2 Timothy: Guard the Good Deposit | Student Pastor: Sam Rapp

Uh so really quickly, on Friday, as many of y'all know, there was a big uh decision made by the Supreme Court, and I'm not gonna give my thoughts on it, but what I am gonna do is I'm just gonna pray because just seeing a lot of division caused by this by non-believers, by believers, by all types of people.

And so I just want to spend a moment for us to pray over this decision made by the Supreme Court, and that we as a church should be able to speak life and love and unity into this situation.

So let's pray together and then we'll dive in.

Father, we love you.

Lord, thank you that the gospel has knocked down every dividing wall of hostility, and that in Jesus there is no longer slave or free Greek or Jew, man or woman, but all are one in Christ Jesus.

And so, Father, I pray that by your Spirit and for the sake of Jesus, Lord, I pray that you would pour your spirit out on our country.

Lord, we just desperately need your intervention.

We see division, we see hatred, we see frustration, we see praise, we see rejoicing, and we see, Lord, two sides of people calling each other names, mad at each other.

And so I pray, Lord, that by your divine intervention you would create unity in our country.

And I pray that that would only come through the love and joy and peace of Jesus.

Lord, thank you that you are the welcoming God who invites sinners, invites those who are broken, and brings freedom and liberation into broken places.

And so, Father, I pray this morning that as all of us come to your word and come to this time with our baggage.

Father, pray that by your spirit and for the sake of Jesus you would speak to us this morning.

Father, pray that you would just illuminate your word to us by your spirit and that all of us would be able to understand it and take something out of it.

We love you.

Pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So on March 23rd, 1943, a boy by the name of Winston Groom was born in Washington, D.C.

to parents, Ruth and Winston Francis Groom.

Winston's dad, Winston Sr., was a lawyer at the Pentagon.

And then after serving there for a little while, he decided to head on down to Mobile, Alabama to complete his life as a lawyer doing a little bit more relaxed law than in the Pentagon.

Now, Winston Jr.

thought that he would want to be a lawyer just like his dad, and so he decided to go to the University of Alabama.

Uh so some of y'all are excited about that.

But ended up serving in the Army ROTC while he was there.

And interestingly enough, he didn't fall in love with law when he was at Alabama, but he actually fell in love with writing and storytelling.

And so he decided to kind of switch gears and pursue that as his career instead.

He graduated from Alabama with honors in 1965, and then some of my history buffs know what was going on then.

There was a war Far East that was very disputed.

So he ended up going and serving in Vietnam for about two years in the 4th Infantry Division, leading to a life of stories that would ultimately be inspired to tell.

And some of these stories included triumph, stories of heartbreak, stories of death.

Later, Winston would have a conversation with his dad that would ultimately change his life and even many of our lives forever.

Winston had a conversation with his elderly father at the time who was just kind of recounting stories of his own childhood, and he told Winston Jr.

about this mentally disabled boy he knew when he was growing up.

And something sparked within Winston Jr.

And from that day forward, for the next six weeks, took him six weeks, wrote one of the most famous books any of us know.

Forrest Gump.

Was produced in six weeks by a man named Winston Groom.

And it did pretty well at first, but it really wasn't until 1992-ish when this guy named Eric Roth decided to make a film out of it with our boy Tommy Hanks, right?

And by the way, that was a big year for movies.

1994 was when Forrest Gump came out.

I'm just gonna give you all a couple other movies that came out that year.

Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Speed, and The Little Rascals, right?

So big movies to go up against.

But we remember Forrest Gump, don't we?

Now, as you know, this film is at legendary status at this point.

Even if you haven't seen it, even if you're 12, you've probably heard of it, right?

And in this movie, Forrest Gump has a fascinating life of a bunch of different adventures, kind of overcoming this mental obstacle he has.

He runs, and dad gummit, he keeps on running, don't he?

He plays football, he runs through end zones, through end zones, out the door, right?

And he ends up serving in Vietnam, kind of like Winston.

And in Vietnam he serves with his his boy Bubba.

Remember Bubba?

Shrimp are the fruit of the sea.

You know, fried shrimp, broiled shrimp, shrimp kebabs.

And while at Vietnam, Bubba ends up getting shot in Forest, played by Tom Hanks.

Broken and Crying picks him up, which, by the way, how?

Have y'all seen how big Bubba was?

Dude, 6'3, easily.

Easily 200, 225.

And Tom Hanks, who's pretty not huge at that point, just hoists him up.

I watched the video and you can see Tom Hanks is like, his legs are kind of shaking, he's struggling.

But somehow picks up our boy Bubba and kind of walks him down, and then he's holding him, cradling him like a baby.

And then Bubba looks up at Forrest, tears welling in his eyes.

Like, you know he's acting, but part of you is like, is he about to go?

Like, is he actually breathing his last?

And he says to Forrest, I want to go home.

Forrest, as many of y'all know, he's sitting on the bench in Savannah, right, reflecting on a lot of his life stories.

And in that moment, as he's sitting on the bench, he's reflecting back on that very moment.

And this is what he says.

If I'd have known this was gonna be the last time me and Bubba would talk, I would have thought of something better to say.

So over the next four weeks, we're gonna be preaching through the book of 2 Timothy.

And here's what's going on during this book.

Timothy is a young man, newly ordained pastor at the church of Ephesus.

Remember that little book Ephesians?

Ephesus.

Pastoring a church that's suffering, that's divided, that's arguing over theological issues, facing some pretty serious false teaching.

Nero, the Roman emperor, is ruling and instituting some of the most brutal and intense persecution against Christians in all of history.

Our boy that wrote this, Paul, is not in a great spot either.

He's in uh Rome, had just been arrested again, and is in a little prison cell that looks a little bit like this.

This is the Mamertine prison in Rome, where he wrote this letter that we have before us today, 2 Timothy.

That's also the prison that's kind of historically agreed upon that Peter was killed in as well.

So he writes his last letter we read, and even before that we see kind of his heart in it.

So in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6 through 7, he says this.

2 Timothy 4:6–7

This is Paul.

For I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.

So he writes the last letter we'd ever read of Paul.

The last letter he might have believed he would write.

Paul, to this point, had given his life over to the proclamation of the gospel, the planting of churches, and ultimately, most importantly, the glory of Jesus Christ.

And all of a sudden, these churches he had seen flourished or struggling.

A young pastor is leading the church at Ephesus, and I think Paul has serious concerns that the gospel might be dwindling, and that the church itself might dwindle.

So that's where we find ourselves at Paul's last will and testament to Timothy and to the Big C church.

Remember what Forrest said as he reflected back on his time with Bubba?

If I had known this was the last time, I would have thought of something better to say.

Why?

Because he knows the weight of the last word.

I believe Paul did too as he wrote this to Timothy.

He knew the weight, and as he wrote this in this cold, lonely, smelly dungeon in Rome, I think we can feel his urgency.

Now, the big question we need to ask before we can really make sense of this book is why did Paul feel the need to write a second book to Timothy, a second letter.

So it's generally agreed upon that there's one big focus, and this is gonna be the lens that we read this book for the next four weeks, the lens that we see everything Paul writes, and it's this hard things are coming, the world is gonna try to pull you in every other direction, but guard the gospel.

Guard the gospel.

And if we're honest, y'all know this, we're in a really tough cultural moment right now, aren't we?

The political sphere over the last four years has been insanely divided, maybe more than in any other time in US history.

Each side believes that the other side is wrong and misinformed and unintelligible.

Millennials and Gen Zers are walking out the back doors of the church more than ever before.

The sexual ethic of the Bible is seen as barbaric and outdated, and Christians as a whole are typically seen as misinformed and simple-minded.

The overall message that the world is giving is this: be yourself, just be true to you.

Find your innermost deep desires and chase after those, and if anyone tells you otherwise, cancel them.

This message is essentially saying, hey, once you find your deepest desire, your deepest longing, even if it's to your own destruction, chase after it.

And here's the message of the gospel that Paul is laying out for us.

Once you deny yourself, once you take up the cross and follow Jesus, that's actually where life is found.

Not in being truer to yourself, but actually denying yourself, in a sense.

So if that's the promise, that that's where abundant life is found, then that's exactly Paul's point.

Guard it.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1.18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

We must believe that though the world sees us as simple-minded, misinformed, old-fashioned, that the God of the Bible is alive and he's working in ways that we wouldn't even begin to fathom across the world.

There are gospel movements and multiplications going on in the Middle East and in Africa that we wouldn't even believe if we read about them.

Now it's important to get a little bit further understanding of the context before we dive in.

Timothy, or Paul is writing to one person in 2 Timothy, Timothy, but he's thinking about a broader landscape behind it.

He's thinking about the Big C church.

The Big C church does not continue on just through the efforts of a couple five-star recruits like Augustine, Billy Graham, Spurgeon, though those are helpful.

The church actually survives through the efforts of all the people in between.

We have the church today in Georgia because of the efforts of thousands and thousands of men and women who you don't know their names.

And while those big guys are awesome and faithful, the plea from Paul is that corporate faithfulness, a bunch, a bunch of people just like us who are just a bunch of average people, right?

That's a great news.

That's what keeps the church alive.

So, how do we continue on, even though our culture is deteriorating?

We guard the gospel together.

We guard the gospel together.

So, with these things in mind, let's dive in.

So, 2 Timothy chapter 1, I'm gonna read 3 through 7 again for us.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience, as I remember you, Timothy, constantly in my prayers night and day.

As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice as well, and now I'm sure dwells in you.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through a laying on of my hands.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

So Paul's clearly writing here to someone he loves deeply.

This isn't some distant acquaintance, this is a dear brother, someone he adores.

And Paul and Timothy have a rich bond.

A rich, rich spiritual connection, relational friendship.

I think part of it is because of the trials they've walked through together, and on the flip side, the mountaintops they've walked through together.

Timothy was actually a missionary companion to Paul for about 15 years.

And so here's a couple of just bullet points of what Timothy had been through with Paul.

One, Timothy was there when the Thessalonian church needed encouragement, 1 Thessalonians 3.

Timothy was there when the Corinthian church needed to be reminded of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 4.

Timothy was there before Paul's first imprisonment.

We see that in Acts 16, before the conversion of Lydia and then the jailer when the earthquake happens, right?

Timothy was there with Paul.

So the question we need to ask first for ourselves is if in light of this deep spiritual friendship that Paul and Timothy have, is there anyone in our life that we share an intimate bond of this depth with?

Not just relationally, but spiritually.

Is there someone in our life that we can confess things to, that we can share our darkest challenges and doubts and wrestlings with the Lord to come to them and say, hey, I'm really doubting God's goodness, I'm doubting God's faithfulness, I'm even doubting if God's there, and for that person not to welcome you with judgment or critique, but with love and welcome and empathy?

Like, is there someone in our life that we have?

Because man, like, how much time and energy do we spend trying to hide?

Like, how much time do we try to push our shame down, push our guilt down, push our lack of spiritual knowledge down?

And man, like, how much life would there be if we had somebody like that?

Where there's no secrets?

How much life would we see there?

And we see further following that Timothy came from a family of faith, right?

Verse 5.

Timothy, pretty cool, was one of the first, like, second generation Christians that we know of.

His dad was Greek and his mom was likely Jewish from birth, but then heard the gospel message, got saved, and then raised up Timothy in the ways of Jesus, not just the Old Testament, but also now in the risen Christ.

But here's a very important point about Timothy and for us today.

While it is a beautiful thing for a child to be raised in the knowledge of Jesus, and we would encourage that, Christianity is not hereditary.

Parents, you can be the best, most faithful parent in the world and still have a prodigal child.

The good news is that their souls don't belong to you.

And it's freeing.

You're gonna blow it, and you're also gonna do a great job in some ways, but their souls belong to the Lord.

And so we can take a breath and say, okay, Lord, I'll do my best, but you got them.

You got them.

And students, kids in this room.

Just because you grew up in a Christian household does not mean that you're a Christian automatically.

It's something we talk about at youth all the time.

Your faith is yours.

And so that's that's the gospel for us.

Alright, verses six and seven, one more time.

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 a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

So Paul here is making reference back to the first letter that he wrote to Timothy.

And this is 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 4 through 14 through 16.

1 Timothy 4:4–14

Do not neglect the gift you have, right into Timothy, which was given you by the prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.

Practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hears.

So we don't know exactly what this gift is that Paul's talking about, but maybe that's his preaching ability, maybe that's his leadership gifts, maybe that's whatever.

We don't know.

But Timothy has a gift, whatever it is, and Paul's encouragement for him is to use it for the glory of God and to persist in it, right?

John Stott, in his commentary on 2 Timothy, says this.

I think it's really helpful.

The gift is both the calling and the giving of spiritual resources to faithfully fulfill the calling.

It seems then that Paul's appeal is to continue fanning it, to stir up that inner fire, to keep it alive, even ablaze, presumably by exercising the gift faithfully and by waiting upon God in prayer for its constant renewal.

Now, I could desire to be a worship leader, but I can't sing.

You have Sam Heilig for that.

I could desire to be in the NBA and use my gifts there, but I'm six feet tall and can't shoot.

And so that's not me, right?

So while there are gifts given to us, I think there's wisdom in knowing, hey, that's not my lane, right?

But here's the point: each of us has a part to play in the church.

Whether that's serving in the student ministry, in the children's ministry, greeting outside.

All of us are called to serve.

God's created each of us, each of you, with specific gifts, specific desires, specific things in the church that you might be more critical about.

Maybe that's because you're gifted there.

And I love it.

Paul says, whatever you believe your gift is, fan it.

Make it grow, pursue it.

And I the Greek in this could really be translated into kindle it afresh.

I love that.

Stott has another word about this.

This then was Timothy, young in years, frail in physique, retiring in disposition, who nevertheless was called to exacting responsibilities in the church of God.

Greatness was being thrust upon him, and like Moses and Jeremiah and a host of others before him and after him, Timothy was exceedingly reluctant to accept it.

As someone who is reading these pages in a similar situation, you are young and weak and shy, and yet God is calling you to leadership.

This letter has a special message for all timid Timothy's.

I love that.

You might think that you're not gifted enough.

You might think that you don't know enough.

You might think that there's a sin issue keeping you in the way, and then once you get rid of that, then God will use you.

You might really believe that you've out sinned the grace of God.

You might really believe that.

And all I want to say, all I want to say, is that all of us have a part to play.

Small or big, it's all equally valuable.

God has placed you in this moment to get right in this fight.

Why?

We have the next few verses, uh, verses eight through twelve.

Paul 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 Jesus Christ, who abolished death and 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.

Here's how I know that no one in this room has out sinned the grace of God.

What we see in this passage is that God in Christ actually chose you to be his son or daughter before creation, before the ages began, is what Paul says here.

In other words, he chose you to be his, knowing the ways that you would betray him, knowing each and every way that you would take advantage of someone, each and every way that you would look at him and run away.

He chose you knowing those things.

And guess what?

He still chose you, he still runs after you, and he's still for you.

Paul lays out here one of the most beautiful gospel presentations, I think, at all of Scripture.

He says, we aren't saved because we grew up in a Christian home.

We're not saved because uh of any work that we did, but we're saved because the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus gave life into our dead souls and brought us to that life.

He says we were born with a natural bent towards the things that aren't of God.

This man, Jesus, the God man, came and took on flesh.

He lived a perfect life, fulfilling the Old Testament, not abolishing it, but fulfilling it.

And then was nailed to a Roman cross where all of your sin, all of your shame, all of your addiction was nailed, and then on the third day when he rose, all of that, past, present, future sin is fully, freely, and forever forgiven.

And that's this gospel that he lays out for us.

And that's the gospel that saves us, the gospel that strengthens us, the gospel that keeps us enduring throughout all of our lives.

This is the gospel that has ended slave trades, this is the gospel that has put Roman emperors in a fear-filled frenzy, and this is the gospel that our church today continues in.

This is the gospel that takes the wounds of your past and turns them into trophies of God's grace.

This is the gospel that takes your addictions and your deepest shame and redeems and restores you through it.

And Paul needed to remind Timothy not to be ashamed of it here.

So why?

Because if that's really good news, then why would he not need to be ashamed?

I think two things happen when the gospel is preached in its fullness.

I think one, people get saved, praise God, and then I think two, people get mad, because the gospel is offensive, after all.

But the gospel is the only way to find true life, as offensive as it might be.

Alright, verses 13 to 14.

We're almost done.

Verse 13.

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

Guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

When I was in elementary school, we played the game telephone a lot.

Anyone?

Telephone?

In this game, everyone stands in a line.

It's probably second to fourth grade.

It's probably the average telephone playing age, right?

And essentially what happens is the teacher or the leader or whoever would give the first person in line a word or a phrase or a sentence or something, and then each person in the line would whisper it into the ears of the person next to them, making its way all the way down the line, and then the last person would recount what the phrase is, right?

And the funniest thing in the world as a second grader is to purposefully mess it up, right?

Say something silly.

I love that.

But on the other hand, like second graders aren't known for being really good at articulating their words, too.

So naturally it kind of just messes up, anyways, right?

Second graders typically mumble.

Uh, so it could be pretty easy to miss what they say on the way.

So Paul here wants to give Timothy no space to be unsure about what is what leading this church looks like and the gospel message.

Paul wants to give no room for mumbling, no room for missing the mark.

And that's our heart here at this church for you.

This is what we do every week.

We want to give this gospel message each and every week because we know that it actually has power in our lives.

We know that it liberates us, we know that it redeems us.

And so every single Sunday, we could be in John, Leviticus, Habakkuk, Revelation, we will preach Christ crucified in every single verse because we believe the whole Bible is one story.

Jesus.

And if we ever stray from that message, I just want to say, like, please tell us.

If you ever hear a message that does not preach this liberating message of the gospel, please come to us.

No matter what direction our culture heads, no matter what direction our presidents lead us, our justice system goes, we will preach Christ crucified.

Because we believe that is the only place where true life is found, and hearts can be transformed.

What Paul is reminding Timothy and in turn us here is to guard the gospel.

Guard the word, kindle your affections for Jesus, kindle your giftings.

That's how the church is sustained.

And over the next few weeks, that's gonna be our emphasis.

How do we guard the gospel?

How do we know the gospel?

How do we live for the gospel?

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you so much for the gospel message.

Lord, that all of us were born far from you.

Lord, all of us were born not bent towards the things of the gospel.

And Lord, even in that, even in our brokenness, even in our distance from you, in our rebellion, Lord, you came down and you grabbed hold of us.

Not because of how awesome we are, but because of how great your love is.

And so, Father, I just pray, Lord, this morning that the gospel would refresh us, that the good news of Jesus taking our sin and our shame on the cross would renew our joy.

Lord, many of us this morning are suffering.

Many of us are stuck in sin.

Many of us are lonely beyond belief.

So, Father, I pray that you would refresh us with the gospel anew this morning.

We love you.

Thank you for Jesus.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.