2 Tim 3:16-17

Me

I would like to start off with a confession. I find it very difficult to study Scripture. (Pause)

I read Scripture almost every day and that’s fine, I can read it. But there are many times when I read it, but don’t really understand it.

And typically, I don’t try very hard to understand it. Because that would take study, and that takes time and effort.

Even when I am preparing for a sermon I find it hard to study Scripture. I will study for a little bit, but then I get bored, and I don’t want to read all of those commentaries or do all of those word studies.

What I really want to do is get to the exciting stuff, writing the cool illustrations, the fun stories, the challenging applications, the three big takeaways.

We

And on some level, in the world we live in today, I can’t imagine I am alone in this.

We are all preachers here and I would be willing to guess that there have been times in your sermon preparations when studying a passage has seemed like more of a chore than fun work.

But I wonder…

What would it look like if we allowed Scripture to equip us to do ministry? (YOU HAVE TO ANSWER THIS)

God

Paul, when teaching his young disciple Timothy how to disciple others made this very point.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Big Idea: Scripture equips us to disciple.

E:

Multiple commentators say that the phrase “servant of God” that Paul uses here specifically refers Christian teachers/leaders rather than in general everyone.

Before studying this passage I always thought the teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training Paul was speaking about was for people who sat at home, in a room alone, with their Bible’s open.

But that is not what Paul is saying. Rather, He’s telling Timothy, Scripture equips you to teach others, to rebuke others, to correct others, and to train others.

Or in other words, Scripture equips us to disciple others, and in our case, it equips us to disciple youth.

You

So, as ministry leaders, we need to be men of the Bible.

When we preach, we must come to understand the text we are preaching on before we begin crafting everything else.

The temptation is to get a loose understanding of the Scripture, call it good, and then move onto the more “fun” stuff, the illustrations, applications, stories.

But you can have a proper explanation of Scripture of a sermon and not have the best illustrations, the most jaw-dropping stories, and the funniest jokes, and still have done a good work.

Proper explanation of Scripture + alright presentation = Good works

On the other hand, the best illustrations, jokes, and stories mixed with and incorrect explanation of Scripture will not be a good work.

Incorrect explanation of SCripture + Amazing presentation = bad work

Also, since Scripture equips us to disciple others, you must allow it to teach, rebuke, correct, and train you in your own life. You must allow the preaching of God’s Word to do this. God, the God who we often so desperately desire to speak to us, is speaking to us through His Word and through others who preach it.

The question is, will you open your ears and heart to hear Him? (Pause)

We

Imagine what God could do in our minsitries if we dedicated ouselves to being equipped by Scripture.

Imagine if we understood Scipture so well that everytime you taught, answered a deep question from a high-school student, or corrected false thinking in small groups, you were doing it rooted in Scripture, and you even knew the Scipture reference!

God inspired these words and continues to speak through them today. So, let’s let Him speak through us!

ASK A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS

INVITE THEM TO THE RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS

point to jesus

Scripture equips us to teach people, it equips us to know how to love students, it equips us to trust God, it equips us how to reach out to the lost. Scripture, learning, knowing, and understanding, memorizing, taking to heart who God is, who we are, and how God desires for us to live, that give equips us to do disciple others.

MARIOKART 8 when you get the 8 and use it you are equipped to banana peel, star, mushroom, red sheel, so when we use Scripture we are equipped to correct, rebuke, teach train.

IF we are not using Scripture for these things, it’s a mess. Would you rather be discipled by someone who has allowed Scripture to equip them or not?

COME AT THIS HUMBLY