Doesn’t matter what our gig is in life, when we choose to use that God-given gift specifically to honour God, to bless other people, on thing’s for certain – the going’s going to get tough.We’re going to hit opposition. And if that goes on for any length of time, the one thing that we really want to do, is just to give up.

Keep Shining Over these last few weeks, we have been chatting about rekindling the gift that God has put within each one of us. And you know the exciting thing about that? When we use our gifts – I mean, when we take the things that we have been given in our makeup and put them to work, it is so incredibly satisfying.

I know myself, one of the things I really enjoy doing is playing the piano. In my younger years I practised hard all the scales and the arpeggios and sat the exams – practical and theory – but when I moved away from my parents’ home I went years – probably twenty years – without playing the piano much at all. Eventually my mother gave me the grand piano we had out in the music room and when it arrived in my home I started playing it again. These days it sits in my study where I pray, where I write my books, where I prepare these radio messages and a few times each day I will go and play for ten minutes or so. It’s just such a delight and a joy to be able to do that.

Now, that’s just one small example, almost trivial. But as we have been chatting about these last few weeks, I know I’ve been emphasising the fact that our God-given gift is meant to be a blessing to other people. I’m blessed through your gifting; the things that you can do that I can’t, and hopefully, you are blessed through mine. That’s how it’s supposed to work and it does.

But there is something so incredibly special about the enjoyment and the fulfilment that we get when we use our gift and we see it impact in other peoples’ lives. All my life I was looking for fulfilment in the things that I could get but I didn’t realise that fulfilment only really comes when we take what we already have and we give it away when we use it to bless other people.

About eighteen months ago a young teenager from a broken home contacted me in response to one of these radio messages that she had heard. She was only thirteen at the time and going through a really terrible time at home. But she also had a hunger for God and so she asked me some questions and I was able to share a few things with her. Within weeks she gave her life to Jesus and she was filled with His Holy Spirit and in the middle of all the bad stuff that happened, she had a joy and an excitement in her that she had never experienced before in her life.

While I was praying for her the other day so I sent her a quick email to find out how she was going. She came straight back to me to tell me she was powering on with God; that her whole life had been changed. Now I had just some small part to play in that but the joy and the sense of satisfaction that I gained from knowing that God had used me – me, of all people!! This fifty two year old man who has never met this young teenager, who isn’t what you would call, made to be involved in youth ministry. It makes me smile.

Does that make sense? It’s so easy to forget that we have to use it and when we do, even though it can be really hard work, it is so fulfilling to use the God-given gift that we have. And to emphasise this, the Apostle Paul, who is writing to his young protégé, Timothy, back in the first century, encouraging him to rekindle the gift that God has put in him, has this to say. I’m reading – if you have a Bible – from Second Timothy chapter 4, beginning at verse 1:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you to proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.

As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

And right here, Paul is getting Timothy – and us – focused on the big picture: one day soon Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. Time is short and because of that, I solemnly urge you to keep telling people about Jesus; irrespective of whether the time appears to be favourable or not. Be persistent; keep telling people; convince them; rebuke; encourage with the utmost patience – whatever it takes.

Now, Timothy’s gift; the one that he was being called to rekindle was the gift of teaching and preaching as an evangelist. Praise God, not everyone in God’s family is a preacher and a teacher. But do you see how this applies equally to each one of us, irrespective of what our particular gifting happens to be? If you are an encourager, it applies equally to you. If you are a giver, it applies to you. If you are a compassionate, pastoral person, this applies to you.

There’s great joy and satisfaction in exercising our gifts. I mean, look at the satisfaction with which Paul looks back on his life. But what we want to do is to pull up and take a breather when the time appears to be unfavourable. What we want to do is we want to stop using our gift when the going gets tough. And Paul is saying, “No, the time is short. People are dying and they are going to a Christ-less eternity. Jesus is planning on coming back sometime soon to judge the living and the dead. God has put each one of us where He has put us with whatever gift He has given us in order to make a difference in this world for Him; in order to bring people to Jesus; in order to see them growing; for them to realise their giftings and to start using those."

And we need to be doing that because, “... the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and they will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander away to myths.” Ain’t that the truth?

It’s something we see all the time – people chasing after this and that; people trying to pull alongside so called ‘gurus’ who tell them what they want to hear. Jesus never told people just what they wanted to hear. Yes, He was often very sensitive to where someone was at and where they were coming from but He didn’t dress it up; He didn’t put any spin on His message because the truth is the truth. There is a heaven, there is a hell and many, many are heading the wrong direction, however enticing that direction might appear to them right at this moment.

Have you ever watched the news and heard some so called "Christian leader" tickling people’s ears with the sort of stuff that people want to hear? Just the other evening, I saw a Christian denominational leader standing side by side with a Buddhist Monk, a Jewish leader and leaders of other religions, proclaiming that there was more that binds them together than pulls them apart. Well, maybe that’s what the world wants to hear but that’s not what Jesus said – that’s not the truth. The thing that puts Christianity out there on its own is that it’s based on the truth that Jesus is the only way – that no one … NO one will come to the Father except through Him. And this is the reason that we need to continue living out our giftings, each one of us, for the glory of God – to share the truth of Jesus into the lives of people.

I know that there are those listening who have turned back; I know that there are those listening who have lost sight of their gifting – their one particular God-given gift – altogether. And today I believe that God is speaking especially to you through His Word. I believe that today God is calling you back to the plans and the purposes that He has for your life. And before you tell me it’s all too hard; there is too much weighing in against you, let me tell you this: inevitably, when we have seen amazing breakthroughs in the lives of people, here at Christianityworks – young Ami recently pulled back from the brink of suicide – the time for proclaiming Christ has never been favourable at all. We just went and did it in the face of the opposition and do you know what we discovered? Duh! That God’s grace was more than sufficient for us!

For some reason, more often than not, that’s a surprise to us. More often than not we are so focused on the adversity that we are facing, we lose sight of the fact that God is at work; that “all things are working together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” That’s God’s grace and it really is sufficient for us! I mean, it really is!

Despite God’s People You know, there are parts of the Bible that I am prone to skimming over. For instance, the genealogies, they are so long and boring and dry – particularly the one that goes on for pages and pages at the beginning of First Chronicles in the Old Testament. I mean, who has time to read that? But one man did – a guy by the name of Bruce Wilkinson – and he stumbled across the prayer of Jabez; one of the most powerful prayers in the Bible and he wrote what is now one of the most read Christian books on the planet, “The Prayer of Jabez.”

And that’s how it often is with those bits that we would rather just kind of skim over. The introductions to Paul’s Letters or Epistles in the New Testaments – we always want to skim over those but there is such a richness and power in those introductions, we do so at our own peril. And finally the bits that I used to be prone to skimming over were some of the personal notes at the end of Paul’s Letters in the New Testament. He’d write all this rich meaty, theological stuff that you and I can apply to our lives and then, almost like a P.S. on the end of a letter, he kind of writes, ‘Well, look, say Hi to Fred and tell Betty to come and visit me soon and give my regards to all my friends in … you know, all that stuff.

But just the other week as we were together, exploring what it means to rekindle the amazing gift that God has placed within each one of us, we read this in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, that:

All scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

And so as we draw to the end of the Apostle Paul’s Letter to Timothy and we get to the personal bit, I am going to resist the temptation to skip over that bit because, as is always the case, there are some gems hidden in there that the Holy Spirit wants to take out and write on my heart and write on your heart.

Paul sets out the purpose of his letter to his young protégé, Timothy, back in chapter 1. Timothy is going through some really tough times, but as Paul reminds him of all the trouble God has gone to, to get him to this point in life, he writes in Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 6:

It’s for this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

And down in verse 14:

Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

It’s about rekindling the gift that God has put in each one of us and using it for God’s glory. Why? Not only because doing that is incredibly satisfying and fulfilling, which it is, but because the time is short and people are going to a Christ-less eternity, as we saw earlier. And I pray that you, like me, have been powerfully encouraged and motivated to rekindle the gift that God has placed within you over these past few weeks, as we have let God’s Word transform us from the inside out.

So, here we are drawing to the end of the letter and we get to this personal bit. What had the Holy Spirit have to say to us through this if indeed every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful in our lives? Well, I was having a bit of a read about what Paul has to say on the personal front – I am reading now from Second Timothy chapter 4, starting at verse 9. He writes to Timothy, look:

Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has also gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is left with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books and above all, the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You must also beware of him, for he is strongly opposed to our message.

At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me great strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Quite a devastating story, isn’t it? All these people who did Paul harm and deserted him and left him. Remember, at this stage, Paul, after many years of ministry in Jesus name, across the known world, is pretty much at the end of his career on death row in a Roman dungeon. He has been through court hearing after court hearing; he has served the Lord so faithfully, through so many trials and tribulations and now this? God’s people; the very people who should have stood by his side; the very people who should have been there for him, have either deserted him, en masse, or as in the case of Alexander the coppersmith, have done him great harm.

Can I tell you something? There is nothing that is more damaging than when the people who are close to you; the people who you should be able to trust; the people who should be caring for you and standing with you – God’s people after all – desert you and betray you. Our immediate response to that is, "This shouldn’t be happening", and when it does, it ranks right up there as our number-one excuse for not exercising the amazing gift that God has given each one of us for His glory. It’s our top excuse, as we conclude that well, "You know, if all those other Christians in my church can’t get their act together, why should I?"

Ever had that roaming through your head, as though, because other people lose the plot, it must therefore be fine and dandy in God’s eyes, for us to lose the plot; for us to put our gifts and abilities on ice and let countless people head off to a Christ-less eternity?

Let me ask you: Is that what Paul did? No! He relied on the Lord and even when he is locked up, chained to a Roman guard, this is what he does: he uses the opportunity to tell the Romans about Jesus. Philippians chapter 1, beginning at verse 12:

I want you to know beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.

See, don’t you love that? Would the time have appeared favourable there, chained up in prison? Probably not! And yet Paul used his gifts and abilities to turn that around for good and bring Jesus to his jailers, for goodness sake!

I want to encourage you today, not to let anything – any disappointment, any adversity, any betrayal – stop you from taking your gift; your unique God-given ability back out of the locker and putting it right to work where you are, for the glory of God. Don’t wait for a better time, don’t wait for the storm to clear, don’t wait for God to put you in a much better place. Start using your unique gifting, right now, to be as Christ to a world that desperately needs a Saviour, whether they realise it or not. Because in all likelihood, there is someone close to you, someone that God has deliberately put in your proximity space who needs to hear about this amazing Jesus through your unique ability to tell them; through your gift of service or encouragement or whatever it is that is your shtick in life. And one day you will meet them on the other side and have all eternity to rejoice in Christ with them.

Friend that’s the plan!!

When the Flesh is Weak I would like to finish up today’s message and indeed this whole series on "Rekindling the Flame" with an exaltation, because I know that from time to time our flesh is weak – we’re human, we grow tired and we want to pull over and give up. Serving God is hard! You know, I basically had three careers in my life. The first was in the Army – four years of tough training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. It was brutal, followed by six years as an officer in the Australian Army.

Then I went on to an I.T. and Management Consulting Firm that I owned and ran with my two other business partners. And there were times in the early days when we couldn’t pay ourselves and clients were demanding … Running your own business is not easy!

And then full time ministry, here as the CEO at Christianityworks, sharing the love of Christ through these radio messages and many other media outlets and activities. And without a shadow of a doubt, the hardest of those three by far has been full time ministry, because in the Spiritual realm, the enemy comes against you. Why? Because he doesn’t want us to use our gifts and abilities and resources to tell people about the amazing love of Jesus.

As I have shared Paul’s letter to Timothy with you and read the adversity that Timothy faced in ministry, I have so related to that. I have been blessed hugely by listening to God’s Word through Paul to Timothy too. It’s been such a great encouragement. And it’s not just in full time ministry, let me say. Anyone who believes in Jesus, who follows Him, who lives their lives out for Him is a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And when we step on that spiritual battlefield called "life"; when we do that for God; when we deliberately set out to use our gifts and abilities and resources for God’s glory, it’s going to get real hard, real quick, let me tell you.

And when that’s been going on for a while, you know what? Our flesh becomes weak – mine does, yours does – we are human. So I want to finish off with an exaltation again from the Apostle Paul, about our flesh; our human nature that craves security and comfort and rest; that hungers for its own way and recognition and reward and glory, because this is really important. First Corinthians chapter 9, beginning at verse 23, Paul says, look:

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body; I enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

There is a passion there; a focus; a discipline there, for Paul, in using his particular God-given gift for the glory of God. And I don’t care what our particular gift is – it may be pastoral care; it may be encouragement; it may be showing compassion – all those things sound warm and soft and fluffy but anyone who is in that space will tell you, it’s a tough gig and sometimes they grow weary and sometimes they want to give up.

But what Paul is saying to us here is, look, people will make sacrifices for all sorts of things: to run a race and win the prize – an athlete needs to make all sorts of sacrifices and that’s true. You and I make sacrifices for our career, for our family, for all sorts of things, all the time. Why wouldn’t we want to make sacrifices for Christ’s sake as well? If we are prepared to make sacrifices for a perishable prize, why wouldn’t we make sacrifices for an imperishable one?

So when the flesh gets weak; when all we want to do is to give up using our God-given gifts for God’s glory – and I’m sure there are some today who are at that point, right there; right in that dark place; right in the face of the opposition and the disappointments – it is time to rekindle the gift that God has placed within you and to keep on going and using it for His glory.

Friend, God has given you a special gift. Don’t give up; don’t stop using that gift to tell people about the love of Jesus Christ.