Midweek Bible Study | 2 Timothy 2:1-7 | Gary Hamrick

let's continue our worship now as we study God's Word together let's go to the book of 2nd Timothy which is where we are on Wednesday nights we're gonna be in chapter 2 this evening and if you need a Bible our Usher's are gonna be walking down the aisles in just a moment with a few Bibles enhance if you need one just raise a hand and they will hand you a Bible and it's page 842 in those church Bibles 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and page 842 in those church Bibles so we started last week into this second letter that Paul writes to Timothy and just by way of quick review the bullet points we shared from last week this is a continuation of the pastoral epistles first Timothy seconds of the entitle written by Paul to either Timothy or Titus as young pastors about the instruction of God's house and how it should function in practical ways and so he exerts Timothy here in 1st and 2nd Timothy written by Paul about 5 to 6 years after his first letter to Timothy but this time Paul is imprisoned in the mammer time prison in Rome the year is roughly 67 AD when he writes this from prison and it is considered his farewell letter he knows that his death is imminent and so he will say in chapter 4 verse 6 for I am already being poured out like a drink offering and the time has come for my departure he knows that he's about ready to leave this earth and enter glory and that is because there is this ongoing persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Nero and as a result of Rome burning Nero blames it on the Christians Paul is kind of captured in that wave of persecution of Christians he's imprisoned as as part of that and he will in fact be executed by Nero in 67 or 68 AD and so he knows you know I don't know whether the Lord has given him testimony of this or he just senses it because of the climate and the conditions around him but he knows that his time is short and he's ready to depart so even though second Timothy appears here in the latter third of the New Testament and Paul wrote about two thirds of the New Testament this is his last letter so some consider this the the final words of a dying man these are his last words of counsel and so these are these are some important letters especially here as we read second Timothy now last week we just did a quick overview of chapter 1 and Paul gives different directives to Timothy 5 of them we we numbered that he tells them to fan into flame the gift of God he tells him do not be ashamed to testify about the Lord he says join in suffering for the gospel suffering is the word that Paul uses 4 times in the second letter to Timothy it's just a standard that he's used to by now he also tells Timothy to keep the pattern of sound teaching don't depart from good doctrine stay true to the teaching of God's Word and number 5 to guard the good deposits so that brings us up here to chapter 2 and because as I mentioned earlier we are going to send you off with a sugar high I'm gonna watch our time and we may not get through too much of chapter 2 but let's see how far we get until until 8 o'clock but let's first have a word of Prayer Lord we just come before you now grateful for this time to be in your house and to open up your word and to study together we pray that you would use these verses to minister to our hearts we are hungry and thirsty for more of you and we're so grateful that we can gather here freely and to just drink from the well that never runs dry and you even tell us Lord to come and to drink of this living water so thank you Lord for times of refreshing and encouragement and we pray that you would challenge and change us now as we read your word and do what it says we're so grateful for your love in our lives and we pray these things in Jesus name and everybody said amen so chapter 2 I'm gonna read the first seven verses we'll see we can get through these seven verses tonight there's a lot in these seven verses but he says in verse one you then my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs he wants to please his commanding officer and similarly if anyone competes as an athlete he does not receive the victors crown unless he competes according to the rules verse six the hard-working farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops reflect on what I am saying for the Lord will give you insight into all this so why don't we do the same here we're gonna reflect on what he's saying we're gonna go back up here to verse 1 to chapter 2 and again he addresses Timothy as my son he's not his biological son Paul is the father of the faith in Timothy's life so he's just kind of like a spiritual dad this is a very affectionate terminology Paul's calling him like you're my son my son and the faith and he says to him he instructs him he says I want you to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and I love Paul's emphasis on grace you know he doesn't say be strong in the Justice of of Christ Jesus though though God is just and he doesn't emphasize you know be strong in the law of Christ Jesus even though God is the perfect law giver he Paul emphasizes the grace I want you to be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus now I just want to highlight if you go just hang a left and go backwards first Timothy keep going second Timothy second I'm sorry first Timothy and then second Thessalonians first Thessalonians just keep going to the left a little bit I want I want you to see with me and go all the way back to Colossians so it's just a just a few pages to the left and and I want you to just notice with me the ways that Paul common ends his letters so for example if we're gonna go to that just the last chapter the last sentence of these particular books so for example Colossians the way that colossians ends chapter 4 the very last sentence look at it with me grace be with you you see that the last sentence of Colossians grace be with you now go over to the next book first Thessalonians first Thessalonians look at the last chapter last verse first Thessalonians 5 verse 28 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you go to 2nd Thessalonians 2nd Thessalonians last chapter last verse Paul writing all these epistles we're reading from here last chapter last verse the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all keep going 1st Timothy look at first Timothy last chapter last verse chapter 6 last verse a first Timothy grace be with you go to 2nd Timothy the book we're in notice how second Timothy also ends last chapter of second Timothy last verse the Lord be with your spirit grace be with you keep going a little bit further Titus bear with me I just want you to see this Titus look how he ends the book of Titus grace be with you all one more go to Philemon and see the way that Philemon ends last verse of Philemon the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit you get the picture here I mean every every time that Paul you can go back to 2nd Timothy 2 now every time that Paul ends a letter he just loves to emphasize the grace of our Lord Jesus everybody understands right the justice is getting what you deserve mercy is not getting what you deserve and grace is getting what you don't deserve I mean grace is over and above just the abundance of even God's mercy so justice is getting what you deserve we all deserve justice but mercy is when we have God's favor and so we don't get what we deserve we get mercy instead of justice but grace is over and above that grace is getting something we don't deserve at all and it is of course that famous acronym God's riches at Christ's expense so it's just how God is a gracious God and you know look if you have failure in your life and we all do and sin in your life and a past in your life that troubles you hey come to Christ let him forgive you of your sins let him wash over your life because there is an abundance of grace to go around for every sinful thing we've ever done is anybody thankful for grace in your life amen so that's how it begins chapter 2 here you've been my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus verse 2 and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses and Trust to reliable man some of your Bibles New King James ESV says two faithful men okay entrust to faithful men and reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others so Timothy wasn't to you know hold all of this to himself he was to raise up other faithful teachers who will also rightly divide the word of God he's gonna say that down further and then in verse three through seven Paul compares the Christian life to three particular occupations or vocations if you notice with me between verses three through seven he talks about endure hardship verse three like a good soldier of Christ Jesus know when serving is a good so as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs he wants to please his commanding officer so that's the first so I'm just going to kind of go through this together because he exhorts us to live the Christian life like these three particular occupations or vocations or professions you guys talk about a soldier he's gonna talk about an athlete is gonna talk about a farmer so first things first here he talks about he compares the Christian life to that of a soldier and one of the things that he says in verse 3 there is to endure hardship with us like a good a good soldier the hardship being the train the discipline that you know it's it's hard work and it's and it takes a lot of training and discipline to be a good soldier and he adds in verse four that no one's serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs he wants to please his commanding officer so Paul tells us two things about a soldier's life that is very similar to the Christian life as he uses this analogy that a a soldier doesn't get involved in civilian affairs and be a soldier wants to please his or in our day her commanding officer and so let's just kind of walk through this a little bit I want to spend some time looking at these analogies together because I think you know he's using these for reasons so let's understand what he's trying to say to us here there are many of you who have or currently serve in in our military and so you would be the first to agree with with the idea that some someone in the military in many ways lives a separate life from the rest of the world they live a separate life in the sense of having a a separate standard a a distinct code a unique set of values and and though soldiers are among civilians they are not a part of the civilian world because they are in this unique military world and and as a result that that military environment has been built on things like honor and code and loyalty and there's this distinction that he says here about a soldier being a part of the military versus those who are a part of the civilian life and he says a good soldier does not concern himself with civilian life and so when I think about this analogy what it says to me is that that there's a there's a military life and then there's kind of a civilian or worldly life and that's what I think he's trying to say to us that as Christians we are to live by different honor a different set of standards a different code and that although we live in the civilian world so to speak we are not to be a part of it we are to be distinct from the worldliness that is around us we have to still integrate with it but we are to be distinct from it in the sense of living by a different honor code by living by different standard much in the same way that military does it in different ways and and you see different military language in the Bible in New Testament terms where there's this analogous comparison between military and civilian life for example 2nd Corinthians 10:3 Paul says though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does there's a military term and 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 let me just read it from verse 3 he says we do not wage wars the world does the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ so even there in 2nd Corinthians 10 Paul's like you know we're in a battle here and and so there's this military mindset and they wants us to understand as a Christian that we need to carry this mindset into all that we do and not get ourselves involved in worldly if you will civilian affairs 1st John chapter 2 the Bible warns us do not love the world or anything in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for everything in the world the cravings of the sinful man the lust of his eyes the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father but from the world and the world in his desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever so I think when Paul speaks here about military-civilian he's saying all right Christian listen you're in a battle you need to live by different honor code you need to live by different standard it's unto the Lord don't involve yourself in worldly civilian things because here everybody needs to get this as a Christian there are three things that are constantly working in concert against you the world your flesh and the devil and the world is constantly trying to squeeze you into its mold the world is constantly trying to influence you and me to conform to its image to conform to philosophy to conform to its cultural mindset and its cultural and social worldview but as Christians you see when we understand the Bible is to shape our worldview then we live by a different biblical standard and so again though we're in the world we're not to be of the world we're to see things differently through the lens of the Bible we are to honor God as our commanding officer because we want to please that's the second thing he says here anybody who's in the military wants to please his commanding officer and so that's the responsibility of us as Christians and that's why the Bible talks about in terms of our faith being like this battle and Paul would say back in first Timothy chapter 6 12 he says fight the good fight of the faith cement we we are in a battle as Christians to defend the faith and to live in such a way that is distinct from the rest of the world and so the world is waging war against us our flashes waging war against this and Peter would say in 1st Peter 2:11 abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul to hear again this military mindset and then of course the Bible warns us about the Battle of the enemy that the devil is constantly at work trying to tempt and trying to lead us astray that's why Paul writes this whole section in Ephesians chapter 6 about finally being strong in the Lord and in his mighty power because we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and and darkness and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms so the world is working against us our flesh is working against us the enemy is working against us we're in a battle and as as people and God's army we need to recognize this not live and involve ourselves according to civilian worldly standards be separate distinct live by different honor code serve your commanding officer in a way that pleases our Father in heaven and and and that's an important aspect to all of this too how do you please your commanding officer I mean there are a lot of words that can define military loyalty respect honor Duty courage but I think anybody here who has served or presently serves in the the United States military would also recognize that an important word if you're going to please your commanding officer is submission submission to Authority and we are called upon as those in God's army to submit to his authority and to honor him as our commanding officer the United States Armed Forces oath of enlistment ok goes like this I and then you insert your name do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice so help me God now twice and there it speaks about orders orders obedience obedience to the president obedience to those officers appointed over me and when one takes that oath of enlistment you are not your own anymore you belong to the United States government and you no longer have your own choice about things all right you you no longer will decide what you want to eat or whether you want to wear khakis or army green or whether you want boxers or briefs you will be told you will be told what to wear what to eat when to get up when to go to bed when to burp you will be told everything and we need to understand this and as Christians our mindset needs to be the same thing when we are bought by the blood of Christ you are not your own anymore you belong to your commanding officer and your life now is completely designed in surrender to him and and it's all about obedience at that point and submission to the authority of God in your life if Jesus is Lord of your life that you want to live your life in such a way that conforms and submits to your commanding officer Colossians 1 verse 10 Paul says and we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way and by the way you will not be able to please your commanding officer you will not be able to please the Lord if you are more intent on pleasing people if you're a people pleaser you will not be able to be a god pleaser because if you're more concerned about what others think then you are about what the Lord thinks you will never fully please your Father in heaven Galatians 1:10 Paul says am I now trying to win the approval of manner of God or am I trying to please men if I were still trying to please men I would not be a servant of Christ the second thing that he compares our lives to in this passage is an athlete and he says in verse 5 who competes according to the rules to the rules now there have been some athletes who have competed and some who have competed according to the rules and some who have not competed according to the rules and as a result they've either been disqualified or they've been stripped of a medal or there's an asterisk by their name now in the history books no one has ever won a Super Bowl ring or a pennant or a medal because they cheated they have to obey the rules and if they don't obey the rules and it's discovered then there are consequences mark mcgwire Alex Rodriguez Ben Johnson how many of you remember in the 2000 Olympics some of you weren't even born in 2000 I shudder to think I I was doing I was doing a little devotional for FCA were allowed in Valley High School this past school year and I was giving this illustration and I had to do with the space shuttle disastrous and how many of you were around in 2003 like no hands went up and I'm just like feeling really old right now but anyway in the Summer Olympics 2000 how many of you remember the name Marion Jones so Marion Jones one of the most created women athletes of all time in the 2000 Summer Olympics she won five medals in track and field but she was stripped of all her medals later in her prime she was one of track's first female sports millionaires typically earning anywhere between 70 and 80 thousand per race Plus at least another 1 million dollars from race bonuses and endorsement deals but she was stripped of her medals because of illegal doping and as a result I mean she just lost everything in 2006 she lost her two point five million dollar house in Chapel Hill North Carolina to foreclosure and seven years after winning five medals which were subsequently stripped from her just seven years afterwards Marion Jones was completely broke all because she did not compete according to the rules now some of you like rules and some of you don't it's just a personality thing now let's just be real I'm not gonna shame anybody how many of you you kind of you kind of thrive on the rules it makes you feel safe you kind of know what's right and wrong and you kind of like the rule somebody just see your hand so you kind of like the rules alright how many it depends I know I know but how many of you in general in general kind of think rules are kind of just suggestions let me just see your hands oh yeah okay so now you know you know the ex-cons in the house and but but no seriously I I am I be honest with you I'm kind of a rule person I just kind of feel safe with rules it helps me to know you know what's what's going on but once in a while once in a while I will break the rule just to make myself not so legalistic and I remember I'm in reviewing with my wife and we were we were driving at the post office and there's a one-way sign like only one way in the post office and one way to exit the post office and I was just in one of these moods like you know what I'm just trying to be in a rule follower and I'm just gonna really live on the edge right now and I'm gonna drive against the one-way sign and my wife was just like what are you doing because because she's fine with breaking rules their suggestions to her but for me it was just like I can't be she's like I can't believe you of all people but you know anyway it wasn't like I mean what's gonna happen like the one-way police are gonna put me in jail so I mean I'm still here but but listen some of us like rules and some of us don't but the reality is all of us like rules when it serves us and all of us hate rules when we think that they are restricting us you know if I guarantee if you're getting on an airplane you want your pilot to fly according to the rules alright if you're getting a prescription refilled you want your pharmacist to fill it according to the rules if you have if you have tickets to a baseball game behind home plate and you get there and someone's sitting in your seat you want somebody to show them the rules you do because you you have this is what it says on my ticket now get these people out of my seat so we like rules when they serve us we just don't like rules when we think or we perceive that they restrict us and so therefore sometimes people have certain problems with certain rules in in the Bible because if it doesn't serve us if we think like it restricts us and we don't like those rules but the truth of the matter is that all the rules that God imposes are given to us for our safety our benefit and our protection and here's how you can always appreciate the rules and know that they are for your good that God gives us in the forms of his Commandments because when you really know that the rule giver is good you can always trust that the rules good for you when the rule giver is good when you know that then you can trust that the rules he gives are good for you and so Paul emphasizes here we got to run this race like an athlete and any good athlete has to run according to the rules and then of course he adds there in verse five to receive the victors crown because ultimately this is to cross across the finish line you know it doesn't matter as much how you started your Christian walk some of you started young in your life some of you started really later in your life some of you got off to a great start some of you had kind of a rocky start it doesn't really matter how well you start what matters is how well you finish that we would run the race of the perseverance such that we would get the victors crown so he's pointing to this ultimate time of receiving our ultimate reward going to be with the Lord in heaven you know one of the things clearly that an athlete engages in regularly is discipline an athlete is constantly training and conditioning to be at peak performance so that they can finish well that they can win and in such a way we need to finish and run the race that we might finish well and it's going to take discipline is going to take you know as Christians we have to continually train our our fault life train our lives discipline ourselves in conformity to the Word of God living by the rules so that we might do well this is why Paul would write in first Corinthians 9 do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize run in such a way is to get the prize everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training they do it to get a crown that will not last talking about the Olympic Games but we do it we run the race of Christianity to get a crown that will last forever forever so he exhorts us here live the Christian life like a good soldier live a Christian life like an athlete and then finally this is all we're gonna get through for tonight but to also live your life like a farmer and I love the way that he describes a farmer here he says he says in verse six the hard-working farmer noticed the adjectives a uses to describe the farmer the hard-working farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops now I'm not a farmer i I do boast of having a farmer's tan however but that doesn't make me an expert in farming however I think all of us can agree whether you know much about farming or little about farming that farmers work hard they are hard-working people they are the salt of the earth my my wife's grandparents ran a large farm in Michigan for many years and and her grandfather and grandmother that they've both now gone to be with the Lord but I knew them for many years because they didn't go on to be with the Lord until just a few years ago in their 90's and and they were some of the most hard-working honest people that you'd ever want to meet who love Jesus and that's typical of farmers they are hard-working people they are up before sunrise they they they work all day long they they're just hard-working people and that's the word that he uses to emphasize here now he talks about that they might share in the produce that they might be able to enjoy the first of the crops and we all understand that in farming there's there are seasons there there's the plowing and then there's the the planting and then there's the reaping and then there's the fallow ground period before you do that process all over again the Christian life is somewhat like that you know there are times that you're gonna find that the Lord is just plowing up stuff in your life and that you didn't even know is there and you have you ever worked the soil before and you just see all these rocks that start coming up and you know that's how God sometimes will work with us he starts plowing our hearts and exposing some stuff that needs to be dug up and sometimes there's a plowing season in your life when god's just like plowing me he's just like digging up stuff that he wants to get rid of in my life other times it's the planting season in your life you know you're here tonight weird of god's being planted in your heart and there are times that you just no the planting and the growing season and then there's the then there's the fruitful season but you know but in the process of all that there's there's rainy days too and some of you are like you know I'm kind of in the rainy day period right now and there's all kinds of stuff like that and I think the analogy here just speaks of the different ways that the Christian life is much like that sometimes it's plowing sometimes it's planting sometimes it is reaping but the harvest comes when we don't give up the harvest doesn't come overnight you know no farmer can hasten the fruitfulness of his crop he just has to be patient he's does his part and then he's wait and the Bible reminds this Paul says in collect Galatians 6 8 and 9 the one who sews using this again he's using like farming analogy here the one who sews to please this sinful nature from that nature will reap destruction the one who sews to please the spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life let us not become weary and doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up so live your life like a soldier wanting to please your commanding officer like an athlete living according to the rules that you might finish well and like a farmer different seasons but eventually we will reap a harvest if we don't give up well pick it up there next week read ahead let's pray Lord we thank you for this time that we've had in your word tonight now as we go about to enjoy some fellowship we just ask you Lord to bless our time and just continue to use these verses to minister to our hearts Lord we pray that you would find us faithful in these ways that like a soldier we would just want to please you as our commanding officer that we would not involve ourselves in civilian affairs but we would live according to a different code of honor to please you and to honor you as our commanding officer as our Lord we pray like an athlete Lord that we would compete according to the rules that your commands are not burdensome because you've given these good rules to us as a good father that our lives might be blessed and protected may we finish well as we run the race with perseverance and like a good farmer lord may we work hard may we be careful to guard what has been entrusted to us and may we wait patiently serving you waiting on you not giving up so that we might reap a harvest of righteousness Lord and we thank you together in Jesus name and all God's people said amen and amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 2,112

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Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Calvary Chapel

Id: QrD-q_xfXmU

Length: 33min 47sec (2027 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019