Text: 2 Timothy 1:13-14
Exegesis
- Theme: Timothy’s faithfulness to the Gospel
- Topic: How Timothy can remain faithful to the Gospel
- Truth: The Gospel is meant to be practiced and preached with integrity and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Thrust: Timothy must be faithful to the Gospel both in his life as well as in his ministry.
Exposition
- Theme: Faithfulness to the Gospel
- Topic: How believers can remain faithful to the Gospel
- Truth: The Gospel is meant to be practiced and preached with integrity and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Thrust: Believers must be faithful to the Gospel in their lives and in their ministries.
Exhortation
- Type: Both
- Take Home Message: The Gospel’s truthfulness can only be vindicated through Spirit-filled faithfulness.
- Trailing question: How can we be faithful to the Gospel
- Talk (sermon):
A. Take-off (intro)
A lot of people still do not believe in the Gospel. There are many possible reasons. But one common reason is the failure of Christians to live out the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel, of course, remains true regardless of how Christians behave. But their behavior either reinforces or diminishes the truthfulness of the Gospel. Either we walk our talk or we just talk and talk. In other words, the Gospel’s truthfulness can only be vindicated through Spirit-filled faithfulness. So how do we do this?
B. Teaching outline (body):
- We need to walk our talk and talk our walk (v.13).
- We need to do so in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in our own strength (v.14).
C. Touchdown (conclusion)
We will never be perfect people, not in this life anyway. But how we live matters a lot. Either we vindicate, prove, and reinforce the truthfulness of the Gospel — and it will always be true regardless of how we live — or we become bad testimonies — a negative illustration of people who claim to believe but live contrary to what they believe. Our lives must testify and illustrate the Gospel. We can only do this in the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot rely on will power or on human effort to try to prove the truthfulness of the Gospel. In fact, when we do so, we negate the truthfulness of the Gospel. What we must do is live according to the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Gospel’s truthfulness can only be vindicated through Spirit-filled faithfulness.