Everyday Church
God Is Able
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church with Pastor Jason Keefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. (upbeat music) - The thing is that believers can be bold in the faith by being confident in God's ability. We can be bold in the faith by being confident in God's ability. Go back over to 2 Timothy. And so what he says in verse 80 is he says, "Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony." So Timothy's ashamed. Timothy is, it's almost like he feels guilty for what Paul's going through. And that's part of his timidity and fear. And he says, you don't have to be afraid of the testimony of our Lord. Like remember, this is what's causing Paul. This is what's costing Paul his life. Is the message of the gospel. And so he says, Timothy, you don't have to be ashamed of that, nor of me, his prisoner, but be partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power. Well, how in the world, if Timothy can't even, if he's neglected the gift that God's given him, how in the world is he gonna be a partaker of the afflictions through that? He says, well, he said, the power of God, he saved us. He's called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he's given us in Christ Jesus. Look, there's no greater reason than to be bold in the faith than that verse right there. He has saved us. The Bible says, who has saved us? Listen, if you're here this morning and you're saved by the grace of God, it is the goodness of God that has saved you. And you can be bold in your faith because of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But maybe this morning, you're here and you're like, I don't know. I've never been saved. I've never trusted Christ as my Savior. My friend, look, calling on the Lord Jesus Christ. What does he say? He says, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, salvation is a free gift. It's not anything we've done. It's not anything we can do. It's calling on the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, but now he's made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, with abolished death, and he's brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this reason, where, too, he says, I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, verse 12. This is how we can be confident in God's ability. For the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, again, he says this, I am not ashamed, Timothy, you don't be ashamed. And now in this verse, he says, I'm not ashamed. I am not ashamed why, how? He says, for I know. For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded. Like you and I have to be convinced of what God can do. Like if you're gonna be bold in the faith, like you have got to be convinced that this thing's of God. Like you can't be always second-guessing what God's doing in your life. You can't be second-guessing the call of God in your life. Every time a trial comes, you can't be like, oh, this wasn't what I thought it was. Like you have to be persuaded. The idea of this persuasion this morning is that Paul was convinced by experience. Paul had experienced the goodness of God to the point that he said this. He said, I know whom I have believed. Now check this out. He did not say, I know what I have believed. Did he? Well, what do you believe? That ain't what he said? He said, I know whom I have believed. I'm just saying, the foundation of your faith is not what you believe, it's in whom you believe. The foundation of your faith is not what you believe, but it's in whom you believe. Now, when you believe in Jesus, watch you believe a line up. But I'm just saying, sometimes we get overwhelmed, sometimes it's a lot, it's complicated. There's a lot there. But when you just know, I have put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have rested in him. I have rested in his complete work on Calvary and nothing can alter that, nothing can change that. That has been settled in my life. He is free to work in my life. He's free to move in my life. He's free to tear apart things in my life. He's Lord of my life. I know whom I have believed. Then you can say, and am persuaded. And I'm persuaded. I'm convinced, I've experienced it. I'm just saying, I have experienced, how many of you this morning you like pastor, I have experienced the goodness of God. And I don't just mean like on a Hallmark card experience. You know what I'm saying? I mean, those are good. You come up with some cool stuff there. I mean, I go into a hard mark and I'm like, oh, that's touching, you know? And yeah, you know, how many agreed cards are just outrageously priced? He says, I know, I have been convinced. I've seen, and what he's doing this is what Paul has experienced, check this out. Timothy has seen, like in one place, he says, Timothy, you were with me in my afflictions. In chapter three, he says, Timothy, you were with me when I was in Iconium and Antioch and Lister. Like when they stole me and left me out of the city for dead, he's like, Timothy, you were right there. And he said, that has persuaded me. Timothy, you can be persuaded. Friend, listen to me this morning. You can be persuaded in your faith. Don't sit back and say, well, you know, the deacons. I mean, they ought to have a great faith. You know, I wish I could have a faith like that or my life group leader, brother Carl, you know, brother Josh or pastor or whoever. Like they're different people. No, we are not, nobody in here is different. God's not a respecter or persons. Like the boldness I have in faith, the boldness brother Carl, the weakness I have in faith, you're gonna have to. And so for you and I coming to this place where we depend on what God has said and it lines up with what we have experienced. Paul said in Romans 1, 16, he said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." Timothy, you don't have to be ashamed. Why? Because it's the power of God. Man, doesn't that line up with the spirit of power that he's given us? Like, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Because there's power in the gospel and it changes us. And he says here, he goes on to say, he said, "I am persuaded," and here's the key. That he is able, in verse 12, it says that, that he is a, we'll put that verse up there for his brother Rob. He said, "For the witch cause I suffer these things, "never the less I am not ashamed. "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded." And everybody say these next three words together. Ready, go. He is able. Everybody say this, God is able. God is able. There's a lot of things that are not gonna persuade you in life. But God being able should persuade you. God's ability should persuade you. I mean, everything we have is because of God's ability. Everything we look at is from God's ability. So what was Paul persuaded in? He says, "I am persuaded that he is able to keep that, "which I have committed unto him against that thing." Well, we know, according to verse nine, that his salvation was committed. He had committed that to God. He had trusted in Jesus. And he knew that the spiritual working of God in his life, he knew that God was able to perform that, being confident into this very thing, that he which have begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul says, "He's able." Like I've committed my soul. I've committed my salvation. I've committed my future to him. And God's able, he's able to keep that, which I've committed unto him. He's able to perform that. And then I think about the work of God. He committed the work. He said, "Hey, he's called me to be an apostle. "He's called me to be a preacher. "He's called me to be a teacher to the Gentiles." And look, it wasn't the power of God. I mean, it wasn't the power of Paul that enabled him to do that. It was the power of God. So he said, "He said that mine may know him "and the power of his resurrection." He just said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel. "It's the power of God. "Paul never, ever took glory from himself "in his preaching or his teaching or whatever he did. "It was always the glory of God." And he said, "Lord, this work is too big for me. "And Lord, I commit that to you. "God, I get that. "You're able to perform that." You know with Tim and Faith? Check this out this morning. A Tim and Faith, someone who's not bolding the faith. They're never gonna come up to situations in their life and be able to approach and to enter into situations life that is beyond their power. They can't commit those situations to God. They always find a different way around it. Always find a different way through it. Sometimes you just gotta come up to situations in life and say, "God, I could have commit this to you." I mean, I'll just be, (laughs) Man, I have found myself a lot over the past couple years saying, "Lord, I ain't even got a clue." Like, you're just gonna have to do this, right? You're just gonna have to do this. Let me help you maybe to understand a little better. You remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right? In the book of Daniel. And there they are before the king and the king has built this huge statue that they're to bow down before and the Bible and the king said, "When you hear the music play, "you gotta bow down before this." And he says, "If you don't, "you're going in the furnace of fire." That's what he told him. And so, man, they play the music and they get going and everybody bows except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And the king calls them for and he's like, "I thought I told you," he said, "Yeah, yeah." He's like, "All right." He said, "I'm gonna give you one more shot." He said, "No, you don't have to." He said, "This is what they said. "Their response was this." They said, "Our God, he's able to deliver us "from the fiery furnace. "You can throw us in the fiery furnace "and our God is able to deliver." Now, check this out. They said, "But if he chooses not to," he said, "We're still not bound." You know how you know when you're bold in the faith? When the consequences aren't your deciding factor? You're bold in the faith when the consequences of your decision are not the deciding factor now. I mean, stop for all you young people. That doesn't mean that you just go through life and recklessly make decisions, not worried about the consequences, okay? You understand what I'm saying? When you're bold in the faith and there comes a decision in front of you and you're like, "Oh man." Like, "This may not be my best." Like, okay, this may make a little harder on me. Hey, he's telling Timothy, "Hey, you're gonna have to suffer with me "for the cause of Christ, all right? "Timothy, look, I'm just saying, Timothy, look." The decision to be bold with the gospel is probably gonna cause your life and guess what, it did cause Timothy's life. Somewhere along the line, he got it right. And so when we go into those decisions and we're bold, regardless of what the cost is, that's when we can truly say he is able. He was persuaded by experience, the spirit that dwelt in Paul had convinced him. He was convinced by God's word. I'm convinced that Paul was convinced he was persuaded by the fellowship of other people, that God was able. He had seen it in other people's lives. There's people here this morning when I look out here and as I'm preaching this morning, I see things that people have went through and I've seen how God has worked in their life. You know what that does for me? That persuades me. That persuades me that God is able. If you don't stir the spirit within you and see that God is able, you'll never have a bold faith. Doesn't mean you don't have a faith, remember? Timothy's got it, all right. He's got the faith. It's the spirit behind it. - Thank you for listening to Every Day Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)