If It Itches, Don't Scratch It

A week or two ago I saw a video on Twitter that bothered me. And that’s not impressive, there’s lot’s of stuff on the internet that bothers me! But this was particularly bad. It was a video of a priest ordaining a drag queen into ministry with two small children they had sat down on the steps of the platform to watch. The priest said that getting to a place where people are ok with this is what Rom 12:2 is talking about when it says we need to be renewed by the transforming of our minds. This is what he was telling the two small children.

The best response I saw to this was someone who said, “I’m not as offended by the man pretending to be a woman as I am by the man pretending to be a priest.”

Our world is moving farther and farther from biblical doctrine. We are seeing more and more people taking out parts of Scripture they don’t like or explaining them away. That’s why it is so important that we continue in biblical truth. Paul warned Timothy that this would happen in the passage we’re looking at tonight.

read 2 Tim 4.1-8 and pray

More and more people are moving away from good biblical teaching, but we must continue to learn and teach biblical truth!

The Charge

verses 1-2

Pastors are charged to teach biblical truth to equip their people to obey and share it.

At Big House one year while we were having Mud Games there was someone who was injured. Her kneecap got dislocated. Thankfully, there were like three physical therapists and some nurses who were there. But it was a Saturday. They weren’t at work. What if we had carried that girl up to them and they all said, “I’m off today. This isn’t my clinic”? What would you think?

We’ve got to be ready when an opportunity to share the truth pops up!

Paul charges Timothy to preach the Word.

God’s Word equips us.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

We need to share the mindset that the Old Testament prophet Ezra had.

Ezra 7:10 ESV

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Teach with patience! Not hate or pride, but with love and humility and care.

We need to be prepared to share the truth. To be prepared we need to know the truth! We need to be able to tell what is not true. We need to know how to live in a way that glorifies God.

It’s important that we are ready and willing because the church is in danger. People are in danger in this time Paul is warning about.

The Times

We have to know the truth so we can see the lies. Not just be looking for what we want to hear.

You know that saying “you only hear what you want to hear”? Like when your parents tell you that $200 is too much money to spend on a pair of Adidas shoes so you go and spend $200 on some Jordans...

That’s kind of what Paul is telling Timothy people will do with preaching.

verses 3-4

There are christians and churches piling up that ignore sin or just say that sin isn’t sin.

You know TikTok recognizes the hashtags that we tend to like, and I like a lot of videos with hash tags like Bible and Christians and what not. But TikTok can’t tell the difference between good stuff and heretical stuff, so they just throw it up in front of me there! One came up a couple weeks ago of a pastor of a church and he had stripped away all the doctrine from this church that made it Christian. It wasn’t even remotely Christian!

Why do people fall for it? Look back to chapter three verses one through five.

We have to be people who seek the truth. Who seek the true Jesus, not one we make up to make us feel good. Don’t be won over by easy believism, a Christianity that offers you everything but asks nothing of you. We don’t conform God’s Word to ourselves, we conform ourselves to God’s Word. That way we don’t wander off into silly myths.

We keep our resolve.

Our Resolve

verse 5

We must continue in faithful ministry even when people are against it. We must be resolved to do this!

Do y’all know who Floyd Mayweather is?…

I looked up his pre-fight routine once. This is it:

3 rounds of shadow boxing, 4 rounds of hand boxing, 3 rounds with the body pad, 4 rounds with the heavy bag, 4 rounds with the hand pads, 3 rounds with the body pad, 2 rounds with the heavy bag, 3 rounds with the hand pads, 3 with the speed bag, 2 rounds of jump rope, then a weighted jump rope, 3 rounds of weighted shadow boxing, 2 rounds of ab work (with 200 sit-ups each), 2 rounds of neck work outs, and a 150 pushup finisher

He does that three times a day! For two months! That’s what resolve looks like!

While others are rejecting truth, we must have resolve to hold to biblical teaching!

sober minded

endure suffering

1 Peter 5:9 ESV

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

evangelize

fulfill the ministry

It will be tough. We are called to engage in ministry. To share the Gospel. Speak the truth. People won’t always want to hear it. But we have make known the riches of his glorious grace!

Be wise as you go about this. Don’t just go looking for arguments, but speak the truth in love as Paul says. Your goal and motivation should always be for people to know Jesus and his truth. The only truth!

But know it will not always be received well. Be ready for it. When it happens, remember that the difficulties we experience in this life will be worth it later. Look toward your reward as Paul does here.

Our Reward

verses 6-8

The rewards of this world won’t satisfy you. Finding teachers who tell you you’re right and don’t need to change anything isn’t what you’re searching for. You want the rewards that Paul is looking forward to here. Let that motivate you to live and minister faithfully on the Earth!

We all need to understand that we are sinners. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you aren’t or that you don’t need to worry about it. That’s not true.

But it’s ok. Your sin points to your need for Jesus. Charles Spurgeon said, “I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.”

We all need Him for our sins to be forgiven. He is the one who holds the truth in his hand, who is truth. If you have not surrendered your life to Him, then I want to invite you to let go of whatever myths you’ve wandered into and embrace Jesus.