Sammy Williams: Well, it is a joy and a privilege.
Sammy Williams: Every time we come here, this feels like home, and you people are so loving.
Sammy Williams: Yesterday we started off with the missions banquet.
Sammy Williams: And those of you that weren't here, you really missed it.
Sammy Williams: I mean, it was uh not only reports from all over the world, but even food from every tribe and tongue and nation and chicken foot.
Sammy Williams: Uh, so we enjoyed ourselves, and uh, you you need to come next time.
Sammy Williams: But it's also a special joy for me to be here today on our anniversary, and I got the better end of the deal for sure.
Sammy Williams: I was telling Doug, uh, Nicole deserves an award for putting up with me uh for 23 years.
Sammy Williams: So her reward in heaven is great.
Sammy Williams: But uh, I'm just rejoicing and thankful for her and thankful for the partnership that we have that has enabled us to just be that gospel team.
Sammy Williams: Uh we need to be teams as we serve Christ in the gospel, and the best team is the husband and wife, isn't it?
Sammy Williams: And so we just praise God for that.
Sammy Williams: Well, it's my honor today to bring you God's word, and I'm going to be reflecting on a passage from 2 Timothy, which has been precious on my hearts.
Sammy Williams: And you can start turning there in your copy of God's word as we look at a couple of verses from 2 Timothy 1, verses 11 and 12.
Sammy Williams: As I reflect on this book, that as it's percolated in my heart and encouraged my heart, I just love the reality of what Paul is living and even teaching his protege, Timothy, in this epistle.
Sammy Williams: Just a reminder that gospel work and missions, as we talk about it, sometimes we look at the dramatic side, the romantic side of all the work that's done, but that's really not the essence of gospel ministry.
Sammy Williams: Gospel ministry will fall to the ground, your Christian life will fall to the ground if you only focus on doing and going.
Sammy Williams: And you forget that the roots of who you are is not what people see, but is what only God sees.
Sammy Williams: And it's not the doing, but the depending on Christ that is really the strength of any missionary.
Sammy Williams: And I would even apply it to your lives here today as I seek to encourage you in your work for Christ here, as he's called you to live for him here, is how are you rooting yourself in Christ and depending on Christ?
Sammy Williams: I think, especially in our generation, and I don't need to spend a lot of time on this, but we're living in a day and age where to be a Christian is to be at war.
Sammy Williams: And I think that's been said already.
Sammy Williams: There's more of the Psalm II effect of just the nations grinding their teeth against the Son of Man.
Sammy Williams: And we, as we identify with him, they have animosity towards us too.
Sammy Williams: It's weird to be a Christian today more than any other generation.
Sammy Williams: I don't know if you know this, but throughout church history, anyone that's been faithful for Christ has suffered much for Christ.
Sammy Williams: And Christians have been beaten and jailed for confessing Jesus, and they've done so not with a sense of loss, but a sense of joy and hope.
Sammy Williams: Some of the greatest movements of God happened under the greatest seasons of persecution.
Sammy Williams: You can think about in the 1500s, the Huguenots, in one day, in 1572, Bartholomew's Day massacre, under a Catholic persecution, 70,000, these are in some ways the children of Calvin spiritually.
Sammy Williams: 70,000 of them, because they love Jesus Christ, were killed in one day.
Sammy Williams: Can you imagine if that happened here, what God would do in our lives?
Sammy Williams: And the church grew even more because the gates of hell can't stand against it.
Sammy Williams: We look at the past though, and we think, wow, that that was crazy back then.
Sammy Williams: Do you know that in our generation, in the 20th and 21st century, has been a foment of the greatest amount of persecution, more than all 19 centuries combined?
Sammy Williams: And it's happening for sure in places like North Korea and the Middle East, but I believe it's going to start happening right here.
Sammy Williams: And some of you are seeing it already.
Sammy Williams: And I think it's because of that that before we run out into God's service, we need to ask ourselves: where do I get the strength to stand against all of this?
Sammy Williams: Where do I get to have the courage and the boldness to stand against this?
Sammy Williams: And I don't want you to give this romantic idea that you have it in yourself because that's the furthest thing from the truth.
Sammy Williams: I know that's true in my own life.
Sammy Williams: I don't have the strength to face the challenge of being someone who stands at the front lines of the war of the gospel for the fame of Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: It's because of that that books like 2 Timothy are so important for us.
Sammy Williams: Because it's Paul as a father speaking to his young son who is actually shirking back and getting frightened, like you and me do at times when we face opposition.
Sammy Williams: And he's giving this epistle to him as the key truths that will help a frail, young, timid man to stand again.
Sammy Williams: I don't know if you're in church this morning and saying, I don't have the strength to even sit here and pay attention to the sermon.
Sammy Williams: That's a good place to be in some ways, because when you're weak, you'll depend more on Christ.
Sammy Williams: When you get beaten down, you begin to see how insufficient you really are.
Sammy Williams: And that's what 2 Timothy is written for.
Sammy Williams: It's for people like you and me.
Sammy Williams: In the real moments of our life when we're really honest about what we can't do.
Sammy Williams: Then Jesus does great things through us.
Sammy Williams: Just think for a moment about who the author is, the Apostle Paul.
Sammy Williams: This is, as he writes this epistle, this is his last will and testament in 67 AD before he was beheaded on the Ostian way.
Sammy Williams: The only way you could get Paul to stop serving Christ is to disconnect his head from the rest of his body.
Sammy Williams: And that happens probably three weeks after writing this letter, most commentators would say.
Sammy Williams: Can you imagine?
Sammy Williams: And he he had a sense of that as he's writing.
Sammy Williams: And yet he's writing with great strength.
Sammy Williams: I want to tap into some of that, don't you?
Sammy Williams: That spiritual strength.
Sammy Williams: Paul will never again at this point preach to crowds, evangelize at Athens, travel on missionary journeys, which he's done so much of, or see churches planted for Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: His world has shrunk down to a dungeon known as the Marmotine prison in Rome.
Sammy Williams: There's a single hole in the ceiling to let light in and air because it was really a sewer.
Sammy Williams: If you've been to Rome, you can see this even today.
Sammy Williams: And he has this request, very interesting request at the end of 2 Timothy 4, where he says, Would you bring the cloak, Timothy, which I left at Troas with Carpus and the books, especially the parchments?
Sammy Williams: You know why?
Sammy Williams: Because he was out on the streets of Rome in this sewer dungeon.
Sammy Williams: And during the winter, which is most likely when he was writing, Rome is 55 degrees Fahrenheit in the day and below 37 during the night.
Sammy Williams: I'm not built for that kind of weather.
Sammy Williams: I have 5% body fat or something like that.
Sammy Williams: And I can't imagine how Paul is making it there.
Sammy Williams: That's why his key request is, would you bring me some warm clothes?
Sammy Williams: Prisoners awaiting execution were put in this kind of a dungeon.
Sammy Williams: That was the final place, but that you went before you were executed.
Sammy Williams: Lowered 12 feet into this dark, filthy hole that measured only 30 by 22 feet.
Sammy Williams: I don't know how big your bathroom is.
Sammy Williams: That's probably the size of this place.
Sammy Williams: The height of the ceiling was six feet, six inches.
Sammy Williams: The prison was under the city sewers, and historians tell us that sometimes, sometimes 30 or so men were in there, incarcerated, and they would just die because of the conditions there.
Sammy Williams: And they would open the sluice gates and allow the sewage to come in and take these dead bodies out of there.
Sammy Williams: This is what Paul would see day in and day out.
Sammy Williams: Here's a man that's been faithful for Christ, and this is where he ended up.
Sammy Williams: When Paul was put into it, it was already a 700-year-old structure.
Sammy Williams: It wasn't newly built, it was decaying and filled with the stench of death.
Sammy Williams: Most prisoners just starve to death there.
Sammy Williams: That didn't happen to Paul.
Sammy Williams: But he talks about the hardship.
Sammy Williams: It's he doesn't he doesn't make this romantic in 2 Timothy 2 9.
Sammy Williams: He says, I am suffering hardship, Timothy, even to imprisonment as not just an ordinary jail cell, but as the worst of criminals.
Sammy Williams: But the word of God is not imprisoned.
Sammy Williams: That's the light of hope that I have, even in this place.
Sammy Williams: His charges, why was he there?
Sammy Williams: Preaching Christ.
Sammy Williams: Standing for Christ.
Sammy Williams: That's what I was talking about.
Sammy Williams: The more you stand for Christ in this generation, you're gonna see maybe not severe things like this, but things leading up to severe things like this.
Sammy Williams: At the end of his ministry, because of the hatred of emperors like Nero, Paul is experiencing the brunt of this hatred towards his savior in his own life.
Sammy Williams: And what is he doing?
Sammy Williams: Even as he's mostly abandoned, he says in 2 Timothy 1:15 that you know what's happened, Timothy?
Sammy Williams: Despite my faithfulness to the Lord and me being here in jail because of Jesus and gospel work, people aren't really supporting me or praying for me anymore.
Sammy Williams: In fact, everyone's afraid, and most of my friends have abandoned me.
Sammy Williams: I think that's almost worse than the physical suffering, is the suffering of abandonment from Christians that you think should be loyal to you.
Sammy Williams: Only Luke is with me.
Sammy Williams: Praise the Lord for Dr.
Sammy Williams: Luke, right?
Sammy Williams: He's probably just 24-7, just bandaging the poor man and helping him with his wounds.
Sammy Williams: But 2 Timothy is not about this.
Sammy Williams: It's not about Paul moaning and groaning about his suffering like I do most of the time, and saying, you know, can you please send me a care package?
Sammy Williams: Please send me some cookies or something like that.
Sammy Williams: I miss uh In and Out Burger, or whatever.
Sammy Williams: You don't have that here, but whatever you feel is your comfort, you know.
Sammy Williams: He's not talking about his comfort or his needs.
Sammy Williams: In fact, one of the things that is so counterintuitive, because this is a man who is not just doing, but he's dependent, is that he isn't talking about himself, he's thinking about his son.
Sammy Williams: He's like, I know my destiny, it's sure, I know whom I've believed, I know where I'm going.
Sammy Williams: My concern is for you, Timothy, because you're not sure.
Sammy Williams: And you're not standing strong.
Sammy Williams: These are my last few days.
Sammy Williams: I want you to live many more days in faithfulness for Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: You're giving up.
Sammy Williams: And so he writes as a father, even these last moments, thinking more about his kids, spiritual kids, especially one spiritual kid, which is Timothy.
Sammy Williams: Why?
Sammy Williams: Because he wanted to strengthen him with Christ.
Sammy Williams: And Timothy was weak, like you and I are weak.
Sammy Williams: We know maybe three of his weaknesses that you could identify with.
Sammy Williams: I think the first one is more of a practical one.
Sammy Williams: He's he's young, it's a circumstantial issue.
Sammy Williams: He can't do anything about it.
Sammy Williams: He's young in those days.
Sammy Williams: It took a long time for the older generation to really respect young men.
Sammy Williams: And you had to go through almost getting to about 60 when your life is, you know, half over before people start respecting you.
Sammy Williams: And Timothy was 33 years old, and so he he was beginning to shirk back from that challenge.
Sammy Williams: If you remember 1 Timothy 4.12, Paul reminds him, let no one look down on your youthfulness.
Sammy Williams: But then you get into some deeper weaknesses.
Sammy Williams: Not only was this practical, circumstantial weakness of his youth, but he was also internally in his heart, he was timid, he was fearful.
Sammy Williams: 2 Timothy 1.7, Paul is again kind of giving him a boost from the back and saying, God has not given us Timothy, especially in this generation when there's so much hate for Jesus, he has not given us a spirit of cowardice, of timidity.
Sammy Williams: God wants men and women that have steel in their spines that comes from Jesus.
Sammy Williams: Don't be timid of power, of love, of discipline.
Sammy Williams: I think there's a third problem that he has, and it's more physical, and something that was inherent to Timothy.
Sammy Williams: Maybe some of you identify with this.
Sammy Williams: Not only was he young, not only was he fearful, but he was also sickly, just constantly falling sick.
Sammy Williams: You know, we were joking about during COVID about how frightened people get about one virus, and especially living in my nation, we have viruses everywhere all the time.
Sammy Williams: There's millions of them floating around.
Sammy Williams: And we were just thinking, you know, we we live in a day and age where there's so much fear about sickness.
Sammy Williams: But that's that's one of the things that Timothy was struggling with, and he would fall sick a lot.
Sammy Williams: 1 Timothy 5 23, no drunk no longer drink water exclusively.
Sammy Williams: He had a lot of digestive issues, but use a little wine, and in those days that was medicine to help you to get over gastric problems for the sake of your stomach.
Sammy Williams: And as you as you look at this man, he's the kind of man that I would have given up on.
Sammy Williams: But because Paul knows that God loves to use weak men, he writes 2 Timothy.
Sammy Williams: Do you feel weak this morning?
Sammy Williams: 2 Timothy is for you.
Sammy Williams: If you don't feel weak this morning, you're not really being honest.
Sammy Williams: Praise the Lord.
Sammy Williams: Church history tells us that this weak, frail, young man became a faithful pastor.
Sammy Williams: I think a large part of that was this epistle.
Sammy Williams: And he was martyred in Ephesus after many years of faithful ministry at the age of 80.
Sammy Williams: The way he was martyred was he was dragged through the streets and stoned to death by angry followers of the pagan goddess Diana.
Sammy Williams: But he stood firm to the end.
Sammy Williams: And so Paul gives Timothy instructions.
Sammy Williams: In 1 Timothy, it was more for the church.
Sammy Williams: In 2 Timothy, it's more for him, and more for us to equip him for the work of ministry.
Sammy Williams: And I think that's even so essential for us, right?
Sammy Williams: That we would link ourselves to the head, Jesus Christ, so that we would become equipped for ministry in challenging days.
Sammy Williams: And he reminds us of these things.
Sammy Williams: I think in the thematic verse of this epistle, this is all introduction, by the way.
Sammy Williams: Don't worry, we'll get to our text.
Sammy Williams: In 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 13, he says, retain the standard of sound words which you heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus, verse 14.
Sammy Williams: Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
Sammy Williams: The strength is not ours, the strength is Christ through his word.
Sammy Williams: And that's what we need to fight for.
Sammy Williams: When we fight for ourselves, we lose.
Sammy Williams: When we fight for Christ in Scripture, he wins through us.
Sammy Williams: That's the theme of 2 Timothy.
Sammy Williams: Guard the truth of Christ in your generation.
Sammy Williams: And I think it's with that in mind that Paul starts, I love the way Paul disciples Timothy.
Sammy Williams: He doesn't start by saying, You gotta change, you gotta buck up, man, pull up your socks.
Sammy Williams: But he starts in 1 Timothy with just sharing his testimony.
Sammy Williams: Look at me and follow me as I follow Christ.
Sammy Williams: I've been through those challenges, Timothy.
Sammy Williams: I've been burned.
Sammy Williams: But Christ is faithful.
Sammy Williams: Look at me and walk behind me as I root myself in the vine.
Sammy Williams: And I think it's with that in mind that we find in many ways the key aspect of Paul just sharing his life with Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verses 11 through 12.
Sammy Williams: And that's going to be our meditation for this afternoon, this morning.
Sammy Williams: It reads like this: follow along in your copy of God's word, 2 Timothy 1.11, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.
Sammy Williams: For this reason, Timothy.
Sammy Williams: I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard that which I have entrusted to him until that day.
Sammy Williams: Even reading those words is a boost to the soul, isn't it?
Sammy Williams: The strength is not in Paul, the strength is in him who he has believed.
Sammy Williams: The roots of the gospel are not what people see, but they're deep in the soil of Christ and Christ's sufficiency.
Sammy Williams: That's what Paul is reminding this dear young brother, and what he's reminding you as brothers and sisters this morning, that you will walk out of this room and you will fall on your face if you think you have strength in yourself.
Sammy Williams: But when you realize that all strength is in the vine, you will be rooted in a bedrock that no storm will be able to bring down.
Sammy Williams: And you will face storms, but you will face them with strength and joy that comes from him alone who is able to keep you.
Sammy Williams: And I want to think about two roots of gospel strength this morning as we're thinking about missions.
Sammy Williams: It's not about our strength, brothers and sisters.
Sammy Williams: I'm gonna say that until you're tired of me saying that.
Sammy Williams: It's about Christ.
Sammy Williams: The weakest men, this is so counter to the world, are the strongest in the church.
Sammy Williams: The weakest men and women.
Sammy Williams: I've seen this again and again and again.
Sammy Williams: And so there's two roots of gospel strength that we find in this passage.
Sammy Williams: The first, of course, in verse 11, and the second in verse 12.
Sammy Williams: So let's look at the first one in verse 11.
Sammy Williams: Key word here is for which I was appointed.
Sammy Williams: You know why you're a Christian?
Sammy Williams: Because you were appointed, not because you chose Jesus.
Sammy Williams: If you think that, you've already failed.
Sammy Williams: Because you can unchoose him.
Sammy Williams: But because he chose you, you are secure.
Sammy Williams: But I think Paul is going a little bit deeper than just the general idea of the doctrine of election.
Sammy Williams: He's talking about the doctrine of ministry, and he's saying there is no ministry that you do in the church of Jesus Christ that is your own.
Sammy Williams: In fact, the most dangerous people in the church are people that do ministry to which they appoint themselves to.
Sammy Williams: They need to be kicked far out of any form of service because they're they are going to kill the church.
Sammy Williams: The only ministry in the church that is valid and useful is ministry that is appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, right?
Sammy Williams: Who gives us gifts in the first place.
Sammy Williams: We don't do what we want to do, we do what he's appointed us to do.
Sammy Williams: And Paul is saying, you know, it puts in perspective the suffering, the challenge, and all of that.
Sammy Williams: This isn't my mission, this isn't my work, this is his work from beginning to end.
Sammy Williams: So let me make it just really simple.
Sammy Williams: What's the first root of gospel strength?
Sammy Williams: It is a submission to God's purposes in your life.
Sammy Williams: A submission to God's purposes in your life.
Sammy Williams: It's so difficult to submit, isn't it?
Sammy Williams: But I love, I think what Doug was saying earlier as he was reflecting on Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 and 29.
Sammy Williams: My yoke is easy.
Sammy Williams: You know that word easy there is actually caris.
Sammy Williams: My yoke is gracious.
Sammy Williams: My yoke is kind.
Sammy Williams: There is a sense in which sometimes we've seen all kinds of wrong ideas of submission in the world and we react against that word and think it's bad.
Sammy Williams: But actually, those who are believers, we say the greatest place of rest for me is submission.
Sammy Williams: Because I know my master.
Sammy Williams: I know what he's like.
Sammy Williams: I love submitting to him.
Sammy Williams: And that's the first way in which I have strength to serve him, is by submitting to him, by dying to myself and saying, his will be done in my life.
Sammy Williams: And there's two elements in Christ and in his cross that enables Paul to submit.
Sammy Williams: We need to make this really fleshed out because how do we submit even as we face lives that are difficult, even as we face lives that are hard?
Sammy Williams: I've been counseling a couple I was sharing yesterday that just lost their eight year old girl.
Sammy Williams: I don't know how you can go through that.
Sammy Williams: But I remember the wife who's a believer, the husband is not a believer, but I think he's close.
Sammy Williams: But the wife saying, you know, Sammy, for me, it's like the book of Job.
Sammy Williams: I don't know why God is doing this, but I know who He is.
Sammy Williams: And I know that what's going to happen through this is much good.
Sammy Williams: She said, already God is enabling me as a suffering mother to witness to my sister and my brother who don't know Christ.
Sammy Williams: I said, Angie, that's just part of the story.
Sammy Williams: But submitting to him always produces these amazing fruits in the fires of the valley of the shadow of death.
Sammy Williams: And that's why Paul, I think, as he is in the Valley of Shadow of Death, he says the greatest thing that helps me to go through this is to just say, Jesus, this is not the Romans, this is not Nero that has placed me in this place.
Sammy Williams: It is you.
Sammy Williams: And I will submit to you.
Sammy Williams: Whether I'm suffering in a dungeon, whether I have cancer, whatever it is, I will realize that there are not two gods in this universe, Satan and Jehovah.
Sammy Williams: There is only one God.
Sammy Williams: And his name is Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: And even Satan can't move a finger without his permission.
Sammy Williams: See, it's those kinds of things that can move you through life as you serve him.
Sammy Williams: I think the first way in which we submit to Christ is if you look at the first few words, he says, for which I was appointed.
Sammy Williams: Paul is saying there's an element that enables me to submit that's found in the previous context.
Sammy Williams: And what is that?
Sammy Williams: It's God has called us, verse 9, with a holy calling, not according to our works.
Sammy Williams: Praise the Lord for that.
Sammy Williams: But according to only one whose work is important, right?
Sammy Williams: Christ Jesus, verse 10, who has been manifested in his appearing to do what?
Sammy Williams: In his work?
Sammy Williams: To abolish death.
Sammy Williams: That word for abolishing death is literally to crush death, to cancel death.
Sammy Williams: This is a description of the cross, isn't it?
Sammy Williams: Of Calvary.
Sammy Williams: And Paul says, I can stare straight in the face of death and realize death is nothing because of Calvary.
Sammy Williams: That enables me to submit.
Sammy Williams: They can chop my head off, and immediately I'm in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: That's the way I think.
Sammy Williams: I don't think this way, but that's the way Paul thinks.
Sammy Williams: That's the way I need to think.
Sammy Williams: He says, We are we are driven to submit by the cross's power in our trials.
Sammy Williams: We are driven by the cross's power.
Sammy Williams: You know, I love when Jesus, even a few days before his crucifixion, he's at Lazarus' tomb.
Sammy Williams: You remember in John chapter 11?
Sammy Williams: And most of us get caught up with Jesus weeping in sympathy, and I think that's significant.
Sammy Williams: But there's another emotion that Jesus expresses that's really significant and even more than his weeping in John 11, 33.
Sammy Williams: When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, the sisters and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled.
Sammy Williams: And that word for deeply moved in spirit, in the Greek, embrimamu, oh my, I can't even say it, Maomi, is a word that is used for lions when they growl under their breath.
Sammy Williams: Or maybe you have a big dog, you know, that sees an enemy and they start snarling.
Sammy Williams: And literally what Jesus was doing in that passage is he was going to war with death.
Sammy Williams: He hates the way in which death and the curse has affected his people.
Sammy Williams: And that's why he went to the cross.
Sammy Williams: You're trying to think of some of the motivations that caused Jesus to go to the cross.
Sammy Williams: It is this very desire to take away the power and the influence and the sting of death in our lives so that death just becomes sleep for us now.
Sammy Williams: Just a temporary transition into eternal life forever and ever.
Sammy Williams: Do you believe in this power?
Sammy Williams: Because if you don't, you won't be able to face anything.
Sammy Williams: But with this, you can face everything.
Sammy Williams: I love the Puritans, you know, John Owen, especially.
Sammy Williams: In fact, you should read this book that he wrote about the power of Christ's death.
Sammy Williams: They didn't know how to sell books.
Sammy Williams: They wrote these long titles that are almost like sermons in themselves: The Death of Death and the Death of Christ.
Sammy Williams: But what a great book that is, 1647.
Sammy Williams: You should find it.
Sammy Williams: I know John Owen is difficult to read, but you should find it because it will be the pillow that you need to lay your head on when you're facing death even in your life.
Sammy Williams: This is the strength that drives Christians in ministry, is the ability to say to that, I laugh at you because you have no power over me because of my savior.
Sammy Williams: Spurgeon, many years ago, when he was preaching in his early days, was just focusing on his local church, and there was a young man named Medhurst who was just so driven by saying, Spurgeon, I want to grow to be a preacher like you.
Sammy Williams: Would you train me in ministry?
Sammy Williams: And Spurgeon kept saying no to him and saying, I don't have the time for this.
Sammy Williams: Until one day Ian Murray talks about this.
Sammy Williams: I think Medhurst, after pestering him, every time Spurgeon walked to his home, he just kind of fell on his knees and held on to Spurgeon.
Sammy Williams: And he said, Spurgeon, I must preach, sir.
Sammy Williams: I must preach Christ.
Sammy Williams: I can't do anything in life.
Sammy Williams: If you don't allow me to preach, I will want my head cut off because it's not worth living.
Sammy Williams: When you come to that sense of fearlessness of ministry, then you're ready.
Sammy Williams: You're ready to serve Jesus.
Sammy Williams: But that's not the only thing that helps Paul to submit, not a sense of God's power that drives him.
Sammy Williams: But I think a second thing that helps him to submit is this idea of I was appointed for what?
Sammy Williams: To be a preacher, to be an apostle, and to be a teacher.
Sammy Williams: And I know we can't do all of these things because we're not apostles, but I think the spirit of this, as you look at all three of these words, is what?
Sammy Williams: That we are appointed not just to, you know, make money and retire somewhere on the beach and some beachfront property and do temporary things that don't matter, but we are appointed as Christians to do one thing and one thing only until Jesus comes to proclaim him, to proclaim the cross.
Sammy Williams: And I think that's another thing that makes your life exciting.
Sammy Williams: Isn't it so boring to think about just accomplishing, you know, something on this earth?
Sammy Williams: And then you say, then what?
Sammy Williams: But to be a part of something that is eternal, that you know that lasts forever, is something that gets you up in the morning, isn't it?
Sammy Williams: Even when you're sick and dying.
Sammy Williams: And so Paul says, not only am I driven by the cross's power, but I'm directed by the cross's proclamation.
Sammy Williams: I can't, you know, live long enough.
Sammy Williams: I can't live long enough to just proclaim Jesus every day.
Sammy Williams: Many years ago, it was a decade and a half ago, actually, we had a ministry team with us working on our field, and they went through this horrendous car accident after serving for about eight years with us in ministry.
Sammy Williams: And it was such a severe accident that every member of their family, the husband, had multiple uh brain damage, skull fracture, his femur was completely crushed, no airbags in our vehicles.
Sammy Williams: The wife was in a coma for a few days because she had brain swelling, and their their kids that were with them had hand fractures, jaw fractures as they were tossed around the car in this accident.
Sammy Williams: And we thought, this is the end of it.
Sammy Williams: And it's okay.
Sammy Williams: You know, they're going home, let them retire.
Sammy Williams: He recouped for six months.
Sammy Williams: God spared his life, came back to preach that Sunday.
Sammy Williams: I mean, there wasn't a dry eye in that place.
Sammy Williams: And he said, This doesn't stop us.
Sammy Williams: He preached on Psalm 131.
Sammy Williams: My soul is like a weaned child.
Sammy Williams: I don't know why God did this, but I know he's making me more like Christ so that I can keep preaching him more and more.
Sammy Williams: In fact, there was a greater strength in this brother's preaching after he had brain damage than before he had brain damage.
Sammy Williams: And we all were listening to him.
Sammy Williams: Even though parts of his brain were left on the streets of our country, he preached Christ with more power after that.
Sammy Williams: He he made another statement to us.
Sammy Williams: He said, Don't call it an accident, call it an appointment.
Sammy Williams: Because nothing happens by chance.
Sammy Williams: Everything happens to make us more fervent to serve Christ.
Sammy Williams: When we believe in the submission to God's sovereignty, it changes the way you think about the worst things that happen to you, right?
Sammy Williams: We are driven by the cross's power.
Sammy Williams: We are directed by the cross's proclamation.
Sammy Williams: I think Paul says some of this in 1 Corinthians 9 16 when he says, I'm under compulsion.
Sammy Williams: Woe is me if I don't preach the gospel.
Sammy Williams: Do you feel like that?
Sammy Williams: I think sometimes God has to beat us down to make us feel like that.
Sammy Williams: And so Paul says, I was appointed.
Sammy Williams: That word for appointed is this idea of fixing time and purpose for us.
Sammy Williams: Not one day in your life is something that happens by accident.
Sammy Williams: Everything that happens, what a great and glorious and loving Savior we have, is appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: Especially those trials.
Sammy Williams: Don't be shouting at Satan or demons.
Sammy Williams: They have no power over your trials, brothers and sisters.
Sammy Williams: You have no hope if you think they have power over your trials.
Sammy Williams: Especially your trials, they come by appointment from a loving Savior that wants you to become more strong in perseverance and service for Him.
Sammy Williams: And Paul speaks of three offices that he was given through the gospel and through the cross.
Sammy Williams: And again, while we can't do these things exactly because we're not called to all these things, I think we can learn a sense of how we should proclaim the cross.
Sammy Williams: He says, I'm a preacher.
Sammy Williams: And that's the idea of our herald who's not speaking his own will, but who's speaking the will of the king, the decrees of a king.
Sammy Williams: And so there's a sense of authority that we need to have when we're preaching Christ.
Sammy Williams: The words that I have are not mine, they're from the king of heaven.
Sammy Williams: He says, I was appointed to be an apostle.
Sammy Williams: And again, this has been made into a big word of somebody who's a big shot, you know, I'm an apostle.
Sammy Williams: But literally, what it means is a sent one.
Sammy Williams: Somebody who's humble, who's a slave of Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: Now we can't be apostles, but we can have this attitude, right?
Sammy Williams: Not only as we preach Christ should we be authoritative, but we should also be humble.
Sammy Williams: That we recognize that nothing in us is worthy.
Sammy Williams: Everything that we do is from Him.
Sammy Williams: He says, Not only am I a preacher, not only am I an apostle, but I'm a teacher.
Sammy Williams: And this speaks about clarity.
Sammy Williams: One who is able to explain and instruct and disciple and say, I have the answers for life because it's not in me, but it's in this book that comes from the king.
Sammy Williams: There's clarity to life, and people will come to you and ask you for the reason for the hope that is in you, not because you're so smart, but because you're relying on an infinite wisdom that comes from an infinite God.
Sammy Williams: That's why it's so exciting to be Christians, isn't it, brothers and sisters?
Sammy Williams: Because the message is a message that is clear, that is powerful, and that is humbling.
Sammy Williams: And so the first way in which we can be strong for Jesus in the gospel is by what?
Sammy Williams: Submitting.
Sammy Williams: Submitting to God's purposes in our life.
Sammy Williams: But then look at verse 12.
Sammy Williams: Look at verse 12.
Sammy Williams: He gives us a second root of gospel strength.
Sammy Williams: He says, for this reason, and here's the reality here, as I do all of these things, I don't, you know, have a wonderful six-bedroom house with all this health and wealth and prosperity and all that nonsense that people preach about today.
Sammy Williams: I don't know how they can preach that stuff when Jesus had no place to lay his head.
Sammy Williams: And you look at Paul and he's just like Jesus.
Sammy Williams: He says, For this reason I suffer these things.
Sammy Williams: Not because of me, but because I'm depending on Christ and because I'm preaching the cross, I suffer these things.
Sammy Williams: The second root of gospel strength is a solace in God's unfailing power.
Sammy Williams: You look at the end of verse 12, what does he say?
Sammy Williams: But I am not ashamed.
Sammy Williams: Because I know that he's faithful, that he's powerful.
Sammy Williams: In fact, his power is more manifested when I am beaten down and weak.
Sammy Williams: In my lowest valley, God is so powerful and so faithful.
Sammy Williams: People that sing, Great is thy faithfulness, don't realize that it was written in the deepest and darkest trial of Israel.
Sammy Williams: You know, we think, Great is thy faithfulness because the clouds are out and it's the sun is shining and there's no problems and all my sickness is gone away.
Sammy Williams: Read Lamentation sometime.
Sammy Williams: I don't have time to preach that sermon.
Sammy Williams: But Great is thy faithfulness is more sung in the valley of the shadow of death than in the mountains of blessing.
Sammy Williams: Most of the times in the mountains of blessing, we don't even remember God.
Sammy Williams: And so Paul says, I am so filled with a comfort.
Sammy Williams: Aren't the best Christians to be around?
Sammy Williams: I know this sounds weird, but the best Christians to be around are suffering Christians.
Sammy Williams: Actually, even better than that, and this is again just my weird pastoral bent the best Christians to be around are dying Christians.
Sammy Williams: They're literally on the doorstep of heaven, and they can see Jesus more clearly than I can.
Sammy Williams: That's what Paul is doing right now.
Sammy Williams: He's saying, My heart is filled, Timothy, not with doubt, not with fear.
Sammy Williams: Maybe I used to have those before, but as I go through this trial, my heart is filled with certainty.
Sammy Williams: I know whom I believed.
Sammy Williams: And it's because of my suffering that I'm able to sing more powerfully the assurance in God's faithfulness that you can have to.
Sammy Williams: How does this solace in God's unfailing power work itself in our heart?
Sammy Williams: It's it comes about through two truths about God that need to strengthen us.
Sammy Williams: The first is this that God's plan is good.
Sammy Williams: God's plan is good.
Sammy Williams: When Paul says, I also suffer these things, he doesn't say, I suffer these things because it's out of control in my life, but he says, I suffer these things for what?
Sammy Williams: For this reason.
Sammy Williams: Where does this suffering come from?
Sammy Williams: It comes from the same person that gave me the commission to preach him.
Sammy Williams: Along with that commission to preach him, Philippians 1 29, it has been granted to you not only to believe in his name, but also, we don't like the second part of the verse, to suffer for his sake.
Sammy Williams: Psalm 34, 19.
Sammy Williams: Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him.
Sammy Williams: I left that conclusion.
Sammy Williams: Out of all of them.
Sammy Williams: That doesn't mean necessarily physically, but it means spiritually.
Sammy Williams: Every great man of God in scripture suffered much.
Sammy Williams: Job lost everything.
Sammy Williams: Even though he was the most affirmed, justified man walking with God in his generation.
Sammy Williams: Moses, as he led a nation, think about the trials that he went through that even caused him to get angry and fail.
Sammy Williams: But that that was part of being a minister of Jesus Christ in his generation.
Sammy Williams: Jeremiah was known as what?
Sammy Williams: The weeping prophet.
Sammy Williams: And I think before we move on, we need to ask ourselves: what in the world is God doing by making his people suffer more than those that aren't his people?
Sammy Williams: Why would God work like this?
Sammy Williams: It's a good question to ask, isn't it?
Sammy Williams: Because I think this is one of those axes that often tends to destroy and disintegrate our faith at times as we begin to think that God is not good because we're suffering.
Sammy Williams: And Paul is saying exactly the opposite.
Sammy Williams: He's saying, God is good, especially in my suffering.
Sammy Williams: What are some of the good things that God does in our life through suffering?
Sammy Williams: I was just doing a survey of Scripture as I was thinking about this.
Sammy Williams: And here's six things.
Sammy Williams: You could probably think of 50 things, but I just want to keep it short because we have to have lunch.
Sammy Williams: But here's six things that God does in our life through suffering, more than he does through blessing.
Sammy Williams: Scripture teaches abundantly on this.
Sammy Williams: I think one of the first things that God does through suffering is he restrains sin.
Sammy Williams: When Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 12, 7, the thorn in the flesh, you know the context of that?
Sammy Williams: Is he had had these visions where he had even been to the third heaven and seen Jesus.
Sammy Williams: And you know what he admits?
Sammy Williams: He says, I wasn't allowed to speak about those things.
Sammy Williams: I'm not going to give you all the details, like people today that write books about going to heaven and having tea with Jesus, you know, like it's just a normal thing.
Sammy Williams: Paul says, actually, it was a spiritual trap for me of pride.
Sammy Williams: I was tempted to become prideful, even as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: That was my sin.
Sammy Williams: And you know what Jesus did to take away that sin?
Sammy Williams: Well, he died for me, but he also sent me a sanctifying thorn in the flesh.
Sammy Williams: Because he loves me not just at Calvary, but even today, through suffering.
Sammy Williams: And if Paul struggles with pride, what do you think we struggle with, right?
Sammy Williams: And so God sends trials to restrain sin.
Sammy Williams: Praise the Lord for his love.
Sammy Williams: Second reason why he sends trials is, you know this well, right?
Sammy Williams: Our church has been memorizing James, but to grow us in perseverance.
Sammy Williams: It's like going to the gym, right?
Sammy Williams: And getting those, tearing those muscles and then getting stronger muscles that you can do great things physically.
Sammy Williams: Well, God wants you to do great things spiritually and through faith.
Sammy Williams: And the gym that we need to go to is not the gym of blessing, that doesn't produce anything, but the gym of suffering.
Sammy Williams: James chapter 1, verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces what?
Sammy Williams: Endurance.
Sammy Williams: I think also God sends us trials because we think in our generation somehow that we've gotten to the millennium because there's a new iPad coming out, or there's, you know, all the technology, the buildings that we've built.
Sammy Williams: And we're so enamored with who we are as human beings and the things that we've accomplished that God wants to remind us that this is a fallen world that is going to be destroyed.
Sammy Williams: And it's actually not growing, it's groaning.
Sammy Williams: But you won't remember that until you groan a little bit.
Sammy Williams: And so we have verses like Romans 8.22, God sends a suffering to remind us that all creation is groaning.
Sammy Williams: For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pain of childbirth until now.
Sammy Williams: I think a fourth thing is that God sends a suffering to advance the gospel through us.
Sammy Williams: Philippians 1.12.
Sammy Williams: Even though people that were my coworkers are attacking me and despising me, Paul says in Philippians 1.12, I rejoice because I want you to know, brethren, that circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.
Sammy Williams: Who cares if I'm being slandered?
Sammy Williams: I'm not important, my fame's not important, my reputation's not important, only Christ is important.
Sammy Williams: And you begin to talk like that more, and then you become more useful for him.
Sammy Williams: I think one of the biggest enemies of ministry is ministers who think too much of themselves.
Sammy Williams: So God sends you suffering.
Sammy Williams: God sends us suffering, and another thing is to equip us to counsel others.
Sammy Williams: You know, some of you are saying, I want to become a biblical counselor.
Sammy Williams: Which university do I need to go to?
Sammy Williams: I'll tell you, it's the university of suffering.
Sammy Williams: You'll become way better than sitting under some guru out there that has all these paradigms by just suffering.
Sammy Williams: We've seen this in our church because I think in the last year we've had three just devastating funerals.
Sammy Williams: And you know what happened?
Sammy Williams: Two widows, they've become buddies with each other.
Sammy Williams: And the older spiritual widows counseling the other widow in ways that I couldn't counsel because she's been through it and she's seen the sufficiency of Christ in it.
Sammy Williams: And I don't want to interfere because she can do it better than I can do, because she's gone through that school of suffering.
Sammy Williams: 2 Corinthians 1:3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and God of all comfort.
Sammy Williams: The Father is our parakletos, the Son is our parakletos, 1 John 2.
Sammy Williams: The Spirit is our parakletos that come alongside us, and only suffering people see them in that way.
Sammy Williams: Paracletos just means somebody who counsels, who comes alongside.
Sammy Williams: A sixth reason why we suffer is to show us who the elect really are.
Sammy Williams: You know, there's a lot of people in this room, probably who are listening to the sermon, saying, This guy's weird for talking about all this suffering.
Sammy Williams: I don't want to sign up for this.
Sammy Williams: It's probably because you're not saved.
Sammy Williams: And sometimes God needs to put suffering in your life to really show you how insufficient you are.
Sammy Williams: But at other times, he will put suffering upon this church to even show us who really belongs to him.
Sammy Williams: And you Have church growth by subtraction.
Sammy Williams: It's the best kind of church growth sometimes.
Sammy Williams: Not all the time.
Sammy Williams: But God needs to do it, not us.
Sammy Williams: 1 Thessalonians 1, 4 and 5.
Sammy Williams: When we are persecuted, this is plain indication of God's righteous judgment.
Sammy Williams: But Paul knows the reason why he's suffering.
Sammy Williams: He says, for this reason.
Sammy Williams: And what is the reason why he's suffering?
Sammy Williams: He's suffering because of the work of preaching Christ, of making Christ important.
Sammy Williams: You know why that causes suffering?
Sammy Williams: Because people hate listening to a gospel that says, you can't do anything to get to heaven.
Sammy Williams: That crushes them.
Sammy Williams: And the only person that can get you to heaven, and the only work that can get to heaven, is the work of the Son of Man who lived a righteous life for you for 33 and a half years, and who died the death that you deserve, so that hell would be taken up and he would cry, it is finished, so that you can face no condemnation.
Sammy Williams: That's the only way that you can be saved.
Sammy Williams: People will not love you for that.
Sammy Williams: Let me guarantee they will hate you for that.
Sammy Williams: And Paul said, That's why I'm suffering.
Sammy Williams: You know, you need to be so strong on preaching grace to fight human pride that it should cause you to suffer.
Sammy Williams: That's that's that's our mission.
Sammy Williams: I had a wife in our church family that lived for 10 years with a husband that was an unbeliever who literally despised her and was mean to her in in abundant ways that go beyond counting.
Sammy Williams: And she continued to be patient, 1 Peter 3, and love him and serve him.
Sammy Williams: After 10 years, he he broke down and he said, I don't know what causes you to love me like this.
Sammy Williams: She says, It's not me, it's Jesus.
Sammy Williams: He loved me in the same way.
Sammy Williams: And he bowed his knee to Christ and he became a student at our seventh grade, and he's pastoring now, but it's because of her preaching God's grace through her life.
Sammy Williams: That's how powerful grace is to conquer sinners.
Sammy Williams: Well, Paul says, Not only do I have a solace in God's power because his plan is good, his plan is good, especially in suffering.
Sammy Williams: Isn't his plan good?
Sammy Williams: Romans 8 28.
Sammy Williams: God works all things, not God works good things.
Sammy Williams: We mistranslate that verse, but God works all things for good.
Sammy Williams: If you think about that, that's especially speaking about trials and suffering.
Sammy Williams: Well, Paul ends with this.
Sammy Williams: He says, Not only do I have a solace, a pillow to lay my head in God's power through his plan, but I also have a pillow to lay my head in God's faithfulness that governs my life and our lives.
Sammy Williams: He says, I am not ashamed.
Sammy Williams: The word for ashamed, Paul used in Romans 1.16 and other places is literally this word of lacking courage, being fearful.
Sammy Williams: And I and I love this because Paul is actually saying there's a tendency for me to be ashamed because of the pressure of the filthy dungeon, because of the ideas of being a criminal, because of the opposition that I'm facing from Rome.
Sammy Williams: But he says, I'm not ashamed, and that lack of shame is not found in myself, but it's found in the sweetness of Christ's faithfulness.
Sammy Williams: Look at the rest of the verse.
Sammy Williams: For I know whom I have believed.
Sammy Williams: Stop there for a second.
Sammy Williams: Christ's faithfulness that governs our life, first of all, is a personal faithfulness.
Sammy Williams: Notice Paul doesn't say, I know what I have believed.
Sammy Williams: I think that's our temptation at times, isn't it?
Sammy Williams: To say, let me go through a doctrinal study on suffering so that I may get comfort in my time of suffering.
Sammy Williams: But Paul says, actually, through that doctrine, you need to get to a higher goal of not just what you believe, but whom you believe.
Sammy Williams: And if you don't get to that point, you will never find comfort in doctrine.
Sammy Williams: If doctrine doesn't lead you to Christ, it is pointless doctrine.
Sammy Williams: It is actually doctrine that will lead you into discouragement.
Sammy Williams: And so Paul says, I don't want to just read and know about Jesus, but I actually want to go to him in times of need and find mercy from him.
Sammy Williams: I want to know the power of his blood cleansing me from sin.
Sammy Williams: I want to find his wisdom, even in the book of Proverbs, in times of perplexity, and know that he's the wonderful counselor, and not just say what, but whom?
Sammy Williams: Jesus is personally with me.
Sammy Williams: You know, sometimes we we get so counterintuitive against the charismatic movement when they talk about the presence of Christ, and I knew they do it in wrong ways.
Sammy Williams: But brothers and sisters, through the scriptures, we have the presence of Christ with us all the time.
Sammy Williams: Didn't He say that to us?
Sammy Williams: Lo, I am with you always.
Sammy Williams: We need to recover a biblical sense of Jesus' presence.
Sammy Williams: And I would say it's especially there for saints that are on their deathbed and suffering for Christ.
Sammy Williams: Not only is Jesus' faithfulness personal, but it's also powerful.
Sammy Williams: He says, I am persuaded in a subtle way.
Sammy Williams: I'm as I spend time with Jesus in suffering, I know that he's able.
Sammy Williams: That's the word dunatos or powerful.
Sammy Williams: The same power in the scriptures that is used to calm the storm, the same power that is used in the scriptures to speak of God raising him from the dead, the same power that went to the cross and crushed our sin.
Sammy Williams: That same word group is used for he's able to do the small thing of keeping you from trials that will crush you.
Sammy Williams: The strongest temptation, the lowest depression in this world and in the next will be overcome because he's able.
Sammy Williams: Not only is his faithfulness personal, powerful, but it is permanent.
Sammy Williams: He said, What I have entrusted, what I have deposited for safekeeping.
Sammy Williams: Now, just think about this.
Sammy Williams: Is Paul talking about the fact that his life will be saved?
Sammy Williams: Obviously not, because we know in 1 Timothy 4 he knows that he's finished his course and he's going to die soon.
Sammy Williams: So then what is he talking about when he says Jesus' faithfulness is permanent?
Sammy Williams: I think the context of verse 14 makes it clear that it's not Paul that is going to be saved and entrusted and kept, but it's the work of the gospel through Paul that's going to be saved and entrusted and kept.
Sammy Williams: We are going to die, brothers and sisters, most of us, or we're going to get raptured, but none of us are going to be remembered.
Sammy Williams: You know, heaven isn't about having plaques and awards for all the things that you've done for Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: If you get those things, you'll lay them at his feet because heaven is about only one thing, it's about the work that we did for Christ going beyond us.
Sammy Williams: That's what enables us to live, he says, until that day.
Sammy Williams: Because Christ is building his church and protecting his church, he will protect the work that we have.
Sammy Williams: Not us, but the work that we have.
Sammy Williams: Not our lives, but the ministry that we do for him.
Sammy Williams: And when you see that, you have joy.
Sammy Williams: You know, I was visiting with one of our students some years ago that had been kicked out of his village because he had become a believer in Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: So they packed up all their belongings, and the village government said, You don't, you don't stay here anymore because you're rejecting our gods and you're following this Jesus Christ.
Sammy Williams: And so they moved about a 50 kilometers distance.
Sammy Williams: They got to this dirt patch in the middle of nowhere and they formed a Christian village.
Sammy Williams: This was about 20 years ago.
Sammy Williams: They called it Prashantigiri or Peace Village.
Sammy Williams: You know what happened over the years?
Sammy Williams: Is about a dozen other Christian refugees that had lost everything for Jesus began to join them and become part of this village, so much so that they started getting more and more people being attracted to the gospel through their witness and their church, that they had to start a second village called Nirikshanagiri, which means hope village.
Sammy Williams: They just kept going through the fruit of the Spirit.
Sammy Williams: And they said, the more we give up for Jesus, the more joy we have.
Sammy Williams: We've lost everything, but we've gained everything.
Sammy Williams: Isn't that the story of Christianity?
Sammy Williams: As we die to ourselves, we get a richness in our souls that's so much better.
Sammy Williams: Francis Schaeffer said, the gospel of today is not the gospel of the Bible.
Sammy Williams: It's a gospel of false gospel of peace and affluence.
Sammy Williams: But the true gospel is a gospel that is rooted not in the things that this world can give us, but in something so much better in Christ.
Sammy Williams: May that be your strength.
Sammy Williams: May He be your vine.
Sammy Williams: And through Him may you bear fruit that is abundant, both here and in the nations, until He comes.
Sammy Williams: Let's pray.
Sammy Williams: Father God, we thank you so much for the assurance and the reality and the comfort and the joy we get from knowing that we are useless and we are weak, but only you are strong.
Sammy Williams: Help us to live in these truths.
Sammy Williams: We praise you for examples like Paul that show us that it can be done.
Sammy Williams: And it can be done well.
Sammy Williams: Help us, Lord, to finish well, not just start well, but finish well for you, especially in these days when we're coming close to the end, it seems, but where much needs to be done for Jesus.
Sammy Williams: Make us his servants, make us his slaves.
Sammy Williams: May we die, and may he shine through us.
Sammy Williams: We ask in Jesus' precious name.
Sammy Williams: Amen.