TEXT: 2 Timothy 1:15 – 2:21

 

A father’s departure 

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:6-7)

Tough Duty

You therefore endure hardship, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that is a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of this life, so that he may please him who has enlisted him to be a soldier. (2 Timothy 2:3-4)

We’re just servants

So likewise you, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do.”  (Luke 17:10 )

 

What Christian Soldiers Need to Know

1.  There will be setbacks in war

This you know, that all those who are in Asia have turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. (2 Timothy 1:15)

2. Learn what makes us strong

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:1)

Grace is an “Action Word”

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. (2 Cor. 8:9)

3. Patience: the partner of faith

…I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying: “For if we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him…”  (2 Timothy 2:10-12)

Hurry up and wait

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of patience, so that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.  For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. (Heb. 10:35-37)

4.  Stay on mission!

Put them in remembrance of these things, charging them before the Lord that they not quarrel about words to no profit…  (2 Timothy 2:14)

5. Be all that you can be!

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some for honor, and some for dishonor. If a man therefore purges himself from these, he shall be a vessel of honor, set apart, and fit for the master's use, and prepared for every good work.  (2 Tim. 2:20-21)