Hold On To Your Faith
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Pastor James Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 26 October 2025
- 1 Timothy 0:
Pray, Father. We rejoice in Christ our Savior, knowing only through him can we come to you. Only through him can we have salvation. Only through him do we have hope that lasts for all eternity. And so we're thankful for Jesus that he died on a cross for our sins, that he overcame death and was raised to life.
And. And he gives life to everyone who puts their faith in him. We thank you, Father. We can gather together as a church body, and we pray that you'd help us to demonstrate Christ's love to each other, sacrificial love. Just doing what we can to build up the body and to be a witness and a testimony to those around us.
Also, we lift up Will's brother Herb, and God. He's heard the message and for whatever reason is turned against it. We just pray that you would open his heart, Father God, that he would see the danger that he's in, that he's looking at priceless eternity, hell forever, and that he would cry out to you for salvation. Thank you for Cheryl's testimony. We just ask for continued blessing, healing on her life and extending her days and helping her to feel well and strength.
Thank you for the job she has in town and the outreach she has with some of the street people and ask your blessing on that. And so, Lord, as we look in your word, we pray that you would open it to us, open our hearts, help us to see, and help us to apply it to our lives. In Christ's name, amen. Okay, I know everyone is somewhat aware of the physical issues that I'm facing. After my last heart attack, I shared that.
I went to my regular doctor, and she listened to my heart with the stethoscope. She kept saying, I'm sorry. I'm worried. I'm worried. And then she said she was going to order palliative care, which means that just keeps you comfortable.
Needless to say, I left there somewhat discouraged, like, no plan. What are we going to do? Well, the VA had scheduled me with another doctor, a specialist out of the uw, which I saw on Friday. And this lady has plan and some things that she wants to do. And whether that brings healing or not, I'm much encouraged.
You know, at least. At least we got a plan. But as I've been going through this, this is a crisis in my life. And I think we all face crises, don't we, one way or another? I mean, it can come through health, it can come through finances, come through relationships.
I mean, and the thing that I found in a crisis, you start to figure out what's important and what's not. I can tell you right now, in this crisis I'm in, I'm not thinking, what can I do to have fun? Not thinking about that. All right? I'm not thinking, how can I get some more money?
Those things. Yeah, we need those. But that's not what's valuable. Isn't it? And so, as I've thought about it, one of the things that has been really valuable to me is relationships.
Relationships. My wife really standing behind me, supporting me, praying for me. You as a church, praying for me. And two of my children. My second son flew down from Anchorage and my daughter flew out from Nashville just to be with me to go to the doctor and kind of catch up on some of the things around Helm that is really valuable, really important.
But as I thought about, there's something even more valuable than that, something that all of us need, and we find that over in First Peter, chapter one. And Peter's writing to people that are going through trials. They're being persecuted, they're being arrested, they're being killed on account of their faith. And so he says in verse 7, chapter 1, verse 7. These referring to the trials, the crisis in your life.
These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul. And I would submit that the greatest thing in anyone's life that they can experience is your faith, your faith in Jesus Christ.
And that's leading to the salvation of your soul, spending eternity with God. And so regarding that, if faith is the greatest thing, greater worth than gold that we can experience, what do you think the enemy wants to do?
If faith is the greatest thing you have, what does the enemy want to do? He wants to destroy your faith. He's working all the time to undermine that faith in Jesus Christ to get you to start looking at the problems in life or even the solutions in life, but not looking at Christ. And so we're going to start the book of First Timothy today. I've been in First, Second Thessalonians.
We finished that. Moving on to First Timothy. And I'm not going to go through it verse by verse this morning, just kind of an overview in regard to faith And Paul has written Timothy. This is one of four personal letters that Paul has written that are in our Bible. First and Second Timothy, Titus and Philemon.
And imagine if you got a letter from the great apostle Paul personally to you, and it was put in the Bible, and this is what God wants you to know. This book of First Timothy probably tells us more about how we should do church than any other book in the Bible. He's trying to help Timothy. Timothy was the pastor of the church in Ephesus. He was young and he was facing a lot of problems.
And so Paul is now in writing to encourage him, but also to give him instructions and also to warn him about the problems he's going to face. If you go to chapter one, verse 18, he says, Timothy, my son. Not his physical son, his spiritual son, someone that he has invested in his life with the Gospel. Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction. And that's what First Timothy is.
Instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them, you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. And so he's written this book to him, to Timothy, so that he can fight the good fight of faith. And in that way, this book is written to every one of us. If we put our faith in Christ, how do we fight this good fight? Well, the truth is, is not everyone who starts out in the faith continues in the faith, okay?
Something comes along and the devil's using that to try to undermine faith, and they fall away. And so this morning, what I want to do is show five ways that the devil tries to undermine your faith. Five ways. So first of all, go to chapter one, verse 19.
And after he's talked to him about holding on to faith in a good conscience, he says, some, not everyone, some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.
They shipwreck their fate. How do shipwrecks happen?
You get off course, don't you? You know, you're supposed to be going this way and somehow you lose your direction, you get off course, you hit the rocks and you're shipwrecked. He mentions two guys. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. So in some way, these two men have blasphemed the name of God, and in doing that, they shipwrecked their faith.
It says they did not hold on to a good conscience. If someone has not held on to a good conscience, what's that saying about them.
Any thoughts there?
What should our conscience be doing for us?
Protecting us. Should be keeping us in the straight and narrow way. Right? If you don't have a good conscience, what does that mean you've done? You probably sinned in some way.
Okay. And your conscience isn't bothering you to keep you back on course. And so these men have shipwrecked their faith. And that means that they were on the rocks. They were not continuing in that faith journey with Christ.
They were not fighting the good faith. And. And so if someone is not holding on to a good conscience, the cure for that to get back on track is repentance. Is repentance. We all sin.
In fact, we all sin every day, thought, word and deed. And when our conscience brings up that sin in our mind, we shouldn't just, eh, that's okay. Everyone's doing it, you know, God's merciful. I don't have to worry. No, that conscience is there to help you to get back on track, to confess that sin and repent of it.
And God is able to keep working on your faith. And so we had people in the church, and I've seen this in my 45 years of ministry, people that have got caught up in sin in one way or another. And instead of repenting, guess what? They hid. I don't want to be around Christians now.
I'm a sinner. And they did not go on in the faith. They did not fight the good fight. And that's a sad thing. So that's the first group.
They shipwrecked their faith. The second is in chapter four, verse one, and it says, the Spirit clearly says, in the latter times. When's the latter times? Now. Okay, we're in the latter times.
We don't know how long it'll last, but that's where we're in. The Spirit clearly says, in the latter time, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. And so the second group, first group shipwrecked their faith. The second group abandoned their faith. That means they walked away from it.
They got caught up in something else, in this case, deceiving spirits and all sorts of teachings that really are not focused on Jesus Christ. And we see that today, not only in our country, but around the world. People get caught up in things that they're not meant to get caught up. Their focus is no longer on Jesus Christ, it's on when does this happen, or who's the Antichrist, or what about Calvinism or what about this? And they actually Walk away from the faith.
And that's a sad thing. And he says the solution for this is you need to know the truth. You need to know the truth. That's one of the reasons that we work through the Bible. The Bible is true.
We want to know what God says and not what I want to hear or what I like to hear, but what does God say? And it's no surprise that in our society today people go, what is truth? What is true? My truth is good enough for me and your truth is good enough for you. Well that's not true.
God determines what is true and what is not. And we find that in the word of God. And so the solution for someone that's abandoned the faith, just walked away and got caught up in other things, is to get back and focus on the word of God. The, the third group we see in chapter five, verse eight, he says there, if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. We sometimes we see people, they get so spiritually minded that they're no worldly good, they get so caught up in so called church kind of stuff that they no longer are ministering to their family.
And he says if you do that, you've denied the truth. The truth is Christ has called us to love our families, provide for our family, to train our family, to disciple our family. And not just our immediate family, but extended family in the church. And that's why in this church, when we see someone has a need and it's a true need and we have the opportunity, we try to help meet that need. And because we don't want to deny the faith.
And even unbelievers recognize the value of that, don't they? And if they see a Christian that's not taking care of his family, then to them that's repulsive. They even know better than that. And so someone that's denied the faith means that they're unconcerned about others, unconcerned about others. It's interesting when you look at Christ's life, can you imagine anybody that was busier than Jesus Christ?
Crowds pressing on him all the time, asking for this, pray for that, heal me of this all the time. And sometimes he had to just get away to a lonely place just to get some rest because of the pressure was on him. And yet you always see him taking time to try to meet people's needs. He was concerned about others. And so instead of being self centered, we have to be Other centered.
And that demonstrates our faith. The fourth one is in chapter 6, verse 10.
And it says there, for the love of money, not money, okay? People say money is the root of all evil. No money is necessary. And I'm glad I have a little bit, okay? And I hope you have a little bit.
But the love of money is.
Is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And there they are, they're walking with Christ. They're focused on trying to be a Christian. And all of a sudden that.
That money thing over there kind of pops up and, oh, that's attractive, man. You know what I could do with that money? I could do all sorts of things. And yeah, we need money, but it's a love of money. It's interesting that people have a lot of money.
You know, how much is enough? Never enough. They always want more, always want more because they love that money. And what he says is, eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. So there they were, walking with Christ.
They got distracted by the financial gifts in this world, and all of a sudden, instead of following Christ, they just kind of wandered off and they end up piercing themselves with grief. And again, I've seen many people that got caught up in wanting to make money. And it's amazing how many families were destroyed as a result of that because they lost focus. It's not about how much money. God said back in Proverbs, you know, don't give me too much or too little.
You give too much, I might forget you. If you give me too little, I might sin against you. Just give me enough for my daily needs. And I got an idea that we could all use a little extra money, couldn't we? I've had gifts that have come in sometimes and, oh, that's nice.
But the thing is, if God is meeting your need every day, we can be content in that and focus on that, what's important. And so many had wandered from the faith. And if we've got that love of money, we're going to have to do something to change that. I remember a guy who wrote a book, the Discipline of Price, something disciplined. I didn't like the title at all.
But he shared that he and his wife were having a yard sale and to make a little extra money. Nothing wrong with that. Well, they had a swing set that their kids had used, but they'd all grown up, and he thought, I'm going to put that swing set in the yard sale. So he got it cleaned up, he painted it, put it out front. And a single lady came by with about three or four kids, and she saw that swing set, and her eyes went, wow, would my kids love that?
And she said, how much? And when he told her, she goes, oh. And he realized, I'm battling a love of money here. You know what he did? He gave it away.
That's how you battle a love of money. You show the other things are more important than that money. And we're all faced with that, and we need to recognize that. Again, nothing wrong with having money. God gives some people lots of money.
And because he wants them to do something with the money, not just look at me, my car, my house, my vacation, all of that, but do something with that. I was reminded we supported a missionary that was reaching out to Muslims in North Africa. And the missionaries couldn't minister to Muslims in North Africa because if anyone saw them talking to the missionary, they could lose their life. Okay? And so what they did, they.
They discovered that almost 20 million Muslims would take a ferry across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe for vacation. And so they developed this little packet of Bible stories and, you know, pictures to color, and they would hand it to them as they got on the boat, and 20 million of them, and it cost about $5 to produce it. Where does that money come from? That's a lot of money. And they were reaching people for Christ.
Well, it turns out there were rich people that wanted to invest what God had given them in that ministry. And. And that's valid, but there was no love of money. Okay? They saw money as a tool.
One last thing. In chapter six, verse 21, he says, we'll go back a little ways. He says, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good and to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share. I always kind of chuckle, like, if you had money, I could command you to do something with it.
That's what he's telling Timothy to do. But he goes in verse 19, command them to be good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so they may take hold. Eternal, take hold of life that is truly life. And then in verse 21, it says, well, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care, turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.
And this is not the same word as the one previously. It's the idea of going astray. Going astray. For those of us who are parents, we all know the danger of that, don't we? We do not want to see our children going astray.
We want to see them to continue on that journey that that leads to Christ. But if you get caught up in godless chatter, you know, what about this, what about that? And you see that all the time in religious circles and you forget what's important. And what's important is Christ. I mentioned at our breakfast yesterday morning, we had men from four different churches at our breakfast.
And we're not all the same. And if you were to get down to the nitty gritty, there's some things that we would disagree on, but there wasn't any problem. You know why? Because we knew that everyone there loved Christ and that's what we focused on. And getting away from godless chatter.
And that way you don't wander away from the faith, don't go astray. And so God is making us aware that you're in a battle for your faith. And if you've been a Christian very long, you realize that's true. In fact, you may realize there was a time I fought that battle and I didn't win. I wandered, I went astray, my faith was shipwrecked.
I even abandoned the faith for a while. And so you're aware that it's a battle, our faith is so valuable that the enemy is going to do everything possible to take that faith away from you. And you have to make that commitment. And it's through the word of God, staying focused on Christ, that we hold on to our faith. I know for me, sometimes when you're awake in the late hours of the night and you're struggling to breathe and you can't sleep and what's going to happen, I've got to go back to Christ.
You're in control of my life. You know, you want to take me, you can take me. If you want me to stay, you can stay. And holding on to my faith, close with this. I saw an article this morning.
125,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria for their faith. Can you imagine? 125,000. One instance were 75 Christians. And I don't know if men, women and children, they were herded into a church where they were all beheaded.
And I thought about that. Were they all beheaded at one time?
Probably not. Probably. You're sitting there in that church pew and you're watching your mother or your wife or your child being beheaded for their faith. And you know you're next. What are you holding on to?
The only thing you have to hold on to is your faith. If God allows me to go through this and he's got something better planned for me, there's great reward. And so every one of us is in that battle that have put their faith in Christ. If you haven't put your faith in Christ, you're already on the other side. The enemy might even leave you alone for a while, you know, have fun.
It doesn't end up well. But if you put your faith in Christ, and I pray that everyone here has, if they haven't, they need to. Simply a matter of confessing your sin and putting your faith in Jesus Christ and telling him, I want to follow Christ. He's my hope, he's my salvation. He's my Savior, he's my Lord.
And when we do that sincerely, I believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, starts working our life. But then you're in a battle for your faith. The enemy doesn't give up and go away. And we need to remember that. Because if you don't think you're in your battle, you go, well, everything's all right.
Everything all right. Next thing you know, you're flat on your back. And anybody been flat on their back spiritually? Yeah. Not a good place to be.
Whoa. What happened? You know? And put your faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for the gift of faith. I know that by your Holy Spirit that you put it in our lives to trust in Jesus Christ. Trust wholly, completely, without reservation. Thinking about these people that died in Nigeria, they had to be certain that Jesus Christ was the way, the truth and the life in order to stay faithful to him in the midst of unimaginable horror. And we would pray for Christians around the world being persecuted.
God protect them physically, but protect them spiritually. Also that they would be faithful even to the point of death. I thank you. There's great reward, and not just for this life, but for eternity, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and remain faithful. And God, as we looked at the different ways that people fell away, that Paul warned Timothy about, just to help us to do the things that keep us from falling in Christ's name, amen.