Monday, October 14, 2019

Sermon October 12-13, 2019

Title: Christ’s love leads us as his children!
Text: 2 Timothy 2:1-13

2 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

The soldier's first article of faith is summed up nowhere more eloquently than in an 1865 letter from William Tecumseh Sherman to U.S. Grant: "I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come--if alive." This is the unwritten, unspoken but unbreakable contract of the battlefield: You will leave no one, dead or alive, in the hands of the enemy.

U.S. News and World Report, July 29, 1991, p. 5.

In Paul’s second letter to Timothy we learn what is expected of God’s servants who take on the responsibility of public ministry but also we too are reminded of what God expects of each one of us who has been given the gift of faith in Christ Jesus as his child and how we are to live in this life with the hope of eternity before us.

Timothy had been taught.
    Grandmother Lois, Mother Eunice,
    Apostle Paul, many of the brothers

Timothy must also teach others.
     He must impart the true word that was given to him. Law/Gospel

Timothy must be prepared for trial, persecution and suffering.
     If they rejected Jesus and Paul you must expect the same.

Suffering connects us to Christ.
3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

A soldier is trained.
     Boot camp to break a soldier down and to build up in a new image
     Baptized into Christ and taught the word of God sustained by the Holy Spirit

A soldier is trustworthy.
     Following orders, looking out for each other, knowing others look out for you.

A soldier is faithful.
     Going beyond everything training prepares you for.

5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
     Rules are the standard athletes must obey.
     God’s rules are the standers we must obey … but can’t

The winner finishes ahead of the rest.
     The last will be first and the first will be last. Christ is our blessed hope.

The winner receives the prize.
     The prize is a gift. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 

The farmer must till the soil.
     Growth comes through work

The farmer must plant the seed.
     Growth comes through means

The farmer receives a harvest.
     Growth produces a harvest [fruit]

8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!

God’s word is our hope and the means to eternity. It is Christ unbound from the death he suffered for the sins of the world and risen to newness of life.
10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect

Christ endured, Paul endured and we endure.

that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 
     Baptism

12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
     A life of faith in service to the gospel

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

Matthew 7:21-23 English Standard Version (ESV)

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

Jesus is the faithful one and by his work you are declared righteous in him!

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

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