Opening Illustration: Following a snowplow. I read a story this week about a father who taught his son what to do if he ever got stuck driving in a snowstorm. The father taught the son to wait for a snowplow truck and follow the truck to a safe place. Well, the son found himself stuck driving in a snowstorm. Sure enough, a snowplow comes along, and the young man starts following it. He follows the truck in every direction, no matter where it went. If the truck turned left, he followed. If it turned right, he stayed right on his tail. After several hours, the snowplow truck driver eventually got out of the truck and asked the young man why he was following him. The young man explained what his father had taught him. The snowplow driver then said, “Well, since I just finished clearing the Walmart parking lot, do you want to follow me over the Kroger parking lot?” Now, I get it’s a silly story, but the tangibility of the story does point to something that we may not realize exists intangibly in our lives. We don’t realize how easy it can be to unknowingly hitch our wagons to a belief system, to a person, or cultural norm that ends up guiding our life. If you don’t know what’s guiding your life, there’s a good chance that you are blindly following the path of least resistance.

What Paul tells Timothy in his second letter to him is make sure that you know what’s guiding you so that you can correctly guide the other people in your life. Paul makes it abundantly clear that God’s Word is a big deal in your life. Paul makes is clear that God cares a lot about His Word in your life. And that’s what we are going to see today: God cares a lot about His Word in your life. Open your Bibles to 2 Timothy 2. We are going to look at verses 14 through 19 and see just how much God cares about His Word and how it’s guiding your life. Church Family, we are going to read God’s Word with expectancy? Why? Because it’s alive and powerful. May God’s Word speak to us, prick us, and grow us. Read 2 Timothy 2:14-19. Pray. 

We are about halfway through 2 Timothy in a Sermon Series: Take Heart: The Faithfulness of God. My prayer is that this letter is strengthening you. We’ve learned some awesome truths: God has given you a spiritual gift and God has given you the power for that spiritual gift. God has given you a beautiful message called the gospel that you are to guard. God has given you the endurance to not let your “gospel line” fade out on your watch. Today, we see that God has given you His Word. Which, if you think about it, it’s amazing. We talked about this in our Young Adult Community Group this past week. How amazing is it that the Creator of the universe would love us so much that He revealed Himself through both creation and His Word?! Because God choose to make Himself known through His Word, God cares about that Word in your life. We start off with the importance of God’s Word: Getting God’s Word wrong is a big deal. 

1) Getting God’s Word wrong is a big deal. (vs. 14, 16-18) As a reminder, Timothy was helping the church at Ephesus. What was going on with this church? Persecution was breaking out because of Emperor Nero. In addition, there were false teachers infiltrating the church. Clearly, Paul was aware of the false teachers, which is why he addressed them starting in verse 14: ¹⁴ Remind everyone about these things, and command them in God’s presence to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless, and they can ruin those who hear them. Skip down to verse 16: ¹⁶ Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. ¹⁷ This kind of talk spreads like cancer, as in the case of Hymenaeus and Philetus. ¹⁸ They have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred; in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith. What do we know what’s going on? We learn of two people in the church at Ephesus: Hymenaeus and Philetus. This wasn’t the first time Hymenaeus’ name has come up. If you go back to Paul’s first letter to Timothy, Hymenaeus had already created a stir with his false teaching. Since this guy is being brought up again, he clearly didn’t respond well the first time. What’s the problem going on? There was foolish, worthless, and useless teaching going on. Some people in the church, possibly some leaders, were teaching things that were against God’s Word. And what the result of the false teaching? It ruins people (vs. 14). It leads to godless behavior (vs. 16). It turned people away from the faith (vs. 17). 

If there is any part of you that doesn’t think biblical teaching isn’t important, then take heed of these verses. The language that Paul uses in verse 17 is about what gangrene does to the body. Gangrene eats away the body until the body dies. Paul is telling Timothy, “Any teaching other than God’s Word destroys the body of Christ.” This is why it’s so important to be a part of a church family that teaches God’s Word. Who knows where some of you might be in 5 years. Wherever you are, I hope you will find a church family that does not waver when it comes to teaching God’s Word. Because if you find yourself in a place that either takes away from God’s Word or adds to God’s Word, you are sitting in gangrene. You don’t realize it, but you are exposing yourself to spiritual decay. So, what did Paul tell Timothy to do? Treat false teaching like you treat gangrene. You cut it out as soon as possible. You don’t sit there and play around with it. You don’t entertain this worthless, useless talk. Get rid of it!

God’s Word – His revelation to you – should be so precious that you handle with utmost care. When it comes to the teaching of God’s Word, ignorance isn’t an option. Illustration: Throwing away Bitcoin. This week, I was talking with a friend and for some reason we started talking about investing and cryptocurrency. I opened this app on my phone and had no idea that I owned some Bitcoin. It had been sitting there since 2018. Now, I own like .00001 Bitcoin, but anytime you find $20 in your pocket, it’s a good day! I read a story this week, there was a guy who bought 7,500 Bitcoin in 2009 for next to nothing. In 2013, Bitcoin went up so much that those Bitcoins were worth close to half a billion dollars. The problem? He had them stored on a hard drive in a drawer and at some point, the hard drive got thrown away. His fortune was sitting 5 feet deep in a landfill somewhere. You can’t tuck your Bible in the corner of your bedside and then not expect exposed to spiritual gangrene. If I told you in a sermon, “The resurrection of the dead has already occurred,” what would you do? In short, what would you do if I told you that there would not be a future resurrection of our bodies? Which, the Bible clearly tells us that there will be. But that’s what these false teachers were saying because of their Gnosticism. Possible responses: “Sounds good”. Your only reaction is to have no reaction. “That doesn’t sound right, but there’s no way that Jess could be wrong.” I can’t tell you this enough: I can’t be your only Bible intake. “I’m going to read my Bible and study that for myself (and then I’m going to bring all my complaints to Jody Hurst, one of the elders…).” Read your Bible and then come to me because you know getting God’s Word wrong is a big deal because it can corrode your life. Now, there’s another side to this coin. Here’s what we see next: God approves of those who are precise with His Word. 

2) God approves of those who are precise with His Word. (vs. 15) Let’s go back to verse 15: ¹⁵ Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. As I studied the passage this week, I dived in deeper with this idea of receiving God’s approval. As a Christ-follower, I know that I am already accepted and approved by God. Who I am, as a child of God, is set. God can’t love me anymore or any less than He does right now. But the passage clearly says, “receive His approval.” And I think this passage has been read and quoted many times and it’s created this mindset in people that they have to work to receive God’s approval. The danger is that this verse leads a person to earning their salvation. Ephesians 2 clearly tells us that’s not the case; that salvation is a free gift from God and it’s not of any work that we do. GOSPEL PRESENTATION.

So, what do we do with this passage? A clear part of understanding Scripture is understanding the context of this verse. What does the end of verse 15 say? “…who correctly explains the word of truth.” Verse 15 and the surrounding verses are about how we handle God’s truth, God’s Word, and the Bible. What Paul is telling Timothy is that when God’s Word is correctly handled, then God goes, “Yes! That’s it! That’s exactly what I am looking for. I approve!” God doesn’t want you to bring sloppy work to Him. How do we bring this good work to God? What does it mean to “correctly explain?” The Greek word for that phrase is a rarely used word in Scripture. It means to “cut straight.” The imagery of the Greek word is that of cutting a path or making a road. There is this precision that is needed. I assume that when most of you mow your yard, you start with the side of your yard and work your way to the other side. What Paul is telling Timothy – that when it comes to God’s Word – mow straight down the middle. “Don’t worry about all those other weeds out there, you cut a path straight through the field to the streams of quiet waters where people can drink deeply.” God approves of those who are precise with His Word.

Each one of us has an opportunity where we are to cut this path – to precisely handle God’s Word. Let me mix my metaphors for a minute. When you choose correctly handle and apply God’s Word, you are creating a window in your life for God’s Word to shine through. You don’t have to become a pastor, preacher, or Bible teacher, but you can take what you know about God’s Word and let that be window of light to those around you. Rightly reading, studying, and sharing God’s Word creates a window for God’s truth to shine. Rachel and I had a friend from Iowa come visit us this past week. One night, we sat around until midnight talking about God, His Word, and life. I walked with two things that night: 1) I’m too old to stay up that late now. 2) God approved of that conversation. It was a window that we all opened up and let God’s Word shine through. What’s the window that God wants you to open in your life? Just one little window – what small window can you open and let God’s Word shine through? Read your Bible and go tell someone what you learned. Who is one person in your life that God is calling you to open a window for God’s Word to shine through? Cause when you do, God looks as you and says, “Yes! That’s it! That’s exactly what I am looking for. I approve!” Paul knows Timothy well. I can only speculate that Paul, at this point, knew Timothy might be feeling overwhelmed or lacking in confidence. So, Paul gives Timothy a big dose of encouragement. Here’s what we see with our final verse for today: God’s Word and His children aren’t going anywhere. 

3) God’s Word and His children aren’t going anywhere. (vs. 19) Let’s read verse 19 one more time: ¹⁹ But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil.” Have you walked around a small downtown square and noticed those stones that have a name or year chiseled into them with most the buildings? Go to downtown Columbia and you’ll see some. Those stones typically represent the owner, along with the year when the building was built. It was a forever marker about how this building began. I love looking at those because it really brings you back in time. It makes me curious about the story of the building – how it got there and why it was originally built. But as I walk by, that stone doesn’t give me the full story. What Paul tells Timothy in this final verse is that God has put His stamp – His inscription – on the Church for all time. God’s truth is like a foundation stone that will won’t ever go anywhere. And that stone will forever remind the world that His Word and His children aren’t going anywhere. God’s Church will never fade away.

What does this inscription say? It has two parts: The first is that God knows who belongs to Him. Paul is reminding Timothy that even as corrosive as those false teachers are, they can never fully corrode the Church. The second part of the inscription is that a Church family can know it’s own. The Christian life will bear fruit. The Christian life won’t live a life of evil. Here’s where all these verses come together: When you sit down and correctly handle God’s Word, you are standing on the same foundation that people stood on before and the people after you will stand on. You are creating a window for God’s Word to shine through. And God approves of that! This is why God cares about His Word in your life. 

Here’s your challenge for this week: Care about God’s Word in your life. If it matters greatly to God, then it should matter greatly to you. Open up the Bible this week. Sit down with God this week and hear from Him. Hitch your wagon to God’s truth. The last thing I want for each of you is making laps in the Walmart parking lot. Open up that window to let God’s Word shine through. Can you imagine what that would look in our church family? What if 100 small windows were opened up for the first time? What if each family made the decision to care about God’s Word? What if each of you let God’s truth guide you every step of the way? Those opened windows in your life would blow open the doors of this church. May it be so. Let’s pray.

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