WE ARE STRONG IN HIS PRESENCE!

“Strong in His Presence”
II Timothy 4:1

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:

Christ’s Strong Impression
“I cannot impress this on you too strongly!” “I solemnly charge you…” Paul follows up the last verse of chapter three with a grave and solemn impression. Through the pen of Paul we can feel the character of his posture. He is silently alone in prison at Rome. His face is motionless, his eyes are burning with thought. He italicizes his words, they are in bold print double underlined for effect. His thoughts are serious now and his intent is earnestness. Paul is filled with dignified serious formality. In II Timothy 4:1 Paul is unloading the full barrage of his testimony. He is ready to religiously charge his readers with the very words and wisdom of God.Strength comes through his pen, flows to paper and endures for two thousand years because of the power of the Lord.
His charge, powerful then, still holds power today for the scriptures are God-breathed. And the breath of God is still blowing through these pages today. Blowing straight through the very soul of man. The breath of God is still anointing our hearts to testify his word, to proclaim his word, to herald his word from the rooftops.
The Herald freely and joyfully gives news. The Herald of the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings glad tidings with great joy and fervor of heart. The Herald at SABC yesterday were the men and women that passed out backpack supplies to the community. The Herald, yesterday, was the individual that held hands with the families and prayed over the children as they big school tomorrow.
The Herald that preaches the Word is the Proclaimer. The Christian is encouraged of the Lord and His Word to proclaim the Word in open spaces. To publically, shout for the world to hear, his opinions. But, a step further the proclaimer of the gospel goes. He (she) proclaims not his or her opinions, but instead the very Word of God. Making known publicly the Word of God the Christian makes his praises known for the world to see. Whom shall you fear, God or Man????
We gain strength in the Lord when we declare the Lord. Boldly and unashamedly in any space we are in, public or private.
For you see, Paul’s Words are not just the story of a good man that lived for Christ and feared the Lord. Paul’s words are a confirmation of his testimony and by this testimony he is causing Timothy (the recipient) to believe. And that is just what preaching does. It is a confirmation of the testimony in your life that causes others who hear to believe.
Do you know that the Word of God is the very revelation of God Himself, it is the record of what God want us to know. And when you know God’s revelation it becomes your testimony and you can, yes you can make others believe your testimony of God. You gain strength in the Lord when you share the unbelievable love of God that tells us about Jesus Christ. This church gains strength in the Lord when we each share the great mercy of God that He has poured out upon us through His Sons death on the cross. And stronger you become when you share of the coming again of our Lord to redeem those lives that you have touched through your preaching, proclaiming, praising, heralding exalting, testifying, acclamation of the Lord.
Paul is saying in the first phrase of verse one………………. I cannot impress this information on you strongly enough!!!! Herald the Word, Preach the Word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Christ’s Strong Presence
“1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus…..Preach the Word”. How are we Strong in the Lord because of this statement? How do we gain strength from the Lord because of His watchful eye? One translation (The Message) says that “God and Christ are looking over your shoulder”.
The Eye of God is upon you. We must preach the Word for God and Christ are watching. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD (Ps. 89:15). We are strong in the Lord and Strong in His presence because we walk in the light of our Lord. We can have confidence in His presence, because we are walking in the light of His Presence. We become a blessed people of God when we acclaim Him. Our very lives become a SALUTE TO HIM WITH SHOUTS OF PRAISE (Refer Ps. 89:15). We applaud our Lord by heralding the Word, Preaching the Word (Refer Ps. 89:15).
The recognition of the victory over death that we have one incites us to stand at the front of our lives and enhance the lives of others with the miracle of Christ. We applaud our Lord with preaching for we are stimulated by His Holy Word, His Holy Presence, His Holy Spirit!!! As the Christians builds STRENGTH in the Lord he recognizes that the applause is moving from the deep shadows of his life to the cutting edge of his life. Where once the applause was reserved for formal worship in a formal worship house now the acclamation of the Lord and the applause for the Lord that he has is manifested in open spaces for all to see. The acclamation that has now permeated our lives causes the lives that we touch to join in the applause of our Lord. Soon the recognition hits us that the applause that we lift up to the Lord with our preaching is joined by another applause. It is the applause of heaven.
We can almost see Jesus Himself standing at the right hand of God looking over the edge of heavens mass cheering His children on. We have brought joy to the Lord as he watches us from heaven for we simply live our lives heralding the Word. We are strengthened in the Lord for we demonstrate enthusiastic approval of the Lord’s presence in our lives. His constant presence! His current presence! His future literal presence! WE ACCLAIM THE KING!!!!!!!
In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever (Ps. 41:12).
We are strong in the Lord and Strong in His Presence because we walk before our Lord with Integrity.Our relationship with Christ has affected and changed/altered our moral and ethical principles in this life. We can stand strong in His presence because He has changed us, He has shaped us, He has forgiven us. He is on our side. He is for us!!!
Integrity can’t be preached until it is lived first. Is that why so few preach the Word boldly?
Is that why you don’t see Christians across the land shouting from the rooftops? Is that why churches are stagnant and dying? Ones moral and ethical principles are altered, changed when you surrender to the Lord. In the Lordship of Jesus Christ in ones life one’s integrity grows and he can say, “In my integrity you, God, uphold me, You God give me strength.

Christ our Epiphany
II Tim. 4:1 “in view of his appearing and his kingdom”
How are we Strong in the Lord because of this statement? How do we gain strength from the Lord because of His appearing? From the Greek word for appearing (epiphaneia) we get our word epiphany. An epiphany is “a sudden, intuitive perception or insight”. An epiphany is usually initiated by some simple experience.
You see God has chosen Preaching as the tool that we use so that people might have an epiphany. We preach the Word with our lives so Jesus can appear to lost souls. God uses our preaching so that those around us can have a simple experience and a sudden insight into the Love of the Saviour. “At the Name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” Philippians 2:10,11
The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground (Ezk. 38:20).

Gaining Strength In The Lord

Endurance is one of those words that athletes know all to well. The marathon runner trains as much for endurance as he does for strength in order to go the distance. The intensely accomplished weight lifter has the muscles that demonstrate that he is strong and powerful, but even his explosive muscular physique will not allow him to run the distance of the marathon. He has strength, not endurance.

God's holy word has much to say about spiritual strength and power. The Lord is always faithful with His promise that he always stands beside us and gives us strength (II Timothy 4:17).

In the middle of the writing of this article a man walked into my office. His smile was precious and the Spirit of the Lord was obviously upon him. This man had been across the street from our church since early, early that same morning waiting for someone to hire him at Labor Finders. His request of me was for a small Bible. Easy enough, I've got a lot of those. As we shared wonderful conversation in my office it was undoubtedly clear that this man had great strength from the Lord in his life. But, there was something else that I became thankfully aware of. This man's strength in the Lord had been developed so much that endurance was the spiritual discipline that was visible.

Not only did this humble broken man have great spiritually strong muscles, but his training (walk) in the Lord had developed in such a glorious way that this stranger had great endurance. The Apostle Paul hits this topic head on when he says, "Keep your head in all situations and endure hardship" (II Tim. 4:5). There are bound to be difficult times in our lives whether spiritual, physical or emotional and God's Word says to keep your head and endure in the Lord.

South Avenue Baptist church is a strong church and growing stronger by the day. South Avenue Baptist Church is a wonderful example to its members and the community of a church that continues to endure in the Lord through the years. For the next several weeks we will be focusing in our worship services on being "Strong in the Lord". My prayer is that the Lord will reveal/remind us that WE ARE A STRONG CHURCH, WE ARE A STRONG FAMILY, WE ARE A STRONG PRESENCE IN OUR COMMUNITY and that as our spiritual muscles grow stronger and as we build our endurance that the power of the Lord will be victorious in our community!

Amen! Amen

Pastor Scott