2022.10.16 Legacy: Itching Ears

Legacy: Itching Ears

Psalm 119:97-104 • 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

[Ask about last week’s challenge! Serve opposite your leaning.]

When I’ve asked for reports like this the same thing usually happens — no one says anything. And then on the way out of the sanctuary, you want to tell me what you did or what you thought of doing. I don’t want to hear it back there. I want EVERYONE to hear it in here … and now. Because your testimony will help encourage others, and reports of your failures will allow others to come alongside you and encourage you. Paul told the Thessalonian Church to “spur one another on to good deeds.” Here’s your opportunity. How have you responded to the challenge from last week?

If anyone ever told you that living the Christian life would be easy, they lied to you. And it was no small lie. It was a whopper!!!!

Our whole life seems like moments of glory followed by moments of spits and chokes. So … if you failed in last week’s challenge … you had spits and chokes last week. But the challenge isn’t stuck to just one week. This week, have some glory.

Today’s message is about persistence! It’s about avoiding the easy way that denies the truth and instead follows the world’s easier path.

Paul starts with Bible reading - “from childhood, Timothy, you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul is calling on Timothy’s love for God’s Word as a context for what he says next.

In June and July of this year, I spent an entire sermon series discussing the next sentence. That was the Future Church series and it was based on Paul’s statement, that All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, rebuking, correction and training in righteousness. For a quick review:

Scripture is useful for four things:

teaching is filling in gaps in knowledge

rebuking is calling out knowledge that is wrong

correction is filling the gaps left after the rebuke

and training in righteousness is preparing us to repeatedly do what is right. Justice is not doing what is fair … it’s doing what is right. The Scriptures teach, rebuke, correct us, and discipline us, training us to do what is right. Today, lot’s of United Methodists argue about what’s more important … right thinking or right action. The answer is YES! Right thinking and right action are both necessary for righteousness.

And the purpose of this training in righteousness, Paul says, is so that we all may be fully capable and equipped for every good work.

Next, Paul shifts to instructing his friend with these words that are very familiar at least to all of my fellow pastors [read it]:

2 Timothy 4:2 NASB 2020

2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.

So, with a room full of non-pastors, let me try to look at this from a non-pastor’s point of view for a minute.

Legacy: Itching Ears

I used to work at a Christian radio station. We had lots of promotions to try increase our listenership. Most of those centered around current listeners putting bumper stickers or window clings on their vehicles or wearing tshirts or sweats with our logo on them. But the most popular promotion we ever had BY FAR was a little piece of plastic that hung from a rearview mirror with our logo on it. People LOVED those things.

I worked at that station off and on for several years surrounding my time at the Big Boy AM Station in Louisville. During that time, I NEVER had any radio station logo stuff on my car. Never. Wanna know why?

Because I was an aggressive, impatient driver, and I knew my driving would reflect poorly on the radio station, and ultimately on Jesus. So I didn’t put anything on my car that would identify the station or Jesus. But you know what … my driving reflected poorly on Jesus whether I had a Christian bumper sticker on my car or not.

Most of you will never stand in a pulpit and preach a sermon. But every one of you preach a sermon every day with your life.

Your friends and family know that you’re active in the Christian faith in some fashion. So, whether you like it or not … to many of your acquaintances … YOU ARE CHRISTIANITY! What you believe is Jesus to them. How you talk is Jesus to them. How you act is Jesus to them. Is that a little scary to you? Because it should be. That’s a heavy weight for any human to carry.

Paul, here, is telling Timothy (and us) that the root of his faith is Scripture. That his teaching should be based in Scripture … that his action should be based in Scripture … that his attitude should be based in Scripture. In order for that to happen, we have to really study the Scriptures. A surface knowledge will leave us shallow, and our representation of Christianity will be lacking.

You can’t get that level of Bible infiltration just attending worship every week … or once a month … or when you feel like it. And as Timothy endeavors to PASS DOWN this legacy of God’s Word to the next generation, Paul warns him.

Read:

2 Timothy 4:3 NLT

3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.

Let’s be real for a minute. None of us wants to be corrected. Me too. What we really want is someone to tell us what we want to hear and leave us without any real challenge. But that’s not what God’s Word does with us.

The Scriptures challenge us. When we stray from God’s path even a little bit, the Scripture is there to rebuke us, to correct us, and to train us in righteousness. But if we are honest with each other … we don’t really want that.

Paul is telling Timothy that as a leader he will be tempted to draw a crowd, but that drawing a crowd is not the calling of a Christian. Tickling itching ears will draw a crowd.

Telling people that God wants his people to all be rich will draw a crowd.

Yelling about how sinful “those people” are will draw a crowd.

Telling the people gathered that their life should reflect the Scriptures better than they currently do … is not popular.

In fact, it’s so UNpopular that people will turn away from it so they can hear what strokes their ego [do not read]:

2 Timothy 4:4 NASB 2020

4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

People will turn toward completely fabricated lies … as long as it makes them feel good.

But Paul encourages Timothy HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT! Hold on to the legacy your grandmother and mother handed down to you. Hold onto the sacred writings. Let those teachings change you, and call people to the same changing. Whatever you do … DO NOT scratch their itching ears.

They will turn away and it will break your heart. And I can tell you as a pastor, Paul is exactly right in this. When people are struggling they NEED to hear the truth, but they WANT to hear words that will make them feel better. And they’ll turn away from the truth if something else scratches their ears.

Legacy: Itching Ears

People don’t want to be challenged to wrestle with the Scriptures. They don’t want to be told to sit in the troubling texts. They want a pastor to spoon feed them a convenient answer so they don’t have to work for the answer or change in order to align with it.

Not everyone will believe the Truth, and that is heartbreaking for a pastor … or a parent … or a friend … or a neighbor … or anyone who genuinely cares. But the Truth must be told … and Paul also knows the temptation of telling the truth as a slap in the face.

I’ve talked before about my spiritual mentor, Greg.

Greg’s dad

“Big noise”

worked swing shifts

when he worked nights, the house had to be silent during the day while he slept

When Greg accepted Christ as a camp event, he came home burst open his dad’s bedroom door in the middle of the day, shook his finger in his dad’s face and yelled, “Dad, If you don’t get saved you’re going to Hell!” and then closed the door behind himself as he left the bedroom.

Greg’s dad did later “get saved”, but this is not the approach Paul is recommending here. In fact, Paul is warning us to NOT take this kind of approach [do not read]:

2 Timothy 4:5a (NASB 2020)

5 But as for you, use self-restraint in all things ...

Use self-restraint. In the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches “Blessed are the meek.” Greg used to define meekness as “having the ammunition to blow away the other guy … and choosing not to.”

Friends, we know the truth. The legacy we’ve received from the Scriptures tells us that Heaven is not the default. We know that absent a dramatic change, Hell is the destiny for the souls of countless of our friends and family. And our silence is unacceptable … but shaking a finger in their face and yelling “If you don’t get save you’re going to Hell” isn’t acceptable either.

The legacy we’ve inherited is the Truth of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ … and that His Salvation is borne out of his LOVE for us! [do not read]

John 3:16 NASB 2020

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

It’s time to put the bumper sticker on our cars. It’s time to admit that other people see us as Jesus’ representative whether we like that or not. We can’t deny reality, because it’s part of our legacy.

Legacy: Itching Ears

Many of us didn’t follow through on last week’s challenge to serve God’s kingdom in the way opposite of our typical bent. So, let this week’s message encourage you to respond THIS WEEK. Maybe last week you had some brainstorms but weren’t able to follow through for whatever reason. Make it happen this week.

If you lean evangelical, find a way to serve in a justice-oriented way. If you lean justice, find a way to serve in an evangelism-oriented way. And be prepared to report about it next week.