Because what happens is when you have a holy and beautiful and majestic, mighty God and then you bring sin in, there is a separation.
[00:16:41] And there is a separation. And God is not just a God who is loving and caring, but he is a God of justice.
[00:16:48] And that's a good thing because I want justice when I'm hurt, but I don't like when I do the bad stuff. To get the justice, can I get an amen? Okay. I need the grace and mercy, but he offers that. And what happens is, from the beginning of time, God knew there was going to be a separation.
[00:17:10] And Jesus Christ was always the plan.
[00:17:13] Jesus Christ came to earth and he lived this perfect life without sin.
[00:17:19] And when we should have the punishment and the wrath of the sin of this world and the sin of just being who I am, naturally, Jesus Christ said, she's mine.
[00:17:34] Jesus Christ said, I step in for you.
[00:17:39] And he took the ugliness of what I have.
[00:17:45] And in return, he gave me the beauty, the dignity, the grace and the love of who he is by his stripes. We are healed by his stripes. He was beaten. He was marked up. There was horrible things that he had to go through, because he stepped in for us.
[00:18:10] And now when God's looking to and fro and he's searching, I'm saying, father, search and find me. Because instead of seeing my ugliness, he sees the beauty and the dignity of Jesus Christ.
[00:18:23] I also love. There's this cool thing that I'd never seen in this chapter before. And it's. You see this piece where Paul says, I remember your tears.
[00:18:33] And I heard someone connect it to this idea in verse six that says, fan into the flame of the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands. And he thinks, John Piper, which I agree, is this idea that when you encounter Jesus Christ, something happens.
[00:18:58] And I think there was this moment where there was this. People came and they saw Timothy and they saw his clear giftedness. And they said, you're called by Jesus. You are called by God. And they came and they surrounded him and they put their hands on him. And Timothy was so overwhelmed. It felt so right that he didn't know what else to do except to cry.
[00:19:23] And Paul is saying, hey, hey, hey. You are called. It's a holy calling. Don't be ashamed. Do you remember the moment? Do you remember the moment when you gave your life to Christ? And we came around you and we put our hands on you and we prayed for you?
[00:19:41] I remember being. I think I was 22, 23, and I was. Jacob and I, we rented a house, but it was like the bottom level of a house. It's like in the historic medina. And we loved it. It was great. But I just remember being so sick of my job.
[00:20:03] I would always say, I feel like I'm a coke bottle and I feel like someone has been shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking. But no one can help me take the lid off. It's like how I would describe my life. Like I know I meant for something. I just don't know what it is. And on this particular day, I was, like seeking God with all of my heart. And I just got down on my knees and I was praying to him and I was just pleading with him, can you please speak to me? Can I please hear a word from you? Because I know that there's something inside that you want to do, father, but I'm 23, I'm pregnant. I work at Alltel. I don't even think they exist anymore. It was a cell phone company and I was just miserable. I hated it. And I got my bible out and I just kept reading and I kept praying and I kept reading and I kept praying and I read this verse that. It was as if God was in the room with me, wrapped his arms around me, and is like, here's your calling, babe. It was this verse from Matthew, and it said, let the little children come to me. It was not eloquent. It was not like angels came. And I was like, you know, it was none of that. It was just this moment where scripture jumped off the page and captivated my heart so much that I knew it was my calling.
[00:21:23] And I called my mom and dad, and I said, can you guys come over? I feel like I really just heard from God. And I remember saying, I know there's not a job position at the church open right now, but when God trusts me, I know I am meant to work with the church. I am called by God. And they put their hands on me. And the three of us, we cry. Cause it's like this holy moment. And we had no idea what God was doing, but we just knew it was this moment that I was called by God.
[00:21:52] And Paul saying, you are called Timothy. And sometimes I think about, okay, where's Timothy in this? If Paul's in prison and he knows it's going to be the end of his life, like, what is this letter of encouragement for? Like, why is Timothy feeling blue? Is he feeling blue? Or is this just something his mentor does? But I was thinking about Timothy because my dad and I work together. And I was just thinking about, like, okay, what if I know how. How much my dad has given his life to Jesus Christ? I know what that feels like. Like, the fact that I even want to work in the church is mind blowing because you see all the good, the bad, and ugly. Like, he's done a lot. Him and mom have given their lives for this. And if my dad was in prison, like, what would that make me feel? Like? If there was going to be this giant persecution that was happening to christians, would I cower? Would I be. Would I be brave enough to have this. Be this house? Like, I'm trying to think in my own? Would I sincerely, what's Timothy going through? What is he feeling? What is important to him? What is the heartbeat of this letter? And all I can think about, okay, if that was my dad, I would be feeling so afraid, right? I'd be feeling so overwhelmed. Like, I don't know. I think you got the wrong girl. I don't think I'm cut out for this. And so when I see these words to Paul, I can almost feel Timothy's discouragement. Like, I can almost feel that he is. Like, I don't know if I'm cut out for this, but then. But then Paul says, listen to me.
[00:23:30] You are called.
[00:23:32] It is a holy calling.
[00:23:34] You are loved and you are chosen by a God.
[00:23:37] He says, don't you dare be ashamed. Do you remember the time in that moment when Jesus Christ met you and we put our hands on you? I want you to remember it. I want you to hold fast to it. And now I want you to fan the flame.
[00:23:54] There is embers burning inside of our spirit because the Holy Spirit lives within us. When we accept Jesus Christ, we have the power of God almighty within us. And sometimes we let life dim it. Sometimes we put stuff over it. Sometimes we try to ignore it. But there is an ember burning in our souls. And Timothy, I want you to fan it into flame. No one can do it for you. It is for you to do. I want you to blow on it. I want you to fan it. I want you to ignite the ember that is inside of you by remembering your call, by remembering that I've chosen you for something special. Don't you dare let life put that flame out. Blow on it. Fan the flame into something so much bigger. Because I did not give you a spirit of fear, but I gave you a spirit of power.
[00:24:56] When you accept Jesus Christ, the spirit is living inside of you.
[00:25:01] You have a partner in life and it is powerful. All week I thought about Emily's sermon and just being yoked with Jesus Christ. I thought to myself, oh, I'm going through some of these hard things, but I'm not going to think about it just as myself. I'm going to think about it as he is with me.
[00:25:21] I'm linked with him. His spirit is within me. The power that rose Jesus Christ from the grave is within me.
[00:25:32] And what can I not do if God is with me, if God has called me, if God has chosen me, what can I not do?
[00:25:41] I want you to fan into flame because there is a power inside of you that can change everything.
[00:25:49] I want you to fan into flame because you don't have a spirit of fear, but you have a spirit of love.
[00:25:56] Do you know how loved you are?
[00:25:59] When my babies were little, I used to do this thing and we would be in meetings a lot because I'd just bring them to work with me. We would be at church. We'd be different places. And I would just brush their face and I would say, I love you. And when we would be home, I'd do it sillier. I'd be like, I love you, you, you, you.
[00:26:19] And it was just a thing with us. And so when my kids were having a bad day, even till this day, we'll do it and we'll just look at each other and go. And we know they know that mom's got you.
[00:26:35] That mom's love will cover you. That no matter what you do or don't do, you are loved.
[00:26:44] Side note, I didn't tell Taylor I was going to do this. Taylor was thought it was so normal. She just thought everyone did that, that it was like a known thing, that like, that's just how you maybe said sign language. Love and sign language, I don't know, but she just thought it was so normal that she did it, I think to her boyfriend one day and he was like, what are you doing?
[00:27:05] But I want you to know this, that you are loved by a mighty God. I want it to be so, so normal that you just express it, that you just show it, that you just are around it and you share it in the kind of way that it's just normal. Because you know that you are loved by a mighty God. There is nothing he will not cover. There is no sin too big, no weakness too weak. Nothing in all of creation can separate you from the love of Jesus Christ. Now, Timothy, fan it into flame.
[00:27:38] There is Muhammad Ali has a daughter, and I think her name's Allie. And she was a boxer. And in her boxing career she's undefeated. It's pretty good and she's gorgeous. And there was one fight in particular that she was in the middle of and she was bleeding. Her eye was so bad she couldn't see out of it. It was just like a wreck.
[00:28:07] And she went and she sat down. It was like a break. And then when she came back, it was like a whole different fighter was in the arena.
[00:28:15] And she demolished the fight. She won. She kept her record. And afterwards, when they were interviewing her, they said, what was it like? You looked like you were going to lose that race. What was it that switched your focus?
[00:28:33] And she said, I stopped. And I thought about my dad.
[00:28:37] I thought about the fighter that he was, that when he was up against the grates, he never backed down. And it renewed my energy and church. Sometimes we have to stop thinking about us, and we got to put our eyes on who has called us. We got to put our eyes on a great and mighty God who has chosen us. We got to put our eyes on an eternal plan, an eternal purpose, an eternal love that you cannot earn, but he gives to you freely. And when you look to your father.
[00:29:09] He renews something in you.
[00:29:12] The band is gonna come up and play, and I just. I wanna end tonight differently.
[00:29:17] I feel like we have been praying our hearts out because I believe with all my heart that some of us need to give our life to Jesus Christ.
[00:29:26] Some of us need to be bold, and we need to finally say yes to his calling.
[00:29:32] I believe that some of us just need to reconsider his place in our life. Is he first? Is he our foundation so that what we build from here on out can be steadfast, can endure, can remain?
[00:29:47] Are we connected to Jesus Christ in the kind of way where our lives are different, where it's not just I come to church sometimes or I try to be a good person, but I love him. I want to be more like him. I want my life, this one life I've been given to be his.
