Sermon Notes

“Continue”

By Brother Kenneth Ray

February 26^th, 2012

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2 Timothy 3:14-17          …continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of…

 If you’re not hearing from Jesus, then you’re hearing from the wrong person.  Maybe you need to check the batteries in your hearing aid.    Maybe your ears aren’t attuned properly.  If you’re hearing a loud voice, that’s the world.  The world has a bad tendency to drown out that small, still voice. 

The preacher doesn’t take credit for what you learned in service.  Did I write this?  Is this the book of Second Kenneth?  My goal is to lift up Christ so that He will draw people unto God, so that you will know that he did it.

I don’t have a drinking problem.  I make coffee every morning, and I drink it.  I don’t have a problem with that.  It’s a habit.  Serving God is not something that you do only on Sunday morning.  Make it a habit, and don’t have a problem with your habit.  Do you think that it’s a burden for me to make coffee in the morning?  No, it’s a joy.

Are you struggling?  Maybe that’s so that God can be lifted up; other people can see Him working through your life when things don’t go well for you.  Maybe it’s just so that you can be taught a new lesson.

 2 Timothy 3:16            All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine…

 Salvation and doctrine are not the same thing.  We are taught to make us wise in doctrine (unless you’re trusting in the wrong doctrine).  Do you have faith in church?  A lot of people do; that’s why you see so many churches with so many people in them on Sunday mornings.  You shouldn’t have faith in church, though; you should have faith in Christ Jesus.

I used to know a man that, when I asked him how old he was, he would say, “Old enough to know better, but do it anyway.”  Sometimes we get into that “I know” stuff.  “You’re supposed to turn your cell phone off in church.”  “I know,” she says, as she continues texting.  We know better, but we do it anyway.  The proof is in the pudding.  It isn’t a question of knowing, it’s a question of doing.  Do your actions back up what you say you believe?

All things are lawful, but not all things are expedient.  Being honest doesn’t mean that you have to be mean.  “I’m just being honest.”  Well, I know you’re being honest, but you could have told the truth in a nicer way; you’re just being mean.

Just because other people are doing something, that doesn’t mean that you have to.  We have a lot of peer pressure where I work, but I don’t have any problem telling my co-workers, “I’m more afraid of my wife than I am of you.”  If things get too bad a t work, I can always quit my job, but I have to go home to her, every night.  You should be more afraid of God than the people around you, too.

 2 Timothy 3:16            …instruction in righteousness…

 Sometimes we try to teach, but don’t get it right.  People have to be fed one bite at a time.  I didn’t try to give my daughter a T-bone steak when she was first born.  We have to give milk to babes, meat is for older people.

 2 Timothy 3:17            That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished…

 Did you ever buy a house, and it didn’t have a couch in it?  Or maybe it didn’t have a bed.  Did you ever have a flat and not have a jack?  Or maybe you had a jack, but didn’t have a tire iron.  That’s why it’s important to be thoroughly furnished.  I can tell you that, if you stay faithful, you’ll be thoroughly furnished with problems, you’ll be thoroughly furnished with heart-ache, you’ll be thoroughly furnished with frustration, you’ll be thoroughly furnished with victory, you’ll be thoroughly furnished with triumph.  Your life will be well-rounded. 

The important thing is, at the end of this life, hearing the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

                             Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd