What People Don't Want To Hear Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: July 12, 2006

Date Preached: July 16, 2006

Where Preached: OZHBC (PM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: Idolatry in the church

Sermon Title: What People Don’t Want to Hear…

Ascribing to the Idol of Self Worth…

Sermon Text: 2 Tim 4:3-4 (NASB) read now…

Essence of the Text: Paul told Timothy that church members would NOT want to hear the Truth…

Essence of the Sermon: God’s Word reveals that even today church members do not want to hear the truth…

Objective of the Sermon: We must come to grips with the Truth, and stop desiring OUR own version of truth…

Introduction:

This week as I was studying for this sermon, I decided that I had completed my task in 2 Timothy and I was looking for another passage to move on to and I was intent on beginning another series of sermons…

But a funny thing happened on my way to preparing another sermon series for you… God intervened and He was very clear in telling me that I was NOT finished with 2 Timothy…

I began to pray about what He wanted, and I told Him… God I did what you told me to do… I preached on idolatry in the church… I really hit ‘em hard Lord… what did I miss!

He again revealed to me that I had not finished… so I began to pray and the Holy Spirit led me back to 2 Tim 4:3-4… and God confirmed this to me in giving the words to today’s message…

So this morning, instead of getting what I wanted to give you… you are getting what GOD wants you to hear! And to be totally honest with you… that is the way it ALWAYS should be… AMEN!

SO LET’S GO TO OUR PASSAGE THIS MORNING AND READ IT…

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

As I read this passage I began to think about what it is that people want to hear… what ‘tickles’ our ears so much so that we would go out of our way to hear it?

I believe that there are the things that believers WANT to hear…like

• how GOOD we are…

• how God is blessing our efforts in the Kingdom…

• how great heaven and eternity with God will be…

• God’s love

• God’s mercy

• God’s unending forgiveness

And just like the things that believers WANT to hear, I can assure you that there are things that believers DON’T want to hear as well, such as…

• how sinful we are…

• how prideful our thoughts and actions are…

• how our sinful behavior carries severe consequences…

• how our sin affects other people…

• how there REALLY is a hell and torment and people ARE going to go there…

• about God’s wrath and judgment…

• Or about the possibility of God allowing someone to go to hell…

In 2 Pet 3:9 the Bible shares the following promise from God, “…The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance…”(NASB)

There are many believers who love to quote that promise to other believers but I fear that we miss the entire message that Peter is presenting in that passage… Peter is speaking about the great and terrible day of the Lord… JUDGMENT DAY!

Peter is teaching believers that there will come a day when the world will be judged and when those who believe are rewarded and those who reject Christ are eternally condemned…

Peter inserts v.9 to let us know that it is not God’s desire that any go to hell… but that all come to repentance and salvation…

The implication in this verse is that judgment in coming and God does not want you to face His judgment without Jesus Christ, but if you reject Jesus Christ that is just what is going to happen… you will stand ALL ALONE before God with you sin and rejection… and God will pass judgment on your life!

You see in our society today, humanity wants to believe that we are basically a good and decent being that will ultimately do the good and right thing in the end…however; all throughout human history we can see this proven wrong over and over again…

And as humans go, we love to place ourselves up on a pedestal and to be truthful with you… for FAR too long the people of the church have catered to that SAME philosophy.