Life in the Last Days

Tom Shrader examines Paul's final instructions to Timothy about living in the difficult last days, which span from Christ's ascension to His return. He contrasts the self-centered, pleasure-loving culture described in 2 Timothy 3 with Paul's example of faithful teaching, conduct, and perseverance through trials. Shrader emphasizes that all Scripture is God-breathed and serves as our reliable guide for teaching, correction, and training in righteousness, equipping believers to navigate a confusing world.

“When suffering comes, and you see that's where he's going, it becomes a character revealer at the outset showing you exactly where you are, but as you respond to it and grapple with this, it becomes a character builder.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: CBCC August 2008

Recorded: 2008 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 1 hr 5 min

Themes: faithfulness, perseverance, trials, scripture, teaching, guidance, righteousness, endurance, pastor, mentor, teacher, facing difficult times, living in secular culture, young minister, spiritual leader, navigating worldly pressures

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 2 Timothy 3:10-17, 2 Timothy 3:12, Matthew 6, James 1:2, Matthew 18, Acts 17

Theological Themes: biblical authority, god-breathed scripture, sanctification, pastoral ministry, spiritual warfare, eschatology, last days, biblical inerrancy

Full Transcript

I was in the back. I stopped and got coffee this morning, and I don't know if they gave me a trick glass or what, but I had coffee all down the front of me, so Susan ran over to get me a shirt so that I would look presentable for you.

Tonight, make sure you remember that sandcastle competition. Get that on your schedule. I think this sandcastle thing is very competitive. I think sabotaging other people's stuff is OK. There are no rules. These are jungle rules. You are out to win. That's all that matters. Creativity, whatever it takes. Sabotage, do it, and be competitive. Plus, the judges, at least one of them, the talented one, he's not above a little payola. Last year, a guy with a pile and a stick on it won when Chris was judging. It didn't take a lot, just a new wing on the house, a new bedroom or something.

We are glad that you're here. This is our last day. We head out tomorrow morning, so we head back, and we're back on vacation, although this is not exactly terrible work up here. We'll be back next year. We are here in May for a seniors conference. That should be interesting. Retirees, me and the retirees, and then we're here for a full week next summer. I think it's at the end of July, first of August, so maybe we'll see some of you there.

I can tell you right now, we're going to study next summer too. We're going to do a flyover of the Gospel of John. Take 12 weeks, or 12 sessions, a flyover of the Gospel of John. It'll feel like 12 weeks to you, probably, but it'll be 12 sessions.

Our Study of 2 Timothy

We are studying 2 Timothy, and I hope you get it as we look at this too. This too is a flyover. You can see chunks of this we haven't handled. There are just great verses in there. You even sang one of them as it related to what we talked about yesterday that Paul says, I really am in a position where I know who I believe, and I am convinced He's able to guard that that I've entrusted to Him. Wonderful book.

Paul, at the end of his life, that's what we're going to talk about tonight too. Tonight's my favorite part, to be honest, of the whole book. But Paul is writing this word of instruction and encouragement, warning to this young man, Timothy, to us as well.

Remember where we were last night? In the last days. Are we in the last days? You bet we are. It's that time from when Jesus ascends to when He returns. Difficult times will come, and Paul said, here's what people are going to be like. They're going to be lovers of self and lovers of money. And as a result of that, if you can just imagine that, if you can imagine somebody who loves themselves and loves the material world, then they are going to be all those things that you see there in verse two, three and four.

The Character of the Last Days

As I said, they're almost like dominoes. These will be people who will be boastful, arrogant revilers. Relationships will be broken. These are people who see themselves as the center of the universe. You live in a country right now which may be ungovernable.

I didn't do this disclaimer the first day. I am a pessimist. I believe that the glass is half empty and leaking like a sieve. I am not optimistic. Now, I know Jesus and I'm optimistic in this sense, but I don't look around and go, oh my golly, everything is getting better. I don't see that.

You live at a time when you have a country that really almost has 300 million special interest groups, each one of us coming to the government saying, what are you going to do for me? I can't resist this. Just an observation. We have this oil crisis, and now it's, Barack, what are you going to do? John, what are you going to do? Congress, what are you going to do? Oil was $160 a barrel when they recessed. It's $100 now. So maybe if they don't do anything, we're better off. That's my general observation. I'm not looking for Washington to fix hardly anything but the roads.

But I digress. There will be a time when people will be lovers of self and lovers of money. And what you get out of all this other stuff is, therefore, life is going to be tough. Marriages won't be able to last because you have two people who are saying, what about me? What about me? What about me? Families will be broken apart. People will be essentially impossible to manage and to direct. Very, very difficult times.

The Heart of the Problem

And at their core, remember we saw last night verse 4? At their core, people are going to love pleasure, really important now. Now, in my Bible, I've got this next word yellowed and underlined. Rather than love God. It's not that they love pleasure more than God. They love pleasure instead of God.

And in the midst of all of this, though they've cast out the one true God, in the midst of all of this, they still cling to a form of godliness, but they deny its power and the power is the gospel. So they will make gods in their own image. We've sung about it three times that I can remember since we've been here, about casting down idols, turning away from idols.

It's so important for us to understand that an idol is anything that takes a place in our life that should be reserved for God. So you live in a time where people are consumed with idols. I think we tend to think of an idol being a stone or a tree or some object, but anything that has that place in our life that is reserved for God is an idol. So these people become idol worshippers, making up their own religions.

Biblical Christianity Versus Everything Else

Let me say it again because it's so passionate for me, is that when it comes to spiritual things, you've got biblical Christianity and then everything else. Here's biblical Christianity. That's the Christianity that flows from the scripture. It's the gospel itself.

So we used to, at our church, really say we were Christ-centered, Christ-focused. We've dropped that. And we really talk more now about being gospel-centered. The reason is we've found so many liberal, lousy churches who are following Christ, here you go, teaching. We saw that we were confusing people with this.

Here's a guy to me. I love this as an icon, as a picture of grace. You take Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi, who by every human evaluation is to be admired for sure. But Gandhi said, here's the deal: I follow the teachings of Christ, I read the gospels every day, but I refuse to believe that Jesus or any other human could die in my place. That's why we say Gandhi, based on His own profession, and assuming He didn't change, is the nicest man in hell.

On the other side of the coin, now this is a little bit scary, is Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer, if I can remind you for just a second, is a man who was luring boys and young men to His apartment, having sex with them, cutting them up and eating them. Supposedly when Dahmer got to prison, one of the things that happened to Him is that God saved Him. He was baptized there. So Dahmer, this despicable man, is going to be in heaven, with a mansion next to yours. So I might lock the doors just at night, just to be sure, because I don't know if He's fully recovered from all of these things.

But you know what, I love that picture, because now we see that salvation is not based on anything that we do, but utterly of God. It takes no more grace to save a Jeffrey Dahmer than it does to save you. So that's biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity uniquely consumed with the idea of grace. All religion has with it, at some part, something that you do. So they are godly, godless people. And that's the warning. That's the warning that Paul gives to Timothy, and that's the world you live in. It's so important to understand that. It's so important for us.

That's why even if I'm at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center, there will be three or four times in the course of seven talks where I'll come back again and again and again to the heart of the gospel, because my assumption is not all of us are followers of Christ believing in the gospel. I do it at church all the time. I do it with the staff. We keep that in front of us.

Paul's Example to Follow

Look at verse 10. So here's a contrast. Again, part of what I like about this study is to appeal to you to go ahead and start to study chunks of scripture on your own. So when you see a word like but, you know Paul here is beginning to give us a contrast. "But you followed my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my perseverance, my persecution and suffering, such as it happened to me at Antioch and at Iconium and Lystra, what persecution I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me."

Paul now speaks to Timothy and He offers this word of encouragement. Instead of being like those in the last days, He's talking about the last days, He's given us some concrete examples of some bad guys who were opposed to the truth, but He said, you're different. You follow me.I remember, again, the first time I remember reading through scripture and Paul said, follow me. And I thought, that is a very bold statement. That's a very bold thing to say. You want a role model, I'm it, is in essence what He's saying. But He says, you follow me, how? As I follow Christ.

Let me say it again, and I'll mention it tonight and I mentioned it yesterday. Paul is not exceptional in this. This is what you're supposed to be able to say to the men and the women and the young students and the children around you. Follow me. Do as I say and do as I do.

Living Lives Worth Following

This morning, and it happens almost every day, Susan will talk to each of the girls and Brayden is old enough to get on the phone now and talk a little bit. And I don't catch all of what He's saying, but it's, what doing? That's what He'll say. What doing? And I say, well, I'm not doing anything. What are you doing? Can I cut your tongue? And I said, that must be painful. And it's just these meaningless conversations.

But they were talking about some bad behavior that He incorporated the other day, and we're trying to dissect this to see where He picked this up. It's just instinctive, and it is instinctive, by the way. He's a little sinner. But also, He was mimicking the people around Him. And I'm really reminded of that with these little kids, that they watch everything.

Remember, the first anti-smoking message advertisement I ever saw was a little kid, remember the little kid sitting under the tree, and He was smoking a cigarette because He wanted to be just like His daddy. You and I are supposed to live lives where, like Paul, we say, follow me. None of this don't, you know, do as I say, not as I do stuff.

Following in Paul's Footsteps

And then let's just break it down real fast. Paul says, here's the deal. And when He's talking about follow, it's literally retrace my steps. When I was a young man, my dad was insistent. We went to church all the time, and one winter day we had snow, snow so thick and high and heavy that early on, you know, the night before they canceled school the next day. So I'm thinking, this is perfect, but my dad says, we're going to go to church.

So we can't drive. So we are walking down one of the busiest streets that we have, and there's no cars on it. And my dad is going like this to get through the snow. And I had no shot at this. So what I was doing was literally following in His footsteps. I would put my feet exactly where His feet had been. That's the idea that's encompassed in this word follow.

Follow my teaching. You with me here, verse 10? Follow my teaching. And by that, He means the doctrine. It's not the instruction. It's not the act of this. It's what He's teaching as well. Follow my teaching and follow my lifestyle, my daily living, my behavior. Well, we can stop right here and say, is your lifestyle worth following? One night, this couple said, "We want to come over and we want to meet with you and Susan." This was years and years and years ago. They came over, and I couldn't really figure out what it was. They said, "We've been married a while, and we think it's time to have kids. We're talking about having kids. But you and Susan are the only two people who are around who seem to talk positively about the experience. Talk to us about having kids and raising kids."

I know all the cheap throwaway lines. "Oh, you know, once they get about 12, you want to lock them in the closet and let them back out when they're 18." I hear those kinds of comments all the time. Even when they're teasing, they're the wrong things to be saying.

I have no problem. Give me a bunch of junior high and high school kids. I'm very comfortable with that. You just treat them like an adult. You give them the truth. You show them how to live. Everybody's watching everything. That's so important for you to understand.

Following Paul's Conduct and Values

You need to be able to say, "Follow my conduct. Have the same values. The same lifestyle. The same approach to life. The same approach to kids. The same approach to life that I have." These are big statements.

He said, "Have my purpose." It relates to this. This is an important word, purpose. It means his personal motive for service. Why he does what he does. You need to be able to answer that question. Why do you do what you do?

Finding Purpose in Life's Transitions

I'll be really autobiographical here. I've spent the last year and a half, kind of trying to figure out parts of my life and transitioning one part into another. I'm really done with this area. It'll be interesting to get home to do a little assessment to see how it went with me not there in some of these areas.

I'll be 59 in November. It's the first time in a long time that I'm not exactly sure what I want to do or why I want to do it. I've kind of done a bunch of stuff, and I'm not sure what I want to invest the next 10 years of my life. I figure that gets me to 69 or 70. That's got to be about it for me. What do I want to do with that? What's my purpose?

Well, the overarching purpose is this. In Matthew chapter 6, Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Don't you be worried about what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, all that stuff. God's going to take care of that. But seek first His kingdom." Then how does that begin to flesh itself out in your life? To be able to sit down on a sheet of paper and say, here are my priorities.

God as Priority Within Context

I'm going to tell you something that somebody taught me because one time I was talking about my priorities. I said, "Well, my priority is God and then my wife and so on." He came up afterwards and said, "I'd like to correct you." I said, "Okay." He said, "I don't think God should be your number one priority." I said, "Really?"

He said, "Yeah. I think when you do that, and this is really profound, when you have this list and you have God up here, then when you do the God thing, you kind of check it off, and then you go to this and then you go to this and then you go to this. I don't think that's right. Whatever you are doing, God is the priority within that context." So, if you're talking about your relationship with Susan, God's the priority within that concept of the relationship with Susan.

I just did a men's conference, and I didn't talk anything about being a dad or being a husband. It drives these guys nuts because they all want to talk about that. When I love Jesus more, I'm a better husband. If my relationship with Christ is vibrant, my relationship with Susan is vibrant.

The Sacred and Secular Distinction

What Paul is saying is, what is the motive you have for the service you're doing? Why do you do what you do? Can you answer that question?

I have these cards. It's interesting. Remember the old Rockford Files? Jim Rockford would be confronting some sort of situation. He'd pull a little thing out and make a calling card for whatever it was that fit the situation. I have these great calling cards because I have a business one and another one. I have this pastor's card. This pastor's card gets me in all these meetings with these pastors. It's a very interesting group.

They use a term that drives me a little bit nuts. They'll talk about "lay people." I can't stand that. It drives me absolutely crazy because it seems to say, here we are the spiritually endowed people who are in full-time ministry, and then there's the lay people. That is not true. We are all in full-time ministry serving our Lord and Savior. Some of us make a living at it. Some of us are involved in secular type of work. But there really is no distinction between the secular and the sacred, is there? As long as you make that distinction, your life will be deficient.

When you go to work at Boeing, you go to work to serve the Lord in the context of Boeing, and it's as sacred as working at East Valley Bible Church. That's the purpose. Why are you doing what you do?

Engaging with the World Around Us

What about the world that we live in? I do this thing in the summer called Hot Summer Nights, which works out perfect in Phoenix because it is summer and it's hot. What I do is invite people that I want to talk to, and then I interview them. We let the church come and listen, and they can ask questions. I do a whole bunch of things that I'm interested in.

We are essentially a white middle-class church, so we did one this summer on what's it like to be black at East Valley Bible Church and talked about cultural differences. I had the mayors of four of our cities in. I was saying, "Listen, we're not here to complain about the streets, although there's one by my house, but..." that. We're here to ask you what can we do to make these the better towns that we live in. And the mayor from Tempe, a University of Chicago law grad, so I knew we had a smart guy there, he said this, "Gosh, how many people are there here tonight?" I said, "Oh, there's about 250 probably." He said, "How many of you are involved in serving in some capacity on a board or a commission or some sort of leadership within your community or within the organizations in your community?" Not one hand went up. And he said, "I'll bet all of you go home and complain about them, don't you?"

See, somehow we think if we're serving on the elder board, that is more important to God than if we're serving somehow within the context of our community to fight back what Satan and evil is happening within that community.

Following Paul's Example

Paul said this, "Listen, you follow me. You follow my teaching and my conduct and my purpose." Here you go. And you have faith—that is faithfulness. And then he has this, look at those words that come next. He talks about patience, love, and perseverance.

Patience is this idea of steadfastness, long-suffering. Love is that unconditional love, that agape love. And perseverance. Perseverance has with it this word that Paul chose here, not so much dealing with difficult people but dealing with difficult circumstances.

Here's what he's saying. I want you to follow me, my teaching, my conduct. I want you to follow my example. As you begin to live life and when you do, you are going to need in that context patience, love, and perseverance. Patience and perseverance. Get this now. You're going to have to deal with difficult people and difficult circumstances.

Dealing with Difficult People

There are going to be people in your life that just drive you crazy. One of the greatest inventions, aside from Thiebaud, that God has ever allowed to be made is caller ID. Caller ID is like the greatest thing in the world. Because you can pick it up and go, "I don't think so. No."

But I bet you would admit that there are certain times when you look at caller ID that you look at it and you almost have a physical reaction to it, don't you? Because you look at that person and you know in just comes mountains of issues. You can be at the mall and see someone. And you see them coming and your whole body begins to change. You have literally a chemical reaction to these people because they come. You just know with them comes this cloud of issues. You have people in your life like that, don't you?

I was talking to a friend one day. We're talking about a mutual friend. And he was saying, "Gosh, he's kind of hard. Doesn't he need to be around?" I said, "Yeah, a little bit." And he said—this is a great word picture—he said, "When I'm done talking to him, I feel like a car that was left in the garage all night with the lights on." It's a great word picture.

Patience Tested and Revealed

But here you go. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. You don't know if you've got patience until God brings into your life people who are irritating. You don't know if you've got patience.

We live three minutes from the church. We moved there for that specific reason. We have a wonderful little house. It's not a big house at all. It's a couple thousand square feet, maybe a little less than that. And it's perfect for us. We can get out of there, and I can be to church in three minutes. The other day, it took me five minutes because of the backup at one light. And by the time I got to church, my day was in jeopardy. I was so screwed up from that extra two minutes that it took me in the car. And just that morning, I was applauding myself while I was showering for the patience I seem to have developed in my life. God brings along. You've got to understand that.

Character: Revealed and Built

Here you go. Do you guys play golf? Do any of you play golf? Some of you do. I don't mean just hit it around. I mean do you play? So you're playing golf. So here's the deal with golf. And this is what I heard all the time going on. Golf is a great character builder. Well, not really. Golf is a great character revealer.

The same thing is true here of perseverance and patience. And he's going to talk about suffering in a minute. So I want to leap ahead and make this connection. This came to me when I was teaching a couple weeks ago. And it is borderline brilliant, clearly profound.

Here's the deal with trials. It's not that trials are great revealers or builders. Get this now. This is really important. They are both. When suffering comes, and you see that's where he's going. He's going here and now into persecution. Verse 12: "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." He's saying in your life is going to come trials, difficulties, perseverance will be necessary.

Well, are these trials and suffering and persecution—are they character revealers or character builders? They're both. Here's what happens. In your life comes this trial, and at the outset, it becomes a character revealer. It shows you exactly where you are. Now as you respond to it, as you interact with it, as you grapple with this, it becomes a character builder. It's both. Isn't that a great idea?

The Purpose of Trials

Along comes this suffering and trials. These situations, people or circumstances that demand that you begin to deal with them. They both reveal where you are at that moment, but God says you don't have to stay there. Because you can forge through this thing, and at the end of this, God's going to build your character.

So a trial comes, sufferings come. We talked about it yesterday. "Count it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." The key word in there is knowing. "Count it all joy when you encounter"—James 1:2—"various trials." The word various means literally multi-colored. They come in all shapes and sizes. What may be a huge trial for you is nothing

God's Purpose in Our Trials

What may be a giant trial for me is nothing for you. Along come these trials that God causes or allows in your life. Why would He do that? For your own good.

I have a list here of reasons why we suffer, have trials. I'm not going to run through the whole list, but some of them I just absolutely love. It produces fruit of patience. And it produces maturity. Here's one of my favorites: trials reveal ourselves to ourselves.

Sometimes you think, man, I've really got this figured out. I've got all this Bible stuff memorized, and I'm really a man of God. I'm really a woman of God. I'm really moving along. And then comes along this small trial even. It could be as simple, and I mean this, as that red light on the way to work. And all of a sudden, God just lifts up the curtain a little bit. You go, you thought you were a giant. You are a midget.

When God Drops Something Huge

And then God drops some huge thing in your life. Something so big that if you knew it were coming and had time to react, you'd say, there's absolutely no way I can handle this. And God drops it in your life. And at the end of the day, you go, you know what? That's pretty amazing.

Think about trials for a minute. I love this exercise. Imagine, and I'm going to give you a few seconds to do it. Imagine that today God was going to give you this enormous trial. Just for sake of your own life, take a second and imagine what a trial like that might be. You get in your mind something like this. Maybe it's the loss of a spouse or the loss of a job or the loss of a child. We tend to think along those lines.

Let me give you a trial I'll guarantee none of you thought about: the trial of prosperity. Thomas Carlyle says this: For every hundred people that can pass the test of adversity, there's only one that can pass the test of prosperity.

The Purpose and Benefits of Trials

Along comes these trials in your life. God causes them or allows them for your own good. Why? So at the end of this, you are stronger.

Tommy Nelson writes this paragraph about trials. I don't typically read a full paragraph, but let me do this. I love this: Trials always have a beneficial purpose. Trials purify you. Trials show you what you are. Whatever comes out of you when you're hit, that's who you really are. That's the character revealer. When you're jostled, trials show that you can't make it on your own.

Trials perfect or complete or mature you. Trials bring you to the end of your physical and intellectual rope. Trials make you pray. Trials make you go to the Word. Trials make you trust. Trials make everything you heard on Sunday become real. Trials make you go to Christ. Trials prove you.

How Trials Change Us

Here you go. I love this: Trials humanize you. Trials make you sweet and sensitive.

I've mentioned Larry Wright a million times. I will tell you that Larry would say, I'll give you Larry's own words, he would say, I was the most selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed person that ever lived in the face of this earth. And then God saved me and that began to change. But all of a sudden, when God began to take away his health, all of a sudden there was a sweetness to him.

I would sit and Larry would say, what's going on at church? And I would begin to describe a couple that's in the church that were having problems, that perhaps were on the border of splitting up. And Larry would begin to weep. That comes from trials.

The Gift of Understanding Pain

I have not the foggiest concept of chronic pain. We have a guy that served on our elder board. He just rotated off literally because he could not come to the elder meetings anymore. It's physically impossible. And as he describes his life and what he couldn't do, I don't have a file for it.

You ladies yesterday had the privilege of sitting and spending some time with Susan. And I watched Susan and I watched her deal with just the pain she's in. Last week was her week off chemo and the doctor said, listen, you're going up to Cannon Beach. Stay off of it a week. And so last night when we were there, I said, how are you feeling? We took a long walk. We finished last night and took a long walk on the beach down to Haystack Rock and around and through town. That was a great walk. But that's got to be hard for her.

And I said, how are you feeling? And she said, you know what, I haven't been taking any pain meds or anything. I'm really feeling good. I had a headache the other day, and I was trying to describe the intensity of this headache to Susan. And as I looked at her face, it didn't seem that she was comprehending the depth of the pain I was in at that particular moment. It was like, all right, slick. Why don't you suck it up and take an aspirin? And yet there's an empathy that she has because of the pain. That's the way it is with trials, isn't it?

The Promise of Persecution

He said, I want you to understand something. Because you're a follower of Christ, look at verse 12: "Indeed, all, do you know you're not the exception to that? Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

I don't know that in our life in this context here in the United States of America, at least now, I don't know that there's a great deal of persecution. We encounter it every once in a while in a different way. I had a lady who came to a Bible study that I was doing, and then eventually at our church. And she loved God. She loved Christ. She loved the gospel. Her husband hated God, despised God. He was really an evil man.

And she got cancer, and then the cancer just went away. Then it came back, went away, came back, and then it just filled her body. And it was very painful. She was in the last two or three months of her life. Extraordinary pain. And I went to see her at the hospital. And as I got on the elevator downstairs, her husband was getting off. And I kind of said hi, and he grunted back at me. And I went up to the room, and she was there with a friend of hers, and they were crying. And I thought maybe it was just something that they'd gotten in a report or something. But it was the husband.

Here's how the husband left her that day. She's in extraordinary pain within a few days of death. Here's how he left her. "Where's your God now? Here you are, dying, miserable, rotten death. Where's your God now?"

Now, to me, that's some form of persecution. Even in the midst of that, I used to tell her, think what a blessing it is. Because your husband still allows you to come to church. He still allows you to give. She was allowed to tithe off her portion of her income. Even in the midst of how awful and evil this guy is, God has shown us some level of grace and mercy in the midst of that.

All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, your life will not be a life strewn with roses and sweet times. But you'll have difficulty and hardship. You'll have persecution and suffering and trials. And you are not exempt from these. In fact, persecution adds to the normal wear and tear of life.<br />

The False Prosperity Teaching

Don't fall into this trap. I would tell you some of the worst teaching I find most destructive teaching out there is that God wants you healthy and God wants you wealthy. And it's all over Christian television. It's all over these guys. These guys are either ignorant or charlatans, one of the two. God may want them flying around. The Senate's investigating them now. God may want them flying around in private jets. But I'm here to tell you the Bible does not teach God wants you healthy and wealthy.

God may want you suffering, hurting, struggling, barely getting by. Why? Well, for all the reasons we talked about. To strengthen your faith. To test you. To call you to think of something beyond the stuff.

Here's what I've discovered with the people I'm around, and I don't have to go to them, my own life. I am much more coachable when things are going bad than when things are going well. I learn a lot better.

Learning Through Hardship

We had this experience. We've had it both ways. We come out of the doctor's office from a time in our test with Susan, and we've had times where he says, listen, here's this cancer. It's there. It's chronic. It's not going to go away.

She had time, and I don't know that she probably talked about it the other day, but Susan had time just about two years ago now where she was so sick that she had about an hour in the day. She would get up around 8 or 9 and come out and kind of sit and maybe have a cracker, a little milk, go and sleep until 1 or 2, and then get up and have another cracker, maybe a little soup, and then go and sleep, and then get up. That was her day.

You know, in moments and times like that, you almost instinctively pray and honor God, don't you? But the real challenge to stay in His will, in His presence, is when the test is clear and the things are good. When the doctor said, "You know what, everything's fine."

I went through this, nothing like this, but I had, I don't want to be too graphic, but guys, that could bring you to your knees pretty fast. I had a prostate cancer biopsy last year. Not a pretty thing. Think of the prostate. Think about getting there. The way I describe it is a staple gun on the end of a cue. It's really interesting because when it was all done, this guy says, "You know, I didn't even call in for the results because I'm on vacation. I don't care. What's he going to say?"

But it came back and it said, "No, you're fine, you're clear." And I thought, "Whatever, nothing big. What are we going to have? You want a burrito? What do you want?" I wondered if it would have been different if he said, "No, you've got cancer all over." I don't know.

But I can say to you, God may want you struggling and sick because you're more dependent upon Him. Isn't that what Paul teaches us? When I'm weak is when I'm really strong. If I want to boast, don't boast in how smart you are, how clever you are, what a hard worker you are, how resourceful and creative you are. If you want to boast, boast about Him and your weakness in Him.<br />

Continue in What You've Learned

Now, look at this. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, but evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, us now, you, however, continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from where you've learned them. From your childhood, you've known the secret writings, which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

He said, listen, as this world begins to go from bad to worse, in the midst of this, you continue. Look at verse 14. There's a little phrase in there. You continue in the things you've learned and become convinced of. You learn them, and then as you begin to see them work in your life, you become even more convinced of them.

Growing Stronger, Not Weaker

There's something that I see, and I hear it all the time, and it kind of mystifies me, but it must be real because I hear about it all the time. I will hear people say, "I remember when I first became a Christian, I was," what's the term they use? "I was on fire for the Lord. When I first became a follower of Christ, I was on fire for the Lord. But now, not so much."

What Paul's saying here is it ought to be exactly the opposite. They're the things you learn, and boy, they got your attention. Boy, God did something special in your life. He changed your heart and your mind so that Paul would say, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Some of the paraphrases say, don't copy the behavior of this world. Don't become so adjusted to the world that you fit into the culture without really thinking.

It ought to be exactly the reverse of our experience. There ought to be those moments where we come to Christ in repentance and faith, but we're kind of going, "This is new for me. I'm learning to walk." I think of Braden in Yale right now. Yale's birthday is coming up. He's just going to be one. So he's just now stringing together some steps. So he can take three or four and then, bam, there he goes.

I just get so nervous about catching the wall or hitting your teeth, but then I figure, what the heck, they're baby teeth. They'll grow back and he'll get other teeth. But now Braden, he can run and he can move.

Well, in those first days, weeks, months, maybe those first years of knowing Christ, there should be some sense of tentativeness to us. We talk about being on fire, and then as we grow with Him, we ought to be consumed with this fire for Him, but yet we seem to say it cools. Doesn't that seem ironic to you? Doesn't it seem like it ought to be exactly the opposite?

We ought to be more on fire for Him now. Some of you have walked with Him, not for a year or two or five, but for 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years. You ought to be so on fire for Him that you are consumed with God, Christ, the gospel, His passion and His mission for the world. That should be the normal Christian life.

Growing in Our Faith Foundation

The things that you learn and then you became convinced of. Maybe you're like Timothy in verse 15. You had this childhood. One of the things, there are two or three families here this week who have been here at least one other time when I was here, where you got grandma, and then you got the kids, and then you got the grandkids. You got generations. You have families that have been coming here since 1959, 56. A half a century of that. A great tradition.

But some of you didn't have that at all. Susan had never been in the church her whole life when she met me, other than I think for her sister's wedding or something. But there's something wonderful or special. It doesn't really matter how you got where you are. You may have had this godly tradition. You may have just been the first generation that God saved.

But here's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, you continue in this. By the way, if you're that first generation, you ought to be committed to seeing that your kids and grandkids and great-grandkids know Christ and hear these wonderful truths and see what a transformed, different life is really like.

Our Answer to a Broken World

If you remember this, and we've got to close here. If you remember this, Paul's talking about the beginning of chapter 3 in last days. What do you do when people are lovers of self and lovers of money? What do you do when people live in this world where they're absorbed with their boastfulness and arrogance and they're revilers and they hate each other? How do you approach this world? What is our answer to this world?

Here's our answer. Verse 16. Scripture. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for four things He lists. Teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Why? So that the man, woman, child of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.

In this world that you live in, what's the answer? It's not to out-debate them. It's not to engage in some long philosophical discussion. There are some who feel called to that. I don't happen to be one. I've never been good at those long debates and arguing somebody into the kingdom.

The Power and Nature of Scripture

My faith is very simple and very profound, and it's this, that I believe the Bible's the Word of God. All scripture is inspired by God. God breathed. Who wrote the book of 2 Timothy? Well, Paul did. Well, God did. Well, God and Paul did. Paul is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

We see His personality. We see that in the Gospels, don't we? We see four distinct manifestations of God using Matthew, Mark, Luke, John to bring this Gospel truth to a world, different audience. That ought to be an argument for how we take and customize not the message, but the method we use. Four Gospels written to four distinct audiences.

Paul did it all the time. If Paul's talking to the Jews, what does he do? Well, he goes back into the Scriptures, and he goes back and he says, listen, here's what you said. Here's, David, here's what God's done. Here's the fulfillment of that. It's Jesus. If he's talking to the Greeks, he doesn't bother quoting Scripture. It doesn't mean anything to him. He quotes their poets. Remember we saw it yesterday in Acts 17. He quotes their poets.

Meeting People Where They Are

So I do that a lot. I just might not come as a surprise to you, but I spend a lot of time with men and women, especially men who don't know Christ. And they don't believe the Bible is the Word of God. So I spend very little time quoting the Bible. Because if I say what the Bible said, they're going to care. Who cares? I don't care.<

So I'll spend a lot of time quoting the poets or the songwriters of the day. So I'll go, for example, and I don't have a problem at all quoting from Madonna or Nine Inch Nails or Jimmy Buffett, depending on all generations here, or Peggy Lee. Peggy Lee said it this way. If this is all there is, then bring on the booze and let's have a ball. So that's that generation.

Jimmy Buffett says it different. He says, let's get drunk, and then he's got some other things. But Buffett says essentially the same thing. And then you get into the world you live in now, and there's a song called Hurt. And it's talking about, I cut myself just to see if I can hurt anymore. Do I have any fear? They're all the same thing. They're all saying the same thing.

The Universal Emptiness Without God

In this world, I'm looking around. Is this it? Let's get drunk. Is this it? Is this all there is? I can't even feel anymore. That's all that is. And all of a sudden, you start talking to somebody and go, listen, there's an emptiness, isn't there? Yeah, there really is. You go out and you get loaded, don't you, and even sleep around. But at the end, you feel scuzzy and dirty. It's not really great, is it? Not really.<br />

Sin is fun. If sin's not fun for you, you aren't doing it right. Sin's fun. Well, you're a bunch of church people, so you can finish this. Sin's fun what? For a season. When we take our high school kids to summer camp, I am stunned at these 16-year-olds who've experienced all there is in life already. They've had all the stuff there is. They've had all the sex there is. They've taken all the drugs there are. They've done everything. And you know what? That's a wonderful place to be because you're sitting there and you're 16, and you're stone-cold empty.

And you know the answer to that? The Scripture. God created you with these needs. You have this desperate need to be loved.<br />

The Need for Love

Brayden got this toy, and it's Elmo. It's an Elmo doll. And so when you push it, it says, "Elmo loves you." You push it a second time, and it says, "Elmo loves you more."

I became, like I said at the beginning, I'm not very smart, I became fascinated with this toy. So Karen is my administrative assistant, and I said, "Karen, I want you to find out everything you can about Elmo and about this toy. I want all the research you can get me on this toy and on Elmo." And she came back with a stack of stuff like this.

And I think it's Hasbro. I can't remember who makes it. It might be Mattel. It doesn't matter. Whatever the company is, she had satellite pictures of their manufacturing plant and of a building where they test products. And they had all of this research, and it's exactly what I suspected.

In this research, they discovered the product of all the products they've tested in the history of toydom. I just made that word up. I don't know that that's a word. The product that tested out highest among kids was Elmo. And when Elmo said, "Elmo loves you," these kids just were crushed with love, and they raced to this. And you know what they said? "We love you, Elmo." And I knew there had to be some reason. That's why it says this: "Elmo loves you." "We love you, Elmo." "Elmo loves you more."

Here you go. And you don't ever grow out of that. I don't care how hard and cold and calloused you are. You're some successful little business guy. Or you're some hurt. You've been hurt. You've had a husband dump you, and your kids have dumped you, and you've been hurt a thousand ways. So you have all of these masculine. I don't care. When you peel it all away, and you're just a little boy or a little girl, you don't need to hear "Elmo loves you."

Here's what you need to hear: "Jesus loves you." "I love you, Jesus." "Jesus loves you more." That's what this whole gospel is about.

God's Demonstration of Love

For God so loved the world. For God so loved the world that He gave. It's one thing to say "I love you," right? Sit in a few of these counseling things, and you've got the guy and the gal. You just ignore the guy because he doesn't know why he's there. And you say to the gal, "Okay, what's the deal?" "Well, I don't think he loves me." "Really? Do you love her?" "Yeah." "Well, he says he loves you." And then she will say this: "He says he loves me, but he doesn't show it."

God didn't say, "I love you, Tom." I love you, Tom, so I sent Jesus. So in spite of who you are, and the fact that at this moment you hate me and despise me, and if you want a God at all, you'll make up your own. I sent Jesus so that He would die, so that you would have eternal life, and though you don't deserve one second of this, I'm going to give you a life on this earth that is rich and full, and you're going to spend all eternity with my Son. And I'm doing that for one reason, Tom, and it isn't you. I'm doing this because I love you.

And let me say it again. And I love you in spite of you, not because of you. If you're a Christian today, it's not that God looked at you and said, "Oh, boy, if I can just grind off those edges, I really got a real gem there." No, He looks at you and says, "Listen, you are a despicable human being in your sin, lost and wretched."

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a what? I'm in a church at a funeral, and it doesn't matter, a denominational church, and they said, "I'm going to sing number 238. I better look this up." 238, Amazing Grace. Tom, we're singing along. I don't need these words. So I'm singing along. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a..." And I'm listening, and I said, "Well, they said something other than..." Here's how they... "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a soul like mine." He didn't say "soul like mine." See how we cleaned it up to make it digestible? I've got to get an accurate view of myself.

Bringing Scripture to the World

Well, how do we go to this world that's filled with lovers of money and lovers of self? What do we bring to that discussion? Here's what we bring: Scripture. Scripture that's good for... I'll give you four things quickly. Good for teaching. It means, again, not the process or the method, but the content. It's our true north.

We were talking about this the other day. We were on vacation years ago, and I had a friend that came and said, "I know you're going up north, northern California." We were going up to Monterey. As a matter of fact, he said, "I'd like to fly you. I have a little plane." I said, "I don't do little planes. Little planes, those are the ones that crash. Everybody dies, pilot error, right?" He said, "Well, it's not really a little plane."

And so it was the... Some of you are pilots around. It's a Pilatus. You know, that wonderful, utilitarian, wonderful plane. So we're flying, and we want to go early so it's not bumpy, because it's hot out of Phoenix. We go early in the morning, so we're coming over. We're coming, and we go over here. Now we're going to go up. So let's go up the coast.

So we're going up the coast. As we go up the coast, we are socked in. You can't see a thing. Now, clear above us, but you're looking down. You know what that... You know how thick it is. Like this, only really thick. And we're coming down.

I'm the co-pilot. So we are totally... If this thing goes down, we are absolutely screwed, because I have no idea how to pilot anything. So we're... I'm watching this altimeter. So we're at 5,000 feet. And this is 4,500 feet, 4,000 feet, 3,500. Now we're in it. You can't see above you, around you, beside you. You can't see anything.

I said, "Hey, how do you know where you're going?" He said, "Well, it's these instruments. These instruments..."

tell us what we do. 3,500 feet, 3,000 feet. I put a bag over your head. I'm not kidding you. You can't see anything. And I said, really? And he said, yeah, we just do what these instruments tell us to do.

2,500 feet, 2,000 feet. I said, well, are the instruments ever wrong? Then he said, well, only once. 1,500 feet, 1,200 feet, 1,000 feet, 800 feet. I said, well, what's our limit? He said, well, if we don't see a runway by 300 feet, we're going to have to pull up.

700 feet, 500 feet. I mean absolutely nothing. You can't see a thing. 450 feet, 400 feet, 375 feet, 350 feet. I said, hey, man, maybe we got to stop at 350 feet. No, we got to 300. And I'm telling you, when that altimeter said 300 feet, bam, there was the runway.

Scripture as Our Instrument Panel

And I thought, what a magnificent picture of our life in Scripture. We get in this world where things are all upside down. We can't figure it out. It doesn't make any sense around us. It seems like we're doing everything right, but it's error. And everything in us wants to fly by instinct.

Remember John F. Kennedy, Jr.? They said within 45 seconds of the time he lost sight really of the light center, within 45 seconds he had the plane upside down and crashed. And they said that's normative. Just as this pilot that I'm sitting next to in the midst of this fog, he's only got one shot. He's not looking out. He's not trying to figure it out. He's not trying to understand the clouds. He's looking at these instruments.

If they say turn left, he turns left. If they say go down, he goes down. He does everything those instruments said, even when it's counterintuitive. And he will say that. He said, I don't know. This doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel normal to me. But you know what? The instruments say do it. I do it.

That's what the Scripture is. Here I am in this world. I'm going, this doesn't seem right. This doesn't seem like it should be this way. Even the Gospel itself doesn't seem right. Because it seems like there's good people that do good things. And somehow they ought to be saved. And God says, no, no one's good. No, not one. Because I don't look and be deceived by the outward. I look at their heart.

What Scripture Does for Us

So what do you do in a world that's filled with lovers of money and lovers of self? Well, you go to the Gospel that's good for teaching. Give me the other three here. It's good for reproof. That's a rebuke. Correcting conduct, misbehavior, false doctrine.

Because the minute you start to live this and you talk to somebody and you go, what you're doing is wrong, what are they going to say? Who made you king? Who made you king? How do you get off telling me what's wrong? Amen. I don't. God did. I can't tell you. There are non-Christian pagans who have never held a Bible, but they know one verse. Here's the verse they know. Judge not lest you be judged.

Well, we're not in the judging business. I'm not into a bunch of that. I don't care about that. But there are times, Matthew 18, for example, when we've got to deal with Christians, what's the Bible do? It tells us about reproof. It tells us about correction. It's the only time the word's used in the New Testament. It means to restore to its proper position.

So if I came in and that stool was like that, if I corrected it, it would be to take it and to set it up. That's the word that's there. And it's good for training in righteousness.

Scripture's Four-Fold Purpose

So some of you, again, have been around, so I apologize for the repetitiveness of this, but here's what the Bible does. The Bible tells us what's right, what's not right, how to get right, how to stay right. It's that instrument panel. I've got to go by this. I don't care what my instincts say, because I know my instincts can be wrong. I know God's word is never wrong.<br />

Even in the illustration that I used, I'm sure there are times when that instrument panel's been miscalibrated. Something's wrong with it. There's a shortage or whatever it might be. God's word is infallible.

And then here's what it does. It is training in righteousness that the man, woman, child of God is now equipped for every good work. I'm now ready to live. I'm ready to be the person God's called me to be. The word adequate means to be complete or capable or proficient. For all the things that God has for me in my life.

We've got to stop. Tonight we're going to pick up right there and we're going to read. If you just want to read ahead, we're going to read and study tonight through verse 11 of chapter 4. Tonight we'll get that far. Again, as you're planning your day, you've got all sorts of activities. Don't forget the concert tonight as well.

Closing Prayer

Let me pray for you, then we'll get over. No, there's no lunch today. Lunch is on your own. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word and your truth. I thank you that we can be here. That in a world that can be very confusing, you don't leave us to our own kind of wisdom or knowledge or instinct. But you give us a true north, a compass. You give us an instrument panel that's infallible. You give us this word.

God, thank you for a book that is good for teaching us what is correct. For rebuking us when necessary. For putting us back on the right path. But the whole point of this word and the rebuke is not to destroy us, but to build us up. So that we will be men and women and students who are prepared to live the life that you've called us to live.

Got to pray now this afternoon. Whether we're taking a walk or building a sand castle. Or looking at estate planning. Or preparing for tonight. Whatever it is. That what we do would bring honor and glory to you. That we would not be a group of people that would say this. Do as I say, not as I do. That we would be people that would say what we say and what we do absolutely speaks volumes to you. And points people to you. And glorifies you. God, we pray to you in Christ's name. Amen.

Have a great afternoon. We'll see you back here tonight. Dinner at 5. Bye.