Holding Onto Faith

Welcome back to Encounter. We’ve already been in our new series over 1 Timothy, we’re calling it The Wise Young Servant. And if you’ve been with us the past few encounters, Pastor Sanil has preached over the first part of 1 Timothy 1. And so today, I have the privilege to be able to preach over three verses. 1 Timothy 1:18-20. It reminds me of when I was preaching over the book of Colossians, and I think it was two or three verses then too. And so whenever you’re preaching over three verses, context is very, very important. So let’s dive into today’s portion. 1 Timothy 1:18-20. It says, Timothy, my son, I’m giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you. So that by recalling them, you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Okay, so as we’re digging deep into these three verses, we wanna understand a few things about Timothy that Pastor Sanil mentioned before, but I’m going to just refresh our minds. So here we see in verse 18 says, I’m giving you this command, my son, in keeping with the prophecies once made about you. So we don’t actually know what these prophecies were, but clearly Paul is saying that they’re important for him to be able to do what Paul is entrusting him with. And so what do we know about Timothy? Well, we know that his mother and his grandmother are seen in the second letter of Timothy as people who have a very sincere faith. And it’s a faith that Paul believes has been passed on to Timothy. In other words, it’s like his mom and his grandma were praying over Timothy, were believing that he will eventually become this minister of God around a high calling of God in his life. And so they were prayer warriors. And so we see that Timothy has been passed on this faith. A lot of us, we’re able to do all these things and have these talents of God and this growing knowledge of scripture because our parents prayed that we’d grow in the faith since we were little kids. And so now Paul is, he’s seeing this in Timothy. And so what are some of the scriptures that talk about Timothy? Well, 2 Timothy 3:14-15 says, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know from those, from whom you learned it and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And so Timothy’s not only having a sincere faith that we see, but he’s also well-equipped and knows the Holy Scriptures since infancy. And Paul says that because he spent so much time to learn it, it’s able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. What else? 1 Timothy 4:14 says, do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. So we don’t know what these prophecies are. We don’t know what this gifting really is. But at some point in Timothy’s life, he from infancy grew in his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. His parents prayed and their faith was passed on to him. And so now we see the body of elders in local church, or I don’t know where this is, they laid their hands on Timothy. And someone had a prophecy about Timothy, about a gift that he is going to need later on. And so here in verse 18, Paul is saying, remember the prophecies that were spoken of you, you need this, you need that gifting. Okay, if we can go to the next slide.

All right, these prophecies and giftings were needed for some purpose. And we’re gonna get into that purpose as we go into this chapter. So Timothy, my son, I’m giving you this command. He’s entrusting Timothy with a charge. He’s saying, Timothy, I am trusting you with something that’s very, very important and in keeping with the prophecies. This is already spoken to you, Timothy, about something that you are gonna need in the future. Now is the time for that prayer, for that gifting, for that prophecy to take fruition. There’s a time when we who have spent time reading scripture and spending time in prayer and learning, there is a time when that faith needs to come to fruition. This is Timothy’s time where all the time where his parents were praying for him, now Timothy can finally use those giftings as long as he holds on to it, he keeps with it. So that by recalling them, meaning these prophecies, you may fight the battle well.

Now in order to know what this battle, this fight that we are gonna be talking about, we need to understand what is the purpose of fighting in Christianity? What is our purpose as believers? What kind of fight are we talking about? Is this a physical altercation? No, what does scripture teach us? Well, if we turn to 2 Corinthians 10:3, this is Paul talking in verse three, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. This is not a fight against people. This is a fight against arguments. These are in essence, he is fighting against arguments that are taking over captive people of Christ. And so he wants to demolish these things so they grow in the knowledge of God. And who are these people? Who are these arguments coming from? Well, we need to go back to 1 Timothy. So 1 Timothy 1:3 onwards, as I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus, so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer. First Paul says, Timothy, just stay in Ephesus where you’re at. This is clearly a place where false teachers are emerging and it’s a very unstable, not a fun situation to be around. I forgot the pastor’s name, but he had a quote where he says, his greatest pleasure in ministry is people. And his greatest burden is people as well, because people are fickle. We don’t know if they’re gonna be good and great and nice and kind all the days that you’re in ministry. And so even though Timothy is talking to Paul and Paul is saying, just stay in Ephesus. I know maybe you wanna leave, maybe you’re discouraged, but stay here and you need to do this charge. And so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer. Or verse four, devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. What do you mean by endless genealogies? So there’s high speculation. These people were teaching Old Testament and they’re going through all the genealogies in the Old Testament. They’re saying, hey, Moses is this, this guy is this. And they’re coming with all these crazy conclusions on what the scripture is talking about and coming up with their own ideas. They’re coming up with their own arguments that are contrary to what is being taught by Paul. That’s not in accordance with the gospel. And so instead of doing and teaching right doctrine, what do they do? They go with myths. They devote themselves to endless genealogies and they’re teaching false doctrine. Such things do what? Promote controversial speculations rather than here’s our goal of the battle. Here’s our goal of the fight. Advancing God’s work. So in order to keep up with the fight, the good warfare, we are to advance in God’s work. That is the mission. That is the aim as a soldier. If you are not advancing God’s work, then what are you fighting for? And so you are fighting against all these myths and all these speculations and all these false doctrines in order to advance God’s work, which is what? By faith. In other words, you need faith to advance God’s work. What is Paul saying here? These people are lacking something. They are not advancing God’s work. Instead, they’re contrary to God’s work, meaning their faith is not sincere.

And so what is the aim? If the things that we’re fighting in this warfare is lofty arguments and controversies, and our mission is to advance God’s work, for what purpose? Verse five, the goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. I’m gonna repeat that again. The goal of this command is love, which comes from three things, a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith. And so in order for us to have producing love among the members of the church, first, we need sound doctrine, because sound doctrine will produce in us a love, and not just a love, a love that comes from what? A pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. We’ll see why these are so important later, but if that’s true, then the opposite also is true. If spending time in sound doctrine in the Word produces a sincere love, then straying away and going into false doctrine will make you have an insincere love or a faulty understanding of God, an insincere faith, or maybe a love that comes from not a pure heart. And so we need to dig deep into what these three things are that are so important. What are we trying to produce here? We know that we want to produce love, so how do we do this? We don’t want to be like these false teachers, right? And we want to hold on to our faith and fight the good fight. And so we’re gonna dig deep into it, and then, can you go to the next slide, please? And next slide. Yeah, okay.

So in order to fight the battle well, let’s start here. You need to hold on to faith and a good conscience. These two things are extremely, extremely important in order to fight the battle well, not just for Timothy, but for us believers. And so what are these things? We hear these things all the time through various methods, through Sunday school, through just reading the word, through teachers, through songs. So what is this? What is holding on to a faith even mean? What is faith? We’ve heard this so many times. I’m going to read it from Romans. It pulls up here. I was lying, guys. Sorry. Okay, so here we go. Faith comes from hearing the message. Romans 10, 17. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. So we know where faith comes from. It comes from hearing the message. It comes from hearing sound doctrine. But what actually is faith? What does Hebrews tell us that faith is? Does someone want to say it out loud? Exactly. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not yet seen. And so there are two things that faith requires. One, you need to hear good, sound doctrine, and the second is, you need to believe it. For even the demons we know know who Jesus Christ is, but they don’t believe. So what purpose is faith if you only hear, and there is no conviction in your heart? And so we hear the word, we understand the facts, and are convicted of things not seen. This is a work of the Holy Spirit. To be convinced of these things, that Jesus Christ actually resurrected from the dead, when no one in history that we know of resurrected from the dead, takes faith. To believe that that faith is enough to hold you throughout your entire life, from birth to death, into eternity, takes conviction. To pray for people, and to believe that God is gonna work miracles in people’s lives, and for people to come to salvation, takes faith. To trust God in tough times, takes faith. These are examples of convictions. We see the heroes of faith throughout Scripture, doing things that we’re wondering, without faith, how could they even, why would they do this? Why would they build a boat, when it hasn’t rained like that? Why would they believe that, I’m gonna sacrifice my son, and it’s okay, because God told me to do it, and I’m just gonna be obedient. Why am I doing all these things, when it doesn’t seem like anything’s happening? And so, faith is not just believing the tightrope works, it is getting in the wheelbarrow. We see this example, we heard this in Sunday School, but I wanna say it again. It’s not just about the trapeze artist, or the gymnast having the wheelbarrow on top of the tightrope, and then walking through it and saying, hey, do you believe I can get across? And they’re like, yeah, yeah, we believe. Okay, get in the barrel. Sit in the chair. That takes a different level of faith. It’s not just an understanding of facts, it is sitting in and trusting that God is, and will do what he said he will. And so, what do we know about Timothy? Well, we know something. His mom and his grandma have a faith, but he also has a sincere faith that Paul talks about. And so, clearly, this idea of having a faith is very, very important in this battle. If you are not convinced in the mission, if you’re not convinced in who Jesus Christ says he is, why fight? Why wage war, even if it’s against lofty arguments, if you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is who he said he is, and if you believe that he is actually better, and the claims that he made beats out the claims of the world. If your faith is shallow, you don’t feel like fighting.

And so, Paul warns Timothy about this, and he says, faith is also, you wanna hold on to faith, and then also a good conscience. Now, we, as believers, we believe that conscience exists within every single human. Conscience is written on their moral code, and the Holy Spirit regenerates people who believe, but they still have a conscience that will be judged at the end of time. And so, we, too, have a conscience, but how do we have a good conscience? Well, consciousness, having a good conscience is, sorry, can you give me a water bottle? Very dry, yeah, thank you. Sorry about that. Okay. A good conscience is the belief of right versus wrong for a believer. Do we, when we see sin, or are we dealing with sin, what comes through our head, what comes through our mind? Are we gonna keep doing that sin, or is there a conviction that says, hey, stop, stop, stop? When we hear a message, or sing a very powerful song lyric, what’s the one that we’re always scared to sing? It’s the one, Christ be magnified, the bridge. I won’t bow down to idols, I’ll stand strong and worship you. He puts me through the fire. Lord, I rejoice because you’re there, too. But when you’re in the fire, it’s way harder. And so, having a good conscience isn’t just lip service, it’s not just singing words, it’s not just thinking something, it is acting something. It is the Holy Spirit convicting you and saying, this is right, this is wrong, are you going to heed my counsel? Are you going to heed my warnings? And so, you need a sincere faith, you need to hold on to it, grasp it, hold on to that conviction, Timothy. But also, make sure you’re pure in heart, make sure that you are following in accordance with the word of God, make sure you are listening to the Holy Spirit, and you have a good conscience. Otherwise, don’t bother fighting. You can’t fight if you are also not being, if you are spending time in habitual sin, and you are not living according to the word, then how do you go into battle with the full armor of God? How do you fully trust in God? How do you hold on to sincere faith? Scripture says that a righteous person’s prayers are powerful, and so if our faith is shaken up, or if our conscience is seared, we need to come to repentance before God. We need to come to repentance before God, turn to Him, because if we don’t, we’re gonna be just as guilty as spreading false doctrine, false teachings, believing something that we ought not to teach.

And so, what happened to these people? Oh, can you go to the next slide, please? Yeah, so some people have rejected this. What are they rejecting? The good conscience, the sincere faith. And so have what? Suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. What an interesting way for Paul to describe this situation. I had to reread 1 Timothy 1 and say, did Paul mention a boat anywhere here? Was there an anchor or a water reference anywhere in the earlier chapter? No, this is the first time in 1 Timothy where he mentions shipwreck. Why, Paul? Why are you doing this? So, this idea of shipwreck, well, it comes from what? If we connect the verses together, which some have rejected, or… Cheryl, look at this slide. So some have rejected. The other way to put that is they’re cast away, or they’re thrown away. In other words, they’ve rejected their good conscience. They’ve thrown overboard. If we’re going to do water references, if this is the cargo and that’s your good conscience, they threw it overboard. The good conscience is not going with them on this journey. And that leads them to shipwreck in their faith. But what does shipwreck even mean? Why did Paul even talk about this? Well, Paul is a person who not only gives examples, but he draws testimonies out of his own life. And so, Paul, we see in Acts 27, and we’re gonna go through it, Paul’s shipwreck. Paul actually went through a shipwreck. In fact, he says that he went through three shipwrecks. So this is not coming from someone who’s not even experienced it. And so, if you can turn your Bibles, we’re gonna quickly go through Acts 27. And I wanna start off at verse 10. So this is Paul, and he is on this journey. And basically, he’s being accused of a crime that he did not commit. But he is a prisoner on this ship, and he’s going to meet, I believe it was Caesar, later for judgment. And he wants to preach the good news. But he’s on this ship, and he’s under arrest, essentially. And verse 10, we’re seeing the waters bit raging, and Paul says, hey, men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also. But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, does what? He followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. This centurion does not heed Paul’s warning, and instead, relies on the advice of the pilot and the owner of the ship. Maybe if we were in that situation, I’m the centurion, why would I listen to this prisoner where I can listen to the expertise of someone who actually knows what they’re doing? Why would I just put my faith in this guy’s word, right here, when this guy’s saying it’s okay, when the rest of the crew is saying that it’s okay? And so what ends up happening, verse 12. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix, not Phoenix, Arizona, and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest. When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity. So they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind. So we gave way to it, and were driven along. As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cotta, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted aboard. So there goes our lifeboat. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run around on the sandbars, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm, that the next day, they began to throw the cargo overboard. This is what Paul was talking about. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. Not only are they throwing everything overboard in hopes of surviving this. Verse 20, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. Man, you wish you listened to Paul back then. When even the sun isn’t shining, or the stars aren’t appearing, and all your cargo’s gone, and your anchor’s gone, and your lifeboats are gone, you’re thinking to yourself, why did I listen to all these guys instead of Paul? In fairness, we would probably do the same for the century. But Paul was not an ordinary man here, compared to the rest of these people. Paul was someone who listened to the voice of the Lord, and he had a good conscience. He had a pure heart. And so, you can’t see that physically from the outside. Maybe we’re saying, Paul told you not to do it, you should not have done it. But from the outside, how do we know that Paul has this special person walking with him, telling him what to do? We can’t see it from the outside, so we can only assume that Paul is a normal guy. And so instead, we rely on our expertise. We rely on the norms of life to get us through this journey. Intent.

After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost. Only the ship will be destroyed. Last night, an angel of the God, of, I don’t know what it says, of the God, to whom, oh, of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island. What does Paul have here? Faith, a sincere faith. Not only does he hear from the angel of God, he believes it. He has conviction that God will rescue him, because he feels that God will save him in order to do what? So that Paul can just walk around safe and go home? To go before Caesar. Paul knew his journey wasn’t done yet. His race has not been finished. His fight has not been fought to the completion. And so Paul trusts in his sincere faith that God will carry him home, take him home. He believes fully.

Verse 27, on the 14th night, we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight, the sailors sensed that they were approaching land. They took soundings and found the water was 120 feet deep. A short time later, they took soundings again and found it was 90 feet deep. So what’s the difference? 30 feet. It’s like you lay down, you screen the water, and say, okay, we’re 120 feet of water underneath us. That’s increasing to 90. And so what’s happening? Something’s underneath the water that is growing, and what they’re fearing is gonna be rocks. So if the water is not even all around, there’s gonna be rocks and rocks and rocks until the water gets shallower and shallower and shallower and shallower until you hit and get wrecked. And so that’s why they’re checking for the screenings to see how deep the water is. Fearing that they would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.

I’m gonna go ahead and jump to verse 33. Just before dawn, Paul urged them all to eat. For the last 14 days he said, you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food. You haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. And he said this. He took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Altogether, there were 276 of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. These are people who were starving for 14 days. And now Paul prays with them. And now all of a sudden, similar to Jesus breaking bread in these basketfuls, this abundance. They’re so full now that we were like, okay, let’s get rid of the rest of the bread. We don’t even need it anymore. We’re encouraged. Look at the difference that they have when they’re trusting in what God is doing. Look at the abundance here. Look how they’re full when they’re nurtured. Previously, they didn’t heed the warnings. Now they’re listening with an attentive ear. And Paul does not give glory to himself. He doesn’t give credit to himself for this. What does he say? He gave thanks to God in front of them all.

When people are shipwrecked, they’re starving. They’re starving for the word. They’re drifting away, away from the faith. They’re holding on for dear life to whatever pieces of the ship remain, hoping that they just get across and survive. Through the darkness, hoping the sun will shine, and then suddenly, when they have food, they thank God and they’re encouraged. And so for us, in 1 Timothy, it’s not coincidence that Paul just says these people were shipwrecked in their faith. And if we can turn back to 1 Timothy 1:18-19. Yeah, so some have rejected, what? A good conscience, a sincere faith. And so have, what? Suffered shipwreck. They’re malnourished, they’re drifting. They’re barely making it by with regard to the faith. Having a good conscience is not this optional thing when it comes to believers, it’s not. To run the race effectively, to run the race with vigilance, to fight the good fight, if you call yourself a Christian, you need to have a good conscience and a sincere faith. You need to have a pure heart. What do we learn about in verses three onwards? It says, the goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. How can you produce love without these things?

And so the question comes down and says, where have we rejected or thrown away a good conscience? Is there a point in our life where we said to ourselves, Holy Spirit, I know you’re counseling me right now, but not now. Not now, maybe tomorrow, maybe in the future. But for now, I want to indulge in this. For now, I want to heed my own counsel or the counsel of the people around me. Right now, I don’t want to listen to this voice that’s in my head telling me, stop, don’t do this. I want to go with my sinful desires. And in doing so, we reject the good conscience. We reject the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking into our lives, counseling us, saying, go more towards Jesus. We’re rejecting that. And so without even knowing it, we get rid of the cargo, we lighten the ship up and we set for sail despite the warning signs. We go out into the waters and suddenly the storm comes. And this doesn’t happen by mistake. And this doesn’t happen by mere chance. This is something that we should expect when we drift away from God. There’s a reason we need a good conscience. There’s a reason why we need a sincere faith.

And so, we need to think about a few things here. And we’re gonna get into this last verse soon, but for those who suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith, I want us to think and remember these three things. Salvation is not fully complete here on this earth. Salvation is three stages. Salvation is justification, meaning the redemptive power of Jesus’ blood on the cross that whoever believes in them shall be saved. But you need to be sanctified as well. Salvation is a saving through your faith. Without faith, like without good works, faith is dead. So we need sanctification that comes from the spirit. Every believer who wants to pursue Christ are justified and they’re being sanctified daily. And it’s not made complete until glorification, when we meet with Christ. And suddenly all this body and all this fleshly desires are gone completely.

And so if we’re gonna stick with the boat analogy, think of justification as the vessel, the boat, the faith. The fare has been paid. Jesus Christ paid for it, get in the boat. He will take you across. And if glorification is the other shore that we know we’re gonna get through because Jesus Christ has promised that he is faithful and will take us to the other side of the shore, then what about this middle place? What about sanctification? What about the voyage? If we’re on this voyage and we’re not trusting, we’re gonna be drifting. If we’re not fully convinced that God who is faithful at all we’re gonna be living this life doubting every promise of God, every truth of God. We’re gonna be slaves to sin just by the way we’re acting. That is not why Christ set us free. Christ did not set us free for us to remain in sin and sear our good conscience, to have an insincere faith, but he freed us in order for us to be free in the spirit, for us to have life to the full. And so we have the boat, we’re on the waters and we need a good conscience and a sincere faith, a pure heart.

Now, Pastor Sanil mentioned this and this was something that really resonated with me when he preached the very first week over 1 Timothy. He talks about the sisters of salvation, mercy. Well, grace, mercy and peace. Grace, mercy and peace. This is what he opens the letter to Timothy with. Grace, how Jesus Christ paid for our sins and the grace that we need every single day. Mercy, we need mercy every single morning, every single night, daily cleansing, daily washing. Peace is held by God. And the ultimate example of this peace is that in life and in death, our hope is secured by Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate peace for a believer. Peace that outweighs darkness, peace that manna for today. We’re saying these words. These are what helps us fight the battle. Knowing that there is a peace that is eternal, knowing that God’s grace will carry us and that we need daily cleansings and mercy from God.

And so I’m gonna invite the worship team forward. And I want us to look at the lives of these two, these rogues, Hymenaeus and Alexander. We read here, among them are these men who I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. That’s kind of harsh, Paul. But it’s not the only example of when Paul writes this. Paul talks about another believer who, in Corinthians, he was doing an egregious sin. And so Paul says, hey, hand him over to Satan so that his flesh may be destroyed, but his soul may be saved. What is Paul doing here? This is mercy, y’all. This is Paul praying that their souls are saved. Once again, it is not the people that we are waging war against. It is every argument. It is every lofty thought that takes captive people from the knowledge of the truth, that keeps people from grace, from mercy, from peace. And so Paul prays that God withholds protection on these people, that he restrains himself, takes away his hand that has been giving mercy every day in order for them to turn away from their sin and be sanctified, in order that in their shipwreck, that in their drifting, they will find sufficiency in God, that there will be food when they need it, and they can come back and be encouraged. That is the hope. That is the prayer. And so Paul charges Timothy with this as an elder.

And why does Paul go to such lengths? We gotta go through the rest of 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy 12 through 17. He says, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service, even though what, I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man. I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured on to me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Paul is not calling them just to be blasphemers. He himself was a blasphemer. But the great mercy that was poured out to Paul that entrusts him, that makes him trustworthy to preach the gospel and share the good news, that same mercy Paul once extended to Hymenaeus and Alexander. And it’s the mercy that is us for us today as well. If we are drifting, if we are sinking, if we are away from a good conscience, if we’re not even, if the voice of the Holy Spirit becomes so small that we cannot hear it anymore, then we need mercy. We need mercy, we need the grace of our Lord. Verse 15 says, here’s a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience, immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. The goal of this handing over to Satan is God’s great patience. But don’t wait for tomorrow. Scripture says today, today. If he speaks to you, come today. And so today, don’t wait for tomorrow. Come before God and say, God, I need you. I’ve been straying for far too long. I have not been pure at heart. God, when you speak to me, I know this is wrong. I’ve been indulging in this. God, save me. I don’t want to shipwreck faith. I don’t want to barely drift to the other shore, but God, I want you to be the captain of my soul.

I want to end it with this song lyric from one of my favorite songs. It’s called Captain. Verse one and verse two says, I’ll follow your voice straight into the dark. And if from the course you intend I depart, speak to the sails of my wandering heart. I’ll follow your voice straight into the dark. And if from the course you intend I depart, speak to the sails of my wandering heart. I’ll follow your voice straight into the dark. And if from the course you intend I depart, speak to the sails of my wandering heart. Lost in the shallows amidst fear and fog, your truth is the compass that points me back north. Jesus, my captain, my soul’s trusted Lord, all my allegiance is rightfully yours. It’s our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Is he the prize? Is he the reason that our love is being produced? Is he what keeps us active and vigilant in our faith? Because if he’s not, we will depart off course and we’ll be barely, barely drifting for many, many years. And we’re waiting for the patience of God. And he is patient, but he’s also wanting us to return to him.

Let’s close our eyes in prayer and worship. God, we just come into your presence today, Lord. We just thank you, Lord, for giving us your word, God. God, we know, Lord, that you are a patient and loving God. God, the only reason that we were able to even come into the faith, Lord, and have a conscience and be pure at heart, Lord, is because of your patience with us, Lord. You let us grow and accept you, Lord. You showed mercy upon us, Lord. You’ve given us grace, God. And so, Lord, I pray, God, that as we’re going through this journey of life, this voyage, God, this process of sanctification, Lord, God, let the voice of your Holy Spirit be ever more present, Lord, ever more audible into our lives, Lord, that we are listening to your counselor, that we are listening, God, to the helper, God, and, God, that we find mercy in our times of need. So we thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.