But…I Know

We are looking at the word but and what happens when God gets involved in that word.  Last week we looked at Obedience and how obedience can lead to awe.

  1. The Trial

2 Timothy 1: 12 That is why I am suffering here in prison.  But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.

EXAMPLE:  Mark Rutland (president of Southeastern bible college) In Africa and an old lady is being lead toward him helped by two people.  She was a missionary who translated the Bible into two languages.  Now she has river blindness and is going home to Germany to die.

But… God knows who we are

2. Two part Promise

  1. I know whom I have believed.

Know = perceive with the eyes.  To force the meaning of something which has meaning.

2.   He is able to guard.

Nothing is ever lost in the shuffle or misplaced.  Every act we do is remembered and will be rewarded on that day.

3. The Distraction of the prison

Paul says I perceive with my eyes but what is he looking at everyday?

With every promise in the Bible, satan is going to plant a distraction that tries to blind us from the truth.

  1. City will never turn to God
  2. Marriage too far gone
  3. Financial situation is irreversible
  4. Never get over this sin
  5. Doctor has said this and ___________

Challenge is not about you, it is about God’s faithfulness and ability to care or deliver you.

4. The battle of water.

Genesis 26 story of Isaac.  He is the overlooked forefather.  Beginning of his life is consumed with his father Abraham and the end of his life is consumed with his son Jacob. Father Abraham is dead and now it is on Isaac’s shoulders to carry on the promise. There is one chapter totally devoted just to him.

Vs 12 – 15, 18 Reopen the wells of his father.

  1. Wells and water have to do with the truth of what God says.
    1. EXAMPLE: Numbers 21: 16 – 18 they sing a song about how God promised water and he supplied it just as he said he would
  2. Jeremiah 14: 3 No truth and guidance when wells are empty
  3. Jeremiah 2: 13 Two sins committed Abandoned fountain of living water and have dug own wells that are cracked and can’t hold water.
  4. Coming of Jesus compared to springs welling up in the desert making everything fresh and new.  Isaiah 35: 1 – 3, 5 – 7

So the battle Isaac is fighting is over God’s truth spoken to his father Abraham.

Philistines filled them in = person who is hostile, Non Israelite in promised land.

Isaac reopened them and renamed them the name his father Abraham named them.

  1. Promises you gave to my father are true.
  2. Satan has honed his arguments well over the years.
    1. God doesn’t care,
    2. You are all alone.
      1. Mother raising children
      2. employer keeping jobs
      3. teacher with unappreciative students.
    3. Working hard for what.

No these are promises You made to my father and I am claiming them for me.

Battle gets more intense as he starts to apply these principles to his own life. 19 – 22

Wells between 70 and 150 feet deep. Consistency and well opened up.

5. Keep digging

2 Timothy says God is able to keep what he has given me

There is nothing that God has placed in your hands that he does not also have in his hands.

BATTLE IS TO CONSTANTLY GIVE THESE THINGS BACK TO GOD

 

Enemy is screaming….I’ve got this

It’s all falling apart…But I am keeping this.

I can’t make it another step…You will make it all the way to eternity

 

Trophies given to moms who have to clean vomit from the bed of a sick child

People who have to stand between supervisors who think it is a great idea to fire up people by firing someone and the employees you are fighting for.

Old women who translate the bible into two languages.

 

Trophy is coming in the mean time keep digging into this truth until you strike water.