Be Prepared (2 Tim 4:1-8)
Billy Milton - January 13, 2008
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Today we’re starting off a new series called ‘Challenging our Culture’. This theme directly supports our church mission statement which is,
- ‘Serving Christ Together ~ Making Him Known To Today’s World’.
Here’s a scary thing for you. Much of the evangelism that used to be done by the church or by the pastor needs now to be done by you in the privacy of your own home or in the pub or gym. Now, I don’t actually have a problem with that… except for one thing – its my observation that most Christians nowadays are unable to articulate what they believe and so when the questions and opportunities do come they are left floundering and feeling inadequate or embarrassed. Am I right?
Over the course of the next few months, if you attend regularly and take notes, it will build up into a handy reference of the most common objections to becoming a Christian and provide you with simple answers to those objections. The Service Planning Group have come up with a list of ten common objections to becoming a Christian and our intention is to give you a reasoned response to each of these objections, week by week, that you can adapt and use when the need arises. And by the way, these next 10 weeks or so will be great times to be inviting your non-church friends. I promise you won’t be embarrassed by the messages, and neither will they. If you do miss a week then all the messages can be accessed from our website in either visual or auditory format at www.kingsroadchurch.org.
Today, I want to start off with the reason for this series, the fact that the vast majority of people will decide automatically that Christianity is not true, and that faith in God is a quaint but irrelevant concept.
We won’t be discussing specific objections to becoming a Christian today, but just the underlying reasons for non-belief.
Keep your Bibles open at 2 Timothy 4:1-8, which you can find it on page 1197 of the pew Bibles.
Please follow along as I re-read vv1-4:
”In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - -with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
How spot on have these verses become! I used to be a member of the Boy Scouts. In Scotland back then our motto was, ‘Aye ready’. Does anyone know the Boy Scouts’ motto today? That’s right – ‘Be Prepared’. And just like the Boy Scouts, we need to be prepared, or aye ready, to meet the challenge of bringing the truth to our culture. How often have you had an opportunity to say a few words for Jesus but just lost your confidence at the last minute? I want to give you 2 truths and then 4 ideas how to ‘Be Prepared’. So, let’s get started.
So here’s the first of the 2 truths:
1. People will reject the truth. Some people will reject the truth, no matter what evidence you produce or how clever your arguments. I was astonished a few months back when I saw the ‘6 O’clock News’ to see people who live in the shadow of Mount Etna (I think it was) oblivious to the danger above them. Despite being told by all the experts that it would erupt and spew lava down the hillside and through their village they just choose to stay put. They know that the warnings of the experts are true… but they just reject it. Crazy! People are doing a similar thing with Christianity. It is true but most people prefer to stick their fingers in their ears and go, “La, la , la la…” Why do people reject truth?
Look back at the first part of verse 3: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. ” Is this really a surprise to you?
A. It goes against previous “knowledge.”
Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you’ve been brought up in a family where faith has always been a ‘private thing’. Something only between you and God. Now you hear that the Bible says we actually have to be public with our faith. Surely that can’t be true.
My mum and dad wouldn’t have misled me. In this case, their belief was wrong and, in this instance, truth calls you to reject what you’ve always been taught and that’s not easy.
It is hard to accept as truth something that goes against previous teachings.
The second reason people reject truth is…
B. It’s inconvenient. This is where most people really live, in my opinion. Al Gore released a film a couple of years ago called ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ which I went to see. It was a movie that explored the effects of our lifestyles on climate change. I found its conclusions very disturbing but I’ve been amazed since to hear people completely debunking what Al Gore had to say and attacking him personally as a failed politician trying to resurrect his career. Truly, for them, the truth was inconvenient because it would cramp their lifestyle. Similarly, many people will reject Christ because it will cramp their lifestyle. Christianity is also an inconvenient truth. It makes demands on our lifestyle.
The 2nd truth I want to share from this passage is that…
II. People will gather around them others who agree with them.
Back to the rest of verse 3 and verse 4:
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
Now let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment: we all like to be around people who agree with us, right? This true in every culture in the world. So people who don’t want to live for Christ gather others around them who will give them not only the freedom to reject Him, but actively encourage them in that rejection.
Again, let’s be honest: who wouldn’t like to hear that your sin will go unpunished?
And who wouldn’t like to hear that there are many valid paths to God?
Who wouldn’t like to be around people who don’t consider your lifestyle as sinful, but rather celebrate it as “diverse?”
It’s not easy to move away from those who once agreed with you into the truth. Ask any new Christian you know and see what they say.
Let’s review – some people will deny the truth, and others will gather people who support what they already believe. SO what can we do? Well here’s 4 ideas to help you, but all come under the one banner of…
III. Be Prepared.
If you really want to bring the truth to those around you then you need to be prepared for when the opportunity arises. Here are 4 ways to prepare, there are more but these will do for starters:
1. Pray.
Only God can open the heart and mind of a person. We might have all the answers, but don’t delude yourself. If a person comes to Christ, it is not because you talked them into it, it’s because the Holy Spirit was at work in them.
And that actually takes the pressure off, if you think about it. Start by praying that God would open up your friends and family to the truth of Scripture. And pray for opportunities to share the gospel. How do you spot those opportunities?
There is a story of a guy who prayed this prayer every morning: “Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is.” One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him. The bus was nearly empty but this guy sat next to our praying friend. The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get too nervous about the man next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep. He then cried out with a loud voice, “I need to be saved. I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?” He turned to the Christian and pleaded, “Can you show me how to be saved?” The believer immediately bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, is this a sign?” (SermonCentral.com)
Pray about it and you’ll be amazed at how the opportunities arise. The next way to be prepared is…
B. Bring God’s Word into each situation. I believe that Christians have lost their trust in God’s word – the Bible, and we need to get it back. Look back at verse 2: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction. ” This letter was written to Timothy, a young preacher and evangelist, and although I realise that not everybody can be a preacher in the sense of Timothy, the point is that the Word of God is essential in eliminating error. Why? Because it is truth – even if people don’t believe it! In 2 Tim 3:16 we read that all Scripture is God-breathed. In other words, God Himself guided each author to write what was truth. If God doesn’t know what truth is, who does? Here’s the point. You need to know what the Bible has to say on all the major questions of life …because it is truth and not opinion.
Next…
C. Tell your testimony.
Listen as I read 1 Peter 3:15, “…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
Two things about telling your testimony:
First, make it personal – the hope you have, not just the Christian population in general. I remember a guy called Andrew Dawes who used to belong to KRC telling his testimony one night and he said the thing that nailed it for him was another friend talking about God as if he were real and personal. People are intrigued that you think God has a daily influence in your life. Make it personal.
Second, talk in ways that respect the person you are talking to. You don’t get very far by screaming at people or being arrogant in your manner. You don’t have to win every debate. Just be gentle and respectful about your beliefs and when people have questions, you’ll be the person they turn to.
And lastly, to be prepared…
D. Try to live a holy life. Here’s another passage from 1 Peter 2:11-12 “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. ”
Be different to what people have been taught to expect of Christians. For some reason the stereotypical Christian is supposed to be intolerant and hypocritical. So, surprise people by showing them that holiness is neither boring nor judgmental. The Psalms (29:2) talk about a beauty in holiness that is attractive. If you’ve ever met a holy person then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Be the kind of person who leaves a good impression, that tells people that you have something special. Live a life that is consistent with what you claim as a Christian, and it gives you credibility that money cannot buy.
Conclusion: We live in a society that seems to want to ignore the claims that God the Creator has on our world. But ignore it, try to stifle it, or whatever, it doesn’t change the fact that God has a claim on us, and that one day He will call in that claim. We need to alert people to the fact that Jesus will someday return to take His people home, and that it is to their distinct advantage to take the offer of salvation before that happens. Our challenge is to be prepared when an opportunity arises to talk to those who reject the truth of the gospel.
Are you willing to keep challenging our society with the truth that the God of all truth knows everything about them and yet still loves them so much? Are you willing to be used by God to bring someone to the truth? I hope so, because God wants to use you… if you’ll let him. May God move our hearts until we see the people of Berkhamsted through His eyes.
We’ll be closing our service by singing, “ ” and as you are singing that, reflect on the words, and turn the song into a prayer that God would have His way in our society, and in our hearts as we become His tools for building His kingdom.