[BONUS] Divine Purpose! (Message by Joey Moralez)

This is a bonus episode of Tethered! It features a teaching that was given at a Cru gathering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City on February 2nd, 2023 to students and Cru staff. Joey reminds those present at the gathering that God gives a holy calling to those who believe in Him for salvation. Joey reminds them of God's divine purpose for their lives: to know God and make Him known! Teaching from 2 Timothy 1:8-12.

Bonus episode cover photo by Michael Heuser on Unsplash. Cover photo used under the Unsplash License.

Transcript

[BONUS] Episode 24: Divine Purpose! (Message by Joey Moralez)

[00:00:00] Joey Moralez: Hey, what's up everyone? Thank you for tuning into Tethered, a podcast dedicated to helping followers of Jesus stay connected to Him day by day. My prayer for this episode is that it would encourage you, challenge you, and propel you to abide more deeply in Jesus. I hope you're encouraged by this episode!

[00:00:30] Joey Moralez: Let's jump right on in!

[00:00:43] Joey Moralez: What's up everyone? Once again, this is your host, Joey Moralez. I really appreciate you listening to episodes here on Tethered. If you've been impacted in any way by these episodes, please subscribe to the podcast to keep up to date on when episodes drop, and please share your friends and family on social media, however you share things,

[00:01:04] Joey Moralez: I would really appreciate it. This is a bonus episode of Tethered. On this episode, I shared a message at a Cru gathering on February 2nd, 2023, about the importance of reminding students and Cru staff about the divine purpose for their lives to know God and to make Him known. Without further ado, here's the message I gave at this Cru gathering.

[00:01:40] Joey Moralez: Yeah, absolutely. How's everybody doing tonight, by the way? Good. Feeling good? Anybody feeling weary yet of the semester starting? I'm sure a lot of you're feeling really tired and exhausted from your classes already. I know for me, like, you know, coming into the semester, it's been wonderful to get rested up really nice.

[00:02:00] Joey Moralez: Had a good break. Um, but a lot of, you're probably thinking like, man, I'm getting tired. I don't know what to do. What am I supposed to do when I'm exhausted and feel all this weight of classes or feel all this weight of ministry? And so, what I wanna speak on tonight is just the importance of reminding ourselves of what we're called to.

[00:02:24] Joey Moralez: And so we're all called to this divine purpose because God has made it his divine purpose to save us. And so I want you guys to go ahead and open up to 2nd Timothy chapter 1, verses 8 through 12. And what motivated me to teach on this text? I was actually, uh, interviewing both Josh and, uh, Benjamin Kirtley.

[00:02:45] Joey Moralez: I, I, I don't know if you guys know Benjamin, but I interviewed them for my podcast about, you know, being on the mission field and college campuses, and I asked them a question about purpose and got a chance to hear their, you know, responses to that. And then I searched for this text and this is what popped up.

[00:03:06] Joey Moralez: And so I think it's important for us to be reminded of what we're called to do as believers, but also what we're called to know. And that's God Himself, so I'm gonna be reading this text from, um, the CSB. And so this is what it says. 

[00:03:23] Cru Staff: What's the text again? Sorry. 

[00:03:24] Joey Moralez: Uh, 2nd Timothy 1 verses 8 through 12.

[00:03:28] Cru Staff: Thanks. 

[00:03:29] Joey Moralez: And so, and I want to help you, you know, understand like as you're feeling the weight of the semester or feeling the weight of ministry, like God has not forgotten our work. Um, and so let's go ahead and read that real quick. And so this is what it says. It says, "so don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, His prisoner.

[00:03:51] Joey Moralez: Instead, share in suffering for the Gospel, relying on the power of God. He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. This has now been made evident through appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.

[00:04:17] Joey Moralez: For this Gospel, I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher, and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed because I know whom I believed, and I'm persuaded that it, that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day." And so reading this, it's like, what is going on here? Like, why is this in the Bible?

[00:04:44] Joey Moralez: And so before I can explain what's going on in this text, it's helpful to have a background of what exactly is happening here. And so 2nd Timothy is a letter that was written to Timothy, um, to encourage him to persevere in the truth. And so this letter is actually Paul's most personal letter that he's ever written out of all of his other epistles.

[00:05:09] Joey Moralez: And the whole premise of this letter is to encourage Timothy to not stray away from the truth of the Gospel as he's facing false teachers in the church. And so what we read, what we just read was part of that encouragement for Timothy to be bold and unashamed in his ministry. And so Paul also shares his own example of being willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel with Timothy.

[00:05:33] Joey Moralez: And so we're asking ourselves how does this apply to us as people who are in college taking classes or us who are doing ministry on campus? Well, let's take a look at the context before we get into these verses. So we, we need to see that Paul is thankful for Timothy. To the Lord. He's thankful to the Lord.

[00:05:55] Joey Moralez: For Timothy, Paul is always remembering Timothy. Timothy was Paul's protege, his like little brother. Um, his, um, discipleship partner. And so Paul remembers Timothy's tears because Timothy must have been enduring some sort of hardship in his ministry. And so I know for all of us in here, like we've had those moments where we su- suffered hardship in our ministry.

[00:06:20] Joey Moralez: Especially in, you know, in these post COVID times where it seems like people aren't interested in hearing the Gospel. And for you students, like as you are engaging your classes and you're engaging your classmates, it's like, it seems like "nobody wants to hear what I have to say about who Jesus is." And so, Timothy understands what you're going through, and so, but Paul longs to see Timothy so that Paul can be encouraged by Timothy.

[00:06:48] Joey Moralez: And then Paul takes time in this letter to encourage Timothy, and these are the things that Paul says about Timothy's faith. The first thing we see in this context is that his sincere faith first lived in his grandmother Lois. Then it carried on through his mother, Eunice, and then his own mother's faith influenced his faith.

[00:07:09] Joey Moralez: And so you see these generations of faith taking place. That's, you know, like Timothy was able to receive the Gospel and receive the understanding of what his identity in Christ is because his grandmother and mother were faithful of teaching him and bringing up in the Word. And so, and why does Paul do this?

[00:07:30] Joey Moralez: He does this to rekindle the gift of God that is, And so Paul lays his hands on him to encourage him. And then you probably guys have heard of this verse before, in verse 7 where it says, um, "for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment". A lot of us love that verse, but in this context, um, he's encouraging Timothy to have to not have a spirit of fear, to not be afraid, but to have a spirit of

[00:08:00] Joey Moralez: power, love and sound judgment, meaning the love of the Lord. And so from here we go into our text where he talks about to not be ashamed of the testimony. And so let's take a look really briefly of what it says here to, "to not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord." And so, Like I said earlier, Timothy has been facing false teachers in this ministry, and Paul is reminding Timothy to not be ashamed of the Gospel.

[00:08:25] Joey Moralez: And to be ashamed, obviously means to be embarrassed. And so if we look at the Merriam Webster Dictionary, it says ashamed in this way: "reluctant or unwilling to do something because of shame or embarrassment". And so I know a lot of us in here, I mean, we've been walking with the Lord for some time and it's easy for us to not want to go share the good news of Jesus because we might afraid.

[00:08:51] Joey Moralez: We- we're afraid what we, you know, what would be thought of us. Like our perception might be like damaged, if that makes sense. Um, but Paul is reminding Timothy "to not be ashamed of testimony of our Lord." Um, and then he goes on to say, "or if me His prisoner." So at the time, Paul was actually in prison as he was writing this letter, and a lot of his comrades have aba-, have abandoned him in this time.

[00:09:20] Joey Moralez: Um, and so Paul doesn't want Timothy to, for Timothy did for sake, Paul. And so in our context, like it's easy for us to go into classes feeling alone or going into ministry, feeling like no one's watching us or taking heed to what we're doing with our lives. But we need to remind ourselves that we're not alone.

[00:09:44] Joey Moralez: We have the Lord Jesus that's with us. And so because we have the Lord Jesus with us, and we shouldn't be ashamed of what He's done for us because each of us has the story that's unique to us that God wants to use to speak the truth of what God has done in the lives of ourselves so we can show that to other people that there's hope in the Gospel.

[00:10:04] Joey Moralez: And so instead, um, "share in suffering for the Gospel." So Paul here is encouraging Timothy to share in suffering for the Gospel and Paul already knew that he was gonna suffer for Jesus. Um, if we read in Acts chapter 9, uh, verse 15, um, it, this is Ananias that the Lord appeared to and this is what he says, "but the Lord said to him, go, for he, being Paul, is a chosen instrument of Mine to carry My Name before the Gentiles in Kings in the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My Name."

[00:10:45] Joey Moralez: And so Paul already knew that Paul, that, uh, Paul was commissioned by Christ to take the Gospel to the Gentiles or to the people of the Roman Empire. And so because of his faithfulness and proclaiming the gospel, it's how we have, we today have this Gospel message. And even in Ephesians, Paul, is asking this for prayer:

[00:11:06] Joey Moralez: "Pray also for me that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel. For this, I'm an ambassador of ch- in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about as I should." And so Paul was willing to suffer for the Gospel because he has personally tasted and seen what it means to truly know Jesus.

[00:11:29] Joey Moralez: And that's where he begins to say things like, "relying on the power of God." And then he goes into this very elusive, wonderful proclamation of the Gospel message. And so this is what we need to be reminded of as students and staff on Cru, what exactly it is that we've been, we we have come to know for ourselves.

[00:11:54] Joey Moralez: And that is a saving, abiding relationship with Jesus because of the good news of Jesus Christ. And so if we look at verse 9 and 10, you clearly see here that the Gospel is being reiterated to Timothy. But why does it need to be reiterated? Because it's easy to forget, is easy to allow ourselves to believe the lies of the enemy, to believe the lies of

[00:12:16] Joey Moralez: people that say there's no God. Um, but also in this context, like Timothy was fa- facing false teaching, and so we need to be reminded of what the Gospel is, and this is what he says, "He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began" and then it finishes this way:

[00:12:46] Joey Moralez: "This has now been made evident, through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light to the gospel." And so, if you look really closely, "He has saved us". Who is the He that he's referring to? He's referring to God the Father, and that in itself is an amazing phrase because it shows who made salvation possible.

[00:13:14] Joey Moralez: It was God himself. That is the aim of the Gospel because God wants us to know Him and to have a relationship with Him. He called us to Himself, which as he says here, "called us with a holy calling", or you can even say "purpose". He's called us to a purpose, and that purpose is to know Him, to have this abiding relationship with Him, and how do we go about having this abiding relationship?

[00:13:43] Joey Moralez: It's coming to know who Jesus is as revealed in the Scriptures and so. It came through his appearing, the incarnation, meaning He became a man. God became a man who had abolished death, meaning He made a way possible for all of us in this room to be atoned, um, to have our sin atoned for on our behalf through His death.

[00:14:07] Joey Moralez: Like He died so that we can have life in immortality, meaning everlasting life to because of the Gospel message. And so it's important for us to remind ourselves that we have been called with a holy calling and that means to know Jesus, not just in a salvific sense, meaning like we place our faith and trust and that's it.

[00:14:29] Joey Moralez: No, it's coming to know Him day by day, moment by moment. And I like to say " staying tethered" to Jesus because it's important for us to remind ourselves that we want to cling on to Christ Himself day by day, because "apart from Him, we can do nothing" it says in John chapter 15, verse 5, and so, and why is this?

[00:14:50] Joey Moralez: Why do we want to live under this holy calling? Why does God call us to live under this holy calling? But it says here, "but according to his own purpose and grace", like that's pretty profound, that God made it His purpose for us to have a purpose and. This is what I wrote down as far as like this phrase here, "but according to His own purpose"; "It was God's plan from the beginning of time to redeem people for Himself.

[00:15:18] Joey Moralez: God made this promise to Eve that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent, the head of the serpent. God made this promise to Abraham that all nations of the earth would be blessed in Him. It was God's sovereign plan that passed down to the nation of Israel that a Messiah would save people from their sins."

[00:15:36] Joey Moralez: There's a guy named Matthew Henry, um, that wrote a commentary back in the 1600's that says this, "the Gospel is the manifestation of this purpose and grace". And so the grace that God offers through the Gospel was His purpose, and He made that way possible for sinners to be reconciled to a Holy God. And this itself was given in Christ Jesus,

[00:15:56] Joey Moralez: meaning Jesus was the fulfillment of everything that the Old Testament promised for us, that we would have life and have it abundantly. And here's what's even more amazing. It all occurred "before time began", meaning that this was God's predestined plan. And I get this from Ephesians 1 4-6, who, which says, even as He chose us in the, in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love,

[00:16:23] Joey Moralez: He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has blessed us in the beloved." So meaning it was God's plan from the beginning to reconcile His image bears to Himself. And so as we're, you know, going through classes, as we're doing ministry, we need to remind ourselves that it was God's divine purpose to save us and to give us this holy calling so people in our lives can come to know God for who He is and for us to be used by Him to carry that message along because He wants us to, to be used.

[00:17:08] Joey Moralez: Like He wants to use all of us because each of us is uniquely gifted in different ways, but we all, you know, have these qualities that can benefit people. And so that would be my encouragement to you as you navigate these days, um, especially when ministry gets hard, is to abide in Christ to remind yourself of what He saved you for

[00:17:33] Joey Moralez: and that's to know Him and to make Him known. And so we're going to wrap up here, um, with just an encouragement that Paul gives to Timothy. Um, and so in verses 11 through 12, this is what he says. He says, "for this gospel, I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher." And so Paul himself was able to bring the Gospel because

[00:18:02] Joey Moralez: you know, he was called by the Lord Jesus Himself. He was directly appointed by Jesus to carry the message to the Gentiles. I mean, you guys know the story of Paul, like he was murdering Christians before Jesus literally came to him and knocked him off his horse on the road to Damascus. Um, but it was really amazing that the Lord orchestrated this because He wanted to use a guy like Paul.

[00:18:30] Joey Moralez: Um, to do this, a messed up person. And so I say in, for us, in our modern context, like a lot of us may feel inadequate or feel like we can't be used by God. And I just wanna remind you guys that all of us have been appointed by God to carry out His message. Like I said earlier, each of us are, is uniquely gifted, but we should use our gifts

[00:18:55] Joey Moralez: wisely, but also use our gifts because that's what God has given us to carry His message. So all of us in this room have been appointed by God to carry His message, and not all of us are called to be like pastors. Not all of us are called to be missionaries. Not all of us are called to be teachers, but each of us is are called to be ambassadors for the kingdom in whatever context we're in.

[00:19:20] Joey Moralez: So 

[00:19:21] Cru Staff: Even for garbagemen. 

[00:19:22] Joey Moralez: Even for garbagemen. That's right. And so like my encouragement to you, um, is to continue to grow in your personal walk with the Lord day by day. Because just like Paul, he was called to be a herald for the gospel, meaning he was called to preach the Gospel. And all of us are called to preach the Gospel.

[00:19:43] Joey Moralez: Um, all of us are called to teach the word in the context that God has allowed us to teach the word in. So, for example, like you, Noah, supply chain management. Mm-hmm. Like how can God use you in supply chain management? And then Teagan with nursing? How can God use you in that way? 

[00:20:02] Cru Staff: Psychology. 

[00:20:02] Joey Moralez: Psychology. Oh my goodness. I was looking at that.

[00:20:04] Joey Moralez: So I was looking at mental health. 

[00:20:06] Cru Student: Yeah.

[00:20:06] Joey Moralez: But, and then Dr. C, in your medical career, like all of us are called to be teachers in that context, but also we're all called to reach everyone as well. We're called to engage the lost. We're called to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father, son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that has been commanded to them.

[00:20:28] Joey Moralez: And here's what's even more beautiful: that Jesus is with us till the very end of the age. And so that would be my encouragement to you. And it, it might be hard, it might be really hard because if we go back to, you know, verse 8, um, he says he's sharing like he calls Timothy to "share in the suffering of the Gospel."

[00:20:52] Joey Moralez: And then if we look at verse 12, That's why he suffers these things like because he's preaching a message of reconciliation. Like Paul has this personal relationship with God and he's been appointed to carry out this Gospel message, and he was willing to suffer for it. And so he's been imprisoned. He's getting ready to be executed.

[00:21:15] Joey Moralez: It says this since later in second Timothy, "for I am being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is clo- close." But Paul was so confident that he knew who, who he's believed, and he's confident that he's gonna see Jesus. And so, are we living our lives with an eternal perspective?

[00:21:41] Joey Moralez: Are we living our lives knowing that Jesus will one day come back? Is that motivating us to go and share the good news with our classmates, with our coworkers, wherever the Lord places us? And here's what's even more amazing: like Paul knows this because he's not ashamed of the gospel. Like he repeats it again here in verse 12 because he knows who's who you, who he's believed.

[00:22:06] Joey Moralez: He has believed in Jesus, which, if we know, is God Himself in the flesh. God himself took on our sin on our behalf, and that's who he places his faith and trust in. And this is what, you know, what Paul says here in one Timothy 12- 12 through 17, and this is who he's believed "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I'm the worst of them.

[00:22:33] Joey Moralez: But I've received mercy for this reason so that in me the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate His extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now, to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory and praise forever. Amen!" And so Paul knows who he's trusting, and not only that, he's entrusting his own life

[00:23:00] Joey Moralez: to Jesus. If we look right at the end of the verse here, "and I'm persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day", we assume that it's the Gospel message, right, which it is. But if we look at a different translation of this verse and the New American Standard Version, it actually renders this from the Greek in this way.

[00:23:23] Joey Moralez: This is what it says: "I am convinced that He is able to guard, or protect, what I have entrusted to Him." And so that's a different rendering from the CSB or the, you know, other translations. But essentially what's happening here is that the Greek word here is called "parathēkē". I can't pronounce it, "that it has been entrusted to me."

[00:23:49] Joey Moralez: It's a deposit, it's a thing that's cosigned to one's faithful keeping. In this context, it's Paul's very own life. He basically surrendered his rights to God. It's like, "Lord, my life is Yours fully. Like I trust You with everything. My reputation, my character, my life's work, everything that is precious to me.

[00:24:12] Joey Moralez: I gave it to You, God, for the sake of the Gospel." And so are we living our lives, fully surrendered to God because God wants to use us to proclaim His kingdom. And He doesn't wanna just use us to proclaim His kingdom. He wants us to know Him deeply and intimately. And sometimes that does require us to surrender our full selves to God because He wants all of us, not part of us, but all of us.

[00:24:39] Joey Moralez: And so Paul knew this, and Paul knew this "until that day", which that's how the section ends. "The Day" refers to again, either the second coming of Christ, or when Paul passes from this earth and sees Jesus face to face. And so I just wanna remind us in this room, like one day we're gonna be with Jesus forever.

[00:25:01] Joey Moralez: Like forever, and that'll be a beautiful day. But for now, while in this moment, we are called to know Him deeply and intimately, but also proclaim Him so others can come to know Him and love Him. Just like we have, and that itself is our divine purpose is to know Him and to make Him known. And so what, how do we respond to this?

[00:25:30] Joey Moralez: How do we, you know, really believe that this is what our purpose is? What is one thing in your life that you're holding onto right now that you're not willing to let go in order to, for God to continue to work on your heart? That's what I would encourage you guys this evening to look into as you are, you know, taking your quiet time or, you know, processing through things like how are you, what do you need to let go in order to fully entrust yourself to God so He can use you, but also so you can know Him?

[00:26:05] Joey Moralez: And so just to end this, um, this is essentially what, you know, Paul had said to Timothy in terms of like, "You can do this, Timothy." I mean we read this at the end of the chap-, at the, at the end of the section here. So I'm gonna pull it up here. And this is what Paul is just reminding Timothy as a way of application.

[00:26:32] Joey Moralez: This it says in verse 13: "Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who lives in us." So what this means is let us hold tightly to what we have learned in the Word. Let us hold tightly to what we have believed.

[00:26:55] Joey Moralez: Because if we hold tightly to what we believe, it's in essence holding tight to Jesus. It says in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, "therefore, Um, therefore." I'm trying, I'm trying to remember this from memory. "Therefore, let us pay close attention to what we have heard unless we drift away from it." And that comes after this huge supremacy of Jesus.

[00:27:19] Joey Moralez: And so that is, in essence, what Paul is saying here: "Let us hold fast to what we have heard unless we drift away from it and guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit that lives in us", like the Gospel itself, it's if it's personally affected you, hold on to that truth. Remind yourself of that truth every single day.

[00:27:38] Joey Moralez: And that in essence is what Paul is encouraging Timothy, with. Don't lose your faith, don't forget your purpose, becau- and don't forget God's purpose for you.

[00:28:02] Joey Moralez: Thank you for listening to Tethered. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with your friends and family. Please also tap the subscribe button to receive notifications when new episodes are published. You can also follow Tethered on Instagram by clicking on the link in the episode notes. Hope this episode has encouraged you, built you up, and blessed you. To God be the glory!

[00:28:25] Joey Moralez: See you next time! God bless!