Episode 1232: Represent to God

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,232 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Daniel Tezeno: I'm Daniel Teo. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to recognize the richness in your life is key and one way to be inspired to do.

[00:00:28] It's to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader.

[00:00:35] Scott Maderer: Letting us know that there is a discipleship journey here, and it is an active journey. It's something that we have to do. We, we have to take an action as well. It's not about being a passive spectator who sits back and hopes that they're rescued from the world, or that the winds of fate will actually blow the right direction for [00:01:00] them or.

[00:01:01] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:27] In today's spiritual foundation episode about impacting the world, I talk with you about second Timothy chapter two versus eight through 15. I talk about how this passage is the both in the and of self and other, and I also share how this is about doing our best for a real reason. Second Timothy versus eight through 15 says, Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, a descendant of David.

[00:01:54] That is my gospel for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a [00:02:00] criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is, sure if we have died with him, we all will also live with him.

[00:02:16] If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. Remember them of this and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good, but only ruins those who are listening. Do your best to present yourself to God is one approved by him.

[00:02:42] A worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth. This part of this epistle to to Timothy by Paul. One of the first things that jumps out at you when you read it is, is it's the passage of ifs there. There's [00:03:00] a lot of ifs in these verses, these sort of casual, conditional kinds of statements, but these aren't.

[00:03:09] About being uncertain. These aren't about if statements like, If this happens, maybe that will happen. Instead. They're really somewhat definitive in some ways. This, this seems to be a passage where the mentor Paul is restating the gospel and how it has brought him to his current status. He, he's presenting this as information for Timothy.

[00:03:37] You know, remember this. Remember Jesus Christ. Remember this? He's kind of rehearsing. His faith and letting him know that this sort of belief, having this sort of deep belief will sustain him even if things are going really badly. Remember Paul's in prison at this point. [00:04:00] He's reminding him that this is Jesus Christ raised from the dead, a descendant of David.

[00:04:06] It, it, it's sort of a little miniature restatement of the gospel message. In a way, this is kind of Paul giving a foundational statement that says, This is the foundation of my faith. That gives me life, gives me meaning, gives me direction. And maybe in a way he's kind of suggesting to Timothy, you need to find something like this for yourself.

[00:04:32] Something that will sustain you because you know, times are gonna get hard and you need to be able to sustain yourself through those hard times. This offer, Jesus I surrender kind of statement. Or Jesus said, I would always be with you. And I believe this, th this whole life of Paul is being sort of summed up.

[00:04:54] In this statement, and then it begins. The series of ifs that I said [00:05:00] at the beginning jumped out at me. These ifs maybe in a way, have already happened if we have died with him. Yes, we've died with him. If we endure, yes, I'm enduring. If we deny him, or really if you see this one as a negative, if we have not denied him, then we're okay.

[00:05:21] You know, if we did deny him, then we're faithless. If you know we have lit, been in faith with Christ, then faith. Be echoed to us by Christ this, this sort of implied understanding that these are almost a checklist of Paul saying, These are the things that I have done that have given me this foundational fell faith of my life.

[00:05:48] And then it kind of says, Do your best to present yourself to God. Well, This is another one of those both ends that I [00:06:00] speak of about where it is about the life of faith, where it's both a personal and a communal or. Body of others. It, it's both an inspiration to live this way and it's a, a command to live this way, an exoration it, it's a way of describing life, but it's not necessarily a list of conditional.

[00:06:25] Things like, these are the things you have to do. A, a checklist. Th this isn't about waffling or doubt. This is about living your life in a way that shows others that you have a sustaining presence in Christ. Even if things are going badly, even if there's difficulties, even if there's challenges, it, it, it.

[00:06:49] Letting us know that there is a discipleship journey here, and it is an active journey. It's something that we have to do. We, we have to [00:07:00] take an action as well. It's not about being a passive spectator who sits back and hopes that they're rescued from the world, or that the winds of fate will actually blow the right direction for them, or being afraid of, of failure.

[00:07:17] Coming shroud. Instead, it's saying we are being made disciples of Jesus Christ, but not by our power, but rather by the transforming work of the spirit. And, and that means that we are surrendering to the power that works within us. This disciple making this journey of discipleship is not the end. It's not the destination.

[00:07:42] It's not what we're after. Instead, we're doing our best so that we can transform the world. It it's about being worthy, being our best, so that God can claim [00:08:00] us and we can claim God. But that, that work was actually done by Christ on the cross in Calvary. It, it was done before. Not by us, but by God. And yet we're still called to do our best.

[00:08:17] We're still called to also live a worthy life, to not just act like we're already saved and therefore we can do anything we want, but rather to let that light, that God shines out into the world, be placed within us, but then to actually reflect that out into the world itself, to represent ourselves to the world as a reflection.

[00:08:42] Of Christ, Love for the world. Thanks for listening.

[00:08:47] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what [00:09:00] you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we are serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

[00:09:31] Until next time, invest your. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.