Sermon 009 If this church were squeezed what would come out?

Quiz: What are these things made from:

• Olive Oil oil is produced by grinding whole olives and extracting the oil
• Peanut Oil
• Palm Oil
• Canola Oil - rapeseed, CANadian Oil Low Acid
• Corn Oil
• Vegetable Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Baby Oil - mineral oil is a liquid by-product of the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline

If this church were squeezed, what would come out?

Introduction to 2 Timothy

Author: Apostle Paul

Audience: Paul's apprentice Timothy and the church in Ephesus

Paul's Circumstances: For the second time in prison, in Rome; will be executed shortly thereafter

Timothy's Circumstances: struggling pastor of a 10 year old church, dealt with other pagan gods and false teachers.

Read 2 Tim. 4:1-5

What Paul Urges Timothy to Do

Verse 2

• Preach
  • What: The word
• Be prepared
  • When: in season and out of season
• Correct-Rebuke-Exhort
  • In what way: with great patience
  • By what means: with great instruction

Verse 5

• Keep Your Head (lit: be sober)
  • When: in all situations
• Endure
  • What: suffering
• Do
  • What: the work of an evangelist
• Fulfill
  • What: your ministry

Why Paul Urges Timothy to Do It

Verse 1: God & Christ

• Are present NOW
• Will judge (lit: epiphany) all IN THE FUTURE
• Will appear as King IN THE FUTURE

Verses 3-4: People Will

• Not put up with sound doctrine
• Gather a bunch of teachers
  • Why: To suit their own desires
  • Adam Potkay, "We live joyless lives because we seek pleasure, which is basically individual and solo, and not joy, which is by its very nature shared."
  • Why: To have them say what their itching ears want to hear
• Turn their ears away from truth
• Turn aside towards myths

What Are We To Make Of It

It would be easy to dismiss this passage as merely the instructions of one old pastor to another young one. What does it have to do with us "run-of-the-mill, normal, average" Christians?

Jesus' Commission to His Disciples, Matthew 28:19-20, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, **20 **and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

1 Peter 2:9-10, **9 **But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. **10 **Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Revelation 1:6, Christ has made us a kingdom of priests.

Ephesians 4:7, 11-15 (paraphrased)

Christ has given each one of us grace...to become the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the **shepherds **and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity, maturity, and fullness. We must no longer be children...blown here and there by every wind of teaching...Instead, speaking the truth in love, we must grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

A.P.E.S.T. http://fivefoldsurvey.com/

2 Timothy 2:2, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others."

4 Generations! Paul > Timothy > "Reliable people" > "others"

This is the model we want to take on as a church.

Things to Be Cautious Of

• Assuming that if you like what you're hearing, it must be true
  • Or, if you don't like it, it can't be true
• Always wanting to hear something new and different
• Basing your decisions solely off of what feels good to you
• Thinking that teaching shouldn't include rebuke, correction, exhortation

Things to Work Toward

• Live with the return of Jesus always in view (Thief in the Night)
• Always be ready with an answer (1 Peter 3:15)
• Live like the heirs, priests, APESTs that you are

Which brings us back to our original question: If this church were squeezed, what would come out?