Central Verses: 1:6-7
Behavioural goal: The listener will set a growth goal for the coming months and pursue it.
Last Sunday many of you heard a message from Psalm 90 on making your life count. I want you to think way back to that time to reflect for a moment. Did it make any difference in your life at all? Did it made you think about your life any time after Sunday morning? Perhaps you strengthened your resolve to do or get back to daily devotions, or you took a new look at your schedule. Maybe you hugged your child or spouse or parent. Maybe you changed your schedule in some small way, or did one small act of service or deepened an eternal priority in your mind. Perhaps you found victory over a sin. If there was one change in your life that you could put a finger on, however small, spell it out in a sentence in your mind.
For those who can pinpoint something, I commend you. I know I’ve heard many of my own messages that I couldn’t even remember the day after!
But for those of us for whom it made not even a fraction of a difference. Why not? There could be some really valid reasons -- like you weren’t here. Or, perhaps I wasn’t very clear, or your child was acting up, or God is working on some other area of your life. Or maybe your learning style doesn’t do well with this sort of message. The question is, are you making any effort to grow?
Some reasons for not growing may not be quite so honorable. It never occurrs to some people that coming to church should change anything in their lives. Maybe you’re not in growth mode, and no learning style would excite you. Maybe, you’ve cooled off on this growth idea, and you’ve become comfortable exactly where you are. Maybe your priorities are in every other direction.
I want to call us all to look at our growth attitude. Are we even thinking about it? Are we growing a little, or a lot?
The truth is, most forms of growth in our lives are initially unpleasant. They’re a little like hiking up a mountain. It takes quite a lot to get started and the uphill climb takes plenty of energy. It’s when you look back from a much higher altitude, that you really come to see that it was worth it.
This morning we’re looking at a letter sent from a veteran to a young leader. The veteran, you may know as the apostle Paul. He commissioned Timothy, the young pastor, to serve in Ephesus.
Paul’s writings reveal a man who did not seem to struggle much with lack of motivation. He seemed to me to be a "Type A" personality -- the driven sort who was continually on the move.
When he couldn’t be there he burned the midnight oil writing letters. He was anxious to use every opportunity given him. Where he ran into opposition, he usually turned it into an occasion for celebration. When he attracted trouble, lesser people scattered and ran.
Timothy? I think he was a little more like the rest of people. The world could have never handled two "Pauls"! Timothy was probably a little more laid back, ready to settle into one place. He seemed not to be energized by huge challenges and difficulties -- he would rather stay low. Timothy had a tendency to coast and back off rather than set goals and attack. His growth, at least in one area, had stalled.
As different as they were, Paul was crazy about his student. Paul saw the potential and he invested heavily and personally to bring out the best in Timothy. In light of their personal friendship he will give his young friend a hot spark of encouragement, which may seem to be aimed dead centre at many of us:
2Tim 1:6-7: For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (NIV).
In fact, before we get much further, I want you to personalize this to see if it fits. Where it says, "You", add your name. I want you to think of your spiritual history with others who have helped you along the way. Then I want you to fill in your name with this paraphrase, as if Paul were addressing you:
"Because of those dear nurturing believers in your life, I remind you, _____________ to fan into flame the gift of God given to you, _______________. For God did not give you, ________________, a spirit of inadequacy, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
The truth is, every believer who loves you is rooting for you to take the next step in your life. It’s possible that your passion has diminished. The heat of your spiritual fire may not be out, but perhaps it’s burned low and needs rekindling.
When I smoke fish over a fire at the lake, the fire sometimes burns so low it needs new dry fuel. Then I have to get up from my comfortable chair to add some bark and branches and blow on it. That’s rekindling.
It takes deliberate effort to finish the job. Only when the job is done can I enjoy my wonderful snack with my family. Whether it’s food on the grill or warmth in a cabin, a fire has to be warm to get the job done.
That’s the same for us. God has called you to get a job done. So there’s got to be some fire in the heart. God has equipped you with gifts to do some amazing things in His kingdom, but they’ve got to be operational. Your gifts need energizing with the fire of God.
And while they are gifts you have, they don’t belong to you. They belong to the body of Christ and to the world. They are given in trust. That’s why it’s critical to get growing and use them. If you don’t use your gifts, no one else will.
Think about the alternative to growth in this little story: "A man pleaded with the psychiatrist, "You’ve got to help me. It’s my son."
"What’s the matter?"
"He’s always eating mud pies. I get up in the morning and there he is in the backyard eating mud pies. I come home at lunch and he’s eating mud pies. I come home at dinner and there he is in the backyard eating mud pies."
The psychiatrist reassured him, "Give the kid a chance. It’s all part of growing up. It’ll pass."
The man responded, "Well, I don’t like it, and neither does his wife."
Paul was concerned that Pastor Tim was stuck in the back yard. It seemed that Timothy was coasting -- his fears and inhibitions were holding him back. He needed a kick start.
The reminder was powerful -- this spirit of reluctance does not come from God. To let anything block your progress is to block God’s Spirit in you.
I like the way the way one version puts it, "God’s Spirit doesn’t make cowards out of us. The Spirit gives us power, love, and self-control." (CEV)
The Olympic theme has the Greek words "citius", "altius", "fortius", meaning faster, higher, stronger. Paul’s encouragement for those stuck in a rut is rather "dunamis, agape and sophronismos" -- power, love and self-discipline.
Let’s see if we possess these as key attitudes for growth, born in us by the Spirit of God:
First, power. God counters our fears with a spirit of power. A modern word might be "empowerment". God "empowers" us.
The enemy of power is a sense of inadequacy. A spirit of fear says, "I can’t do this. It’s too big for me. I will fail or be hurt in some way."
Timothy lived in vicious times. Identifying with Christians often meant trouble. So Paul says this in [v 8].
We are living under illusion if we believe that being a Christian should be comfortable. Yet many of us are often afraid to stand up and identify ourselves as Christian -- even among friends! That puts a lid on our growth.
Or, we may be afraid to try new things, lest we fail. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."
You might think, "I can’t lead a home group. I can’t talk to my neighbor about Jesus. I can’t lead a board. I can’t teach a class. I can’t lead singing. I would be a wreck, very uncomfortable you know."
Well, you might be. But if you are God’s, you must think, "Where God calls me, he’ll equip me." God is an empowering God. "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
But you must add your effort to His -- whether you want to grow in knowledge, character or skills. 2 Peter 1:5-8 says, "make every effort to add to your faith goodness... knowledge... self-control... perseverance... godliness... brotherly kindness...love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Now it’s true that you can burn yourself out trying to do this strictly on your own effort, or by taking on more than God has called you to. God provides the flame and you fan it bright in the right places. God’s purpose is to max us out without burning us out.
If spiritual work is just so much duty to you, it’s possible that you lack another key attitude:
Love: When love has gone out of a human relationship, people stop trying to improve. They no longer care about pleasing the other person.
When your love for God burns low, you stop trying. Paul reminds Timothy in verse 9 that God had his eye on him before time even began: "It is God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus." (NLT)
Our love for God may grow cold. Your love story with God may have started what -- two, five, twenty or fifty years ago? His love for us started from before the dawn of time and has never cooled even one degree since then. It’s hard to imagine but that’s what the Bible says God’s love is like.
In His love, God designed us to grow. He’s pleased when we grow. If we love him, we will grow. The effort will have a warm motivation.
Often too, an atmosphere of growth helps us along -- a little like a greenhouse. Paul speaks about the sincere faith found in Timothy’s grandmother and mother. He himself dotes all over Timothy, reminding him that Timothy is on his morning and evening prayer list. He is not alone.
Perfect love casts out fear. When you walk alongside others in intimate fellowship, the obstacles just don’t seem so large. That’s why it’s necessary for us to be involved deeply with others, learning and growing alongside them. Getting into that small group or class could be just the thing you need to fan the flame.
Love’s biggest enemy is not hatred. With hatred, you’re still engaged with the other. Love’s biggest enemy is complete apathy, where you just don’t care. You’re indifferent. God can no longer get your attention -- everything else has it. If that’s the case, we need repentance, renewal and true revival from within. We need to pray until his love reaches us again, and we do the things we first did when we loved God.
Key attitude number three us a spirit of self-discipline.
The enemy of self-discipline is laziness. We can easily slip into an attitude of slackness. We might see growth as an optional activity so we set no goals, we develop no disciplines. We stagnate then fade away.
Instead of fear, God gives us the gift of self-discipline. Thieves are circling like vultures to destroy your growth. When you stop moving, they might just mistake you for dead and finish you off. Here are Paul’s words of encouragement [vv 13-14].
Nothing valuable is added to our lives without effort. If the effort to grow becomes too much we may just stop trying.
Benjamin Franklin was having a hard time being ordered in his life and thought of giving up. This story served to motivate him: "My neighbor bought an ax from a metal smith, and desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turn’d, while the smith press’d the broad face of the ax hard and heavily. My neighbor found it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length would take his ax as it was, without farther grinding.
"No," said the smith, "turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; as yet, it is only speckled."
"Yes," said the man, "but I think I like a speckled ax best."
What do we want the end product of our lives to look like? Have we stopped trying because it takes so much discipline?
Personally, I got a jolt about a month ago when my pastor friend remarked about a staff person he was disappointed in. She had been reading the same book for about six months. I said, "Oh dear," then gulped as I thought about the book open on my desk for several months. I’d been reading various other materieals, but that was the day I renewed my book reading plan.
No effort you take to grow can ever be called a waste.
Often we power out on the growth curve. We plateau. We may be afraid to go further with God. We may have grown cold in our love, or lazy in our self-discipline. The day that any of these things stops our growth is the day we start to decline.
We are alive. Living things grow or they die. Both animals and plants have to grow new cells, or it is the end. But new growth produces strength, renewal, vitality and life.
So what is your growth plan for the coming months? It could include taking on new leadership responsibilities, or sharing your faith more actively. It could mean stepping up to be baptized. Maybe leading or joining a small group or class is part of it. You may be ready to picking up a book that will improve your life, your character, or your family. Why not visit our library right after church?
Fan the flame.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. -2 Peter 3:18
