Listen as Pastor Amy expounds upon another testimony from our community, focusing on the faith and hope that comes from the difficulties of life.

Join Steve Rogers as he looks into this classic movie and helps us discover we are often “in a fret over nothing,” and in Christ, we have nothing to fear.

Discussion Questions

1. If you had to explain to someone why they should read the Bible, what would you say?
2. What practical steps can be taken to move beyond ignoring the Bible or only studying the Bible and allowing it to speak with authority into our lives?
3. This week’s challenge, join those reading through the Gospel of John between now and Easter. This week is John 6-10.

Discussion Questions

1. Thinking about your spiritual upbringing, were you raised with many or few essential beliefs? How has your understanding of what is essential changed over the years?
2. How open are you to differing views in your beliefs? Are you even willing to have a conversation with an open mind with someone that differs from you? 
3. Take a peek at our church’s beliefs and let us know if you have any questions you would like to see addressed in this message series.

Faith Themes in Second Timothy

Today we are wrapping up a series called “Faithful.” We have looked at each of the major themes in a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to his protégé, Timothy. This is Second Timothy in our Bibles.

Paul penned this letter while he was in prison. It is the last preserved correspondence we have between Paul and Timothy. In the letter, Paul wants to guide Timothy one final time in some areas that will have tremendous impact on his faith.

We looked at how Paul saw something in the way Timothy lived that persuaded him that Timothy’s faith was a genuine faith. We saw that persuasive faith is visible, lived out for others to see, and draws others to see and know God. We asked ourselves: “Do we have a persuasive faith?”

We looked at the importance of shared faith. The faith we have isn’t meant to be hidden or locked away. It is vital that what we have been given, we pass on to others, who will in turn pass it on. We asked: “Are we sharing our faith?”

We looked at the need for pure faith. We need to be people who live out a pure faith. We do this by examining how we live and allowing the Spirit of God to continually transform us into becoming more Christ-like. We asked: “Is our faith becoming a pure faith?”

We talked about how we need to have an enduring faith. Trials and difficulty will come. We cannot avoid them. We shouldn’t avoid all sufferings or trials (yes, avoid the self-inflicted ones), but we should persevere through the rest because enduring faith is only developed though adversity. We asked: “Do we have an enduring faith?”

And now, we wrap up our series by looking at one final theme in the letter: Revealed Faith. 

Correctly Handle the Word of Truth

Several times throughout this letter, Paul writes to Timothy about how he is to guard, remind, handle, teach, proclaim and remain faithful to the message about Jesus Christ.   This message about Jesus is the Revealed Faith that takes center stage in this letter.

The first of several instances we are going to discuss, where Paul instructs Timothy about his use of God’s revealed truth, is in Second Timothy 2:15.

Look at what Paul wrote to Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:14-15  

Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

It’s that last phrase I want to focus on: “correctly handles the Word of Truth.”  The Word of Truth here is a phrase Paul uses in two other letters, Ephesians and Colossians. In both places he clearly states that the Word of Truth is the Gospel message about Jesus.  So, the problem Paul was speaking of was that just 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, people were already twisting the message Jesus taught about how to be right with God, how to live, and about our future hope for eternal life with God. They were arguing over words, coming up with different teachings, using verses from the Prophets’ writings to make it say what they wanted it to say. 

But Paul instructs Timothy to correctly handle the Word of Truth.  I think often we gloss over this and don’t really think through what this means to us TODAY.  First, since our revelation about Jesus is written down in the Bible and isn’t a message we heard from Paul himself, I believe this principal of handling the Word of Truth applies to the whole Bible.  Second, It means that if there is a correct way to handle God’s Truth, then there is a way to INCORRECTLY handle it.  The Bible is not a book we can quickly skim over and believe it means some random idea or interpretation that pops into our mind.  

There are dozens of passages people commonly misunderstand, mishandle, and misapply – nearly always leading to hurting somebody.  History is full of mistakes where well-meaning Christians incorrectly handled the word of God to support their ideas and their applications of scripture.  Bad interpretation has justified slavery in America, Manifest Destiny, and our taking of Native American land; it has even justified the current brand of “Name it and Claim it” Christianity where whatever you ask for in Jesus name you will get. 

Years ago, my parents knew a young woman who had lost her husband to cancer and shortly after her death, some people from the church who believed this false Gospel of “Name it and Claim it” told her that the reason her husband died was because he simply didn’t have enough faith that God would heal him.  That is an example of not correctly handling the Word of Truth.  Just because you think a verse means something, does not make it so.

God’s Word has a definitive, true meaning the authors of scripture were trying to convey to us.  It is our job to carefully read scripture, think of how it fits with other passages, make sure we understand the situation it was written in, and do our best to understand what the author actually intended to communicate to his audience 2000 years ago (or much longer).  That is what correctly handling the word of truth looks like. This should be our goal! 

Here we sit with words God wanted to communicate to us, mere humans, in our hands.  These are the things God thought were so important he wanted everybody to know.  His truth is truth that offers us life, truth that offers us freedom, truth that offers us a relationship with our Heavenly Father – shouldn’t we WANT to make sure that we are correctly understanding that message?  I think it belittles God when we quickly skim over a passage and interpret it in some way that is selfish and out of context.  It’s the equivalent of asking your spouse if you can go to dinner with your old high school sweetheart, hearing him or her say “yeah, right,” and taking that as permission. 

Now in saying all this, I don’t want you to feel like I have just made understanding the Bible too difficult for you.  I don’t want you to think that only the professionals, your pastors, have the training to read and interpret it for you.  That’s not our job.  Our job is to teach you how to read the Bible for yourself, and to handle it the right way!  There are so many tools out there for us now, that handling it correctly really isn’t that difficult.  It simply takes a desire to want to know God’s Word and want to truly hear what He is telling you and not hear what you want to hear!

Always Learning

Paul gives an example of not handling the Bible correctly a little later in this letter.  In chapter three, Paul talks about false teachers and gives a list of the sins these people were, and even today, would be known for. They are false teachers who prey on the vulnerable, looking for people to manipulate and exert control over. Look at these verses:

2 Timothy 3:6-7

They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

In Paul’s day, it was the women who were easy targets. They didn’t have access to education. They didn’t have status in society. They were vulnerable. Today, I think we could probably be less gender-specific for those who are susceptible. It is those who are looking for the thing that will help sort out their lives, those whose past weighs them down to the point they feel powerless to overcome it, those enslaved to sin.

What is interesting to me here is that even though Paul writes about the condemnation on those spouting this false truth and taking advantage of others, he also makes a statement about those running from thing to thing, idea to idea, filling their heads with lots of information, in an effort to find the truth.

“Always learning but never able to come to the truth.”  – 2 Timothy 3:7

As I read this statement by Paul, my mind immediately began to ask the question, “Could this describe us?” We want to live a certain way, so we seek out someone who will tell us what we want to hear. We scour the internet for the newest idea, the latest “truth.” We really are not interested in the truth; we want someone to tickle our ears so we can do what we want anyway.

I think this can also describe others as well: those of us who go from Bible study to Bible study, filling our heads with as much knowledge as we can, digging into what we think are the deeper truths of the Bible, while never letting the truth sink beyond our heads and into our hearts.
We become the smartest, most well-informed people we know, but the knowledge has little to no impact on our lives. We never get to a place where our learning changes how we live, where the knowledge of the truth reshapes our very existence.

Our learning should do more than just educate us or teach us right doctrine or beliefs, so that we aren’t vulnerable to these charlatans, so we can correctly handle the word of truth, so we come to know the truth. And truth isn’t facts and figures. Truth is a person. Truth is Jesus.

And the way we come to know Jesus, is through the Revealed Faith of the Bible.

God-breathed

Again towards the end of his letter to Timothy, Paul returns to the topic of the revealed faith God has given to us.  One of the most famous passages ABOUT the Bible is Second Timothy 3:16.

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

Right here Paul defines what makes the Bible unique from other books – It is God-breathed, and because of that, it has great use in the life of a Christian.

First, let’s look at what it means to say that all Scripture is God-breathed.

1. All Scripture here definitely refers to what Jews during Paul’s day had as their Holy writings – what we call the Old Testament.  And in all likelihood, Paul also has in view his own words.  The Apostle Peter, in his second letter compares Paul’s writing to Holy Scripture.  These early apostles likely understood that their letters were becoming Scripture.  So, that means we should understand that every word we have in our Bible, all of it, is God-breathed.
2. What does God-breathed mean?  The word “breathed” really points to the idea of being inspired, being directed by God.  It means that these writings are more than just a collection of words written by men, but have God’s thoughts and intent behind them.

Because the words in the Bible are not just Paul’s thoughts, or Peter’s thoughts, but are God’s thoughts, we must take them very seriously and learn from them.  That’s the second half of this verse.  God’s words to us are USEFUL, they teach us how to live, rebuke us when we veer from the truth, correct us to show a better path forward, and train us to live disciplined, holy, and righteous lives. 

Essentially, God’s Word reveals everything we need to live a life pleasing to Him.  That is why it’s important for us to know, important to study, and important to understand the Bible.

But the Bible serves another purpose much greater than revealing to us how to live. . .

Wise for Salvation

The Bible is an amazing book. It’s better than any self help book, better than any life manual that could ever be written, more powerful than any other literary work ever produced. It is the Word of God.

We could get tied up in endless debates about the Bible. How were the books selected? To what extent are the words on the page the ideas of the writers and how much is God? Is this comma in the right place? Which translation is best? It is not that some of these issues are not important, but if we insist on focusing too much on the weeds, we can easily miss the fundamental point of the entire Bible, from start to finish, which is summed up by Paul in the following verse:

2 Timothy 3:14-15

But as for you [Timothy], continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

If we become the most knowledgeable Bible scholar, but miss Jesus, we’ve missed everything. The goal of our faith is not to become the greatest Bible scholar ever. It isn’t to win every Bible trivia competition or wow our friends at dinner parties with our extensive knowledge.  It is to know Jesus.

We also have to be cautious of making an idol out of the Bible. I’m not saying the Bible isn’t important. It is the inspired word of God. It is critical. It is necessary. But it is a tool.

The Bible is what gets us to the true goal of our faith, which is knowing Jesus, not just mentally but through experience, and living in relationship with him. If we love our Bible more than we love Jesus, we have a problem. If we spend more time in Bible studies and classes studying obscure passages and secondary theology than we do WITH Jesus, we are missing the point.

The entire reason we have been given this amazing book that reveals faith is to point us to Jesus, to tell us about him, to show us his heart and his passion. It is not so that we fall in love with the Bible, but so that we fall in love with him!

Show me what a wonderful Christian you are by how big your Bible is or by your Bible knowledge and I will show you my faith by loving and living like Jesus. That’s the point of the Bible.

I think sometimes we forget what it was like for those in the first century to come to faith. They didn’t have smart phones with Bible apps with every conceivable translation. They didn’t have shelf after shelf filled with Bibles they could just pull out and read at any time. They didn’t start their Christian faith by saying, “The Bible says…” They began it with Jesus.

Application

What about you? Are you more in love with the book or does the book just fan your passion for the one that this book points to from start to finish. Some of us need to think about what is more important to us and return to our first love: Jesus.

Others of us have known mentally and intellectually about everything written above, but are right now in this moment realizing that we have never placed our faith in Jesus. We place our faith in family, in relationships, in career, in religion, and quite possibly even in the Bible, but without ever fully understanding that God revealed himself through Jesus.
So, we realize today that we need salvation. We desire the forgiveness that Jesus is offering. We desire the fresh start that awaits when we come to know him.

Maybe today is the day we turn your eyes toward him and pray something like this, “Jesus, I have tried to do this on my own. I have tried to everything else, but today I realize I need you. I want and I need you to save me. Lord Jesus, I know you died on the cross for me. I know you came back to life so that I could have new life. I repent today, I turn form my sin and my self-sufficiency and I turn, no, I run to you.”

If you are in need of Jesus, let me encourage you, don’t wait. Waiting just delays knowing and experiencing the love and life Jesus came to give you.

If you feel God stirring something in you, let me encourage you, take action today.

One of the
hardest things for me as a parent is getting my kids to follow
through with the commitments they’ve
made, and even more so on the commitments I have made for them. Maybe you’ve experienced this as well. Your child says they want
to play a sport or do some activity, but after about
two days or weeks into it, after a few practices, or after having to get up
early one time for it, they decide they don’t want
to do it anymore.

Several years
ago, my son signed up for baseball. He had played several years prior, so this
wasn’t anything new, but this year his passion for the
game was gone. That was coupled with a coach that took all the fun out of the
game for a 7 year old. What’s a parent to do? Do you
become the mean parent and force your child to
fulfill their commitment, or do you give in to compassion and let them drop out? 

Personally, my wife and I have always been of
the mindset to make them push through. They may not sign up again, but they have
to finish what they’ve started. Sometimes
this becomes very challenging. Sometimes we even
understand where they are coming from  – during my son’s last
year of baseball, his coach was horrible.  And sometimes, our desire to help them keep their commitments
costs us – after all, we are the ones driving them to practices and sitting through
their 6 hour ballgames. I know that’s an
exaggeration, but seriously, have you ever watched 7 year olds play baseball!

Our Response to Challenges

As adults, we too
face challenges in life that force us to figure out what kind of person we will
be. Will we be a stick-it-out person, or when the going gets tough, will we get
going? I think it has only become more difficult for us to be the kind of people who stick it out.  We live in a very disposable society. Everything is
disposable. Your cell phone stops working or you drop it and crack the screen,
so you throw it away and get a new one. Your television goes out, but Best Buy probably
has 300 on sale just screaming your name.

I’m not saying this is all our fault. Last year, our
washing machine went out. I researched the problem and how much it would take
to repair it. It was going to cost almost $400 to repair, and after it was
fixed I would have a patched up, 7 year old washing machine. For just a few
hundred dollars more, I could have a nice, shiny, brand new one with a new
warranty and all.

Unfortunately,
this disposable mentality carries over to more than just our stuff. We
find it creeping into our careers, our families, and even sometimes our faith.
When our job gets difficult, we update the
old resume, and send it out to as many companies as possible, looking for anyone
to rescue us from the pit we are in.

When our
marriages get difficult, we don’t push through and try to
salvage them. We move on. After all, the grass is greener with someone else, or
so we think. But when we see greener grass, we often don’t see the enormous water bill attached to it. When the
game doesn’t go our way, we just take our ball and go home.

Paul’s Letter

During this series entitled, “Faithful,” we’ve been looking at a letter that Paul wrote to his
protege, Timothy. This is the last recorded correspondence we still have
between them. In this letter, we have seen a few different themes that Paul
wants to make sure Timothy remembers after he is gone.

Today, as we look
at Second Timothy again, there is a repeated theme from start to finish that Paul
emphasizes to Timothy. Over and over, Paul emphasizes the need to have an
enduring faith. Paul needs Timothy and us to understand that in this
Christian journey, tough times come, not everything is roses and rainbows, we
will experience hardship and even suffering. The question we have to wrestle
with is: When the going gets tough, will our faith keep going?

2 Timothy 2:3-13

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs; he wants to please his commanding officer.  Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.  The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.  Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.  This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal.  But God’s word is not chained.  Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.  Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we disown him, he will also disown us;

if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

Suffering and
Endurance

Christians will
face trials, difficulty, and suffering. This is not a popular message. After
all, wouldn’t you rather come to church today and hear me talk
about how if you will just follow Jesus you will live in a big house, you can
have any job you want, and you can just go pick whatever car off the lot your little heart
desires? After all, if you have faith, it is easy street.

But if we read Second
Timothy, we get a completely different picture. Look at the many verses just in
this short letter where Paul talks about either suffering or endurance.

1:8 – “be ready to suffer…”

1:12
– “I am suffering…”

1:13
– “hold on…”

2:3 –
“Endure suffering…”

2:9 –
“I am suffering…”

2:10
– “I am willing to endure…”

2:12
– “If we endure hardship…”

3:1
– “there will be very difficult times…”

3:10 – “You
know…my endurance…”

3:11
– “I have endured…”

4:5 –
“Don’t be afraid of suffering…”

Life will not
always go our way. There will be suffering. Now, I do not believe that we in
America are suffering anything close to what Paul or the early Christians
suffered. I do not believe that we in America are suffering anywhere close to
what Christians oversees are suffering, like in Muslim countries where they are being beheaded
because of their faith, or in China where they are being imprisoned.  We do not
experience suffering anywhere near that level. Even though there are those who want to take Christians out of the conversation, to
marginalize us, we still have incredible freedoms to speak and to share Christ.

There may be examples of people who have been passed over
for a job promotion because of their faith, and there may be examples of students’ grades being affected because of their faith, but the
religious liberty we still enjoy in this country keeps us from the extreme
persecution happening elsewhere. With that said,
though, hardship and difficulty do come. When tragedy strikes, we need an enduring faith to get through whatever difficulty we might be
facing.

Paul knew Timothy
would be under pressure to compromise, to water down the message of Jesus. He
was a timid and shy guy. And Paul wants Timothy to push through the difficulty,
to help him so his faith will endure even when he feels like giving up.

So what do we do? How do we keep going when the going
gets tough? It begins with our focus.

We Endure…Because Jesus Endured

Look at verse 8
again. Paul writes,

“Remember Jesus Christ…”  – 2 Timothy 2:8

This is where it starts. Making
sure our focus is on Jesus is essential. We need to remember Jesus.  All too often, Jesus is our last resort. We turn everywhere else first.  We pour ourselves into our job. We pour
ourselves into entertainment or whatever might possibly numb us. Instead of
focusing on Jesus, we focus on ourselves. Then
we look at others and begin comparing. We look to the government.  And sure, we can turn to friends or activities. . . OR we can turn to Jesus. What does turning to Jesus teach us?

Look at
what else Paul says:

“Remember
Jesus Christ, descended from David…”  – 2 Timothy 2:8

When Paul makes
this statement about Jesus being descended from David, it reminds us of Christ’s humanity. He was and is a real person. He lived a
very real life. He too dealt with difficulty and hardship. He suffered. When he
began his ministry even his own family abandoned him. He was a constant target
for attacks and ridicule. He suffered
abuse, torture, an unjust trial, mocking, embarrassment, and desertion by his
closest friends. Whatever you are experiencing, Jesus can relate.

We focus on Jesus because not only did he suffer,
he endured.

“fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you
will not grow weary and lose heart.”  – Hebrews 12:2-3

We have a sympathetic Savior. He’s been there. Keeping our eyes on him keeps us from growing weary and losing heart. We can endure, because Jesus endured. But Paul gives us more when he also reminds us to:

 “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.”  – 2 Timothy 2:8

We Endure…Because of Our Future

Paul not only
points to Jesus’
humanity. He also points us to his
divinity. He is divine. He is God. It is the power of God, that even though
he suffered terribly, he was raised to life. The same power that raised him
from the dead is the same power that raises us to new life in Christ and
empowers us to endure, regardless of what difficulty or suffering we may have
to go through.

Christ being
raised to life points us not to what we may be experiencing right at this
moment, but reminds us of the future that awaits. Even if life is horrible
right now, even if life couldn’t possibly get any worse,
even if we think the current pain is too much to bear, the resurrection of Jesus
gives us a hope for the future and great things to look forward to.

Life may stink right now, but it won’t always. There are great
things to look forward to when we see things through the lens of Jesus. Yes,
for Jesus Friday was a horrific day, but Sunday was coming.

We may be right
in the middle of the worst crisis we could ever imagine, but even that will not
be forever. For the person of faith, the one who is following Jesus, the future
is secure. We can endure because we have hope in the future.

We Endure…Because of the Impact on Others

There’s one other point Paul makes that I think we need to
remember when going through hardship. We need to endure because our
response will impact others. Look at what Paul
said in verse 10,

“So I am willing to
endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to
those God has chosen.” – 2 Timothy 2:10

How we respond
has an effect. Kids pay attention when
a parent loses a job, or gets a traffic ticket, or when both parents
don’t get along. Your neighbors
and coworkers are paying attention to you. Will you be just another casualty of
religion, throwing your hands up in the air when life isn’t in your favor? Or will you like Paul look at the
responsibility before you, determine to get through it and keep your eyes on Christ? It may not be easy. I may not do everything perfectly or even
right, but when all is said and done, I want others to be able to look at me
and say, “I can’t see how anyone could go
through that and still be committed to God. That is a real faith.” Others are paying
attention. Will we, like Paul, endure so that others might come to know Jesus?

Paul writes a
poem or hymn here as an encouragement to us when experiencing hardship.

“If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we
endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” – 2 Timothy 2:11-13

Paul is reminding us that God is true to his word. He
is a faithful God. Even if we stumble and fall, if we are truly his, he will
remain faithful. If we die, we live. If we endure, we reign.

Conclusion

Why would Paul
spend so much time in this letter to his young friend talking about endurance?
Why does he tell Timothy over and over, endure, endure, endure? Because
hardship is a reality. And all of us run the risk at some point of abandoning
our faith. Our disposable society has made even faith dispensable. There is
a great temptation for us to halt, to retreat, to run away, to stop believing, to give up on faith, and give up on Jesus.

Many of us have the mindset that if we experience hardship, we must have done something
wrong. Sometimes, we are the recipients of the consequences of our sin.
Sometimes, as the Bible says, our loving Father does discipline us when we get
off track, so that we turn back to him. But sometimes we
suffer because evil exists in this world and through it we can see just what is
inside us; we can see the strength of our faith. We assume that difficulty has to weaken
us, to defeat us. But do you realize that the persecution of the first century
church didn’t defeat them? It didn’t
weaken the church. It strengthened it.

Do you realize
that if we purposely have a faith that endures, then when it gets tough our
faith will keep us going, and we will not find ourselves weaker? We will be
stronger and more committed. Endurance is only developed through
difficulty. The fortitude of our faith is demonstrated by our response to
adversity, not our avoidance of it.

The greatest
threat to your faith is not someone at work telling you what a difference
their sleeping in on Sunday morning has made in their life. The threat is not
you picking up a book by Richard Dawkins like “The God Delusion” and converting
to atheism. The greatest
threat to the endurance of your faith is difficulty in your life. And your
response to that difficulty WILL determine if your faith gets stronger or if
your faith falters.

So what will it be? Will you allow the difficulty in
life to draw you closer to God and build within you a deeper, stronger, and
enduring faith? When the times get tough, will your faith keep going or quit?

If you are going
through difficulty, and maybe you feel like you are hanging on by your
fingertips, about to fall, about to walk away from faith, can I encourage you
to seek someone out? Find someone to share just those words with, “I don’t think I can keep hanging on
much longer.”
Find the strength and faith of another to
pull you through the crisis, so you can develop an enduring faith.

Don’t dispose of your faith and of Jesus thinking there is
a better solution. An enduring faith is one that remembers Jesus. It is through
hardship and persecution that true faith is forged. You are not being judged on your accomplishments, but on your
faithfulness.

One of the fascinating parts of
the show is watching him try to decipher the real deal, the pure, valuable
gemstones from the rest. Sometimes he looks really carefully at the surface,
other times he’ll shine a light through it, and once I watched him break off a
piece and try to burn it – sniffing to see if plastic had been added to make it
look better than it really was.

He does all this because pure gemstones have great value, but anything less
loses most of its value. A fake stone or a common stone may still look nice on
the outside, but it lacks the purity that makes it valuable on the world
market.

We all understand that pure is the best. 100% pure Florida orange juice is
so much better than any “made from concentrate” stuff. It’s the same with cheese – I
love cheddar cheese, but on the shelves I see things like Velveta that the Food
and Drug Administration classifies as pasteurized process cheese spread. No thank
you.

The Church Today

The same can be said of many churches in America today – they lack the purity
that’s supposed to be associated with a church. They teach things that stretch
the meaning of what most people for the past 2000 years have understood. They
focus on their reputation rather than on God’s reputation. Or they fight over
all sorts of minute details of the faith, failing to put their attention on the
main thing. The simple purity of the Gospel message they are supposed to preach
is muddled into a pasteurized process-Christianity spread that isn’t appealing
to anybody.

And it’s not just church leaders or church structures that are amiss. It’s the
people inside. Countless churches are filled with people who live lives
identical to those who never go to church. Many nominal Christians have a faith that couldn’t persuade anybody
that what they believe is actually believable.
So, the watching world sees our impure churches filled with impure people
and it’s no wonder that they are telling us, “No thank you.”

Paul’s Letter

In saying this, I’m not picking on our church, or the current state of the
church in America. What I’m describing has been the state of the church for a
long, long time. In fact, when we look at Paul’s letter to Timothy, we see him
describing to Timothy the impurity that needs to be purged from the church way
back then. It just so happens that Paul’s words are as appropriate for us today
as they were for Timothy 2000 years ago.

From 2 Timothy 2:14 to 3:9 Paul is really describing to Timothy all the impurities in
the church that need to be avoided or removed. He breaks the impurities up into 2
categories – Impure Doctrine and Impure Lifestyle.

Impure Doctrine

From 2 Timothy 2:14 to 26 Paul is focusing on how Timothy needs to address the false
teachers who are coming into the church and ruining the purity of the
Gospel message of Jesus. He says they are “quarreling about words,” they have
“departed from the truth,” and have even “destroyed the faith of some.” His
command for Timothy is to “avoid stupid arguments” and “gently instruct”
opponents, so that they might come to their senses. In essence, he is telling
Timothy that pure faith requires pure doctrine in the church.

Impure Lifestyle

Then in 2 Timothy 3:1-9, Paul focuses on the impure lifestyle of people in the
church. He lists 19 negative traits to describe the impurity in the church that
is incompatible with the life of a Christ follower.
And he continues by saying how people with this impure faith will actually
infect others with their evil.

Timothy must stand up for the
Pure Faith, both doctrine and lifestyle, because the impure faith is
infiltrating the church and making it less valuable, less appealing to the God
of Holiness and to the watching world.

Impurity

Today I want to look specifically at the 19 impurities listed in 2 Timothy
3:1-5. I want us to think about how we might have allowed these impurities into
our own lives and how to instead live out a Pure Faith.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Because of this, have nothing to do with them.

Let us look at
this passage piece by piece.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days  This is a major
theme all through the New Testament and it refers to all time from Jesus’
resurrection until when he comes back. It refers to both the time Paul wrote
this letter to Timothy and to TODAY.

People will be  The people Paul is writing about are people in the church.
This isn’t talking about all the “heathens” outside the church. Paul is warning
Timothy about the behaviors of people who call themselves Christians. Jesus
never condemned the sinners with harsh words and lots of rules – he did that to
the Pharisees – the leaders in the temple system. Paul is basically doing the
same thing here.

As Christians, we need to understand that sinners will sin. It’s
not our job to condemn them. But when people confessing to know Jesus sin
without hesitation, then that’s something we can address.

The List

The list of impurities begins in verse two.  People will be . . .

lovers of themselves  When I read this statement, its hard not to think about
the celebrity culture we have in America – it’s on every magazine rack and on
every TV channel.

lovers of money  Lots of people in the church love their stuff. They love
their new cars, their vacation home, their big screen TV, their shoe collection,
you name it; a love of money runs rampant outside the church, but inside as
well.

boastful, proud  These people feel better than you AND they are going to
tell you about it! If you’ve ever sat through a dinner with a person like this, you know how bad a combination like this can be!

abusive, disobedient to their parents  Hey teens, listen up! Disobedience to
your parents makes the list of impurities in the church. This is a bigger issue
than you might think because it’s a heart issue. It means that in some way, your
heart is impure and corrupt.

ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving  A good word for this is
irreconcilable. This is a person who will never allow a broken relationship to be
restored. They have a “once you hurt me, I’m done with you” attitude.

slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous  These are the people who betray their friends. They do whatever
they need to get ahead, regardless of who it hurts.

rash, conceited  Here again, Paul is stating the problems of pride.

lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God  These are people who are focused on whatever makes
them happy. The irony is that true contentment is only found IN GOD, but
instead of loving the one who brings joy, they are trying to love counterfeit
idols which bring joy for a fleeting moment.

having a form of godliness but denying its power  These people are trying to
act like Christians, but they lack the power that comes from actually being a
Christian. Just like Jesus accused the Pharisees, they are trying to clean up
the outside of the cup while the inside of the cup is filthy. They are trying
to do Christian-type things, while their heart is still completely impure and
they lack the power to change things.

And what is the power in view here? It’s
the Holy Spirit.
You see, the Holy Spirit gives us the power to live a life unlike the
descriptions just given. It’s the Holy Spirit who walks with us on our
Christian journey of becoming more like Jesus and convicts us of our sin. He’s
the one who whispers in your ear when you’re doing something you shouldn’t.

Without the Holy Spirit, we would be as stuck in our sin as the Israelites who
were God’s chosen people, but who continually had hard hearts and continually
walked away from God.
So, Paul is saying that there are people in the church who claim to be Christians
but who are not! They don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit inside them, and
that’s why they live impure, sinful, harmful lives.

And because of this, Paul concludes: Have nothing to do with such people.

Wow! That’s a big statement. Why do you think Paul says that Timothy should
basically send these people out from the church?

The next verses answer that
question by essentially saying that these people’s impurities will spread and harm the
whole church.
I know this last phrase just raised a lot of questions for some of you –
like “are you going to kick me out of church because I’m addicted to shopping
online?” The answer is, maybe! But let me get to that.

Application

First, we need to understand that a list like this is not part of the
check-list to Christianity. A check-list to Christianity does not exist.
Being a Christian does not mean doing good things and avoiding bad things like
the actions on this list. Being a Christian means putting your faith in Jesus
to cleanse you from every bad thing you have ever done and WILL ever do.

Having
a Pure Faith like this means having the Holy Spirit inside you, giving you the
POWER to live a pure life as you walk in step with Him and His leading.

This list is really just a description of what it looks like for a person to
live a life apart from the Holy Spirit. When Paul gives this list, it’s not
meant to be a new law, replacing the law of the Old Testament; its really meant to be a
mirror, challenging us to change so that we look more like Jesus in our
actions.

Our Own Impurities

The hard reality as we march through this passage, looking into this mirror, is
that probably every one of us sees at least one of these impurities inside us.
Maybe you wrestle with loving money and the things you own and want to own, or pride – you feel better and smarter than others, or you have no self-control – you do what you want and say what you want whenever you
want, or any of the many other impurities listed.

Truth be told – regardless of which of these sins you wrestle with – they are
all rooted in the same over-arching sin: LOVE OF SELF. That’s the first item on
the list, and I think it’s the key to the list. Every other item is simply a
working out of what it looks like when a person loves themselves more than God
and more than others.

Think about it for a moment: disobedient children disobey because they think they know better than Mom and
Dad and don’t like having to submit to anyone else; ungrateful people don’t thank others for anything because that doesn’t meet
any of their own needs – it’s a selfless act to give thanks, and that’s not
what selfish people do; abusive and brutal people act that way because they want to be in control –
they want the power all for themselves – again, its all about them!
This stands completely opposed to how Paul says a Christian should live
when he wrote in Second Corinthians

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for
all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should
no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised
again.
   – 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

We need to recognize that before we met Jesus each of us lived solely for
ourselves. But after meeting Jesus, we have somebody new to love, new to center
our life around – Jesus. Rather than being lovers of ourselves, we are to be
lovers of Jesus. A Pure Faith is one that is totally and completely centered on
Jesus Christ as our primary affection.

But the problem we all recognize inside ourselves is that we still wrestle with
loving ourselves more than Him. That was the problem then and it’s still the
problem each one of us faces.

Our Challenge

The question we have to answer is this: are we willing to confront our sin,
name it, and in partnership with the Holy Spirit, work to uproot and eliminate
it?

How you answer that question determines if we will give you the boot! I say
that tongue in cheek, but if we had a person here at Ashworth Road who claimed
to be a Christian, but who exhibited many of these damaging traits and was
harming the health of our church body by hurting some people and by leading
others to sin – we would have to talk to that person. And if that person was
unrepentant and unwilling to even see the sin in their life, we would have to
send that person on their way for the sake of the rest of the body.

That’s the
situation Paul was addressing with Timothy when he said, “Have nothing to do
with such people.” While it would be incredibly difficult, our job as
pastors is to protect the health and purity of this church and of our people.

On the other hand, I think most of you are willing to do the hard work of
acknowledging where you struggle, allowing the Holy Spirit to work with you to
overcome your sin, and to find yourself at the end of the sometimes painful
process of sanctification looking a lot more like Jesus. If you are a follower
of Jesus – that is the expectation – then each one of us should be regularly
examining our lives for sin, for impurity, and be working to remove it.

That’s why here at Ashworth Road, we value movement. We recognize the
importance of each person here regularly taking steps in their life to be more
like Jesus. Often we talk about movement as steps in the church to greater
involvement, but even more importantly, they are steps toward a deeper relationship
with God – and that means a greater obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit
in our lives.

So here’s what I want you to do today. I encourage each one of you to take your
next step towards Christlikeness by asking the Holy Spirit to search you and
show you where your heart is centered on yourself rather than on Jesus. Then let God change your heart, making it pure.

Purity through the Holy Spirit

It’s an important part of our Christian experience to recognize that we still
struggle with sin, and we always will until we see Jesus face to face. But
because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, we are made pure. It’s
the here but not yet. We are clean, but we need to work in partnership with the
Holy Spirit inside us to continue to purify ourselves from our selfishness.

It’s when we follow that pattern of relying on the Holy Spirit to convict us of
our sin, we confess our sin to God, we repent and turn away from our sin and
stop doing it – that’s what it looks like to live out a Pure Faith.

Just like
the Gem Hunters, we need to partner with the Holy Spirit to sort through the
stones of our lives, identifying the pure gem stones from the worthless, impure stones.
And then with the help of the Spirit, we need to discard those impure stones in
our lives, so in the end all we have left in our hands are pure stones – a Pure
Faith.

I want to close with one final verse out of Psalm 139 – a Psalm written by David,
a man who often admitted his own sin but knew God’s role in purifying him from
his sin.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
      – Psalm 139:23

Jury Duty

Several years ago in Arkansas, I received the dreaded letter in the mail from the county courthouse informing me that I had been given a very special honor. I had been selected for jury duty. What I loved about the letter was that it didn’t really ask if I wanted to be on jury duty; it just said I was. Congratulations.

During my “sentence,” I was fortunate enough to serve not on one, but on TWO different juries. I say fortunate because it depresses me to think that I wasn’t smart enough to figure a way out of it! I’m only kidding. Jury duty is an important part of our judicial system. I hope everyone of you has the same privilege!

Serving on two different civil cases, both involving car accidents, I learned a couple of very important things. First, there is no amount of money too great to pay to get a good attorney to represent you when going through something like this. Both times, the defense paid to have good, experienced lawyers to defend them in their case. The plaintiffs did not. Fresh out of law school, spending time down at the local ER, these ambulance chasing newbies were looking to find work and their inexperience showed. From making sure their witnesses wouldn’t lie on the stand, to knowing how to build sympathy for their client, the inexperienced attorneys really did a poor job of persuading the jury that their clients had a real claim.

The second thing I learned was the myth of being tried by “a jury of my peers.” If you’re ever tried, take the deal. Juries cannot be trusted. They are fickle and to be honest, just crazy.  The things they talk about in the jury room would make your head spin. Take the deal no matter what it is. Do not trust “a jury of your peers!”

Sitting through these trials, watching these attorneys work, I realized that their entire job was a job of persuasion. The plaintiffs needed to convince us, the jury, why their client deserved a monetary settlement and the defendants needed to convince us why their client wasn’t negligent and deserved to pay nothing.

Persuasion

Everyday we are bombarded with people, ads, politicians, even our own children trying to persuade us in some fashion. Even this week, one of my kids wanted a new backpack for school and boy did those powers of persuasion come out. “Dad, I used my last one for several years. I can use this new one for three years. Even though it is $60, if I use it for three years, that’s only $20 a year.”

I do give him credit; he did appeal to my thrifty side in making it a multi-year deal. Yes, he did get the backpack, and yes, he will use it for three years!

Paul’s Letter

In the final letter we have that the Apostle Paul wrote to his protege and friend Timothy, we find Paul mentioning something that if we weren’t careful we would overlook about Timothy and his faith. In fact, I have read this letter many times, but only recently did this part jump out at me.

Look at Second Timothy 1:1-5.
The opening of this letter reveals what Paul was convinced of in Timothy and its significance in our lives.

2 Timothy 1:1-2

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

To Timothy, my dear son:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

This letter has a standard opening for one of Paul’s letters. It identifies the sender (Paul), the recipient (Timothy), and includes a greeting. Even though this is a standard opening, Paul’s reference to Timothy reveals a little about their relationship and that Paul views Timothy, not as an employee or a servant, but as a son.

2 Timothy 1:3-5

I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.  Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.  I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.  

Paul remembers Timothy’s tears as they separated.  Paul left Timothy behind to help a church. You very seldom cry when people you don’t like leave, but just ask all the parents who are dropping their kids off at college right now about tears when leaving someone you love and the anticipation of joy when they are to be reunited with you.

Pay close attention to verse 5. Paul says, “I am
persuaded, convinced.” He is convinced of Timothy’s real, genuine, sincere
faith. As Paul looks at Timothy’s life, he sees something within him, something
in how he lives, that leaves no room for doubt in his mind that his faith
is the real thing.

As I
read this passage a few weeks ago, I immediately asked myself the questions: Do
I have a faith that is persuasive? Is my faith lived out in a way that others
looking at me would say as Paul has said, “I am convinced of your faith.”

And what about you? What does your faith say about you? Because I think what Paul is saying here is that a real and genuine faith
is a visible and persuasive faith.

How We
React to Faith

We all think about our faith in different ways.
Some think faith should be completely private, that we should live our
faith almost incognito, undercover. We believe that if we were to
truly live out our faith it might upset someone.
Our
neighbors might not like us anymore. It might prevent us from a job promotion.
So, we avoid talking about it and we avoid living it, except on the occasional Sunday
morning.  There is very little difference between us and those without
faith.

There
is an opposite extreme as well. That is the “in-your-face” faith. These are the
people who speak out about everything, honestly, just looking for
disagreement so they can argue. They yell and scream, they find their way
onto news programs, and they post all over social media.
As “in-your-face” believers, we
don’t care who likes us because we are standing on truth. We spout verses like
“Jesus said Christians would suffer…” as our battle cry. We alienate
everyone and anyone who might ever get close to us, except those
Christians who do what we are doing.

The problem with both of these extremes is that neither of them are persuasive.
No
one looks at the person hiding their faith and says, “You know, I love the way
you hide your faith. It seems to have so little impact on your life. Tell
me more about THAT faith.”

And with the
forceful faith, there’s not anyone left to be able to talk about faith with, because everyone has been alienated. No one says, “I would
love to know how to have a faith that is so offensive that it repels
everyone. Tell me more about THAT faith.”

I give both extremes, but more often what I see and experience is the first
example of the suppressed faith. With either type, we need to learn something
different. We need to figure out how we can develop a faith that is real
and genuine AND visible and persuasive.

Developing
Sincere Faith

So, what
is this type of faith I am talking about? What did Timothy have that we need to
pay attention to? What is a sincere faith that is persuasive?
It
begins with the source of faith…Jesus Christ.

We say this over and over,
but real faith has nothing to do with church attendance or following a bunch of
rules, or even doing a lot of good deeds in the community for those less
fortunate than us.
Genuine
faith begins with knowing Jesus.

Why do we keep saying this at Ashworth Road?
Because it is so easy to look everywhere else. Man-made faith comes from
everywhere else, but genuine faith can only be found in Jesus.
Man-made
faith says, “trust in yourself, believe in your career, your success, your
family.” Man-made faith is all about religion, asking, “How do I get to God? How do I do
enough of the right things to tip the scales in my favor?”

Genuine
faith recognizes that what needs to be done has already been done by Jesus
Christ on the cross. His death covered our sin. His death paid the debt we
could not. His resurrection gives us life.
But it
doesn’t end there.
Genuine faith also involves obedience. Too often we recoil
when we hear that word. We talk about how Christ gives us freedom, which is
true. We talk about how Christ didn’t come to increase the laws but to
fulfill them, which is also true.
But a
genuine faith is a faith that is visible, lived out before others.

James, the
brother of Jesus, in his letter in the New Testament addresses this very idea.
James wrote:

“ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims
to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or
a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them,
“Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical
needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not
accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I
have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by
my deeds.”   – James 2:14-18

This means obedience to Jesus
and his teachings. It is obedience to the things he spoke about, the things he himself modeled for
us.  It is doing
the difficult things the world might not understand, forgiving those who have
wronged us, loving our enemies, giving us the American dream to minister to the
poor and needy. It is living generously to a point people think you’re a
little nuts, living with margin, raising your kids to have genuine faith over
athletic ability, working diligently even when we are not loving our job. It
is acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. That’s genuine
faith. That’s persuasive faith.

Yes, we
need to be aware that swinging too far to the obedience side can lead to
legalism, or scorekeeping, but genuine faith produces obedience that is not
motivated by obligation or duty.  Rather, it is motivated by love…love for
Jesus, love for his Kingdom, love for those he loves, love for those who don’t
know him.

Jesus
himself calls us to live in such a way that others stand up and take notice.
When he calls each of us to

“let your light shine before others, that they may see your
good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  – Matthew 5:16

How We
are Perceived

As we
think about how we can live this type of faith out, I think it is important for
us to realize that in our culture there may be some damage control that needs
to be done. When many think faith, they think: fussy, exclusive,
judgmental, mean, ungenerous, and in no way compelling to be a part of
something like that.
We have
to realize that the way we’ve been living, even the way we’ve been doing church
isn’t palatable to those around us.

Recently,
I posted a quote on Facebook from the book called “The Tangible Kingdom” that I
thought was compelling. It said, “We have to be honest with ourselves and
realize that if the message isn’t attractive and the people of God aren’t
attractive, then we must not be telling the story right, or we aren’t living
the story correctly.” (The Tangible Kingdom, 86)

Paul is
talking about a faith in Timothy that persuades him that it is real. It is a faith
that compels and draws others. It doesn’t repel. Keep in mind, the message of Jesus really repelled
the religious folks, not the others.
I am
not saying we water down the message to make it taste better. In fact, I am
advocating for just the opposite. Live out your faith in real and tangible ways
and see what happens.  

“The ancient church influenced the world not by lightening
up their values or by veiling them, but by living them out in plain view of the
culture around them.” (The Tangible Kingdom, 51)

Living
Persuasive Faith

Ask
yourself: “Do those around me know about my faith?” Do they know not by the trinkets on your
desk, not the Jesus fish on your car, not the Christian radio station you
listen to, but do those around you notice your faith by how you work, how you interact
with them, how you live, and how you set your priorities?

Notice
I didn’t say, “Do they know you go to church or do they think you are religious?”
Can those around you tell that Jesus is important in your life and that
your relationship with him shapes how you live?
Maybe
this is difficult for you to answer. After all, how do you know what people
think about you?

Well, would you be willing this week to ask someone around you
if they can perceive that your faith is important to you? Would you be
willing to ask someone if they see something different in your life because of
your faith?

You can
even blame me. Tell them that the crazy pastor at your church challenged you this week
to find out if those around you could see you living out your faith. Now, if they
look at you and say, “You go to church?” you might have your answer!

After
you think about this and then hopefully ask someone, if you find the
answer is disappointing, and you see that your faith isn’t persuasive, begin to
ask yourself, “why not?”

Conclusion

Do we
have a persuasive faith? I hope you’ve noticed some words not used when talking
about genuine faith, such as “perfect” or “blind.” Genuine faith can leave room
for doubt and questions. What is important about persuasive faith is how
it is lived out when it becomes more than words on a page or just theory.

This is a critical issue for us to wrestle with, because too
often those who follow Jesus find very little difference in how we live and
how others without faith live.  That is sad.

Recently, I heard about
someone I used to work with in a church in Arkansas and how their life had just
fallen apart. Instead of turning to faith, they turned to self-help books and
Buddhism.
How can we expect our faith to impact anyone else if it doesn’t
even impact us? How can we tell the world that Jesus is the answer, when he
isn’t even our answer?

We must
determine to develop a real and genuine faith that is visible, because when we
have a genuine, visible faith, we will have a persuasive faith.
Paul
saw this in Timothy. It wasn’t a role he was playing, but who he was. May the
same be written about us and our genuine faith that persuades others to faith
in Christ.

Now that its August, many people will say farewell to
their 18 year old children who are moving out of the house.
In this time of transition from high school to college, I guarantee these
parents are taking moments to give advice – to challenge and encourage their
kids on how to live, how to study, how to make friends, and in general, how to
be successful on their own.

Leaving home can be scary and exciting. It’s a typical time for a few parting words from parents,
teachers, and friends. It’s the nature of transition – people want to pass on life
lessons they learned to those who are following behind them.

Encouragement from Paul

The book of 2 Timothy is essentially the apostle Paul’s final
words of encouragement and challenge to his protégé, Timothy.
This book, or really letter, was the last recorded letter we have from the
Apostle Paul.

Based on the things Paul wrote in the letter, we know he was in
jail, ready to be killed for his faith. It was probably around 65 AD, when
Nero, the ruler of the Roman empire, was persecuting the Christians. So, we can
imagine, Paul is laying out all the most important advice he has for one of his
closest friends, somebody he is counting on to continue supporting the many
churches Paul planted.

The main message from Paul that we read in this letter is for Timothy to remain
faithful.

2 Timothy 2:1-2

You then, my child

These verses begin by showing just how close Paul and Timothy were. Paul often
referred to Timothy as his son.
What does that tell us about how Paul views Timothy?
Like any parent, I think Paul wants what’s best for Timothy, and he feels
responsible for Timothy.

Paul knows that it was his own teaching and modeling
as a spiritual father that has most shaped Timothy’s faith and conduct.
As the chapter continues, don’t forget that close bond
between these two.

be continually strengthened

While almost no version of the bible gives this exact phrase, this is really the best
translation given the verb tense used in the Greek. I point this out because it’s important to see that what Paul is going to challenge
Timothy to do will take continual strength.
It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be a one-time event. It’s going to be an ongoing, challenging task – one which takes
continual, ongoing strength.
It seems intimidating, doesn’t it? But that’s why we have the next phrase.

by the grace that is in Christ Jesus

None of us can have continual strength in the face of adversity and
persecution. Eventually, we all lose faith and succumb to the pressure. But
Paul is telling Timothy – for you it’s different, your strength doesn’t come
from within – it comes from the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Remember that grace is unearned favor, and this continual strength is coming
from the unearned favor of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has sent His Holy
Spirit to every person who believes in Him.

And now here is the actual challenge Paul is issuing to Timothy:

and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to
faithful people

Basically, what Paul is saying is: Take everything you heard me say and pass it
on to others!

Pass It On

In order to dig a bit deeper, we can ask: what is Timothy to pass on? The answer we find in verse 2 is: “What you have heard from me
in the presence of many witnesses.” What do you think that is? What were the
things that Paul probably taught most often, especially in front of others –
the things Paul most wanted passed on?

The obvious answer is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Earlier in this letter, Paul
told Timothy,

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord … who saved us
and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his
own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ
Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel,” -2 Timothy 1:8-10

That right there is the heart of what Paul is telling Timothy to make sure he
passes on to others. People need to know Jesus Christ saved us from death, not
because of anything we did, but by his grace. And in freeing us from death, he
has given us life and immortality to be with God for all of eternity.

That is Good News. That sets people free. That is something worth giving your
life for. And that message is what far too few people in America understand
anymore! Instead, we pass on other meaningless stuff – like that people should
live their lives according to a list of do’s and don’ts, should give to the
church, and be an overall “good person” if they want to get to Heaven. But Paul
focuses Timothy on this core truth – the Good News of Jesus!

The Twist

But here comes the surprise. Paul doesn’t stop here. If this is how this
sentence ended, all of us would nod our heads in agreement – yup one pastor
encouraging another pastor to teach the Gospel. Sounds good. Totally expected.
But here’s the twist:
entrust to faithful people who will be able to pass it on to others also.

So, this charge is for more than just Timothy – it’s for all those he entrusts
the Gospel to. Just like Paul taught Timothy, and Timothy is to teach others,
even those others are to teach even more people.
And this isn’t meant to be like seminary, where Paul, a preacher, is teaching
Timothy, a preacher, to only teach other preachers who only teach other preachers.

The way Paul writes this, nobody is off the hook of being expected to pass on
the faith. Paul is challenging Timothy to begin a discipling network where
everyone passes down their faith to another after they receive it.

Before I continue, I want to clarify one thing, when I say “pass on the faith”
I’m not referring to evangelism. While that is an essential part of being a
Christian – sharing the news of Jesus with non-Christians – that’s not what
Paul is instructing Timothy about here. This passage is about discipling young
Christians to be the next leaders and making sure they are taught everything
they need to be mature in Christ and pass it on to others.

Application

Now when we look at these two verses all put together, it has a pretty clear
message both for Timothy back almost 2000 years ago and for us today. The
message is this – By the strength God gives you, pass on your faith!

I know this sounds really simple, but may I ask you a question: who are you
passing on your faith to? I imagine  many of us don’t have
a specific person in mind, or maybe we’re thinking of somebody we ONCE passed
our faith on to, but who are we discipling today?
Now in asking this question, I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, but I am
hoping to challenge you going forward.

You see, it’s not fair for me to blame any of you for not being more active in
passing on your faith. The church has to take a lot of the blame for a couple
of reasons.

1) Many of you have been taught through the years that pastors have the
spiritual gift of teaching, and therefore, we are the ones who are to teach and
train people in spiritual things. As a result, you haven’t seen passing on the
faith as something that’s your responsibility. Instead, you have simply tried
to get people to come to church with you so the PROFESSIONAL teachers could do
what we do best.

2) Similarly, you have been given the impression that passing on faith to
others is difficult because it takes an advanced degree from seminary. As a
result, you not only have been told it’s not your job, but you have implicitly
been told, “You’re not qualified to do it.”

Today I want to tell you that both these messages are completely and
utterly untrue.
Yes, pastors are supposed to have the spiritual gift of teaching, but I think
it’s wrong to assume that passing on faith to another person requires the gift
of teaching.

For example, being a “teacher” is not a prerequisite for parenting. Parenting is teaching through sharing life together, teaching in the middle of
experiences, and simply being there to answer questions as your kids mature and
ask more and more questions.

In the same way, passing your faith on to a
younger believer doesn’t require you to teach a Bible lesson but to simply walk
through life with that person, sharing how the Gospel intersects every arena of
life.
And since you don’t have to be a teacher to help a new Christian grow, you also
don’t need a degree on your wall to be qualified to pass on your faith. The
only qualifications are that you understand the Christian faith yourself and
are striving to live it out by the strength of God’s grace.

So, if you consider
yourself a mature Christian who tries to live like Jesus, you are more than
qualified to disciple others in their faith.
If you have been a
Christian for more than a year, you should be able to disciple another person.

Needs at Ashworth Road

You are capable of leading the ministries of this
church! It’s not the job of the pastors to do all the ministry to you or for
you – Ephesians 4 says its our job to equip YOU to do the ministry of the
church. And right now, what we are realizing as a staff is that we are reaching
our capacity as a staff for doing more ministry.

We realize
that we are going to have to shift our focus to being more intentional to equip
you to do the ministry of the church.
Brent made this statement earlier this week, “Discipleship is our top priority
at Ashworth Road this year.” If we don’t begin to shift from being a church
where the pastors are doing all the discipling to a church where the people are
released as spiritual leaders to train others, then we are hitting our maximum
effectiveness as a church.

We need you to accept the call to help disciple
others and pass on the faith.
Here are a few examples of where we need you to step into the ministry of
disciple-making:

• As a youth pastor, I have 25-30 kids coming every Wednesday
  night, and while I would love to personally teach and train every one of them,
  I simply don’t have the time. I need a good-sized team of others to come
  alongside me if I want to actually disciple these youth and help pass on faith to them. Otherwise, for most of the teens, I’m just a talking head at the
  front of the room, spouting off stuff about Jesus, but I never actually know
  them or their issues, and I never speak to their specific need.
• As we are putting together discipleship groups, we are realizing that
  we have way more people who want to be in a group and be discipled, than people
  who feel qualified and capable to lead the groups. Again, the load on the
  pastors is larger than we can carry, and we need a small army of people
  standing with us, ready to take on the roll of passing on their faith to
  others.
• Even Kerri needs help with Kid’s ministry, finding people who want to be
  involved in discipling our children in the language they understand – love and
  play. I know working with kids may seem like a tiring task, some of you may
  even see it as unimportant, but most people make a commitment to follow Jesus
  before the age of 12 – so these kids are at the opportune age to commit their
  lives to Jesus and soak up all that it means to follow him. 

Conclusion

In saying all this, I hope you hear how important it is for you all to receive
this message today. We need people to begin to see themselves as the next
generation of leaders who are going to actively take part in the faith
development of another.

We need people to understand that following Jesus means more
than sitting and soaking under his teaching – it means passing on what you
learn so the message of Jesus may spread.
We need you to recognize that you are qualified and capable to step into these
roles. Without you, our existence as a church rests on the energy of the
pastors.

Yes, this is a call to something that is hard and takes time. That’s why Paul
told Timothy to be continually strengthened. And that is why you will have to
rely on the strength that comes from God alone if you are to accept this
mission. There will be times where you will wonder if you are making any
difference. But then you will see
those breakthroughs and realize that all your energy and toil were worth it –
1000 times worth it.

Can you imagine what our church could be like if in a couple years we had
80% you actively passing your faith on to people who were new to faith in our
church. Rather than waiting for these new people to slowly learn what they need
to by attending church on Sundays, imagine the difference it would make to have
somebody in their life, teaching them through various experiences, making sure
to pass on the truths that are most important.

This is exactly how we grew up in our families. It’s exactly what we do as our
teenagers prepare to leave the nest. And it’s exactly what we need to focus on
doing to help develop new Christians to become people of impact for the Kingdom
of God.

By the strength God gives you, you must pass on your faith! That was Paul’s
challenge to Timothy and that’s my challenge to you today.