June 11, 2025 • 47 mins
Many Christians and churches talk about “community,” but unless that community is formed and continually built up by God’s Word, it can become just another gathering where human opinions and human wisdom take center stage. In this message from 2 Timothy 3:10–4:8, David Platt encourages the church to look to Scripture for its wisdom and strength. As God’s Spirit applies God’s Word to God’s people, the church begins to look increasingly like a God-centered community.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to David Platt Messages a weekly
podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
If you were to ask the average Christian sitting in
a pew or seat in a churchbuilding this morning to sum up
the message of Christianity, youwould most likely hear
something along the lines of themessage of Christianity is that
God loves me, or God loves meenough to send His Son Jesus to
die for me.
And what we have seen is thatthat is not biblical
(00:30):
Christianity.
That's not the essence ofChristianity.
If God loves me as the essenceof Christianity, then who is the
object of Christianity?
God loves me.
Therefore, christianity isabout me and church is about me
and my preferences and my likesin music and my tastes in this
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or that area.
And my life is about me, whereI want to live and what I want
to do and my dreams and my plansand my ambitions.
And that's not Christianity.
Christianity does not say Godloves me, put a period on it, go
home.
Biblical Christianity said Godloves me so that his glory and
his majesty and his greatnessmay be known in all nations.
He is the object ofChristianity and everything
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centers around him.
So that begs the question howdo we do community with one
another?
How do we love one another andyet be centered on God instead
of each other.
How do you do that?
How do you love one another tothe glory of God?
How do you guard against lovingone another and seeing each
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other as the end, ultimate endof that love?
How do you love one another forGod's sake?
How do you love one another ForGod's sake?
And that's where we come to thenon-negotiable Word of God and
the reason why we have the Word.
God has given us His Word atthe foundation of our community
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to fix our eyes constantly onthe glory of God.
That's one of the primaryreasons we have the Word and
there's no question.
And the more I go to differentplaces, the more I am convinced
that we have diluted andminimized and marginalized the
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Word of God in the community offaith called the church in our
culture.
And we need to realize that ifthe Word of God is not at the
center of Christian community,then you no longer have
Christian community.
If the Word of God ismarginalized, then you have
undercut the very foundation forthe community you have and
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you're just a crowd that gatherstogether and you might even be
a successful church in ourculture, but you're not a
Christian community, you're nota local church according to what
Scripture defines as thecommunity of faith, because the
Word of God is central in thecommunity of faith, and that's
what God is central in thecommunity of faith, and that's
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what I want us to look at thismorning.
We're going to come here to 2Timothy, chapter 3, verse 10.
It is one of the most, if notthe most clear descriptions of
the importance of God's Wordamidst the community of faith,
for every facet of our faith,and so I want us to read what
Paul writes to Timothy.
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Paul is nearing the very end ofhis life.
These are like his partingwords what's most important to
say to Timothy, his friend, whohe has mentored, his brother in
ministry?
What's most important for himto say?
Listen to what he says.
2 Timothy 3, verse 10.
You, however, know all about myteaching, my way of life, my
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purpose, faith, patience, love,endurance, persecution,
sufferings.
What kinds of things happenedto me in Antioch, iconium and
Lystra?
The persecutions I endured, yetthe Lord rescued me from all of
them.
In fact, everyone who wants tolive a godly life in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted, whileevil men and impostors will go
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from bad to worse, deceiving andbeing deceived.
But as for you, continue inwhat you have learned and have
become convinced of, because youknow those from whom you
learned it.
How, from infancy, you haveknown the holy scriptures which
are able to make you wise forsalvation through faith in
Christ Jesus.
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All scripture is God-breathedand is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting andtraining in righteousness, so
that the man of God may bethoroughly equipped for every
good work In the presence of Godand of Christ Jesus, who will
judge the living and the dead,and in view of His appearing and
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His kingdom.
I give you this charge Preachthe Word, kingdom.
I give you this charge Preachthe 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 menwill not put up with sound
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doctrine.
Instead, to suit their owndesires, they will gather around
them a great number of teachersto say what their itching ears
want to hear.
They will turn their ears awayfrom the truth and turn aside to
myths.
But you keep your head in allsituations.
Endure hardship, do the work ofan evangelist, discharge all
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the duties of your ministry, forI am already being poured out
like a drink offering.
The time has come for mydeparture.
I have fought the good fight, Ihave finished the race, I have
kept the faith.
Now there is in store for methe crown of righteousness which
the Lord, the righteous judge,shall award to me on that day,
and not only to me, but also toall who have longed for his
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appearing.
Father, we pray that, amidst aday where there is constant pull
toward newer, trendier, morecreative, more innovative means
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of growing, building your church, we pray that you would mold us
into a community of faith thatforsakes all of those things in
order to trust in your wordalone.
We pray, god, that you wouldteach us the importance and the
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beauty and the glory of yourword in the community of faith
In Jesus' name.
We pray Amen.
This is a stout passage ofScripture and, for the sake of
time, we are not going to beable, unfortunately, to dive
into every single word and everysingle phrase that is contained
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here.
What I did this week and I tookthose first three paragraphs in
that church covenant and said,okay, is there a passage of
Scripture that is referencedhere that really summarizes the
basis for all of the others?
And 2 Timothy, chapter 3 and 4,which is the end of the second
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paragraph is that text, and sowhat I want us to do is I want
us to take this text, I want usto put it alongside a variety of
those other texts that arementioned in that church
covenant.
I want us to see the importanceof the Word of God in the
community of faith.
I want us to see why the Wordis so important for defining who
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we are.
This whole passage revolvesaround the Word.
Paul says Timothy, the onlyreason you are who you are is
because of the Word, because theWord was poured into you.
So stay in it, continue in it,remain in it and, in the church,
keep it central.
Preach the Word.
That's one command thatsupersedes, precedes and
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supersedes all these othercommands.
It's just a litany of commandsthere in chapter 4, and it's all
starting with preach the Word.
Keep the Word central, becausethere will be all kinds of
temptations to minimize the Word.
So why?
Why must the Word be central inthe community of faith?
First, because we are acommunity formed by God's Word.
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We're formed by God's Word.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
The Word of God forms thepeople of God, the community of
faith.
Well, what does the Word do?
Think about it.
You know what Paul hasexpressed here.
First of all, we are saved bythe Word.
We're saved by the Word.
Now, I want to be careful withthe language here, because the
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reality is we are saved byChrist, who is the living,
incarnate Word of God.
But the revelation of Christthat we have, who he is and what
he has done, is the Word of God.
It's the Word that opens oureyes to see who Christ is, and
it's the Word that describes howwe are saved.
We don't have to come up withmeans or methods of salvation, a
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plan of salvation, a path tosalvation.
The Word describes how we'resaved.
That's the first sentence thereand that part of the covenant
we're looking at today.
Having been baptized sorryhaving been brought by divine
grace to repent and believe inthe Lord Jesus Christ and
surrender our lives to Him,that's how the Word describes
salvation.
It's what the Bible describesas trusting Christ for salvation
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.
Repent, believe, surrender, giveup everything you have, deny
yourself, take up your cross andfollow Him.
This is what it means to be afollower of Christ, to come to
Christ.
Now.
We have come up with all kindsof substitute phrases in our day
in order to try to reach asmany people as possible, we have
taken those phrases, put themout the door and said, no, just
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accept Christ or invite Christinto your life, or pray this
prayer and you will be saved.
None of those phrases are inScripture, none of them.
In our efforts to reach as manypeople as possible with the
Word of Christ, we have thrownout the Word of Christ and put a
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superstitious prayer in frontof people.
To pray, repent, believe, giveup everything you have.
See Him not as a Savior who'sbegging for you to accept Him,
but as a Lord and God who isinfinitely worthy of all of your
surrender.
Trust in Him.
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He will forgive you of yoursins and reconcile you to God
and clothe you in Hisrighteousness.
These are biblical terms.
We are saved according to theword.
The last thing we want to do isdilute the gospel in order to
reach more people with thegospel and, in the process, lead
people to follow our path tosalvation, our words, and end up
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thinking they're saved when,according to scripture, they are
not Saved.
Maybe it's better put by Christaccording to the Word.
It's fundamental for oursalvation.
It's what Paul said, verse 14and 15.
Continue what you've learned andhave become convinced of
because you know those from whomyou learned it and how.
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From infancy you have known theholy scriptures which are able
to make you wise for salvationthrough faith in Christ Jesus.
Scriptures make you wise forsalvation through faith.
We're saved by faith, faith inwhat In the Word, romans,
chapter 10, verse 17.
Faith comes by hearing, andhearing by the what, by the Word
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of God.
We're saved by the Word, notjust saved by the Word, though,
not just justified before God,not just born again according to
the new and living Word.
We are sanctified through theWord.
Second, paul says the Scripturesare able to make you wise for
salvation.
Then he continues, verse 16,all Scripture is God-breathed.
God-breathed it.
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What an incredible picture, andit's useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting andtraining in righteousness.
Paul says, timothy, when youwere saved, when you're saved,
you don't graduate from the Wordand move on to something else.
The Word is where you live andcontinue in Christian brother or
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sister in this room.
When we are saved, we do notgraduate one day to the latest
hit in the Christian bookstoreto now help us grow in our
relationship with Christ.
We don't need it.
We don't need any of thosebooks Now.
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Follow with me here.
I'm not saying that every bookin the Christian bookstores that
surround us is bad.
In fact, there are some good,some very helpful books and
resources.
But the reality is there isonly one book that God has
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promised to bless, to sanctifyyou, make you holy, grow you
into the image of Christ, andthat is this book.
There is not one book the bestone in the Christian bookstore
is not able to sanctify you.
God has not one book the bestone in the Christian bookstore
is not able to sanctify you.
God has not promised to blessit for your sanctification.
This whole song I want to beholy.
If that is true, there's onemeans God has promised to bless
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to make that happen.
And if all of those books andresources were gone, we would
still have everything we need togrow into the image of Christ.
Now to this point, some peoplethink okay, I hear what you're
saying, but let's be honest.
There are some things I'mfacing in my Christian life
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today, in the 21st century, thatthis book doesn't address.
There's some questions I havethat this book doesn't answer
and there's some situations inmy life that I'm facing as a
Christian that this book doesn'tdeal with.
We ask those questions, theresponse is you're right.
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There are tons of questions wehave that this book does not
answer, and there are a varietyof situations that every single
one of us faces in our Christianlife that are not addressed in
Scripture.
Now, some of you are thinking atthis point I'm a little
heretical, but just follow withme for a second.
I mean, there's all kinds ofthings this book does not
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address Silly things like UFOsand dinosaurs.
When your child asks you aboutUFOs and dinosaurs, what verse
do you take them to?
Okay, there's some stretches.
Okay, there's some stretches.
There's not a book, though,that says some of you are wonder
about dinosaurs, ufos,practical things like how to
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raise teenagers.
You don't find a book, a verse,that even talks about teenagers
.
No such thing, in a sense, notlike we have in our culture
today.
How to manage your money whatverse talks about what to do
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with Social Security and 401Ksand stocks?
How to walk through divorcerecovery?
How to live as a single parent?
How to walk through divorcerecovery, how to live as a
single parent, how to walkthrough cancer.
Now, certainly there are truths, certainly there are principles
in God's word that help informour understanding of these
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things.
But here's the deal.
The Bible was never intended toanswer all the questions we
might have or address everyspecific situation we may face
in life.
You say what was it intendedfor?
Then it was intended.
It is intended to conform eachof us into the image of Christ.
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That's the purpose of the BibleTo mold us more and more and
more into the image of Christ.
That's the whole purpose.
I can show you that, from coverto cover in Scripture, it's
exactly what Paul's saying here.
Literally it's all over.
But this is the purpose God hasgiven us.
You wonder, why Leviticus, whysome of these things?
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It's a picture of how God isconforming, redeeming us into
his image, conforming us intothe image of Christ.
Now here's what we do today.
We've got all these questionshow do you do this and how do
you do this and how do you dothis?
And we want those questionsanswered.
If we're going to get themanswered, we need to get them
answered in the church, right?
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So preachers need to answer allthose questions.
And so you have sermon serieson how to manage your money, how
to walk through this or that inparenting or divorce recovery,
or this or that.
Here's helpful tips.
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Well, the problem is in orderfor a preacher to address those
things, since they're notspecifically addressed in the
Bible.
Now we need to begin tominimize the Bible and now we
need to bring in the stuff fromthe Christian bookstores and all
of a sudden sermons become verylight on Bible.
You ever heard a light on Biblesermon?
Maybe the preacher uses theBible maybe like a springboard
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or a diving board, stands upmaybe, reads a verse or a text
and then jumps off, never toreturn again.
Or maybe maybe the word to keepusing the analogy is more like
pool furniture and the preacherjumps into the word and swims
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around in all the great ideas ofthe day.
Every once in a while makes areference over here to this
scripture, over there to thatscripture, but we're really
soaking in his good ideas andhis good ideas.
The other option is for theBible, the word of God, to be
the pool itself that we swim inand we saturate ourselves in and
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we soak in and everything elseis supplemental.
Now some might say, well, atleast in the first two options I
get some practical advice Inthe last option.
There, maybe I soak inLeviticus, but how is that going
to help me as a parent ofteenagers this week.
It's going to help you morethan you will ever realize,
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because here's the dealLeviticus has something all that
other stuff doesn't have it hasthe promise that it is going to
be used by the Holy Spirit ofGod to conform you into the
image of Christ.
Now here's where I find myself.
As preacher in this communityof faith, I've got some options.
I could go those first coupleroutes, but let's be honest, do
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you really think I'm that goodLike?
Are you really looking to me,parents, for how to raise your
teenagers when I am strugglingwith a 16-month-old and a
three-year-old?
Did you really come thismorning looking for financial
advice from me, how to walkthrough divorce recovery, a
single parent, or this or that?
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I'm certainly not the expert onall of those things, and even
if I was, even if I was Dr Davein every single one of those
areas, I still have somethinginfinitely better to offer you
the Word of God that isguaranteed when it is studied
and soaked in and swim andsaturated, and guaranteed to
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conform your life into the imageof Christ, to bring you
intimately in touch with thevery Holy Spirit of God that is
living in you, by the way, theHoly Spirit of God that will be
right there with you in everyparenting decision you make, and
right there with you in divorcerecovery and living as a single
parent and trying to figure outwhat to do with your finances
and this or that.
This is good, it's what we need.
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Think about it this way.
You've got in your notes therekind of the bullseye, the
concentric circles.
Think about it this way andthis will be kind of tough to
write in because you might notwrite small enough.
But just do some notes or linesout of the side or whatever.
In the middle circle, writethis Write the character of
Christ.
I want us to think about how theWord of God sanctifies us from
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the inside out.
Follow with me here.
Character of Christ.
When we are saved, when we arefollowers of Christ, christ
lives in us.
The very character of Christdwells in us.
This is the purpose of God'sWord we just talked about it to
mold us more and more and moreinto the image of Christ.
Every word, every page inScripture, leviticus, jeremiah,
song of Solomon, 2 Timothy allof it is intended to conform us
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more and more into the image ofChrist.
God has breathed it into lifefor that purpose to teach
correct rebuke, train us inrighteousness, so as the Word
feeds us, the character ofChrist in us grows.
Second circle Going from the usgrows.
Second circle Going from theinside out.
Second circle Right Conscience.
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Conscience is how we think,what we believe, what we feel.
The reality is our conscienceas Christians is affected by the
character of Christ in us.
Right, christ changes the waywe think.
Christ changes the way we feel,not instantly, not everything.
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It's a process.
It's what sanctification isabout when we begin to think
Christianly, where we begin tofeel what Christ feels and we
begin to desire what Christdesires.
We begin to want what Christwants.
We begin to see all the stuffthis world has to offer us does
not satisfy anywhere close towhat Christ desires.
We begin to want what Christwants.
We begin to see all the stuffthis world has to offer us does
not satisfy anywhere close towhat Christ does and our desires
begin to change and we see wedon't need that stuff anymore.
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I want Christ.
Christ, the character of Christin us affecting our conscience,
the way we think, feel, believe.
Third circle moving out.
Third circle conduct Ourbehavior, the way we act, what
we do.
Now, the reality is what we do.
Our conduct is based on how wefeel and what we think, what we
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believe.
Don't miss this.
We always live out what webelieve.
We always live out what webelieve.
Our lives are a reflection ofour beliefs, even when we sin,
it's not a conduct problem asmuch as it is a belief problem.
When we sin, we say I don'tbelieve God on this.
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I believe I've got a betterroute to take.
It's the whole picture inRomans, chapter one.
Disordered worship leads todisordered desire.
Disordered thought leads todisordered action.
It doesn't just happen in avacuum.
There's a basis upon which weact.
This is what we talked about inthe radical series, isn't it?
It's where we're confrontedwith the reality that, with all
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of our big houses and big carsand lifestyles that are filled
with stuff, we're showing thatwe believe our comforts are more
important than the poor in theworld.
It's reality.
It's a humbling reality, butit's the reality.
We had a belief problem.
Do we really believe the gospelis what we asked each other.
Do we really believe what thisword says?
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Because if we we do, then ourlives would look so radically
different.
The conduct, the fruit ofcharacter of Christ in us,
affecting the way we think, feel, believe, conscious.
Last circle, on the outsidechurch, church as we behave in
the culture around us, peoplesee the conduct of us and and it
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reflects on the church.
The church intended to be areflection of the character of
Christ.
So as Christ transforms usindividually from the inside out
, he's also transforming thecommunity of faith from the
inside out.
The world will judge thepicture of Christ based on the
conduct of Christians that makeup the church.
Let's see that.
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So when you look at that, youthink about the push for us to
say, when we gather together, weneed some practical stuff to do
.
We got some conduct things.
How do I raise teenagers?
How do I walk through this?
How do I do this?
How do I do this?
And the answer we've come upwith is well, let's talk about
things to do.
Do this.
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Here's 10 steps to do this.
Here's five tips for this.
Do these things.
The only problem is, even ifthose are good things to do,
don't miss this.
Even if that's great advice,the reality is, if it's
Christian advice, if it's aChristian way to live, here's
how to live out the Christianlife, and the reality is every
attempt to try to do that willfail miserably.
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You ever feel like that.
You ever feel like Christianitymaybe church is about.
You just get a list of thingsto do every single week and you
try to do it for maybe a week ortwo, but you end up falling
back and you can't do it.
And that's the reality.
It's the whole point ofChristianity.
You can't do it.
You can't live out theChristian life.
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You need Christ.
The whole thing is designed sothat Christ does it in you,
right, and so we find ourselvesat best legalistic Pharisees who
are trying to follow all thecommands.
But what we're missing is thenourishment we need of Christ in
us, from his word, in order toenable us to live out all those
commands.
Only Christ can do these thingsin us, and if we're not being
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fed at the core of who we are,with the means by which God is
transforming us in his image,then we are hopeless hopeless to
live out the Christian life.
And now the world sees thechurch as a bunch of people who
are following a bunch of rulesor the tips of a preacher, and
they say what difference does itmake?
Think about it.
Case in point we've prayed thismorning for high school college
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students.
I was speaking at a conferencethis last week with college
ministers and college leadersfrom around the country and it
is alarming it is absolutelyalarming to see the statistics
of supposedly Christian churchcollege students who, within the
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first semester in college, ifnot the second, will fall
completely away from their faiththe overwhelming majority will.
I pray those statistics are nottrue in this community of faith
, but the reality is.
According to statisticscountrywide, the majority of
students who are standing uphere graduating from high school
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this time next year will notstill be following Christ.
Why is that?
Could it be, could it be, thatwe have created a whole system
of Christianity in which they'vegrown up, in which they've been
told do this, do this, do this,do this, do this.
This is what a Christian does.
But along the way we fail tofeed them at the core of who
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they are, with the character ofChrist in them, so that their
first semester in college, assoon as they get in front of an
atheistic college professor,they have no idea how to think
Christianly and, as a result,they cave in immediately.
Or the first time they see apleasure in this world on that
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college campus, they've notlearned how to feel what Christ
feels and desire what Christdesires and, as a result, what
happens is in one semesterthey're exposed for what is
ultimately a hollow Christianitythat we have given to them,
because we've not given them theone thing they need to change
the way they think and feel andbelieve and empower them to walk
onto that campus and live invictory and to see all those
pleasures on that campus and sayI don't want any of that, I've
got Christ.
He satisfies, he's gloriouslysatisfying.
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Why would I want that?
This atheistic professor has noclue what he's saying.
So I'm gonna pray for him.
I'm gonna pray that he sees thetruth that I know, that's
hidden in my heart.
Pray that he sees the truththat I know that's hidden in my
heart.
Only the word can do that.
Only God's word can do that.
High school students nowstruggling with impurity in a
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day where they are bombardedwith so many temptations.
Children, students bombardedwith so many temptations today.
How do we help them face thosetemptations?
Aim at the conduct here and saywell, you need to be pure, so
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do it Be pure.
Do these things and you'll bepure.
That'll only go so far.
What happens when the characterof Christ is being fed in them
and they begin to think likeChrist and feel what Christ
feels.
And they realize this boyfriendor girlfriend doesn't have
anything, anything to offer thatChrist is not filling in them.
The Word does that, it empowersthem.
Adults all across this faith,men in this faith family, men in
our culture and in the churchso few men living as spiritual
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leaders in their homes.
Astounding statistics of menwho would far rather be looking
at an image on the internet thanleading their children to study
the Word of God.
How do you change that?
Stop looking at the internet,don't do it anymore.
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That'll go so far.
But what happens when men inthis faith family begin to
really feed on the word ofChrist and it begins to fuel the
character of Christ in them andthey begin to think what Christ
thinks and feel what Christfeels, and they actually begin.
Men begin to want Christ.
They want Christ more than theywant football and they care
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about Christ more than they careabout what an 18-year-old is
signing with their team to playfor their school.
They care about Christ and theywant their kids to know Christ
more than they want their kidsto play games this world has to
offer.
They want their kids to knowChrist.
And now men are being raised upin a fifth family who are
strong husbands and fathers andwho lay down their lives for
their wives, just like Christloved the church and gave
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himself up for her.
How does that happen?
Only the word can do that.
No speech, no expert, nothingelse can make that happen, but
the word.
And now, now the world looks atthe conduct of Christians and
sees a picture of the church notas a people who are following a
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bunch of rules, but a peoplewho are reflecting the beautiful
transformation that Christbrings in our lives.
We are formed by this word.
Now I want to be very careful,do not misunderstand.
I'm not saying that it's nothelpful, good for us as a
community of faith.
Very carefully here, do notmisunderstand.
(31:22):
I'm not saying that it's nothelpful, good for us as a
community of faith to givecounsel to one another about
parenting and marriage andstruggles and divorce, recovery
and grief and walking throughcancer.
That's what we're here for eachother for.
We do that in each other'slives.
Small groups are doing that allacross this faith family.
We help one another in thoseways.
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It's good and it's not justsaying well, if you read
Leviticus, everything will befine.
But it is saying we can't begood parents without being
formed in the image of Christ.
And Leviticus is here toconform us in the image of
Christ, and Leviticus is here toconform us in the image of
Christ.
So I'm going to go to Leviticus, I'm going to go to Jeremiah,
(32:05):
I'm going to go to 2 Timothy,I'm going to go all over this
word and I'm going to let itfuel me, and then I'm going to
be in a community of faith wherewe're able to figure out how
this works together, in eachother's lives and with each
other's struggles, struggles.
We're going to pray for eachother.
Now the Word is the foundation.
What we've done is we've takenthat which is foundational and
we've made it supplemental.
It's helpful over here.
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That's tragic because we'reundercutting the very foundation
by which we're going to be ableto live out the Christian life
and be able to persevere to theend to live out the Christian
life and be able to persevere tothe end.
Okay, I got to move on.
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We got a lot to cover, all right, sorry.
Okay, we're saved by the Word,sanctified through the Word, and
we're servants of the Word.
We're going to fly through this.
Okay, flying through Verse 17,so that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for everygood work.
What a great picture.
The Word equips us to beservants of the Word.
Side note real quick Verse 14.
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Verse 14 and 15.
Listen to what Paul says toTimothy.
As for you, continue in whatyou have learned and have become
convinced of, because you knowthose from whom you learned it
and how.
Listen to this.
From infancy you have known theHoly Scriptures, those you
learned the word from and youheard the word from from infancy
.
Who's he talking about?
Turn back a page to the left.
2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 5.
Listen to this.
(33:32):
This is incredible Beautifulpicture.
2 Timothy 1, verse 5.
Paul says I have been remindedof your sincere faith, which
first lived in your who,grandmother Lois, and in your
mother, eunice, and I ampersuaded now lives in you also,
isn't that great?
Timothy had the word in himbecause a grandmother and a
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mother poured it into him.
Did you catch that?
Parents feed your kids the Word,saturate your children in the
Word.
Prioritize family worship.
Read the Word to your children,teach your children to memorize
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the Word.
These are biblical patterns,precedence commands for us as
parents.
Do not teach them how to swinga club or a bat and fail to
teach them how to love the Word.
They need that from you.
(34:36):
Teenagers, young children, frominfancy Statistics there was one
study that was done that saidwhat separates those adults who
had faith that persisted intoadulthood from childhood to
(34:57):
adulthood and adults who lefttheir faith that they had as
children.
What separates them?
They said three biggest factors.
Listen to this.
Three biggest factors thatdetermine a child's persisting
faith into adulthood.
Number one spiritualconversations with mom.
Number two spiritualconversations with dad.
And number three servingtogether as a family.
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Moms and dads who talk withtheir kids about the Word and
then show what the Word lookslike in action.
Realize that all three of thosethings are not up to a
children's ministry or a studentministry or a preschool
ministry.
All three of those things areup to mom and dad.
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So, moms and dads, pour theword into your children.
Take other children who don'thave parents who pour the word
into them and pour the word intothem as well, this is the
picture Servants of the word.
Every single one of us, everyman, woman, mom, dad, husband,
wife, single student, everysingle one of us, when we have
the word, is equipped to beservants with the word God.
(36:02):
May this be so, so that the manof God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work.
I love this picture.
I was praying this week in myquiet time in Hebrews, chapter 6
.
Got to the end of Hebrews 5 and6, and I was just brought to my
knees.
On your behalf, on my behalf,on our behalf together, let me
read it to you real quick.
End of Hebrews 5 says, in fact,though by this time you ought
to be teachers.
You need someone to teach youthe elementary truths of God's
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Word all over again.
You need milk, not solid food,but solid food is for the mature
.
Therefore, let us leave theelementary teachings about
Christ and go on to maturity,not laying again the foundations
of any specific basic teachings.
Just brought to my knees,praying on behalf of us.
God, help us as a people, ayear from now, to be feasting on
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even more solid food, greaterfood than we are now.
God help us not, a year fromnow, to be drinking milk still
and talking about samefoundations all over.
No, god, help us, 10 years fromnow to be diving in some real
steak, some good solid food, and20 years from now to be soaking
in things that we never couldhave fathomed at this point
(37:10):
today.
God, take us to deeper anddeeper maturity, and this is the
picture, so that all of us maybe thoroughly equipped for every
good work.
What a great picture of thechurch.
Not so that a select few areequipped with the word, but what
happens when all of us, all ofus, are equipped, thoroughly
equipped for every good work?
(37:32):
Church alive, churchmultiplying the gospel.
It happens through the word.
God, do it Okay, need to moveon.
We are a community formed bythe word.
Second, we are a community.
Second, it's like near the end.
Second, we are a community inawe of God's word.
In awe of God's word.
He says preach.
(37:52):
The word Gives us command inverse two.
But the triumphant, it'striumphant, solemn, humbling
picture in verse one.
It's a triumphant, solemn,humbling picture in verse 1.
Listen to that setup, timothy,in the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus, who will judge theliving and the dead, and in
view of his appearing in hiskingdom, I give you this charge
Preach the word, timothy.
You preach the word becausethere is gravity, magnitude at
(38:16):
stake in this whole picture.
You're in the presence of Godand of Christ Jesus, who will
judge the living and the dead.
Get the point, timothy?
You need to preach the Word.
This is serious stuff.
Why?
Well, because and this ishopefully reflected in this
covenant the Word evokes theworship of God.
This is how God reveals Himselfto us through the Word.
(38:37):
The Word is the self-revelationof God, which is why the Word
is central in our worship,because God reveals Himself
revelation and we respond.
This is why I never, ever, wantto share with you my Word,
because my Word does not evokeworship, but God's Word evokes
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true, deep, authentic,wholehearted worship of Him,
because it's revelation of whohe is.
It drives me nuts when I traveland somebody will get up and
they're kind of introducing meor what I'm going to do in the
service.
When I'm preaching, they'll say, well, we're going to have some
time in worship, and thenDavid's going to come up and
talk what's that about?
(39:19):
Like, what am I going to do?
We're going to worship, andthen David's gonna come up and
talk what's that about?
Like, what am I gonna do?
We're gonna worship and thenwe're gonna listen to this guy.
I'm gonna worship too.
I'm not just here to talk.
I hope.
I hope that when we study theword, that we are so saturated
with the word that we see theglory of God and we are
worshiping as we see his glimpse, his glory in the word.
(39:46):
I pray that God will raise asub-community of faith that when
we are in situations wherethere is Bible light, our taste
buds will be so dissatisfied.
And it may be funny andentertaining, but it's not the
glory of God in the Word.
God raised up students who,when they go to a student
conference and they hear a bunchof funny, entertaining stories,
they walk away saying I missthe glory of God in the Word.
(40:11):
That's the picture.
This is what we see.
Charles Misner, scientificspecialist in relative theory,
studied, knew Einstein and hecommented on why Einstein had so
little regard for organizedreligion.
Einstein, who knew everythingin the universe Listen to what
he said.
Misner said the design of theuniverse is very magnificent and
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shouldn't be taken for granted.
In fact, I believe that is whyEinstein had so little use for
organized religions.
Although he strikes me as abasically very religious man.
He must have looked at what thepreachers said about God and
felt that they were blaspheming.
He had seen much more majestythan they had ever imagined and
they were just not talking aboutthe real thing.
(40:53):
My guess is that he simply feltthe religions he'd run across
did not have proper respect forthe author of the universe.
I don't want to blaspheme.
We should come to the Word tosee the glory of God.
This is what it means.
When you see the phrase, theterm expository preaching, you
may have seen that and thoughtwhat's that about?
(41:14):
I was introduced at oneconference and it said David
Platt teaches down at NewOrleans Seminary.
He teaches suppositorypreaching, expository.
So anyway, what does that mean?
(41:36):
Expository preaching?
It means when we come to theWord, we want to expose the
voice of God.
We want the voice of God to bemagnified.
Voice of man minimize.
Voice of God magnify.
That's the picture when we cometo the Word.
And I'll be honest, this sofrees me up, because now I don't
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feel the pressure every week tocome up with something cool and
hip and innovative and catchyto try to wow you, because I
don't have to come up withanything at all.
I've got this and this is whatyou need.
Now.
(42:18):
I've got to study, I've got tomake sure that I'm saying what
this says.
But I'm not the chef here.
I don't create the food, I'mthe waiter.
My job is to bring this thingto the table.
Bring it hot All right.
(42:39):
Here we go, moving on, movingon.
We've got to the table.
Bring it hot Alright, here wego, moving on, moving on.
We've got to move on.
It's one of those lines like,should I say it?
Well, they think I'm just aloser if I say it, but anyway,
alright.
The Word of the worship of Godand reminds us of our need for
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His presence when the presenceof God, the presence of God.
And this reminds us of our needfor his presence, when the
presence of God, the presence ofGod.
And this is, you see, in thatcovenant, that we will depend on
the presence of God.
Here's why this is absolutelyimperative that we depend on the
presence of God, because wehave created in our church
culture a whole host of meansand methods for doing church
that, in the end, require little, if any help at all from the
(43:20):
Holy Spirit of God.
We don't have to fast and praytoday for the church to grow.
We've got marketing to do that.
We don't have to be on ourfaces pleading for lost souls.
We've got publicity to try toreach them.
And it's not true.
We can do all the stuff we doand if we're not careful we'll
get to the end and see all thestuff we've done we've done
without absolute desperation forthe Spirit of God, and we must
avoid this at all costs, becauseeverything we do without the
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presence of God will be in vain.
I'm convinced this church canaccomplish more in the next
month under the power of theHoly Spirit of God than we can
in the next hundred years, withall of our innovative techniques
and ideas represented aroundthis room.
So let's be dependent on anddesperate for his presence.
The word evokes the worship ofGod.
The word exalts the Son of GodIn the presence of God and of
(44:07):
Christ.
Jesus will judge the living andthe dead If you have his
appearing in his kingdom.
The word centers on Christ.
It focuses us on Christ.
The whole context here Paul isreminding us of our submission
to his authority, the authorityof Christ.
This is good.
Christ leads the church.
Christ leads the church.
You say well, how can Christlead the church if you're a
(44:27):
pastor, or they're elders, orthis or that.
We're going to talk about this,but the reality is, christ
leads the church through hisword.
This is the means by which heleads the church the word, his
spirit in the word.
So we are submissive to hisauthority.
Finally, we are a community.
We're a community formed byGod's word and awe of God's word
and trusting in God's word.
(44:48):
The time will come when men willnot put up with sound doctrine.
Instead, to suit their owndesires, they will gather around
them a great number of teachersto say what their itching ears
want to hear.
They will turn away from thetruth and turn aside to myths.
There will be a time when thepeople of God no longer want the
Word of God.
Instead, they'll want thatwhich is palatable to their
(45:13):
lives and pleasing to their ears, that which adapts and adjusts
to their lives, instead of theirlives adjusting to it.
They will want a word that doesnot does not infringe on the
comforts they find in this world.
They will want everything butthe word.
(45:37):
And Paul says preach it anyway,with great patience and with
careful instruction.
Everything but the Word.
And Paul says preach it anyway,with great patience and with
careful instruction.
Keep your head, don't lose yourmind in all the new and
innovative stuff.
You give them the Word.
We, as a community of faith,need to realize that it may not
(46:01):
always be the recipe for thatwhich is most successful or that
which is most comfortable, orthat which even draws the most
crowds.
Walter Kaiser, old Testamentscholar great Old Testament
scholar, said many pastors canpreach whole messages with
little more than a tip of thehat to a clause or two taken
from a biblical context that few, if any, recognize.
(46:22):
Even more pastors have decidedthat using the Bible is a
handicap for meeting the needsof the different generations.
Therefore, they have gone todrawing their sermons from the
plethora of recovery and poppsychology books that fill our
Christian bookstores.
The market forces demand thatwe give them what they want to
hear if we wish them to returnand pay for the mega sanctuaries
(46:42):
that we have built.
Even when the word confronts us,challenges us and threatens our
ideals in the American dream,let's embrace it.
Let's embrace it.
Why Listen to this summary ofministry?
I'm already being poured outlike a drink offering.
The time has come for mydeparture.
Verse 6, verse 7, I have foughtthe good fight.
(47:04):
I have finished the race, Ihave kept the faith.
Now there is in store for methe crown of righteousness which
the Lord, the righteous judge,will award to me on that day.
Why do we want to be foundfaithful to the word?
Because we want our lives tocount.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's of the word,
because we want our lives tocount.
You are listening to David Platt Messages a weekly
podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
If you were to ask the average Christian sitting in
a pew or seat in a churchbuilding this morning to sum up
the message of Christianity, youwould most likely hear
something along the lines of themessage of Christianity is that
God loves me, or God loves meenough to send His Son Jesus to
die for me.
And what we have seen is thatthat is not biblical
(00:30):
Christianity.
That's not the essence ofChristianity.
If God loves me as the essenceof Christianity, then who is the
object of Christianity?
God loves me.
Therefore, christianity isabout me and church is about me
and my preferences and my likesin music and my tastes in this
(00:50):
or that area.
And my life is about me, whereI want to live and what I want
to do and my dreams and my plansand my ambitions.
And that's not Christianity.
Christianity does not say Godloves me, put a period on it, go
home.
Biblical Christianity said Godloves me so that his glory and
his majesty and his greatnessmay be known in all nations.
He is the object ofChristianity and everything
(01:12):
centers around him.
So that begs the question howdo we do community with one
another?
How do we love one another andyet be centered on God instead
of each other.
How do you do that?
How do you love one another tothe glory of God?
How do you guard against lovingone another and seeing each
(01:37):
other as the end, ultimate endof that love?
How do you love one another forGod's sake?
How do you love one another ForGod's sake?
And that's where we come to thenon-negotiable Word of God and
the reason why we have the Word.
God has given us His Word atthe foundation of our community
(01:58):
to fix our eyes constantly onthe glory of God.
That's one of the primaryreasons we have the Word and
there's no question.
And the more I go to differentplaces, the more I am convinced
that we have diluted andminimized and marginalized the
(02:22):
Word of God in the community offaith called the church in our
culture.
And we need to realize that ifthe Word of God is not at the
center of Christian community,then you no longer have
Christian community.
If the Word of God ismarginalized, then you have
undercut the very foundation forthe community you have and
(02:47):
you're just a crowd that gatherstogether and you might even be
a successful church in ourculture, but you're not a
Christian community, you're nota local church according to what
Scripture defines as thecommunity of faith, because the
Word of God is central in thecommunity of faith, and that's
what God is central in thecommunity of faith, and that's
(03:11):
what I want us to look at thismorning.
We're going to come here to 2Timothy, chapter 3, verse 10.
It is one of the most, if notthe most clear descriptions of
the importance of God's Wordamidst the community of faith,
for every facet of our faith,and so I want us to read what
Paul writes to Timothy.
(03:31):
Paul is nearing the very end ofhis life.
These are like his partingwords what's most important to
say to Timothy, his friend, whohe has mentored, his brother in
ministry?
What's most important for himto say?
Listen to what he says.
2 Timothy 3, verse 10.
You, however, know all about myteaching, my way of life, my
(03:56):
purpose, faith, patience, love,endurance, persecution,
sufferings.
What kinds of things happenedto me in Antioch, iconium and
Lystra?
The persecutions I endured, yetthe Lord rescued me from all of
them.
In fact, everyone who wants tolive a godly life in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted, whileevil men and impostors will go
(04:19):
from bad to worse, deceiving andbeing deceived.
But as for you, continue inwhat you have learned and have
become convinced of, because youknow those from whom you
learned it.
How, from infancy, you haveknown the holy scriptures which
are able to make you wise forsalvation through faith in
Christ Jesus.
(04:39):
All scripture is God-breathedand is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting andtraining in righteousness, so
that the man of God may bethoroughly equipped for every
good work In the presence of Godand of Christ Jesus, who will
judge the living and the dead,and in view of His appearing and
(04:59):
His kingdom.
I give you this charge Preachthe Word, kingdom.
I give you this charge Preachthe 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 menwill not put up with sound
(05:24):
doctrine.
Instead, to suit their owndesires, they will gather around
them a great number of teachersto say what their itching ears
want to hear.
They will turn their ears awayfrom the truth and turn aside to
myths.
But you keep your head in allsituations.
Endure hardship, do the work ofan evangelist, discharge all
(05:46):
the duties of your ministry, forI am already being poured out
like a drink offering.
The time has come for mydeparture.
I have fought the good fight, Ihave finished the race, I have
kept the faith.
Now there is in store for methe crown of righteousness which
the Lord, the righteous judge,shall award to me on that day,
and not only to me, but also toall who have longed for his
(06:12):
appearing.
Father, we pray that, amidst aday where there is constant pull
toward newer, trendier, morecreative, more innovative means
(06:32):
of growing, building your church, we pray that you would mold us
into a community of faith thatforsakes all of those things in
order to trust in your wordalone.
We pray, god, that you wouldteach us the importance and the
(06:55):
beauty and the glory of yourword in the community of faith
In Jesus' name.
We pray Amen.
This is a stout passage ofScripture and, for the sake of
time, we are not going to beable, unfortunately, to dive
into every single word and everysingle phrase that is contained
(07:18):
here.
What I did this week and I tookthose first three paragraphs in
that church covenant and said,okay, is there a passage of
Scripture that is referencedhere that really summarizes the
basis for all of the others?
And 2 Timothy, chapter 3 and 4,which is the end of the second
(07:40):
paragraph is that text, and sowhat I want us to do is I want
us to take this text, I want usto put it alongside a variety of
those other texts that arementioned in that church
covenant.
I want us to see the importanceof the Word of God in the
community of faith.
I want us to see why the Wordis so important for defining who
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we are.
This whole passage revolvesaround the Word.
Paul says Timothy, the onlyreason you are who you are is
because of the Word, because theWord was poured into you.
So stay in it, continue in it,remain in it and, in the church,
keep it central.
Preach the Word.
That's one command thatsupersedes, precedes and
(08:23):
supersedes all these othercommands.
It's just a litany of commandsthere in chapter 4, and it's all
starting with preach the Word.
Keep the Word central, becausethere will be all kinds of
temptations to minimize the Word.
So why?
Why must the Word be central inthe community of faith?
First, because we are acommunity formed by God's Word.
(08:45):
We're formed by God's Word.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
The Word of God forms thepeople of God, the community of
faith.
Well, what does the Word do?
Think about it.
You know what Paul hasexpressed here.
First of all, we are saved bythe Word.
We're saved by the Word.
Now, I want to be careful withthe language here, because the
(09:06):
reality is we are saved byChrist, who is the living,
incarnate Word of God.
But the revelation of Christthat we have, who he is and what
he has done, is the Word of God.
It's the Word that opens oureyes to see who Christ is, and
it's the Word that describes howwe are saved.
We don't have to come up withmeans or methods of salvation, a
(09:31):
plan of salvation, a path tosalvation.
The Word describes how we'resaved.
That's the first sentence thereand that part of the covenant
we're looking at today.
Having been baptized sorryhaving been brought by divine
grace to repent and believe inthe Lord Jesus Christ and
surrender our lives to Him,that's how the Word describes
salvation.
It's what the Bible describesas trusting Christ for salvation
(09:54):
.
Repent, believe, surrender, giveup everything you have, deny
yourself, take up your cross andfollow Him.
This is what it means to be afollower of Christ, to come to
Christ.
Now.
We have come up with all kindsof substitute phrases in our day
in order to try to reach asmany people as possible, we have
taken those phrases, put themout the door and said, no, just
(10:15):
accept Christ or invite Christinto your life, or pray this
prayer and you will be saved.
None of those phrases are inScripture, none of them.
In our efforts to reach as manypeople as possible with the
Word of Christ, we have thrownout the Word of Christ and put a
(10:36):
superstitious prayer in frontof people.
To pray, repent, believe, giveup everything you have.
See Him not as a Savior who'sbegging for you to accept Him,
but as a Lord and God who isinfinitely worthy of all of your
surrender.
Trust in Him.
(10:56):
He will forgive you of yoursins and reconcile you to God
and clothe you in Hisrighteousness.
These are biblical terms.
We are saved according to theword.
The last thing we want to do isdilute the gospel in order to
reach more people with thegospel and, in the process, lead
people to follow our path tosalvation, our words, and end up
(11:20):
thinking they're saved when,according to scripture, they are
not Saved.
Maybe it's better put by Christaccording to the Word.
It's fundamental for oursalvation.
It's what Paul said, verse 14and 15.
Continue what you've learned andhave become convinced of
because you know those from whomyou learned it and how.
(11:41):
From infancy you have known theholy scriptures which are able
to make you wise for salvationthrough faith in Christ Jesus.
Scriptures make you wise forsalvation through faith.
We're saved by faith, faith inwhat In the Word, romans,
chapter 10, verse 17.
Faith comes by hearing, andhearing by the what, by the Word
(12:03):
of God.
We're saved by the Word, notjust saved by the Word, though,
not just justified before God,not just born again according to
the new and living Word.
We are sanctified through theWord.
Second, paul says the Scripturesare able to make you wise for
salvation.
Then he continues, verse 16,all Scripture is God-breathed.
God-breathed it.
(12:25):
What an incredible picture, andit's useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting andtraining in righteousness.
Paul says, timothy, when youwere saved, when you're saved,
you don't graduate from the Wordand move on to something else.
The Word is where you live andcontinue in Christian brother or
(12:48):
sister in this room.
When we are saved, we do notgraduate one day to the latest
hit in the Christian bookstoreto now help us grow in our
relationship with Christ.
We don't need it.
We don't need any of thosebooks Now.
(13:09):
Follow with me here.
I'm not saying that every bookin the Christian bookstores that
surround us is bad.
In fact, there are some good,some very helpful books and
resources.
But the reality is there isonly one book that God has
(13:33):
promised to bless, to sanctifyyou, make you holy, grow you
into the image of Christ, andthat is this book.
There is not one book the bestone in the Christian bookstore
is not able to sanctify you.
God has not one book the bestone in the Christian bookstore
is not able to sanctify you.
God has not promised to blessit for your sanctification.
This whole song I want to beholy.
If that is true, there's onemeans God has promised to bless
(14:00):
to make that happen.
And if all of those books andresources were gone, we would
still have everything we need togrow into the image of Christ.
Now to this point, some peoplethink okay, I hear what you're
saying, but let's be honest.
There are some things I'mfacing in my Christian life
(14:22):
today, in the 21st century, thatthis book doesn't address.
There's some questions I havethat this book doesn't answer
and there's some situations inmy life that I'm facing as a
Christian that this book doesn'tdeal with.
We ask those questions, theresponse is you're right.
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There are tons of questions wehave that this book does not
answer, and there are a varietyof situations that every single
one of us faces in our Christianlife that are not addressed in
Scripture.
Now, some of you are thinking atthis point I'm a little
heretical, but just follow withme for a second.
I mean, there's all kinds ofthings this book does not
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address Silly things like UFOsand dinosaurs.
When your child asks you aboutUFOs and dinosaurs, what verse
do you take them to?
Okay, there's some stretches.
Okay, there's some stretches.
There's not a book, though,that says some of you are wonder
about dinosaurs, ufos,practical things like how to
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raise teenagers.
You don't find a book, a verse,that even talks about teenagers
.
No such thing, in a sense, notlike we have in our culture
today.
How to manage your money whatverse talks about what to do
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with Social Security and 401Ksand stocks?
How to walk through divorcerecovery?
How to live as a single parent?
How to walk through divorcerecovery, how to live as a
single parent, how to walkthrough cancer.
Now, certainly there are truths, certainly there are principles
in God's word that help informour understanding of these
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things.
But here's the deal.
The Bible was never intended toanswer all the questions we
might have or address everyspecific situation we may face
in life.
You say what was it intendedfor?
Then it was intended.
It is intended to conform eachof us into the image of Christ.
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That's the purpose of the BibleTo mold us more and more and
more into the image of Christ.
That's the whole purpose.
I can show you that, from coverto cover in Scripture, it's
exactly what Paul's saying here.
Literally it's all over.
But this is the purpose God hasgiven us.
You wonder, why Leviticus, whysome of these things?
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It's a picture of how God isconforming, redeeming us into
his image, conforming us intothe image of Christ.
Now here's what we do today.
We've got all these questionshow do you do this and how do
you do this and how do you dothis?
And we want those questionsanswered.
If we're going to get themanswered, we need to get them
answered in the church, right?
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So preachers need to answer allthose questions.
And so you have sermon serieson how to manage your money, how
to walk through this or that inparenting or divorce recovery,
or this or that.
Here's helpful tips.
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Well, the problem is in orderfor a preacher to address those
things, since they're notspecifically addressed in the
Bible.
Now we need to begin tominimize the Bible and now we
need to bring in the stuff fromthe Christian bookstores and all
of a sudden sermons become verylight on Bible.
You ever heard a light on Biblesermon?
Maybe the preacher uses theBible maybe like a springboard
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or a diving board, stands upmaybe, reads a verse or a text
and then jumps off, never toreturn again.
Or maybe maybe the word to keepusing the analogy is more like
pool furniture and the preacherjumps into the word and swims
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around in all the great ideas ofthe day.
Every once in a while makes areference over here to this
scripture, over there to thatscripture, but we're really
soaking in his good ideas andhis good ideas.
The other option is for theBible, the word of God, to be
the pool itself that we swim inand we saturate ourselves in and
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we soak in and everything elseis supplemental.
Now some might say, well, atleast in the first two options I
get some practical advice Inthe last option.
There, maybe I soak inLeviticus, but how is that going
to help me as a parent ofteenagers this week.
It's going to help you morethan you will ever realize,
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because here's the dealLeviticus has something all that
other stuff doesn't have it hasthe promise that it is going to
be used by the Holy Spirit ofGod to conform you into the
image of Christ.
Now here's where I find myself.
As preacher in this communityof faith, I've got some options.
I could go those first coupleroutes, but let's be honest, do
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you really think I'm that goodLike?
Are you really looking to me,parents, for how to raise your
teenagers when I am strugglingwith a 16-month-old and a
three-year-old?
Did you really come thismorning looking for financial
advice from me, how to walkthrough divorce recovery, a
single parent, or this or that?
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I'm certainly not the expert onall of those things, and even
if I was, even if I was Dr Davein every single one of those
areas, I still have somethinginfinitely better to offer you
the Word of God that isguaranteed when it is studied
and soaked in and swim andsaturated, and guaranteed to
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conform your life into the imageof Christ, to bring you
intimately in touch with thevery Holy Spirit of God that is
living in you, by the way, theHoly Spirit of God that will be
right there with you in everyparenting decision you make, and
right there with you in divorcerecovery and living as a single
parent and trying to figure outwhat to do with your finances
and this or that.
This is good, it's what we need.
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Think about it this way.
You've got in your notes therekind of the bullseye, the
concentric circles.
Think about it this way andthis will be kind of tough to
write in because you might notwrite small enough.
But just do some notes or linesout of the side or whatever.
In the middle circle, writethis Write the character of
Christ.
I want us to think about how theWord of God sanctifies us from
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the inside out.
Follow with me here.
Character of Christ.
When we are saved, when we arefollowers of Christ, christ
lives in us.
The very character of Christdwells in us.
This is the purpose of God'sWord we just talked about it to
mold us more and more and moreinto the image of Christ.
Every word, every page inScripture, leviticus, jeremiah,
song of Solomon, 2 Timothy allof it is intended to conform us
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more and more into the image ofChrist.
God has breathed it into lifefor that purpose to teach
correct rebuke, train us inrighteousness, so as the Word
feeds us, the character ofChrist in us grows.
Second circle Going from the usgrows.
Second circle Going from theinside out.
Second circle Right Conscience.
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Conscience is how we think,what we believe, what we feel.
The reality is our conscienceas Christians is affected by the
character of Christ in us.
Right, christ changes the waywe think.
Christ changes the way we feel,not instantly, not everything.
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It's a process.
It's what sanctification isabout when we begin to think
Christianly, where we begin tofeel what Christ feels and we
begin to desire what Christdesires.
We begin to want what Christwants.
We begin to see all the stuffthis world has to offer us does
not satisfy anywhere close towhat Christ desires.
We begin to want what Christwants.
We begin to see all the stuffthis world has to offer us does
not satisfy anywhere close towhat Christ does and our desires
begin to change and we see wedon't need that stuff anymore.
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I want Christ.
Christ, the character of Christin us affecting our conscience,
the way we think, feel, believe.
Third circle moving out.
Third circle conduct Ourbehavior, the way we act, what
we do.
Now, the reality is what we do.
Our conduct is based on how wefeel and what we think, what we
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believe.
Don't miss this.
We always live out what webelieve.
We always live out what webelieve.
Our lives are a reflection ofour beliefs, even when we sin,
it's not a conduct problem asmuch as it is a belief problem.
When we sin, we say I don'tbelieve God on this.
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I believe I've got a betterroute to take.
It's the whole picture inRomans, chapter one.
Disordered worship leads todisordered desire.
Disordered thought leads todisordered action.
It doesn't just happen in avacuum.
There's a basis upon which weact.
This is what we talked about inthe radical series, isn't it?
It's where we're confrontedwith the reality that, with all
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of our big houses and big carsand lifestyles that are filled
with stuff, we're showing thatwe believe our comforts are more
important than the poor in theworld.
It's reality.
It's a humbling reality, butit's the reality.
We had a belief problem.
Do we really believe the gospelis what we asked each other.
Do we really believe what thisword says?
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Because if we we do, then ourlives would look so radically
different.
The conduct, the fruit ofcharacter of Christ in us,
affecting the way we think, feel, believe, conscious.
Last circle, on the outsidechurch, church as we behave in
the culture around us, peoplesee the conduct of us and and it
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reflects on the church.
The church intended to be areflection of the character of
Christ.
So as Christ transforms usindividually from the inside out
, he's also transforming thecommunity of faith from the
inside out.
The world will judge thepicture of Christ based on the
conduct of Christians that makeup the church.
Let's see that.
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So when you look at that, youthink about the push for us to
say, when we gather together, weneed some practical stuff to do
.
We got some conduct things.
How do I raise teenagers?
How do I walk through this?
How do I do this?
How do I do this?
And the answer we've come upwith is well, let's talk about
things to do.
Do this.
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Here's 10 steps to do this.
Here's five tips for this.
Do these things.
The only problem is, even ifthose are good things to do,
don't miss this.
Even if that's great advice,the reality is, if it's
Christian advice, if it's aChristian way to live, here's
how to live out the Christianlife, and the reality is every
attempt to try to do that willfail miserably.
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You ever feel like that.
You ever feel like Christianitymaybe church is about.
You just get a list of thingsto do every single week and you
try to do it for maybe a week ortwo, but you end up falling
back and you can't do it.
And that's the reality.
It's the whole point ofChristianity.
You can't do it.
You can't live out theChristian life.
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You need Christ.
The whole thing is designed sothat Christ does it in you,
right, and so we find ourselvesat best legalistic Pharisees who
are trying to follow all thecommands.
But what we're missing is thenourishment we need of Christ in
us, from his word, in order toenable us to live out all those
commands.
Only Christ can do these thingsin us, and if we're not being
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fed at the core of who we are,with the means by which God is
transforming us in his image,then we are hopeless hopeless to
live out the Christian life.
And now the world sees thechurch as a bunch of people who
are following a bunch of rulesor the tips of a preacher, and
they say what difference does itmake?
Think about it.
Case in point we've prayed thismorning for high school college
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students.
I was speaking at a conferencethis last week with college
ministers and college leadersfrom around the country and it
is alarming it is absolutelyalarming to see the statistics
of supposedly Christian churchcollege students who, within the
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first semester in college, ifnot the second, will fall
completely away from their faiththe overwhelming majority will.
I pray those statistics are nottrue in this community of faith
, but the reality is.
According to statisticscountrywide, the majority of
students who are standing uphere graduating from high school
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this time next year will notstill be following Christ.
Why is that?
Could it be, could it be, thatwe have created a whole system
of Christianity in which they'vegrown up, in which they've been
told do this, do this, do this,do this, do this.
This is what a Christian does.
But along the way we fail tofeed them at the core of who
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they are, with the character ofChrist in them, so that their
first semester in college, assoon as they get in front of an
atheistic college professor,they have no idea how to think
Christianly and, as a result,they cave in immediately.
Or the first time they see apleasure in this world on that
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college campus, they've notlearned how to feel what Christ
feels and desire what Christdesires and, as a result, what
happens is in one semesterthey're exposed for what is
ultimately a hollow Christianitythat we have given to them,
because we've not given them theone thing they need to change
the way they think and feel andbelieve and empower them to walk
onto that campus and live invictory and to see all those
pleasures on that campus and sayI don't want any of that, I've
got Christ.
He satisfies, he's gloriouslysatisfying.
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Why would I want that?
This atheistic professor has noclue what he's saying.
So I'm gonna pray for him.
I'm gonna pray that he sees thetruth that I know, that's
hidden in my heart.
Pray that he sees the truththat I know that's hidden in my
heart.
Only the word can do that.
Only God's word can do that.
High school students nowstruggling with impurity in a
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day where they are bombardedwith so many temptations.
Children, students bombardedwith so many temptations today.
How do we help them face thosetemptations?
Aim at the conduct here and saywell, you need to be pure, so
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do it Be pure.
Do these things and you'll bepure.
That'll only go so far.
What happens when the characterof Christ is being fed in them
and they begin to think likeChrist and feel what Christ
feels.
And they realize this boyfriendor girlfriend doesn't have
anything, anything to offer thatChrist is not filling in them.
The Word does that, it empowersthem.
Adults all across this faith,men in this faith family, men in
our culture and in the churchso few men living as spiritual
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leaders in their homes.
Astounding statistics of menwho would far rather be looking
at an image on the internet thanleading their children to study
the Word of God.
How do you change that?
Stop looking at the internet,don't do it anymore.
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That'll go so far.
But what happens when men inthis faith family begin to
really feed on the word ofChrist and it begins to fuel the
character of Christ in them andthey begin to think what Christ
thinks and feel what Christfeels, and they actually begin.
Men begin to want Christ.
They want Christ more than theywant football and they care
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about Christ more than they careabout what an 18-year-old is
signing with their team to playfor their school.
They care about Christ and theywant their kids to know Christ
more than they want their kidsto play games this world has to
offer.
They want their kids to knowChrist.
And now men are being raised upin a fifth family who are
strong husbands and fathers andwho lay down their lives for
their wives, just like Christloved the church and gave
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himself up for her.
How does that happen?
Only the word can do that.
No speech, no expert, nothingelse can make that happen, but
the word.
And now, now the world looks atthe conduct of Christians and
sees a picture of the church notas a people who are following a
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bunch of rules, but a peoplewho are reflecting the beautiful
transformation that Christbrings in our lives.
We are formed by this word.
Now I want to be very careful,do not misunderstand.
I'm not saying that it's nothelpful, good for us as a
community of faith.
Very carefully here, do notmisunderstand.
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I'm not saying that it's nothelpful, good for us as a
community of faith to givecounsel to one another about
parenting and marriage andstruggles and divorce, recovery
and grief and walking throughcancer.
That's what we're here for eachother for.
We do that in each other'slives.
Small groups are doing that allacross this faith family.
We help one another in thoseways.
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It's good and it's not justsaying well, if you read
Leviticus, everything will befine.
But it is saying we can't begood parents without being
formed in the image of Christ.
And Leviticus is here toconform us in the image of
Christ, and Leviticus is here toconform us in the image of
Christ.
So I'm going to go to Leviticus, I'm going to go to Jeremiah,
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I'm going to go to 2 Timothy,I'm going to go all over this
word and I'm going to let itfuel me, and then I'm going to
be in a community of faith wherewe're able to figure out how
this works together, in eachother's lives and with each
other's struggles, struggles.
We're going to pray for eachother.
Now the Word is the foundation.
What we've done is we've takenthat which is foundational and
we've made it supplemental.
It's helpful over here.
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That's tragic because we'reundercutting the very foundation
by which we're going to be ableto live out the Christian life
and be able to persevere to theend to live out the Christian
life and be able to persevere tothe end.
Okay, I got to move on.
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We got a lot to cover, all right, sorry.
Okay, we're saved by the Word,sanctified through the Word, and
we're servants of the Word.
We're going to fly through this.
Okay, flying through Verse 17,so that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for everygood work.
What a great picture.
The Word equips us to beservants of the Word.
Side note real quick Verse 14.
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Verse 14 and 15.
Listen to what Paul says toTimothy.
As for you, continue in whatyou have learned and have become
convinced of, because you knowthose from whom you learned it
and how.
Listen to this.
From infancy you have known theHoly Scriptures, those you
learned the word from and youheard the word from from infancy
.
Who's he talking about?
Turn back a page to the left.
2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 5.
Listen to this.
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This is incredible Beautifulpicture.
2 Timothy 1, verse 5.
Paul says I have been remindedof your sincere faith, which
first lived in your who,grandmother Lois, and in your
mother, eunice, and I ampersuaded now lives in you also,
isn't that great?
Timothy had the word in himbecause a grandmother and a
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mother poured it into him.
Did you catch that?
Parents feed your kids the Word,saturate your children in the
Word.
Prioritize family worship.
Read the Word to your children,teach your children to memorize
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the Word.
These are biblical patterns,precedence commands for us as
parents.
Do not teach them how to swinga club or a bat and fail to
teach them how to love the Word.
They need that from you.
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Teenagers, young children, frominfancy Statistics there was one
study that was done that saidwhat separates those adults who
had faith that persisted intoadulthood from childhood to
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adulthood and adults who lefttheir faith that they had as
children.
What separates them?
They said three biggest factors.
Listen to this.
Three biggest factors thatdetermine a child's persisting
faith into adulthood.
Number one spiritualconversations with mom.
Number two spiritualconversations with dad.
And number three servingtogether as a family.
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Moms and dads who talk withtheir kids about the Word and
then show what the Word lookslike in action.
Realize that all three of thosethings are not up to a
children's ministry or a studentministry or a preschool
ministry.
All three of those things areup to mom and dad.
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So, moms and dads, pour theword into your children.
Take other children who don'thave parents who pour the word
into them and pour the word intothem as well, this is the
picture Servants of the word.
Every single one of us, everyman, woman, mom, dad, husband,
wife, single student, everysingle one of us, when we have
the word, is equipped to beservants with the word God.
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May this be so, so that the manof God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work.
I love this picture.
I was praying this week in myquiet time in Hebrews, chapter 6
.
Got to the end of Hebrews 5 and6, and I was just brought to my
knees.
On your behalf, on my behalf,on our behalf together, let me
read it to you real quick.
End of Hebrews 5 says, in fact,though by this time you ought
to be teachers.
You need someone to teach youthe elementary truths of God's
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Word all over again.
You need milk, not solid food,but solid food is for the mature
.
Therefore, let us leave theelementary teachings about
Christ and go on to maturity,not laying again the foundations
of any specific basic teachings.
Just brought to my knees,praying on behalf of us.
God, help us as a people, ayear from now, to be feasting on
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even more solid food, greaterfood than we are now.
God help us not, a year fromnow, to be drinking milk still
and talking about samefoundations all over.
No, god, help us, 10 years fromnow to be diving in some real
steak, some good solid food, and20 years from now to be soaking
in things that we never couldhave fathomed at this point
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today.
God, take us to deeper anddeeper maturity, and this is the
picture, so that all of us maybe thoroughly equipped for every
good work.
What a great picture of thechurch.
Not so that a select few areequipped with the word, but what
happens when all of us, all ofus, are equipped, thoroughly
equipped for every good work?
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Church alive, churchmultiplying the gospel.
It happens through the word.
God, do it Okay, need to moveon.
We are a community formed bythe word.
Second, we are a community.
Second, it's like near the end.
Second, we are a community inawe of God's word.
In awe of God's word.
He says preach.
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The word Gives us command inverse two.
But the triumphant, it'striumphant, solemn, humbling
picture in verse one.
It's a triumphant, solemn,humbling picture in verse 1.
Listen to that setup, timothy,in the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus, who will judge theliving and the dead, and in
view of his appearing in hiskingdom, I give you this charge
Preach the word, timothy.
You preach the word becausethere is gravity, magnitude at
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stake in this whole picture.
You're in the presence of Godand of Christ Jesus, who will
judge the living and the dead.
Get the point, timothy?
You need to preach the Word.
This is serious stuff.
Why?
Well, because and this ishopefully reflected in this
covenant the Word evokes theworship of God.
This is how God reveals Himselfto us through the Word.
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The Word is the self-revelationof God, which is why the Word
is central in our worship,because God reveals Himself
revelation and we respond.
This is why I never, ever, wantto share with you my Word,
because my Word does not evokeworship, but God's Word evokes
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true, deep, authentic,wholehearted worship of Him,
because it's revelation of whohe is.
It drives me nuts when I traveland somebody will get up and
they're kind of introducing meor what I'm going to do in the
service.
When I'm preaching, they'll say, well, we're going to have some
time in worship, and thenDavid's going to come up and
talk what's that about?
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Like, what am I going to do?
We're going to worship, andthen David's gonna come up and
talk what's that about?
Like, what am I gonna do?
We're gonna worship and thenwe're gonna listen to this guy.
I'm gonna worship too.
I'm not just here to talk.
I hope.
I hope that when we study theword, that we are so saturated
with the word that we see theglory of God and we are
worshiping as we see his glimpse, his glory in the word.
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I pray that God will raise asub-community of faith that when
we are in situations wherethere is Bible light, our taste
buds will be so dissatisfied.
And it may be funny andentertaining, but it's not the
glory of God in the Word.
God raised up students who,when they go to a student
conference and they hear a bunchof funny, entertaining stories,
they walk away saying I missthe glory of God in the Word.
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That's the picture.
This is what we see.
Charles Misner, scientificspecialist in relative theory,
studied, knew Einstein and hecommented on why Einstein had so
little regard for organizedreligion.
Einstein, who knew everythingin the universe Listen to what
he said.
Misner said the design of theuniverse is very magnificent and
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shouldn't be taken for granted.
In fact, I believe that is whyEinstein had so little use for
organized religions.
Although he strikes me as abasically very religious man.
He must have looked at what thepreachers said about God and
felt that they were blaspheming.
He had seen much more majestythan they had ever imagined and
they were just not talking aboutthe real thing.
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My guess is that he simply feltthe religions he'd run across
did not have proper respect forthe author of the universe.
I don't want to blaspheme.
We should come to the Word tosee the glory of God.
This is what it means.
When you see the phrase, theterm expository preaching, you
may have seen that and thoughtwhat's that about?
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I was introduced at oneconference and it said David
Platt teaches down at NewOrleans Seminary.
He teaches suppositorypreaching, expository.
So anyway, what does that mean?
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Expository preaching?
It means when we come to theWord, we want to expose the
voice of God.
We want the voice of God to bemagnified.
Voice of man minimize.
Voice of God magnify.
That's the picture when we cometo the Word.
And I'll be honest, this sofrees me up, because now I don't
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feel the pressure every week tocome up with something cool and
hip and innovative and catchyto try to wow you, because I
don't have to come up withanything at all.
I've got this and this is whatyou need.
Now.
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I've got to study, I've got tomake sure that I'm saying what
this says.
But I'm not the chef here.
I don't create the food, I'mthe waiter.
My job is to bring this thingto the table.
Bring it hot All right.
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Here we go, moving on, movingon.
We've got to the table.
Bring it hot Alright, here wego, moving on, moving on.
We've got to move on.
It's one of those lines like,should I say it?
Well, they think I'm just aloser if I say it, but anyway,
alright.
The Word of the worship of Godand reminds us of our need for
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His presence when the presenceof God, the presence of God.
And this reminds us of our needfor his presence, when the
presence of God, the presence ofGod.
And this is, you see, in thatcovenant, that we will depend on
the presence of God.
Here's why this is absolutelyimperative that we depend on the
presence of God, because wehave created in our church
culture a whole host of meansand methods for doing church
that, in the end, require little, if any help at all from the
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Holy Spirit of God.
We don't have to fast and praytoday for the church to grow.
We've got marketing to do that.
We don't have to be on ourfaces pleading for lost souls.
We've got publicity to try toreach them.
And it's not true.
We can do all the stuff we doand if we're not careful we'll
get to the end and see all thestuff we've done we've done
without absolute desperation forthe Spirit of God, and we must
avoid this at all costs, becauseeverything we do without the
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presence of God will be in vain.
I'm convinced this church canaccomplish more in the next
month under the power of theHoly Spirit of God than we can
in the next hundred years, withall of our innovative techniques
and ideas represented aroundthis room.
So let's be dependent on anddesperate for his presence.
The word evokes the worship ofGod.
The word exalts the Son of GodIn the presence of God and of
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Christ.
Jesus will judge the living andthe dead If you have his
appearing in his kingdom.
The word centers on Christ.
It focuses us on Christ.
The whole context here Paul isreminding us of our submission
to his authority, the authorityof Christ.
This is good.
Christ leads the church.
Christ leads the church.
You say well, how can Christlead the church if you're a
(44:27):
pastor, or they're elders, orthis or that.
We're going to talk about this,but the reality is, christ
leads the church through hisword.
This is the means by which heleads the church the word, his
spirit in the word.
So we are submissive to hisauthority.
Finally, we are a community.
We're a community formed byGod's word and awe of God's word
and trusting in God's word.
(44:48):
The time will come when men willnot put up with sound doctrine.
Instead, to suit their owndesires, they will gather around
them a great number of teachersto say what their itching ears
want to hear.
They will turn away from thetruth and turn aside to myths.
There will be a time when thepeople of God no longer want the
Word of God.
Instead, they'll want thatwhich is palatable to their
(45:13):
lives and pleasing to their ears, that which adapts and adjusts
to their lives, instead of theirlives adjusting to it.
They will want a word that doesnot does not infringe on the
comforts they find in this world.
They will want everything butthe word.
(45:37):
And Paul says preach it anyway,with great patience and with
careful instruction.
Everything but the Word.
And Paul says preach it anyway,with great patience and with
careful instruction.
Keep your head, don't lose yourmind in all the new and
innovative stuff.
You give them the Word.
We, as a community of faith,need to realize that it may not
(46:01):
always be the recipe for thatwhich is most successful or that
which is most comfortable, orthat which even draws the most
crowds.
Walter Kaiser, old Testamentscholar great Old Testament
scholar, said many pastors canpreach whole messages with
little more than a tip of thehat to a clause or two taken
from a biblical context that few, if any, recognize.
(46:22):
Even more pastors have decidedthat using the Bible is a
handicap for meeting the needsof the different generations.
Therefore, they have gone todrawing their sermons from the
plethora of recovery and poppsychology books that fill our
Christian bookstores.
The market forces demand thatwe give them what they want to
hear if we wish them to returnand pay for the mega sanctuaries
(46:42):
that we have built.
Even when the word confronts us,challenges us and threatens our
ideals in the American dream,let's embrace it.
Let's embrace it.
Why Listen to this summary ofministry?
I'm already being poured outlike a drink offering.
The time has come for mydeparture.
Verse 6, verse 7, I have foughtthe good fight.
(47:04):
I have finished the race, Ihave kept the faith.
Now there is in store for methe crown of righteousness which
the Lord, the righteous judge,will award to me on that day.
Why do we want to be foundfaithful to the word?
Because we want our lives tocount.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's of the word,
because we want our lives tocount.
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