This is a message I started 3 or 4 years ago and shared point 1. This is the finished message:
In his first Book to young Timothy, Paul begins giving instructions on doctrine, on theology – he is reproving him for the sake of the ministry so that Timothy “might be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” But in 2 Timothy, Paul begins to exhort young Timothy, he begins to encourage him, to admonish him, so beginning in verse 1, stand with me please in reverence to the reading of God’s Word:
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; 4 Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; 5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. 6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.”
By the grace of God this morning, I want to share with you “Lessons Learned from Grandma’s Wood Stove.”
As Paul is admonishing, encouraging, and motivating young Timothy, he says in verse 6 to “Stir up.” Now this is the only place in the New Testament where this is used in such a manner. In the Greek, this gives a picture of a fire that once burned brightly, that once gave warmth, and heat, and light and illumination. But, for whatever reason, the fire has now burned down and you can no longer see the flame, and all that remains are the ashes.
Now this word “Stir Up” makes reference to taking a stick, or something that can be driven down into the ashes, something that can push down deep in the ashes until you’ve reached the live coals underneath, and then you begin to stir and stir until you have moved the live coal’s to a place where you can once again ignite the fire that once burned there.
Now this is what Paul is speaking of when he is speaking to young Timothy when he said, “Stir up the gift of God that is within thee.” It has reference to a burning fire.
Now, when I’m talking about the fire this morning, I want you to understand what I’m talking about.
I believe, that as a young 7 year old boy, sitting in a Sunday School class at 4th Street Baptist Church some 53 years ago, when I knelt down and asked the Lord Jesus to forgive me of my sin and to be the Lord of my life – I believe instantly 2 things happened:
- I believe Jesus Christ came into my life to stay;
- The Holy Spirit came to live inside of me.
I didn’t have to pray for it more; I didn’t have to beg for it more; I didn’t have to do a list of things to get it. I believe it came with accepting Christ – it was a package deal AMEN! You GET JESUS – YOU GET THE HOLY SPIRIT.
I just believe this morning, when I asked Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me of my sins, the Holy Spirit took up residence inside of me and set my soul on fire! Maybe this is what Isaiah refers to when he says, “It’s a fire shut-up in my bones.”
And can I say, I haven’t always been what God intended me to be all these many years. I have failed God; I have disappointed God, I have gotten out of “THE WAY,” BUT I’m glad thank God He’s never left me nor forsaken me.
- He’s still there;
- And the fires still burning AMEN!
My momma and daddy got a divorce when I was 5 years old. My momma originally got custody of me and my brother, however, she really didn’t want us. So, we spent a year going from house to house until my mom’s family convinced her to give custody to my daddy’s mom, my Grandma Moore. So, at 6, we went to stay with Grandmas.
Now, in my grandma’s house, she had an old wood-burning stove in the living room. Now, I don’t know if I am that old, or we were just that poor – but we also had a hand water pump in the yard. So, I will never forget that old wood burning stove. This many years later, it is amazing to look back and see the lessons in life I learned from that stove. Things like:
- Fire keeps you warm – good to know God is near Amen.
- Fire Purges – when it’s burning right, it will keep bad things away;
- Fire lights and illuminates – I’m glad the fire burning in me lets me know what God wants me to know.
I have learned that some of the greatest lessons in my life have come from some of the simplest things in my life. And I like things simple AMEN. Now I didn’t say STUPID things, I said SIMPLE things – and there is a big difference.
So, let me share with you for a bit this morning some simple lessons I learned from Grandma’s Wood-Burning Stove. Now this first point is profound:
YOU GOTTA START THE FIRE
You Gotta start the fire – cause if you don’t start the fire, it doesn’t matter what else you do – that fire just ain’t gonna burn.
Listen, I’ve seen people over my years of ministry come to an alter and beg and plead with God to get their lives straight, only to get up, walk out of church and go right back to living like there’s no difference in their lives. You can’t help but to wonder whether or not they got the fire started to begin with. And I’m not trying to sound judgmental – I’m just being honest.
Listen to what Paul says to young Timothy, “I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”
He’s saying “Timothy, I know the fire has been started in your heart and I know it’s burning there now! That fire that started in your grandma and your momma, it started in you too!”
Listen, there’s somethings in life we can get by with and not be sure of:
- I can get by not knowing what kinda car I’m gonna drive tomorrow;
- What model of Harley I’m gonna ride;
- Which neighborhood I’ll be living in a year from now;
There are simply some things you can get by with without knowing – BUT THIS AIN’T ONE OF THEM. Folks, I mean we ought to know whether we are saved or not AMEN.
John said some fascinating things in his three little Epistles. He said:
“These things have I written unto you, that you might know that you have eternal life.”
We don’t have to guess whether we are saved or not – we don’t have to wonder whether we are saved or not – we can KNOW.
Listen, if the fire of God has been born in your soul, you don’t have to stumble around wondering, cause His Spirit gives you the illumination you need to KNOW you’ve been saved.
So, the first lesson I learned from Grandma’s Wood-Burning Stove was that if you wanted to have a fire, you had to Start the Fire! But the second thing I learned:
YOU GOTTA STOKE THE FIRE
Look with me in chapter 2, verse 15, and here, Paul is gonna tell Timothy how to stoke the fire that had already been started. He says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
You know what he’s telling Timothy? STOKE THE FIRE! So what is it within us that stokes the fire of God – well, it’s the Word of God. As we read upon it, as we pray upon it, as we meditate upon it. It’s that Word of God, that “Quick and Power and sharper than any two-edged sword,” that will stoke the fire within you.
You see friends, I learned early on in life, if you want to keep the fire burning, you gotta keep putting wood on the fire.
I’ve meet a lot of people over the years that learned to start a good fire. But over time, something happened in their lives.
- Circumstances happened in their lives;
- trouble’s happened in their lives;
- bad things happened to them;
Before they realized it, they’d stopped putting wood on the fire and their fire died down.
So I learned that if you want to keep the fire burning, you gotta put some wood on the fire. You gotta stoke that fire – you gotta feed it something.
You know something. One thing I realize every time I step into the pulpit to preach – whether it is here or anywhere else God opens doors for us to speak, every time I step behind the sacred desk, I have the assume responsibility to ensure that I had something to fuel our peoples fire. That I had something from God’s Word that you can take away and stoke the fire within you.
I’m gonna tell you something right now – we spend all week long dealing with the world and the things of the world, and there’s plenty out there to cause your fire to go out. So, when I come to church, I need my fire stoked, I need some wood on the fire – and folks, I’m not gonna settle for less and you shouldn’t settle for anything less!
Folks, you and I ought to hunger for God’s Word, we ought to hunger after righteousness. And we ought not settle for less from God’s man. My promise to you as your pastor isn’t that I will preach an eloquent message, or that my grammar will always be right, or that I want call and eagle’s wing span that of a taradactile, but my promise to you and everytime I get in the pulpit, you will know I’ve been with God and I come with a bucket load of wood.
Listen, there are some things I faced in my life that my education wasn’t enough to get me through; my experience wasn’t enough to get me through it – the only thing that got me through is the fact that I know I’m saved and I know that fire burns deep down inside of me.
You gotta Start the Fire, you gotta Stoke the Fire, but the 3rd thing I see:
YOU GOTTA STIR THE FIRE
Back in chapter 1, verse 6, Paul says, “I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.”
Grandma used to have us boys fetch the wood for the wood-burning stove and to stoke it. So, whenever it was my turn, I would fill that stove full of wood, even to the point I would have to kick it to cram all that wood in there.
But, sometimes I learned that no matter how much wood I put in that stove, sometimes it just didn’t get the house warm. What I discovered, and my grandma taught me this, sometimes, you gotta grab the poker and stick it down in those embers and stir things up abit to get things settle down to where that fire would catch.
You know what I’ve discovered in my Christian life? Sometimes, I just need a good “stirring up.”
You know, I grew up in a generation where most medications when I was a child came in liquid form. On every one of those bottles they had stamped on them “Shake Well Before Using.” You know why, because the medicines would settle, and in order for it to be used effectively, it needed everything mixed together well. So you’d have to shake things up a bit.
Sometimes, I think God ought to stamp on our foreheads “SHAKE WELL BEFORE USING.” Cause sometimes, even though we started a good fire, and we stoke that fire and spend time in God’s Word, sometimes, we just get settled in:
- We are not excited like we used to be;
- Things are going quite they they used to;
- Somethings wrong, and sometimes we can’t figure out what it is.
Sometimes friends, you just need to get down to the altar and ask God to reach down into the depths of your soul and just “Stir you up.”
What I’m saying folks is that sometimes, we just get so busy, we get so caught up in the things of our lives that we start to lose the fire inside of us. We just need to ask God to “Stir us up.”
I don’t know about you, but I want that fire to burn like it’s supposed to burn amen!
That’s what Paul told Timothy. And by the way, I’m guessing Timothy was probably a pretty spiritual guy.
So, not only did I learn I gotta start the fire, I gotta stoke the fire and I gotta stir the fire, but also:
SOMETIME YOU GOTTA SHOVEL SOME ASHES
Look at what Paul tells Timothy in chapter 2:21, “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
What does it mean to purge something? It means to “get it out”, to “get rid of it.”
You know what, the thing I hate most about a wood-burning stove, or even a fireplace is – you gotta get rid of the ashes. Now, I would remove the ashes and put it in a bucket, and I don’t care if there has been no wind for the past 3 months, the minute I open the door with those ashes in my hand, the wind is going to blow those ashes all over me.
But, you gotta remove those ashes, cause if you don’t they will limit your fire. They will stifle your fire.
I think that is what Paul is telling Timothy here, “Timothy, there are gonna be some things in your life, you’re gonna make some mistakes in your life; you’re gonna have some failures in your life; there are gonna be some things you should have done that you didn’t do.”
“So, Timothy, you be sure to shovel out the ashes.”
The fact is, this passage is a goal to strive for, not a standard by which to judge your life. If you see areas where you need improvement, get to work on those areas. Remember this one truth, you are human! No one expects perfection from you. You are allowed to make mistakes. You are allowed to be you.
Here is the invitation today;
- If you have never trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, I invite you to come to Him today. He died to save sinners just like you from His wrath and from the fires of Hell.
- There are husbands and wives who need to come before the Lord and ask Him to forgive you for the shape you have allowed your relationship to be in. Come together and recommit to one another to working together to make that relationship everything it should be.
- Maybe you need to ask the Lord to help you with your attitude, or with some other area of your life.
- If He has spoken to you today, please come to Him and let Him have His way!
Fighting for My Pea Patch 