SERMON OUTLINE

Fan the Flame   2 Timothy 1.1-7

Following the Flame

Introduction

Fan the flame is the same as the command to “Walk in the Spirit”. The Christian life begins with the coming of the Holy Spirit within and continues with our submission to the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.

Beware of Competitors, Enemies and Neglect

-Say NO to Ungodly and worldly bodily desires and say YES to using your body for God. Titus 2.11-14

-Replace the futility of your mind by renewing your mind on God’s thoughts. Ephesians 4.17-24

-Three enemies – the flesh, the world, and the Devil, are overcome by the Spirit, the renewed mind, and the life abandoned to God. Galatians 5.16-17; 1 John 5.19, 2.15-17, James 4.4; 2 Peter 1.3-4.

Checklist for Walking in the Spirit

1) Make sure you are a true believer.

2) Know that as a believer the Holy Spirit lives in you.

3) Renounce all sin and sinful habits.

4) Accept the Sovereignty of God over your life.

5) Choose to allow God to use you as He pleases.

6) Absolute obedience to God.

7) Patient perseverance.

Conclusion        

Jesus says, “Follow Me”. Will you give up your own life to follow Jesus and find your life in the process?

SERMON NOTES

Following the Flame       2 Timothy 1.1-7

-This will be the last message on these verses about fanning the flame of the gift of God which is within you. This morning I want to speak about following the flame. Following the flame is just another way of saying “walk in the Spirit”. Walking in the Spirit means to walk by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Christian life begins when the Holy Spirit comes into a person with the renewing life of God. The Christian life then continues as a person learns to submit to the Holy Spirit, and hands over the control of their life to God by walking in the Spirit.

-To fan the flame of the gift of God, the Holy Spirit that is within us, we need to remove those competitors which keep us from allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us and empower us.

-We need to say a resounding NO to those ungodly and worldly desires which call on our body to be satisfied. We need to give our bodies to God so that the parts of our body can be used to fulfill righteousness. God’s Word says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2.11-14) God’s grace moves us to say NO to sin and YES to God so that our bodies will be used to glorify God. We need to make sure that we do not neglect to discipline our bodies in order to help it to submit to the desires of the Holy Spirit and not to its own appetites.

-Not only are we to give our bodies to God but we need to remove the competitors for our mind. We need to renew our minds with God’s thoughts so that we know what godly and holy behavior is. This is how God’s Word describes unbelievers, “they live in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” (Ephesians 4.17-18) By contrast the Word of God describes the believer this way, “You, however did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4.20-24)

-The description of the believer’s renewed mind is followed by a series of practical commands on how to use the body and the mind for God – put off falsehood and speak the truth, do not sin by being angry, do not steal but work for a living, speak to build up and not tear down. Do not be bitter, slanderous, and malicious, but kind, compassionate and forgiving. Do not speak about sexual immorality, no coarse jokes or obscenities, or deceitful words. Find out what pleases the Lord. Understand what the will of the Lord is. We need to make sure we do not neglect the Word of God in order to keep our minds on the things of God and to give direction to the use of our bodies for God.

-Through our daily habits and disciplines we need to give the Holy Spirit access to our bodies and our minds and not quench or grieve the Holy Spirit.

-As Christians we face three enemies – the flesh, the world and the Devil. The Devil uses the flesh and the world against us for he controls both of these areas.

-The flesh is the residue of sin in the believer which rebels against the authority of God, the practice of sacrificial love, and an attitude of humility. The flesh seeks to control the body to satisfy its own appetites in opposition to God’s desires. The only way to overcome the flesh which continues to dwell in the believer is to walk in the Spirit. The Bible teaches, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” (Galatians 5.16-17)

-The world is the values, pursuits, thinking, and systems of this world which are contrary to God. God’s Word says, “That the whole world is under the control of the evil one. That everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. That if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That friendship with the world is hatred toward God and that anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (1 John 5.19, 2.15-17; James 4.4)

-Through the Word of God our values, pursuits, thinking, and systems change in line with God and His kingdom. “God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1.3-4)

-The Devil also accuses us and threatens us and we resist him by giving our bodies to God even if that means suffering and death, and by equipping our minds with the truths of God like justification by faith and the hope of eternal life. “They overcame the Devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did no love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” (Revelation 12.11)

-So we must be regularly aware of competitors, enemies and neglect that seek to dampen and snuff out the flame of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. Instead we must make every effort to allow the Holy Spirit to rule us and guide us by using our bodies to serve God and by renewing our mind on God’s Word.

-How can I walk in the Spirit? Here is a checklist of 7 things for you to consider.

1) Make sure you are a true believer. This means that you know you are born again by the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit lives in you. You cannot walk in the Spirit if you are spiritually dead.

2) Know that as a believer you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. God promises that every believer has the Holy Spirit living inside of them. With the Holy Spirit comes the guarantee of God’s power and guidance by this Holy Spirit within. It is in the Spirit’s life that we are to live the Christian life.

3) Renounce all known sin and sinful habits. We need to ask God to forgive us of any known sin that we have and we are to make whatever restitution is necessary to another person or group. We need to give up to God any sinful habit that we have and begin to do what is righteous before God so that we might walk in the Spirit. Confession and repentance is a step we need to repeat many times as we daily walk in the Spirit.

4) Accept the Sovereignty of God over your life. Accept as a fact that God has allowed or caused your present circumstances, the people in your life, your social and financial status, and that God is the one who will direct your future. God’s Sovereignty over your life takes into account your own sinful and bad choices, the sins of others against you, your daily choices, and your personality. Know that God is in charge and that in His Goodness He has sovereignly allowed all that touches your life and that every circumstance can work for good if you submit to God in each situation.

5) Choose to allow God to use you as He pleases. This means giving up your own plans, rights, preferences, persuasive powers, reputation, hopes, dreams, finances, comfort, safety, fears, and allowing God to use you for His purposes and for His Glory. Our one concern is to bring Glory to God and to strengthen the kingdom of God’s by allowing Him to use us for His purposes as He pleases.

6) Absolute obedience to God. Acceptance of the Sovereignty of God and allowing God to use us as He pleases will lead to absolute obedience to God’s commands and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As God speaks to us through His Word and by the promptings of the Holy Spirit we will submit to God and obey Him and will see God at work in us and through us. One of the side effects of absolute obedience is peace, joy and fellowship with God. We will be conformed to the character of Jesus. The flame of the Holy Spirit of God within us will be allowed to work in us and through us.

7) Patient perseverance. We are to walk in the Spirit on an ongoing basis. We must regularly read God’s Word and ask ourselves what God is saying and teaching us in those words. We must regularly spend time alone in quiet in the presence of God and get to know Him by His Spirit. We must regularly obey when we sense that God is leading us in a certain direction. We will make mistakes but through experience we will learn to walk with God day by day. The result of patient perseverance in walking in the Spirit will be a life that resembles Jesus more and more and a life that bears fruit for God. The flame of the Holy Spirit will continue to be fanned to the Glory of God and the benefit of ourselves and others.

–Paul commanded God’s people to “fan the flame of God that is within you” and to “walk in the Spirit”. The writer to the Hebrews describes the Christian life as a walk of obedient risk-it-all faith. James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Peter exhorts Christians to make every effort to apply the promises of God so that we might become partakers of the divine nature. But Jesus puts the Christian walk most simply when he says “follow me”.

-Peter denied his association with Jesus three times during the trial of Jesus before the high priest. Later Jesus restored Peter to fellowship with him and told Peter that he would die a death that would glorify God. Then Jesus said to Peter, “follow me”. Later on when Peter was in prison for preaching the gospel and angel stood before him and said to Peter, “follow me”, and led him out of the prison and into many more years of ministry for Jesus. Eventually Peter was crucified upside down in Rome as a follower of Jesus. Peter followed Jesus fully and completely even unto death.

-If you are a Christian or are thinking about becoming a Christian the call of Jesus to you is “follow me”. Let me describe what following Jesus means in the words of Jesus himself. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? O what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16.24-26) Will you deny your own life, your own preferences, your own goals and rights and dreams, and give your body and mind and will to Jesus for His service and His Glory. Jesus says, “Follow Me”.