God Speaks: The Mission of Every Good Work (2 Timothy 3:10-17)

Can you hear me now?

Can you hear me now? That question has followed us through this entire series—whether we realized it or not. Because beneath Bible reading challenges, sermon themes, and daily devotions sits a far more urgent reality: we cannot survive a silent God. If God does not speak, we don’t just feel disconnected—we perish. A silent God leaves us alone with our own voices. And our voices do not forgive. They accuse. They keep score. They bargain. They manage. They never stop.

But God is not silent. From the opening pages of Scripture, God speaks—and reality happens. “Let there be…” and there is. Light. Life. Order. Meaning. And if God ever stopped speaking, everything would unravel.

Paul says it plainly in 2 Timothy 3

2 Timothy 3:14–15 The sacred Scriptures are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

God is always speaking because our lives depend on it. The Scriptures don’t merely tell you about salvation. They deliver it. God’s Word doesn’t describe forgiveness—it speaks forgiveness into existence. The Word does what it says.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at God Speaks: God’s Word is profitable… for teaching, rebuking, restoring, and educating in righteousness. How God’s Word saves us and shapes us. God’s Word is life-giving and life-transforming. It is constantly moving toward us. There is never a moment when the signal is silent from God. God is never silent. The Word who made the world has entered His world. The Word who died for you is risen. And He still saves the way He always saves: by speaking. And when He speaks—“Your sins are forgiven”—that isn’t information. That is rescue. When life goes sideways, the Bible reminds us that the constant pressure of life isn’t about “what must I do?” but “what has He done?” Not “who will I be today?” but “who am I in Christ?” and “Who is Jesus FOR ME today?”

Today, we’re looking at one last piece… an important piece. In fact, it’s where this entire passage lands.

All-Scripture is God-breathed… so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The word “complete” there carries the sense of being well-fitted for a purpose—adequate, capable, proficient, fully suited to meet the demands of the task. This is important to remember because way too often when people are quoting this verse they are suggesting that Paul is interested in morality and good behavior. That’s not the point here. “Complete” means capable of being up to the task and fully functional.

The Scriptures complete us. Jesus completes us.

That line from the Jerry MacGuire movie may be over-used, but it is a very real reality here in these two verses. St. Paul is actually talking about something far deeper than romantic fulfillment or emotional finishing touches. In 2 Timothy 3:17, “complete” isn’t “finally I feel whole because someone validates me.” It’s fit, furnished, made ready—the way something incomplete is brought to its intended end. And the stunning thing is how God does it: not by handing you a self-improvement plan, but by giving you His breathed-out Word that makes you “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (v. 15).

Here’s what we’re not saying: there’s the popular notion out there that God fills my “God-shaped hole”. That idea makes salvation sound like Jesus is therapy for my lack, like He’s the missing puzzle piece for my inner emptiness. But Paul’s language in 2 Timothy 3 doesn’t describe Jesus as a felt-need filler; it describes Scripture as God’s breathed-out instrument that makes dead sinners “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” That’s courtroom language and resurrection language, not self-actualization language. The problem isn’t that I’m spiritually incomplete emotionally; it’s that I’m guilty (Law), enslaved (sin), and mortal (death). And Jesus doesn’t “fill a hole”—He atones, He justifies, He raises. He doesn’t complete my self-esteem; He completes His mission: to save His people from their sins. That’s why “complete” (ártios) is about being fitted and furnished by the Word for God’s purposes, not about Jesus becoming the upgrade to my personal story.

Christianity isn’t God responding to my inner ache; it’s God responding to my real condition—sin and death—with a real rescue—Christ crucified and risen. Scripture “completes” you because it keeps delivering the One who truly completes you—Christ—into your ears, your conscience, your life. You are not completed by having all the answers, or getting your act together, or finally becoming the person you wish you were. You are completed because the Word, the Bible, keeps handing you Jesus—crucified and risen—until your lack of righteousness, your lack of enoughness, is met by His fullness.

Equipped for Every Good Work

The question then becomes… fully functional for what? Equipped for every good work. It’s for your neighbor.

All Scripture is God-breathed.. so that we would be fully engaged for our neighbors.

This all started in the Garden of Eden. The Word was on mission for humanity… and humanity messed it up. So the Word became flesh… became one of us… on mission to save us. All of us. That saving word isn’t just for us it’s for the world, it’s for our neighbor. The Word makes us complete.. in our vocation. We are equipped.. perfectly positioned where we live, learn, work, and play. The whole enterprise is aimed at the neighbor… Scripture forms the Church to be competent instruments of Christ’s mercy—teaching, rebuking, correcting, training—so that the Gospel is carried into all the areas of our lives through good works.

This is on full display in Paul’s letter to Timothy. We didn’t spend much time on the first section of this…

But here’s how Paul begins the section:

2 Timothy 3:10–11 You have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

We don’t have time to get into the story, but this is Paul’s story from the book of Acts. And if we were to go over to Acts 13 and 14, we’d see that Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra are not a list of Paul’s bad vacation spots. What happens in Antioch in Pisidia? Paul preaches in the synagogue, almost the whole city gathers to hear the word, the Jews get jealous, they incite persecution, Paul and Barnabas are driven out. Iconium? They speak in the synagogue, a great multitude believe, the unbelieving Jews stir up persecution, an attempt is made to stone them, they flee. Lystra? Paul heals a man, the crowds think they’re gods, then Jews from Antioch and Iconium show up and stone Paul, drag him out of the city thinking he’s dead.

This isn’t just a suffering resume. All of this is God’s Word on mission. Paul is church planting in all of those towns. Those towns, where Paul is subjected to riots and stones, are ground zero for God’s mission. And Paul is saying to Timothy… “You have followed this.” You’ve seen this pattern. You know the cost. You’ve embraced the Gospel. It’s now your turn! All Scripture is God-breathed, Timothy… the very breath of God’s Word, Jesus himself makes you complete to be on mission for your neighbor.

Here’s where we so often go wrong. We think, “The Bible is my comfort for my hard life. It’s my guide for my personal decisions. It’s the answer book for my theological questions.” And, yes, it IS those things. But not the main thing… in fact… when the Bible is simply a resource book or a decision-making guide, then it is simply another self-help manual and it’s all about me and my world. Worse, it becomes a weapon used against people who don’t use the Bible in their decision-making.

But Paul flips the script.

The Bible isn’t a tool on OUR mission. The Bible itself is ON mission.

And it’s equipping us to join that mission for the sake of our neighbor. The Scriptures that complete us to equip us are on a mission to complete our neighbor. Jesus completes us to serve our neighbors freely. We are finally free to live outward—mission-shaped, neighbor-shaped—because we no longer need our good works to complete us.

“Every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17) is the shape mission takes. The Scriptures don’t just stock our minds with facts; they fit us for neighbor-love in whatever calling God has placed us. “Every” is wonderfully unspectacular. It’s not only the big, platform moments; it’s the whole ordinary range of mercies God gives to do—seen and unseen, public and quiet—because the mission field is not “out there” somewhere, it’s the person in front of us. When Paul ties “complete” to “equipped,” he’s saying: the Word is training in the Gospel so that our lives are a place where Jesus and his love reach the people in front of us. The Gospel has hands and feet, not only in places like Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, but our neighborhoods as well.

“Every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17) is how “You Belong Here” becomes more than a slogan at The Table Church—it becomes a lived, neighbor-facing reality. If Scripture equips us for every good work, then the mission isn’t limited to what happens on Sunday or to the people who already feel comfortable in church. “Every” means there are hundreds of ways that we bring belonging to our neighbors… conversations, texts, prayers, words of encouragement… we’ve said this before… Jesus belongs us here in His Word so that others will come to be part of his belonging.

Scripture on Mission this week: Ash Wednesday and the Los Fresnos Rodeo

Scripture on Mission this week looks like ashes and arena dirt—two very different places where the same God-breathed Word actively on mission. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. The Scriptures will be doing its mission—killing the fantasy that we can outrun death or manage our sin. But the Word never stops at dust. The same mouth that names our mortality also names our mercy: Christ crucified for sinners, Christ who steps into our dust and carries it to the cross. Ash Wednesday is mission because God’s Word comes to anxious, self-protective people and gives them the truth that hurts—and then the Gospel that heals: Jesus became ash for us on the cross.

And then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the Mission of Every Good Work will show up at the Los Fresnos Rodeo—not to “sell church,” but to love neighbors where they already are. In and around the arena, The Table Church again will be serving neighbors… It’s always fascinating to me… our community gathers there for the biggest weekend of the year, and among all the fun and the cowboys and cowgirls and the entertainment.. the rodeo is a brief escape. In many ways good. But for some, people are carrying tremendous burdens we can’t see. And through us Jesus is still using his Word as we serve and listen and provide help.

We are Perfectly Positioned

We are made complete by Jesus through His Word so that we are equipped for every good work. Not someday. Not once we’re ready. Not once life settles down.

And we are already placed. Where we work, live, learn, and play. In our relationships. In our neighborhood. In our families. All these places are the setting where God has placed us to be providing good works. Our neighbors need us to simply show up and listen. To provide a caring presence. To provide a gentle word of grace. To be agents of reconciliation and forgiveness. We don’t have to do it perfectly. Nobody does. But Jesus has chosen you and I to be his instruments of good works so that more people will come to experience the God-breathed Scriptures that give us Jesus. People need Jesus. Jesus completes us to be on mission for our neighbor with every good work.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

“Mission in Every Good Work” flows straight out of the Sacrament of the Altar, because at the Table the Lord doesn’t give us a motivational push—He gives us Himself. Here Christ puts into our mouths the same crucified-and-risen body and blood that won our forgiveness, steadies our anxious consciences, and re-centers our whole life in mercy: given and shed for us for the remission of sins. And once we’ve received that gift, we’re freed from using our neighbors to prove anything before God; we go back into the Valley furnished for love. The Supper doesn’t end the service as a private comfort—it sends us as forgiven people whose hands are now available for “every good work”: patience, generosity, courage, presence, and practical care that makes room for the Gospel. Having been served by Christ at His Table, we become people who serve our neighbors at theirs—not to earn grace, but because grace has already been placed on our tongues.

Benediction