2 Timothy 1:3-14 - Fan in to flame

So if you would pray with me.

Lord, um.

Lord, you are so good.

And we come before you right now in this moment just to worship you, to acknowledge that you are God.

You are the creator.

You are the one with the answers.

And we come to you, Lord, just for the bread of life, just to know who you are and to understand better your love for us, Lord.

As we read tonight, help us to gain insight, gain wisdom, knowledge, reveal your spirit to us, Lord.

And it's your son's name that we pray.

Amen.

Alright.

We're going to start in, or we just start in 2 Timothy.

So let's go ahead and read 2 Timothy chapter 1.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

We'll read the whole thing, but we'll only focus on part of it tonight.

But it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus.

To Timothy, my dear son, grace and mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I thank God, whom I serve as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, that I my as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers, recalling your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also.

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 the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.

Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of or join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, he 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 to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

And of this error and of this gospel, I was appointed herald, an apostle and teacher.

That is why I am suffering as I am.

Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed.

Am I convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

What you've heard from me, keep as a pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.

Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

You know that everyone in this province of Asia has deserted me, including Pythagoras and Hermanus.

May the Lord show mercy to the household of Oniferus, because he has often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me.

May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day.

You know very well how many ways he has helped me in Ephesus.

So we get this tone that's different.

In 1 Timothy, as we read through the book, you get this idea, it's almost this tone that Paul is talking to Timothy and entrusting him or preparing him for a fight.

It's almost like, okay, you gotta get your hands up and you gotta go in and you've got to make sure you're bobbing and weaving, all right, and this is what you're gonna do.

And he's getting them ready to combat, almost to take on Ephesus and to fight enemies.

In this letter, which happens later in his life, because Paul wrote 1 Timothy and Titus very close to one another.

So very similar in tone, because they're written for the very same purpose.

But then later, when he's close to the end of his life, Paul is writing to Timothy, and it's more with this realization that he might not see Timothy again.

And so he's writing, and it's less like he's preparing him for a fight, and more the the tone of saying, Timothy, there is a long journey ahead of you.

Make sure you've got everything you need packed.

Because the road's gonna get bumpy, you're gonna get a flat tire, you're gonna need these things, and be ready for that.

And so the tone is less like getting ready for a fight or battle, and more, this is what you need to carry on and fight the long fight, to run the full race.

And we see this particularly in verse three through six, or three through um, yeah, three through six.

It says, I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestor did, with a clear conscience.

As night and day I remember you constantly in my prayers, recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.

I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice.

I am persuaded now lives in you also.

For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which was given to you the Holy Spirit.

Now, my personal story is very similar in some ways to Timothy, um, as far as our life goes.

I grew up in the church.

I grew up going to church since I can remember.

I think my first word was from what my mom has told me is the word light because I was staring up at the lights of the church, like the ceiling, right?

I mean, this is where I grew up.

I I made every napkin holder at every VBS, right?

I mean, I made every single thing, all those different crafts.

I knew the parables because my mom raised me.

Now, my parents got divorced um when I was very young, like right after I was born, a year after I was born, somewhere in there.

And so my dad is not a believer.

And so every other weekend when I went to my dad's house, like every other weekend I'd be at my mom's house, we would go to church.

I would make the craft, I'd do the salt, you know, salty songbooks, I would do all those different things, and then I'd spend the other weekends with my dad.

And we wouldn't go to church, we'd go out hunting or shooting or, you know, cutting firewood or whatever, playing golf, that kind of stuff.

And so I kind of grew up with one fit, always knowing what was, you know, yes, you know, this is what church is, this is who Jesus is, and then this is how other people live and just doing these things.

My mom grew up in a house where her mother was the one that took everybody to church.

My grandfather never went to church.

I think one time he went to church on one Christmas Eve ever that I could ever remember and that anybody ever talked about.

And uh he wore his good coveralls that night, right?

Like uh he was just that kind of guy.

And um, and so he he did that, but my grandmother, Jessie, was the one who took her three kids, who one who was a quadriplegic, to church every week, you know, and just made sure that was happening.

And so my mom raised me much the same way.

This is what you need to do, and this is as you grow.

Um, so I was a believer and I enjoyed growing to church because that's the way I was raised.

Now I got into seventh grade, and I think I've shared this with some of you guys.

Let some of you guys, it's good to hear my story too.

I got into seventh grade, and uh, I finally got out of the kids' classroom, and I got to go to youth group.

And this was huge for me because I had an older sister who's four years older than me, and she was the coolest person I could ever imagine, right?

I looked up to her so much, and she always talked about how much fun they would have in youth group, and so seventh grade, I finally got to go.

And I didn't have to go to the kids' classroom, I got to go to the church annex building, right?

And the annex that we called it was this other house that was built in the 70s and had that extreme orange plush carpet, right?

That you just you know the color I'm talking about, right?

That 70s orange with an avocado refrigerator in the thing, and just but we go in there and we'd all sit around and Mike would teach us about the Bible, and it was so cool.

And there were all these older kids that were friends, and so there was like um Brad and Bo and all these different guys that I could look up to.

And then Mike, as youth ministers often do, moved to a different church.

Mike Schimmel was the youth minister, his uh wife Beth, they moved to a different church, different part of Arizona.

And when they moved, all those other kids that I looked up to that were about four years older than me, just stopped going to church.

And they just they stopped.

They decided this isn't what they wanted to do anymore.

And so I was kind of looking around.

But we got a new youth minister in.

And Trent came to our church.

And Trent had just graduated from uh Manhattan Bible College and he moved to town, and he was a new youth minister, and Trent was this guy, just a dynamic personality, really just over the top, always just uh really kind of that super guy that was just energetic and a young guy, so he had all the time, did all kinds of stuff with us, got us going, and and he like built the youth group up from this few people up to like I remember one time that we had like 90 kids at youth group one night.

You know, it's just really great.

You're huge, lots of numbers.

Um but then Trent, and Trent was never secret about it.

Trent said, I'm gonna leave in a couple years.

Like, my goal is to be a senior pastor, so I just need to get a job and get some ministry experience, and I'm gonna move on.

And he was upfront from the very beginning.

So two and a half years later, he did what he said he was gonna do, and he left the church.

And that's when I saw all these kids that were ahead of me by a couple years, Matt, Mobes, you know, Gary, I mean, Ashley, all these people that I really looked up to, again, just walk away from God and walk away from the church.

And at that point, I had to figure out, and I looked at my own self and say, okay, what do you believe?

You know, I was probably 14, 15 years old, and I was like, okay, Jared, do you believe, do you have faith in Christ because you believe Scripture and you believe Jesus died for you, or do you have faith because your mom took you to Sunday school all these years?

Because other people, I saw them walk away and I said, okay, what do they have faith in, and what is my faith in?

And so I made a very conscious decision at that point, okay, I'm gonna follow Christ.

Even if we get a new youth pastor and they're awesome, I'm not gonna follow them.

I'm gonna follow Jesus.

And so that was what it was.

And so what amazing to me has happened is these people had an amazing impact on our faith.

So you can have an impact, you can be impacted by somebody's faith.

I was impacted by my mom's faith, by my grandma's faith, by Mike Schimmel, by Trent Renner, by all these guys, different people in my life.

I was impacted by faith.

But I couldn't inherit someone's faith.

I couldn't inherit my faith.

No matter what my mom did, how many Sunday school lessons she taught, how many object lessons and different things, or how many things, devotionals we had at home, or different Christmas gifts or Bibles she could buy me, I could not inherit her faith.

My faith had to become my own.

And this is exactly what Paul says to Timothy, doesn't he?

He says, Recalling your tears, I long to see you so I may be filled with joy.

I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also.

This is an amazing thing.

See, we can't inherit faith.

So, but we can impact people's faith.

Now, this can be good or bad news.

If you're a grandparent, if you're a parent, or if you're thinking about being a parent, you can't force your faith on your kids or your grandkids, but you can have a big impact on their faith.

In fact, this is exactly what we're reading.

These two women have their name in Scripture, and we're talking about them thousands of years later, not because of any miracle they did, simply because they passed their faith on to the next generation.

They impacted Timothy's faith.

He couldn't inherit it, but they impacted it.

They so don't underestimate the impact you can have as a parent or a grandparent on those people around you.

And there's a couple ways that we can act and make our faith more impactful for the next generation.

One of those things that we can do is be open about what you believe.

Be open with your kids, with your grandkids about what you believe.

Be open about the things that you're learning, about how you are growing in your faith, how you're following God.

Be honest with your faith, what you're learning, what God is teaching you.

Because kids need to see that we as adults are growing also, that we are changing, that our faith, it's maybe a struggle.

We need to put our faith in them.

And what's often what I found is oftentimes our kids will share with us the things they're doing also.

And to me, that's even more inspiring than some of the stuff I've done.

I've been more inspired by the things my own kids have done and the way they grow in their faith, to grow deeper in my faith, and then a lot of different things.

Um, invite your kids also to be open with you about their faith.

That means when they come to you and they've got something way off, you don't just shut them down.

No, that is so wrong.

Let me show you how.

We go, oh, okay.

Well, why is it you believe that?

And help walk them through, bring them to truth, help them understand, but we need to do it in love, right?

And we need to do it in a way that's gentle and helping them understand who God is.

The biggest one, too, that we do is be praying for them.

If you've got grandkids, you need to be praying for them.

If you've got kids, you need to be praying for them over and over, night and day.

And then also, as Timothy was told in 1 Timothy, live, set an example for the other believers and the way that you live.

So making sure that you're living things that you're saying.

If you say you believe in Jesus and your faith is in him, live like it for those people.

And then he tells Timothy, for this reason, fan into flame.

So he has this gift of faith.

He needs to fan it into flame into the ministry that God has put before him.

Now, verse 7 says this for the spirit of God, or the spirit God gave us, does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.

This is one of those verses that I think often gets misquoted.

And a lot of times what it gets misquoted is it not necessarily misquoted, but it just gets cut off.

Right?

That people say, Oh, God didn't give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power.

Right?

And it's like, I just imagine like two guys at the gym and one guy getting the other guy psyched up by slapping them on the back and then, yeah, you're gonna lift it, you can do anything, right?

And I've somebody has, I've seen this in group where one guy's like, man, I need to be bold in my faith.

I feel like I need to share my faith at work.

And somebody of us is like, yeah, because God gave us a spirit of power, not timidity, right?

And yeah, you're gonna get psyched up, you do it.

And we forget about those two other things because it says, God gave us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.

When we have to correct somebody or we have to share our faith, we don't have to be ashamed because we don't have that spirit of timidity.

That's absolutely true.

We do, we are given a spirit of power, but that same spirit of power is a spirit of love.

So when we share our faith, when we defend our faith, when we have to correct somebody, we have to do it in love.

We also have a spirit of self-discipline.

We need to know when to button our mouth and shut up and hold our tongue, right?

Because sometimes it's the right time to speak and say something, and sometimes it's better to bite your tongue and wait.

And we need to have that.

Now, this idea of self-discipline, though, is woven throughout all over the New Testament.

Um, in Galatians, it's a very famous in Galatians.

G uh Paul is talking about the fruit of the Spirit.

You know, when we have the Spirit in our life, then God comes and because of that spirit, these things are produced in Galatians 5, 23, or 22 and 23, right?

It says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

In 2 Peter, he talks about it too.

In 2 Peter chapter 1, 5 through 7, he starts this list.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

He says, Okay, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna add these things.

He says, For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, to add goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection, and a mutual affection, love.

For those that possess these qualities, increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so again, highlighted in there is self-control.

In fact, in 1 Peter, it's mentioned twice, and in Thessalonians they say it this way: be of sober mind, which is another way of saying, kind of is similar to be self-controlled.

But there's one that's fascinating because those are pretty pronounced scriptures, but there's one that's really interesting that caught me off guard.

And it's when in Acts, chapter 24, Acts is, or Paul is on trial.

Acts 24 · chapter mention

He's standing trial before the governor, before Felix, right?

And he goes and Felix takes him on trial, and then he says, Okay, wait, I need to figure this out, so go back, Paul, we're gonna hold you in prison.

And he brings Paul out.

And it says in chapter 24, he starts, he brings Paul out in verse 22.

He says, Okay, come tell me about this.

And he asks Paul to tell him about the gospel.

Says, then Felix, who's well acquainted with a way, so he knew what Christianity was, um, adjourned the proceedings.

When the Lister come commander comes, I'll decide your case.

You're the centurion, to keep Paul under guard and to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs.

Then several days later, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who is Jewish.

He sent for Paul and he listened to him as he spoke about the faith in Christ Jesus.

So Paul has this opportunity to share the gospel with the governor and his wife.

He can preach anything.

He's asked him, come tell me about this.

And look at what Paul decides to tell him.

He says, You can tell me about anything, and brings it right before him, and he says, as verse 25, as Paul talked about righteousness, all right, that makes sense, self-control, and the judgment to come.

Of three things, the topics we see, one of those that Paul talks about is self-control.

That just blew my mind.

You could talk about the, you know, he talks about the judgment that's come, he talks about righteousness, he could talk about salvation, he could talk about so many things.

Paul was an amazing, gifted communicator.

And yet, one of the three topics we list or listed is self-control.

And the reason why is because of the philosophy of that day.

Some of the biggest philosophies that were happening at the time were hedonists or hedonism.

And hedonism basically is like basically living for pleasure.

And there's different types and breakdowns, and I'm not going to get into those, but basically the idea is whatever you self-serving thing you want to do, go ahead and do it.

If it feels good.

Yeah, that's right.

Now, there's not like an outright hedonist today.

I mean, there are, but um, not so much prevalent.

But there are a lot of different ways this comes about in our society today.

Things like, oh, if it feels good, do it.

Or, okay, you just gotta do you.

You do you.

Whatever's good for you.

You know, oh, well, that's what you believe, that's your truth, live it out.

You know, and these silly, wishy-washy things that are the exact same thing.

You don't have to control yourself.

If you have an urge, just go for it.

You'll ask forgiveness later.

All of these different things, and this is exactly what Paul is combating when he talks to Timothy.

You have a spirit of power, of love, and self-control.

This is what we're meant to do when we follow Christ, is to control those things, to follow him, to be self-disciplined.

We talked about this last week, too.

Paul says, I beat my body, I make it my slave.

I don't give into these urges.

Instead, I make myself, I boss my body.

I don't tell let it tell me what to do.

And so self-control is so essential, and yet it's so easily overlooked, or self-discipline, so easily overlooked for other things.

Now, Paul kind of takes a corner here, and he says this in verse 8.

He gives us instruction, and then he sw switches over to verse 8.

He says, Do not be ashamed of the testimony.

He almost takes this hook, right?

He takes this left turn, do not be ashamed.

You know, you've got self-you've got a spirit of power and self-control and love.

Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord over me, his prisoner.

See, Paul at this point is in prison writing to Timothy and is probably going to die a martyr's death.

Don't be ashamed that I'm gonna die, Paul says to Timothy.

Don't be fat and ashamed that Jesus, that our Savior, died.

Now, this is kind of weird to us because we're looking at it from 2,000 years later.

I mean, we hang crosses on the wall for decoration and to remember that.

You know, a bunch of you guys probably are wearing some coated across right now, right?

This was unheard of in the first century because a cross was the most shameful way that somebody could be executed.

And even in like in the Jewish law system, this was a terrible way to die.

In the Romans, this was used for criminals, for things.

It was a shameful death.

And so Paul says, do not be ashamed in this.

Because honestly, sometimes the gospel doesn't look good.

Don't be ashamed because sometimes the gospel doesn't look good.

And this is what I mean.

If you follow Christ, there are going to be times where you're going to have to say no to things that other people get to say yes to.

You're going to have to take unpopular stands sometimes.

No, I don't do that.

If you're dating, you know, I'm not going to have sex until we're married because Scripture teaches that.

And so you're dating somebody, maybe you even love them, but you say, no, this is a line, then I don't do this.

Where the rest of society says, well, if you're in love, go for it.

It's okay.

Or if there's other things too, like, yeah, I'm not going to go to that establishment, to that bar.

I just don't think it's right.

I love you, you're a friend, but I'm not going to go there because I'm a Christian and we're not going to do that.

Or I'm not going to see that movie because once I put something in my head, it doesn't come out.

And so I'm not going to do this.

When our kids are young, we had to tell them.

We said, you know, there are going to be a lot of things, guys, that we are going to say no to, that all your friends are going to be allowed to do.

I'm so sorry.

And in some ways, you're going to be an outcast because of it.

And it doesn't look good, but it is good.

See, it may not look good to the world, but it is good.

Actually, Paul, when he talks to the church in 1 Corinthians, he actually talks exactly about this.

He tells him, Oh, I can't even find my scripture now.

All right.

He says, It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18, it says, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing.

1 Corinthians 1:18

See, the world looks at the cross and says, This is foolishness.

Your God is so powerful, yet he died on a cross?

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Is what the world says, but he says, the message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

The gospel doesn't look good to the world a lot of times.

Living out the gospel doesn't look good to the world, but it is the best good there is.

And so the foolishness that this cross, the foolishness of the cross, is what our faith rests on.

Because it actually keeps going.

It says, For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligent of the intelligent I will frustrate.

And so he goes on.

Yeah, it looks foolish to those that are perishing, but in truth it is the best possible thing, because within that is salvation.

What's interesting, too, is I don't think many of us feel shame so much about our faith.

If we were to ask somebody, okay, are you ashamed to be a Christian?

You'd be like, no, of course not.

But then, and that's what I thought about myself, but then I thought about this and I started wondering, have I ever been ashamed?

You know, since I became an adult, or, you know, besides being a little kid and kind of wondering what's going on, since I have I ever been ashamed?

And I don't couldn't think of a time, but then I started remembering I was asked to do a wedding a while back.

Um, and this wedding was for a couple of non-believers, and this happens quite a bit.

People, for whatever reason, they want to use the church building or they want to get married somewhere else, and they want a minister to do it.

And so, yeah, of course, I'll do that.

And this couple weren't believers, they weren't followers of Christ.

And so if I marry somebody, you're marry a couple, I require for me to do the wedding, they have to go through premarital counseling.

And so, whether it's with me or with a faith-based something else, you know, if they've got something they want to do, I'll look at it and see, okay, yeah, I'll do that.

But because I believe marriage is established by Christ, by God, and it's sanctified by Christ, and so the best possible chance of having successful marriage is to base it on faith and to base it in God's commands.

And so I believe this, and so, okay, this is what I believe.

You need to do this to set the best foundation.

Now, if somebody comes to me, there was a kind of a shorter wedding time, and they didn't plan ahead, you know, weigh it out in advance.

And so I was like, okay, we're gonna have to compact this premarital counseling, and I I was just upfront about it, and honestly, I was like, well, I could just not because they're not believers.

But I was like, no, this is part of who you are, and this you believe this, say it.

And I realized, like, okay, well, how about since they're not believers, I'll cut out the scripture and different stuff and I'll kind of do it.

I was like, wait a minute.

They're coming to you, they're you're a minister.

Like, grow up, Jared, right?

And it was this moment where I wouldn't say I was ashamed, but I didn't want to appear kind of crazy, you know, or I don't want to appear like fanatical.

And it's those moments where I maybe we don't have that shame, but we're like, maybe you need to dial it back a little bit, Jared.

You know, don't go so hard.

You don't want to scare them off.

And it was this moment of like, wait a minute, why?

They're coming to me, and wouldn't it be worse if somebody, if you went to a guy, is like, well, I kind of believe this, and you're the leader of a church?

Like, I mean, that'd be right?

It would be awful.

And so there wasn't a moment of shame, but I realize I think sometimes we all have those moments where like, oh, well, you know, I can take it back a notch just so I'm more relatable, or that kind of thing.

But in truth, we need to make sure that we are bold because God didn't give us a power or a spirit of timidity, instead, one of power and love and self-discipline.

All right, and then verse 13 and 14, Paul starts to wrap up this section, and he says, What you've heard from me, what you've heard from me, keep as a pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

Guard the good deposit which was entrusted to you, and guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

In other words, keep on keeping on.

Right?

Uh, I had a a friend of mine, he was a mentor, um, that taught us, and he's his idea was that you could break every single sermon down into one of two categories.

A sermon was either going to be about how you know Jesus, like K-N-O-W, Jesus, or stay faithful.

And so he'd always say that know Jesus and stay faithful.

And that's what Paul is saying here.

Stay on the track that I've put before you.

Stay on this teaching, this pattern in this keep that is sound teaching, and then guard the deposit, stay faithful to what you've said.

And here's the sound teaching that Paul passed on.

First one is in John 3.16.

Right?

John 3.16 it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

So if we're going to know the gospel, first we have to understand that Christ came as God's Son, incarnate on earth, and died for our sins.

And if we believe that, then in Acts chapter 2, Peter preaches this sermon and he tells them, and the people say, Oh my gosh, we didn't know, but now we know what should we do?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And what he says in Acts 2.38, Peter replied to the people, Repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So the next thing we need to do after we believe is repent.

Turn away from the sins that we've lived in our life and follow Christ.

And the next one is confess.

In Romans 10 9, it says, if you declare with your mouth, Jesus is the Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So confessing of who God is and the fact that you believe in him, that he died for your sins, and you want to follow him.

And the next one is again Acts 2.38.

When the people came to this realization, Peter said, repent, and this next step was to be baptized in obedience to Christ, because that was one of Christ's commands.

Repent, be baptized.

So believe and confess, repent, be baptized, and then commit to following Him.

To following Him and obedience.

In Revelation 2.10, Jesus said to the church there, he says, Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.

I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you.

And you will suffer persecution for ten days.

Be faithful, ten days is a metaphor, for be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown.

Stay faithful in following Christ.

And that is the pattern that Jesus, or I'm sorry, that Paul told Timothy to stick to.

So maybe you're here tonight.

I'm going to invite the band back up, because maybe you're here tonight and you've never made that decision to follow Jesus.

And maybe you've said to yourself, okay, I believe that Jesus is the living, Son of the Living God, and you want to make that decision for the first time, and you want to follow Him in obedience and be baptized.

If that's where you're at, we would love for that to happen tonight.

If you want to confess and be baptized and turn from your life of sin to receive salvation, wonderful.

If you've already made that decision, then what you need to do is stay faithful, to keep on keeping on, to guard the deposit that God has given you with the Holy Spirit in our life.

So what is it that you need to do?

Do you need to make that first-time decision?

Do you need to repent and stay faithful to what God has called you to do?

Let's pray and then we're going to worship together.

God, thank you for the fact that you gave us opportunity to turn from our life of sin and receive salvation from what you've done for us, Lord.

As we sing your praises in this moment, touch our hearts.

Guide us to understanding.

It's your son's name we pray.

Amen.