2 Timothy 3:1

0:00 All righty. Good evening, church. It's a privilege to be able to bring God's word to a congregation that I love. Our sermon text this evening is going to be in 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. If you don't have a Bible, the verse is printed on your bulletin. But I encourage you to grab one of the pew Bibles and open up to 2 Timothy 3, 1. That's going to be on page 996 of those Bibles. We will make reference to some of the verses around our verse tonight.

0:33 2 Timothy 3.1, that's where we're going to be. I'm going to go ahead and read through verse 5. I'm going to pray again, and then we will get into it. All right, so 2 Timothy 3.1 says, But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.

1:14 Let's pray one more time. Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for the great privilege to be here to sit under your word. I pray that you would help all of us, myself included, to hear your word, to sit humbly under it, and that you would equip us for every good work of ministry, Lord, that we would behold your glory in this text, and that we would be transformed into the image of your son. We ask all these things in Jesus Christ's name, amen. Well, I grew up in the buckle of the Bible Belt, the Texas-sized buckle of the Bible Belt, and it was a great experience.

1:47 I loved growing up in church. I loved hearing Bible stories. I praise God, came to faith at a young age. It was a great experience. One of the downsides sometimes, though, of growing up in Christian culture is some of the ideas that can affect negatively the Christian mind. So particularly in my area in Texas, that would have been the Left Behind series and certain aspects of dispensationalism to where it would create so much angst where people would turn on the news, open a newspaper, and be like, are we in the last days?

2:18 What's going on here? And you would just hear this over and over again of, like, what are the signs of the time? I mean, like, seriously, growing up, it'd be like any time Obama went to the bathroom, it'd be like, we're in the last days. Oh, my gosh, I can't believe this is happening. And it would just freak people out. Well, our text this evening is not about the last days per se, but about what to expect within the last days. Our verse comes to us in the letter of 2 Timothy, which you may be familiar, was written by the Apostle Paul. And it's his last of the letters in the New Testament.

2:51 At this point, he's experienced in his ministry as an apostle, as a pastor and missionary. And now as Paul is nearing the end of his life, he's in chains. And he's writing to his disciple Timothy, who's a young pastor in Ephesus. And Paul writes with urgency to Timothy to guard the gospel. And to raise up fellow pastors who will strengthen the churches in sound teaching and living. And Paul is trying to tell Timothy he knows that this task will not be easy. And so writes our verse to Timothy to remind him of that, which leads to the point of this text.

3:25 He's writing to Timothy to tell him pastors need to know that ministry in the last days will have seasons of difficulty. Now, I need to give a big caveat to this because some of you guys just checked out when I said this is written, you know, specifically to pastors. Well, it also has application to us in this room. Look over at 1 Timothy 4, verse 22. It says, the Lord be with your spirit. That's to Timothy. Paul's writing to Timothy. And then it says, grace be with you. If you'll notice the ASV footnote, that's also to y'all.

3:56 So how this applies to us, how this is God's word to us. It's like Paul is having a personal yet public conversation with Timothy as a pastor. And by extension to the y'all, which is the church. And the Holy Spirit comes behind that and says all y'all, which is us in this room. So it's not just for pastors. It's for people like us who are called and equipped for the work of ministry as church members. And so, with that caveat in mind, here is the point of the sermon. Christian, know that in the last days, you will have difficulties in ministry.

4:30 Christian, know that in the last days, you will have difficulties in ministry. We're going to break this down into two points. Point number one, the last days. Point number two, difficulties in ministry. We'll get into point number one. Hopefully, we won't be spending long on this point. But to clear up the confusion around the last days, we do need to talk about that. So, when are the last days? When are they coming? Well, I'm not going to bury the lead. The answer is, we are indeed in the last days.

5:02 Ever since Jesus' ascension, we have been living the last days. Jesus ascends up to be at the Lord, sit at the right hand of the Father, and his apostles get equipped for ministry on the day of Pentecost. They're filled with the Holy Spirit. And what does Peter do? Peter sees this. He preaches. He references the Old Testament prophet Joel, who says that in the last days, the Spirit will be poured out. And Peter says, that's happening now. That's right here. So you don't have to have angst about when the last days are happening. You're in them. The author of Hebrews points this out in Hebrews 1-2 if you want to look there. So it's better to think about the last days, not necessarily as a series of days that we need to worry about, but a whole age. So basically for the past 2,000 years, we've been in an age known as the last days. So what does this fact that we live in the last days mean for us? Well, first and foremost, you don't have to worry about when the last years are coming. You're living in them. But that should sober us to the

6:04 fact that we are living in the end times, so to speak, and that as we walk our Christian life and we seek to be faithful in ministry here at Third Avenue Baptist Church, it should sober us, which we'll talk about in point number two. But before I move on to point number two, I think it would be cruel for me to not address one group of people here in the room. If you're not a believer, you really do need to understand that we're living in the last days. And yet God has been gracious to make this age extend far beyond. But you need to grasp the fact that Jesus is returning. He is coming. And you, friends, stand condemned in your sin before a holy God.

6:47 And you may be tempted to think, I live in a pretty great time in the world. Things look great. we have more amazing technology, people are living longer, we're talking about going to Mars. But friend, the world is coming to an end. Not because of climate change or whatever of us mismanaging the planet. It's ending because Jesus is coming to judge it and to make all things new. And for Christians, we just prayed for that day to come because we cannot wait to be with our Savior. But for you, friend, you stand condemned. And yet God graciously has extended this age that If you turn from your sin and you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you will be forgiven and you will pray with us, Lord Jesus, come again. And if you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus, grab me, grab a church member. We would love to talk to you about what it means to place your faith and trust in Jesus. So now that we've cleared that up of last days, we're living in them there now, now we can understand the difficulty that we will have in ministry. So really, we can change

7:50 our main point to this. Christian, since we are in the last days, know that you will have difficulties in ministry. Which brings us to point number two, difficulty in ministry. Paul wants Timothy to know and understand that in his ministry there will be difficulty. Now, what is this difficulty that he's talking about? Well, it's not just, you know, general suffering. It's not just, you know, diagnoses or things going wrong. It's not even just nearly a bad day at work. It's specifically the difficulty that Timothy is going to face in ministry as defined by verses 2 through 5 that follow. The difficulty is all the stubborn ways people and false teachers will reject Timothy in the ministry of the work. Now, I should note that Paul is not saying that ministry will always be difficult. After all, he himself is very encouraged by Timothy as a young pastor and how he's being faithful. But Timothy also needs to know that there will come seasons, whether long

8:55 or short, of difficulty and challenges in ministry. Pastors like Timothy need to know that ministry is not always smooth sailing. Storms will come that require skill in navigating, and ministry in these last days will be difficult. So what does this verse mean for us? Well, I think there's three groups of people that it'd be helpful to apply this to here in our congregation. First pastors, aspiring pastors, and then us as church members as a whole. To the pastors of Third Avenue Baptist Church, I know you guys are already well acquainted with this. You guys know about difficult seasons of ministry, and I know one in particular. And many of you have navigated that, all of you, have navigated that so faithfully. And so just as a member of this church, I just want to say thank you for the work that you guys have done in very difficult seasons of ministry, dealing with tough cases that require so much wisdom to navigate. And so thank you for being faithful

10:00 in those seasons. But I think also Paul writes to remind you there are still difficult seasons to come. So be prepared for that and continue to be faithful. And we as a church, we can continue in what we just did, which is praying for elders meetings. Not just seeing that as a list of items that they go through on the docket, but they're caring for souls and dealing with difficult situations. And so we need to be faithful to pray for our pastors in this difficult labor of ministry. The second group I want to talk to is aspiring pastors. Thankfully, we have a lot of guys in this room that want to go into pastoral ministry. And humbly, myself, that's what I would love to do one day. And a verse like this should sober the men in this room who are aspiring to that office that ministry is not easy. It's definitely not about fame and being praised.

10:55 there are times that it requires going through some difficult seasons and having to endure slander and stubbornness from members and people outside the church. So for those of us who are aspiring to this task of being pastors, we need to now cultivate in ourselves a heart that fears God rather than man, that trusts in the power of the Holy Spirit and humbly submits and uses the word to warn rebuke and admonish one another and to do that faithfully now to be prepared to have conversations our conversations with people now before we step into those roles so if you're here and you're aspiring to the the call being a pastor that should sober you that in these last days what you're signing up for will have difficulty and challenges finally last in the the biggest group that I want to address here is church members. I don't know if you've maybe heard rumblings of

11:57 this rumor here at Third Avenue, but I think sometimes we sometimes refer to ourselves as a seminary church. As, you know, it's mainly just people that come up here from seminary to do ministry. That's false. This is a church, which means every single one of us is called into the task of ministry. Pastors like Timothy are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Ministry is not something that we watch people do on stage. It's something that we do every Sunday when we gather. It's something that we do every, all throughout the week. I mean, think even this morning of our church covenant that we read this morning, that we so casually read when we practice of the Lord's Supper. I don't know if you've actually considered this line. One of the lines that we say is that we will exercise a Christian care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully warn, rebuke, and admonish one another as the case shall require. Do you understand that that

13:00 is often a difficult task, this ministry that we have as church members? I mean, think about, you know in light of it was recently pointed out just how many more uh church discipline cases we've had to deal with uh here at third third recently uh and a lot of times we're exhorted in those cases of having to go in and confront members about their sin do you recognize that's that's a difficult task and yet that's something that we're called and equipped to do to tell people if they're leaving this church to go somewhere else they need to join a church because that's what's best for them. If they're stuck in sin, they need to be rebuked of that, and not just something that we pass off to the pastors. That's our role as church members, is to also warn, rebuke, and admonish one another as the case shall require. And so we need, as church members, to be prepared for difficult seasons. We need to be prepared to have difficult conversations with stubborn people. We need to be prepared to have those conversations sometimes over and over again. Be prepared to get

14:03 up early. Be prepared to have late night conversations and have those difficult moments in ministry. And one of the things that I am encouraged as I say this is I see this broadly happening throughout our church of people regularly having hard conversations with people, asking for prayer to give wisdom in those tough situations where we have to navigate just the difficult aspects of being a church member. And yet, I'm so encouraged to hear stories over and over again of people who go and have those conversations and then see fruit.

14:43 So church, keep at it. Keep being a faithful church member despite the difficult seasons that you may face. And remember this. Jesus has our example in this. Jesus endured a difficult season in ministry. He faced the stubbornness of the Pharisees. He faced betrayal by one of his disciples and being deserted. He faced beating and mocking to the point of death. But he died and rose again so that by the power of his spirit, we would be equipped for every good work in ministry and there will be uh difficult seasons in ministry so this afternoon early evening we've seen how paul writes to timothy reminding him of the difficulty that ministry will be in the last days and as a reminder of us that church since we are in the last days know that we will know that you will face difficulties in ministry.

15:43 And if Jesus endured this, then by his spirit, so can we. We are equipped for that task. Are you up for it? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for this wonderful day that you've given us. Lord, I thank you for this church. I thank you for saving our church members and for calling us into the work of being church members. I pray that you would be with our pastors, that you would continue to equip them and that you would equip our church to be faithful in ministry, both in the easy times and in the difficult seasons, Lord.

16:18 We thank you for your goodness to us and know that you will be with us every step of the way by your spirit. We ask all these things Jesus Christ's name. Amen.