"Don’t shipwreck your faith"
1 Timothy 1:18-19
"Nevertheless God’s solid foundation stands firm sealed with this inscription,’The Lord knows those who are his and everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."
2 Timothy 2:19
By reading the word of God from the beginning to the end, a pattern emerges showing that God is at work around us and wants to take our life to let his Spirit flow through to reach a lost and dying world. Looking at the people God used in scriptural history, we can honestly say that the characteristics that set them apart from the people God didn’t use was (1) their willingness to follow God and (2) their availability to God by letting him intrude upon their circumstances.
- Noah interrupted his life for 120 years to build an ark that would save his family but also condemn the world
- Abraham left his father’s house to go to a land that God would show him, even though he was old and hadn’t been given all the details
- Joseph was sold into slavery and wound up a ruler in Egypt so that his family could be saved by God’s masterplan
- Nehemiah left a king’s palace and a comfortable position to build a wall and a city with a sword in one hand and a hammer in the other
- Daniel was thrown into a den of lions for his faithfulness to prayer and would not compromise his relationship with God to save his own life
- Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to a golden image
The list could go on and on for the whole amount of time we’re gathered here this morning but at one moment in history the great Apostle Paul wrote to his son in the faith to encourage him in the day to day battle for the advancement of the kingdom of God.
· For all the great men and women of God who dared to trust God at the overwhelming circumstances in their life that we can read about in the Bible, there are thousands more we’ll never hear anything about. For all the heralded heroes there are still multitudes of Christians we’ll never hear about or stand in line to shake their hand but still instead fought the good fight of faith and never shipwrecked their testimony. Ordinary men and women who purged their lives in the trenches and fought in the trenches and died in the trenches… never noticed, never honored and never acclaimed but who still fought a good fight for the kingdom of God and the moment their eyes close in death they saw Jesus rise from the right hand of the Father and say…
· Well done! Well done! Well done my good and faithful servant enter into your reward.
Hebrews 11:32-40 (read) Clifford Albert Armstong is the name of a great man of faith who was reared in abject circumstances and finally left home at the age of 13 to jump trains across this nation. He hoboed and cowboyed through the country, worked in the CC camps and cut timber before there were chainsaws and loaders for most of his adult life. Became an alcoholic and was eventually led to salvation in Jesus by a little country Baptist preacher outside a barroom. He quit drinking, he quit his drinking buddies and left behind all his old friends that would not support and accept his new found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Served God for more than 50 years as a deacon, Sunday school teacher, discipleship training teacher and preacher when necessary. He got old and decrepit and worthless in the eyes of the people around him, but never shipwrecked his relationship with God. Sent into a nursing home and broke a hip causing his left leg to have to be amputated above the knee but never shipwrecked his faith! Many people might say that this man is just a nuisance and a drain on society but one day when his eyes close in death, HE’LL SEE JESUS STAND TO HIS FEET REACHING OUT TO WELCOME HIM AND HEAR THE TESTIMONY OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT!
1. I don’t know what has happened in the life and ministry of Timothy to warrant the great Apostle Paul to write the New Testament letter to Timothy, but we can know the content of Paul’s response.
a. Told to stand firm and fight the good fight in the ordinary, everyday battle for the kingdom of God in the place of his current service
b. I’m glad Timothy had a Paul to ask advice from that would seek the face of God before replying to his questions
c. Many times in my prayer life I’ve asked God to send a Paul into my life to help me and pray for me
1. Maybe Timothy had high hopes of what would be accomplished through his life and ministry and has just been crushed by a big dose of reality
a. Being a pastor is a lot like being a bucket of water
There comes a time that the water has to be replaced or there will no longer be any left for the church to dip out. Timothy must have come to a time of realization in his ministry and his father in the faith reached out the only way he could, by writing a letter to encourage his ordinary son fighting the good fight in the trenches. I am waiting for encouragement from the Lord right now in my spiritual life because there is a restlessness in my spirit right now trying to perceive what God has in store for me. Unanswered restlessness is what led me to these scriptures and the hardest part of not knowing the answer is having to wait for it.
Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight of faith in the trenches and to not let his faith be shipwrecked. Before a ship would arrive at the place of irreversible damage, the pilot guiding that ship would take some precautions to prevent the destruction of running aground.
(1) The pilot would use a compass and the pattern of the stars to determine where the ship was in relation to the rest of the world
Matthew 5:13-16 (read) Are we all that Jesus has called us to be? Salt was a preservative and used to make food taste better but Jesus said if the salt has lost it’s flavor what good is it anymore? Not good for anything except to be thrown out now is it? Are we faithfully following all God’s told us to do? Strange thing about a lighthouse folks, the light from that beacon shines clearly in the darkest times to illuminate the danger. The job of the lighthouse is to shine! Whether men and women accept the warning of the lighthouse is a personal matter, but have you been faithful to tell people about Jesus?
(2) The pilot would consult a map to determine his latitude and longitude so that he can steer clear of the danger around him
1 Peter 5:6-10 (read) Has Jesus given us anything remotely like a map for us to determine where we’re at in the faith and to allow us to steer clear of the danger? Hebrews 4:12-16 (read)
Are you reading the word of God so that God can reveal the things in your life that need to be adjusted to steer clear of the danger around you? Are you praying and approaching the throne of grace boldly through the position given you by the shed blood of Jesus Christ? Have you clearly marked your position so that you can determine the danger out there to shipwreck your faith?
(3) The pilot takes a sounding to determine the depth of the water under the ship and that may sound like a minor thing until we learn a little about the ships buoyancy. A ship floats along on the surface of the water by displacing a certain tonnage of water and rides upon the water at a depth. If the depth of the water is too shallow the ship will be shipwrecked and the ship will be destroyed.
Luke 24:45-49 (read) Started here to kind of shake up our traditional Baptist apprehension to anything from the book of Acts regarding the Holy Ghost and before some of the non-Baptists get their chest poked out to far, no other denomination is perfect or you wouldn’t be here. Instead of trying to ignore the Holy Ghost or have an unhealthy interest just in the power and manifestations of the Holy Ghost, why don’t we try to find the true purpose of the Holy Ghost. ACTS 1:3-8 (read)
If we would realize that the water around the ship is the thing that allows it to ride on the waves and operate, then we would also have to come to the conclusion that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would live within us and be on us to empower us to "ride upon the waves" so to speak. Jesus said it was beneficial to us to have a relationship with the Holy Ghost because without him, all our lives would be shipwrecked. Paul told Timothy to guard against shipwrecking his faith because of the damage to his faith if he ran aground. You might be able to piece together something that would float on the water but it would never be like the original because parts of it would be broken and crushed.
1 John 4:17 " In this way is love made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like him." Do you resemble your savior? Do you act like Jesus or do you love people like Jesus would? A lot of people are caught up in wearing the WWJD bracelets and hats and other things but WHAT WOULD JESUS DO IN SOME OF THE SITUATIONS WE ENCOUNTER OR BETTER STILL WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF JESUS WAS STANDING RIGHT BESIDE YOU? 1 John 5:9-12
Today I’ve spent a lot of time sharing about shipwrecked faith, shipwrecked Christians and really shipwrecked churches. If you don’t get anything from this service except this lesson then it’s been a successful time of worship, YOU CAN CHOOSE TO DRAW CLOSER TO GOD IF YOU’LL CLEANSE YOUR HEART. Timothy made a choice to walk closer to Jesus and you can too! 2 Timothy 2:20-21 says that if we cleanse ourselves from the latter we can be a people God will use for noble purposes. I may never be a Noah or Abraham or Daniel but I can fight the good fight of faith in the trenches of Gilbertown Alabama. May never have to build a wall or a city or be thrown into a fiery furnace but just an ordinary man like me and ordinary people like you can be used by the hand of God and one day hear the King of Kings and Lord of Lords rise to his feet and say,
WELL DONE! WELL DONE! WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, ENTER INTO YOUR REWARD. THE FAITH HALL OF FAME HASN’T BEEN CLOSED BUT IS STILL GROWING IN NUMBER AS ORDINARY PEOPLE MAKE UP THEIR HEARTS TO FOLLOW JESUS AND NOT SHIPWRECK THEIR FAITH.
2 Timothy 2:22-26 How do ordinary people like you and me put our lives in the hands of Almighty God to use us for noble purposes?
Repentance
Confession
Cleansing
Invitation.
