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Understand The Times

In this message Pastor Floyd discusses the need to understand the times and uses 2 Timothy 3:1-9.

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America is a very, very religious nation. Oftentimes you will hear people say, “I consider myself to be a spiritual person.” You see what we have in this nation today is what is called religious pluralism. Years ago, common thinking and belief was that America was a Christian nation founded upon Judeo-Christian ethics, and values, and principles. But today, that thinking is becoming more foreign and strange by the moment. And the reason is because there is a call in this hour for what is called religious pluralism, that regardless of what your religion may be, you need to learn how to co-exist with other various religions around the world.

Well it’s interesting to note along the way of life that periodic as I walk along and live with people’s lives continually, because that’s what I’m called to do, I hear people say statements like this, “Well at least they believe something.” You know you need to be real careful, very cautious when you hear somebody say, “Well at least they believe something.” I mean do you realize today that it is very important to not believe something, it is important to believe the right thing.

Others would say, “Well,” relating to a couple, “Well, at least they’re going to church somewhere together.” Folks, you can get really messed up just going to church somewhere together. All of that matters a great, great deal in life today.

You know this morning after I got up and I had my time with the Lord, and I ran 3.5 miles on my treadmill at home, I walked downstairs and I began to get the blender out. My trainer has me drinking a protein drink. He wants me to drink it a couple of times a day, and I’m trying my best. You know, and all that, so I did that this morning, and I put a little bit of this in it, a little bit of that in it, and a little bit of this in it, and a little bit of that in it just like he taught me to do. And then I turned the blender on, and it blended, and became all mixed together, and I took it, and I poured it out, and I drank it. I mean I’ve gotten to where I can make a pretty good protein drink. And it really is good.

You know that reminded me of what I was going to talk about this morning. Because that’s exactly what’s happening in American religion. People have a thought process that you take a little bit of this, and a you take a little bit of that, and then you take a little bit of this over here, and you take a little bit of this over here, and you put it all in the blender, and you turn it on, and you blend it together, and then you pour it in a glass, and then you drink it, and that’s okay.

One of the sad commentaries of American life is that we’re drinking that kool-aid way too much. Because folks, that’s not the answer. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the name, I trust you are, with the name of a man named Bill Mahr. Bill Mahr is on television quite often, usually he is seen either criticizing or making satirical remarks about the leaders of our nation, or really talking about religion in a negative way, and most of all, talking about Christianity in a negative way. And uh, in all of that, this individual is a very unique individual, and he obviously has had something going on in his life somewhere that really has pushed him into ground that really makes me walk in fear and trepidation.

And he recently produced a movie called Religulous. And this movie Religulous is basically nothing more than him documenting with various interviews, and matters being of religions in the world, and making fun of it along the way, in all kinds of fashion. Now I have not seen the movie, nor will I go see the movie, nor will I rent the movie, but I saw the trailer of it because I wanted to talk about it today.

In an interview with Harry Smith on CBS, I googled it this week, and listened to the interview and it’s quite remarkable just some of the clips that he shared. And I would encourage you to look at it because therein a man who is basically picking on religion and upon elements of Christianity. You know I don’t have a problem necessarily with some of what he does, because some of what is out there is absolutely ridiculous. But you see, let me tell you where Bill Mahr doesn’t get it. Bill Mahr doesn’t get it because he doesn’t get the understanding of a personal, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Because you see, you can talk about religion all day long, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to talk about a relationship, a pure-driven relationship with Christ.

As the Apostle Paul began to pen these words to Timothy just moments before his death, the death of the Apostle himself, he really reminded us of the importance that we are in the last days. In fact, he is talking to us about this passage in chapter 3, verses 1 through 9 of 2 Timothy, he writes to us, and he challenges us, and tells us that if we’re going to make it through difficult times, we’ve got to understand the times. And that’s what I want to talk to you about today. I want to talk to you about “Understanding the Times.”

And so today I want you to get a copy of God’s Word, and as you get a copy of God’s Word, I want you to look with me to chapter 3 of 2 Timothy because in a moment I want to read selections of that scripture, and I want to teach you from it here even this morning.

Now one of the ways to make it through tough times is to understand the times. And in understanding the times, what the Apostle does here is that he gives us the big picture. And this big picture, I want to characterize to you in 3 ways here today. First of all, he said that in the last days there would be many people who would be:

1. Religious, but selfish. Religious, but selfish. I want to read for you God’s Word, chapter 3, verse 1 through verse number 4. Look at it with me today. “But know this,” now when he says, “But know this,” he is saying, “Listen I’m about to tell you something very truthful, and you need to know this.” He said, “You need to know this.” because he wanted you to know this. “…that difficult times will come in the last days.” That phrase, “difficult times,” is referring to hard and dangerous times. The scripture here says when you get into it deeply, it is teaching us that hard and difficult times will come to a point, and they will just set in during the last days.

You know we’ve been in a unique weather pattern. In fact, today when it started raining here on Sunday, this is the fourth Sunday in a row that we’ve had rain. I believe that I heard last night that out of the last 13 days, it’s rained 12 days in a row, and it’s suppose to rain all the way through Wednesday if the guys get it correct. Now you know, listen carefully today, we’re in a pattern. Just as we’re in a weather pattern, Paul was telling us that before the Lord comes back, there will be a pattern that will set in. And that which will set in will be difficult, and it will be hard to make it through. It will be difficult to cope with because they are dangerous times. Hard times. Well I believe that right now we should sit up and we should listen very carefully because in reality we’re seeing that alive and well today.

But verse 2 goes on to say, “For people will lovers of self.” If you have a pen you ought to underline that phrase, “lovers of self.” And then, “…lovers of money. Boastful, proud, loud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable slanders without self-control; brutal, without love for what is good; traitors, reckless, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” You see he lists in that passage about 18 to 19 things that we could talk about in-depth today that describe what times will be like just before the Lord comes back.

Now my friend time does not permit us to go down all 18 or 19 of those, depends on how you look at it, but we’re going to stay 30000 feet up today, and I want to break it down for you in these ways today. Under that heading that in the last days that there will be many who will be religious, but selfish, what kind of selfishness is he referring to? He is referring in verse 2 to what I call:

(1) Self-exaltation. It is the exalting self, the lifting up of self. The scripture here says what? It says that we are lovers of self, meaning what? That there is a self-centeredness that is unprecedented. There is a self-centeredness that is unprecedented, that we will be so caught up in our selves that it is indicative that the Lord will come soon. You see the issue there is that we have shifted from a God to a self-worship. And by the way, perhaps if you don’t know this, let me just share this word with you. Do you realize today that the number one religion in America is not Christianity, nor is it Islam, or any other religion, but the number one religion in America is self-worship? The exact thing, the exact thing that he’s talking about here in the text.

All that goes on in verse 2 rolls out of this whole thing of self-exaltation. Let me illustrate for you. He said we will be lovers of money. Lovers of money. God doesn’t say that money’s bad; God says what’s bad is when we love money. Just like Matt so beautifully and wonderfully sang a moment ago, that incredible song, it’s that anything that comes before God, anything we want more than God, he talks about that being an idol. What is motivating a person to love money so much? Loving self. Pleasing self. Exalting self.

And then he talks about boastful. Why are we boastful? Because we love ourselves, we’re proud, we love to show people about ourselves, and tell people what we’ve accomplished, and what we’ve been able to do. We become blasphemers even in the process because we want to exalt ourselves, even at times before God! We need to be careful.

People become disobedient to parents is what the text says. Why do people become disobedient to their parents, children? One reason. They love themselves more than the authority over them. That’s why it happens. If you have an issue with your child, and your child doesn’t want to be obedient to your authority, listen, you can deal with all the issues that you want, but the number one issue in that battle is one thing, and that is they love themselves more than they love your authority.

In all of that, he moves on to say that we will be ungrateful. Why are we ungrateful? Because we believe we deserve this. I tell you what; I don’t like it when somebody’s ungrateful. It really bothers me. Ingratitude really goes all over me. I mean it makes me stand up and want to rage. I want to tell you something, you have what you have cause God’s given it to you. You are what you are because God has given it to you. You have the people in your life for reason, because God has given it to you, and you need to respect God, and you need to respect others, and you need to treat them right, act right, be right, and always lift up God and do what you can to help other people. We need to have a grateful heart. You see the problem with the country is what? We believe we’re entitled to it. “Well I’m an American, I deserve this. I’m a Christian, I need this. I’ve got to have this.” Well, we need to be very, very careful.

And we also become unholy. Why do we make unholy choices? We make unholy choices for one reason, because we love ourselves so much we want to feed our flesh, we want to feed our sensuality, we want to feed those elements of our life that we want to wake up, and all of sudden our bodies, ourselves, our hearts become numb to it, because we’re so in love with ourselves.

Reformer John Calvin, who obviously was a brilliant thinker, he warned us of the following. He said, “Every one of us is even from the mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols.” Even from the mother’s womb we begin to craft within us our depraved nature. This whole thing that we’re strong-willed, we’re self-centered. People say, “Well I think he’s a strong-willed child, or she’s a strong-willed child.” Listen, they’re all strong-willed. I mean some of you are strong-willed. I’m strong-willed. We all have strong wills, because we love ourselves way too much, and we love ourselves at times more than we love God, and we love other people. All because of this element of self-exaltation.

But then he takes us in verse 3, and the first part of verse 4, into not talking about self-exaltation, but he talks to us about:

(2) Self-preservation. You talk about insightful, this becomes very

insightful, let me tell you something, people do anything in the world to preserve themselves. You know why we want to preserve ourselves? For one reason. Because we want ourselves exalted. We want ourselves justified. That’s why we rationalize because we believe that we’ve got to stand up for our own rights. And we’ve got to do what’s best for us and so we’ll do whatever it takes to preserve ourselves. What do I mean by that? Well let the scripture speak. Notice what it says, “People become,” in verse 3, “People become unloving.” People become unloving because they want to make sure that they, right?

They become irreconcilable. Why do you think people cannot reconcile a

relationship? I’ll tell you why, it’s very simple; you’ve got people staking their claims. Why are people staking their claims? They’re staking their claims here. They’re staking their claims here. And irreconcilable relationships exist for one reason, because one or both parties are committed to one thing, preserving themselves! That’s why it happens, it doesn’t matter what it is. You can list any kind of relationship that is irreconcilable in your mind, and it all comes back to this preservation of self.

Then he talks about slandering. Why do people slander? Why do people say things about other people that are not true? It’s very simple. On reason. Because people are trying to preserve themselves. People that talk about other people, and put other people down all the time; let me tell you something about it, it’s all about them. Did you get me? It’s all about them. They’re trying to preserve themselves, and the way that they preserve themselves is making somebody else look bad. Jealousy is a tough, tough, tough agenda. That covetness, and that envy that goes on; I mean it’s tough!

Then we come to what the scripture talks about how people have no self-control. Why do people not have self-control? Because they love themselves so much, and they’re going to preserve their way. It doesn’t matter whether they lose the control of they have to hit over the head to get it accomplished. Right?

And then brutal! Why are people brutal? People are brutal to other people for one reason; they’re trying to preserve themselves. For whatever reason they’re trying to prove their right! I tell you what, you talk about a sick culture, the other day I was reading an article about a man who walked into his house, he killed his wife. He killed his baby. He then killed another child he had; the 13 year old ran out the back door to get away from her dad who wanted to kill her. And he was shooting at her as he left. He knew he couldn’t get her, so he took the gun and he shot himself. We live in a brutal world! Sicko! Crazy! I mean people are nuts! You know why? Because they’re committed to preserving themselves. “I’m going to get my way. I’m going to prove it, it doesn’t matter whether I face hell, or I face high water, or it costs me my life. I’ll die on that.” Pretty dangerous.

Then the scripture says what? It says that people will have, they will not have a love for what is good. Well we’re seeing that today, aren’t we? They’ll be traitors. In other words they’ll betray the trust of someone. Oh my friend, don’t betray the trust of someone else. Be a man or woman of integrity. Do what is right. Do what is right, and do it in the right way.

And we also need to understand that it’s not simply that, but it’s also about what the scripture says is that people become reckless. Why do people become reckless? You know, I’ve seen this in families where men and women so become reckless in their relationships that they do such stupid things! Why do they do that in their marriages? I’ll tell you why men become reckless in the marriage, and women become reckless in the marriage, and so many become reckless in the workplace. One reason! To prove their right, to preserve themselves, to have approval! And people will do anything for approval. It doesn’t matter who they have to lie to, steal from, cheat on. We live in a very, very difficult time. And you see what he’s saying is the pattern is set in. These are dangerous, and they’re hard times, and we’ve got to recognize them for what they are. They’re times that are all about self-preservation.

And then we are so committed to being conceited, you know what the word conceited means? It means to swollen up with self-importance. Literally. I mean is that not so indicative of where people are today? I mean there’ve been times I’ve been swollen up with self-importance. I mean I thought I was a pretty important guy. But along the way, the Lord has a way, if you let the Lord operate in your life, He’s got a way of taking you down as quick as you put yourself up. And you know what? WE need to be real careful being swollen up with self-importance. Taking ourselves so seriously on every thing that we’ve got to insure that we win, or we have the last word, or we get our way.

Well he moves from that self-exaltation, and self-preservation; he moves into:

(3) Self-relaxation. In the middle of that verse, in verse number 4, notice what he talks about here. He talks about how we become, we become, we become people who are lovers of pleasure rather than people who are lovers of God. Oh my soul, you talk about a profound statement. I mean if you’ve got a pen, then you need to put that one in parenthesis, because that statement so captures what’s going on in American life today. Lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God. Why? Because we’re into self-relaxation. We’re into sensual pleasure. We’re into this whole thrill of pleasure, pleasing self, making sure self is taken care of. “I’ve got to have time away. I’ve got to be alone. I’ve got to be sure that I get all this done. I’ve got to be sure that I get my time.” Hey everybody needs time away. Everybody needs some time by themselves. Everybody needs moments of relaxation and away, but we have gotten so out of balance in all that, that we love our pleasure more than we love God! We’re more committed to recreation. We’re more committed to the things of the flesh, and the pleasure-driven stuff in our lives, much more than we really are committed to loving God in our lives. And it’s time that we clear the stage and get our lives back where they need to be with the Lord.

We live in very dangerous, and we live in very difficult, difficult times. By no means would I ever assume that I know everything God knows, because I don’t. But I have a real feeling in my heart today that God takes a serious offense when we love pleasure more than we love Him. I think His spirit becomes extremely grieved by that, and I think each one of us today, we need to check our hearts. And we need to check our ways, and we need to hear what the spirit of God might be saying to us today. Religious, but selfish.

Then he talks about being:

2. Religious, but powerless. Religious, but powerless. Notice what it says in verse number 5. “Holding to the form of religion, but denying its power,” and then he says, “avoid these people.” That word form is the word resemblance, holding to a resemblance of true religion. There is a shaping, holding to an outline of what it may look like, an outward form of religion, but when you peel back the onion, if you want to use that analogy for a moment, the real essence is not there. The real substance is not there. The real walk is not there. I mean there’s really no life in that deal, even though it is all about, and all the time imitating and resembling, and looking like the real thing occurs. American religion personifies the 5th verse of chapter 3, of 2 Timothy to a T.

Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Form without substance. Form without reality. Form, resemblance, an outline, a shape without a relationship. Resemblance, form, outline, shape without power. He was so concerned about it occupying, and engineering, and dominating the mindset of the people, notice how strong he was. He said avoid these people. Now if you go into the language, let me tell you what that means. That means avoid these people with horror! There’s nothing worse Paul said than being around people who can talk about godliness, and resemble godliness, and can, can check the things of God with you, but when you get down deep in their minds, there’s no life, there’s no power, because you see in them sooner or later all that thinking that they have is going to get all over you and mess you up from the inside out, and Paul was very, very, very concerned about it in life.

And what is he saying? He is saying Satan is so deceitful. He is so wicked. He is so evil. You’ve got to make sure that you’re not deceived. Wow I know today that this message is a little bit strong for Mother’s Day, but I’m telling you man, it’s the reality of the text, and I can’t walk away from it today! Religious, but powerless.

And then the scripture talks about being:

3. Religious, but being worthless. Religious, but worthless. Verse 6 through 9, notice it with me quickly. He talks about it here, and I’m going to read through it and work you through it with me. He says, “For among them there are those who worm their way into,” in other words they sneak their way into households, “and they capture, they take alive idle women,” in other words their philosophies, and their, their flow, their resemblance, their outline, it draws people, but there’s no life there. He says, “They capture idle women, burdened down by their sins.” Women who have never been truly transformed by the grace of God, and their sins forgiven, and they’re lead along by a variety of passions, but notice what he says. He says, “these women, they’re always learning, but they’re never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” In other words, if you may, in our day and time, they’re always going to Bible Study. They can tell you all there is about the Bible, but they never come to the truth.

I mean I tell you, have you ever noticed how many people, they know the Bible real well, but I mean there’s no life in them? There’s not power in them. There’s no dynamic in them. There’s no life change in them. But boy they can quote a Bible and a verse real good. And you can have a seminar and they’d attend, but there’s nothing in here that’s deep enough to do anything. Well he talks about how there were women like that, and he’s warning them, you’ve got to be careful again.

And then he uses the illustration of two men. These two men lived in the day of Moses. He says, “Just as Janus, and Jambris resisted Moses so these also resist the truth, men who are corrupt in their mind, worthless in regard to the faith.” These two men, they didn’t want the truth of Moses, what God was saying through Moses. They were corrupt in their minds, meaning that they were depraved. Do you know what that means to be depraved? It means that you don’t know the difference between right and wrong. That’s exactly where much of American culture is today, is it not? What did I say last week? People today we’re what used to be right is now wrong; what used to be wrong is now right. I mean we’ve got a warped thinking in our culture today.

Then he talks about how these two men, what were they doing? They were corrupt in their mind and they became worthless in regard of the faith. They were unfitted to be used, unfitting to be used. They were worthless he said. But they will not make for their progress because the lack of understanding will be clear to all as theirs was also.

Oh my friend listen, he warned these women because they were persuaded by their sensuality. And I’m not talking about sexuality like we would think, but their sensuality, their attraction even to godly things, without having truth. He warned them, and he said you’re going to be just like those two guys that walked with Moses. You know what these two guys did? They imitated Moses’ miracles! Every miracle Moses did, those two men imitated those miracles! And you know who the greatest imitator in the world, it’s Satan. That’s who the greatest imitator is in the world.

And we’ve got to be real careful who we listen to, what we’re around, what we’re about, what we put in our minds because it can be so foreign to the reality, and the truthfulness of scripture. Oh my friend this week as I was bringing closure to reading 2 Corinthians in my devotion, there’s that phrase in there that really challenged me, and I want to challenge you with it as we prepare to leave today. That phrase says, “Examine yourselves. Examine yourselves.”

Will you examine yourself today? How do you do that Ronnie? Let me help you for a moment. Are you just religious? Are you just religious, or do you have a genuine, personal, life-changing, life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ? Which one? Do you have a form of it without any power? A lot of stuff, but not a lot of substance? A lot in the showroom, but not a whole lot in the warehouse? I mean is that what you’ve got?

You see we need to be aware today, you could be religious and you can go to hell. Hell’s going to be full of religious people. You’ve can go to hell from the church chair, the church pew. You can go to hell from the choir. You can go to hell from the stage. It’s not about being religious, or doing religious things, it’s about having a life relationship, a vital relationship, a changing relationship, a dynamic relationship. It’s something happening in you that so transforms who you are. And I’ve got to ask you today, would you examine yourself? Has that ever happened to you?

I invite you today in a moment to leave where you are, and to come to one of our pastors, and tell that pastor today I want to give my life to Christ. I want to make sure I’ve got what I have thought along the way that I had, but I just don’t think there’s enough life there. There’s not enough evidence there.

Let me ask you another question, it’s a simple question. But are you just being religious, and you’re not truly connected to a community of faith? A local church in your life? You know one thing we need to hear today, Christianity is not about you. Boy we sure have bought into it, but it’s not. And I want to say this to you, being in a church is not about you, and I want to go another step, and I don’t want to offend anyone, but I’ve got to be honest with you, being a part of a church is not even about a church meeting your needs. People today just treat churches unbelievable, “If my need’s not met here, I’ll go somewhere else about meeting that.” Folks, that’s not what the church is about. The church is not about meeting your needs! It’s very immature, and it’s extremely selfish, and you’ve bought into a consumerism that you need to check at McDonalds. You don’t need to bring it in here. Because let me tell you what church is about. It’s about you connecting to a community of faith because your passion is so growing in your faith with Christ, that you want to so connect with a live body of Jesus Christ in a local fellowship of believers, so that you can help them, and they can help you advance the kingdom of God around the world, and you do it with great passion in your life because of your personal relationship with Jesus.

That doesn’t have anything about you making sure you’re taken care of. And by the way, the interesting thing I’ve found in my life is that when we’re about all of what I just said, all of our needs will be met. There’s just something about doing God’s will that just meets our needs. And I ask you today, the rest of you, many of you are Christ-followers, where’s the power? Many of you genuinely know the Lord. Where’s the power? Are you being used of God? Is there way too much form and not enough substance? I pray you’ll come today.

I want us to bow our heads all across this room this morning…

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