SAY IT OUT LOUD
Keep the Faith
TRUST THE TRUTH WILL WORK AND ENDURE
1. God gives clear ___________ to His ________.
2. _________ what you follow: Truth or _____.
3. There are ______ ________ and ______ _______.
4. The truth is Jesus _______ _____ _____ _________.
Welcome to worship today at Morrison Zion Lutheran Church. We exist to glorify God. We have set out to do this by gathering around the Gospel so that we may grow in the Gospel and go to others with this Gospel.
SERMON
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, our Lord:
This is an instruction manual that we needed just because I recently bought a dehumidifier for our basement. I went downstairs and the old one started smoking and making a lot of noise, so I thought I should get a new one. If you’re like me (I know it’s Father’s Day), sometimes people like to pull out those instructions and be like, “I don’t need those. I can figure this out myself.” But more and more, even the things like the dehumidifier, before you had one button and you put the humidity percentage you wanted it on and that was pretty much it. Now there are very few things it says and there are apps and all these things. If you don’t have the directions, it’s pretty hard to figure out what you need to do and how to make things run. It could be pretty challenging if you don’t have the directions.
Years and years ago, I remember I had only spent a year or two in China and I was visiting one of my siblings and they bought a big book shelf or something. In those days (15-some years ago), if you bought things online, sometimes from China, they didn’t give you very good directions. Sometimes it was weird or actually only in Chinese. So my brother gave me the directions and said “Read this.” I tried to do my best, but if you don’t have the directions, you can have a pile of wood and a bunch of pieces and you can try to figure it out, but it’s quite a struggle. Sometimes in our pride, we can say “I don’t need directions,” but there are a lot of times in life where if we don’t have directions, we’re going to be in a hard place. We’re not going to know what to do or where to go, and how to really do what is right.
Today as we look at Paul’s letter to Timothy, we are going to see that he gives directions. He gives directions to pastors, to God’s people, but most of all, he is going to guide us to trust the truth will work and endure. This is what we can know from the hope and the direction that he gives us. Why we look at these words and put a little more weight on these directions is because at the end of 2 Timothy, you can hear it in his words, Paul is facing the end of his life. He has been arrested. He has been put on trial and arrested for his faith a few times. Now he is in prison and this time he is pretty sure he’s not going to be released like he had been before. So he’s facing the truth and we’re going to hear that in his words. But when people know that their end is close, that God is calling them home, they might share some very important words for you from their life and encouragement for you and how to live.
So Paul is writing to Timothy, one who here on Father’s Day, he is going to call him a brother in faith, but for Paul, Timothy was like a spiritual son, one who became a pastor and leader and one that was very close, so he is sharing these encouraging words with this son in the faith. He says: 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: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. God gives clear direction to His people. He is clearly telling Timothy and then other people what to do. Here he is encouraging them. He is saying “I give you this charge, Timothy. This is what you are to do.” What is the first thing we need to see as we look at the different people that Paul is encouraging—pastors, those spiritual leaders. They are to preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. We say, “We know this,” but maybe this is good to examine.
Just under a week ago, we had a Call Meeting for our Unified Ministries of Living Savior. We called our pastors. We called our teachers. But in that call for the pastors, the outreach pastor and the discipleship pastor, we had the roles that the pastors should fulfill. As we come together in Unified Ministry, isn’t this what we want to be asking? What should our pastors be doing? As we gather together, isn’t this what we get to look at and say “Pastors can do a lot of things, but what do we want them to focus on?” It’s pretty clear. Preach the Word, correct, rebuke and encourage, and see that we are going to publicly teach and preach. We are going to be given authority to do this, we have a call. Notice what it is going to be focused on—to preach the Word, to be focused on Jesus. How can we do this? Notice it says correct, rebuke and encourage, but not just to correct, rebuke and encourage but to do so with great patience and careful instruction.
Do you like to be rebuked? I don’t think there is anyone that thinks “I love it when people rebuke me.” Do we like to be corrected? I know through my kids and other things, no one likes to be corrected. Kids, do you like to correct each other? Kids love to correct their parents. It’s very easy to do it but it’s hard to do so with patience and to do so carefully. So we ask God to give us guidance and to have the time to do this, and the energy and the want to do this and to be able to spend time with people to be able to do these things.
The things that we really want to do are to be preaching the Word, to be focusing on Jesus and then encourage it. I know there are people out there that need that encouragement. There are also people out here that need to be corrected and rebuked. This is why we come to church, to hear that Law and Gospel.
What is that encouragement for God’s people? Notice it says: For the time will come when people 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. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. Here he is telling the situation, but I think there is some direction for everyone in this, all of God’s people. What we should be careful about is to examine what you follow: truth or fad. Is it something that is deceiving you? Is it something new? Or we could even say something new that is as old as time, as old as that first sin in the Garden of Eden—that people don’t want to go after the truth of what God’s Word is. We don’t like that correction and rebuke. We want to go after our own sinful desires (do what feels good) (if it makes you happy, then it can’t be wrong). This is what our hearts tell us. This is what the world tells us. So it’s new things. You can say they’re fads, but they’re lies and there is always something out there that is trying to change Christianity, change the focus from Jesus and the Bible. “Maybe you can find something if you really search the Scripture. You open it up and look at these names and these genealogies and maybe if you map it out with the stars and you bring this in…” There are all sorts of things people want. Maybe they want a “sign,” something more because the Word isn’t enough. The encouragement for pastors is to teach the Word and for God’s people to examine their hearts and understand whether we are looking for the truth, looking to be corrected and rebuked, and to be encouraged.
What happens if we don’t follow the directions or, in the same way as that dehumidifier or a couple of air conditioners that I have, those window units that don’t really blow cold air anymore, what good is that? If a pastor isn’t doing the work, if they’re not preaching, if they’re not focusing on Jesus, if they’re not using the Law, what good are they for? Or if we, as people, stop examining ourselves and start going after everything else, we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do, then we’ve lost the faith. We are going after other things and we’re not doing what God has created us and seeks us to do—to be found in Him and to find that true peace.
Why is it easy to do that, to stray or go after all these things? Notice what Paul says to Timothy. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. Then he says this about himself. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Paul is telling Timothy and reminding people about himself that there are really hard fights and long races in life. As we go out and share the truth, should we expect things to just go nice and smooth? As we share the Gospel, as we defend what the Bible says, as I use what Scripture has been saying for centuries, for millennia, are we going to be surprised that people will persecute us for sharing about Jesus? Or maybe it’s not just sharing my faith but understanding that there will be hardships when we do the right thing. We’re living in a sinful world. There will be difficulties, of sicknesses, of loss, of pain.
Why are we so surprised when life is difficult, when things are hard in family, when relationships break down? Did anything ever promise that life was easy? Where did we get the idea that life is so easy, that there are no difficulties in life? It’s another fad, another lie that the world tells us. But we live in this sinful world, so we shouldn’t be surprised when difficulties come, when hardships come just for being in this world, but then especially for sharing our faith and living like a Christian. We don’t have to waver. We can hold on and understand that God is with us in those times. He is going to help us in those hardships and we can realize that there is something better. There is something more. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. As we sang in the hymn, He’s protecting us in all things.
This is really what Paul focuses on. He says: Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. He says he has fought the great fight, he has finished the race, and what is in store is a crown of righteousness. Why? The righteous Judge will award it to him because of faith, not because of his works, not because he was this amazing evangelist. He calls himself the greatest of sinners. The truth is that Jesus gives you the victory. Through faith, through grace, through Christ alone we have peace and hope. This is a huge encouragement. This is what fills us with joy. It’s having the end in sight.
If you go on road trips, summer is the time of traveling, plane flights, vacation, and those trips can be very tiring, delayed flight, a lot of exhaustion, or long road trips. Either the excitement of getting to the vacation destination makes it all worth it or maybe it’s getting back home, having the destination and end in sight. Doesn’t that make it all really worth it, the hard times, the difficulties? That helps us in our Christian life. That’s not all that Jesus is for us. It’s not just for heaven. It’s knowing that in a world that doesn’t understand suffering and pain, God says He is making everything new and He is going to give us the crown of righteousness. This is what is ahead. This is why we gather together.
I have to use this example from our Sunday night book study because it really ties in everything of why we come together here and the work of a pastor, these directions for us, and the directions to be here. We are reading this book called Vocation and the writer is talking about worship. He says in our life, we try to do so much good. We try to worship God and serve God and it’s kind of like throwing a bucket of water up into the air, but God’s love for us is a waterfall. God’s love for us through Jesus, of dying for us, of being in our place, of rising from the dead, of giving us peace and hope and forgiveness is this waterfall that rushes down on us over and over again. When you come in here and in the beginning of the worship service we confess our sins and you hear that you’re forgiven, a redeemed child of God, and you are able to take the Lord’s Supper and you receive that forgiveness of sins, it’s this waterfall of God’s love.
So we do worship. We do give that thanks back, but have you ever thrown a bucket of water up into a waterfall? It doesn’t do a whole lot because we don’t come here for God to be fulfilled or for Him to get our worship because He doesn’t really need it. But our worship here is for us to get filled up, to be corrected, and to be rebuked, to let that Law sink into our hearts but then to be encouraged and to be filled up so that we can go out and as we worship and love God, to throw that water back up into the air so it comes back down on us and others. We hold onto this truth because this truth of the Gospel, this truth of salvation in Jesus, it truly works and endures.
There are so many things in life, struggles and hardships. You know this is true. You’ve experienced them. But Jesus is here to give you the peace and victory and hope that nothing else can. So go out and examine. Look at the truth and say “Where is that truth found most?” It’s found in Jesus, that He is your Savior, the one who redeems you and gives you the victory and crown of righteousness. Amen.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) Amen.