What’s Your Potential?

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing all right today? Well, this is your friend, Bob Cook, and I have just been praying that God may have something special for you in the words that are said today as we look at God’s blessed, infallible, inerrant, inspired Word, the Bible. I pray every day that God may put His love and His truth and His blessing in these few moments. Some of you are hurting so bad and you need somebody just to express a little love to you, and some of you are perplexed and floundering and you need direction, and some of you are guilty and need cleansing, and some of you are lonesome and need somebody just to say, “Hello, how you doing?” And some of you are just raring to go, you’re full of enthusiasm and blessing and joy and you need someone to say, “Go get ’em, tiger.” [chuckle] Well, whatever your condition may be, I want you to know that Bob Cook is praying that whatever is said on these broadcasts may especially be of help to you.

Well, we’re winding up 1 Timothy and we’re down now to verse 20 in chapter 6, not much left here of this book, is there? And we’ll go back and recap some of the thoughts and then we’ll go on to something else in God’s Word. But in 6:20 he says, “Oh, Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust.” That’s what we were talking about the last time we got together.

Now, it’s up to you to do that, to guard what God has given you and use it wisely. Some people never discover this. In my own case, I was so busy living that I never really began to think deeply about, “What has God given me? And what do I really want to keep as a trust from God?” That came a little later in life after I had been through the teens and 20s, I guess. I was busy preaching and serving God the best I knew how, always busy, always running, always preaching, always in meetings. So that the blessing of the Lord was there, I knew that. And by and by, I began to think as I’m advising you, beloved, to think about, “What is it that God has really given to me that I ought to take care of and preserve?”

You think and pray about that and the indwelling Holy Spirit will guide you. The Lord Jesus promised, “He shall guide you into all truth and bring to you remembrance of all things, whatsoever I have said unto you.” So the blessed Spirit of God who is given to the believer will, in answer to prayer, beloved, tell you these things, I can guarantee you that. Keep that which is committed to thy trust. Some of you never dreamed that you could write, or that you could sing, or that you could paint, or that you could make money in a special kind of sales effort, or that you could manage, or that you could preach. You never dreamed that these things were there, but you will find out if you begin to seek God and He speaks to your heart, all right?

Keep that which is committed to thy trust. Nobody will do this for you. Early in life people kept reminding me, “Bob Cook, take care of yourself. Nobody will take care of you after you wear out.” That’s the world’s philosophy, “Take care of yourself.” When we say goodbye to people oftentimes instead of saying so long or goodbye, we say, “Take care.” What do we mean? Well, it’s the underlying philosophy of the world, “Take care of yourself, nobody else is going to do it.” But here is the real take care of yourself, “Keep that which is committed to thy trust.” God has given you certain abilities, certain potentials that are yours and yours alone, and you need… well, the verb means to guard like a cordon of soldiers guard something. Guard it, take care of it, certainly use it.

Now, he says, avoiding. “How do you take care of your potential?” You avoid that which dissipates it. Simple, isn’t it? How do you keep the air in a tire? You avoid getting a puncture that lets the air out. [chuckle] How do you take care of what God has given you as a potential? You avoid that which dissipates that power. What is it? Avoiding profane and vain babblings. Now, the word ‘profane’ is our idea of secular, secular and godless. Avoiding secular, Godless, humanistic things.

Now, does that mean that you’re gonna close your eyes to all that’s going on around in the world? That you’re not gonna read anything except which is religious? Oh, no. No, no. You’re not gonna give your time and attention principally to that which is Godless. There’s a difference between being useful and being Godless. Profane babblings have to do with the kind of thinking that leaves God out, the kind of thinking that leaves God out.

Here’s a statement that you often hear, “Nice guys finish last.” Now, that’s under this heading of profane, it’s secular, it’s Godless. In other words, if you’re too nice to people, why, you’ll finish last. I have a book of unusual quotations, I saw there a quotation that said, “Being kind to people attracts to you folk whom you don’t like.” [laughter] Well, that may be so. May be so. But the point, I think, is don’t give your time and strength and interests to the kind of thing that looks at life through Godless eyes and talks about life in Godless terms. That’s what that word ‘profane’ means, Godless. See, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to shut your eyes to all the information around you. It doesn’t mean you’re gonna stop learning. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to talk nothing but religious terms. Not at all. But it does mean that you’re gonna avoid spending your time and effort on concepts that leave God out. Right?

He says avoiding. If you want really to make use of what God has given you, beloved, avoid that which dissipates it and lets the air out of the tire. Profane and vain babblings. Profane and vain babblings. Now, what does he mean? The idea of something that is just against something else. “Oh, Timothy,” he says, “Keep that which has been given unto you, detouring around the babblings that are secular and… ” Now, here’s the word that is translated vain, antithesis. Isn’t that something? The opposition of science, falsely so called vain babblings, and the opposition of science, falsely so called. The whole truth here is that the more you try to understand the world, including science, without the concept of God, the more you dissipate the reality of spiritual life in you. That’s the point that he’s making. Vain babblings has to do with that which really doesn’t mean anything, just for argument’s sake.

And opposition is our word antithesis of pseudoscience, that’s the word that’s there, pseudoscience. What does it mean? The more you think about the world and life and science without the undergirding concept of God, the more you dissipate the spiritual potential of your own life. Don’t be lured either into philosophy, or science, or any of the other branches of learning without an underpinning, an undergirding, a foundation of faith in God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You follow that? Now, that’s the reason that we call the College a Christian liberal arts college. We require 16 hours of Bible, 16 semester hours of Bible courses in addition to whatever major the student chooses, so they end up taking 130-some hours of instruction in order to get their baccalaureate degree. Why? Because we want people to base all of their learning upon the concept of Almighty God and the salvation that there is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t reason up to God, we start with God. That’s our one presupposition.

Every scientist is allowed one presupposition. That’s ours. We start with God and with His inherent, inspired Word, the Bible. And we go on from there. Oh, yes, we’re accredited. Fully accredited. But also, frankly, Christian. Anything else, anything less dissipates the spiritual potential of your life. Don’t be lured into any kind of thought or learning that leaves God out. That’s what Paul is pleading with Timothy, “Oh, Timothy,” he says, “Guard what you have.”

Now, what is it that will dissipate it? Secularism and that which leaves God out of the reasoning about life and destiny. And then he says, “Oppositions of science falsely so called.” That’s a jibe there, isn’t it? Science falsely so called. Anything that’s real science includes faith in God. Anything that’s real science includes faith in God.

So, well, now, we’ve got one more verse, the 21st verse, and then we’re gonna do some recapping as sort of a review before we leave 1 Timothy. It’s been quite a book, hasn’t it? Well, what I’ve been saying to you today is so important. Keep what God has given you. Use your potential for eternity and don’t let secularism and Godless concepts dissipate your potential. Keep it going for God.

Dear Father today, O may we guard that eternal potential Thou hast given us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today, and be a blessing!