Rekindling the Flame of Our Ministry

♪♪ Announcer 2 In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, rekindling the flame of our ministry. ♪♪ Dr. Charles Stanley I still very vividly remember this very outstanding preacher standing on the platform and preaching a message that just absolutely stirred my heart. Not only did I hear him, but I also watched him. And there was something about him that really moved my life. And I was so excited to hear him because I'd never heard him before. And I was not disappointed at all. I thought, dear God, what a wonderful work that you've done in this man's life. And then a number of years went by and he came to this very church and preached the revival. I remember exactly where I sat. I sat right there on that side on the end seat. And I was so excited. He preached all week long, one solid week. Not one soul moved. Absolutely nothing happened. It was one of the deadest weeks I've ever spent in my life. I remember sitting there with terribly mixed emotions. One of them was amazement that a man whose heart was so aflame for God a number of years ago could somehow have died out. And secondly, fear and thinking,

God, could this ever happen to me? Sometimes we think for the flame to die in a man's heart, he has to turn liberal and start not believing the word of God any longer, or some gross sin in his life. But the truth is neither of those have to be true. The flame, that real deep abiding motivation, that stirring in a man's heart, that is there when he first begins to preach the gospel, it doesn't mean necessarily he has to stop believing the word of God or fall into some gross sin, but something or some things or attitudes begin to change in a person's life. And that tremendous flame, that energy, that thrust, that power, that anointing of God is gone. And we ask ourselves the question why? It should be something that not only amazes us, but should frighten every single man and woman of God who's serving him because there's no exception. There's no plateau, and there is no place in life you can run. We either walk obediently before God or something happens to the flame that is firing our heart. Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to 2 Timothy, because the title of this message is rekindling the flame of our ministry. Rekindling the flame of our ministry. In 2 Timothy chapter one, the apostle Paul writes to young Timothy discussing some issues related to the church,

but primarily it is a word of encouragement to him as well as a word of instruction. And if you'll notice beginning in verse three of this first chapter, he says to him, I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. Longing to see you even as I recall your tears so that I may be filled with joy. He says, for I am mindful of the sincere faith within you which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm sure that it is in you as well. And for this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity or fear, but of power and love and discipline. Now remember the apostle Paul was writing to young Timothy who is now pastoring at least preaching in the church in Ephesus. And Ephesus was a great religious center, great commercial center, great political center of Asia. And the temple of Diana was there and all the prostitution that was mixed up with all of their worship. It was a terrible place to serve God. And here young Timothy was there preaching and Paul knowing his personality and knowing his disposition

knew that he needed some tremendous encouragement. Remember that Timothy did not have the epistle to the Romans, epistle to Philemon, to Colossians and Ephesians and all of these. He just had what the apostle Paul had taught him. And of course, the truths of the Old Testament that he'd learned. So he didn't have what you and I have and he couldn't flip open to a verse here and go back to a passage here and be encouraged. And so the apostle Paul is attempting to encourage him. He wants to encourage him in his ministry because he sees and detects that this flame is flickering just a bit. And so what I would like for us to look at in this passage is this, against the background of what was happening here in Timothy's life. about your life and what about mine? How do we rekindle this flame, this burning that God set out in our heart when He called us to preach the gospel, to teach His Word? Not only in those ministries, but also in whatever ministry a person may be called, whether it is to sing, or teach, or administer it, or whatever it may be. But in any area, the same thing that happened to the man that I mentioned a few moments ago can happen to anyone. And it's interesting that it certainly had begun to happen in the life of Timothy, because in 1st Timothy, if you'll notice, in the 14th verse of the fourth chapter, he says to him here, in the 13th verse, he's telling him about giving attention to the reading of the Word of God and so forth, and he says in verse 14, do not neglect the spiritual gift within you which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these

things, be absorbed in them so that you may progress, that your progress may be evident to all. So he detected in him the possibility of this flame beginning to flicker. Then if you'll notice in the sixth chapter of 1st Timothy, in the 20th verse, he says to him, as he concludes this epistle, he says, O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. He says, remember what you've been entrusted with. You've been entrusted with the calling. You've been entrusted with the gift. And God does not call every man. He does not gift every person alike. He says, but you guard what you have been entrusted with. And what Paul is attempting to do is to encourage him as well as to warn him. Now, when you come to this passage in 2nd Timothy, I believe the Apostle Paul attempts to encourage Timothy in four ways and in four ways that all of us need to be encouraged once in a while. You'll notice beginning in the chapter, he says in verse 3, I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. One of the ways he wanted to encourage him is to remind him that he loved him. He was thinking about him and he loved him. Is it not true that one of the most motivating factors in all of our life, all of us who serve him, is to know that somebody loves us and that somebody cares for us. It isn't enough that everybody loves us. It is very important that somebody loves us and somebody cares for us and somebody says I love you and somebody says I care for you and I'm interested in what is going on in your life. The second way he, I believe, wanted to encourage him was this, and that is he wanted to affirm his own sense of confidence in young Timothy. If you'll notice what he says in this fifth verse, he says for I'm remind, I'm mindful of the sincere faith within you. You got it from your grandmother and your mother and he says now I'm sure it is in you as well. Affirming in him that he saw something in young Timothy that stirred his own heart. He says I see within you this faith. I know that it's there. He says it's evident that it's there. It was in your grandmother, it was in your mother, in your mother and now it

is in you and he says I'm confident that it is in you also. So he wanted to encourage him by saying Timothy I see something within you that encourages my heart. The third way he wanted to encourage him was to remind him of his family heritage. He said this faith which you have I first saw it in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and there is a heritage that he had and he was simply saying to him as God has worked in their lives and look what he's done in their life surely you want him to do the same in yours. I think back in my own life and think about not my grandmother because my grandmother's both passed away before I came along but my grandfather. I remember my grandfather's faith and what an awesome, awesome influence he had on me in five days. I went to see him. He lived in Solid City, North Carolina. I spent well six days I spent with him and all we did is talk. Well I did the listening he did the talking. I walked away from that week with my granddad with a whole sense of direction for my life and for the ministry. I didn't even realize what had happened at that time. My grandfather's faith, God did something in my own heart in the most unusual way. Nobody can fill the place of a father, nobody can fill the place of a mother. So he's saying to Timothy, Timothy you have an awesome heritage in your grandmother and in your mother. What what faith these women had. Then he said not only that the fourth way he wanted to encourage him he says he says I for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the Gift of God which is in you. What was he doing? He was reminding him and affirming. I know that the Spirit of God has come upon you. I know that you've been gifted. I know that you have a call upon your life. And so here is Paul encouraging him. But is it not true that all of us need to be reminded of that? That somebody loves us and somebody cares.

And that somebody sees God working in our life and growing us. And someone is aware of the rich heritage we have. And someone is aware also that the very evident hand of God is upon us because what is going on in our life could not be true apart from the presence of God. And I think about how many pastors out there all across this nation and all across the world and nobody ever says to them, I love you. I really care for what's going on in your life. I want you to know that I see the Lord Jesus Christ working in your life. And I want you to know that I'm grateful to God for your parents and your grandparents who enriched your life. And now that you're able to enrich my life as a result of their faithfulness to God. And I'm gonna tell you, I do believe that God has called you and I see the hand of God upon you. And I know the anointing of God is upon you. Thank you, pastor. How many men of God need that? And how few of them ever hear it? Because people are so busy doing their thing, they have great expectations of their pastor. Most of which oftentimes is absolutely impossible and never stopped to think. And I want to say to you, my friend,

when is the last time you thought about your pastor that way? And when's the last time you stopped to tell him, I just want you to know that I love you. I love you for preaching the truth to me. I love you for being faithful week after week. I love you for standing there knowing that I can trust my family as you preach and teach the gospel. They're going to hear the truth. When's the last time you told him you loved him? When's the last time you thanked him for letting God work in his life? And when is the last time you reminded him of his heritage? And when is the last time you said to him, pastor, I know the spirit of God is working in your life. Don't overlook that. Every man of God needs that. And that's exactly what Paul was doing to Timothy. Now, why was he encouraging? Because he saw something in his life. And there were several things that are very evident about Timothy's life that caused maybe that flame to begin to flicker. But what is it that causes that in our lives? Probably some of the same things. How do we know when it's there? So what I'd like to do is maybe to speak primarily to the pastors and you who have those kinds of responsibilities. I believe probably one of the clearest evidence

is that the flame has begun to flicker and the warmth is beginning to die out and the thrill and the motivation, something is happening, is that when a man begins to recycle continuously old sermons, that's a pretty good sign something is happening to the flame. Amen? Amen. It's hard for pastors to admit that, but we know it's true. When he begins to recycle continuously old sermons, and you see what happens is sometimes a fellow reaches the age of 50 or 60 or whatever it might be and he's preached enough sermons and he goes to a new church and you know what happens. What does he do? Rather than getting in the Word of God and discovering something new about God and God keeping the flame burning in his heart, he begins to settle down and re-preach the same old stuff. It doesn't mean it wasn't the truth, but what I would think about that is this. Somebody says like heating up a biscuit. You can't heat an old biscuit up but so many times after a while it becomes so hard it's not very digestible. So you and I need to remember that. Preaching something once in a while, that's something else. But recycling the same old sermons. And why does a man do that? Because you see, somewhere along the way he loses, listen, somewhere along the way his interest

is so diverted he loses, listen to this, he loses his thrill of discovering something new about God for himself. Not getting a sermon, discovering something new about God himself. And so as a result of losing it, something is happening in his life. That thrill, that excitement about every time he opens the Word of God, not what kind of sermon am I gonna be able to preach to someone else, but God, what are you gonna say to my heart? What are you gonna work in my life? What am I gonna discover new about you? What about your ways am I gonna discover that I've never known before? When you listen, when you lose the thrill of studying the Word of God, when you lose that thrill, it says something about your desire for God. It says something about what we are lacking in our desire to know Him. None of us would say that we know Him like we wanna know Him. We may know Him enough to be so thrilled and to bet our whole eternal life on Him, but none of us know Him well enough. And listen, if you'll think about this, the man of God is paid a salary to study the Word of God. I know a lot of laymen would say,

hey, I would love for somebody to pay me to study the Word of God and to pay me to stay on my knees and to pay me to get ready to share the gospel to the whole world. If a man loses that, something has happened to the flame in his life. When he becomes discouraged. because of things that are going on around him. And he begins to be depressed, and he begins to look around and blame other people for his circumstances. Something is happening to the flame that God ignited when he called him to preach and to teach the Word of God. And so it's, you see, it's so easy to do that all of us go through circumstances and situations and trials. And the devil knows how to throw water on the flame of one of God's servants. It can be the cold water of financial problems. It can be the cold water of family problems. It can be the cold water of false doctrine in the church. It can be the cold water of criticism and gossip and all kinds of things that go into the church and the pastor becomes the object of these things. It can be health problems that develop. It could be the fact that he just loses his sense of vision. And all of us had a vision. All of us had this call upon our lives when he first called us. We had this vision of what God wanted to do.

And we were motivated. We had a thrust and an energy. There was something going on within us. We didn't have to pump up ourselves. Something was going on. Something was pouring in us. Something was pouring through us. And we couldn't wait to stand up on Sunday morning and share what God was doing in our life. And all of a sudden, or over a period of time, somehow that flame begins to flicker and it begins to die out. And the motivation's not there and the energy's not there and the thrust is not there. And you begin to look around to blame and to look to see what's going on. Satan does everything in his power to dampen and to deaden the fire in a man's soul. So the question is how that we rekindle the flame. So what I'd like to do is just to share with you a few things that I think God is in the process and has taught me over the years that I know works for me. And the first one is this. When the slightest little flicker begins to flicker in my heart, the first thing I wanna do is to get on my knees and have a refilling of the Holy Spirit, which means having to examine my life and repent of anything and everything that God brings to my mind.

The refilling of the Holy Spirit. Everybody gets a leak every once in a while in the Spirit in their life. Our minds wander, we get into things, this, that, and the other, and so forth. And so what happens? That's why he says, be ye being filled. Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit because every time you and I make a wrong decision or a decision that is sinful in any fashion, big or small, whatever it may be, in that moment, we're not full. He says, be ye being filled with the Holy Spirit. And so one of the primary ways that God rekindles this flame is that the Spirit of God fills us afresh and anew. He is once again in control. He is once again in charge. He is once again ruling and reigning within our heart. That's number one. The second thing, and I don't put these in this particular order for any reason, the second is this. And that is to review those pastimes in your life when the flame was glowing and burning the brightest. Ask yourself the question, God, what was going on in my life when the flame of the Spirit, and when the goal, when the vision, when my mission, and when my call

was so very important to me, and what was going on in my life, God, in those days when I felt your Spirit so tremendously, and I couldn't wait for Sunday to come, and I couldn't wait to get in your Word, and I couldn't wait to discover something else about you. What was going on in my life in those days? And more than likely, you're gonna discover some things going on that may not be going on now. Or you may ask, Lord, what's going on now that was not going on then? And so, there's something about reviewing our past, looking back yonder to see how God worked in the past, and what was going on in our life. What were our circumstances then versus what they are now? Then, when I think about this whole idea of rekindling the flame, a very important part is this, and that is to refocus our attention upon God. You see, if you and I are gonna rekindle the flame, one of the things that is absolutely necessary is to examine what is my focus? Is my focus on the church? Is it on the circumstances of my life? Is it on the things that I think are not right things I want to? What is my focus? Am I, listen to this now, am I obsessed with Jesus?

Am I obsessed with Him? And am I engrossed in the work? Am I totally given to the work? Not totally given, not obsessed with the work, obsessed with Jesus, only with Jesus. What is the focus of my attention? Is it upon sermons? Is it upon church? Is it upon church growth? Is it upon getting people saved? What is the focus of our attention? The only focus of our attention that is legitimate in the eyes of God is that we are riveted and fixed upon Him. God wants our focus upon Him. He says, I will guide you with mine eye and I'll teach you the way which thou shall go. How is God gonna guide us if He's gonna guide us with His eye if we're not focused upon Him? There's a fourth thing that I think is very important in. This flame and as he says rekindling the gift is within you and that is to listen to reject the lies of Satan reject the lies of Satan Satan will say to you look you discouraged your health's not good and and Folks that they don't think you're doing very well, and you just ought to get out of a ministry That's what you ought to do You just be better off out of the ministry you get your job doing something else Then you want to put up with all these folks and do all these things and therefore what does he do? He just whispers and whispers and whispers. What's he doing pouring cold water on the fire of God in your heart? That's why it is very important to be able to detect

Satan's lies and to absolutely reject them and all you have to do is to simply say in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I choose not to believe that lie. I reject that as a lie of Satan. I refuse I Absolutely refuse to accept that shut it down and my friend the Spirit of God within you will enable you to shut it down You don't have to believe that and you don't have to acknowledge that you don't have to accept it It's true when Satan starts telling you that you can't do it and it won't work and you're wasting your time and nobody cares So what you know the devil told Jesus all of that I mean the Apostle Paul must have heard that by Satan many many times, but he stood Immovable because he was committed to Christ which brings me to probably the most important one of all of these and that's this When that flame begins to flicker and you begin to feel weak and you begin to feel a little cool in your heart my friend the most important thing you can do is retreat and Listen retreat Get away somewhere Three days five days, whatever it may be and Get along with the Lord Jesus Christ and renew your intimate private fellowship with him Now when a man says well, I can't get away three days. Yes, you can Well, you don't know my church. I don't have to know it Well, I just couldn't take three days Yes, you can You know how I know you can because if you came down with the flu when you got home and you're laid out two weeks Yes, you could So the truth is we all can the issue is this do I realize? Do I realize what it will take to fan the flame and my friends you can do all these other things There's something about getting alone with him There's something about being by yourself with him about not answering the phone and not talking to someone else being by yourself Shut up to God and shut up with God and shut up alone with him There is nothing It's like pouring gasoline on This on this tremendous gift that God has given you when you get along with him and said Lord

I want you to search my heart Lord I want to be everything you want me to be I want to be everything you've called me to be I don't want to be lacking in anything God Stir the soul of thy servant stir my heart work in my life cleanse me fill me whatever is necessary But Lord, I want to be restored in my intimacy with you the most important second to nothing in all of life is Those moments when you and the Lord God together Quietly Listening to him Fellowshipping with him Sharing with him listening to him letting him cleanse your heart. What are you doing? You're growing into this wonderful intimate relationship with him. There is no time nothing in life more important than that nothing whatsoever Because listen, there is no place where the fuel is poured out more profusely on the flame of a man's heart then when he gets alone with God and opens his soul before God and Absolute total honesty and absolute total openness and says God speak to the heart of thy servant and you may say today Well, you know, I just feel like I'm a bunch of ashes not not just a flickering flame I just feel like ashes listen God can take ashes and he can have a combustion take place in your heart and Somebody wonder what in the world has happened to you not what has happened to you But who happened to you and it is the person of Jesus Christ once again doing what? Getting his position of Lord and light of your life the absolute one with whom you are totally obsessed in Your loving relationship Then I would say one other thing and that is Just return to your work fully committed I'm gonna do exactly what God says do no matter what until God calls me home It is a recommitment to the work You see you don't recommit yourself to the work because circumstances have changed, you know what circumstances may never change You're not not to live by circumstances. That's why he said do not look around you

Do not look around you at the circumstances in your life, but keep your focus upon God remembering listen to this carefully God didn't call you if God didn't call you except God didn't call you maybe, He called you to walk obediently before Him and to follow Him and He says when you walk through the waters they're not going to overflow you. So I want to challenge you today and ask you this simple question. Would you say that the flame in your life is just as bright today as it was when God first called you to preach? Or maybe it's brighter, I hope. Would you say that you're just as excited about getting in the Word of God and discovering something new about Him this Sunday as you were when you first began the ministry? Would you say that you're more dependent upon Him today than ever before and that you can honestly say with all of your heart full surrender, full dependence, full trust and fully focused upon you? That's what God wants in our life. Our flame will burn the brightest and it'll never flicker as long as we can say to Him, Father, fully surrendered, fully dependent, fully trusting and fully focused. That flame never flickers one single time.