Paul’s appeals to a Christian Leader: • Be bold in the faith (1:6,7) • Be strong in Christ’s grace (2:1) • Join in suffering for the gospel (1:8; 2:2) • Avoid meaningless arguments (2:14,16) • Separate from false teachers (2:21) • Flee evil / Purse righteousness (2:22) • Be kind and teach those who oppose you (2:24-25)

Chapter 3 provides a contrast between an unbelieving world and a believer. The contrast is stark. The world is overcome by evil. They walk in it and are ruined by it. The believer escapes evil’s corruption. He/she walks in goodness and is rescued by the Lord Jesus Christ from ruin.

[Slide 3] 2 Timothy 3:10-13 [Slide 4] Two Paths in Contrast The life of wickedness • Narcissistic, materialistic, proud, arrogant, abusive, rebellious, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, unrestrained, brutal, opposed to goodness, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than God (2-5) The life of the Christian • Following Christ’s teaching, conduct, purpose and faith; patience, persecution, and suffering; and, ultimately, rescued by the Lord (10-11)

Paul then goes on to encourage Timothy about two major influences in his life that have built Timothy up and prepared him to endure in his faith.

[Slide 5] 2 Timothy 3:14-15 [Slide 6] 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Paul’s aim is to encourage Timothy to be bold and endure in his faith and calling. Continue in what you have learned and believed • [Slide 7] Think of the people who to taught you o Timothy was raised in the faith by his mother and grandmother. o He also had other men and women who were faithful to teach him not only the gospel but assured of its truth. o “Continue” means to “hold to” or “remain” in what he learned. o Not just to believe the gospel, but to live in what he learned. o We should find strength to endure in our faith when we remember faithful men and women who invested time in teaching us. o People we respect, people whose lives we look up to because of their faith, because their lives are fruitful because of Christ’s work in them. o Write a note of thanks, make a phone call, say a word of thanks. • Think of the Scriptures that instruct you o Make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ  You learn of God’s plan to redeem you in the Bible.  You see it foreshadowed in the OT sacrifices, structures, narratives, and prophecies  You read about it in the gospels.  And you learn of it changing lives in Acts and the epistles o Teaching  As truth o Rebuking  Exposing wrong & pointing to what’s right o Correcting  Restoring to a right state o Training in righteousness  Christian discipline for a holy life o Equipped for good work  Qualified and prepared for God’s calling

The Christian life is hard. We find strength in people who have taught us – formally and people whose lives have been an example for us, maybe didn’t even know. Thank them. Thank our children and youth teachers. They are pouring the strength and power of the gospel into people’s lives.

We find strength for the Christian life in the Scriptures. The Bible is God’s word, so it is useful in our lives. It teaches us what is truth. It teaches us how to be saved, restored, redeemed. It trains us for holy lives and equips us for God’s calling.