← ArchiveFaith Over FearHow to Win the Fight of FaithDateSeptember 13, 2020SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamText—Passages in this sermon1 Timothy 1:12:07TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for joining us.0:30Man, what a wonderful, wonderful testimony.1:00And if you didn't get what was happening there, Alex, his dad, baptized him. So fathers, mothers, grandparents, neighbors, how important are you in the faith? Man, look at the power of a father, what God is doing through him. And God wants to use you to impact your family and your neighborhoods. So we're starting a new series today called Faith Over Fear in the book of Timothy.1:27And I'm seeing some new faces back for the first time. It's great to see you guys back. Man, what a joy it is that God is bringing new people and un-new people. I don't know how to say, I don't want to call you old, familiar people. How about that? Back to us. It's great to see you guys. I'm excited about this series. I think we need this.1:56We need to be as a people that we can say we are faith first, fear second. Because faith drives out fear. Love drives out fear. So with that, go ahead and turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 1. And I want to share this story. How important is knowing the truth in our lives? What if I told you that knowing the truth is a matter of life or death? So in 1879, a man named Lieutenant George DeLong set out to claim the North Pole for the United States.2:23So that was his goal. I guess he was a man that wanted Christmas all year long. So he was going to claim the North Pole. And he set out with these maps by cartographers that they believed at the time that if you pushed far enough that the ice would dissipate and that the North Sea would be open as the Caribbean and was teeming with wildlife.2:50So they left with that belief. And so they had this double-hulled ship that if you sail fast enough or long enough, you'll have open water. So they set sail in 1879. Now, they understood that every other expedition to the North Pole has failed. Because it's a simple three-letter word called ice, right? So they begin to sail, and several months into their voyage, guess what happens?3:19The USS Jeannette stops because of the ice. They abandon ship, and they begin to walk. Some of the sailors said, hey, I got a good idea. Let's go to Siberia. Uh-uh. I'm going south. And they begin to set sail. Well, as they stopped setting sail, they began, and they searched, and they searched, and searched. Some of the men actually made it to Siberia, and they survived.3:49Several years later, they found Lieutenant George DeLong in the ice. He perished. And they said they found him with one hand raised up to the heavens, as if he was longing for something more. Now, I would venture to guess, if every person here had the correct map and the truth, you would have not let them sail. You would have said, don't go. You are risking your life.4:18You are going to perish if you set sail on this doomed voyage. But what if knowing the gospel, the true gospel, is even more important? What if knowing the truth of Jesus Christ is the difference between eternal life and eternal death? Because it is. And we see the importance of knowing the true gospel today in the sacred text of 1 Timothy. So I'm going to read, beginning in verse 1 of chapter 1.4:45Paul is writing to this church, and he's saying, don't forget what is true. Don't forget faith over fear. So my dear brother and sister, in a world that is completely dark and lost, we need the true map, the true north. His name is Jesus. That's what we need. And may we live according to his way and his purpose for our life. So let's read together.5:151 Timothy 1.1. Timothy is near two-thirds or three-quarters in the New Testament. So it's about 80% through your Bible. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the command of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus our hope. To Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace. From the God and Father of Christ Jesus, our Lord.5:46As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine. Or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. Now, the goal of our instruction, this faithful instruction, is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.6:06Some have departed from these, and they have turned aside to fruitless discussion. Hey, let's pray. Father, we have read your word, and we believe that your word is living, and it is active.6:31And Lord, we believe that your sacred, holy truth is going to work in our lives and change us today. Father, we might not know how, but we know you are doing something in us for your glory and our good. So, Lord, would you open our hearts and our minds to hear your truth and to live out the good news that Jesus saves.6:54Father, thank you for hearing our prayer. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So, today's message is simply entitled, How to Win the Fight of Faith. How to Win the Fight of Faith. Look at verse 2 with me. Paul is writing. Paul is the apostle who wrote most of the New Testament, and he's writing to this young man named Timothy.7:19And he says, Timothy, my true son in the faith. Now, this is a great example of how the gospel transforms your life. See, over and over again, as Paul is writing to churches and to men, this is one of the pastoral letters, Timothy and Titus. He's writing, and he gives these salutations, but they're not lip service. For Paul, something has radically changed in his life because of the gospel.7:46And Paul takes every opportunity that he can get to bless someone. So, here's our first step in winning the fight of faith. Take time. Take every opportunity to bless someone. Take every opportunity to bless someone. And it might not sound much to you, but Paul's writing to a young man. He's probably around 40. And he's writing to a man who the church knows has a Jewish mother and a Greek father.8:18Many in Ephesus would call Timothy half Christian, half Jew. They would say that, Timothy, you're not, you should have no legitimate authority in the church because of your birth. And Paul writes to him and says, Timothy, I'm writing to you, my true son.8:40Can you imagine what that's doing to Timothy's life? Can you imagine how much he's heard, you're not a real son of God. You're only half worthy at best. And Paul is taking time to bless this young man. And I can imagine, because this is given to Timothy to read to the church, that he's reading this out loud with tears.9:07Thinking, wow, this, Paul's blessing me. We need to be a people who bless others. In a world that is filled with curses. In a world that is dying for good news. Take every opportunity in your life to bless someone today. That's your job as a Christian.9:37To bless those that God has blessed because he has blessed us. And I would simply say this. Never underestimate the power of the blessing of Christ upon your lips to someone else. Never underestimate that. To Timothy, my true son. It is so easy to bless someone, isn't it? What does it cost you to say, thank you? What does it cost you to say, may the peace of Christ be upon you?10:06What does it cost you to pray over someone? Maybe pride. Maybe time. But we live in a world where blessing is so easy, but it is extremely rare. Turn on Facebook. Or Twitter. And find out how much cursing runs rampant in our society. And yet, as Christians, we are called to be different, aren't we?10:35We are called to bless others in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have even heard reports. Seen it on the news of store workers who have been cursed out or violently attacked. Because they've asked people to wear a mask or do whatever. Guys, they're doing their job. They want to pay you. They're providing for their families. And we curse them? Come on.11:05Come on. Come on. And yet, as Christians, God is saying, we can be different. That we get to bless because God has blessed us in Christ Jesus. And Paul continues. Not only does he say exactly what this young man needs to hear. He says, my true son. The world says you're illegitimate, but you are a true son of faith. And he says this, grace, mercy, and peace be upon you.11:30I'm thankful that God took time through Jesus Christ to bless me. Never forget that the gospel is God's blessing upon you. And what does he give you? He gives you grace, mercy, and peace. Grace is Yahweh's continual forgiveness upon you. Mercy is a father's sympathy and concern in your life.12:00And together, peace is you in right standing with God and able and the ability to live out a fulfilled life before Christ. I think of it this way. Mercy is God's healing upon the effects of sin in your life. And grace is God's restoration to the sin internally in your life. What a powerful blessing that is.12:29We need to be people who bless others because God has blessed us to the highest heavens in Jesus Christ. The first step in winning the fight of faith is blessing. It doesn't take much, but it's rare. Be a blessing to someone. Pray for someone. Send them an encouraging note. I pray that God will put someone on your heart and your mind right now that you can text, that you can call when the service is over.12:57If you're at home watching when the service is over, but bless someone today. Who knows what lives would be changed because the Holy Spirit is working through your mouth, through your thumbs. That's what I want for my life. We win the battle by faith because of the blessing of Christ in us and through us. Blessings are rare.13:27May we be a rare breed, church. Secondly, this is how we win the fight of faith. He continues. He says in verse 3, So what Paul is telling him here is trust fully in the gospel. So Paul uses right here in verse 3 a military term. This word urge, it really is almost like a commanding general standing up before the church saying,13:56Stop it. Some of you have gotten away from the faith. You're teaching things that have no business in your life. You're doing things that have no business in your life. You're hooking up with people that have no business in your life. Stop it. No myths, no genealogies. This is not good. And he's commanding them in the name of Jesus Christ to stop. The second step in winning the battle of faith is believing fully the true gospel.14:26Why is this important? Because the church at Ephesus is worshiping daily in the shadow of one of the seventh wonders of the world. Ephesus, one of the major ports in Asia Minor. And if you were to go to Ephesus, you would find this massive port city and you'd walk up this 35 foot wide colonnade.14:49And you would look on either side and there were these massive Greek columns. And you would see the temple to Artemis, which was one of the seventh wonders of the world. So here's our student point today and our kid's point if you're listening. Go home and find the seven wonders of the world today. Go Google them. Just quick fact. The statue, the Vulcan statue is not one of them.15:20Right? It's number eight on the list. So go home and find one of the seven wonders and tell your parents about them. But this was to the God of Artemis, the God of war, the God of wilderness, the God of the hunt. So the church is worshiping under this context. So they are worshiping in the shadow of a false God at all times. And Paul reminds them, preach, teach, follow what is true. In a world of half-truths, follow what is true.15:49So what is true? The early church would say this. We've thought through this as a church this year. We believe in God the Father, the maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only son, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. But that's not the whole story. Three days later, he rose again, didn't he?16:20And that's not the end of the story. He was seen by hundreds, if not thousands of people. And today, he ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father, waiting to come back and judge the living and the dead. This is the gospel. And Romans says, whoever believes in the name of the Lord, whoever believes these truths about Jesus Christ, will be saved. How do we win the fight of faith?16:51Believe wholly the gospel. Believe in what is true. And when you believe in what is true, it's amazing how the half-truths fade away. Thirdly, we see this in verse 3 again. It says, don't pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. Because if you do, remember, Timothy doesn't have a good genealogy.17:17The world would say he can't live up to the standard. The world would say he's not good enough. And when the world says you're not good enough, just know that Jesus died for you. I'm so thankful that God thought that I was worth the life of his son, that I might come to faith. How do we win the fight of faith? Test everything in your life against the gospel. Test everything against the gospel.17:46And this is what the apostle says. These myths and these genealogies, these promote empty speculations rather than God's plan. So, I would rather be filled with the Spirit than empty. Right? I want what God wants in my life. So, how do you win the fight of faith? Compare everything in your life to the good news of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to give you a test for that because Paul gives us some test.18:13But what might this look like today? Most of you did not pontificate against endless myths before you came to church. Most of you did not fight or argue about genealogies when you woke up this morning. But what might false gospels, heterodox teaching, look like today? Let me give you some examples. I believe a false gospel is the gospel of nationalism.18:40It's the idea that any state or any country can ultimately bring us salvation. There is no state. Rome couldn't do it. Greece couldn't do it. China couldn't do it. America could not do it. No state will bring you ultimate salvation. It is only Jesus Christ. And I'm thankful that we worship a risen Savior who says that one day all governments will be upon his shoulder.19:09And I say that as someone who is so thankful to live in a country where right now we have religious freedom. I'm so thankful for that. But I also know that this country will not save me. Jesus Christ will. And so I can be thankful for my country and hold in the other hand my tight grip of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus saves.19:40Jesus saves. I believe another false gospel is a gospel of individualism. The idea that you can do it on your own. You don't need the church. Just you be you. And God will work on you by yourself. A missionary was showing his friend around recently in a persecuted country. And he went to a Christian bookstore, of all things. And he told his friend, he said, look around this bookstore for five minutes and tell me what you don't see.20:08And so the friend looked around and he saw Bibles. He saw books on theology. And he finally gave up. He said, I don't know what you're asking. And the missionary said, what you will not find in our country is a book about the church. He said, because our totalitarian regime understands this. That if we can scatter the people of God, we will weaken them.20:35They said, our dictatorship hates the gathering of the saints. Because we know there is power in the gathered people in the name of Jesus Christ. And what we have experienced in our world is the erosion of our individualism. The erosion that, you know what, God just wants to save you individually and grow you individually.21:01And if you need to, you can add in the gathering of the saints. What would Israel say about that? They would say that we are the community of faith. What would the early church say about that? They would say, we gave our life for each other. What would Jesus say? He would say that the church is my bride and I gave my life for you, the church. What would the early apostles say?21:30They would say that we believe in the holy universal church and the communion of the saints. The early church believed so strongly in this that they would not consider each other a Christ follower unless they were part of a local church. Now do I say that because every single person who goes to a worship gathering is a follower of Christ? Absolutely not. But I would say I am here today not because I want to follow Christ.21:56I am here today because I am a follower of Christ. And I need this. I need you. And you need me. There is power in the gathered people of faith. Never forget that. I believe that there is a false gospel of pluralism that pervades our nation and pervades our world. Pluralism in most societies has become increasingly, increasingly dominant.22:24It was here during the time of the Ephesians in Ephesus. Right? God of Artemis here. Local church here. But pluralism doesn't look like that in our world today. Pluralism sounds like this. You might know it as being politically correct. And in our society, I believe the most prized virtue of pluralism is tolerance. It's just, you just do what you need to do and it'll all find itself out in the wash.22:54But here's what you understand quickly. The most intolerant people are those who think that tolerance is the greatest virtue. The most intolerant people are politically correct. And as Brother James shared with us last week, being politically correct does not win the heart of God. Humility does. And may we not sacrifice our lives on the altar of being politically correct.23:22And when you stand before the throne of God, politically correctness will not rescue you. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can. That is a false God. I believe also another false God in our lives is the God of comfort. It's the idea that God just wants you to be happy. And feel comfortable. That's not true.23:55God wants the greatest joy in your life to be the pursuit of Him. We serve a Savior who gave His life that we might be redeemed. I'm thankful that we don't serve a Messiah that raises His hand and says, Father, the whole cross thing is a little too uncomfortable for me. Jesus never said, Jesus never said, I'll die, but the whole crown of thorns saying, that's a little over the top.24:24You know, the lashes, do we really have to do that? Jesus left heaven and came to earth and was mocked and beaten and crucified that we might have eternal life. And we think that we should find lives of comfort. I'm so thankful that Jesus modeled for us what sacrifice looks like.24:55And I don't say that to say, you know what, let's just be as uncomfortable as we can today. I'm saying that knowing my natural tendency is, God, I like comfort. I was in my happy place yesterday when football came back on. But that's just good. I mean, real football starts in a couple weeks, but let's just assume football started a slight to our non-SEC brethren. Our natural desire is to be comfortable.25:26And yet, spiritually, God has said, there's another way, there's a better way. May we not sacrifice our lives on the God of comfort. Bonhoeffer would say this about comfortable life. He said, that's called cheap grace. It's the preaching without forgiveness. It's grace without requiring repentance. It's baptism without church discipline. It's communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.25:56It's grace without the cross. It's grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate. Cheap grace is saying, just be comfortable. Live your life. May we cast aside these false gospels. And may we believe in what is true. Dear friend, test everything in your life against Jesus. So what is that test? What are some ways that you can test what you do, what you think, and what you say against what is true in the word of God?26:23I want to give you a quick test from this passage this morning. First, Paul says this. He says, the goal of our instruction is love. Right here in verse 5. He says, the gospel is a place where the love of God flourishes. So how do you know that this is of God?26:54Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's making big decisions. Maybe it's something you're teaching or learning. How do you know this is of God? Is the love of God flourishing in your life because of that thing? If you're doing something and you're not loving God more, I would say, well, that's not of God. The Bible doesn't say God is hate. It says He is love. So, in what you are doing right now, is that fostering a love of God in you and through you?27:19Test number two. He says, the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart. Does this create an undivided heart totally towards God in Jesus Christ in your life? Does what you're doing, singing, thinking, does your heart beat more towards the Messiah because of that?27:47That's the second test, third test. He says, the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart and a good conscience. What Paul is saying is, is this leading you towards obedience or disobedience? Paul is saying, don't tell me you love God if you're not doing what He says.28:14And don't tell me this is of God if this is leading you not to do what God says. You see, we like to separate the love of God and the obedience of God. But Jesus says, the world will know you why. They will know you if you do what I say. So, in what you think, in how you pray, in the relationships you have, is it causing you to obey God or disobey Him? When I come before God and say, God, I believe this is of you, but it's not causing me to do what you want.28:47The Holy Spirit says, get that out of my face. That is not of me. Fourth test. Test of faith. The goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Does this thing, does this action, does this relationship, does this church, does this song, does this teaching, does it create a deep trust in God alone and reliance upon Him?29:15That's sincere faith. Listen, I don't want you to rely on your pastor. I don't want you to rely on Bethel. We want you to rely on Jesus. He is what you need. Because I have failed you, and if I haven't yet, I will fail you. In this local church, made up of fallen people, if it hasn't failed you yet, will fail you,29:43but there is one who will never let you down. His name is Jesus Christ. That is the test for living. Love, heart, conscience, faith. So what? How do we live this out? The people on the USS Jeannette would have said, sometimes the difference between knowing right and knowing wrong is life or death.30:09And these sailors in 1879 died in an icy, barren land because they had the wrong map. God has given you, God has given you His truth. And it's in His word, and it is through Jesus Christ. And I think one of the greatest pictures of the gospel is found in the same passage.30:35And it's right here in verse 15. Paul says this. See, there's two types of people in this room right now.30:46Those who have received mercy, and those who by faith can receive mercy. And if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, today He is waiting for you.31:13He lived a sinless life, and He died on the cross for your sin. That if you repent and turn from yourself, and turn to Him, He will take your sin, and He will give you His righteousness. And that grace, and mercy, and love Paul talked about, and that peace that makes you whole with God, can be yours today. If you would simply pray a prayer and say, Lord, I need you. And I will turn to you.31:43Because I believe you are who you say you are. And I will follow you all the days of my life. The gospel is not try harder, push through the ice, sail faster. The gospel is Jesus paid it all. And if you would submit your life to Him today, He will radically change you. That is Xander's testimony. That is my testimony.32:12I stand here before you to say that Jesus is who He says He is. And if you call out to Him today, if you would come to Jesus Christ, He will change your life. Let's pray.Next in Faith Over Fear →When Your Story Becomes His-story
