Answering Our Culture
#1 – Be Prepared
2 Timothy 4:1-4
July 21, 2002
Introduction
God has been reminding me of something lately.
When God called me here, it was with the idea that God wanted to help this church become a tool that God could use to bring many people to Christ. And I have shared that vision with you a number of times.
It has not dimmed; rather, it is getting stronger all the time. And I’m convinced that God wants to equip this congregation to begin having a hand in bringing the gospel to our area.
And so we talked last week about being in the world and not of it.
I mentioned that we needed to engage our culture, remembering that Jesus sent us into the world, and that the world would not always appreciate us or our message.
I said we needed to be set apart to God and His service, and also to say no the sinful activities of your friends, but yes to the people.
I thought maybe God was done, but He has not let me go to another topic. I feel God still wants us to address just how to engage our culture so we can introduce them to Christ.
What can we do to actually get out there and introduce people to Jesus?
It’s one thing to talk about it, another to agree that it needs to be done, but another thing entirely to go out and do it.
So I prayed about it, and I think that at this point, God wants me to discuss how to handle questions and criticisms people have about Christianity.
I was at the Red Rooster on Friday, reading a great book called, True for You, but Not for Me, by Paul Copan. By the way, if you are looking for a resource on talking with your non-Christian friends, this is one of the absolute best I have every seen. You can get it from Anchors of Faith. Get it – its great.
Anyway, I was at the Red Rooster, hoping that I would get the chance to visit with someone about Jesus. I didn’t get to do that, but I did get to watch some people, and it came to me that I needed to be able to address the questions that some of these people would have.
And as I reflected more, I got to thinking that most people won’t have questions as much as they would have objections.
What is it that keeps people from giving their lives to Christ? And I started writing down some of the objections I have run into over the years, and was able to think of about 20 in about 10 minutes.
Well, what do I do with this? I felt God telling me that He wanted me to answer these objections from the pulpit, to give you another tool in your interactions with people.
So I am looking to condense these to about 10, so we can have a series along the lines of “Top 10 Reasons to Not Be a Christian.”
My intention is to not only give you a reasoned response to each of these objections that you can adapt and use, but also to give you something tangible that you can give to somebody who is willing to listen.
At this point, I plan on giving these messages in a format that will make it easy for you to give a copy of the tape to someone who has the objection being addressed that day.
In other words, the message will be aimed and delivered in such a way that it addresses the person with the objection, not you in the congregation.
And by the way, these next 10 weeks or so will be great times to be inviting your non-Christian friends. I promise you won’t be embarrassed by the messages, and neither will they.
I am investigating ways to get these messages in audio format on our website, and to get them onto other sites as well, Lord willing.
We might consider getting these messages into some form of package that would be easy to hand out. We’ll worry about that as the time comes.
Today, I want to start off with the basis for this series, that fact that people will decide that Christianity is not true, and that it doesn’t really matter what you believe.
We won’t discuss specific objections to becoming a Christian today, but just the underlying reasons for non-belief.
The passage that will serve as our text for today is 2 Timothy 4:1-4, and I would ask that you turn with me there now. If you are using the Bibles in the seats, you can find our passage on page 843.
Please follow along as I read:
2TI 4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Folks, this is so important. And you know why? Because everyone of us in here knows somebody who for one reason or another does not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
And God has placed us in their lives, so we could have the opportunity to bring them to eternal life in Christ.
Any Boy Scouts in here today? What’s their motto? Be prepared. And just like the Boy Scouts, we need to be prepared to meet the challenge of bringing the truth to our culture.
I want to give you two truths and three ideas to prepare yourself as you interact with the people around you, praying that God would open their hearts to the truth of the gospel.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Two truths about people:
I. People will reject the truth.
Some people will reject the truth, no matter what.
Maybe you’ve heard of the busload of politicians who were driving down a country road when, all of a sudden, the bus ran off the road & crashed into a tree in an old farmer’s field.
The old farmer, after seeing what happened, went over to investigate. He then proceeded to dig a hole & bury the politicians. A few days later, the local sheriff came out, saw the crashed bus & asked the old farmer where all the politicians had gone.
The old farmer said he had buried them.
The sheriff asked the old farmer, "The coroner wasn’t here. Are you sure they were all dead?"
The old farmer replied, "Well, some of them said they weren’t, but you know how them politicians lie." (SermonCentral.com)
The truth didn’t matter to this guy.
Look back at the first part of verse 3:
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.
Hey, is this really a surprise to anyone?
Why do people reject truth?
A. It goes against previous “knowledge.”
Here’s what I mean. You have been told your whole life that being baptized as a baby was your ticket to heaven.
But now you are faced with the truth from Scripture that nothing you do will earn your way to heaven, not even baptism.
“But my parents and my minister told me I was going to heaven. This thing you’re telling me can’t be true.”
Ah, but it is true – God’s Word says it is, and nothing you and I can do is going to change that.
In this case, truth calls them to reject what they have been taught.
This is doubly hard for those of Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, because it calls for rejecting thousands of years of tradition and teaching about Jesus, the Messiah of the Jewish Scriptures.
It is hard to accept as truth something that goes against previous teachings.
The second reason people reject truth is…
B. It’s inconvenient.
This is where most people really live, in my opinion.
If we are honest with people when we share the gospel with them, they will know that God saves us for heaven, but expects us to live for Him on earth.
What that means to us is that we are free from the penalty of sin, and empowered by God to live outside the power of sin.
What that means to someone who doesn’t understand is that they have to give up all the stuff they thought was fun.
This puts a major cramp in their lifestyle sometimes, and unless the Holy Spirit has really gotten a hold on them, they will probably push Christ away.
Some people will reject the truth, because it goes against what they’ve heard before, and because it is inconvenient
The next truth I want to share from this passage is that…
II. People will gather others who agree with them.
Back to the rest of verse 3 and verse 4:
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Now let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment: we all like to be around people we agree with, right? And that’s a good thing, especially when it involves Christian fellowship, where we can encourage and pray for one another.
Well it’s no different for anybody else. So people who don’t want to live for Christ gather people who will give them not only the freedom to reject Him, but actually encourage a life away from Him with their false teachings.
Again, let’s be honest: who wouldn’t like to hear that you could sin all you want and still go to heaven?
There are plenty of people who dress themselves in clerical robes, with the title, “Reverend” but deny the very truth of Scripture that God is holy and will judge sinners.
And who wouldn’t like to hear that there are many paths to God (if there is a God at all), and that it doesn’t matter which way you go, as long as you are sincere?
Who wouldn’t like to be around people who don’t consider your lifestyle as sinful, but rather celebrate it as “diverse?”
This is critical – too often the church has been guilty of pushing people away, right into the arms of people who don’t know Christ and don’t care to know Him, because they are accepted as they are.
One of the things I try to communicate to people when telling them about Jesus is that Jesus takes as we are – we cannot clean ourselves up enough for God to accept us.
But when Christ comes into our lives, He cleans us up on the inside.
Unfortunately, many Christians forget that. They want this sinner to get his act together before we waste our time with them.
If that’s your attitude, you better let it go if you’re serious about seeing people come to Christ through any influence of yours.
Do we accept sinful lifestyles as being good? No. But we cannot expect people who have not been born of God to act like Christians.
Remember that Christ does His work as a person comes to Him.
Getting back to the false teachings for a bit.
Some of the biggest repositories for false teachings are our colleges and universities.
Courses are offered that take aim at traditional beliefs and attack the notion of absolute truth. They are taught by people with an axe to grind, and serves two purposes.
First, it gives young people an excuse to reject what they have learned to that point about God, the Scriptures, truth, and whatever, all backed by the official sanction of a paid instructor.
Second, it serves to confuse others who have legitimate questions, but don’t know where to find answers.
One of the things our students are being told is that we can only believe the things we can see. This reminds me of a story I heard of a teacher who was telling her students that they should not believe in God because they could not see Him.
“Can you see the sky?” “Yes,” they answered. “Can you see the trees?” “Yes,” they replied. “Can you see the grass?” “Yes,” they replied.
“Can you see God?” “No,” they replied. So the teacher said, “Well since we can’t see God, there must not be one.”
One of the students lifted her hand, and requested to test that theory, and the teacher gave her permission.
“Can everyone here see the teacher?” “Yes,” they replied. “Can you see the teacher’s head?” “Yes,” they answered. “Can you see the teacher’s brain?” They answered, “No.” “Well, then according to what we’ve learned today, she must not have one.” (SermonCentral.com)
Let’s review – some people will deny the truth, and will gather people who teach them what they want to hear.
SO…
III. Be Prepared.
A. Pray.
Only God can open the heart and mind of a person. We might have all the answers, and I hope you are ready, but understand that if a person comes to Christ, it is not because you talked them into it, it’s because the Holy Spirit was at work in them.
Remember we are in a war for people’s souls and that we have to use the weapons of spiritual warfare, not the least of which is prayer.
So start by praying that God would open them up to the truth of Scripture. And pray for opportunities to share the gospel.
There is a story of a guy who prayed this prayer every morning: "Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is."
One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him. The bus was nearly empty but this guy sat next to our praying friend.
The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get very nervous about the man next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep.
He then cried out with a loud voice, "I need to be saved. I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?"
He turned to the Christian and pleaded, "Can you show me how to be saved?" The believer immediately bowed his head and prayed, "Lord, is this a sign?"
(SermonCentral.com)
Next…
B. Bring the Word.
Look back at verse 2:
2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.
This book was written to Timothy, a young preacher and evangelist, and he was urging Timothy to continue in his ministry of the Word of God.
I realize that not everybody can be a preacher in the sense of Timothy or myself, but the point is that the Word of God is essential in eliminating error.
Why? Because it is truth.
Two verses before our passage this morning we read that all Scripture is God-breathed. In other words, God Himself spoke the words of Scripture into the hearts and minds of the author.
If God doesn’t know what truth is, who does?
Here’s the point. Know what the Bible says about how to know for sure you’re going to heaven.
Know what it says about judgement and grace. Know what it says about the full life Jesus wants us to have. Know what it says about forgiveness and being purified by the blood of Christ.
Know what it says about the ultimate end of the devil.
And know what it says about Jesus’ attitude toward sinners, that He came to seek and save what was lost, and that He died for them.
Know what it says and where it says it, so you can show the person right from the Bible.
Bring the Word. Next…
C. Bring your testimony.
Listen as I read 1 Peter 3:15-16.
15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Two things quickly here:
First, make it personal – the hope you have, not just the Christian population in general.
Second, talk in ways that respect the person you are visiting with. I’ve mentioned before that you don’t get very far by screaming at sinners.
Yes, they need to hear that God judges sinners. But they need to hear the rest! That God provided a way out of that judgment through Christ and that a person can spend eternity in heaven.
Be firm, but friendly, and when they have questions, you’ll be the person they turn to.
And lastly, to be prepared…
D. Live a holy life.
Here’s another passage from 1 Peter 2:12 -
1PE 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Be the exact opposite of what people have been taught to expect of Christians. Be a model citizen who loves and respects his neighbor.
It is an extremely hot day in a major desert city. The city bus is crowded. The people are tired and miserable.
Suddenly, a young man begins cursing. It’s one cuss word after another. The bus driver looks in mirror and can tell the people are ashamed for him. When the young man got off the bus, the driver said, "Sir, you’ve left something." "What?!,” he asked. "A bad impression", said the driver. (SermonCentral.com)
Be the kind of person who leaves a good impression, that tells people that you have something special.
Live a life that is consistent with what you claim as a Christian, and it gives you credibility you just cannot buy.
Conclusion
We live in a society that seems to want to ignore the claims that God the Creator has on our world.
But ignore it, try to snuff it out, or whatever, it doesn’t change the fact that God has a claim on us, and that one day He will call in that claim.
We need to alert people to the fact that Jesus will someday return to take His people home, and that it is to their distinct advantage to take the offer of salvation before that happens.
But we have the challenge of talking to people who reject truth and gather others who give them what they want to hear.
This takes work. It is not easy work, but it is ultimately very rewarding.
Are you willing to take the challenge to reach out to a lost and dying world with the Good News that the God of all truth knows everything about them and yet loves them so much He sent His Son?
Are you willing to be used by God to bring someone to the truth of Christ?
I hope so. Because God is wanting to use you, if you will be usable and available.
May God break our hearts until we see lost people through His eyes.
We will be closing our service by singing, “Shine, Jesus, Shine.” And as you are singing that, reflect on the words, and turn the song into a prayer that God would have His way in our society, and in our hearts as we become His tools for building His kingdom.
Shall we pray.
