Where are You — 2 Timothy 2

0:00 Alright. Let's pray here as we get started. Excited to be here this morning, and let's ask the Lord... Ask for the Lord's help. Our heavenly Father, we are are so thankful that you brought us here to this point.

0:16 Father, we we're asking that that you would reveal yourself to us this morning. We know that the scripture is your written word and we're asking for understanding of the word. We're asking for a spiritual understanding. We're asking for our spiritual senses to be heightened, aware. We want to see the Lord Jesus Christ.

0:46 We want to understand him more. We want to understand the heart of our heavenly father. And so it's with this we pray with expectation depending on your help. We ask this in the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1:03 Like to jump right in this morning and go to second Timothy please. Second Timothy, and we're going to read in second Timothy chapter two beginning at verse one. Second Timothy chapter two verse one. This is Paul writing to Timothy. He considers him his son in the faith.

1:32 As we begin in second Timothy chapter two and verse one, we hear these words, thou therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And in the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. For no man warreth or goes into war entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man would strive for masteries or compete, yet, yet is he not crowned except he would strive lawfully or according to the rules.

2:20 Verse six, the husbandman or or the farmer that labors must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Notice verse eight. Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel. And we'll pause right there.

2:47 This morning, I have three, a three point outline for you and the first point of that outline is remember, the word remember. The second is going to be hear the question from god And the third point is going to be tell with your toes. Now if that piques your interest, I hope it does. But well that's point three. So we'll get there eventually.

3:11 Now so the word remember. We just read this particular verse and we want to highlight this verse in second Timothy. It says, remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel. The word remember would mean this, to recollect, to to make mention, to be mindful of, to keep it in the front of your mind. Remember.

3:38 Now, this is not a this is not a unique New Testament concept. We hear these words remember very often in the gospels in the in the New Testament. Even engraved on our table up here this morning. Do this in remembrance of me. I would have you remember.

3:55 Paul... Peter Peter says, I write to stir up your remembrance. Remember, to keep front of mind, to have it in the forefront of your mind. And so it doesn't say just remember Jesus Christ. There's a little word that in this sentence.

4:10 It says, Remember that Jesus Christ. And we want to understand what's happening. It says, Remember that Jesus Christ, and we've thought about what remember means, and then we have this little phrase, the seed of David. Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David. Now, that immediately makes us think about this, that he was the prophesied Messiah.

4:34 We go back a couple of weeks ago and John Woodhams brought us a message about the Messiah. All and what that entails about the lord Jesus Christ being Messiah. He was the prophesied one. You might remember in the gospels as we read about the the lord the lord Jesus Christ. Don made reference to some movies that portray these things and one thing that we notice is every time all the onlookers like John the Baptist, he was saying, is this Messiah?

5:07 And they would say, yes. He checks all the boxes. Even his critics would say, would say, wow. He in miracles, he's he's sinless. Jesus Christ, the seed of David, checked all the boxes.

5:23 His lineage, check. You know, he's perfect, check. He's all powerful, check. He exercises power over over the storms, check. He he can cast out demons.

5:33 Check. The lord Jesus Christ, the seed of David, checked all the boxes. Remember that. Jesus Christ, the seed of David was raised from the dead. Yeah, He checked all the boxes.

5:53 He even checked God the Father's box. I say that reverently. He made the payment for your sin and mine. When He died on the cross and He said, It is finished. The work was complete.

6:10 He was a satisfactory payment, the only payment for sin. He was raised from the dead. When He was raised from the dead, that's the stamp of approval. Yes, I am satisfied with the payment for sin. And then we have this little phrase, according to my gospel.

6:30 Now, Paul is not trying to boast that he had his own gospel, right? I mean, that's not, remember, Paul was, Paul, Paul had the gospel revealed to him. God taught him the gospel. God had him as a messenger of the gospel. He was to take the gospel and and share it with others.

6:50 And so, we have this word remember. Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel. Now Tim has got a new game called Moose Masters. And in Moose Masters, there's a part of the game where you... Do I have this right?

7:17 Might have to do a fact check Tim. Do we do this right here? If you're the moose master, alright? And so, while you're playing this game, if you get the moose master and you raise your hand, these these are your best moose antlers, okay? If you raise your hand like this, then everybody else has got to do it.

7:31 Last one that doesn't or last one to do it gets a point. You know, the more certain amount of points you're out of the game. Well, this morning, we want to use this verse, remember that the lord Jesus Christ, we want to remind ourselves of it. We want to keep it in mind all the way through. So instead of the moose symbol, we're going to do He is risen.

7:57 Remember that he is risen from the dead. Remember that god raised him from the dead and so, why don't we all just point our finger in the in the air right now and and so, now, if if we're going to this message, I'm going to give you permission. If you want to raise your hand, just like in Moose Masters, then everybody else has to raise their hand. Remember, keep it on the forefront of your mind. Not just on Easter, Jesus Christ is risen.

9:01 Listen for the question that God asked. Genesis three:one. Now the serpent, we know this is the we know this is Satan who's who's who's projecting himself or for is is visible in form of a serpent. Now, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And He said unto the woman, this is the serpent talking to the woman, Yea, has God said, you shall not eat of every fruit of the garden?

9:40 And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make one wise... We'll just interject here and just understand that you realize that she she saw that the tree was good for food, that was the lust of the flesh.

10:33 She understood it was pleasant to the eyes, that was the lust of the eyes. And then she said it was it was desire to be make one wise, that was the pride of life. She took of the fruit and did eat and gave to her husband also with her and he did eat. And the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Verse eight says that they heard the voice of God, the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

11:10 And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam saying unto him, where art thou? There's the question that God asked. Adam, where art thou? And for the purposes of our message this morning, we are are we might ask it in a little bit more modern English if you will.

11:39 Where are you? Adam, where are you? We want to think about this as god asking the question to us. Put your name in there. Male or female, put your name there and let god ask you, where are you?

12:00 Now I want to think about this in three different ways. Okay? We're going to apply this in three different ways. The first is the fact of we're going to think about it, consider it in the aspect of salvation. One that's being one who is has lost and and so we we might we might think of it this way and carry the narrative.

12:22 Now, if you'll you'll go with me and allow me this little bit of a liberty to say, okay, Jesus Christ hasn't been presented yet, right? We're in the first book of Genesis. We're in the only in the third chapter. Jesus Christ has not come on the scene. Although he existed, right?

12:38 According to John one one. Now, Adam might have responded this way. Adam, where are you? I'm lost, lord. I'm lost.

12:51 I'm in my sin without a savior. I'm lost. And so we're thinking about this in the context of salvation. You see, sin, sin would separate us from a holy god and what did we see? We saw this we saw this Adam and Eve in the garden.

13:07 They walked with god. They had communion with god and when the sin came in, they hid themselves for god. The the the fellowship was broken. Sin had separated and now, they make their own little effort, right? They say, oh, something's wrong.

13:24 I'm going take some of these fig leaves. Man's effort. Can man merit salvation? Can man merit God's favor? Can anything we do earn?

13:34 No. And so, here's a little example of that. Is that they sowed fig leaves together. It was not adequate. It's not sufficient.

13:42 It did nothing. And we know that the lord the lord god would bring about and slay an animal. The blood must be shed. Then there was an appropriate covering given. And we we know we know as we read the rest of our Bible that that was just to point to a a future blood being shed.

14:02 Abraham would say, it's going to be a lamb. God will provide himself a lamb. All these blood of bulls and goats would all point to the lamb, the lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist would say, there's the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world. We think about this question.

14:19 Adam, where are you? I'm lost. I need a savior. Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel. The death, the burial, the resurrection.

14:46 Are you lost? Be saved. Are you lost? Jesus is standing there saying, Come unto me. You've got sin that separates you.

14:58 I've made the payment for your sin. And guess what? Here's the proof. God raised me from the dead. You can cast your sin on me and be forgiven.

15:09 Come to Him. Don't remain lost. We're going think about this question in a second way. The second way we're going to think about this question... You're a Christian now.

15:42 He's hiding because of his sin. Raise your hand if you can think about one thing. What what pops into your mind if when you say, what's something that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the garden before sin? What's something that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the garden? Debbie?

16:01 Fellowship God. Fellowship of God. Okay, that's a great one. How about something else? Trevor?

16:05 Free food. Free food. Everywhere, right? Good. Gardening.

16:11 Gardening? Yeah, they got to tend, to till, to plant. Man, Scott? Transparency. Transparency, yeah.

16:18 Bob? No evil. Right, there was no evil. Nothing right there. Hey look, God designed it this way and here, let me ask you this question, Are Adam and Eve enjoying any of these things right now?

16:33 They're hiding in the trees. They're trying to hide from God. Can they even hide from God? They're not enjoying it. Look, here it is.

16:43 Here's Adam and Eve with sin that's not been dealt with, okay? Let's listen. Listen to these words. I won't have you flip or do the sword drill this morning because we're doing this. We're remembering that Jesus Christ, the seed of David was raised from the dead according to the gospel.

17:07 But god comes to the Adam and Eve in the garden. They've got sin that's undealt with. Listen to what the scripture says. Let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily besets us. Hebrews twelve one.

17:19 But now put off all things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications, put em out of your mouth, lie not to one another seeing that you have put off the old man and his deeds. Colossians three:eight-nine. Now keep with me on this one. Listen to this, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey the sin, the lust of thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.

18:00 Remember, I'm quoting Romans, It's the same book that's going to teach us that though you were dead, you have been raised, you've been raised with Christ. And so... But you're dead... Or excuse me, you're alive from the dead and you're members as instruments of righteousness unto god. For sin shall not have dominion over you.

18:28 Romans six twelve and then we we know Paul writes these words, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? God comes to Adam and Eve in the garden, and they are hidden. They're hidden with unconfessed sin. Confess your sin. Don't stay hidden.

18:56 Come out. We we understand we understand the heart of god. We understand the story of the prodigal son. The son comes back. The father receives him with open arms.

19:08 Father, I'm not worthy to be even in your house to be one of your servants. Come, son, take your place at my right hand. Come, kill the fatted calf. Rejoice with me. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

19:28 Don't stay hidden. Where are you? Zig Ziglar would say, You would be amazed at the people that would... Are not willing to self evaluate. This whole question, Where are you?

19:43 It's self evaluation question. Where are you? Are you lost? You gotta you gotta determine that for yourself. Where are you?

19:51 Are you hidden? Are you a Christian who's following Christ but said, hey, I'm taking a detour and I'm hiding behind the trees. I've got some unconfessed sin. I'm not I'm not willing to deal with and look, sometimes it's not apparent. Sometimes, we're blinded to it ourselves.

20:31 So, same scenario, Adam and Eve in the garden. God comes to them and says, Adam, where are you? And Adam would say, here I am, Lord. I know I've done wrong. I'm ready I'm ready to put myself at your your disposal.

21:02 Maybe what would illustrate this point that I'm trying to make would be like the life of David. We're we're told a lot about the life of David in the scripture. Just a little trivia point. Does anybody remember the first the first mention of when David comes on the scene? The first mention of David in scripture?

21:19 When Samuel left him anointed her. Very good, Trevor. That's right. That's in first Samuel. The book of first Samuel.

21:25 Samuel calls for calls for Jesse to call all of his sons and invites them to a sacrifice and we might say that if we ask that question, David, where were you? Well, he was missing from that sacrifice, wasn't he? But we're not critical of David because you know where he was? He was exactly where he was supposed to be, right? He was watching his father's sheep.

21:52 That's what he had been instructed to do and that's what he was doing and he wasn't called. He wasn't invited. So, therefore, he didn't leave that and and so, we see David god takes care of the whole situation. Samuel says, are these all your sons here? I I came to name the next king among your sons and yet I don't see one.

22:13 God's not leading me in your direction. Jesse says, oh yeah, there's David. He's watching the sheep. Go get him. He's anointed.

22:20 He's anointed to be the next king of Israel. Time progresses in in first Samuel and and a war is happening against the Philistines, the good old Philistines. And and so David's three older brothers are selected to go to war and it's a little time has passed and Jesse says, hey, David. I want you to go see how your brothers fare. David, the scripture is clear on this.

22:47 It says, he he rose up early the next morning, gathered all the things that his father had wanted to send and he goes he goes to check on his brothers. Now, if God would have come and said, Hey David, where are you? He would have said, Lord, I'm right I'm right where I'm supposed to be. I'm right where I was told to be. And that's correct.

23:07 He was an errand boy. He was going... He was running his errand. He was doing it well. Rose up early and is completing the task.

23:15 While he's there, he sees the giant Philistine Goliath. And he says, who is this that defies the armies of the living God? And he wonders why is no man willing to stand up and fight? And he says, I will go and fight the giant. And so Saul says, yeah, you can do it, but here, at least take my armor.

23:34 And David says, I can't do this armor. I haven't tried it. I haven't proved it. I I'm I'm only going to go with what I know. I'm going to go in the name of the lord and if he was there, there he is on the battlefield.

23:46 There he is facing Goliath. Goliath is there. Jennifer, you just walked in. Oh. Goliath is there.

23:55 David is here and god would say, David, where are you? I'm here, Lord. Would you protect me from this giant the same way you did the bear and the lion? Would you work through me? That's where David was.

24:16 And he took that sling and he slings it up there, kills Goliath. David is recognized later time progresses. He's recognized as king. One day he's on the rooftop. His armies are out to battle.

24:38 He sees Bathsheba bathing. He desires her. He calls for her. She comes. He commits the act of adultery.

24:52 David, where are you? He's hiding. He's hiding with unconfessed sin. He doesn't acknowledge it right away. He tries to hide it.

25:13 It leads to more sin. Lying, deceit, murder. David, where are you? I'm here. I'm a king.

25:23 I'm a king. I'm doing this. I'm making it happen. I'm ruling the people. I've been anointed.

25:31 David, where are you? Nathan has to come to make him sin. You are the man. He was living his life. He was being king and he finally realized, oh, I've sinned against the lord.

25:55 He was willing to confess it. He had to be brought to that point. We would progress through the life of David and later we would see David. We would we would hear the words of Psalm 51. We would hear the words of Psalm 32.

26:15 We would hear the Psalms of praise that David writes and we'd say, what kind of a guy is this? You know what kind of a guy it is? David, where are you? Right here, Lord. I'm a man after your own heart.

27:01 Would you be willing to self evaluate? I'm lost. I need a savior. I'm I'm hiding from god. I need a Nathan I'm here, Lord.

27:23 I want to be a man after or a woman after your own heart. What does it mean to be after God's own heart? What does it mean to be a man after God's own heart or a woman after God's own heart? Let me give you this little simple solution. Don't miss it for the simplicity of it.

27:37 Love the things that god loves. Hate the things that god hates. Sounds simple, right? God so loved the world. God loved the world.

27:50 You and I should love the world. We know that's not doesn't mean the world, right? That mean, doesn't mean the globe, doesn't mean the blue and green, that means people. God loved the world. I should love people.

28:03 I should love my neighbor. The Lord Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. I should love the church. Again, not the building, but the people. I should love.

28:19 I want to be a a man after god's own heart. I would love what he loves. Search the scripture. What does god love? God loves a cheerful giver.

28:29 God loves. You you'll see the things that god loves. What are his commandments? That you would love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. The eyes will run to and fro looking to looking for them whose heart is turned toward him.

28:46 God loves you. God loves the world. God loves us. We love what God loves. We hate what God hates.

28:55 Hey, look at the scripture. He's... He didn't leave that incomplete. You can find out what he hates. He hates sin, but he hates all kinds of variants of sin.

29:07 And they're spelled out for you in Scripture. Look at Proverbs, what God hates. So remember remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel. Let God call your name and hear the question, where are you? And the third thing was, well, tell them with your toes.

29:46 Here's what I mean by that. Look at Exodus three, please. You're in Genesis three, turn to Exodus three, the next book of the Bible, but also chapter three. Exodus three, we read a little bit about Moses and look at what we see here. Now Moses kept the flock of Jephro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of god even Horeb and the angel of the lord appeared to him in the midst of a fire of flame and the fire out of the midst of the bush and he looked upon it and behold, the bush was was burned with fire and yet the bush was not consumed.

30:34 An amazing sight. Verse three, And Moses said, I will not turn aside and I will see this great sight why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that Moses had turned to see, god called to him out of the midst of the bush and he said, Moses and Moses said, here am I. The first example we looked at was Adam and Eve, and God called Adam. And Adam said, well, Adam Adam buttoned the lip.

31:11 He was hiding. Here, God calls a name again. Moses, where are you? He says, here I am Lord. Here I am.

31:23 So you have this contrast, hiding or here. Hiding or here. If you're following the Lord Jesus, you want to be hiding from Him, or you want to be here, present, all in, all available. Adam gives us an example of what not to do. Moses gives us an example of what to do.

31:47 I said, tell him with your toes. Well, this is what I mean. Where was where was where was Moses' feet? He were... He...

31:53 We're gonna hear these words. Take off your shoes, Moses. You're on holy ground. Yes, lord. What would you have me do?

32:04 Well, Adam's toes, they were behind a bush somewhere. Tell them with your toes. There was Vance Havner, he's a fellow. Some of you know him. He died in 1986.

32:24 So, you know, his memory is starting to fade from our minds. Wonderful preacher. Gifted of the Lord. Country fellow from North Carolina, so you know he had to be a good fellow. But you know, would...

32:43 Is it right to say he rose to fame? I mean he was well used to the Lord and off preaching everywhere. One of the favorite revival speakers all across America. And so, Vance Havner's father died. And you know how the family would do going through their things.

33:00 And Vance Havner had remembered in his growing up years and through his life that his dad would often say, I'm going to preach a great sermon one day. I'm going to preach this sermon. It's going to be so good. Like it's going be a powerful sermon. You know, he's telling this to his son who's a great preacher who preaches wonderful sermons.

33:20 And his dad, well, he never preached that sermon. He was just kind of a quiet fella and went about his business. Anyway, they're cleaning out the stuff. They're cleaning out his father's belongings and Vance came along, Mr. Havner came along some of his dad's sermon notes or outlines.

33:38 So, they're they always started but never finished, you know, and it's just he thought, daddy wanted to preach that sermon. I guess he never never did. Cleaning up the stuff, you know, and full time goes on and and Vance Havner is asked to come speak at the little country church where he grew up in. In fact, his a lot his family still lived in that area in in in the Western Part of North Carolina and Blue Ridge Mountains. And Vance Havner is preaching away and and he decides to give this little illustration an object lesson in the in the message and he says, could I just wondered here, we're among friends and family.

34:12 If you would just take a minute, stand and tell who led you to the Lord. Who was it that led you to the Lord? Give personal testimony. And Vance, as he tells the story, says, I didn't realize what I got myself into. All of a sudden, person after person started standing and gave testimony that his dad, Vince Hagner's dad, had led them to the board.

34:40 The grocer, the farmer, the different ones in the community. Vince Hamner left that meeting that day and he said, Daddy, I guess you did get to preach your sermon. You know what? Vance Havner's daddy, mister Havner senior, was right where he was supposed to be. Mister Havner, where are you?

35:12 Right where you have me, lord. Sharing the gospel. Not making a name great for himself. Who knows mister Hat? I don't know his first name.

35:42 Father, if we're in need of confession, give us courage to confess. Father, we're all in need of spiritual growth. Give us courage to grow, and we ask this in the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Amen.