Rev. David Holwick P 1 Timothy - Clean Up the Church, #15
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 2, 2010
1 Timothy 6:12-21
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I. It's time to say goodbye.
A. People don't write many letters these days.
1) It's one reason the post office is going bankrupt.
2) But some people take letter-writing seriously.
Vincent van Gogh wrote 819 letters which survive.
The playwright Samuel Beckett beats him by a mile.
Beckett scribbled a staggering 15,000 letters in his
lifetime, equivalent to writing one a day for 41 years.
Keith Flett is a left-wing activist in England who has
written 20,000 letters to newspapers.
He figures that only 5% are ever published - but that would
be 1,000.
And he is only 45 years old. #32346
B. Paul must be one of the most famous letter writers of all time.
1) He may not have as much volume, but he has definitely
had the impact.
2) This section is his closing remarks to his young friend.
a) He uses it to re-emphasize his most important points.
b) He gives Timothy a challenge, a charge and a command.
II. The challenge to fight the fight of faith.
A. Conflict imagery seems a little jarring here.
1) Some scholars see this as a warfare image, others say it
relates to Olympic-style boxing.
a) That would explain why he calls it the "good" fight.
2) We prefer peace to conflict, but conflict is a reality
in this fallen world.
a) "Jihad" in Islam - struggling for God's sake.
b) The terrorists, wrongly, limit it to armed struggle.
3) Christians shouldn't wage conflict with bombs and guns.
a) Reason, love and faith should do the job for us.
b) But we will have conflict.
1> The world will resist our views on sexuality and
morality.
2> It will resist our views on the sacredness of life.
c) Some of the conflict will be an inner one.
1> Christians have to fight temptation, and some have
temptations that have them by the throat.
2> We also have to fight lukewarmness, having a lazy
faith.
3> Fighting the good fight suggests having an
aggressive, pro-active faith.
B. Take hold of eternal life.
1) Be certain that you are saved.
a) If you study the Bible closely, you find that salvation
is something you can possess right now.
b) Many denominations don't believe this.
1> They say you are not truly saved until you stand
in heaven before God.
2> Until then, you might blow it and lose your
relationship with God.
c) We say you can be saved now, and know that you are
saved.
1> We call this the assurance of salvation.
2> We recognize that we remain flawed believers, but
our salvation is guaranteed by what Christ has
done for us, not what we have done for him.
3> Do you have this assurance?
2) Make the most of your salvation.
a) Paul didn't really doubt that Timothy was a Christian.
b) But he wants Timothy to grab on to the challenges of
living an effective spiritual life.
C. Make a good confession. 6:12
1) Confession is not necessarily an admission of wrongdoing.
a) A confession is a solemn statement of what you believe
to be true.
b) When baptism candidates stand in the water and give
their testimony, they are making a confession.
2) Jesus did this as well.
a) He stood up to Pilate and affirmed his relationship with
God and his mission on this earth.
b) He never wavered, and it cost him his life.
3) What about your faith do you confess to the world?
III. The charge to be faithful until Jesus comes back.
A. "Appearing" is one of three words used for the Second Coming.
1) The whole world will know it when he comes back.
2) But he sure has taken his sweet time, hasn't he?
a) Even Paul felt this tension.
b) So he reminds Timothy that time is in God's control,
not ours. 6:15
B. God is awesome!
1) The thought of Jesus returning to earth causes Paul to
burst forth in praise to God. (we call it a doxology)
2) The attributes he gives to God:
a) The ultimate ruler.
There is a story that when Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was a
child, her parents held a garden party at Buckingham Palace.
A rainstorm forced the party to move indoors.
Elizabeth and her younger sister wandered into the room where
the guests had gathered and were politely bombarded by
questions.
During a pause in the conversations, Elizabeth pointed toward
a nearby wall and a painting of Jesus on the cross.
She remarked, "That's the man my papa says is really king."
#35711
b) Immortal.
1> Why does it say he alone is immortal?
2> We will be immortal as well, but ours is merely
a derivative of his.
c) Too bright to approach.
1> God is not only awesome, but holy.
2> We should not treat him lightly.
IV. Put your hope in God, not money.
A. Be really rich.
1) Worldly wealth can be pretty uncertain.
I read an article about Iceland this week.
For a few years, investment banking was the biggest
business in the tiny island nation.
Large amounts of cash flowed in, and young people were
able to buy big houses and expensive cars on easy
credit.
Older people felt it was too surreal.
They were right.
The wealth was based on hedge investments - a gamble -
and they lost.
All the paper profits vanished into thin air.
2) There is a wealth that doesn't disappear.
a) Doing good.
b) Being generous and willing to share.
c) This is life that is truly life. It will last.
B. Don't take your salvation for granted.
1) Guard the trust. 6:20
a) Literally it is "guard the deposit."
b) This would be the sound doctrine Timothy has inherited.
c) Some treat it lightly, and wander off.
2) Leave a committed life.
Two months before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
unwittingly gave his own eulogy.
He was speaking to his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church
in Atlanta.
"Every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about
my own funeral," Dr. King told his congregation.
"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want
a long funeral.
And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk
too long.
Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say.
Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that
isn't important.
Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other
awards, that's not important.
I'd like someone to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr.,
tried to give his life serving others.
I'd like someone to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried
to love somebody.
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the
hungry.
Dr. King concluded with these words: "I won't have any money left
behind.
I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind.
But I just want to leave a committed life behind."
#2757
3) What will you leave behind?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 2757 "I Just Want To Leave A Committed Life Behind," Dynamic Preaching
Disk, Winter 1993 "A", Jan 3 93. Original source is "Voices
of Freedom," by Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer with Sarah Flynn,
(New York: Bantam Books, 1990), pp. 470-471.
#32346 "People Who Take Letter Writing Seriously," by Rev. David Holwick,
compiled from various Internet resources on May 2, 2010:
1. "Vincent van Gogh's letters go digital," by Christopher Knight,
Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2010. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com~
/culturemonster/2010/02/vincent-van-goghs-letters-go-digital.html>.
2. "Dear posterity… the dying art of letter-writing," Ben East,
The National newspaper of Abu Dhabi, March 22, 2010.
<http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100323/ART~
/703229982/1007/rss>.
3. "Britain's most famous letter writer," by Mark Jones, London
Evening Standard newspaper, November 7, 2001. <http://www.thisis~
london.co.uk/news/article-816857-britains-most-famous-letter-writer.do>.
#35711 "Our Savior and King," by V C G, (unknown devotional); Abe Kudra
Illustration Collection.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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