The Priority Of Preaching-2

The PRIORITY of PREACHING-II—2Timothy 4:1-8

Attention:

Preaching is a standardized & major part of the livelihood of a church. It is vital to the worship experience. It is necessary to alignment with Bible Study. It calls the hearer to action. It draws the hearer closer to God. But is it only to be used inside the church during corporate worship?

Need:

I don’t see what’s so great about preaching but every church I go to I have to put up with it. It bores me to tears.

There must be some way to avoid preaching.

Why do others see it as so important?

Paul solemnly charged Timothy to preach the word of God as knowledge of it is vital to overcoming a hostile environment(3:15-17).

Every pastor is compelled to place his priority upon faithfully preaching God’s revealed word.

Pastor’s must prioritize preaching God’s word.

Why must pastors prioritize preaching God’s word?

5 incentives/principles prioritizing the preaching of God’s word.

OVERCOMING a HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT-III—2Timothy 3:10-17

A hostile environment is overcome by Adherence to Authority’s…

A—IMITATION of APOSTLES-I-III(3:10-14)

B—KNOWLEDGE of SCRIPTURES(3:15-17)

1—REVELATION /Authority(:15a)

2—WISDOM(:15b)

3—BREATH/Inspiration(:16a)

4—PROFIT(:16b-17)

Last time we saw 2 of the Incentives prioritizing the preaching of God’s word are....

1—The KINGDOM(:1)

2—The CONVICTION(:2)

3—An incentive prioritizing the preaching of God’s word is....

The TIME(s)(:3-4)

Explanation:(:3-4)

:3—“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;”

There will be a time when those who preach the word will face sincerely religious people who refuse truth & thus surround themselves with the trappings of the novelty they crave.

They will want to hear niceties & worldly things in church, not how they oppose God’s truth, but how they are legitimate lifestyles for Christians.

There will always be supporters of human desire, & preachers encouraging such, rather than the truth of God’s word. These accumulate teachers of their own desire. They build churches, schools, seminaries, send missionaries....but they fail God.

“Endure/Put up with”—anecomai—to hold up;2) to hold one’s self erect & firm; 3) to sustain, to bear, to endure “Sound”—ugiainw—to be sound, to be well, to be in good health.

“Doctrine”—didaskalia—See 3:16 above.

“Desires/Lusts”—epiyumia—desire, craving, longing, desire for what is forbidden, lust.

“Itching /Tickled”—knhyw—To scratch, tickle, make to itch; 2) to itch; 3) Desirous of hearing something pleasant.

“Heap up/Accumulate”—episwreuw—to heap up, accumulate in piles.

:4—“& they will turn their ears away from the truth, & be turned aside to fables.”

Doctrinal teachings: the Tri-unity of God—The Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Nature of God—Omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, etc. Soul Competency with the responsibilities of both God & man.

Accept homosexuality as something which cannot be refused on genetic grounds rather than accepting its reality as sin. Churches install pastors, leadership, etc. who are openly gay.

Accept abortion as something to be decided by lifestyle & personal choice rather than accepting the truth that the unborn child is a blessing of God, a person & a potential adult with future ramifications for good which you can only imagine!

Accept that the government should watch over everything & supply everything for us rather than maintaining a Christian work ethic.

“Turned aside”—ektrepw—1) To turn or twist out—1a) In a medical sense used of dislocated limbs; 2) To turn off or aside; 3) To be turned aside; 4) To turn aside; 5) To turn away from, to shun a thing, to avoid meeting or associating with one.

“Fables/Myths”—muyov—A fiction, a fable—2b1) An invention, a falsehood.

Argumentation:

Acts 17:16-21—“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews & with the Gentile worshipers, & in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean & Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus & the resurrection. And they took him & brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians & the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.”

Ps. 95:7-11—“For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’””