A Passion For God And The Church

A Passion For God

2 Tim 2:15

There was a man who lived in the Los Angelus area. He was out of work at the moment and he often sit outside watching jets and other airplanes land at the Los Angelus airport. Fascinated, he came up with an idea. He would just build himself something that he could float around over the city and just enjoy the sites. So He went to various stores, buying some huge balloons and a tank of helium. He bought some heavy duty cord to tie to the balloons and his outdoor folding chair. The chair was made of aluminum and plastic straps.

Well, he tied his chair to the front bumper of his jeep and begin to fill the balloons and tie them to his chair. He finally had them all inflated and tied so he begin to prepare himself for the journey. He fixed some sandwiches and got a couple of water bottles out of the refrigerator and then firmly tied himself in the chair. His goal was to rise two or three hundred feet and just float around for a while.

When he cut the rope holding the chair to the jeep, he went up with a strong jerk and passed 3 hundred feet, 500 feet, a thousand feet, 5,000 feet and leveled off at around 10 thousand feet. He was one scared man. He had brought alone a pellet gun to burst the balloons to lower himself to the ground. But now he was scared to do that. He was afraid to do anything. So He drifted around and finally begin to drift out over the sea.

He was high enough now that planes were flying by and landing at the airport. In fact, he had drifted into the flight lanes of landing airplanes. Finally one pilot reported a strange apparition floating around, a man in a lawn chair floating around in their landing zone.

Quickly a helicopter lifted to investigate this strange phenomenon and when they tried to rescue the man, the wind from the props of the aircraft just blew him away. Finally, they directed the copter to about 100 feet above them and lowered a rope that He was able to grasped and he was towed back to the airport and with bursting a few of the balloons he was finally back on the ground.

The media and the police were waiting for him and the very first thing he was asked after the police had arrested him was why did he do it? His answer was: “Well, a man can’t just sit around doing nothing.”

We can’t just sat around either, we must be about the Master’s business.

2 Tim. 2:15,

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.” N.I.V.

This is not a new verse to you. It’s one that you have heard and read over and over. But. familiar verses get cheated sometimes don’t they. Have you ever caught yourself reading through John and you come to John 3:16 and you just skip over it because it’s so familiar? Oh, it’s easy to do that with familiar verses, verses that we already know. We get to the point that we fail to see the significance of great truths.

Three things that I find in this scripture that I want to draw out to you this Morning, Listen to the Word again;

2 Tim. 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth”, King James

Three questions that I want to ask:

I want to be a successful Christian don’t you. “That’s not one of the questions.” I want to bring us back to the basics. Sometimes I think I was more excited and a better Christian the first year I was saved than I am today. I didn’t know a lot then, but I was excited about Jesus. Now, I know a whole lot more but I’m less impressed with myself. I love the book of Acts don’t you. I kinda get hung up on the book of Acts. Especially where Jesus says, “Greater things you will do than I am doing” Jesus said that you know, but I wonder about the reality of that truth in our lives.

How can we stand before God and not be ashamed? That’s not one of the Questions either. The Bible says that we are to do our best to present ourselves to Him as one approved.

Three questions: Here they are, write them down.

1. Is the Lord well pleased with me? First question!

Paul told Timothy to study so that he might be prepared for whatever God’s calling.