Christian Growth: Give God Your Best for a Fulfilling Life

The importance of giving God your best for a fulfilling life is emphasized.

The Bible teaches us to fan the flame of the fire of God in our lives.

We must not become weary in well-doing and allow Satan to destroy our fire for God.

God has given us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind, not fear.

We know that when we look at time and we look around us, I mean we don't have to be Bible scholars, we don't have to have studied the Bible for 60, 70 years, we don't have to have or degrees after our names to realize that when you look around, that time is just ticking away fast. God is about to come again. God is about to send Jesus to call his children home. It's about to take place. Now, by no means am I here to set dates. I'm not going to do that. I wouldn't do that. But I will say this. I do know time is running out. And it takes us as children of the King to realize this and to say, you know what? I need to be ready. I need to prepare my heart. I need to make sure that I'm ready. See, God gave us his best. He gave his best to us. and in turn as we prepare our lives we need to give our best to him and to his kingdom today I want to share with you a message from 2 Timothy 1 6-8 2 Timothy 1 6-8 the message today is to be your best give God your best because Jesus was God's best and he gave him to us. Now, did we deserve Jesus? No. None of us deserve Jesus going to a cross and dying. None of us. None of us. Many of us have probably had good Christian parents. I mean, many of us probably did. I know I had, and that's not bragging, but I'm just saying, I know I had a great, great dad that was filled with the Spirit of the Lord. And I'm thankful I still have my mom. A great mom that still teaches me every day in things of the Bible. And I'm glad I still have her around to keep me in track. But see, as good as my parents are, that's not going to get me to heaven. The only way I'm going to get to heaven is my relationship with God. I can't get to heaven because my dad and my mom are great Christian people. I'm only going to get there because I love the Lord. I'm only going to get to heaven because I've accepted Jesus as personal Savior and Lord. I'm only going to get to go to heaven because of the way that I live my life. That's the only way I'm getting there. It's not about what somebody else's experience is. I can't piggyback on that. You know, I had a really good friend that he would always say, you know, well, when the rapture comes, I'm going to grab your leg. And I would say to him, dude, that ain't going to work. It ain't going to work. It's not going to work. We can't get to have it on somebody else's experience. It's only going to be our own. So if we want the best from the Lord, we've got to be willing to give our best. to the Lord. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1 starting in verse 6 here. He says, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou should stir up the gift of God which is in thee by putting on my hands. See, Paul here reminds Timothy to keep fanning the flame of the fire of God. The gift of God that he puts into us. You know, I think about it sometimes and I wonder, you know, when we first come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord, the light that we have, the joy that we have is like amazing. But as the years wear on, sometimes the joy and that fire that we have begins to wane. You know, sometimes that's a really bad thing. Let's be honest. We can't let the fire and the joy begin to die down. We've got to continue to fan that flame of the joy of the Lord. We've got to continue to fan that flame of the fire of God in our lives. We do that with prayer, with Bible reading, with being in church, with praising the Lord, singing songs, doing things for God, sharing the gospel with someone else. These are the things we do that helps us fan that flame. But so often what we do is we just begin to rest on our laurels, right? We begin to just sit back and say, well, we don't need to do anything. We're just getting up in your... I feel that way sometimes. I'm getting up in your... I know, but I'm saying... I do. I feel that way sometimes. But the point is, we can't feel that way. We can't... No matter how old we get we can feel like Well now it time to retire from the work of the Lord Now it time to not do nothing You know I mean look in the Bible The followers of Jesus worked until they died. I mean, they worked until it was time to go home. They didn't quit doing the work of the Lord. That's sometimes what we do. We kind of begin to retire from the work of the Lord. And we can't do that. We've got to continue to fan that flame to keep that fire burning bright. The Bible literally says, let us not become weary in well-doing because we do. So often we do become weary in well-doing. We begin to say, well, you know, I just don't feel like doing it today. You ever feel that way sometimes? You don't have to answer, but I'm just saying in your own mind and your heart. Think about it. You ever feel like, well, today I just don't feel like reading my Bible today. Well, today I just don't feel like praying. Or maybe you feel sometimes, well, I just don't feel like going to church. I'll sit home and watch television, you know. These are the things that we do sometimes, and this is what helps dim the fire that is in our lives when we become weary in the well-doing. See, and Paul told Timothy, don't do this. Don't allow Satan to destroy that fire that is burning inside you. Don't let Satan do it, because Satan will do it. Satan will destroy your fire for God in a heartbeat if he can. He will. Let's not get weary in well-doing. In verse 7 it says this, For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Now, interestingly enough, sometimes we have fear and trepidation when it comes to doing something for God. We will. We'll have fear and trepidation when it comes to that, when something has to be done. Maybe something needs to be done around the church and we go, well I don't know if I want to do that because what if the people somebody comes and says well that's not the way I want to done it right now if you did something for the Lord don't worry about what somebody says that's the way I feel about it if somebody sees something wrong with the church and they want to fix it I say go for it and don't worry about what somebody else says you know I'll thank you for your work I believe that way I believe that way but sometimes we can we can become fearful we can become fearful about the idea of sharing the gospel with somebody maybe somebody comes along and they're talking to you and you feel the help of the spirit to say you know what maybe you need to just accept Jesus but then what happens Satan creeps in with a little bit of fear Now you don't know. Maybe not like that. And then we go. Hmm. And then we step back. Right? Because we do. Christians a lot of times live in fear. We live in fear of the fact that we don't know what someone might say if we try to share something with them about Jesus. We do. We live in fear. But God has not given us the spirit of fear. That is not a gift of God. Okay? God does not gift us fear. What does God gift us? He gives us power, love, and a sound mind. And when you have those three things, they cancel out fear. Hallelujah. That's the truth. see when we think about this and I did when I thought about this when I read this verse I thought of it in a different way this time around I thought about it and I thought you know what Jesus probably had a little trepidation a little bit of fear when it came to have me to go to a cross think about it we look at Jesus sometimes We say, oh, well, he was God in flesh. But his mother was human. So he had that little part of human nature about him. And human nature is to not want to die. Well, proof of that, look at the story. He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and he prays to God. Please, Father, if there's any way, let this cup pass from me. Don't let me have to go to a cross and die. I don't want to do this. That's a little bit of fear. It's a little bit of fear because he knew it was going to be painful. I mean, let's be honest. When you've got nails that are about this size, going to be going in your arms and your hands and your feet, and you know you're going to hang there for hours and die suffering and in agony and pain and basically smothering to death, That's fearful. Jesus had a little bit of fear about that. But Jesus didn't let the fear conquer him. He went to the cross anyway. And he died for your sins and mine. We cannot allow fear to destroy us. We cannot allow fear to destroy our faith. We cannot allow fear to destroy our fire that is burning for God. Because fear is one thing that will extinguish the flame of God in our lives if we let it. It's true. Jesus in fear still went to the cross and gave his best. Even if we are fearful we need to be willing to give our best for God Verse 8 says these words Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord What does the Bible say? The Bible says we're ashamed of Him and He'd be ashamed of us before the Father, right? So we cannot be ashamed. and sometimes it can be very hard to be to be bolsterous and to be bold especially in this day and age when you don't know what somebody might say we're living in a world where it is very secular now we don't have a Christian society anymore I mean it's sad but it's true the majority of our world is secular. Something that I thought was very, very interesting, and I don't know if you saw this report, but I thought it was very interesting. They're going to do the coronation of King Charles. And England has become a very secular society. Very few people, I think it's well past half, well lower than half of the society, even considers themselves Christian or churchgoers. So they did the poll of the people and they said, what do you want your coronation to be for your king? Do you want a multiracial type of coronation? Do you want a secular coronation? You know what the majority of the people said? We want a religious type of coronation. And that shocked me. We want the one that it's been forever. And I was really shocked about that. In a secular society that they would want something that was more religious and more traditional. Very interesting to me. But I do know we are a secular society. All you have to do is on your way to church on a Sunday morning, just look around and see how many churches are filled and how many churches are somewhat filled. I mean, you know, you'll find churches that have a few cars in the parking lot. Very, very, very, very, very, very, very few churches are filled. because we have gotten to a society that says we don't need God, we don't need church, we don't need, they've got themselves fooled by Satan that, oh, if you live a good life, you'll go to heaven. That is a lie from Satan. And they've just taken it and accepted it. Oh, as long as that don't hurt anybody, I'll go to heaven. As long as I do good to people, I'll go to heaven. as long as I love people I'll go to heaven it's not about what? it's not about works lest any man should boast we can't work our way to heaven you cannot work your way to heaven no matter how much you think you can you can't work your way to heaven there is nothing you're going to do that's going to get you to heaven nothing you are going to do is going to get you to heaven. The only way you're getting to heaven is by the blood-bought way, and that's the way of the cross. The psalm says, The way of the cross leads home. That's the only way we get to heaven, is the way of the cross. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me his prisoner. See, Paul at this time was a prisoner. He was writing from jail to Timothy. And he said, don't be ashamed that I'm in jail. I didn't do nothing wrong. I'm loving the Lord. And sometimes we can become ashamed of our church. That we go to church. I hope nobody here is ashamed that they go to church. I hope not. I love to say I go to the best church in Virginia right? that's what I like to say and I feel this way with all my heart I believe that with all my heart I go to the best church in Virginia and if I don't feel that way then I shouldn't be coming here amen? that's the way if I don't believe that my church is the best why do I come here? if I don't believe that my church has the best people the people that love the Lord the most and I don't get the best fellowship with my people and I don't feel the blessing of God when I come and I don't feel this way why do I come? that's the way we should feel that's the way we should feel our church is the best no be ashamed of it tell the world I can go to the best church in Virginia don't rant Wesleyan church, I can go to the best church right? he concludes in this verse, he says but be thou partakers of the affliction of the gospel according to the power of God see James wrote in James 1, 2 and 3 He said, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Count it joy when you're tempted. Count it joy when you've got troubles. Pardon me? Kind of doesn't seem right, does it? Count it joy when you've got troubles. Count it joy when things are going a little bit backwards. Why? Because I never forget my dad once said this to somebody He said somebody was going through a lot of trouble And he told this story from the pulpit I never forget it He said somebody was going through a lot of trouble. And he said to them this. If you're going through a lot of trouble, realize you must be doing something right. Because Satan wouldn't attack you if you weren't. Right? That's true. Satan's not going to attack you if you're not following God. So if you've got all kinds of trials and tribulations pouring on you, that means you must be doing something right. Otherwise Satan wouldn't be attacking you. So keep on keeping on. Keep going and work in the Lord. Keep doing what you're doing. See, if we want to be our best, we've got to give God our best. I want to share with you a couple things and then we're going to conclude today. And I want to first off share with you a couple people that gave their best. There's a widow of Zarephath. prophet elijah was hungry needed something to eat and god told him to go down to the willows of zarephath and there she would have a little something for him when he got there and he said i'm hungry and she said well i ain't got a whole lot here to eat and he said well make me something only got enough for me and my kids and we're going to die and he said well give me something first now let's be honest here okay let's take the human side of this what would the human side of this be I'm not going to give to somebody me I'm going to take care of me first but if I only got enough for me and my kids I ain't giving nothing to nobody else right that would be the first thought Elijah says make something for me first she did so she did so and gave something to Elijah and then God poured upon her a blessing so rich that she was not able to contain it to her she gave all and God blessed her back you want God's best give your best to God. I love the story of a little widow who came to church and everybody was giving all kinds of big amounts of money to the church. And everybody was just pouring the money into the church. Ooh, hallelujah. Wouldn't that be nice? People just pouring money into it. Wouldn't that be nice? Oh, my goodness. But people were just pouring money into the church. There was a little bit of a woman. What's her heart? She had a mind. Basically two panties, if you want. She took it out of her pocket. She dropped it in the plate. Jesus, as he was watching with all of his disciples in the back, he was watching all these people drop in all the gold coins and all the stuff and seeing so much going in. Jesus wanted to teach His disciples a lesson. He said, Do you see that? Do you see that little widow woman there? She gave more than everybody in the whole place. And they all looked at Jesus and then they looked at each other and they apparently thought, Wow, Jesus, not quite all there today. Look at all that they're giving. How did she get? She only gave you. They were in a two-minute. How did that happen? What? What are you talking about Lord? She didn't give more than a rest. Jesus had to explain to them. These ones are giving of their abundance. And it's not affecting them. They have so much more at home. That what they're giving is not really hurting them. That's not doing anything. They got so much more at home. This little little woman. She only has two pennies. And she dropped it all in the plane. She gave more because she gave all. And no doubt she was blessed because she gave all she had. Now there's a flip side to this giving here. We see the two ladies here that gave all. But then there's a flip side to the giving. And we know the story. Adam came to his two sons and he said It's time to give your best to God Abel gave the best of his flock That he could Cain, when it came time to give the best of his garden He said, well I don't want to give the best So he began to find the worst possible stuff And gave it to God What happened? God rejected his gift because Cain gave what was left over. So often that's what we do as Christians. We'll give what's left over. Well, Lord, you can have that. I don't need this so you can have that. Amen. you

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