"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:6-7
We have been given marvelous resources because of our union with Christ as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we always travel HOPEFULLY.
Information Overload + Rapid Social Change = ?! (Chaos befuddlement)
How to Travel Hopefully
1. Continually entrust ourselves to the goodness/greatness of the triune Lord. (1:1, 4:17-18)
“God is most loving, gracious, merciful, and patient. He overflows with goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. He rewards those who seek him diligently. At the same time he is perfectly just and terrifying in his judgment. He hates all sin and will certainly not clear the guilty.” 1689 Confession, II-1
The life in Christ holds THE promise of life.
“While bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8
“Sound Doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:10, 1 Timothy 6:3, 2 Timothy 1:13, Titus1:9) = Healthy, accurate, well-grounded hope
2. By being daily renewed with a biblically-informed, prayerful embrace of life. (2:9-10, 15)
“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in an eternity before and after, the little space I fill engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am TERRIFIED...The eternal silence of these infinite spaces ALARMS ME.” Rene Descartes (1596-1660), Pensees (Thoughts), p.28
3. ...A growing cheerfulness.
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” Psalm 8:1
“What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen—even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.” Psalm 8:4-8
Heidelberg Catechism
Q 28: What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by his providence?
A: We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from his love; for all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they cannot so much as move.
“Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee.
Hid in the Savior’s side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show.
By my love, how much I owe.”
Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Excerpt from poem,
“I Am A Debtor”, May 1837
We should attend to today and leave tomorrows to the Lord.
4. So, live with a sense of EXPECTATION because of the nearness and power of the Lord.
QUESTIONS:
1. How does sound doctrine give us a place to stand in a chaotic world?
2. What did Hudson Taylor (founder of China Inland Mission) mean when he said, “We don’t need great faith in God, so much as faith in a great God”? How does that relate to daily living?
3. Why was Descartes “terrified”?
4. What did Martin Luther King mean when he said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”? How does 2020 compare to the cataclysmic year of 1968 and what happened among God’s people?
5. Why do we always travel hopefully, or why is the life of a disciple of Christ an ongoing understanding of growing cheerfulness?
6. How do we “attend to today and leave tomorrows to the Lord”?