I just want to leave this thought with
you about, this is very subtle, never spoken
on it before, but God warmed my heart
this afternoon with this passage.
Paul is writing one of his last letters
to his young disciple who is a pastor
already, just younger than Paul, and he wants
to remind him how to keep faithful to
what God called you to do, what he
called you to do, me to do, which
is different in every case.
And then he reminds him that not everybody
does that.
Some people go south and don't make it
in their calling from God.
They fall prey to whatever.
Let's look at it from Timothy.
Timothy, my son, I'm giving you this command
about staying in Ephesus and ministering and being
faithful in keeping with the prophecies that were
once made about you so that by recalling
them, you may fight the battle well, holding
on to faith and a good conscience, which
some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck
with regard to the faith.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I
have handed over to Satan to be taught
not to blaspheme.
That's a heavy passage, amen?
Let's just look at the bottom part of
it.
He says that not everybody has laid hold
and held to the faith.
He's encouraging Timothy to do it, but he
says some have rejected, haven't held on to
the faith and a good conscience and have
made shipwreck with regard to the faith, not
just to their faith, but the faith, belief
in the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth
about him.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander.
There's two Alexanders that are mentioned in the
New Testament.
We're not sure if that is referring to
any one of them, but it seems like
these two people were leaders in the church,
Hymenaeus and Alexander.
Not much is known about them.
No one really knows what this means when
he says, I've handed them over to Satan
to be taught not to blaspheme.
Some people connect that with 1 Corinthians 5,
where Paul says about a certain person who's
doing atrocious thing and won't listen to the
word of God, about the church meeting together
and excommunicating them.
But beyond that, handing them over to Satan
for the destruction of the flesh.
We're not sure if he means the actual
physical body or whether he means the sarks,
the flesh, the fleshly nature, but why he
would hand them over to Satan to do
that.
It's a very difficult passage and Christians of
good faith and who love the Lord differ
on their understanding of it.
Here, he's talking about among them are Hymenaeus,
also in 2 Thessalonians, this is also mentioned.
But among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, among
whom the people have rejected the faith, walked
away from it.
And I've handed them over to Satan to
be taught not to blaspheme.
Did he do it in prayer?
Did he do it in some kind of
public way in the church?
We're not sure.
And where the Bible is silent, we're silent.
Since this was written to a church and
we don't know who Hymenaeus and Alexander were
and we don't know what Timothy knew about
them, we're not with real clarity on this.
But it's an ominous thing, isn't it?
Paul is saying these people have made shipwreck
of their faith and before they influence other
people and pull them down, I've turned them
over to Satan.
Some people believe it means, no, instead of
being covered by the church and the blessing
of God on the church of Christ, I've
thrust them outside the church.
I don't let them in the church, I
thrust them out.
And now Satan is going to teach them
it's better to serve Jesus than it is
to serve Satan.
It's a very, very difficult passage.
I'm just telling you the truth.
I could stand up here and preach one
view and tell you that, but I'm not
sure I totally understand all of that.
I just know I don't want to go
there.
How many are with me?
Say amen.
Like whatever, just God, keep us from that.
Now he's telling Timothy, I just want to
leave this with you.
I'm giving you this command in keeping with
the prophecies once made about you.
And the NIV here is very excellent.
Most translations have that so by them you
may fight the battle well.
But it's by recalling them, what?
The prophecies that you may fight the battle
well and hold on to your faith and
a good conscience.
There's also a couple of places where prophecies
about Timothy are mentioned.
One time more later on in this book,
I believe it's chapter four.
And then also, I believe it's in second
Timothy, where Paul is reminding Timothy, remember the
prophetic words that were spoken over you.
When did that happen?
It seems as if when Timothy was ordained
and hands were laid on him for the
ministry, not only was a gift imparted to
him for ministry through the Holy Spirit, but
there was a prophetic utterance given to Paul
or someone around there, or maybe a couple.
And they spoke it over Timothy about the
call of God on his life and what
God's purpose was for him.
That must have been an awesome moment.
Ordained, Paul's praying for you.
And now the Spirit speaks through human vessels
and says, thus sayeth the Lord, such and
such, such.
What were those prophecies?
Again, we have no idea.
But what we do know is Paul is
reminding Timothy of the prophecies.
That by recalling them, not by them as
if they have power in themselves, but by
recalling them.
In other words, Timothy, I'm saying all those
things so that I can remind you of
the prophecies that were spoken over you so
that by recalling them and remembering the preciousness
of God's call on your life and what
he wants you to do.
Maybe some of it hasn't happened yet, Timothy,
but Timothy, heads up, remember what God spoke.
He put his hand on you.
He wants you to do something.
It's kind of like Psalm 119, 49.
Remember your word to your servant, Lord, for
you have given me hope.
That's not a word of scripture.
It's not remember your word that you spoke
in the Bible.
Remember the psalmist, they had the books of
the law, let's say.
Genesis through Deuteronomy.
So it's not that.
It seems to be a personal word like
Paul got for his life.
And Paul is reminding Timothy.
Because when Paul got converted, Ananias came and
laid hands on him, another Christian, because he
had been blinded by his vision of the
Lord, and spoke words of prophecy over him
of what God was going to do through
him and how God would be with him.
But it wouldn't always be easy.
And that was to be filed away and
remembered so that Paul could be encouraged when
he was going through those hard times.
Now, another prophecies, plural prophecies, were made over
Timothy.
We're not privy to that.
The psalmist in 119 is saying, remember your
word to your servant, Lord.
You remember what you said to me.
You've given me hope, which means it hadn't
happened yet.
You don't hope for something that's already happened.
What am I saying here as I close?
It's that in many of your lives tonight,
I believe, there's been a moment in the
past when God, maybe not through a verbal
prophecy spoken publicly, but somehow God communicated something
to your spirit of what he plans to
do in and through you.
There are these sacred moments.
They've been in my life.
I believe they're in yours.
That's why I'm saying this and I'm closing.
You got to hold on to those.
You got to remember them and be inspired
by them.
Don't let Satan rob them from you.
Why would Paul said, I'm reminding you of
the prophecies?
He's saying it because it's possible to forget
those things that God has spoken to you.
You get so overwhelmed by discouragement and the
cares of life.
You forget or failure or disappointment in yourself
or a moral failure.
And then you think, well, God can't use
me.
I'm not what I ought to be.
I'm not the good husband.
I should be this, that, the other.
And Paul's saying, no, no, listen, to fight
the good fight that you have to fight.
You got to recall the things that God
put in your heart.
So a personal word, and it's easier for
me to say it because she's not here
tonight.
When my wife was a little girl, she
wasn't shy.
She was painfully, debilitatingly shy.
Couldn't talk in public.
If she didn't know people, she wouldn't speak.
So one day when she was a teenager,
I think I told you when I went
out with her on the date, her hands
used to sweat so much that my hand
kept slipping off her hand when I would
hold it.
Just every time I went, how are we
going to move on with this here?
It's the truth.
Painfully, painfully shy.
None of you can even imagine.
The woman that sometimes grabs the microphone and
talks to you, you don't even have a
clue to the battle she's been through.
So one day when she was helping her
mother make a bed in her house in
New Jersey, she was by herself in the
room, 13, 14, put the sheet over the
bed to then tuck it in.
And in that second, God gave her a
vision.
And she saw herself, which is like a
prophecy.
And she saw herself from the back like
you would see me.
And she saw herself, she knew it was
her with her hair.
And she saw people of all different races,
all that singing their hearts out.
And she was directing them, her shy little
self who was afraid of her shadow.
She saw herself directing it.
And then it was gone.
And God just spoke to her.
That's what I want you to do one
day.
I want you to lead people to sing
to me.
I can't do that.
I'm not trained in music.
I can't talk to people.
I can't get up from a choir and
run a practice.
No, listen.
The first practice when we went in the
ministry, we were in Newark.
We weren't at Brooklyn.
She invited five women over to our house.
My parents bought us in Maplewood, the down
payment.
Five women to gather around the piano.
My wife has perfect pitch.
She can play.
She was gonna teach them song.
Five women in the Newark Gospel Tabernacle.
She didn't eat the whole day.
Couldn't, didn't sleep the night before.
And after they left, she threw up.
Just from pure nerves.
None of you, none of you.
You think you have something holding you back?
None of you even can understand.
She has resigned from the choir at least
200 times.
And I have not accepted one of those
resignations.
How many in favor say amen, right?
Amen.
Why?
Because she's forced to talk.
And at first that was impossible.
When we rented Radio City Music Hall the
first time, when they came up out of
that pit up there and the smoke thing
and the whole thing they put together.
So after the first song, I knew I
told her, you have to turn, grab the
microphone and talk to the 6,000 people
that are there.
I can't.
I said, you have to.
You have to.
I can't.
Jim, why does God call me to do
things I can't do?
I just want to do music.
I don't want to talk.
You have to talk.
God came through.
She talked.
Now she's become an evangelist.
She's walking back and forth over here like
she's out of control.
Amen, right?
Am I right?
She spoke for the Assemblies of God General
Council out in California a month or so
ago with Chrissy, our daughter.
And God so used her.
Now she's getting invitations to speak all over
the place.
And I told her, maybe I can just
drive the bus and we can get a
ministry and she'll preach and I'll just sell
books in the back.
My point was, many times I said to
her, Carol, you can't quit.
Remember what you saw.
If God showed you that, won't he help
you to do it?
Am I right or wrong here, brothers?
In other words, Paul is saying to Timothy,
remember what God spoke over your life.
Maybe it hasn't happened yet.
Don't give up.
Be encouraged by it.
Fight the good fight.
Reconsecrate yourself to the Lord.
If you have to do it 500 times,
do it 500 times.
But say, here am I, Lord.
Send me.
Send me to Iraq.
Send me to the South Bronx.
Send me wherever you want me to go.
Use me here in the church.
But God, I'm not going to let go.
I'm not going to let go of what
you call me to do.
Haven't you ever had moments where just no
one, you never even shared it with anyone.
But God put something in your heart.
You saw yourself or you just felt like,
oh, I would long to do that.
I would long.
Who do you think put that in your
head?
The devil?
The flesh?
Never.
Those are sacred things.
And Satan wants to rob them.
I've had my own battles.
I try to resign twice from the ministry
in the deepest days of discouragement.
God blocked me twice.
But he many times has reminded me, whoever
I call, I will equip.
Doesn't matter how untrained you are, how old
you are, what color you are.
And all of that is nonsense.
I write these things to you, Timothy, reminding
you of the prophecies that were spoken over
them by remembering them.
You could fight the good fight.
Keep trusting God.
God's going to use me.
Let's pray.
The husband somewhere here and your marriage and
your wife has so kind of torn you
down and that you're almost ready to give
up the hope of how God could use
you.
But he once showed that to you.
And now Satan is trying to say, no
way, no way.
I'm saying to you today, sir, my brother,
whoever you are, remember that whatever God speaks,
he doesn't retract it.
The gifts and callings of God are with,
they're without repentance.
He doesn't turn around and say, ah, you're
not what I thought you would be.
No, no, that thing is on you.
Still hold on to it, fight through it.
Everybody here who feels like God has spoken,
has called me in a way, maybe a
prophetic word, maybe a dream, a vision, or
a still small voice or something you just
got a sense like, oh, wow, that's not
from me.
I think that's from God.
But how, when?
I'm not satisfied with my progress.
Will I ever be spiritual enough to do
it?
Listen, you just remember that God put that
spark in you.
Just surrender yourself again tonight and say, Lord,
here am I, send me.
You don't have to do anything.
Just say, send me.
He'll open the doors.
He'll make the way possible.
You don't have to figure that out.
That's God's job.
Anybody feel like that?
Want to come up here and stand with
me?
As we get ready to dismiss, just come
up.
Pastor, I want to resurrender my life to
the calling that I know God put on
my life.
Let me say it better.
I want to surrender my will and my
heart to the calling that I know God
put on my life.
I don't care if you're 80 years old
or 18 years old.
Just come and stand here.
We're just going to pray.
We're going to surrender.
You don't have to, just got to submit
your heart.
Open your heart and say, God, here am
I.
Lord, what can I, I can't do anything.
You're God.
I'm just a man, a woman.
But I stand and I affirm what you
have shown me, what you spoke to me.
I affirm that.
I cling to that tonight.
Remember your word to your servant, Lord, for
you have given me hope.
We say yes to your calling on our
life, even if it's hard.
Not what we plan, not what we thought.
Fulfill your will for all of our lives,
Lord, starting with me.
Lord, we thank you for your word to
us tonight through first Timothy.
Keep our hearts open to you now, Lord.
We're going to leave the building, but we're
not going to leave you.
Keep our hearts sensitive.
Keep our spiritual antenna in the receive mode.
So that you can speak and prompt and
lead us.
Help us not to be carnal and worldly,
but help us to be godly and spiritual.
Get rid of those influences and things in
our life that would hinder us from hearing
from you.
But we say yes, Lord.
We say yes, Lord.
Digo si, Senor.
Get us all home safely, Lord.
Thank you for such a wonderful group of
people that pray on Tuesdays, God.
Let it increase.
Help us to be evangelists, to get others
who love you to come and be in
your house on Tuesday.
Help us to love each other more so
that men will know that we're your disciples.
We pray in Jesus' name.
And everyone said.
Turn around and hug a bunch of people,
okay?
Turn around and hug a bunch of people,
okay?