People of the Word
Notes
Transcript
What do I want them to know? We are people of the Word
Why? The Word brings life
What do I want them to do? Be people of the Word
Why? The Word brings life
Feel? Awakened and emboldden
ME
One the games that I like to play with my sons and they like to play to is a game called I SPY
Anybody play this game?
The object of the game is for those not spying to figure out what the person is spying is spying, by the spier given clues and hints as the others guess what it could be.
Let’s play a quick game real, I will be the spier you are are the ones who are trying to figure out what I am spying.
I will start, “I spy something with my little eye that is green.
Anybody want to guess what it is?
Anybody want a clue?
It is not up there
It is on the stage.
TENSION
You are probably wondering what the point of this game is, does Pastor Pete not have a sermon?
No, I am using this illustration to draw out what Paul is doing in the passage today in 2 Tim 3 which is Paul’s last book that he writes.
Paul gives Timothy and Titus young pastors
What he is doing in this time is showing them 19 descriptions of what a Christian and Christ follower is not.
and showing somebody what something is not gives further clarification to what is, like we saw in the game we just played.
It helps define what is.
We have been learning a Christian is a set apart, lover, forgiver, and if we only learn what it is it has the pontential to give room to use to try to live into what is a Christian and what is not a Christian.
GOD
What we are going to do is go through the list and stop at a handful of the 19 things that a Christian is not.
Let’s read
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
I want to preference we can read this list and say we are living in the last days, we could be,
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
We can speculate but not know for certain.
When you hear someone say God spoke and told me, like many people have done, that God spoke to me and said on Jan 30, 2023 Jesus is coming back, we can say they are a liar.
I believe one of the things as we read this list that this list does is it wakes up the church, this is the last days, we better get right with God.
WWII
WWI
Bubonic plague
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
Lovers of themselves…is this not our generation. WE have iPhones not theirPhones, we have YOUtube, not themTUBE, selfcare (which is not bad, we should neglect ourselves, but we have taken to far as a culture)....what is the social media mostly about today insiting ANGER and trying to be FAMOUS
Is not the motto today you do you, do not anyone else tell you what to do.
If you want to do something, you do it and no one should be allowed to stop you
How dare you question me.
We are not to be lover of ourselves, nor are we to hate ourself, we are to live with Christ esteem and humility.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
We do not need to be lovers of ourselves, why? Because God already gives us what we are looking for when we love ourselves
I am child of God, I have immense value, I am gift to preach and teach by the grace of God.
What we are seeking is less than what God has given me already.
LOVERS of money
We skip this one in America right, we don’t love money here right?
We in America are obessed with $, ask a American, rich or poor, what amount of money do you need to feel rich? they all answer the same “more”
Scripture is not against money, David and Solomon would be #1 on the list of wealthiest people in all the world
There are many wealthy Christians
God is against us be lovers of money
Why? We do not need to because God is our provider
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
We do not need to be lovers of money because our God is our provider
He owns it all
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
Why? Because money has the potential to lead us away from God
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
We do not need to be lovers of money, a Christian is not someone who loves money
DISOBEDIENT TO THEIR PARENTS
Some of us are thinking bring back in the kids in here, did you hear this, the reality is our culture promotes at times for kids to be disobedient to their parents…that is a worldy value not a kingdom value.
HEARTLESS
We seeing our society become more and more hard hearted .
One of the most heartless things we do that is in connection to lovers of self is that we are country advocate and participate in the murder of unborn babies. 2400 a day, 900,000 babies are murder every year.
America has one of the most liberal laws on abortion, there are 7 countries as liberal as us.
Pastors who are justifiying it
Ex 21:22
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.
Not only is it murder abortion is a systemic racism.
- How can I say that?
Yon cannot get around it, Margret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood was a believer of eugenics,
- What is eugenics?
is the set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population by devaluing you a certain group of people or killing them, this is what Hitler did
What Margret Sanger did and what planned parenthood did is they practiced eugenics by getting rid of those people, and who are those people? Black people.
Even today Planned Parenthood targets black communities.
Then we have the 60’s, the sexual revolution where people are being lovers of self and with sex comes kids so in 1973 Roe vs Wade happens to approve ABORTION.
THIS IS HEARTLESS
but also want to say this our approach in this many is GRACE and TRUTH.
OUR APPROACH IS NOT TO BE LIKE SOME CHRISTIANS GO SAY YOU ARE MURDERS, EVIL PERSON, WITH NO LOVE
Matt 5:21-22
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
in their anger they are breaking the same commandment the same command they are standing for.
Grace and truth, just like Jesus does with the woman at the well.
We come to them in grace and love…and then we fight for justice and righteousness, God values all human life, imago dei, no matter the size of the human, we have an opportunity right now for the first time in 50 years as the supreme court is hearing a the case Dobbs vs Jackson that is seeking to overthrow the horrific case of Roe vs Wade
Let’s pray our supreme justices does what is right.
My body my rights, the problem is what is in your body is another body.
Against grace and truth who do not the truth and seek justice and righteosness from the governement
Stand against Heartless against heartless actions with a heart
LOVERS of PLEASURES RATHER THAN OF GOD
Where are we seeing this over and over amongst Christains?
Christians are living together and sleeping together before marriage…actively unrentpentively, not we messed up, but actively
People are throwing out the ways of God all in the pursuit of pleasure
Eph 5:3
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
1 Cor 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
I know this doesn’t make sense culturely, God will explain why later, but I will say
this many people believe lets live together before we are married to try things out, its a false belief because those who live together before marriage divorce at a far greater measure than those who wait to live together before they are married. 8 out of 10 who live together before marriage end up divorced.
So of this heavy but Paul is doing is heart and God’s heart is so big that they will talk about things that no one wants to talk about for your good , for you to live in the land of the living
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
HAVNIG THE APPERIENCE OF GODLINESS
God does not want us to appear God but to be Godly and walk in his power.
God does not want us to look the part but to live the part of what it means to be a Christian
And we miss out! God’s power does not reside in fake things
WHY AVOID?
Let’s come back to that, let’s read the rest of this section.
For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,
always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.
But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
GOD IS SHOWING US WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO NOT BE A CHRISTIAN OR ACT LIKE A CHRISTIAN…what the ways of the kingdom of darkness looks like that leads to destruction.
He is about to show us the ways to lead to life.
Why Avoid?
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
Who we hang out with has a direct impact on who we become.
If they are Godly we become Godly if they are unGodly we become unGodly
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Break the #3 commandment
Taking the Lord’s name in vein doesn’t mean saying God’s word as a curse word…it is much more than that…when we believe in God, become His children, His name is written on us so when we live contray to the name written upon us we are taking the Lord’s name in vein
Also, avoiding does not mean we should all be monks, hide away, those some have taken this view.
Paul Clarifies what this looks like in
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
God says if there are those inside the church who are living unrenptent lives, not trying to overcome their sin or fight but perfectly fine with where they are at, do not assoicate with them.
God does not want unrepentative active impurity in the church
-This is not often how we act inside the church, we judge, hold accountable the world and those inside the church we so that’s ok.
THIS SHOULD NOT BE
What our hope and prayer is they will hit rock bottom
you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
We remove the possibility of someone coming back to Jesus fully back to Jesus when we give a pass to their sin....this is heavy....
But it is all for LIFE
This is not being mean but loving because God wants us all to live in the land of the living
WE LOSE OUR WITNESS, OUR COMMUNITY
Those are the ways that lead to DEATH
Let’s keep reading to
You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,
my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
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.
What God is saying to us is we as Christians we are not people of the WORLD but PEOPLE of THE WORD
Why? The WORD BRINGS REPROOF, CORRECTION, TRAINING in RIGHTEOUSS so we become all that God has for us..
The Word of God is the righteous living instructions....you want to know how to live righteously it is not out there that teaches us, but the WORD of God.
Holiness leads to happiness
And when we do not live according to the righteous and holy ways of God, the word of God comes and corrects us, it shows us our ways.
Have we not had this, we are trying to live righteously, and the word reveals to us that we are worrying, Matt 6, do not worry about your life,
Forgiveness, forgive as God as forgiven me
The WORD GOD COMES TO
Help us live righteously, to be complete,
Not only does it make us complete.
The Word of God leads to life
Two lifes
But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
We do not suffer from the lack of the Word of God like the Muslim countries, where you literally die if have the Word of God.
88% of Americans possess a Bible and the average home has 5 Bibles
But in America only 12% read the Bible at least 4 times a week.
It is the Bible that gives us life and leads us in paths of righteousness.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
WORD OF GOD THAT BRINGS LIFE, THE WORLD BRINGS DESTRUCTION.
GOD IS NOT BEING MEAN, GOD IS BEING SO LOVING SAYING, you follow the ways of the WORLD it leads to destruction. but good news I am the WORD and the WORD BRINGS LIFE
I will show you through my word the path to life
the Bible is our only rule for faith and practice
God does not us give us life in His written Word but also in the LIVING WORD
And who is the living WORD
Who is the living WORD?
Jesus
Secondly,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Life in the WORD
What God is saying to us is to repent and follow the WRITTEN WORD and LIVING WORD
Both, not just the LIVING WORD
God does not save us from us sins to live in our sins
What God is calling the world and the church to do is to follow the written word and living word
For in the WORD their is LIFE and in the WORLD their is death and destruction.
A BIBLE FAILING APART REVEALS A LIFE THAT IS NOT FAILING APART.
SIN WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE BIBLE AND THE BIBLE WILL KEEP YOU FROM SIN.
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”