0:03 Okay, I want to share something from 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. You know that word rekindle? 0:33 You know where that word is from? It's the one word that I think of when I think of this word kindle that's on our subject is 1 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6. I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God 0:51 which is in you through the laying on of hands the laying on of my hands because God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and of love and of discipline. 1:09 Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. We heard in the very first session that 1:27 the Holy the Spirit the anointing of the Holy Spirit is over us to break the chain and the yoke of slavery and one of the biggest things that we heard about is the slavery to the 1:44 opinions of man and to the fear of man. And that is what he is saying here. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of of Lord who died for us on a cross, who bore the shame for us. And he also said, "Do not be ashamed of 2:03 me. I'm your spiritual father. I'm your teacher." Paul was not very well regarded when he wrote this letter. Paul was despised among the Christians as well. He says later on in this book that everybody in Asia have deserted me. I 2:20 have a few people. John Mark was one of them, Timothy, but a few others. That's it. Demas left for the world. Paul was not this popular great preacher like it is maybe even some cases in CFCs could be rather popular. Paul was 2:36 less and less popular. But he said, "Don't be ashamed, Timothy. Don't be ashamed of Jesus. Don't be ashamed of me as a prisoner. Now, look, Timothy was a 40 from what I understand, if I if I if I remember right. Paul was 2:53 not some I mean sorry, Timothy was not some teenager. This is the end of Paul's life. Timothy was probably a 30 40-year-old man. So, don't feel bad if God is also telling you, "Rekindle it again." 3:11 And if God is telling you again, "Don't be ashamed." We always need to hear this. It's not something just oh, you know what, I wish I can do it for my teenagers. Yes, you should. But even if you were not ashamed of the gospel when 3:26 you were younger, but now you started to become friendly with the world. And you don't you want to be too correct. And the Lord has been calling you this. He's definitely been calling me to not be ashamed of the gospel. 3:42 And not be ashamed of the message of what we've heard from CFC and others. Don't be ashamed because God has not given you a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of discipline. Because God has not given us a spirit of 4:03 timidity, because God has given us a spirit that breaks the yoke. I read in verse 6 almost 7 comes before 6 in a sense because he's telling you the reason for what he says in 6 in verse 7. So, because God has not given us a spirit of timidity, that's verse 7. 4:22 Now I read in verse 6 where he says, "I remind you to rekindle or kindle afresh the gift of God." What is the gift of God that Paul is talking about here, which is in you 4:38 through the laying on of my hands? What is the gift of God that Paul had imparted? The Holy Spirit. In the first century, this is how the Holy Spirit was imparted. 4:56 The apostles were able to lay hands on people and they were able to receive the Holy Spirit. This happened. In Acts you read about it and you read about here, too, that Paul laid his hands on Timothy and Timothy received the gift of the 5:14 Holy Spirit. The gift, the greatest gift you can ever get. God gave it to Timothy through the laying on of hands on from Paul to Timothy. Now, this used to be a question that I I used to ask myself. I know in my teens, I read this verse. I read verses in Acts 5:33 where the apostles laid hands on people and they received the Holy Spirit. And so I thought, "That's what I need. I need a godly man. I need the godliest man I know to lay hands on me and I'll receive the Holy Spirit. It's written in Acts, that's how 5:47 they received it. When I was um a teenager, I wanted to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. I had given my life to Jesus. I wanted to follow Jesus. But I actually wasn't that interested in getting baptized in water. I thought, what's there to it? There's 6:04 nothing to it. What I really want is power to overcome sin. I want that. And I knew that baptism in water didn't give me power for that. The baptism in the Holy Spirit gave me power for that. And so I looked in Acts and it felt like 6:19 if you want to get that power to overcome sin, it seemed over and over again, repent and be baptized and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So it seemed to be that's the way to do it. And that's how the Lord convinced me to 6:32 take baptism. So many of you have not taken baptism, but you are sitting here and you say, "Look, I I don't know about all many many things, but I do want to have victory over sin." You can only get that through the power 6:44 of the Holy Spirit. But the first step of obedience of of of obedience that we all can make, public step, is to be baptized in water. And in order to be baptized in water, you have to be born again. So if you know you're born again, 7:04 which means you know you've surrendered your life to Jesus, and you say, "Lord Jesus, I don't want to sin even once. I want to live my life for you." Not I will perfect do it perfectly. No, not that. I want to with all of my heart I can say, "Lord 7:21 Jesus, I want to live for you." And I don't want to live for myself. You're ready to get baptized. You shouldn't You don't have to wait. You know, I said yesterday I don't know if some of us will be here be here today. Right? I said I 7:37 don't know if today is the last day for some of us. You may think I was joking. I wasn't. I don't know if you live your life just thinking you'll just go to bed and you'll wake up. You'll just go to bed and you'll wake up. I'll tell you that's the way 7:53 it's a natural way for us to live. But it's not true. Some people children, babies go to sleep, wake up dead. This is I'm not trying to scare anybody, but this is just just reality. I wasn't 8:12 joking when I said, "I don't know if all of us are going to be here tomorrow." I still say that today. I don't know if I'm going to be there tomorrow. So, we shouldn't put off decisions. Don't keep putting off the decision to 8:29 give your life to Jesus. Oh, after I finish college, after I get a job. Then I'll study God's word seriously. Don't put it off. Tomorrow is not promised. It's how you finish. And if today is your 8:48 Let me repeat that. It is how you finish, not how you start. That's a word of encouragement for every single person here. Because how you finish is what's in front of you. If today is your last day, what I mean by that is it's how you finish today 9:04 that matters. All the past the Lord can forgive you, the Lord can cleanse you, but finish well. So, determine now itself that you want to live for Jesus with all of your heart. Ask the Lord to come into your heart, and ask the Lord to give you an a 9:23 confidence and an assurance that he has accepted you. That he has received you. The Lord can give it to you. That's how we are born again. The Lord gives us an assurance. 9:39 And it has to be founded on His Word. It can't be by any godly brother telling you you're born again. Can never be that way. Because what happens is that godly brother sins. Starts loving money. Then what happens? You'll get be shaky. 9:57 But if your foundation of when you were born again is based on this Word, that's not going to ever fade away. So that is why all of us must have the assurance that we're born again based on God's Word. It's the same way with the Holy Spirit. 10:13 How do you have the assurance that you have the Holy Spirit? Not by an experience. Not by a prayer meeting. Not by elder brothers laying hands on you. By God's Word. Now, here's how I understand why in the first century 10:31 the apostles laid their hands on people. Because then they didn't have God's Word. God's Word wasn't You couldn't open your Bible and read it. This was all new. It was being proclaimed through the mouth. So what the apostles would do is they 10:50 would lay their hands on them. And there would be a physical sign, too. Usually the gift of tongues in the in the Book of Acts, but not always. But because there wasn't the written Word of God in the first century, God encouraged 11:08 people like Timothy's faith by having an apostle come and lay hands on him. And he got a gift. He probably I don't prophesied or something else. Faith in that time came from the laying on of hands. But now it's written also 11:25 in God's Word. Now that we have the complete Word of God, God says how faith comes. Faith for the baptism in the Holy Spirit doesn't come on from the laying on of hands. Faith for everything comes from hearing God's word. 11:40 So, it is from faith in God's word that you know that you're born again. It's from faith in God's word that you know that you've been that you've received the Holy Spirit. So, you know, just to complete the story, when I was born when I after I was the 11:56 same day I was baptized, I went I asked my dad and brother Ian, "Can you please pray for me after the the service? Please, can we go to a separate room in CFC, that's 40 De Kock Street, and can you please lay hands on me cuz I want to receive the Holy 12:10 Spirit?" They prayed for me. They asked They prayed for me and they both laid hands on me and I said, "You know, receive the Holy Spirit." And they prayed for me and they said, "Look, if the Lord gives you a tongue and some syllables you don't 12:21 understand, please let it let your mouth say it. Don't feel like you're holding it in." Nothing happened. Nothing came. So, I actually went away a little disappointed because I said I I was expecting something. I honestly believe that that may have 12:38 been the day I received the Holy Spirit because I came to God with faith. Um I didn't That's I That's not the day I got the assurance, but I believe that the Lord answered my prayer cuz as I said yesterday, when you when you're a hungry person coming for 12:52 food, God gives you food. Um the Lord met with me that day and previous days, too. I'm convinced of that now. Now, later on when I got faith from God's word, that's what gave me the rock on which I can stand on. But the Lord answered my prayer cuz he 13:09 saw I was hungry. That I know. I was 100% sincere. I wanted to follow the Lord. That's why I took baptism. I said, "Lord, I want to follow you. I want to have victory over sin. Fill me with the Holy Spirit." My mistake was I waited for a feeling. 13:26 I waited for a syllables to come out of my mouth. I waited for something. I wanted to either fall down or rise up or I don't know what. I wanted something. And when the Lord didn't give me that something, I got disappointed. 13:39 But the Lord was teaching me from a very early age, don't live on your feelings. Unfortunately, I didn't learn that lesson. But it's for your encouragement that my confidence that the Lord is filling me with the Holy Spirit when I ask him is 13:54 by feeding God's word. And I showed it to you yesterday. But I can't transmit my faith to you. I can only share with you how the faith is in God's word. Maybe God will speak to you through some other passage. But this explains to you why 14:08 it says in here, this is how Timothy received the Holy Spirit. So, back then, Timothy received the gift of God which is in the Holy Spirit through the laying on of my hands. And I want to kind of just think about 14:29 that picture. I want you to consider the picture of laying on of hands. What what do you think comes to your mind when you think of Paul? If you were to be a painter or a sculptor and were to draw this picture of Paul laying hands on 14:48 Timothy. Can you picture it in your head? Think about it for a second. Picture Paul praying for Timothy to receive the Holy Spirit. What's the picture that comes to your 15:06 mind? Is it How many of you think Timothy's like this? Go ahead, Paul, pray for me. You think that's how how was doing it? What do you think the posture is? Kneeling, right? Okay, so he's kneeling 15:26 like this. And he's kneeling like this. Fully surrendered. You can kick him, you can hit him. Can do anything to him. Completely surrendered. But what else is in this picture? What 15:45 what's Paul doing? Paul's got his hands on you. You know, sometime you should get a strong person to put their hands on you. And to grab you by the head. And make you see how it feels. And to ask yourself whether 16:06 you like that feeling. None of us like to have that hand put on your head. I can tell you this, I have a boy who's about this tall. Sometimes I can't get his hand down there. Just grab his head. That's the thing, he never likes it. 16:25 Grabbing his hand is okay, but he grabs his head, he keeps get your hand on my head. Grab my hand is okay, but don't touch my head. The guy is 3 years old, he's already telling me don't touch my head. I wanted to show you physically that 16:40 picture. But I wanted you to see that this is the mighty hand of God that you have to humble yourself under. And it is the And Paul Timothy humbled himself so completely 16:58 under the mighty hand of God through Paul. Fully surrendered. Paul, you can do anything to me right now. You can stab me. I'm I'm kneeling. You put a knife through me, you can hit 17:15 me in the head. I'm fully surrendered. And Paul lay your hands on me. Control me. Put a leash around me. Don't let me go anywhere. I want you to completely control me. 17:35 This is a posture that we have to be with God. This is a view of submission that we need to have towards God. And we need to have it joyfully. Dear brothers and sisters, God needs to 17:58 open our eyes to the beauty of submission. To where it is not a command to obey, but a promise to claim. Think about the difference. How many of you want to give get some great promises? We're like, "Yeah, yeah, excited." How many of you want me to 18:18 tell you 10 more commands that you're to obey? Immediately your heart sinks. Oh, some more rules I have to obey. Some more commands. How about some promises? Yeah, I'm all excited to hear some more promises. How about the promise of submission? 18:34 The promise of the wonderful life of submission. That we joyfully enter into this. Where God humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Come under this way. God will just grab you by the head and say, "You can't go anywhere. 18:53 You go exactly where I go. And you go exactly where I tell you to go. Perfect will. No permissive will for you. Come under my mighty hand." This is how God fills us with the Holy 19:10 Spirit afresh. So, some of you may have asked God to fill you with the Holy Spirit in the past and he may have. But, this is how we kindle afresh. This is how Timothy got it. By the laying on of hands. Fully surrendered 19:28 and say, "God, you can take control of my life." And this is how we have to do it with God's word. We have to have that posture of radical, radical, joyful submission. Rekindle my zeal. 19:48 Dear brothers and sisters, I I don't know how many of you will be able to honestly answer the question, "I will radically obey God's word." When I see it in scripture and I see that this is what it says, I'm 20:07 going to radically obey. I want to do that. I have been inspired to do it through being invited to speak. As I've listened, as I've been around, as I've meditated on these truths, I am gripped to be more radical in my 20:25 obedience. To long for that anointing that will break the yoke. To long to live in God's perfect will. Permissive will, I got don't have to be radical. But, if you want to go after 20:43 the perfect will, you have to be radical. And I want to encourage all of you to consider if sit down, count the cost, and see if you want to do that. Cuz that 21:00 is what I think all of these messages are trying to appeal you to be. That there must be a determination in your eyes. There must be a heart that is determined to run every day as if to win the race. 21:22 We have to say goodbye to sloppiness. And I want I want to say this carefully. But I also feel that, you know, Paul Timothy was able to succeed and was 21:41 protected so well because he came under the authority and the submission of a godly man like Paul. I want to repeat what I said in the conference. You have the teaching is of CFC and that's through my dad primarily. 21:58 From Genesis to Revelation. He has explained the new covenant and he's explained the scriptures so clearly. Are you willing to come under his submission like that? Radically. 22:18 Joyfully. Then listen to his messages with that attitude. Not with a debate in your head. I'm And that's kind of where I also want to point out this other thing from the previous verse. I'm mindful of the 22:37 sincere faith. Sincere dependence. And I I want to give you another picture. See, he says here that he learned this Timothy learned this actually first from his mother and his grandmother. 22:57 They were his first teachers. Timothy's first teachers were his grandmother and his mother, and then Paul took over. And I want to ask you, how do you sit and interact with the teachings that are being taught? 23:15 How do you sit and interact with Jesus if you are a disciple? So, I brought a chair, right? Okay. So, if I'm sitting here, if Jesus is 23:32 sitting on a chair here, how This is a little Sorry, let's put it this way. If Jesus is standing up, and let's say he's facing me, he's standing in the pulpit, how do you think I should sit? Any ideas? 23:51 Okay, so this is one way to sit. Am I sitting at the feet of Jesus? Do you think I'm sitting at the feet of Jesus? Yes or no? I am. Why Why do you say I'm not sitting? I'm sitting. Jesus is there, he's standing, I'm 24:09 sitting listening to him. Can What's wrong? Am I telling you something even though I'm doing something correct? I'm sitting technically. I'm not standing like this. What do you think Jesus No, no, no, I'm sitting. 24:27 So, there's a difference. I'm sitting. What What is this telling you? How do you How do How does a student sit at the feet of a disciple? 24:46 I honestly don't even think he sits like this. I think he sits like this. Like this. I mean, is it the because maybe I'm from India? Maybe that's the way it is. But this is the picture I have in my mind of sitting at the feet of Jesus. 25:06 And Jesus is explaining something and then he says, "Go get me some water." What does the disciple do? Jumps up and gets water, but then comes back to sitting in it. And I almost feel that the disciple of Jesus is almost got 25:23 his mouth always open. Eager to take in everything. And eager to change, to become exactly like him. Everything he does, everything he says is life. 25:42 I'm not planning to take over after he dies. I can't wait till he's old and I'll take over his spot. That's how the disciples were. But Jesus is saying, "You've You've lost it. You've missed it." They're sitting all different ways to 25:55 sit and follow Christ. And it's another simple picture that I ask you. And I want to ask you also, I want to say this with the right balance, we never lift up any man. But to the extent that we have seen the 26:14 teachings of CFC, do you sit like that? And listen carefully and obey. Obey. Obey. 26:31 I have seen models in my own life. I have seen models in the various churches that I have been around where some brothers sat under the teachings of CFC 26:49 like a disciple. And he paid close attention. And they didn't get caught up in all kinds of questions. They just obeyed. And they were radical to obey. 27:07 And I've seen how it's gone. And then I've seen periods in my life where I debated Dad, you don't know about this. You don't know about this. This was that was a lot of debating. And look, there's a lot of place for questions. I'm not 27:23 trying to rule out questions. I'm not trying to stifle questions. There's a place for that. But Jesus is trying to make me a disciple first of all. And I have to ask myself, who do you think you are? 27:39 Who do I think I am? Some big shot? And as I get to know godly men, I see all the things they've gone through, and it just makes me even more convinced how proud I was 27:58 by asking all of these trivial questions. If I would just take God at his word and obey. Obey. Be radical, dear brothers, about giving 28:17 thanks in everything. Be radical about doing all things without grumbling or murmuring. All things. Be a disciple. The master has said that. You don't even need CFC teaching to 28:36 explain it. Unfortunately, most churches don't even tell you that that is the standard. Be a disciple. Dear brothers brothers how many of us will prove in a year's time from now that we were radical 28:54 disciples about seeking God's perfect will? To live in God's perfect will for one for the for this next one year. Here's a simple example. We just heard it this morning. The question is sounded beautiful. Brother Victor has a wonderful way of 29:10 speaking and all those things. We I'm sure it was gripped us. But my question is now you know it's the best way to live, living in God's perfect will. How many of you are going to sell out for it? He showed it to you from God's word. 29:25 Explained it to you from his own life story. And now he's saying sell out for living the perfect will of God at all times. Day by day seek it. We will find that the year will come next year 29:43 maybe 1% 2% 10% maybe I don't know who were gripped by it who sat at the feet of the person who stood here and spoke and said, "This is truth. I believe it. Now I'm going to obey it." Radically going to obey it. 30:04 Not going to forget this. Kindle afresh this lifestyle coming under submission letting the hands of godly men and God himself lay their hands on you and direct you. 30:22 And you having simple dependence. Master, you said it. I think it'll completely ruin it, but I will do it because you said it. Master, you're coming with a fire, burn me up. That's why we are afraid to come to 30:42 Jesus because he comes with the fire and we say, "Uh, no, no, no. I know what fire does to people." Then we get to see if we really believe Jesus is a master. There's a flaming sword that stands before the tree of life, which is 30:56 knowing God. There's that flame, there's that fire, and it's a sword, and it's going to kill you. It's going to crush you. On the other side is God. I don't know how many of us will have 31:15 that zeal to rekindle it every day. Come under the hand of God. Come under the hand of God's anointed people who are teaching you the truth. Joyfully submit to them 31:31 and simply depend on God and see if it is a difference. Just take that one word you heard this morning. Lord, I want to live in your perfect will. It is a mountain top, it's a long climb, 31:50 but I want it. It's the pearl of great price because that is the way Jesus walked. And you tell me, "I want to be like him." I will purify my heart as he is pure. Purify it of all this permissible will. Yeah, Lord, he's a Christian. Yeah, 32:09 yeah, he goes to a good church. I'll marry him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's, you know, sings in the choir. She must be a good Christian. Lord, I want your perfect will. I want a will a woman who is sold out for you. I want a man who is sold out for you. I 32:24 don't want to settle. Let us seek after God's perfect will. I want to close. I keep putting Brother Victor on the spot. What time does this session go up to? Close up, brother Victor. 32:52 Brother Victor, they want you to speak, brother. In order picture in another country you 33:15 want to bring. I want to show another picture. It is good if you see this word. First Peter chapter five. 33:45 We should see where this verse is written. The context. First Peter chapter five verse five and six. Likewise you younger men 34:06 be subject to your elders. And all of you clothe yourself with humility toward one another. For God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore Therefore 34:29 humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time. I want to ask you a question. You should answer me. Verse six. 34:49 To whom is it written? It's straight forward plain. Answer me. It's written to young people. Because it's to younger men, I can't say 35:07 it's not for me. So, it's for all. But you know the context. You younger men. Young people, we heard wonderful word this morning. My burden when I was sitting there is 35:32 Lord the young people should take this verse and they should go home. God gave a wonderful word. The mighty hand of God, do you know what it does? Do you know what it does? Brother Zac Poonen in those days in the 35:55 conferences, he has taught us like this. I have kept this picture for a long time. Whenever I go for meetings, I you know, explain it like this. Do you know what is the mighty hand does? The mighty hand tries to push you down. 36:25 When the mighty hand tries to push it down, you should yield to it. You know what the mighty hand does? 36:47 We should yield to the mighty hand of the Lord. I'll be there. We should go to the ground. Mighty hand of the God keeps pressing it 37:10 down. Go down. Go down. To level of zero. Ground level. We should go there. When we go down like this, we can receive grace from the Lord. Amen. Amen. There are two things, humility 37:35 and humiliation. Humility and humiliation. One is humility and other is humiliation. Humiliation. Humiliate to a level Humiliation when the rubber band fall down. Humiliation is more 37:55 painful than humility. Humility is we taking a step to humble ourselves. Jesus Jesus in his life In the subject of humility, he he got 100 marks. He humbled himself. Till the point of death, he humbled himself. 38:14 He went down. Went down. 100 marks. Humility in the subject of humility. humiliation The subject of humiliation. Even in that subject, Jesus scored 100 mark. You are young people, we should hit a century in humility and in humiliation. 38:34 Humiliation is painful. That is the mighty hand of God. It pushes us down constantly. No, when we yield to the mighty hand of God In your account, God will credit grace. 38:58 Do you know that in the terms of money you know In terms of money, we understand clearly. Humiliate our own self on our own We should humble ourselves on our own and when someone tries to humiliate us, we should humble ourselves. 39:15 5,000, 10,000 will be there. After being humiliated, you go and see your account, 5,000 or 10,000 might have been credited into your account. You can become rich. Grace will make you rich in the long run. You can become 39:27 rich in grace. You know how? When the mighty hand of God pushes us down, breaks us, it brings us to the ground level. Sometimes we may not see God's mighty hand. It may be your boss' hand at workplace. 39:52 But behind that hand, God's hand is there. the mighty hand of God It may be the unreasonable master that you have. That may be the mighty hand. We are resisting the man saying, "No, I don't I'm not going to obey him." God's hand is behind the unreasonable 40:13 master. That's how Jesus saw the situation. He saw father's hand behind the hands of Joseph and Mary. In the temple of Nazareth in the city of Nazareth, behind the synagogue leaders, 40:32 he saw the mighty hand of God. In all the situation, Jesus saw the mighty hand of God. Through through parents of it. It's through the parents. Uh boss, it's through the boss. In all the situation, he tries to break 40:51 us. We shouldn't resist those situations. If we resist, we can't receive grace. And all the life that we heard will be theory. Dear young people, it's not for theory. God is expecting the next generation. 41:20 May God give such a grace, so we'll get into God's mighty hand. The difficult it's a very hard task for God. He can destroy us in a moment, just like 41:38 that. But he doesn't want to do that. Whenever he lays his hand on us, we should leave it to him. So that we can be rich in grace. Amen. Amen.
