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This is Anne Graham Lotz. Hebrews 7:25. I love says that Jesus ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and he ever lives to make intercession for you. Jesus is praying for you. Isn't that precious?

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You're listening to Anne Gram Lotz in an introduction to this week's message from God's Word and the reminder that prayer is such an integral part of being a messenger of the Gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit, who is interceding with the Father. From 2 Timothy chapter one. Here's Anne.

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You know, my grandparents were believers, both sides. My parents, of course, were Christians. I'm a committed Christian. My husband was. His parents were. Our children are. Our grandchildren are. And people ask me, Anne, how was that passed from generation to generation? I can tell you it wasn't by an accident. You know, it wasn't just by osmosis. My husband said, just because you're born in a garage doesn't mean that you're a car. You know, and just because you're born in a Christian home doesn't mean that you're a Christian. It's not automatic. There has to be an intentional passing of that gospel baton into the next generation. And yes, I have to receive that for myself. So I shared with you that I had received Christ when I was a little girl, and I did that intentionally, but mother and daddy prepared me for that by what they had taught me in the home, by what I saw in their own example. And they used that opportunity of the passing zone when I was within their home to prepare me to the point that I wanted to receive Christ as my Savior. So I just want to challenge you, if you have children within the home, don't miss the transfer zone, okay? But then also outside the home, just with other people, there can be an opportunity that you have. Like I had this last week, had an opportunity to share the gospel. And it just came so unexpectedly and I wasn't prepared for it and I should have been. And it was after I had missed it. I thought it makes you feel really sick at your stomach, doesn't it, that you didn't take an opportunity that God gave you. So the only thing I'll know about that, the comfort I give myself is sometimes God lets me go through something like that, and it's a setup because he's going to give me another opportunity that's going to be maybe harder or more challenging. And this time I'll be much more alert to take it because I just missed that one. So if that's you just be encouraged. Like I'm trying to encourage myself that all is not lost, that there'll be another opportunity to come and I'll probably take it a little bit stronger and better than what I would have done in the one I just missed. But I point this out because if you'll turn to second Timothy, chapter one, which is our passage. Paul is passing not just the baton of the Gospel, but the challenge to be a messenger of the Gospel to Timothy. And so he's in the transfer zone because Paul's at the end of his life and he's getting ready to actually, he's facing his execution and so he knows he's going to die. And so he's tapping Timothy to be his successor. He's passing not just the. The gospel message, but the challenge to be a messenger of the Gospel to this young Timothy. So it would be similar to Moses tapping Joshua or David tapping Solomon or Elijah tapping Elisha, or let me put it this way, it would be like Billy Graham if he came here and said, I want you to be my successor. And your face would go white and the blood would drain and your knees would knock and you would say, whoa, I can't do that. But did you know that that's what the COVID is about, that mother and Daddy established this place and the purpose was to train up men and women in the Gospel to the point that not only you would be familiar with it, but you'd know the Scriptures and you would be able to share it with others, that you would be, in a sense, Daddy's successor. I remember at Amsterdam, the congress for our tenerate evangelists, and there were 10,000 evangelists in the Re center in Amsterdam, and they'd been asking daddy, who's going to be your successor? Who's going to be your successor? And Daddy stood up and I remember him standing and he just threw out his arms and he looked at these evangelists and he said, you are my successor. So he was passing the baton to the challenge to be a messenger of the gospel to those 10,000 evangelists. And that's what he's doing through the legacy that's left here at the COVID to all of those who come to these seminars. The purpose is to equip you and intentionally challenge you to be a messenger of the Gospel. So that's what Paul is doing with Timothy. He's to trying, challenging him to be a messenger of the Gospel. And if you're going to follow the Apostle Paul, if you're going to be his successor, Then if ever somebody needed to be mature, it would be Paul's successor. But Timothy was so immature. Paul told him, don't let anybody despise you because you're young. He must have been letting people despise him because he was young. And then Timothy was so weak, you would think the successor, the Apostle Paul, would be strong. He'd have to, you know, do so many things and travel. And Timothy was so weak. Paul told him to take a little wine for his stomach. And then you would think somebody who took over after the Apostle Paul would be somebody who would be very bold and courageous. And Timothy was so timid that Paul said, God has not given you that spirit of timidity. He's given you a spirit of power and love and self control. And so if you're thinking you cannot be a messenger of the Gospel because you are weak and you're timid and you're immature, it doesn't seem to make any difference because that's the person that Paul was tapping to be his successor. And you know, one of the things that says to me is that it's not by might and it's not by power, it's by God's spirit that this is done. And a person who is timid and weak and immature is somebody. And they're called to be a messenger and you're called to be a messenger. But a person like that is someone who's very dependent on the Lord. And I know. And when you're very dependent on the Lord, that he comes through and your ministry is powerful. So let's look at Timothy for a minute and what Paul tells him in this first chapter. This is the last thing that Paul ever wrote, last thing that we know that he ever said. He's telling Timothy, challenging him to be a messenger of the Gospel. He says, don't be afraid to be a messenger, don't be ashamed to be a messenger, and don't be apathetic about being a messenger. So first of all, don't be afraid. And he was telling Timothy that Timothy was living in a Roman world and Nero was the emperor at that time. Nero was getting ready to execute Paul. Nero was a madman with absolute power. Nero was somebody who was crucifying Christians on crosses and throwing them to the lions and burning them at the stake. I mean, it was dangerous not only to believe the Gospel, but to be a messenger of the Gospel. And so the first thing Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, don't be afraid to be a messenger of the Gospel. And you have four reasons. You don't have to be afraid. First reason you're being prayed for. In verse three, he says, night and day, I constantly remember you in my prayers. Can you imagine the encouragement it would be to the young Timothy to know that the great old apostle Paul was praying for him 24, 7? Who's praying for you? Do you have somebody who knows what you're going through, knows what you're battling, knows what your joys are, what your heartaches are? And they pray for you. And they. I mean, they really don't just say, I'll pray for you, but they pray for you. You need to be prayed for. The world is so wicked and it's so dangerous and it's getting so hard out there. We need to pray for each other. When I first started my itinerant ministry, I asked the Lord to bring me some women who would pray for me. And I was teaching at the time, a class of 500 women. And I thought I'd just have a lot of people who'd want to come alongside and pray for me. And actually, I just had seven ladies who came to me one by one, not prompted by me or anybody, just the Holy Spirit saying, ann, we want to pray for you. And so I challenged them. God called them, and I started out with that prayer team, and they fluctuated a little bit over these 20 years because some have moved away and some have dropped out because of illness, but still have seven women who are praying for me. And they pray for me every day on their own. Once a week, they gather together and pray for me on their knees when I speak. They'll pray and fast. They'll call each other on the phone and pray for me. And so every week I send them a prayer letter. So the one, I sent it out Wednesday to them, and it's emailed out to them because they meet together on Thursday. And I share with them the specific answers to prayer from last week's prayer. So everything I asked them to pray for last week, I make sure I let them know how the Lord has answered it, and then everything I'm asking them to pray for this week. So this week's was several pages long because it included you all and all the ins and outs of the details of this seminar. And we've seen so many answers to prayer. And I can't tell you I could not stand in this podium, I could not do the things I do if I wasn't being prayed for. And people say, ann, how do you do what you do? That's how you know it's the spirit of God, but it's an answer to prayer. You need somebody to be praying for you. Who do you know that you can pray for? And your pastor is an obvious choice. Your Bible teacher, your Sunday school teacher, people that are messengers. But maybe it's just your next door neighbor, maybe another mother who's got children your ages, and you're struggling with some of the things. Just pray for each other, pray for your children, pray for your schools. And Timothy was being prayed for by the Apostle Paul. And I need to say that in my ministry itself, after I had my prayer team for myself, and I'd had that for years, I was sort of late to the party. And several years ago, I realized my prayer team prays for me, but they're not really praying for my office and my staff and our business. And so I asked the Lord to bring me some women who would pray for my office and my ministry. Ministry itself. And God brought me again, seven women. I think it's now down to five. But they meet every Thursday morning. And in my office, I designated one room in the middle of my office. It's in the heart of my office. We call it the meeting place. Nothing takes place in that room except prayer. And it's rimmed with chairs so that, you know, everybody can have a seat. I have a kneeling bench on one end and a cross that's made out of mirrors. So if you kneel on the bench and you look at the cross, you see yourself, remember, reflected in the cross, little table with cards. So when people write in and they want to be prayed for, then we keep it in a card file. So the staff, when they have a few minutes, they can slip into the prayer room or into the meeting place and pray for people who need to be prayed for. And so that prayer team prays for the staff once a month. They bring in a staff member to just pray over that staff person. They go to her office and pray over her office. And it's just such a blessing, isn't it? Seeing the answers to prayer and seeing how God moves and works in response to their faithfulness to stand by me in prayer, you need that too. And if you're in a Bible study or in a church, then your leaders need that too. So just ask the Lord to show you. And maybe it's your spouse, but sometimes you would share things with a friend that maybe sometimes we don't share with a spouse. Or just ask the Lord if you would put somebody on your heart, maybe it'll be somebody you'd Find this. Who would be your prayer partner, at least for a year. And so I'll let you decide how often you contact and what you do. But we've had prayer partners. In fact, my husband had a prayer partner that was from here that they called each other for years, got to see each other, and the guy was from Canada, but he made a point to watch after my husband and come down and see us. And it was a precious blessing in my husband's life. So God may have that blessing for you. And if nobody is praying for you and you say, ann, I just wouldn't know how to go about that. And I'm isolated and I can't do that. And Hebrews 7:25 I love says that Jesus ascended into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father, and he ever lives to make intercession for you. Jesus is praying for you. Isn't that precious? And he knows your thoughts, he knows your struggles, he knows your hopes, he knows your dreams, he knows your fears, he knows your sorrows. And he prays for. And I know one of the things he's praying is that you're going to be an effective messenger who gets a firm grip on the gospel and that you'll be available for him to use to share that message with the people that are in your world that you come into contact with. And Jesus is somebody who knows how to get answers to his prayers. So you have a prayer partner. So he's praying for you. Take comfort in that. But it may be that you need, you know, he works through visible people, so there may be somebody specific that you can ask to pray for you and with you, and I encourage you to do that. And it's sort of a humbling thing, isn't it? Every time I write that prayer letter and I share with them some things I'm going through, and I share with them things I'm going through. And it's sort of humbling to be vulnerable and let people know that you need something like that. But that's what the body of Christ is. That's what the family of God is. I trust those women. They keep it confidential and they pray for me. And God has poured out his blessing in answer to those prayers. So ask God to give you somebody who you can pray with. Also Paul said, timothy, you don't have to be afraid. You're being prayed for. And then secondly, he says, you've got the passion for it. And I'm reading into this, but in verse 4 he said, I recall your tears. So I just Asked myself, why was Timothy crying? So I wonder if it's because he was so tender hearted. You know, he just really had a heart for a lost world that was going to hell. And all these people in the Roman world worshiping their own gods and didn't know that there was a one true living God who loved them so much that he sent Jesus to die on the cross to take away their sin. And so was he just weeping over a tender hearted concern and passion and love for the lost world? And I wonder if he was crying because he was brokenhearted because of the way the rejected by those same people. And you can share the gospel with somebody and when they reject it and you know they're going to self destruct and it will break your heart. And was he weeping because he was brokenhearted? Weeping because he was faint hearted? Maybe he was terrified. Paul, I cannot do this. I cannot go out there. They're crucifying people, they're throwing them into lions. I'm scared to death. And so the one thing that the tears tell me is that Timothy cared. He wouldn't be weeping if he didn't care. So can I ask you, when was the last time you wept over somebody who was lost? So sometimes when we weep like that, it's because we care. And Paul is saying, I see that you have a heart for what you're doing. What about you? You know, I remember several years ago, actually it was quite a few years ago when a large organization, they were having their 25th celebration anniversary and they asked me to come speak and I asked them why, how'd they gotten my name? And they said, well, we know you have a heart for the gospel. And I said, well, you know, that's interesting. And I hung up. And I thought, why did they say that? And the only reason I could think of that they said that is because I'm Billy Graham's daughter. They just thought automatically I would have a heart for the gospel. And so I started examining myself and do you have a heart for the gospel? And what I discovered was that my heart for the gospel was very small. And I consider myself a Bible teacher and somebody who disciple people. But as far as the gospel was concerned, my heart was small for that. And so I asked the Lord, I prayed deliberately and intentionally. God, enlarge my heart for the gospel to the point that today when people describe me, they call me an evangelist. I'm not an evangelist. I don't have the gift of evangelism. But what they're seeing is that God has given me an enlarged heart for the Gospel. Ask him to give you an enlarged heart for the Gospel that you would care about a world out there that do some of the craziest things and their sin is getting more and more blatant. And listen, don't blame them for that. That's what sinners do. They're good at sinning, you know, but the sin is not going to bring happiness or purpose or peace or joy or hope. And they need Jesus. So ask God to break your heart with the things that break his and give you a heart for a lost world, that you might want to reach them with the message of the Gospel. Paul said, timothy, I recall your tears, and I think Timothy was weeping because he cared. And that is one reason you don't have to be afraid, because you just let what's in your heart come out on your lips. And Timothy not only was being prayed for, he had the passion for, he had the preparation. And Paul says in verse five, I've been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and then your mother Eunice. So Timothy obviously came from a Christian home where he'd been taught the Scriptures from the time he was small, raised in the faith, and that was preparation for him now to be a messenger of the Gospel. He knew the Scriptures, he had the example of his mother and his grandmother. And you're raised in a Christian home. That's preparation for you to be a messenger. So think about what, Think about your experience, think about your upbringing, think about what you saw in your parents, and that's preparation for you now to be a messenger. But let me point out something else. Timothy's father's not mentioned. Timothy's father, we believe, was a Greek, and I won't go into the reasons for that, but we believe he's not a believer. And so Timothy was raised in a home where his mother and his grandmother were believers, but his father was not. And did you have a home like that when one of your parents was a believer and the other was not? So your parents were unequally yoked. And have you seen, up close and personal, the tension that brings and the difficulty, the conflict that can be in the home because one spouse is not saved, that can give you a heart for the gospel. That's preparation for you to go out and reach other people with the Gospel, to bring the unity and the reconciliation there should be? And let me just add a little parenthesis to that, because please note that it was Lois and Eunice who taught Timothy the Scriptures. Remember the question about what do I do when my husband or the father is not teaching? And am I usurping his authority when I'm doing it and he's not? No, you're not. It was Lois and Eunice who taught Timothy that prepared him for ministry, not his father. So I don't want to put fathers down and all of you fathers out there, please don't misunderstand me. Take the role that God has given you and be somebody who would teach your children by your example and by your words. But the mother can instruct also in such a way that the child is raised in a way that's strong. They're strong in their faith and able to serve the Lord when they grow older. So Timothy obviously was taught by his mother and his grandmother, even though his father wasn't saved. So I don't know what your upbringing was. Maybe in your home, neither. Neither parent was saved. Maybe you were raised in a completely secular, or maybe a hostile to Christ home and family. Maybe in your family there was abandonment or abuse or adultery or alcoholism or divorce, disease. I don't know. And think about it for a minute. That itself is preparation for you to go out and reach other people who are going through a similar situation, because you know what? It feels like you can relate to them in a way that others of us couldn't. And God wants to use that so that when you present the gospel message, you're a messenger that other people will listen to who have that same situation. So do you hear me? Look into your home, look into your family, look into your background, what's there. God is not whimsical. He doesn't just guess his way around. He just doesn't play games. Everything in your life is very intentional, and God is very intentional about the home in which you were raised and what you've been through. And it's not to make you miserable or not to take away a blessing. It's to prepare you to be a messenger who's effective as you share the gospel with other people today. So Paul says, timothy, you've been prepared right there in your family. And then he said, you've been prepared by your friends. He said, I myself have laid my hands on you. And Paul was Timothy's pastor or his professor, his mentor, and he had come alongside Timothy to help him grow up in his faith. So who is that person in your life who's been your mentor, your pastor, somebody who's helped grow you up in the faith? And the wonderful thing today is that you don't even have to Know that person necessarily, although it could be your pastor or a missionary or an older person in your congregation or maybe it's your own parent or, you know, an aunt or an uncle or somebody, somebody who's a more mature Christian who's come alongside you and helped you grow in your knowledge of God and your knowledge of the Scripture and praise God for those people in our lives. And the Lord has given me some wonderful ones and I thank God for them. But sometimes you don't have somebody like that in your life. But today, because of the videos and the audios and the books, we can have a mentor we've never even met before. We just listen to them or we watch them or we read their books. And that's where we be very careful, you know, who you expose yourself to. But it's very important that we are careful about who we listen to. But there's some wonderful ones out there. And there's no reason that you and I can't have a mentor today or somebody who would come alongside and help train us and teach us, because there's so many out there that are available. So ask God to open your eyes to those who can be your mentors. And we need each other. In that way we can always grow from somebody who's older who comes alongside. Fourth reason that you don't have to be afraid. Timothy, you have the power of God. In verse 6, he says, for this reason I remind you to fan and to flame the gift which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline. And there's nothing magical about Paul's hands. Okay, so let's just put that on the table. Nothing supernatural about laying on of hands. I think that Paul was there when Timothy was converted. And when he laid his hands on Timothy, that was at the moment Timothy was confessing his sin, telling God he was sorry, claiming Jesus as his savior, inviting Jesus to come into his heart. And at that moment he was given the gift of God. And the gift of God is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. And you see him in chapter one of Genesis, verse two. The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep, preparing the planet earth to receive God's word and be transformed in six days. That's the same spirit of God. When you pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart, he comes in in the person of that same spirit of God that was in the beginning, in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a living person. He is Jesus without his man's body. He is Jesus living inside of you. But he has all the power of God that He had in the beginning. So think about it. You have the Holy Spirit of the living God within you. If you've received Christ by faith and he comes into you and you have the power to share the gospel in an effective way, remember, it's not by might, not by power. It's by the Holy Spirit that this is done. And you and I need to let him loose in our lives. Paul says you need to fan into flame this gift of God. And the Holy Spirit is not a fire, but he's symbolized by fire. So the Holy Spirit is invisible. We wouldn't know he was present except he said, symbolized by something. So at the baptism of Jesus, he was symbolized by a dove. At Pentecost, he was symbolized by flame of fire. At the end of history, in the book of Revelation, he symbolized by this branch of candles that burns before the throne and the fire that burns before the throne. That's the Holy Spirit. And so he's considered the fire of God because listen to me. The Holy Spirit is on fire for the gospel. He's on fire for the things of Jesus. He's on fire for the things of God. And he inspired the Bible. Every word is God breathed as we see tomorrow. The Holy Spirit inspired every word of this book. He's on fire to show you the things of God. And so you and I need to fan him into flame, let him loose in our lives when we receive the Holy Spirit. Can I tell you, when I was a little girl and I invited Jesus to come into my heart, I didn't understand about the Holy Spirit, but I invited Jesus to come into my heart. Jesus understood what I was saying, and so he placed the Holy Spirit within my life. Jesus can't possibly come into anybody. He's in a man's body up in heaven, getting ready to come back and reign and rule on this earth. When we invite him to come into our hearts, he comes in in the person of the Holy Spirit. And when I was a little girl and I received the Holy Spirit and He came into me, even though I didn't know his name, he came into me. I had all of the Holy Spirit I'm ever going to get. You know that you don't get him in pieces. The Holy Spirit is a person. So the newest believer, the youngest believer, has as much of the Holy Spirit as the oldest believer has. You have all of the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get living in you.