Read It, Study It, and then, Believe It!!! / 2 Timothy 3:1-17 NRSV

Read It, Study It, and then, Believe It!!!
2 Timothy 3:1-17 NRSV

Purpose: After listening to the sermon, we will be more engaged and confident reading the Bible.

3 You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come.
 2 For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 
3 inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, 
4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 
5 holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! 
6 For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, 
7 who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 
8 As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. 
9 But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men,[a] their folly will become plain to everyone.
10 Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,  
 11 my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 
12 Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 
13 But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. 
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 
15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 
16 All scripture is inspired by God and is[b] useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Footnotes:

a. 2 Timothy 3:9 Gk lacks two men b. 2 Timothy 3:16 Or Every scripture inspired by God is also 
This is the Word of God, for the people of God Praise be to God. Amen   
 
Read It, Study It, and then, Believe It!!!
2 Timothy 3:1-17 NRSV 

Purpose: After listening to the sermon, we will be more engaged and confident reading the Bible. 

Outline 
I. Introduction 
II.  Why did I choose to believe in the Bible?  Develop the concept of free will and free choice 
III. Explanation of the biblical text, 2 Tim 3: 1-17   IV. Conclusion(s) 
V. Prayer


Read It, Study It, and then, Believe It!!!
2 Timothy 3:1-17 NRSV

Purpose: After listening to the sermon, we will be more engage and confident reading the Bible.


 Do you enjoy reading good books? I am asking you, because my experience has been that the love of reading has to be developed, and then it becomes a habit. A habit is a pattern of behavior acquired through frequent repetition.1 Now be careful with the material that we read also, it needs to be good reading material. If it is not good reading material, then it can easily contaminate our minds. It is something similar to the saying, "Garbage in, garbage out." That means our minds also need to be fed. As a result of the good feeding of our minds, we will have good thinking, peaceful thoughts, and feelings of hope.  And again some of my good habits were developed through the initiative of my mom in my life. My mom was a very smart woman as I am sure all of our moms were and are, and please dads do not feel bad, but mom power is very important in the life of our children. So, as I was telling you, my mom observed her children in order to know them better, and then she was able to help us better.   In fact, my mom observed in me that I didn't like to read. I was lazy about reading. Actually, I was lazy about several things, but I was extremely lazy about reading. The thought of seeing so many letters all together made me sleep. My mom knew that I didn't want, I didn't enjoy, and I didn't desire to read so many letters together. On the other hand, I really enjoyed reading

1 http://www.audioenglish.org/dictionary/habit.htm (accessed on April 29, 2015). 

comic books. My mom noticed that I just enjoyed reading comics, because they had the characters talking to each other. I liked to see the characters.  My mom discerned that I liked to see the characters, because I imagined that I was one of them. For instance, I was able to enter in the plot or drama, in the performance of the comic that I was reading. It was very good that I entered through my imagination that I was one of them. That means, that I was paying attention in what I was reading. I was part of the book!!!  Besides the desire of mom to help us to develop the right tools in order to do well in live, she put her ideas in action too. She understood that a good thought is useless if we don't believe in it and make it happen. So, my mom influenced me in order for me to develop the good habit of reading. How did she do it??? She paid me for each book I can read and explained to her. Of course, my first option and for a long time, was to choose books with so many illustrations. But, wait a minute; mom was so intelligent, because she didn't pay me for reading comics. The books I started reading were easy but good books for teenagers. They were classics.  Consequently and with time, I realized that I started believing in the plot from the books. I shared the imagination and message of the author. I also started discovering that my tendency was to keep the story in my mind for several days. After that, when I returned to the reading, I was more interested than in previous days. The awareness of the story made me read it with more concentration and eagerness, because my interest was escalating more and more. The more I read it, the more I wanted to know about it, and the more I related with it. Believe it or not, reading classics started changing my life and my perspective of it.

 In the same way that I was forming the good habit of reading; without noticing it, I was developing a character in the sense that I was deciding what to read and what not. That means I was applying my free will and my freedom of choice on what classic book to read and what not. At the same time that I was choosing what to read I was choosing what to believe and what not. For example, I remember very well one book which its title was Under the Lilies; in this book two sisters became very good friends after a very difficult childhood. The memory of this story gave me hope and helped me to try to be a good sister.     My point here is that the author was able to inspire me to believe that what I was reading was possible in my own life. She gave me hope when I used to have a conflict with my sisters. On the other hand, it is very important to understand that, even though she was a very good writer, the author’s message was not going to be useful for generations to come. Because for the author it was only possible to cover one specific human issue at the time. She couldn’t cover all human situations in life. It is impossible for an author to cover the entire range of mental, spiritual, and emotional conditions with reliable assurance of a good ending for each one of our situations.  Therefore, the message of her book was not universal. Actually, something very similar was happening in this letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy. Timothy was the equivalent of a biological son for Paul. And for Timothy, Paul was like a father, a mentor, and an example for his life. Timothy looked up to Paul. Hard times were also similar to nowadays.  That is, the social environment of Paul and Timothy was pretty much the same that ours. Let’s put the things in perspective; for example, first, see the parallel between the first century of our Current Era and nowadays. The
 
ethical behavior was very low in those times, but what about today. Paul is telling Timothy in verse 2 that people will be lovers of themselves. In nowadays, people do not think so much about others. For example, if we want to do some business with someone, we need the assistance of a good lawyer, because we don’t want to be cheated. It is clear, the low ethical social behavior and the love of money, because people do not care for human dignity. Their ethics are based on earthly standards.  Second parallel, morality was very low in those days, but what about now? People could get easily involved in sexual relationships with whomever they pleased. They didn’t have good moral behavior. Let’s say that the majority of the people didn’t care for a marriage commitment. Additionally, no ethical commitment also, because when they divorced, they could leave easily and sadly leave the other party poor or in debt, the great majority of the time was the wives who were left behind and without no money. They were broke. There is no difference with America society 2015.  So, Timothy needed support for the difficult times that he was living. He needed encouragement when he wanted to quit and let society influence him with earthly ethics and morals and he needed motivation in order to keep living a good moral and ethical life according to God’s standards. Where was Timothy to find good moral and ethical universal standards? Where was Timothy to find comfort for hard times? Where was Timothy to find direction for his life and the life of his congregation? Where was Timothy to find wisdom for a good lifestyle? Timothy was going to find everything that he and his congregation needed in the Holy Scriptures.  The Holy Scriptures were the writings of the Old Testament. The New Testament had not come into being. Timothy was facing the burden of Gnosticism, people skeptical of what Jesus Christ did on the Cross, and they were misleading people. One of the tools that the Gnostics used to mislead people was that they created they own literature in order to support their claims. Paul referred to these books as man-made things.2 On the opposite, the great book of the church was/is a book inspired by God using the talents, minds, and hands of several people to write it, the Bible. The Bible has been of such an importance in the life of any authentic Christian believer and the Christian church that if one really wants to know the God of the universe there is not another place to get a first-hand account of this God, that in the Bible. So, the Bible has real authority in our lives, because it is the first tool that God uses to communicate His will to us.   When people say to us, “the Bible is so old-fashioned, it cannot be applied to 2015, because it is another context in human history.” We can answer, with love, grace, and applying the Gifts of the Holy Spirit that the context was not so different that our current situation in America. It was not easy. It is not easy. However, through the Bible the Holy Spirit takes care of us in all our situations, correction that leads to improvement, comforting that leads to uplifting, and direction for our lives that leads to a secure hope and to an unaffected peace.  Therefore, if we want to be morally and ethically fair and consistent people, who believe in the Holy Spirit who is God, then we must believe in the Holy Scriptures that is the Bible.

2 Barclay William, The Daily Study Bible Series. The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Westminster Press: 1975), 199.

Let us pray

Dear Holy One Thank You for the giving of the Bible in our lives and the life of the church. It would be very difficult to discern Your will if it were not
for the Bible which clearly points us to what is perfect, right, and good for our lives. Please help us to read It, study It, and then, believe in It!!!
In Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen