MEDIUM PROMISES - life direction

God uses his promises to include us in his wonderful plans. First he awakens us and excites us by his promises. They are so good. They answer every legitimate longing. But God’s promises also go far beyond what you could have asked for or even imagined: (1 Cor 2) “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined – God has prepared for those who love him.” (Eph 3.20,21) “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

God makes the promises and we take hold of them by faith. His promises hold up to us (display to us) his very desirable plan for us. None of those promises exist as separate booty for us to take away with us. They are all found in Jesus Christ and fulfilled by him. And they are received by us as we place our faith in him.

This second study about God’s promises focuses on those promises which build on the foundation already successfully laid in our lives. Remember the first, LARGE promises that God fulfils in us are the ones that join us to Jesus Christ. The promises that apply to us the rescue from sin and death that Jesus achieved for us by his death and resurrection.

Now we have to build on that foundation. That foundation is Christ. When we received Jesus, that foundation was laid. Before that we were unspiritual – enemies of God and unable to recognise, let alone respond to God’s promises.

S0 we must build on the foundation God laid in our lives.

1 Corinthians 3.11-15. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

God’s promises are designed to help us build. They are the plans for our lives – the shape and design God has in mind for our lives. The promises are designed to spur us on to do something really valuable with our lives.

The highest value we can add to our lives is to build with lasting and precious materials; gold, silver and precious stones – not wood, hay and straw. The lasting and precious materials are spiritual values and the kingdom of God. The temporary materials are the things that cannot go past the day of our death. The real measure of our lives is seen on the day of disclosure – that is the day of God’s judgement. The fire that tests the quality of our lives is the flaming Glory of God. Our aim must be that the Spirit of God will own the outcomes of our lives – that they will not be consumed as worthless because they were just world-based ideas and efforts.

The verse we read warns against being a Christian who only escapes God’s judgement by the skin of his teeth – like a person escaping from a house fire with nothing except the scorched clothes he has on.

At our conversion, God lit a fire in our lives and he wants it to catch alight and blaze! It was never God’s intention to save us for mediocrity. It is not possible to be a disciple of Jesus and yet be bored and boring! We are made spiritually alive so we can live and fight and work for him. It is not an option to be a bland, tasteless Christian. You are called to be salt! You are called to light a fire!

Case Study: Timothy

Timothy had a good foundation laid in his life, but he went further – he built on the foundation – even though he struggled against fearfulness.

2 Timothy 1.5-7

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 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.

Timothy grew up around Christians. His mother and grandmother (not his father) were sincere Christians who raised Timothy to trust in Christ. When Paul preached in Timothy’s home town, Lystra (Acts 14) there was an amazing ruckus. When Paul healed a crippled man, the superstitious people of that town started worshipping Paul and Barnabas as if they were the incarnation of the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes! They were about to offer animal sacrifices to them and put garlands of flowers around their necks. Only when Paul and Barnabas ripped their clothes and rushed into the crowd to show them that they were ordinary men like them, did they manage to dissuade the people from offering sacrifices to them. Paul and Barnabas challenged the people to stop worshipping images and to turn towards God their Maker. In Lystra, a church was planted. But Paul’s enemies followed him to that place and turned the town against him. Just like Jesus who was first welcomed into Jerusalem by the crowds and then they turned to bay for his blood – so also those who at first wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas, were persuaded to attack them. Paul was stoned and then dragged outside the town and left for dead.

When the little group of Christians gathered around him (to pray for him?), he got up and walked back into the town. It seems Paul was miraculously revived. He and Barnabas left Lystra the next day and carried on their work in the next significant town, Derbe, where many people were converted to Christ. Then, Paul returned to Lystra and the other towns of that area to strengthen the Christians there. His message came with authority, because he was able to demonstrate its truth: ‘through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.’ He helped each town establish its church with spiritual leaders.

Timothy’s mother and grandmother came to faith in these times, and he Timothy saw what happened in their lives. It was in this situation that Timothy became a disciple of Jesus Christ. At some point he received Christ for himself. A year or so later, Paul returned to Lystra and took Timothy on as one of his team, to be a mentor to him. As he prayed for Timothy, at some point, Paul and Timothy were convinced that God was giving Timothy spiritual gifts for the good of the church (they turned out to be the gifts of evangelism and teaching).

A foundation was laid in Timothy’s life:

• He saw the contrast between the gospel and the prevailing superstitious culture of his town when Paul and Barnabas arrived with the gospel.
• He saw his mother and grandmother come to faith in Jesus and become foundation members of the church in Lystra.
• He listened to them and was taught in the home to trust in Christ.
• He also came to personal faith in Christ.
• He had to endure the strife caused in a home where his father was not a disciple of Jesus.
• He began to do Christian work in the church at Lystra (Acts 16.2).
• He was taken on by Paul as a helper in his work of planting churches.

Although a good foundation had been laid in Timothy’s life, he pressed on to capitalise on it – to make something of it. Paul challenged Timothy to use and develop the spiritual gifts given to him. A flame had been lit but he needed to preserve it and blow on it and fan it into a fire. He was evidently a naturally fearful man and need to realise that such fearfulness was not from God. The more the enemy tried to blow out the Lord’s calling and gifts, Paul encouraged him to fan the spark into a raging fire. While the enemy sent the damp draught of fear, it was the Holy Spirit’s work was to enflame within Timothy a spirit of power, love and self-control. The means the Holy Spirit uses to enflame our hearts with such things it by the promises of God found in the Scriptures.

Timothy did not fail. Later, Paul could say of Timothy:

Philippians 2.19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. 20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

Paul viewed Timothy as a highly valuable Christian because he was committed to Christian work. He gathered up God’s promises by faith and saw them worked out in his life.

God makes promises about the direction of your life. He first grants you the promise of life in Christ at your conversion and baptism - and then he marks out a path for you – a calling – so you can use up what remains of your mortal days with energy, joy and purpose. Paul likened it to a sacrifice, a fight and a race. There is nothing passive and merely ‘interior’ about this kind of faith. There is no boredom and lack of direction found here!

2 Timothy 4.6-8 Paul wrote to Timothy right at the end of his own life:

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

The promises of God beckon us out into this challenging, dangerous, thrilling and successful life. Having laid an eternally secure foundation in your life, Jesus Christ - God has made your life extremely promising! The opportunities are boundless, because Christ on whom you have been anchored is boundless. So, from the large promise of rescue from the corruption that is destroying this world and you, there springs up promise after promise that will give your life direction, purpose, fulfilment and joy. Once your life is directed towards the same end that God has in mind, his promises will flow and flow, like wave upon wave. In Ephesians 2 it describes your life as a path of good works that the Spirit of God has marked out ahead of you. In Hebrews 12 it is a race marked out for you. See how this is a definite direction – a path – not a random series of attempts to strike out in this direction or that! And where is that path taking you; what is the end God has in mind? The end God has in mind, is the same as the path itself: It is to display the worth, the value, of Jesus Christ. He wants to do this through every part and stage of your life. He wants your life to be living worship every day, every year, every decade and on out into eternity.
Romans 12.1,2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

These verses teach us that we are to live our daily lives as worship. God wants to display Jesus’ worth through your work, home, recreation, troubles, personal challenges and triumphs. God’s promises to you about the direction and purpose of your life are all about having the beauty of Christ displayed – shown out – in your daily life. His promises will lead us in this direction and towards this purpose. We must put ourselves in the place where we can discover those promises. They are found in the Bible.

Paul’s advice to Timothy helps us here, too.

2 Timothy 3.10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.

Paul directs Timothy to a very challenging life! And the Scriptures are at the heart of it. If Timothy was to continue to develop as a competent man of God, equipped for every good work, then he would need to continue in the Scriptures, to be disciplined, corrected and trained in righteousness by them. More than this, the Scriptures needed to be at the heart of his Christian work so he could take a stand against the error and shallowness of ‘wants-based’ teaching.

Paul’s aim for Timothy was that he fulfil his ministry. It is Christ’s aim for us too.