Soma Spokane Sermons

As we continue our study in 2 Timothy this Sunday, we’ll be looking at what it takes to really stay the course as disciples of Jesus when the world is going crazy. Timothy is in Ephesus, where the cultural pressures around the church and the false teachers within the church are threatening the vitality of the church and her mission. For a local church like ours to remain faithful to Jesus, to his word, and to his ways is always such a fight! But it is a fight won not through coercion, politics, or power, but through the faithful transmission of the message, patient endurance of opposition, tenacious commitment to integrity, and a gentle but firm correction of drift. Paul calls us to find our strength in the grace of Jesus, commit ourselves to his disciple-making mission, and endure to the glorious end.

This week we are beginning to read the second letter that Paul wrote to Timothy while he was staying in Ephesus. The first letter was all about what did the people of Ephesus need to hear, what was good doctrine, and what did Jesus actually come to do. But the second letter is more about Timothy than the people. After years of being in Ephesus, Timothy needs encouragement and Paul is going to write what I would call a pep talk to Timothy in order to help him fight to the end. 2 Timothy is a letter written by an aging Paul in Prison to Timothy who needs encouragement to hold on and continue to fight. In our first week looking at this letter we will see Paul encourage Timothy to fan into flame the gift within him and to choose to suffer for the gospel.

The first part of our “A Good Fight” series concludes by looking at Paul’s final charge in 1 Timothy 6. Paul gives Timothy some punchy exhortations — Flee! Pursue! Fight! Take Hold! Keep! Guard! Avoid! — in an effort to drive home the need to engage this fight with a gritty and grace-filled tenacity. The need to engage this fight has not lessened today, and in our own context face the battle on multiple fronts. Holding to the message of the gospel, with deep personal integrity and lives oriented to God’s Kingdom, will always be a hard-fought battle. But God is on his throne, sovereignly orchestrating history toward the great revealing of King Jesus, and our job is to cling to that hope together.

Growing up near the pacific coast there were many days that started with a cloudy marine layer, but most days, by noon the marine layer would burn off leaving a perfectly sunny climate to enjoy. Sometimes, around mid-day, you’d be surprised that the marine layer hasn’t burnt off and instead of a clear day, you’re left scrambling to find the hoodie you have somewhere. The spiritual life can feel like that. Sometimes things are so clear and lovely, glimpses of the way God meant them to be. Other times we are trapped in a place that seems like it is always winter but never Christmas. We long for the good life, and because of that, we find ourselves striving for it in a lot of odd ways. We claw, climb, and chase wealth, ambitious goals, relationships, and material as if it will bring about the good life. We even try to use God as a simple means to the good life. We compromise conviction and contentment for avarice and self-destruction. All the while God is patiently offering us treasure and a good foundation, so

The church in Ephesus was under attack, from both promiscuous licentious people swallowed in culture, and also from religious legalistic Gnostics who were saying salvation is from Jesus and obeying rules. These same forces are alive and well today. And they are moving and powerful and they push the church away from its story. Join that with our own desire to build our own little empire in life and you have a strong danger in the church. Paul moves in his letter in chapter 4 to instruct Timothy on how to have the church stand their ground and move forward into their city. They are to nourish themselves on the full story God’s rescue of mankind and then to discipline themselves for Godliness. To these two tasks, Paul uses the words, train, toil, strive, devote, practice, immerse, and persist. So this week we will encourage ourselves to nourish ourselves on the great epic story of Redemption and Jesus and also to discipline ourselves to godliness.

We drift from what is important. There is something in each of us that is prone to take the easier route, to forget our priorities, and slowly forget our commitments. Often, and especially when it comes to our faith, this drift happens in very subtle ways. Paul is writing because he is deeply concerned about the drift from gospel-centered mission in the church in Ephesus. He has strong warning and corrective instructions, but all these imperatives are rooted in, first and foremost, the Gospel of Jesus. In this section he is pleading with the church to not get distracted and attempting to recenter the church in her identity in Jesus. There is invitation for the church to hold tight to the message of truth and hold high on display of gospel of grace!

In chapter 3, Paul describes the kind of leadership structure that contributes to a local church flourishing in mission and ministry. Last week we learned that mission and ministry is what the whole church does, men and women, in our various contexts. Everyone is called to pray, live, and proclaim for gospel advancement. At the same time, a local church needs called and qualified leadership, and Paul says there ought to be two offices. Elders are the spiritual fathers of the community: men of character and integrity who hold the doctrinal DNA and oversee the mission and ministry of the church. Alongside them are the deacons: servant leaders among the church family — women and men tasked with helping the church accomplish the disciple-making ministry in all varieties of roles. Paul roots the call for men to be elders in the narrative of creation and fall, showing how Jesus restores us to a flourishing complementarity between men and women.To read Soma Spokane’s position paper on Men, Women, and Ministry, click

Paul’s main concern in his letters to Timothy and Titus is the flourishing of the church. Paul wants the churches he’s planted to be long-term disciple-making outposts, communities committed to Jesus, his way, and his mission in the world. In this week’s text, he’s specifically concerned to see that the churches remember their primary purpose of making Jesus known in word and deed. The gospel is the good news about God’s desire to save and his actions in and through Jesus to accomplish salvation. The church’s role is to pray fervently, live authentically, and speak boldly about this news so the world can see and hear it. Paul also warns the church about key ways we get distracted and drift from this mission, and how to fight together for single-minded missional unity.

Churches drift, dwindle, and die, unless they commit themselves to fight for something different. The fight - for gospel doctrine, character, and culture - is as important today as it has ever been, especially if our desire is to be a long-term disciple-making presence. This week, Paul gives us clarity regarding the role of the law and the gospel in the life of the church. The law - God’s commands and instructions - tells us what ought to be, but can’t create what it demands. Instead, the law reveals us as sinners and lays us low. Thankfully, Jesus meets us in that low place, when we’re laid bare as sinners. Paul celebrates the reality that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, welcoming in all those whom the law condemns.

All Spring we’re looking at Paul’s letters to his proteges, Timothy and Titus, as he passes along his ministry to them. Paul was a church planter, rescued by Jesus and called to take the gospel to nations. He did that by proclaiming the message of Jesus, making disciples, forming churches, and appointing leaders. He commissioned each church to be a mission outpost, and he’d write letters to keep them centered on Jesus and faithful in his mission. For Paul, the church wasn’t a side-project, an important but non-essential entity, just a local non-profit trying to help people; it was the very household of God, the people among who God dwelt by his Spirit, and the community entrusted with holding out the good news of Jesus to the world. Unfortunately, all that was in danger of being lost through false teaching and the graceless culture it created, so Paul sends Timothy to Ephesus to set things in order. This week we learn what the good fight really is, why it matters, and how we can engage it today.

The Apostle Paul was the world’s greatest evangelist and church planter, and one of his strongest churches was in Ephesus. He spent 3 years there, preaching, making disciples, and establishing leaders. When he later wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he laid out the glory of the gospel and the grand purpose of God in the church, and gave them almost no challenges or correctives. This was a strong church with a disciple-making presence in their region! Unfortunately, the church at Ephesus quickly found themselves divided and drifting after Paul’s departure, losing grip on both the gospel doctrine and gospel culture Paul had set in place. So Paul sent his protege, Timothy, to set things in order and bring the church back in line. This week we’ll do an overview of 1 Timothy, and look at the 4 Strategic Priorities Paul gives Timothy. Our study in the Pastoral Epistles - 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus - will equip us to be a church with strong gospel conviction, deeply shaped gospel character, and a gracious gospel cultu

We use this image, called 3 Trees, to represent how real growth and change happens. We can't just decide to change and automatically jump from a thorn-producing tree to a fruit-bearing tree. Instead, we have to trace our thoughts and behaviors down to their roots and bring them in need, confession and repentance to the Cross. When we allow Jesus' truth, love, and grace to change the deep, unreached areas of our hearts, something radically different comes out of us. God is at work, in the heat (situations of life) and wants to reveal the roots of our thorn ridden responses, not to shame us, but to set us free. This week we wrap up the series with one final look at the 3 Trees.

The person who wants to know God and live fully in Him must give God space and time. Space and time in a world that is constantly grasping for our attention. Our affection and desires continue to drift from God. When God justifies us through the cross, he also gives us his ongoing presence the Spirit to be our guide and our helper. There are also everyday practices that remind of us this good news, and help bring us back into connection with our Savior. These practices are not chores and they are not the goal. Spiritual disciplines are means to know and enjoy Him.

When it comes to growth and change in the Christian life, we face a significant tension. On one hand, Peter tells us we’ve been given everything we need to live a life of deep faithfulness, effectiveness, and fruitfulness. On the other hand, he tells us we have to be diligent and make every effort to mature and grow. It is incredibly important that we know how these twin truths fit together, or we risk missing God’s heart and intention for us. What Peter urges us toward is grace-based effort, where we fill our hearts and minds with all that Jesus is, all that he has done on our behalf, and all that we are now in him. Our primary work is to “preach the gospel to ourselves,” learning to really believe all that is true in the gospel. As we rehearse the gospel, repenting and believing in all God has done for us in Jesus, we’re empowered to live more into the image of Jesus. The answer is always more Jesus!

Throughout the history of God’s working with people to partner with them to redeem and bless the world, there has been a pattern of whenever the people made space for God’s Presence, He fills it. It happened in the tabernacle in the desert in Exodus, it happened with Solomon and the Temple, and then again even in Acts with the first Christians. God’s Spirit descended in power and fills His temple and empowers His mission. We are going to look at 2 Peter to see what this letter suggests we do in order to create space for God’s presence. How do we prepare our lives for the presence and power of God?

We use this image, called 3 Trees, to represent how real growth and change happens. We can't just decide to change and automatically jump from a thorn-producing tree to a fruit-bearing tree. Instead, we have to trace our thoughts and behaviors down to their roots and bring them in need, confession and repentance to the Cross. When we allow Jesus' truth, love, and grace to change the deep, unreached areas of our hearts, something radically different comes out of us. God is at work, in the heat (situations of life) and wants to reveal the roots of our thorn ridden responses, not to shame us, but to set us free.

January is always a time of reevaluating life and making changes - or at least intending to make changes! Personally, I look forward to it because of the opportunity it affords for a clean sheet and a fresh start, even though I know nothing really changes on January 1st. In fact, year after year I’m reminded of the simple (and haunting!) truth: Whatever I am on the outside, in my best and worst moments, reflects whatever I am on the inside. I simply can’t wake up on January 1st and choose to be more attentive in my relationships, less self-reliant and more dependent on the Spirit, and finally be a man of deep prayer and courageous witness. I can want to do all those good things, but wanting - and even trying hard! - is insufficient (or else we’d all be the best versions of ourselves all the time!). I need more than good intentions and resolutions; I need a process and pathway for real growth and change that leads to me becoming a new kind of person, from the inside out. So what does that look like?! Over the

The Christian Story - the good news about Jesus - uniquely involves thinking, doing, and feeling. Faith involves our whole person, and is never just mental assent to doctrinal truths or just a set of practices or morals for life. Real Faith moves the soul and requires emotional engagement - we feel its truth, often before we even fully understand it. This is particularly true when we focus on Advent, the arrival of Jesus into our busted up world as a baby some 2000 years ago. Why would God come into the world? What is he doing by writing himself into the story, putting on the weaknesses of human flesh, and dwelling among us? Nothing less than a total remaking of the world, putting all things to right, and ruling and reigning in justice and peace forevermore! This week we explore the emotion of Hope, and how the story of Jesus give the kind of hope we really need.