Finish Well Together: Keep The Faith Series

Finish Well Together: Keep the Faith

2 Timothy 1:1-18

This morning we begin a seven-part study in Paul's second letter to Timothy. We encourage all our small groups to use this sermon-based study in your small group over the next seven weeks. Discussion questions are in your message guide and the sermon recordings will be online.

Our text this morning is 2 Timothy 1:1-18 (Let me read it for us ... ).

Paul writes from a Roman prison cell. He is imprisoned because of his faith in Jesus Christ. History records that sometime after this letter was written, the Roman Emperor Nero had Paul executed.

Paul wrote with a deep concern for Timothy, the young pastor in Ephesus. Paul alerted Timothy of the coming persecution. He also alerted Timothy to other troubles he would face as a Christian.

Paul wrote to encourage Timothy to finish well. In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul described himself finishing well: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

Paul finished well. But he didn't finish alone. He helped other Christians to finish well, also. And Paul encouraged Timothy to finish well together with other Christians.

From time to time, our family reads from Our Daily Bread devotional. Here is an excerpt from a reading: An anthropologist was winding up several months of research in a small village. While waiting for a ride to the airport for his return home, he decided to pass the time by making up a game for some children. His idea was to create a race for a basket of fruit and candy that he placed near a tree. But when he gave the signal to run, no one made a dash for the tree. Instead the children joined hands and ran together to the basket.

When asked why they chose to run as a group rather than each racing for the basket, a little girl spoke up and said, "How could one of us be happy when all of the others are sad?" Because these children cared about each other, they wanted all to share the basket of fruit and candy.

This story doesn't describe most children when it comes to candies. But it should describe those who have been loved by God. For God's children, finishing alone is not winning. Finishing together is winning.

This morning we will look at finishing well together by keeping our faith. Paul said "I have kept the faith." In other words, we finish well together if we and others keep on believing and trusting there is a God who loves us enough to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. That's what the Christian faith is about.

Maybe you've heard about the little boy who came home from Sunday school. His mother asked what he had learned. His eyes lit up and he said, "The Israelites were backed up against the Red Sea. They were being chased by Pharaoh's army. And then the helicopters came down and killed all the Pharaoh's bad guys, and the helicopters took the good guys to the other side of the ocean."

The Mom asked, "Son, is that what they taught you?"

The little boy said, "Well, not exactly. But you wouldn't believe what they taught me."

What Christians believe is so incredible that sometimes it's hard to believe and to keep believing. We believe that there is a God who loves us enough to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. The rest of the world believes there is no God or that God doesn't love us unless we work very hard to please Him.

So what does it take to keep the faith? To keep on trusting in God's love shown through Jesus Christ? Paul gives at least three considerations. Let's look together.

First, Paul says keeping your faith in Jesus involves God and others. verses 1-7

Paul reminded Timothy that God gave Timothy his Spirit, a Spirit of power and love and self-control. And he reminded Timothy that his faith was passed down from his grandmother to his mother to him. Timothy had faith in Jesus as a gift from God and nurtured by those who believed.

We believe not because we are smarter than others or are better than others who don't believe. We believe because God gave us his Spirit. And we believe because those who believed loved us enough to tell and show us God's love.

But what happens when our faith is tested? When we doubt the existence of God. Or when we doubt God could love us. Then it's helpful to have someone to talk with who has kept the faith when tested in a similar way.

What happens to your faith in God who loves you, when you pray and God doesn't answer your prayer?