 Good morning, radiant church. Good to see you this morning. Would you stand with us as we enter into worship? Father, here we are, your people. We come to worship, to praise your name. We say we love you in this place. On the sanctuary, we're worshiping Jesus' affection almost in like walking up the altar and just laying it at the feet of Jesus at the altar. And so we're just gonna sing this simple chorus one more time, but I want us to imagine in your mind's eye just putting your affection into this basket, putting your heart, your emotions, your dreams, your hopes, your plans, your future, putting it in this and offering it afresh to the Lord. And maybe you've given the Lord something before and let's give it to Him again. Let's give Him even the things that we are and our weakness, where we've fallen short this week. Offer that to the Lord as well. Can we just sing this together in church? Let's just even hold out your hands like you're giving the Lord a gift. Here's the time. Let's just lift up our hands all over the room and let's worship Him. Jesus, you're so worthy at this very moment. Around the throne of God, there is a worship service that is taking place that started even before the creation of the world. Revelation chapter four gives us this picture of the saints and the angels and the elders and the four living creatures that are beholding the one who is on the throne saying glory, honor, dominion, and might, and majesty belongs to him. And you know, it's one thing to know that that's taking place, that the Lord is being worshiped in another time in another place in another dimension. But when we worship as the saints of God, when we worship here right now, even though we can't see it, our worship is actually ascending into that very throne room. And it's mixing with the chorus of the saints who've gone on before us with the uncountable angels and with the living creatures. And Jesus is very aware of our worship this morning. It's one thing for us to say, yeah, I'm singing about God, but no, at this very moment, you can't see Him, but it's as if right now we have joined the chorus of worship that has gone on for ages. All over this room, let's just lift up our hands. And maybe that's brand new for you. And you say, I don't really, what does that mean? Well, lifting up our hands is a physical expression of us setting our hearts and our affections and our worship on the one who is on the throne. It's a universal expression of worship. And Lord Jesus today, we declare that you alone are worthy. You are the one who was slain before the foundations of the world. You still bear the marks in your hands for the price of our redemption. And we are grateful for the blood of Jesus that has made a new and a living way for us to come boldly before the throne of grace. And we come today seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are those who were far away from God, but we've been brought near. We were slaves, but now we're sons. We were lost, but now we were found. We were dead, but now we are alive. And it's all because of you. Worthy are you, Lamb of God, to receive glory and honor and dominion and majesty and glory. Worthy are you. Holy, powerful are you, Jesus. And we pray right now, Lord, that you would receive all the glory and the honor. All the glory and the honor. Come on with your own words right now. Tell Him, worthy are you, Jesus. I worship you, Jesus. Come on, you tell Him, Jesus. Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb. And Lord, now we come before you in this moment. And we add our prayers and our worship to the bowls of heaven as intercessors. In church, I want you to join with me right now as we pray over the nations of the earth. Jesus said, my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. And today we're praying for the nation of Russia. So would you join right now and pray, Lord, we pray your presence, your power, your kingdom come and your will be done in the nation of Russia, this ancient land, this massive nation, a land filled with millions and millions of people that Jesus, you love and you died for. A nation that right now, Lord, is experiencing the open doors for the gospel to move. And we're praying right now, Lord, that you would redeem a people from the nation of Russia and the surrounding nations that out of all the different ethnic groups and out of all the different time zones that Lord, you would move with might and you would move in strength in your church, in Russia. And we say, let your kingdom come in Russia as it is in heaven. And in the very same way, Lord, we're inviting you by the power of your Holy Spirit here this morning. Come and be enthroned on the praises of your people. Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you are doing and saying to us in this hour and in this moment. And Lord, we give you all the praise and the glory and the honor for it. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Come on, can we lift up an applause to the Lord, to the one who's on the throne? Worship you, Jesus. We love you. Isn't it good to be in the house of the Lord this morning? Rainy day out there, but I'll tell you what, it's great in here. It's awesome. And we're so glad that you are here this morning. Would you do this? Would you turn around to two or three people? If you don't know them, introduce yourself, welcome them and tell them that you are glad that they are here this morning. Well, good morning, radiant. It is so good to see everybody this morning. Hey, isn't our parking lot a beautiful, beautiful thing? I mean, we wanted to go with a retro look here, so we just decided, hey, skip the pavement, just go with mud. It's beautiful. Actually, we just want to take a moment and we just want to thank all of you for your patience and your grace as we are redoing the parking lot. I know that this has been an extended period of time this summer. It's why we did it in summer. It's because we really needed to do some work on it. And when it is done here in about three weeks, it is going to be a beautiful parking lot, so smooth. It's not going to look like Tokyo. It's not going to look like Nagasaki. You know, after it's been bombed out, it's going to be smooth. It's going to be great. And we're all going to love it. And, but we just wanted to give you an update that it is being worked on. Sometimes you don't see the progress on it, but that's because we have them pack it down on the weekends so that we can actually drive on it. But they have been working so hard at it. And you might say, well, why does it, why so much work on it? Well, underneath, we had all the wrong materials from the first time they did the parking lot. And back in 2006, and so we had to go back, dig it all up, do it right. And this time we know that it's being done right. And it's going to be a long lasting parking lot. And we're going to thank Jesus for it every time we drive over it. Amen. So in the meantime, just consider driving and having to parking in the mud and walking in the grass. Just consider that persecution for Jesus. This is as if you were a missionary in another place. You are a missionary to our mud parking lot. And you get the reward for it. Amen. Hey, if you are a first time guest with us here, this morning, we want to take a moment and just welcome you, greet you. We're so glad that you're here with us. We would love to have an opportunity to say hello to you in person or get to know the fact that you were here today. And you can do that for us in one of two ways. You can either, I don't know, do we have a QR code? We used to have a QR code. I went away for the summer and they got rid of the QR code. But they're in front of you and the pocket in your seat, there is a connect card. If you would take that connect card out and fill that out for us sometime during the service and then stop by guest central on your way out, that would be great. And you can drop that card off. We have a gift that we would love to give to you. And there will be some people back there who would love to introduce radiant to you and answer any questions that you might have about who we are, what we believe, how to get involved, those kinds of things. And so we're honored that you are here today. We hope that you feel right at home. I'm gonna invite the ushers if they would to come forward right now. And we are going to receive our tithes and our offerings. We're gonna give back our tithes. And you know, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians that God loves a joyful giver. In fact, it literally says a hilarious giver, a giver that is filled with joy when he gives. So can we do this this morning? As we're about ready to give, can we just put our hands together and clap for the opportunity that we have to give back to God? Amen. Amen. The reason why we can be joyful in our giving is because God promises that he will make all grace abound towards us, that in all times and in everything that we should have enough to be givers and leftover to be able to give to every good work that God puts in front of us. And so do not be mocked, God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. And you can't out give God. We just wanna thank you for your generosity and advance. You can give online at radiant.church slash give or you can give here in a minute when the buckets go by or we have receptacles in the back. But we just wanna thank you in advance for your generosity. Let's pray and give to the Lord. Father, we bring to you our very best and our first and what a joy it is for us to give to you. And we pray that as we give and as our heart is turned towards you with our finances and put our trust in you that Lord you would open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing upon our jobs, our family, our finances, our households, even in the midst of what in the natural looks like difficult times, we trust in the Lord our God because you are unmoved by what's taking place in the earth. Your word is true, your promises are true. And we testify to the fact that God, you are faithful. Bless every gift and every giver in Jesus' name. Amen. We're so glad that you're joining us. Whether you're in person or online, here are a few things that you need to know. A lot of great things are happening here at Radiant. Here are a few ways you can get involved right now. To check out all that's going on, head over to our website at radiant.church. You can also follow us on social media. If you would like to give today, you can visit our website, use our mobile app or drop an envelope into any of our offering boxes at any location. There are so many opportunities to grow, get plugged in and be encouraged here at Radiant. Head over to Get Central today for more information and a gift from us. We're so glad you've joined us today. Thanks for being here. Hi, Radiant. My name is Zach Dillon and I'm the next generation pastor here at Radiant Church. And I wanna invite you to be a part of our Seek and Send Seven Days of Family Prayer this August. And we believe here at Radiant Church that God is building a generation who will seek Him with their whole hearts. And a part of this vision looks like hundreds of altars of prayer, worship and discipleship in families and homes around our city. And whether you're a family with small children, a teenager, a college student or a grandparent, you're invited to partner with what God is doing as we contend for the presence of God to encounter us in our services, in our prayer room, but also in your home and with your family. Some ways we're gonna be doing this is we're having family focused prayer meetings all throughout the week. We're gonna have daily focuses, a family kickoff service where we have a family seek night on August 21st. We also have altar boxes that we're gonna be sending home with family starting August 14th. And these boxes have different days that have resources and materials for you to engage your kids and your family in focused prayer for the week as we consecrate ourselves and prepare for the new school year. It's gonna be a powerful, powerful week as we prepare to go into the new school year and I wanna invite all of you to be a part of it. You can find out more details at radiant.church.cconsent. We're really excited about our C-Consent for families and these boxes are gonna be such a gift to families. Oftentimes, when you're trying to do devotions with your family, you don't know where to start. This is gonna make it very simple. We just wanna encourage every family to jump in and to take advantage of this as we prepare to send our kids back to school this year. This morning, we wanna say hello first of all to Portage and to those who are online as well with us today. This is a very special weekend because we have our dear friends and global partners of Radiant Church, Pastor Rick and Denise Renner are here all the way from Moscow, Russia. And... Rick is really an apostolic leader that God has sent to that part of the world, the minister in the former Soviet Union and beyond and is a prolific writer, teacher. He's been a mentor to me for many, many years. Him and Denise have just been so kind and encouraging to Jane and I. We've had the privilege of being over there twice with him. He's one of my favorite Bible teachers of all time. And so I wanna invite you both Portage, Richland, would you stand to your feet. Welcome to the platform, Rick Renner as he comes to share the word. Good morning. Hey, man, you may be seated. Well, it is wonderful to be here and you are so blessed in this church to have pastors Lee and Jane. What a blessing they are. And even though I live in Russia, I'm online all the time watching what you're doing in this church. And I really believe this is one of the best churches in the United States. And pastor Lee, I love you. Jane, we love you. We're so thankful for who you are and for what you represent to the kingdom of God. And thank you for letting me speak in your pulpit today. You really don't need me because you do a great job. But thank you for allowing me to speak in your pulpit. But do you have your Bibles? Some kind of a Bible? Let me see what you have today. Do you have real Bibles? Wow, that's more real Bibles than I've seen in church in a long time. Good job. Well, open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter one. And today I'm gonna do part one in the first service then I'm gonna continue in the second service. But Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for the word of God. In the Holy Spirit today, I look to you as the great master teacher. You're the one that authored this book and you're really the only one that has the authority to teach it. And so today I look to you as the great teacher. And I ask you to speak through me that you would illumine my mind, that you would enable us to hear the word of God. And that we would be changed when we leave this place today. And we thank you for this in Jesus' name. And everybody said amen. So open your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter one and we're going to begin in verse one. And when you come to 2 Timothy chapter one, verse one, Paul writes, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God then notice these two words. And if you have an ink pen or a pencil, underline these two words in verse one. According to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. And when you read this in the original Greek text of the New Testament, the words according to is the Greek word kata. It's spelled K-A-T-A. It carries the idea of a downward force. In fact, this downward force is so strong, you could say that it is something that is dominating, it's conquering, it is subjugating. So you could actually translate the verse. An apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God being dominated, subjugated, conquered by the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. And it was very important that Paul began this book with the promise of life. Because at that particular moment, the church was surrounded by death. And here is what had happened. The emperor Nero had been ruling the Roman Empire for some time. In the first five years that he was the emperor of the Roman Empire, they were called the golden years. They were basically good years. And during that time, he was under the care of his mother. He was under the care of his teachers. He was submitted to authority. But after about five years of being submitted to authority, he began to say to himself, why should I be submitted to others when I am Nero, the emperor of the Roman Empire? And one by one, he began to kill all the people who had been around him, so he would be freed of their control. And during this time, Nero began to develop a type of madness and began to declare that he was God in the flesh and demanded that the entire Roman Empire would fall to its knees and would worship him. There were two groups in the empire that refused to comply. And these have always been the two groups that have refused to comply. And these were the Jews and a new group which were called Christians. Well, about the year 63, Nero decided that he needed to build for himself a new residence in the very heart of Rome. And so he went to the Roman Senate and he said to the Senate, I'm seeking your permission to tear down this ancient section of Rome so that I can build my new palace. And he'd actually designed a palace that would comprise more than 300 acres. Now, maybe you've seen a big house, but you have never seen a house that is 300 acres. And the Roman Senate said, no, we will not let you do this. And he was so offended by the Roman Senate that he went out to his villa on the outskirts of Rome, called his servants to him and said to them, I'm here so nobody will connect me with what about us is about to take place in the city of Rome. And he gave them the command to go into the stadium on Saturday when no one was there and to start a fire. The fire began to burn and the fire burned for six days, it raged out of control. Finally at the end of six days they thought they had extinguished the flames but because there were many shanties in the city of Rome the wood hay and stubble began to catch fire again the embers began to blow and the fire began to burn again and the fire burned for nearly 30 days. And by the time the fire was finished ravaging the city of Rome, Rome not only had been burnt but its slave population had lost all of their homes because the slaves which were two thirds of the city of Rome lived in those shanties that were made of wood hay and stubble. And just in a moment, all of their residences went up in a puff of smoke but Nero was thrilled because now the area where he wanted to build his house had been raised to the ground and he began construction on his palace which was called the Golden Palace. Again it was 300 acres, it was completely veneered in ivory and on top of the ivory it was veneered with gold and that's why it was called the Golden Palace. But rumors began to circulate throughout the city of Rome that Nero had given the order for the great fire. And he was summoned to the Roman Senate where he was going to be tried and possibly executed and while he was en route to the Senate he concocted a scheme about who he would blame for this fire. And when he stood in front of the Senate he said to the senators, how could you think that I Nero would burn down my beloved city? I know who has burned this down, my spies have brought me information. And the senator said, tell us Nero who is behind the fire? He said this new sect in town which we've all become aware of called Christians. They are the ones who have burned down the city of Rome and they said well give us proof, give us evidence of what they have done. And he brought five allegations against the Christians in the city of Rome. Number one, he said Christians are lawbreakers. And in a particular way he was right because back in those days you could not meet privately like we're meeting today unless you had the approval of the emperor and because Nero didn't like Christians every time they met they were violating the law but they had to decide whose law they were going to obey and they were to comply with man's law as long as it did not violate God's law but God's law said, forsake not the assembly of yourselves together. So because they decided to congregate as a church every time they met to worship they indeed were breaking the law. Number two, he said not only are they lawbreakers who are holding underground illegal meetings in their underground illegal meetings they're talking about the subversion of the government. They're talking about another king and they're talking about another kingdom. Well they were talking about King Jesus and they were talking about the kingdom of God but the way that Nero projected this was they were planning the subversion of the government the overthrow of the empire and the introduction of a new king and a new kingdom. He said not only that, not only are they lawbreakers not only are they subvernors of government but number three in their illegal underground meetings where they're planning the subversion of the government they are also practicing something called a love feast. Well the love feast was practiced by the early churches when they got together and they shared a meal they had communion. It was a time of Christian fellowship but you have to understand this was a pagan who was speaking and in fact Nero was such a pagan that while he ruled the Roman Empire he was married to two men at the same time. And by the time he was finished describing the love feasts was the Christians were having in their illegal underground meetings he had concocted this to sound like they were practicing the wildest orgies that could be imagined and a deviant called Christians deviants. He said not only that in their illegal underground meetings where they're planning the overthrow of the empire and practicing orgies on a scale like we cannot imagine they are also practicing cannibalism. And they said what? He said yes, Jesus of Nazareth the leader of their sect said except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you'll have no part in me. And on the basis of those words of Jesus he leveled a charge of cannibalism against the early church that stuck so strongly after that the church had to fire rumors of cannibalism for 200 years. And finally he said last of all I don't know why you would think that I Nero have burnt down the city of Rome when these Christians have been standing on our street corners preaching that one day in the future a great judgment was coming when the world was going to be tried with fire. And they were giving us the clue that they were going to burn down the city of Rome. And by the time that Nero was finished with these five allegations he had been so persuasive that in one moment the tables were completely turned on early Christianity. Now up until that time there had been persecution you can read about it in the book of Acts but the persecution in the book of Acts is not a governmental persecution it is a religious persecution. But after the fire of 64 suddenly the very first governmental persecution began against the church because of the five allegations which Nero brought against the news which was all fake news. Not a word of it was true which means fake news is nothing new it's been around for a long time. But because people tend to believe fake news they began to round up Christians in the largest cities of the Roman Empire. First they began to round up Christians in the city of Rome. The second largest city in the Roman Empire was Alexandria so then they began to purge in the city of Alexandria gathering up all the Christians. The third largest city in the Roman Empire was the city of Antioch. Then they moved to Antioch they began to round up the Christians in Antioch and finally Ephesus was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. So in Ephesus they began to round up the Christians And Christians have not been arrested on the basis of faith. They were not persecuted as Christians. And that is why today, if you ever visit the city of Roman, you take a tour of the Coliseum, your tour guides, if they are scholarly tour guides that are anti-faith, they will tell you no one ever died in the Coliseum for being a Christian. And they're right. They were tried as arsonists. They were killed with the charge of arsony. And particularly during the time of Nero, they burned Christians at the stake because in the Roman Empire, you killed people commensurate with their crime. So if they stole, you cut off their hand. If they were an arson, then you burned them with fire. And now Christians are being dipped in tar, tied around posts, set on fire, and all over the Roman Empire. At night, the streets are ablaze with the bodies of burning believers. And when you come to the book of 2 Timothy, Paul himself has been apprehended. His name was on the list of the most dangerous arsons among the Christians. And now he is incarcerated in the city of Rome and all over the city of Rome, the people are rejoicing because one of the so-called alleged chief arsons has been captured and is now imprisoned. Today, we have the internet, we have television, we have radio, we have newspapers. Back in those days, they had walls where the news was posted. And now people all over Rome are standing around the walls reading the news that this man, Paul, has been apprehended. And Paul is in jail, unable to defend himself or to speak a word in his own defense as the entire city of Rome is rejoicing that he has been arrested on the charge of arsenic. And while he is seated in prison, he receives a letter from his son in the faith, Timothy, who is the pastor of the church in Ephesus, which in the first century was the biggest church in the world. Some speculate that the church of Ephesus up until this moment had about 100,000 members. But now, not only are Christians dying in Rome and Alexandria and Antioch, now it has come to Ephesus and believers in Ephesus are dying for their faith and they're dying in miserable, wretched ways. And Timothy knows if the leadership of the city can find him, not only will they arrest him, but they will make his death terribly miserable in order to scare the other believers out of their faith and back into the old pagan temples. And Timothy knows that at any moment there can be a knock on his door and he may be next. And because Timothy is now seized with the spirit of fear. And we know that because Paul addresses it. In second Timothy chapter one, verse seven, we'll get there in just a moment. Timothy is seized with the spirit of fear. His emotions are gripping him. And in a moment of fear, he has pulled out a parchment. He has pulled out a pen and he has written a letter to Paul. And we know what he wrote to Paul because Paul's answer is second Timothy. And by reading second Timothy, we know that Timothy is a man that is hurt. He's hurt because people that he thought would always be faithful to him, they have walked out on him in this moment of trial. And now he's standing there alone, no longer having leaders on whom he can lead. He is wounded because of this. He's fearful that he might die and that his death would be terrible. And so now from his place, he has written a letter to Paul and has must have said something like this, Paul. I don't know if you can possibly understand what I'm feeling. Now just remember, where is Paul? He is in prison suffering as an arsonist in the worst prison in the city of Rome. And Timothy is writing to him asking for help, saying, Paul, you may not be able to understand how I feel and isn't it amazing how we always think that our situation is worse than someone else's. And now Timothy thinking that his situation is the worst of all, writes to Paul and says, Paul, I'm so wounded, I am so hurt. And second Timothy is Paul's response. And in fact, when you go further in second Timothy chapter one, listen to what he says to Timothy in verse 15. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Fakilus and Hermogenes. That is one of the most stunning scriptures in the entire New Testament because 90% of Paul's ministry had been done in Asia. That is where he had lived his life. That is where his most successful ministry was. And now in his moment of trial, all the believers in Asia have turned away from him. In fact, if you go over to chapter four, Paul describes what happened to him when he was taken to his first trial before Nero. When you come to second Timothy chapter four, verse 16, Paul says, at my first answer, that word answers the Greek word epilogue, it's the word for a defense or a trial. At my first trial, no man stood with me. But all men, forsook me. That word forsook means to forsake in a circle. It pictures Paul standing encircled by his friends. And when he needs someone to stand forward in his defense, he begins to go around the circle asking, will you stand with me? This one walks away. Will you stand with me? Will you stand with me? Will you stand with me? Will you stand with me? Will you stand with me? By the time Paul had worked the entire circle and come all the way around, he was standing there by himself. He says, all men, forsook me. And then he adds, I pray God that it not be laid to their charge, not withstanding. The Lord stood with me. The Greek says, the Lord stepped forward in my defense and strengthened me. And here we find the truth that if nobody else will stand with you, the Lord will step forward in your defense. Somebody say amen. But let's go back to 2 Timothy chapter one, back to verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the Greek word cata, being conquered, dominated, subjugated by the promise of life. Paul is choosing to apprehend life and not be dominated by the bad news all around him. Then he says in verse two, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Well, in verse two, you find something that is not ordinary for Paul. Normally when Paul writes his letters, his salutations say grace and peace be unto you. And by the way, do you know why he always says grace and peace be unto you? Because in the Hebrew world, when one Jew would greet another Jew, what would they say? Shalom, peace. In the Greek world, do you know what they said one to another? Grace. Greeks greeted Greeks with the word grace. Jews greeted Jews with the word peace, shalom. And by saying grace and peace in one brilliant statement, he was able to wrap his arms around the entire world, pagans and Jews alike. To those of you that are Greek, I say grace. To those of you that are Jews, I say peace. But then he adds another word in the middle. He adds the word mercy. And this word mercy is only used two times in Paul's salutations here. And in the book of Titus. And in both cases, he's writing to a young man in the faith who is overwhelmed. Titus was overwhelmed because Paul had left him on the Isle of Crete. There was no one worse than Cretians. In fact, in the book of Titus, Paul does something which today would be culturally and politically incorrect. He says, Cretians are lazy, glutton and liars. That's what he says about them. And he's talking about his church on the Isle of Crete. And then he says to Titus, by the way, I didn't finish my ministry there. I left a lot of things undone. And I left you there to set in order all the things that I didn't finish. And Titus had the job of working with lazy, glutton and liars. And he needed to know that God didn't just have grace and peace for him, but God had a little extra mercy for him. And now when he writes to Timothy, he tucks a little mercy between the grace and the peace. Which means when we're going through hard times, not only does God extend to us grace and peace, but God understands and God tucks mercy between the grace and the peace. There's a special measure of mercy for anybody that's going through any kind of a hard time. And then Paul says in verse four, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy what? Tears, scholars say. When Paul unwrapped the parchment to read Timothy's letter, he could see the stains from Timothy's tears that had fallen on the parchment as Timothy was writing. He could see Timothy's tears. And he knew from what Timothy had written that Timothy was taken with the spirit of fear. So then when you come to verse five, Paul does something very unusual. He says, when I call to remembrance, the unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwells first on thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice. And I'm persuaded that in thee also, and Pastor Lee later remind me to tell you something about the verse, very interesting. But notice he says, when I call to remembrance, the unfamed faith, unfamed faith, what does that mean, unfamed faith? The unfamed faith which dwells first in their grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, obviously Paul knows Timothy's entire family. He knows his grandmother, he knows his mother. And he says, I know the unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwelt, that word dwelt is a form of the Greek word, oikas is the word for a house, a faith which has taken up residency in your grandmother. It wasn't just something she mentally ascended to, it lived in her, it thrived in her, faith made its home inside her, and your mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded, this same faith is alive, it is thriving, it is dwelling, it's taken residency in you as well. But what is an unfamed faith? Well, it comes from the word feigned, and the Greek word for feigned, describes something that is bogus, something that is phony, or something that is insincere. It is the very word in Greek which Jesus used when he addressed the scribes and the Pharisees and called them hypocrites, it is the very same word. And the Greek word that is used is exactly the word which was used by actors on a Greek or Roman stage. They wore masks to pretend to be who they were not. And it was believed at that time, I think it still might be true today, that there was nobody lower in the terms of morals than an actor, because an actor would do anything, say anything, put on any face for the applause of the crowd. If he didn't believe it, he'd say it anyway, and therefore actors were bogus, they were fake, they were phony, they were insincere. And every time Jesus called scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, you could literally translate it, I know who you guys are. You're nothing more than a bunch of actors wearing faces for whatever crowd you're talking to at the moment. But now he says to Timothy, you have an unfamed faith, which means Timothy is there's nothing bogus about your faith. There's nothing phony or pretend about your faith. Your faith is a real faith, it is a sincere faith, it is an unbendable, unbreakable faith, the same faith which lived in your grandmother, it lived in your mother, and I'm persuaded that it's in you too. Now wait, Timothy has just written a letter and it said, Paul, please help me. I'm dealing with fear. I don't know if I'm gonna make it. Please encourage me. And notice how Paul encourages him. He says, when I remember the unbendable, unbreakable real faith that lived in your grandmother and your mother, he begins walking Timothy through his past. Timothy is facing a terrible situation. And when you look at whatever you're facing right now, it seems huge, it looms over you. It always looks like the biggest mountain you've ever climbed in your life. But in fact, it's not. You just have a problem of a bad memory. If you'll turn around and look at your past, you have walked through equally dangerous things in your past and you have walked through every one of them just fine. You didn't know how you were gonna pay your bills. You didn't know what you were going to do about your health. You didn't know how you were gonna deal with your family, but God walked you through every one of those. And now Paul basically says, Timothy, Timothy, Timothy, Timothy, you're forgetting some things you should never forget. Your grandmother had a real faith that was unbendable and unbreakable. And God's faithfulness to you and your family is a part of your heritage. She passed it to your mother. She had an unfamed, unbendable, unbreakable real faith. And now she passed it on to you. And Timothy, if you just stop and remember, God has always walked you and your family through the roughest of times. And the reason we fear the present is because we forget the past. We're just forgetting the past. I don't know what you're facing in your life right now. It may seem huge, but if you'll turn around and look at your past, you will recall moments in your past when you did not think you were going to make it, when you didn't know how you were going to pay your bills, when you didn't know what you were going to do with your kids or the conflict with your siblings, and on and on and on and on and on and in every one of those events, you wondered how you would get through it, but you got through every one of them and here you are today. You're doing fine. You still have a roof over your head. God has supplied so much food. Most of us could stand to lose a few pounds. We thought we wouldn't eat. I think we're eating fine. God has absolutely been faithful. You're just afraid of the present because you're forgetting the past. And this is why the book of Psalms tells us over and over and over, never forget the works of the Lord. Reflect on the works of the Lord. And when you get to verse six, Paul then adds, wherefore, I put you in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in you by the putting on of my hands. Well, most of us think that the way that you stir up the gift of God in you is to have somebody come in lay hands on you and pray for you and a divine impartation will take place that will stir up the gift of God that is in you and certainly that can happen. But what do you do if there's no one to lay hands on you? What if you can't find a friend and you're in a bad moment? What do you do if you're a Paul and you're in prison and there's no one to strengthen you and no one to console you? What do you do? Well, Paul tells us what to do in verse six. He says, wherefore, I put the in remembrance and the Greek says it different in a very important way. The Greek says, wherefore, in light of what I just said to you, in light of the fact that real faith, unbendable, unbreakable faith is a part of your family heritage. You saw it in your grandmother, you saw it in your mother, you have a history with God's faithfulness, God walking you through everything. Wherefore, in light of that history in your life, the Greek literally says, I'm reminding you of these things that by your remembering them, you might start the gift of God that is in you. And here we find that God is placed in each of our hands, a divine poker that we can use ourselves to stir up the gift of God that is in us. And it is the power of memory. If he had said fast, some people would say, well, I can't physically fast, I have a problem, I'm a diabetic, I can't skip meals. If he had said memorize the scripture, some people would have rightly said, I just don't have the ability to remember like that. But we all have the ability to remember. And Paul says, I'm reminding you of these things that by your remembering them, you might stir up the gift of God which is in you by the putting on of my hands. When Denise and I, our family first moved to the former Soviet Union, at that time it wasn't former, it was still the Soviet Union. We burned coal for heat in our house. One winter, our little son, Paul, who was eight years old, carried six tons of coal into the house, two buckets at a time. And you know, you've got to really work on that fire if you want that fire to keep burning. You've got to just keep stirring those coals all the time. You can't just sit and hope that they're going to keep burning by themselves because if you don't keep working those coals eventually the coal becomes hard. It begins to get black. It begins to burn out. You've got to work those coals, break up those coals, put more coal into the fire all the time. If you want to have a fire all day long, you've got to be working all day long at that furnace. And you have to do it with a poker. And now Paul says, hey Timothy, you need to reach inside you. You need to begin to stir up all the things God has done for you in the past. Stir yourself up. I'm reminding you of all of these things that by your remembering them, by your remembering them, you will stir up the gift of God that is in them. In the past two years, this scripture became very, very relevant to me because I went through a situation in Russia which I can't even describe. A situation so serious that when Denise and I and our sons sat at the table filled with lawyers, the entire room filled with lawyers to discuss my situation that I did not create and I had nothing to do with, but now I found myself in the middle of something more serious than I could ever, ever state. And then they began to describe what was going to happen to me. It felt like all the oxygen had just been sucked out of the room. I looked across the table to my attorney. And I said, what are the chances of this being reversed? He held up his big hands and made a zero. He said, zero. What has happened to you has never been reversed for one person in 30 years. It will not be reversed for you either. My team who are all men of faith were absolutely silent. After about four hours of meeting, we all got up shook hands, didn't know what to do. The attorneys didn't know what to do. Here I am caught in a situation. I didn't create a situation that by myself I cannot fix. We got in the car to go home. One of my associates was driving. I was sitting on the right. Denise was in the back seat crying because what we had just heard was just horrible. I tried to speak to the man who was driving. He just looked at me and said, I can't speak. I can't speak. So I'm sitting in the front seat by myself. Nobody will talk to me. So I said, well, okay, I'll start talking to myself. And you know what I did? I began walking through my past. All the times we didn't think we'd have money for a project God asked us to do, but supernaturally the money came. All the times that it looked like the mafia in the past had entrapped us, but they did not. I began walking myself through every one of those events just like Paul says, remember these things. Remember, remember, remember that by remembering you will stir up the gift of God that is in you. And by the time that I walked through all those past events up to my present, guess what? This mountain did look so big after all. It was no different than anything else. I haven't already faced in my life. And I will tell you friends, what happened to me was reversed. It was reversed. The first in 30 years. The first in 30 years. But what if I had allowed a spirit of fear to take me instead of my faith? A spirit of fear would have had me packing my bags. I would have been gone. But you know, there's one thing about faith. Faith stands still. Faith knows where it is supposed to be. Faith knows what is its promise. Faith knows what God has said. And real faith does not budge. And faith is connected to endurance. The word endurance in Greek is the word hupomene. The word hupo means to be under. The word menom means to stand. You compound the two words together. We translate it as the word patience. It's really the word endurance, hupomene. It's a picture of a man who hupo is under a heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy load. But men, oh, he's resolved. I'm not moving. I'm not budging. I'm not flinching. This is my spot. And when you compound the two words together, it is the picture of a person who says, I don't care what comes against me or how much stress is put on me. I refuse to surrender. I'm never moving. I'm never budging. I'm never flinching. This is my spot. I'm determined to maintain what has been promised to me. And faith and patience work together. We read that in Hebrews chapter six, verse 12. They work together. They're twins. You have to have both. But wait, when you look at verse seven, Paul says, Timothy, Timothy, Timothy. Look at verse seven. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love. And a sound mind. Notice he calls fear a spirit. And fear is spiritual. It is a spiritual force. You can feel fear when it comes in the room. How many of you know that? How many of you have ever watched a horror movie that you later regretted that you watched? And while you were watching the horror movie, you felt a presence come into the room. Fear is a spiritual force. And the word fear that is used here is the Greek word dolius. It describes someone that is moving in retreat. They're moving backward into a mode of insulation or they're moving backward into a mode of self-preservation. This is the opposite of faith. Faith stands still or faith is moving forward. Very often the word faith is used in the date of case. It describes something always moving forward. I say faith is like a bullet that's been shot out of a gun. Once it's been shot, you can't pull it back because faith is always moving forward. This is why in Hebrews chapter 10, the writer of Hebrews says, we are not of them that draw back. Faith never draws back. It never moves backward. And if you're moving backward, then you're not moving in faith because faith is always taking new territory. Faith is always making an advance but now Timothy who is the pastor of the church of Ephesus and is to be the example for everyone else is himself backing up into a mode of self-preservation because he's afraid of what's going to happen to him. He is now moving in a spirit of cowardice. And Paul says, Timothy, God did not give you a spirit of fear but of what? Power and of love and of a sound mind. The word power is the word dunamis. Everybody say dunamis. And everybody thinks they know what dunamis means. Most people say it means dynamic power and that is true. But that really misses the point because the word dunamis is the very Greek word which was used by the Greeks and by the Romans to describe the full might of an advancing army. And when Paul says, God has given you dunamis, it was the equivalent of saying, you have such a deposit on the inside of you that if nobody else will stand with you, you by yourself can advance. You have the full might of an advancing army inside you. So why are you in retreat? But there's something else. The word dunamis was the word used in the first century when this was being written to describe a force of nature. For example, the word dunamis would describe a hurricane. It could describe a tornado or the word dunamis was used to describe the activity of earthquakes. And by using this word dunamis, Paul was saying, Timothy, you have in you the equivalent of a spiritual hurricane to blow things out of the way. You have within you the force of a tornado. You have within you the might of an earthquake to shake things up. This is what God has given you. And then he adds end of love. The word love that is used here is the Greek word agape. Everybody say agape. The word agape and the word grace are the two most difficult words to translate in the New Testament. They're very difficult to translate. The word agape is what I call high level love. Most Christians have never really come to know agape. Most function in phileo, which is what I call low level love. Phileo is friendship love. It is reciprocal love. Phileo is I'm gonna love you as long as you love me back. I'm gonna patch you as long as you pat me on the back. I'll keep scratching your back as long as you keep scratching mine. But the day comes that you don't scratch me back, I'm out of here. Even marriages usually function in phileo love. That's why so many marriages end up in divorce because they feel disappointed and they're back out of the relationship. It's low level love. But agape love, agape love, which is the love of God. High level love is love that has no strings attached. It has no expectations. This is the word which we find in John 3.16, for God so loved, he simply loved the world. At a moment when the world was not even looking for him, he came unto his own and they received him not. But Paul says, God has given to you the highest level of love and a sound mind. A sound mind. He was operating in an irrational mind. When you don't have a sound mind, it just throws open the door for the spirit of fear to create on the movie screen of your mind all the things that are gonna happen to you, everything that everybody is saying about you. When in fact, nobody's even talking about you. But in your mind, you're imagining all these things. But if you have a spirit of fear, how do you shuck it? How do you walk out of it? Well, we've seen today the power of memory. You need to stir yourself up, but there's something else. There's something else. And that's what we're gonna see in the next service. But I want you to put your hands on your heart and I wanna pray for you. Father, we think that you have not given to one of us a spirit of fear, not one of us. But you have given us power, you've given us love and you've given us a sound mind and each person in this room has a record of your faithfulness. And we ask you to forgive us for being forgetful and help us to turn around and remember every faithful thing you've done in our life and to face whatever we're looking at now with faith and with courage, believing it's gonna fall as well. And we thank you for this Father in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Wasn't that a great word? Wow. Come on, how many needed a word of encouragement like that this morning? Come on, let's stand up on our feet this morning. Tell you what, we need to be encouraged to both be faithful and to be people of endurance and to remember the goodness of God. Let's just take a minute. How many of you just right now, real quick, can remember at least one moment in your life where God showed himself miraculously faithful to make a way that everything seemed impossible? Just raise your hand and hold it up. I want you to look around at all the hands. Not only can you remember your moment but look at the hundreds of other moments that God has done that. How many of you know if he was faithful then, he will be faithful today and on into the future because he's just that good? Amen, thank you so much, Rick. And by the way, this morning as you walk out at both of our locations, Rick has resources. He literally has written more books than anybody I know. He writes books when he's asleep in autopilot. He like wakes up and there's a whole book just waiting there. He and I will text occasionally and he's given me the privilege of previewing many of the books that he's written and he writes two or three books at a time. Here's what I love about his books. They're just rich in the word and they just cause me to grow and to love the Bible more and more and more and to love Jesus more and more. So I encourage you, there are no better places that you can invest your finances than in books and teaching that is gonna encourage and strengthen your spirit. So stop by there on your way out. I wanna invite our prayer team to make their way down to the front if they would here. And as we dismiss this morning, here's what I know as I know that in this room, you may not be facing situations that Timothy was facing 2000 years ago, but I know this, many of us are facing circumstances and situations where we feel overwhelmed, we feel alone and we're in a place where we need Jesus to make himself very real to us and to stand with us just like he stood with Paul. And the promise is that Jesus has given to all of us is I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. One of the ways that God steps into our situations with us is when we take a step of faith and we pray together. Other people's faith strengthens us. There's healing when we pray for one another through the laying on of hands, through asking and inviting someone to pray with us, through praying the prayer of faith. And this morning, if you find yourself in the midst of a battle, in the midst of a storm, in the need for God to show himself strong, we're just gonna invite you before you leave to come and receive prayer. Our prayer team, ministry team, they've been praying for you. They are anointed by God. They have been trained and they are filled with faith to pray with you about whatever circumstance that you're facing. So let's just, before we dismiss, let's bow our heads right now. Let's take a deep breath in and remind our hearts. Like the writer of the Psalms says, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name and forget not all of his benefits. Lord, today we choose to remember all of your benefits. If you redeem our lives from the pit, how you place a crown upon our heads, how you bless us with life everlasting, Lord that you promise to never leave us or forsake us. Lord, fill us with faith and courage today. And as we walk out the doors of this building today, help us to be people that shine the light of hope that's only found in Jesus, the giver of the promise of life. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, everybody, you're dismissed. Come forward if you'd like to receive prayer this morning.