Turn Away

2 Timothy 2:14–26 NIV

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. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Well if you have been with us the past couple weeks you know that we have been in our series “Final Words”

and in this series we have been looking at the book on 2nd Timothy and this book is actually a letter written by a guy named Paul to another man who he has been mentoring named Timothy

And so far (if you are like me at least) this series has been a little different

because its a pretty intense letter.

because like we have been discussing first of Paul is in prison for preaching the gospel and he knows that soon he is going to be put to death for it.

He has a very clear time line on his life and it is short

and because of this Paul is writing his last words to this guy he has been mentoring

so this is an emotional letter but it’s also a letter that has some great instructions and encouragement for us today.

because these are the final things that Paul is wanting Timothy to understand

and really we are digging into this letter because its something that God wants us to get as well.

So I said this the first week but I just want to invite us this morning to lean into this letter and see how God wants to speak to us this morning.

So turn with me to

and this is a larger passage of scripture but stick with me through it because I believe that God wants to speak to us through His word this morning.

Will you pray with me before we read God’s word this morning?

(NIV)

Dealing With False Teachers

14 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. 15 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. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

So like I said we are just leaning in this morning

So look at verses 14-18 because these first few verses talk about destruction that can occur because of words

and really if you dive into these verses at large (not entirely, but mostly) what this passage is referring to is there were people who would take who Jesus is and distort and change who He is, what He did, why He did and all of that stuff

and the issue with this is first off its not true, but second off when you change who God is, it changes who we believe ourselves are

So what happens is people start hearing this false teaching and they believe it.

and all of the sudden they start placing their faith in something other then the Gospel of Christ.

It would be like if I was making a milkshake but I changed the ingredients so there is no milk

Well its not a milk shake.

and would happen is things would get so distorted that people would end up putting their trust in something other then Jesus Christ.

Does that sound familiar?

where people (maybe ourselves even) are finding hope or placing their trust in something other then Jesus?

And their are issues that occur because of this:

The first is that it spreads quickly

People are finding their hope in somthing other then Christ.

In verse 17 it mentions that its like Gangrene and if you know about gangrene it is a disease that infects the tissue and then quickly spreads through through the body.

Its not very pretty to see, its ugly, it causes pain, it actually smells bad, it can leave permanent damage and if its left untreated it can kill you.

but whats so hard about this passage is that this illustration that Paul gives us really shows the effect of sin (or of finding hope in something other then Christ) in our life.

It becomes visible very quickly, its spreads very quickly, it smells bad and if we allow this sin in our life to go untreated it will eventually lead us down a path that leads to death.

But look at verse 19 with me because in the middle of having this

and the issue is that every person is born with this disease (not gangrene) but sin

Everyone of us had a desire to find hope in something other then Christ

All of us have have in someway went against what God wants for us in our life.

But look at verse 19 with me because while we have this impacting our life it says that God’s foundation stands firm, and not just that but it says that it is sealed with the inscription “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

and what I love about the language there is that a seal in the Bible shows ownership.

in a way its like God is saying in the middle of our wickedness and sin “Wait a minute” “This isn’t you” “This isn’t who I have called you to be”

Because you were created in the image of God and are created to worship and be in unison with God, you weren’t created to live a life of sin, but a life for Christ.

You know it would kind of be like if in the future Liam started watching football and he started becoming a huge patriots or steelers fan

and you know thats a huge disappointment for any parent

Which by the way is a huge disappointment for any parent,

but chances are at some point ill have to sit down with him and say “Liam what are you doing?”

You are a Shea and Shea’s don’t live a life for the Patriots or Steelers, but Shea’s are for the Baltimore Ravens!

And thats what God wants us to get.

He is saying what are you doing? You are a child of God

And you are called to live life like a child of God.

Well look at the next part of this passage in verses 20 and 21 because it talks about how in houses there are different types of utensils.

on one hand there are wooden and clay

and on the other hand there are the silver and gold utensils

now how many of you had a house where you had the nice china in your house?

and when did it get used? For special occasions right?

but I bet that wasen’t all you had right?

Because you also probably had or have Tupperware thats missing the lid, beat up old plates and the kids cups you get at restaurants that you'll never use.

and I don’t know if any of you have ever watched the show extreme hoarder, but its a show about people who have issues where they just can’t get rid of things

and what happens is they store everything and eventually they can’t move in their home, its digusting, their family is always on the show and they talk about how its effected there life

and the people who are on this show often times don’t want help cleaning up anything.

But the issue that I think many of us have in our life is that we are hoarders, we are keeping the clay and wooden utensils and all the other junk in our life

and what happens is we end up being unable to move.

our family is effected, and our life is just a mess.

And Paul in verse 21 says Timothy make sure you throw away these useless utensils (Cleanse yourself from them)

and once you do that God is going to fill in those areas in your life that were once filled with these useless utensils

You know I was watching one episode of extream hoarders and it was amazing to see the transformation that could occur all because they were willing to get rid of junk.

and when they did (Look at the result(if you have the photo) (that they actually had a beautiful home)

But thats what God wants to do with you.

He wants to do that to your life but you have to let him!

In that show occasionally they will have someone who after throwing away almost nothing will give up and say I cant do this!

And we are given that same option do we want to allow God to clean out every part of us that doesn't glorify him or do we just want to hoard.

because if we say no chances are our life is going to look a lot like the picture on the left

And the last part of this letter says look you need to flee or runaway from this stuff as fast as you can!

you need to clean out your house or life so you can live in the light of Christ

and Paul really gives us a good way to evaluate where our life is.

a way for us to understand where our life is today

because if you are living a life for God you are living a life where you are pursuing righteousness, faith, love, peace,

its tells us your not doing it alone but your doing it along with others (your tied into a body of believers),

you have a pure heart,

(is your life pure)

Your not getting in these stupid arguments and fights, but your showing kindness to everyone.

You know I just want to end this way today, I want us to imagine our life is a room

Does it look like we have a ton of junk hoarded in the room

Things that are weighing us down and seperating us from God.

or does it look like we have the room on the other side where we are free to live a life for Christ.

and maybe today you are sitting here and thinking Im the hoarding junk in my life.

im immature, selfish or whatever it might be.

maybe today is the day you want to clean your room

And heres the truth it can only be done through Christ and His Grace that He gives you.

and Maybe today you have never placed your trust in Christ or its been awhile and your ready to recommit to Him.

Maybe today is the day that you say God Im ready to recommit or make that commitment for the first time

I am going to pray and if that you during the prayer would you just raise your hand as a way of saying God I want to make that commitment in my life

And I am going to pray and if that you during the prayer would you just raise your hand as a way of saying God I want to make that commitment in my life

I want to turn away from my sins and turn to Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.

Will you pray with me?