2 Timothy 4:1-8 - Prepared

Are you ready?  It’s summer, so have you scheduled in some time off to rest and relax in the beauty of the sunshine as kids are home and schedules are a bit more relaxed?  Are you ready?  Ready for work and the presentation, the changes of duties, the various unknowns that can spring up out of nowhere and make demands with little windows to achieve the results, ask questions that require answers, fair or unfair as they come?  How about those finances?  Got everything in order? Costs ever climbing savings dwindling, are you living within your means or accumulating debt faster than the dollars to pay it down?  What about family life, or just life in general?  Are you checking the boxes and putting in the time with relationships, connections, and contacts or has all the other stuff on the plate crowded it out so that more people wonder where you are than how you’re doing? Life is a lot most days and we probably feel way less than prepared so we likely look for short cuts right?  Can AI buy me hours at work? Can I look for less but more impactful ways to spend time with others?  What’s the cheat code for life to build big wealth and have less stress in all of the demands placed upon us? So then it’s probably less than welcome when Paul talks the way He does in our lesson today telling us there is a whole other realm that demands faithfulness, watchfulness, and preparation.  Are you ready?  Are you prepared … for the biggest question of them all.  Are you prepared to answer when others have questions that affect the everlasting relationship they have with God?  Are you prepared in your own relationship with Him?  

Rogers and Hammerstein penned the lyrics, “let’s start is at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start” and our lesson pumps up the intensity there.  Paul isn’t messing around as he lays out his demands to young Timothy and forever after to the Church. His inspired pen (well maybe his quill) wrote, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom: 2Preach the word.

This is no mere suggestion.  It is a solemn charge and not just one that exists between us and our boss at work or a court of law.  It is a solemn charge given to us by God Himself, by Jesus Christ who is God Himself vested with the duties of judgement when He comes again and the Kingdom of heaven hangs in the balance.  And perhaps it’s the next words which give the most pause.  For if you stopped me out of the blue and said what are the next words should be, I would quickly tell you that it’s all about Jesus, faith which focuses on Him.  Heaven and our place in it has everything to do with God’s gifts and nothing to do with our action but then Come those words, an imperative, a command, a do.  Preach the Word!

That’s the charge God has given to us as people who are saved, those who are blessed in the blood of the Lamb and gifted with the working of the Holy Spirit who connects us to Christ in that gift of faith.  Go and hand it out to others.  He tells us what that will look like. 2Preach the word. Be ready whether it is convenient or not. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, with all patience and teaching. 3For there will come a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, because they have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in line with their own desires. 4They will also turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.  5As for you, keep a clear head in every situation. Bear hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

The Greek words speak volumes.  Convenient or not … literally in the good times and the not (good) times … one is easy the other well not so much! Correct (speak up), rebuke (honor up), encourage (call to your side (your understanding and faith)!  Those are all “not” times because well the world doesn’t want to hear that its not right.  It would much rather here the “I’m okay, your okay, we are all okay, even when nothing is okay” mantra of the world today.  The itching ears love it.  So buffet Christianity is all the rage pick and choose what you like and what you don’t.  If the Bible says it but you don’t like it well call it sexist, call it outdated, call it phobic, strip it of its honor and pull it into the political realm with words like radical … right wing … leftist as if God could be voted down like some out of control power hungry politician, which is to say tell God He was ultimately too dumb to understand what the world would be like today and so His Word no longer applies and should be silenced rather and preached to the very corners of the earth.  Yes, this will mean we bear hardship as we do the work before us.  It will require a clear head and a clean conscience.

“Gulp!” right.  I don’t like any of that!  I don’t know that I really want to sign up for any of that! Please don’t make me do that, I will look different, I’ll stand out! Ah but then that’s kind of the point is it not?  We are supposed to shine like stars in the darkness of the world around us as Jesus said unafraid of those who can only affect our earthly existence more concerned about the one who commands our everlasting home in heaven.

I warned you preparation can raise the anxiety level.  Wondering if we are prepared is demanding upon us … at least if we place the load of that burden upon ourselves.  Jeremiah in our first lesson is a great example of this.  He actually complains to God that He dupped him into service.  You seduced me Lord but he also admits that he can’t stop.  The message is just too powerful.   It’s like a fire shut up in his bones if he tries not to proclaim it. 

That, dead friends, is the answer to the hardship.  Don’t forget dear Christian, what God demands, He also gives. What God would have us do, He always equips us for as well.  It’s no secret that I’m a pastor.  It’s why I’m wearing the funny robe this morning.  And let me tell you that I’m just like most other people.  The “not times” aren’t something I treasure and there have been any number of them in ministry.  I’ve even had days when like Jeremiah I have thought I’ll just keep quiet and not proclaim this but the Word is just to powerful, to beautiful of a thing to try and shut up and silence.  The more I study it the more I just can’t help myself but to preach it, to proclaim it in the world around me.  It is too great a treasure not to hold out to others, not to apply to others even as I apply it to myself.

So wrap yourself in the Means of Grace.  Recall your baptism and everything that it means for you as call calls you his very own child as the Father is made your Father through the faith given ans instilled by the Spirit therein.  Run to the supper where Jesus Himself is truly present in, with, and under that bread and wine to forgive all the sin, the anxiety, and doubt and strengthen you for the tasks of life as you cling to the hope of salvation.  Ready, study, hear, the Word of God which equips you to speak and to run life’s race in the way and by the strength that God will provide.  This is the glory of worship as God comes to us therein and does what no one else can do for us and why we as Christians will rush to do as God urges us in our lesson whether the times be good or not.

The Apostle Paul knew these truths as well.  On the road to Damascus, he had no intention to serving his Savior, yet Jesus came none the less, empowered and equipped even as He saved and forgave.  And now as Paul sees the end of his time on this earth drawing to a close He can burst out in confidence and joy,  6You see, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness. The Lord, the righteous Judge, will give it to me on that day, and not only to me but also to everyone who loved his appearing.

Paul stood prepared not by his action and ability but by the God who moved him to serve.  By God’s grace, so do you.  Prepared through the Means God gives we can speak up, honor up, and call others to the side of Christ. Amen.