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(upbeat music) - Drive Time Devotions is a Saddleback Church podcast. We want to
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com for locations and service times in your area. Please visit us this weekend.
- Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you back to day four of our look
together through Second Timothy chapter one.

We're going to look at verses, well, we're going to begin with verses eight and nine
today and then go all the way down through verse 12. Let me begin by reading
verses eight and nine from Second Timothy one. So Paul writes, "Do not be
ashamed "to testify about our Lord, "or ashamed of me, his prisoner, "but join
with me in suffering for the gospel "by the power of God, "who has saved us and
called us to a holy life, "not because of anything we have done, "but because of
his own purpose and grace.

"This grace was given us in Christ Jesus "before the beginning of time. " Well,
Paul talks about being ashamed here in these verses and one of the first
questions many of us have is, why would Timothy be ashamed of Jesus, be ashamed
of Paul? Why would he be ashamed?

Well, he wasn't so much ashamed of Jesus as he was ashamed of himself. He was
feeling that his gifts were not good enough to serve. We've just looked at that.

He was also feeling ashamed of the situation that Paul was in. Remember, Paul is
in prison here. And although we know today how God used the fact that Paul was
put in prison, he wrote these letters from prison.

So we have much of the New Testament because Paul was in prison and had time to
write. But we know that today. Timothy didn't know that then.

And if you had a friend, if you had your greatest example of faith stuck in a
prison somewhere and you were praying for him to get out, you knew he was
praying to get out, he couldn't get out, Timothy was, there was something in him
that was ashamed of that. Why would God allow this, he had to be thinking, like
maybe some things in your life. Well, you wonder, why would God allow this to
happen to me?

Why would God allow this to happen to another believer? And it's almost a place
of shame for you. It feels like if God is so great, how could he allow this to
happen?

And when you begin to feel that way, and I think we all do from time to time,
what's the answer? The answer is to realize that you are saved for a purpose.
You get a broader perspective.

It's not just about this moment in your life. It's not just about what's
happening in this day of your life. You are saved.

God has brought you into his family for a purpose. But here's the important
part. God has a purpose for your life.

No doubt about that. God has a purpose for your days. But the purpose I'm
talking about here is an even greater purpose than that.

You were saved and in being saved, you're going to live out God's purpose, but
you're also an expression of God's greater purpose. God's greater purpose is
showing the world who he is, showing eternity who he is. So in 1 9, we were
saved, not because of anything that we have done, but because of his own purpose
and grace.

God purposed to save you. God purposed to show his love through you. God
purposed to give you his grace.

Now that is a reminder, and as we go on at the end of verse 9, it is a reminder
of the great plan of salvation that God has put into place. Salvation, God's
plan to bring us to faith through Jesus Christ. You need to remember that it is
not God's plan B.

It's not some plan that he hurriedly put into place after mankind fell in the
Garden of Eden. Notice at the end of this verse, the Bible tells us that this
was God's plan from the beginning of time. God knew that we would fall, and God
knew that he would restore us.

It has always been God's plan to show his love to the world and to all of
eternity through Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is not an example of a way of
salvation that didn't work, forcing God to try to figure out some other plan.
It's not as if God was saying, "Well, I'll try giving the Israelites a lawn.

If they'll keep it, that's how I'll save people. Oh, they weren't able to do
that, so that didn't work. I'll try sending them prophets, and if they'll listen
to them, that's how people will be saved.

Oh, they didn't listen to them. I'll have to try something different. " That's
not how God is at work.

Those things that happened in the Old Testament were all looking forward to what
Jesus would do one day. The sacrificial system that you read about in the Old
Testament, it was always intended to look forward to God's ultimate plan,
salvation through his son. God used that sacrificial system, sacrificing lambs
and animals in the Old Testament, to demonstrate deep spiritual truths that
would become a reality with Christ's death and resurrection.

So you might think of it this way. The Old Testament is filled with neon signs
that point the way to Jesus. The sacrificial system, it's a big sign pointing to
Jesus.

The tabernacle where they worshiped, that was a big sign pointing to Jesus. All
the words of the prophets, it's like they're flashing, this flashing neon sign.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

That's always been God's purpose. And when you in your life feel ashamed of
what's going on in your life, how could I say that I'm a Christian when I'm
going through this difficulty, when I'm going through this suffering? Is God
being faithful to me?

You remind yourself that God's purpose from beginning to end has been his
faithfulness in Christ Jesus. At the beginning, that was his plan. To the end,
that's going to be his plan.

And right now, you may not see it as clearly as you want to, but get your eyes
above the right now for a moment and see the flashing Jesus, that sign that's
pointing to him again and again and again. It's in God's grace. That we see this
incredible gift.

Now, let me read again the end of verse nine and then also verse 10. This grace
was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now
been revealed through the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus, who has
destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. I
gotta admit, along with you, I don't like the way my days go sometimes.

I don't like the way that things don't work out like I'd want them to do. I
don't like the way that I disappoint myself 'cause I didn't get done what I
anticipated to get done or I followed some temptation I wish I hadn't followed.
I don't like the way my days work out sometimes, and I can get caught up in that
day.

I can let that become my hope. The way your day went today is not your hope.
It's not going to last any longer than today.

Your hope is right here. If you're struggling with hope right now, what do you
hold on to? You hold on to the fact that Jesus Christ has destroyed death.

That's what happened at the cross in the resurrection. You hold on to the fact
that Jesus Christ has brought life, abundant life here, and immortality, eternal
life with him, to light, full streaming light through the gospel. That's what
you hold on to.

That's where your hope is. That's the kind of hope that will last. Now, as Paul
talks about this good news of God's hope in our lives, verses 11 and 12 really
sum up how I can hold on to that in everyday life.

In verses 11 and 12, Paul says, "And of this gospel, I was appointed a herald,
"and an apostle, and a teacher. "And that is why I am suffering as I am. "Yet I
am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, "and I am convinced that he
is able to guard "what I have entrusted to him for that day.

" You want to last, you want to hope that's going to last, that is your confidence. I
know whom I have believed. I am convinced, and that word convinced is in the
strongest sense in the Greek language.

I am absolutely convinced that he will guard what I have entrusted to him for
that day. How do you hold on to hope? First, I know whom I have believed.

It's a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It's not some philosophical
relationship with the Bible and the truth of the Bible. It is a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, and out of that personal relationship, you live
out the truth of the Bible.

You want to hope that's going to last, you know him, and out of that knowledge, you
are convinced. Conviction, a conviction of hope, comes out of spending time with
the one who gives you your hope. The more time you spend with Jesus, the more
convinced you become of his hope.

I am convinced, are you convinced that you have hope in him? There may be a
season of your life right now where you're feeling a lot of doubt. What do you
need to do?

Spend time with him. I'm not sure he's there, you're saying to yourself, that in
faith you choose to spend time with him. You see, there's times when God allows
me and he allows you to stretch our faith.

We don't feel his presence, but we spend time in his presence. And as you do
that, your faith is being stretched, and in fact, you're convinced your power of
conviction is being strengthened. Then Paul says, I am convinced of what?

That he's able to guard what I've entrusted to him. Now notice, he didn't say
what he's entrusted to me. Paul says, Christ is able to guard what I've
entrusted to him.

And the word there is literally the word deposited, what I've deposited with
him. What's Paul talking about here? What is it that you have entrusted, that
I've entrusted, that I've deposited with him that I know he's able to guard?

It's like going to a bank. And when I go to a bank, what am I putting in? What's
my deposit that he's talking about here?

Paul is saying the deposit is myself, my life. Paul has said, I have trusted my
life and my eternity to the vault of God's love. If Jesus Christ isn't real, if
God's love isn't true, I've entirely entrusted myself to that.

That is what I'm betting my entire life on, and I am too. I have entrusted that
to him. I've entrusted my life to him.

I put it in the vault of God's love. And there, I know he's able to guard it
because of his power, because of his greatness, because of who he is. I am
convinced that he is able, not that I am able, but that he is able to guard what
I've entrusted to him.

And maybe those are the three words that you need today as we pray, as we talk
about God's hope in our lives and how we can enjoy a lasting hope in the days of
our lives. He is able. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Father, that you are able. You are able to do anything and
everything, and you are able to guard what we've entrusted, our lives, our
eternity, our hope. We've entrusted it to you.

We've deposited it in the vault of your love. And in doing that, we know that
you're able to keep it there, to guard it there. You are greater than death
itself.

You've brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. You are able.
Lord Jesus, I pray that on those days when I feel like I am not able, and there
may be many of them, that instead of trying to find myself more able, I would
remind myself that you are able.

You are an able God. That ability that you have, that strength that you have,
that power that you have, let that be the power in my daily life. Let that be
the power in the decisions that I make today, in the way that I love people
today, in the choices of faith that I make today.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. And join us tomorrow as we end our look at 2
Timothy 1. We're going to talk about some honest, some painful reasons why we need
hope in order to last.