THE W5 OF LIFE GROUPS
“Boot Camp”
2 Timothy 3:16-17
INTRODUCTION
We began a series called “The W5 of Life Groups” and we evaluated WHY the approach to small groups which we call Life Groups. In that we saw the need and value of community connection through these intentional forums.
Today we consider the place of the Word (Bible) as a foundational component of Life Groups at KCC.
Today’s theme is called Boot Camp. Boot Camp carries a wide variety of implications, ranging from aggressive military training that completely reprograms a person to adopt the value system of military life, to weight boot camps that get aggressive with eating disorders. There are many other ranges of boot camps but all are designed to create a different YOU to the YOU that arrived. Usually the aim is to develop abilities, values and traits that result in a person excelling maybe beyond the potential thought possible.
We need a type of boot camp experience in the life of KCC and likely The Salvation Army nationwide. The evidences of sloppy disciplines and gross negligence in matters of spiritual deportment and practices are far too obvious in the body of Christ, of which we are a part. Most people cannot quote ten verses of the Bible and have even less aptitude when it comes to applying the Word to life.
Futurist and author, Leonard Sweet, in his book Aqua Church, symbolizes the Bible as a compass to help us find the North Star, that being Jesus! I find his analogies very powerful and soul-stirring because they speak so well of reality – raw, in-your-face reality. He tells a story to make the point of how basic and fundamental the Bible is to the Christian Church. Let me share the story. “Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers head coach, was a fanatic for fundamentals. After a game in which the Packers lost to an ill-deserving team, Lombardi called his team together and roared: “OK, we go back to the basics.” Then, holding a football high enough for all to see, he continued to yell: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
“For the church, it’s now back to blocking and tackling basics. To a world that thinks its quoting Shakespeare when it quotes the Bible; to a world in which the Bible has become an unknown book; to a world that picks up the Bible when it goes spoiling for a fight; to a church that gives restaurant menus and TV Guides closer readings than it does Scripture: to this world and to this church it’s time to hold up the Bible and say:
People, this is a Bible.
People, this is a compass.
People, this is what helps you find the North Star.
Off course? Lost your bearings? Drifting in the dark sea? People, this is how you find life’s bearings.”
It’s alarming to think of the numbers of people who don’t crack the cover of their Bibles from Sunday to Sunday. Some don’t even generate enough energy to pick it out of the pew and follow the reading, because the sense of its contents holds no interest and we’ve become lazy, spoon-fed, spiritual babies. We open our mouths like birds and expect someone else to feed us.
Sweet asks a simple question, “Why is it that when we open God’s Word we expect to be bored? It is theologically incorrect to talk of making the word “come alive”. It already is. We’re the ones who have tried to kill it…“Breathe on me breath of God” is a song that the soul should sing every time it opens the Scriptures. To study and learn the Scriptures is to inhale the energies of the Spirit. We inhale the breath of God; we exhale the breath of life: biblical stories.”
I have a disturbing wake-up-call message for us. If the only Bible we get is Sunday morning church, that’s not enough Word in your diet. If you came to our house for dinner my wife would serve a hot meal fit for the queen. She can cook up an amazing pasta bake, homemade meatballs and rice or – you got it – jigs dinner! That’s only three of her multiple amazing dishes! Her glazed carrots are to die for – mixed with brown sugar, spice, cinnamon and butter - yum! Now, as good as that meal would be, is it enough to sustain you until next Sunday when Beth has you over for dinner?! I thought not. Now you make the application to getting Bible only at Sunday morning church.
Have you ever stopped to consider that the church and the Bible is always one generation away from extinction? These facts and the ever-present reality of Godless people in the world should alarm us. When I say Godless I don’t mean evil or wicked. There are many wonderful, delightful and moral people who are without God – Godless. There are many so-called Godly who are just as Godless. These are just blind to reality and Judgement Day is going to be an eye-opener. We’ll look into this in a few moments.
In addition to these concerns we see the fact of prevailing spiritual forces always bent on destroying the gospel and squashing the witness of Christ in the world. We’ll look at three significant challenges in this respect as outlined by Paul in 2 Timothy 3. These should help us appreciate the importance of feeding on the Word and digging into the Word through Life Groups. These should concern us enough that we’ll take a Boot Camp approach to developing spiritual disciplines that flow into life experience.
The first challenge we face regularly is
1. Counterfeit Spirituality
2 Timothy 3:1-5…
These descriptions shatter the false sense of security that we live in a progressive society unless we’re willing to admit that is progressively worse.
I remember a recent Fear Factor episode where a team member was placed in an open container that was filled with snakes. The other team member was required to remove the snakes with their mouth and the most removed in a period of time was the winner. My skin crawled as I watched and wondered which position was worse – lying in a pit of snakes or having to touch one of them. This eighteen-item list of Paul’s is a horrifying snake pit. I grieve to think that if I allow just one of these traits to be active in my life it represents an element of godless presence in God’s temple, my body, soul and spirit. As long as one of these lives in me, there is an element of counterfeit spirituality because I have to hide it; I have to cloak it; I have to deny its existence and pretend it isn’t there. It’s counterfeit; it’s not the real deal.
What is mortifying in this first lesson is verse 5. It is a picture that means everything looks real. I read news on Wednesday (Apr 24 ’12) about the Greenfield, Wisconsin Police Department executing a search warrant at a Barbershop after two undercover officers bought a handful of counterfeit items. Among the counterfeit items were Gucci and Louis Vuitton purses, and burned copies of movies. These all looked like the real deal but they weren’t. They were counterfeit.
The form of godliness that Paul talks about in verse 5 of our text is characteristic of people who behave positively and socially in certain ways, doing certain things and we seem to have it together – but the gospel of the Word hasn’t changed our behavior or our lives. Instead of faith being a living, breathing relationship it is a dead dictatorship of the soul as people go through formality and function in the church. It’s counterfeit; it’s not the real deal.
Another problem we face that Paul highlights in 2 Timothy 3 is
2. Religious Seduction
2 Timothy 3:6-7…
Bottom line, religious seduction is not new and it comes in many forms. William Barclay teaches at length about religious seduction in these verses. During the time of this writing women were oppressed so that they could never speak in public, attend a public meeting or go to the grocery store alone. When the introduction of the ‘new age’ of Christianity women’s value and freedom through Christianity was quickly creating excitement but it also brought religious opportunists with it. These deceived women so that the end result was broken marriages, dissolved family life and in extreme cases women abandoned themselves to promiscuous relationships clinging to the seducer who made them believe things that simply were not true.
Paul spoke about seduction earlier in 1 Timothy 4:1 where he says “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” This is a very real phenomenon rather than fictional stories conjured up by religious fanatics as some would be quick to accuse. Deceiving spirits have been a reality from the beginning of time: Eve was deceived by Satan to believe God was holding out on them; Jacob deceived his dad Isaac to steal his brother Easu’s blessing; Uncle Laban deceived Jacob into marrying the oldest daughter that Jacob didn’t really love.
Our present times know similar stories. In 1984 the PTL ministries faced scrutiny by the Charlotte Observer ultimately leading to fraud and conspiracy charges against its esteemed leader Jim Bakker. It also resulted in his divorce from his life-time partner. Jim Bakker was a broken man, his platform now a prison cell. One could see how this was never meant to be the outcome or that plans were made to swindle people out of their life’s savings. But seduction is like that – subtle, unrecognized many times, until it’s too late.
Another challenge reared its ugly head, the lock-ness monster that exists in every Christian fellowship which is
3. Opposition to God
2 Timothy 3:8-9…
Jannes and Jambres are very important names. These were the two sorcerers who confronted Moses before Pharaoh, matching his supernatural wonders, at least to a point. They are believed to have left Egypt with the Israelites. It could have been they who encouraged Aaron to build the golden calf and then died at God’s hand with the thousands who perished for that act. There is much speculation but they represent the spirit of those who reject God and attempt to usurp his leaders in the Church. Some years ago I became extremely troubled to learn that a member of one our Corps made an evil statement that his “calling” was to disrupt my leadership. His language was too “colourful” to repeat.
Sometimes opposition to God is not as bold and daring but can be quite subtle, working behind the scenes to create disruption and discord and disunity.
Friends, we mustn’t take this lightly. It is dangerous to oppose God in any form, and disrupting the church is included. An example takes us to King Saul in 2 Samuel was wounded in battle. A young man, prompted by Saul to finish him off, did so. When he brought the news to the rising, promising soon-to-be King David, David tore his clothes in lament and asked the young man in 2 Samuel 1:14, “Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” David had him executed in response to the young man’s reckless and godless act.
We must always evaluate our conduct to guard against anything that could be an act of treason against the house of God. The result could be deadly.
Paul now moves us away from prevailing spiritual forces to the sun behind the clouds, the fresh dew after heavy rain. He brings us to
4. Authentic Spirituality
2 Timothy 3:10-13…
Paul is highlighting qualities and traits that were very important for Timothy to graft into his life and values. Things like teaching, purpose, faith, patience, love and endurance are learned. Barclays says the text uses the Greek word Parakolouthein. It means that the only way Timothy could be an authentic disciple of Paul was to “follow alongside physically, mentally and spiritually”. It is the process of becoming an apprentice. The only way a person can be an apprentice to learn specific skills or trades is to spend time with a master-tradesperson.
Paul is showing us that Timothy was successful in these matters because he was a good apprentice.
Relationships are necessary to spiritual development. We can’t build relationships Sunday morning. We have a few moments to greet one another and that’s all meaningful but it’s not enough. We must be in relationships where we “follow alongside physically, mentally and spiritually” and we get into one another’s worlds. Entering into one another’s experiences and life is authentic spirituality. Being disengaged and disinterested leaves one to question just how spiritual we really are.
So, the final question to all this is, of recognizing what is counterfeit, seductive and in opposition to God, versus what is authentic spirituality, is the matter of, “how can I tell the difference?” The ultimate witness is God’s Word. It is
5. The Compass that Lights the Way
2 Timothy 3:14-17…
Timothy was raised in faith by his Jewish mother rather than his Greek father. He saw it lived and understood first-hand what it looked like in the examples of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice as recorded in 2 Timothy 1:5 which Paul refers to here again in this passage. The story could have been quite different had Timothy not been raised in faith.
The earlier we start shaping our children in faith the better our chances of it developing deep roots and sustaining them in later years. Even though some stray or for a season choose another path, the foundation of faith remains and continues to be an integral part of their formation and development.
The alternative is the story told of a Sister in a children’s hospital in England some years ago. Her life felt completely meaningless. She searched several philosophies looking for satisfaction but found none. She had not tried the Bible because a friend subtly convinced her it could not be truth. One day a visitor to the hospital left a supply of gospels. The sister decided to read one and read John’s gospel. She said, “It shone and glowed with truth and my whole being responded to it. The words that finally decided me were those in John 18:37, ‘For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.’ So I listened to that voice and heard the truth, and found my Saviour.” It is a sad story that many do not discover their life’s purpose until their lives are far spent because someone didn’t give them the foundational formation years earlier.
Truth guides us to know when something is counterfeit or when there is religious seduction or opposition to God. But truth is not a stated fact or philosophy. It is a first-hand experience. It is illustrated in the story I read of “a Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade went to study with a talented old teacher. This gentle man put a piece of the precious stone into his hand and told him to hold it tight. Then he began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun and almost everything under it. After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home. The procedure was repeated for several weeks. The boy became frustrated. When would he be told about the jade? He was too polite, however, to question the wisdom of his venerable teacher. Then one day, when the old man put a stone into his hands, the boy cried out instinctively, ‘That’s not jade!’“
If you want to recognize counterfeit when it’s in front of you, you need to know what the real deal is.
The Compass of God’s Word lit the way many years ago on a dark night in a forest in Sicily when a gangster held-up a person who had Bibles for distribution. The gangster demanded the Bibles be burned as he held a revolver to the person’s head. He lit the fire and asked if he could read a little from each book before throwing them in the flames. He read the 23rd Psalm from one; the Good Samaritan from another; the Sermon on the Mount from another Bible; then the love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. Each time the thief said, “That’s a good book. We won’t burn that one. Give it to me.” Years later the thief, turned Christian minister, attributed the change in his life to the power of the Scriptures.
WRAP
• The world has its share of counterfeit spirituality, religious seduction (deception) and opposition to God
• We do not want to find these realities operative in our lives or our church
• The Word is one sure way to counter these traps and live authentic, spiritual lives
• The Word is a critical foundational piece to Life Groups
