Tonight is the Lord's Supper here. I wanted to be with you, but because of our moving van arriving when it is, we have to leave right after the service. So gather tonight and remember Him, the one you just sang about. Please open your Bibles now to 2 Timothy. If you thought we were done, not quite. 2 Timothy 1. I'm gonna start all over again. I would remind you of verse one that I think does lay out Paul's intent for writing this letter to Timothy. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that's in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. I hope when you remember 2 Timothy, you'll remember that Paul is describing to Timothy, the church at Ephesus, and by the spirit of God to all of God's people, the importance of the purpose of life that we have in this world, which is twofold. One is to do the will of God that he mentions is verse one. And the other is to experience the promise of life that's in Christ Jesus. That's the thrust of this little letter. And Paul is passing the torch of the gospel to Timothy and regarding the way that he can fulfill his purpose and his generation. But not only must this torch be passed, the flame of the gospel and its purpose have to be fanned faithfully to keep it ablaze. When I was a child and would go to my grandmother Tock's house, she had a small house that was heated by a coal stove, and she had a feather bed. And I liked sleeping in that feather bed, especially in the morning after all the coal fire had died down during the night. You just didn't want to get out. but somebody had to get up and stoke the fire and get it ablaze again so that warmth would return to the house. And that's something that we have to do in our lives daily is fan the flame because of the tendency for it to quickly die down. We can't take it for granted that we're Christians. That has to be something that we stoke and fan the flame every day about This world lures us away to so many other things that, again, our hearts need to be stoked and the flame needs to be fanned back into blaze again. Dealing with distracting difficulties that we saw in 2 Timothy, or simply sometimes just to forget it. We have to have our hearts stirred repeatedly. And as you know, we're entering retirement. I gave you one definition of it a couple weeks ago that just means put on new tires and keep going. But I was at a missions conference one time when I was in the campus ministry. Our mission agency had regular large conferences and we went to one and there was a retired missionary that got up to speak and he cut loose like you wouldn't believe. And after he was done, the moderator come up and said, he's not retired, he's re-fired. And that's what we need every day, folks. We need to be re-fired. And I trust in the years to come here and where Alan and I are that God will keep re-firing us. and keep the flame burning brightly. That issue is addressed particularly now in chapter one in verses six and seven. He says, for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Most likely, verse 6 is referring to when Paul set Timothy apart for the ministry. But I think there's good application there for every Christian because God has given us the gift of his Holy Spirit to indwell us and to do a work in us And we would not make that impersonal, but what he is doing in our life needs to be fanned into flame over and over and over again. And that's what I want us to think about this morning. What flames need to be fanned in our life over and over in order that we can do the will of God, in order that we can experience the life that's in Christ Jesus, in order that we can maintain and extend the gospel in our generation and beyond. So we're gonna focus primarily now in verse seven, which I think describes how you fan the flame. And one of the aspects of this flame that needs constant fanning is you need to fan the flame of spiritual power. We need to realize the problem that we have when he talks about God has not given us a spirit of fear. And I think sometimes as believers, when we're seeking to do the will of God or experience the life of Christ or extend the gospel, we may have a fear of a lack of power. I don't have the power to do this. Well, two things to understand about this lack of power. There's a difference between humility and fear. With humility, we proceed with care knowing our limitations. Yes, I don't have the power, but the power is in the spirit of God who dwells me and he can, by his flame, inflame that power in my life so that I can do the very things that God has called me to do. Fear is something quite different than humility. Fear is not good. And the fear that's in view here, which is that God has not given us a spirit of fear is a retreat into anxiety. I just can't do it. I'm anxious. I doubt that God can do that in my life. Now he might do it in Pastor Dan's life, but he can't do it in my life. I'm just ordinary Christian. Well, Dan would tell you he's an ordinary Christian too, and so am I. And the only way we can do what we do is by the power of God. It's not within us. And the fear that God does not grant that power will cause the flame to die down. You must believe that what he promised, he will do. When Christians live with a fear of a lack of power, certain things happen. One is the gospel is dishonored. Romans 1.16, Paul says that, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, also to the Greek. If we don't believe in the power of God, then that gospel is dishonored, because it's a gospel of power. The power of the cross that you heard played, the power of the resurrection of Christ. And that's nothing to be ashamed about. It's nothing to have anxieties over. It's something to stir up in your heart every day. This gospel is a gospel of power. It can transform sinners. But for the Spirit of God to do that, we must rely on His power and convey the gospel to people. In fact, not only is the gospel dishonored, But in 2 Peter 3 and verse 5, he talks about some of the difficulties of the days in which we live. And one of the difficulties is having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. We can't just live moral lives, people, like a Mormon would try to do. We have to live a life empowered by the spirit of God. His fruit needs to be progressively and increasingly developed in our life. That needs to be, that flame needs to be fanned. I want more love. I want more joy. I want more peace. And you've heard me say that one of the favorite parts of that verse is the last phrase that says, against such, there's no law. And he's never gonna say to you, I've given you enough love, you can't have any more. I've given you enough peace, you can't have any more. No, you can have as much as you want. And you ought to fan the flame of the spirit of God and walk in the spirit and that fruit will be manifest in your life. So we don't want to deny the power of the gospel because we're afraid of a lack of power when he has granted us that power. We need to remember that provision now from 2 Timothy 1, 7, that God has given us the spirit of power. What is that? Well, I believe it's the power of the Holy Spirit. He has been given to us to indwell us. Jesus said, I'm not gonna leave you as orphans. I'm not gonna leave you powerless. I'm going to put my spirit within you. He's going to indwell you. He is with you and he will be in you. So this spirit of power is the Holy Spirit. Well, how does the Holy Spirit work in your life in a way that empowers you? It's through divine grace. The Spirit of God takes the grace of God and empowers you to be and to do what you could not otherwise be or do. And we need to rely on that. By the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of His enabling grace, Christian, you can be and you can do everything God wants you to become and do. Don't fear your lack of power. Trust the power that God has placed within you by His Holy Spirit. Believe his word. How do you rekindle the practice? If you feel like the spirit of power is diminishing in you, how do you fan it into a flame? You believe God's word. You believe what he says. Acts 1.8, you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, the innermost part of the earth. Believe the word of God. He said he's given you power, believe it. Don't fear that you will lack it, but look to him and live accordingly. Turn with me to Acts chapter four and we'll show you an example of a fanned flame of spiritual power. Acts chapter four. In Acts four, Peter and John have been called before the council, the Sanhedrin, to give an account of the healing of a lame man. And these are the same people, folks, that about 50 days plus previous, Peter would not confess Christ. He had a spirit of fear. But now in this chapter, if you notice verse eight, we'll start there before we get to the verse that I want you to see. Verse eight, it says, or they asked him, by what power or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we're examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This, Jesus, is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation no one else. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." He had fanned the spirit of power within himself at that moment. The Spirit of God filled him and empowered him to speak to these men who before he was afraid of. But not only was Peter afraid and overcame that by the power of the spirit, they go back to their own people and gather with them and they tell them what had happened and how they had been called on the carpet. And you might think they would be in fear now, but come now to verse 29, they pray. Listen to their prayer. Now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. While you stretch out your hand to heal, signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continue to speak the word of God with boldness. God turned their fear into power. So that, verse 32, it says, now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. What transformed these people who were so afraid? They fanned the flame of the Spirit of God within them. They called upon God to strengthen them, and the Spirit of God filled them, and they continued to speak the Word of God with boldness, and great grace was upon them. That's how you do it. That's how you fan the flame. When you notice you're becoming fearful, do a Barney Fife and nip that in the bud. Say no. No, God, give me power to do what I ought to do, to be what I ought to be, to become what I ought to become. Give me that power. Stir that up within me by your Holy Spirit. Fan the flame of spiritual power. I'll come back to our text. Not only are we to fan the flame of spiritual power, we're also to fan the flame of spiritual love. And we're to realize again that the problem that we have and that is a fear of the loss of love. Jesus warned that in the last days that the love of many would grow cold. And that's not hard to see. It's easy for love to die down in us. Somebody just looks at us the wrong way or says something that we misunderstand, or maybe we do understand, and I'm not gonna love them. And Jesus had told his disciples, and he, by this, all men shall know you're my disciples, if you have love one for another. And not only that, Sermon on the Mount, he told us we're to love our enemies. Do good to those who persecute us. Say all manner of evil against us falsely for his sake. For our love to die down is very easy to happen in our lives. Everybody wants to be loved. And so we tend to fear the loss of love. However, there are some loves that need to be lost without fear. Do you understand that? We looked at some of those. Look at 2 Timothy again. Let me show you some loves that you do need to lose without fear. Chapter 3, verse 2 of 2 Timothy. For people will be lovers of self. You can lose that fear. And it won't hurt you one bit. In fact, it will probably improve you when you get your eyes off yourself and get them on the needs of others. And particularly the first commandment is not love yourself, it's love God, love God. So love a self, don't be too frightened if you lose that, because the Holy Spirit is probably trying to work that in your life anyway. Get your eyes off yourself and get them on where they belong. Verse four, lovers of pleasure. Now we all like to have a good time, but that's not what he's got in view here because he's contrasting it with the kind of love you ought to have. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Don't think God is a killjoy and all your pleasures are in this world. God is not a killjoy. In fact, he tells us at his right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. He's got pleasures that will far surpass anything this world has to offer. And we need to seek those pleasures and love the giver even more than the gift. To love him who truly is the one who has the spirit of joy and the spirit of peace and the spirit of love. Chapter four, verse nine. He says, henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge. Will give. Or will reward me on that day, and not only to me also, but those all those who have loved his appearing. That's something you need to love. You need to love his first appearing. And understand why did Jesus come into this world? Well, God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. And his son so loved us, he took a body on himself. And he laid down that body in our place on the cross. He took all of the wrath of God that you and I deserve and placed that on his son. Because Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. He did it because he loved me. You don't have to play the daisy game with God. He loves me, he loves me not. No, he loves me, he loves me, he loves me, he loves me. Just keep saying that. Fan the flame. He loves you and you need to love his first appearing. Not only did he give himself for you on the cross, he rose alive bodily from the dead. And now he ever lives to make intercession for us. And there's another appearing that we ought to be loving and it's easy to get so caught up in the love of this world that we don't love his second coming. when he will gather us to himself to free us from all the effects of sin forever, to take us to a new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness, of which there will be no end. Fear the loss of love, the right kind of love. Fear the loss of loving his appearing, but don't fear the loss of losing love of self or love of pleasure rather than love of God. The provision God has made for us, God has given us the spirit of love. Look at Romans 5 in verse 5 with me that connects these thoughts, the spirit and love. Romans 5 in verse 5. You need to get actually the whole flow of this. Verse one, he says, therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings. Here's when it kind of seems maybe love's gonna ebb a little bit. Knowing that sufferings produce endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because why? God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. He is the spirit of love. He's been poured into us to produce his fruit in us. The fruit of the spirit is love. spiritual love, God's kind of love, a love that transcends anything this world could even think about offering us. How does that love manifest itself? Well, let's look at 2 Timothy 2.22. He says, so flee youthful passions, pursue righteousness, faith, love. and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. And the provision God has made for us and the means by which we go about it is simply this, flee youthful passions. And you don't have to be a teenager alone to have youthful passions. You can be a guy my age and have youthful passions. And you have to flee from those things. Because if you don't, the love of God in your heart is going to die down. flee youthful passions, pursue righteousness, faith, love." Do you get the word pursue? Pursue it. Desire it. Want it. God, I want Your love in my life. I want it more and more in my life because You said against such there's no law. I want more of it. Fan that flame. He also adds something else I think is very important. It says, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, this fanning of the flame of love in your life, you can't do it by yourself. There is an old illustration that we can help you perhaps understand it. There was a person who'd been absent from his church for quite some time. So the pastor gave him a personal visit. And this was back when the house was warmed by a hearth, a fire, and the fire was blazing. And the pastor just sat there and visited with him for a while. And as they visited, he took the tongs over and he took an ember off the fire and laid it on the front of the hearth all by itself. And pretty soon it died down while the fireplace was still blazing. And without saying another word, the man said, I understand, pastor. I can't do this alone. I need the fellowship of other Christians. And beloved, we don't put rules on you a whole lot. We don't demand a whole lot, but I'm telling you this. If you want to fan the flame, you need to take advantage of every opportunity God gives you to be with God's people. Sometimes that's not possible. I understand that. I had to work in a hospital for three years and they don't send all the people home on Saturday night and bring them back on Monday. And so there were many Sundays when I didn't get to be with God's people. That hurt and I tried to be there for Sunday night as soon as I got off work or or Wednesdays, whenever I could, to be with God's people. That's part of fanning the flame, folks. You can't do this by yourself. You need the company of God's people. And if you really want to keep it stirred up, you need to take advantage of every opportunity you have, not legalistically, but out of a spirit of love for Jesus Christ and for His word and for His people. Chapter 3, verse 4. We are to be lovers of God. How can I love God? Because He first loved us. So focus on the fact God loves you, and then focus on returning that love to Him. Chapter 3, verse 10. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Paul tells Timothy, follow my love. And sometimes we think of Paul as probably this crotchety old man. He probably didn't have the best appearance from some suggestions you might see in his writings, but he was a man of intense spiritual love. He loved God's people. He loved Christ. He loved the gospel. And he says, follow my love. That's another way you can rekindle your love. If you're having trouble loving, find a loving Christian and get close to him and let some of that love kind of brush off onto you and stir up and fan the flame in your own heart. There is a loss of love that you ought to greatly fear. And that's found in Revelation 2, verse 4. The letter of Christ to the church at Ephesus. We'll begin at verse three. He says, I know your works. This was a church that worked. All right. I know your toil. The idea of toil is laboring to the point of weariness. I know your patient endurance. Those are all good qualities, folks. How you cannot bear those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. They were good at discerning truth and error and true speakers for God and false speakers. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary. I mean. Wouldn't you like to have that said about you about our church? Of course. But what's the first word in verse 4? But. In spite of all that you're doing. I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. What did this church need to do? They needed to fan the flame of spiritual love within themselves. A love for Christ, a love for his work, a reason for their work, a reason for their toil, a reason for their endurance. Was it just not for his namesake, but because of their love for Christ. When your service for Christ becomes simply a burden, You need to fan the flame of love in your heart for Christ. After all he's done for me, after all he's done for me, how can I do less than give him my best and live for him completely after all he's done for me? Fan the flame of spiritual love within your heart. You need to believe God's word. He loves me. He loves me. He wants my love. As poor as it is, he wants my love. And the only way I can have my love sufficient to give to him is the spirit of God has to be stirred up within me so that my life is producing the fruit of love. We must live and act accordingly. Two verses for you to think about with this. Ephesians chapter five and verse two, Ephesians 5. Verse 2. Verse one says, therefore, be imitators of God as loved children. He loves us alright Christian, he loves you. Don't doubt that. and be imitators of him, love him back, love others. In fact, that's what he says now in verse two, walk in love. How? As Christ loved us. That's the kind of love God wants from you. That's the kind of love the spirit of God can create in you. And that's the kind of love that has to be stirred within you as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Walk in love. See, ladies, you're not off the hook. You get to chapter five near the end. It says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. But verse two is talking to men and women, boys and girls, adults who know Christ. And that is, he's loved you and laid down his life for you, then you need to walk in that love. And love as he loved, lay down your life for the sake of others, whatever it requires. Live accordingly. Colossians chapter three and verse 14. Why is this so essential in our life? Well, this verse tells us why it's so essential. Verse 12, he says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. He loves you. Believe his word. Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another. If one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on what? Love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. When your life starts getting out of harmony, and we could illustrate that real quick with a piano, When you get our discordant, it doesn't sound good. And it won't sound good in your life. It won't sound good in the church. We need to be in harmony. And the only thing that will put us into harmony with our differences and make it sound good is the stirring up of this spiritual love within ourselves for one another and together for a love for Christ. That's how you rekindle the flame. Well, there's a third aspect that needs to be constantly revived, constantly rekindled, and that's to fan the flame of spiritual self-control. Again, we need to think about the problem, the limits of self-control. You know, I tried to limit it. I just can't control myself. Whatever it is. See, we all have a natural sinful proneness. For some reason, Christians, especially immature Christians, but all Christians, have a fear that they're going to miss something good if they exercise self-control. If I control myself, I may miss out on something that could be a lot of fun, could be a lot of enjoyment. The world says so. No. Second Timothy chapter two, verse four. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. A soldier has to exercise self-control. I feel like going AWOL just for a little while. And you're gonna be in big trouble if you go AWOL. No. He doesn't get entangled in civilian pursuits. His aim is to please the one who enlisted him. If Christ has chosen you to be his own. Then you need the self control to act like you are his own. And that self control comes from the Spirit of God. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 22. Flee youthful passions. Lack of control. And again, he's not talking about boys or girls from puberty to their early or mid-twenties. He's talking about all of us. Flee youthful passions. I can't control myself. I looked at that picture. I looked at that person. I looked at that. I just couldn't control it. I just had to have it. Christian, if you do that, you really need to have your flame fanned. The flame of spiritual self control. Chapter 4 verses three and four. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Wow. But we're living in a day. when there are pulpits filled with people who are scratching where people want to be scratched rather than telling them the truth. And I hope you don't get in a situation like that where you just want to hear nice moral stories rather than solid biblical truth that can transform your life. When you start having itching ears and want to hear the guy that smiles real big and says you can get your best life now, you better fan the flame of spiritual self-control and turn that off or put his book away. Because this is the book that tells you about the best life. And it's a good one now, but the best one is yet to come. It's not in this world. that you will find the best life in its fullness. Even though we're called to experience the life that's in Christ, and it's an abundant life, it's a good life, but the best life is yet to come. It really is. The loss of self-control is paralyzing, if not fully destructive. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 28. Proverbs 25. The very last verse. A man without self-control is like a city broken in two and left without walls. You see how important it is? a city broken into and left without walls. You've got to put up some walls of self-control in your life. But those walls have to be put up by the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, and not your own legalisms, but the application of God's Word to your life. When he says, flee youthful passions, you've got to put that wall up and say, yes, Lord, by your Spirit, I'm going to flee youthful passions. The good value of self-control, this is the problem of it, is not immediately evident. You know, when everything's going good, self-control is easy. And it may not be evident to you. It's, why do I need self-control? Everything's all right. And then suddenly you are trapped in one of the devil's snares. You realize, wow. If I had to just exercise some spiritual self-control, I wouldn't be in the mess that I'm in. It's very important. And generally for young people, but for all people, the value of it isn't immediately understood. But I tell you this, if you build the right wall of the word of God, by the spirit of God, it will preserve you from a lot of things that are destructive and paralyzing in your life. It really will. You need to remember the provision God has made for us. He has given us the spirit of self-control. Now, the word for self-control in this verse is the only time it appears in the New Testament, but it's related to a few other words of the same root. And it simply means to have a sound mind, to think correctly, to be sober-minded, to be temperate. to be self-controlled. And one of those related words is found in Galatians 5.23 of the fruit of the spirit, that the fruit of the spirit is self-control. If you can't control yourself, and you really can't, Effectively, what you need is to fan the flame of the Spirit of God in your life so that he develops within you by the Word of God, the ability to have self-control. What are some evidences of self-control? Come back to chapter two of 2 Timothy, and there are some illustrations of right self-control in his letter. Chapter two, verse three. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Self-control. I mean, if you're suffering, one of the things you want to do is get away from it as fast as you can. But to carry out your role as a good soldier means there are going to be things you will have to suffer. And you have to have self-control to stay at it, to what he has called you to go through. Chapter 2, verse 6, it is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. It's the hardworking farmer, self-control. I planted my corn. Now I'm just going to not do anything and come fall. I hope there's a crop. You know, you've got to go the whole process. You've got to prepare the soil. You've got to plant the seed. You've got to cultivate it. Gotta pray for rain, pray for sun. When it comes harvest time, you gotta get out there and harvest it. If a farmer didn't have self-control, he'd be out of business really quick. Well, it looks like rain today. I don't think I'll do it. No, if it looks like rain today, you get out there and work even harder before the rain comes. Self-control. Chapter two, verse 15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly to handling the word of truth. Self-control. When I stand before God, I want him to say to me by the grace of God, not simply because I did something, but by his grace, I want to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. Instead of playing games, you did what I sent you to do. Instead of wasting time, you invested your time. And that's not to say we don't have time to have to rest. There is, and there is time for recreation. But we've got to keep in mind our primary purpose in being here is to exercise work that he's called us to do, rightly handling his word, so that we can diligently present ourself to him as approved. His approval. It's very important. Chapter 2, verse 22. So flee youthful passions, pursue righteousness, love, faith, love, peace, along with those who call on the name of the Lord for the pure heart. Self-control. The pursuit of righteousness, not youthful passions. The pursuit of faith, not youthful passions. The pursuit of love, not youthful passions. The pursuit of peace, not youthful passions. The pursuing these things with those who call on the Lord, not with the ungodly. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scornful. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. That's what you need to aim at, and it takes self-control to do that. Chapter four, verse five. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So how do you rekindle that practice? How do you fan the flame? Again, you believe God's word. You believe what we've looked at here in scripture about self-control. And then you live and you act accordingly. Let me give you two verses related to that as an application. 1 Corinthians 9, In verse 25, Paul describes the way he conducted his ministry. And it's a good one for all of us to emulate. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things, and we've been called to something far more important than an athletic event. We've been called to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and we need to exercise self-control in that service. One more, 1 Thessalonians 5, and verses 6 through 8. He's talking about the times that we live in. In verse four, he says, you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. If you're all children of light, children of the day, we are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do. Let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. Or stay awake or stay alert. The Lord is coming, folks. We don't know when he'll be here. It could be today. It could be in my grandchildren's lifetime. It could be beyond them, but he's coming and we ought to live as if he's coming today. Self-control. I want to be found being and doing his will and experiencing the life that's promised me in Christ today. And if I just put today after today, tomorrow, today, today, today, today, today, you put a whole life together until he comes. Rekindle the practice, fan the flame of spiritual self control. It is a very vital element. To pleasing our Savior. It is a fruit of his spirit. The Lord God has called us in Christ to a great purpose in this world, and that's to do the will of God and to experience the promise of life that's in Christ Jesus. And you know that. You know that. But for many reasons, prone to wonder, Lord, we feel it. Prone to leave the God we love. Take my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Fan the flame of the Spirit of God in your life. His power, His love, His self-control. Do that repeatedly. When you feel the flame beginning to die down, don't let it die down any further. Pursue Him. Seek Him that He might rekindle that flame in your heart. Don't fear. Fan the flame and keep fanning the flame in your own life and in one another until that day. And I will close with Hebrews 10. encouraging and helpful and needful verses. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he is who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works to fan the flame. Not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some. but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Whoever wrote Hebrews wrote it almost 2000 years ago. And if the day was approaching then, it's a lot closer now than it ever has been. We need to be encouraging one another all the more. We need to be meeting together all the more. We need to be stirring up one another to love and good works all the more. Keep that flame fanned and burning. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven. We thank you that in a dead soul. You have set a flame. We thank you, Father, you're able to take us out of our sin and place us in Christ and place your Holy Spirit within us. To do within us what we we need to have done in order that we can do your will, nor that we can experience the life that's in Christ to the fullest. Stir it up within us, Father. We confess to you that very often the spirit of power dwindles in our life. The spirit of love dwindles in our life, the spirit of self-control dwindles. And those things are so needful, Lord, for us to do your will and to experience the life that's in Christ. I pray that by your word, by your spirit, you will awaken us when our fire begins to dwindle and enable us by your grace to fan that flame that we might love you more. We might know your power in greater ways and we might have the self-control that we need to do your will and to be approved of you in the end. Father, thank you for these years together. We ask your blessing upon this church. Ask your strength for Dan and the other elders as they labor till Nathaniel can come. We pray that you'll help him as he does his transitional work in the Philippines. And we pray, Father, in days to come when we return, we will see that the flame is still burning brightly and powerfully with love and self-control in this place. I thank you now for all your blessings. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face. To shine upon you. And be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you in Jesus name, Amen.