 Okay, 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 20 through 26. I'll begin reading at verse 20, read to verse 26, and we'll get into our study. 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 20 through 26. The topic today, becoming vessels of honor. Paul writes in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 20, but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife, and a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will. So allow me to give you a background, develop an introduction. It'll take a few minutes. You might want to relax as I give to you some background contextual information so that we can look into his admonition in verse 20 related to becoming a vessel of gold and silver and resisting being a vessel of wood or clay. Apollo's been instructing a young man by the name of Timothy concerning the proper way for him to conduct ministry. Timothy was a pastor, a pastor of a church in the mighty city of Ephesus. Ephesus was in a huge, was a huge metropolitan city and the church there in Ephesus had a lot of obstacles that they had to overcome. The city was given wholly over to idolatry. It was steeped in carnal, worldly philosophy. It was filled with sexual immorality and it was a city that was really very greedy and the church was in the midst of this and because it was in the midst of all of that, it was in constant onslaught, prevailing attitudes and beliefs had begun to infiltrate the church and it began to, these beliefs all began to undermine its purity. And Paul was aware of the fact that cultural norms could infiltrate churches and he was concerned about it. He knew that believers could be influenced by the opinions of non-Christians. He knew that people would live out what they truly believe and so the belief system of the church was being undermined by the cultural norm of the city of Ephesus. Now we understand that if we take a moment to think about it, we understand that we, the church here in the 21st century can be influenced by cultural norms. We realize that, we understand that because we have been influenced by cultural norms. We have a 24 hour a day non-stop, seven days a week bombardment of worldly philosophy, of things that the world believes that run contrary to what Scripture teaches, you know, especially today, especially for our young people today, but especially in 2018, we're seeing that to be true. You see, I grew up in a time when, yeah, we had television but as I grew up, we only had a few channels. I mean, when I grew up we had channel two, channel four, channel five, channel seven, channel nine, channel 11, and channel 13. That's what you had. That was what you had. And I don't know, I'm looking out here, I see some old people you're nodding off already. I can hear your false teeth rattling right now and as... When we grew up, many of you know what I'm talking about and some of you don't so I'm going to say it. You may not know this but when we grew up, the television signals would actually stop broadcasting. Stations would stop broadcasting at midnight. How many of you know that and remember that? They stopped, didn't they? They stopped broadcasting at midnight. I mean, that was it. What would happen is you'd have this on your screen, you would have a picture of a Native American and you'd hear, at midnight, they'd say, you know, the broadcast has been concluded for today and so you would turn on your television at 6 in the morning or 7 or whatever when they restarted to rebroadcast. Now, you might have got a chance to see Alvira, Mistress of the Dark or something like that because that's what we would do in the 60s. She began to be on and all of that but that's what we did and there was no TV. It was over, it was done. We didn't have cable TV, they had UHF and you would go through the dial looking for something that may be broadcasting that was usually weird. When you had radio, we had radio, we had AM radio. There's no such thing as stereo on the radio. You didn't have that. Stereo was some new thing. Stereophonic is what it was called. It was a new thing so you didn't have FM. It wasn't that there was no signal, it's that nobody broadcasts on FM and so if you turn on FM, you could go from one end of the dial to the other and you would hardly ever find anything being broadcast but we discovered that you could actually get stereo signal from FM and when I was in my mid to late teens, a friend of mine had found this particular station. I still remember it. I don't know who the disc jockey was but I do remember that he found it and there was a guy who was on FM that would play albums. He was kind of on his own. He'd play the whole album. One of you may have heard him and he'd be up there. I don't know if he was really doing this or not but he'd be pretending to smoke pot and he'd hear him taking a hit off his joint and he'd go like that and then he'd say, we're gonna like that. We're gonna listen to the Beatles now man and he'd say it like that. Magical mystery tour so good and he would do that and all my friends and I'd smoke pot and it was so good and that was it. That was it. You'd go from one end of the dial to the other and there was very little until the 70s. As far as satellite phones, are you kidding me? I can still remember when I was in London calling Marie in 1975 calling Marie to talk to her and you had to tell the desk I'd like to place a long distance call to the United States this number and they'd say when we get them on the line we'll talk to you. So 20 minutes or 30 minutes later you'd be on the phone. That's not the way it is today now, right? I mean you're calling London and man, it's three seconds already. What's going on? Come on, you're getting mad because you're not getting into that. The phone isn't connecting as quickly as you want. We live in a different world entirely. Entirely. I grew up with billboards. I grew up with advertising constantly. You would drive down highways before they got so mad at so many billboards and you'd be driving by and there were billboard after billboard things you know commercial for this, commercial for that and over the years it has grown more and more and more. You are inundated with information now. You have so many things that you can be occupied with. Even in church you can sit there you don't bring a Bible you don't need it anymore you just have your application and your app and that's all you do. You just put it on, bang, that's it. Or you're texting, I see you. You're texting during the service. Getting, you know, we had eventually it was like, wow, beepers. But then we discovered only the drug is used, beepers. And so, but there were things like that, right? I mean, so you are 24-7 inundated. You wake up in the morning and what's the first thing many people do? Get their iPhone, open it up, see what's going on. Who's complaining about what on Facebook today? Oh, they ate that last night? You know, all of that just monumental stuff. Oh, look at the dog with ribbons. How cute. Dancing monkey, that's great. I mean, that's what they do. We waste our time on garbage. On things that don't matter. Children will be at our dinner table with their phones and they're talking to a friend somewhere else and they're not even talking to you and you're right in front of them. You'll sit in a TV, in a room, and you'll watch TV and still texting and still talking and still laughing with somebody who's not even there. That's what we're dealing with. And we're dealing with that on an increasing rate and the world is saturating us. Saturating us with opinions with ideas, with entertainment and it's warping our minds. And our children don't even know how to have friendships anymore. They don't even need friends. They're virtual friends. They play games. They're on the same kind of thing. They're playing a game here. Somebody is on the computer over there. They're playing the same game and they're not even close to each other. They don't even talk. They really have no relationships. That's what's going on. And you know what's happening today is the culture is saturating the church but it's not new because the culture was saturating Ephesus. The culture of Ephesus was saturating the Ephesian church. Paul was aware of that and he was concerned about that. He knew that what a person believed that's how the person would behave because their doctrine determined the way they lived. Now Jesus made that clear because it's not simply saying that I believe something. It's living out what I say I believe. In Matthew 7, verse 21, Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. It's not just saying it's doing because doing reveals what I am believing. It's always been true. It's always been true and something that we should be aware of. We need as believers in God to be aware of how the unbelief of the world infects us. And now God commanded us concerning that he originally commanded the Jews when they were about to enter into the promised land. He had commanded them to be aware of how the world influences. In the Bitticus 1830, he had said to the children of Israel, keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I'm the Lord your God. In Deuteronomy 1231 he said you must not worship the Lord your God in their way because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. Don't do that. On one occasion Jesus was speaking to his men and he asked the question, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? Well, the question served to contrast the opinions of men with the revelation of God. Jesus knew that people were speaking about him and thus he says, how have you been influenced? I want to know what man's opinion is and I want to contrast that with what God is revealing. What are people saying and how has this impacted you? You see, Christians are intended to impact the world as salt and light. Jesus said it that way in Matthew 5, 13 and 14 he said, you are the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world as sitting on a hill cannot be hidden. You see the world is not supposed to shape us into its image. We're supposed to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Bible teaches us that as Christians we are slowly but surely being transformed into a new person and that comes as we pursue the Lord and that comes as we reject the old way of life. We need to remember that the church is a community of people who have begun to follow Christ and as such we're to be different than the unsaved world. The apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 said it like this, he said you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. You lived in darkness but he called you out of it into the light of Christ. In Colossians 1.13 he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. You see, Paul made it clear that the church is a community of people who are being transformed by God's word and God's spirit. He said to the Romans in chapter 12 verses 1 and 2, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will. So he said do not be conformed to this world the word conformed speaks of being pressed in the world's mold it speaks of conforming your mind and your character to someone else's pattern don't be pressed into that don't allow yourself to be patterned after the spirit of this age this present evil age Satan has is its prince and Satan is called the God of this age and he resists the rule of God and he has tremendous influence in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4 Paul said if our gospel is hidden it is hidden to those who are lost in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine on to them the system is opposed to pleasing God and the system encourages us to embrace its pattern so avoid conforming into the world's value system understand that the world shapes us constantly resists its influence instead of being conformed he said be transformed the word transformed speaks of becoming a completely different person it speaks of a complete transformation both inside and outside and that transformation comes by the renewing of your mind it speaks of a completely new way of thinking it's a new thinking power and the new thinking power is the result of being given a completely new life see before we receive we were enemies of God we resisted his desires for us Romans 8.7 and 8 says the sinful mind is hostile to God it doesn't submit to God's law nor can it do so those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God but now we offer our bodies and we offer our minds and that produces changed behavior wherewith all shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word thy word have I hidden in my heart I might not sin against you and so the transformation comes to God's spirit and God's word and because of that we now trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and we lean not on our own understanding in all our ways we acknowledge him he directs our path we're to influence the world and to resist being corrupted by it in Ephesians 5.11 Paul said it like this Paul said have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness but rather expose them so we're transformed Paul says in Romans 12 by the renewal of our minds that's how both the inner and the outer life is changed by God's truth and God's spirit and so because of this the enemy will always undermine God's word by inserting error in the case here in 2 Timothy in the case of the church in Ephesus this is coming through false and misleading teachers who are influencing the church some of these false teachers came from outside but others are actually prominent members who've been seduced from the truth as we've gone through 2 Timothy as well as 1 Timothy Paul has mentioned some by name by the way that was very common in the New Testament when somebody was promoting error very often their names are mentioned as a warning to the church for them to avoid them as we've gone through 1 and 2 Timothy Paul spoke of Hymenaeus of Alexander of Hygellus he spoke of Hermogenus so he's already spoken concerning these people named them by name and these were prominent members who had been seduced from the truth and were now influencing others so because this is happening he's concerned because they're undermining the faith of genuine believers and so he's spoken to Timothy and he is saying to him you need to develop strong leaders and as you look for these men to lead the church they're to be faithful they're to be proven they're to be sacrificial they're to be loyal they're to be faithful to God they're not to be argumentative they are to be teachers and they're to teach faithfully and they are to teach accurately now the false teachers undermine people's faith because they're teaching error and Paul spoke in verse 18 of one of the errors in chapter 2 verse 18 he said concerning Hymenaeus he said they have strayed concerning the truth saying that the resurrection has already passed and they overthrow the faith of some and so he's mentioning that and he's saying they're undermining people's faith and the people are beginning to abandon the Christian faith so develop these strong leaders they're seducing people bringing in error so false teachers the fruit of their teaching is false security and are deceived into believing that they're actually saved and because of that Paul said in verse 19 nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands having this seal the Lord knows those who are His and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity the Lord knows those who are His you see these people make up what is called the solid foundation or the genuine church the Lord knows those who are His in John 10 14 Jesus said and I'm the good shepherd I know my sheep and I'm known by my own well because they are His they have departed from iniquity the word iniquity speaks of wickedness their lives are different than those who are unsaved both on the inside and on the outside somebody once said no man confessing with the heart that Jesus is Lord can commit iniquity deliberately the two things are utterly incompatible if you really believe that Christ is Lord you don't live as if He isn't is the point He's making and so that's where we're at that's your introduction we ought to pick up at verse 20 for your actual teaching so He says in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay some for honor and some for dishonor in a great house he's speaking of not simply a large home he's speaking of the word great house speaks of something like what we would call a palace we Californians are aware of large homes we've seen some perhaps someone in here a large home but when you think of a large home very often you think of a home that's several thousand square feet my first home was nine hundred and sixty nine square feet so anything larger than that to me is a large home but you're looking at five thousand square foot home that's a large home ten thousand square foot home we don't even call that a home we'll call that a mansion ten thousand square feet this is speaking of something more than that this is speaking of a palace I don't know how many of you have had an opportunity of seeing an estate like the Hearst estate or something but it would be speaking more in lines of something even bigger than that it's speaking of like the palace of Versailles or just a variety of whatever palaces and all that we have in Buckingham Palace or whatever we're talking about about something that is fifty thousand, sixty thousand hundred thousand square feet of home we're talking about something that's amazing and huge and so we're speaking of God's house is being really a palace and you'll see this in just a moment and he's saying here in verse twenty in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay some for honor and some for dishonor so at this point Paul is beginning to answer a question that many ask even to this day if the church is to be separated if the church is to be holy, if the church is to have an influence on the world why then is the church so unholy why is the church filled with so many who obviously don't live for the Lord Jesus Christ well Paul's answer within every great house will be found two kinds of vessels vessels of honor which he refers to as gold and silver and vessels of dishonor which he speaks of as being wood and clay obviously his reference to a great house a picture of the church this is a metaphor he used in his first epistle in first Timothy three fifteen he had said if I tarry long that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth and so he's speaking of the church the house of God and within the church are people with various commitment levels to the Lord he speaks of these people as vessels notice some for honor and others dishonor so he's using a picture here of what are called household utensils because he's illustrating a point now Timothy would connect his metaphor with true teachers and false teachers he would also think of genuine believers and those who did not evidence faith notice how Paul speaks of vessels of gold silver wood and clay they're arranged in what is called a descending order of value gold being the highest clay being the least he's saying in a palace and while a palace will use gold for dishes for bowls cups goblets pitchers knives they have jars jars will be used for storing grain wine for cooking so he's speaking about this as an illustration of the church as an organized institution within it he's saying are believers useful to the Lord and others who are not you see not everyone who names the name of Christ departs from iniquity like he said in verse 19 there are many who know him they're involved in the church but they're half hearted some are on boards some serve in the choir some help in various ministries but in reality they're spiritually lukewarm so Paul makes it clear that the visible church is made up of various levels of maturity it's an imperfect institution it will always contain members who are half hearted so he speaks of various qualities of believers in the church notice the gold and the silver that refers to two levels of committed maturing Christians gold speaks of committed believers and silver of those who are committed but not to the level of the gold they're both born again they serve in the Lord they are both growing daily and their passion continues to grow for him and so he says the church has vessels that are designed for honorable use they have in the church different gifts and abilities they occupy various offices they serve in different ministries they can be a pastor an elder a deacon a teacher they can be a leader a group leader a worship minister a greeter and it speaks of overall servants who have opportunities of using their gifts they're valued they're likened to gold vessels because they're faithful and useful for the Lord and then you have some who are Christians but they're not yet mature in their faith and service to the Lord they're not yet as sold out as the vessels of gold but they're called vessels of silver they have great value but not like the gold they're committed but they're not quite yet gold they're believers they're being purified their faith is being matured their service is becoming more continuous but in the same church you have vessels of dishonor these are referred to as wood and clay now the gold and silver utensils are ones that are presented to guests I don't know if you had anybody come over your house somebody's house on Easter just last week but sometimes when you have special guests over you bring out the best paper plates you can get with the neat designs and you get the silver plastic forks and knives because you're not holding anything back I don't know about you I don't know if when you got married if you're married and when you got married have you ever received China a lot of people receive China when they get married we got China in case the queen would show up someday I guess I don't know we never used it what do you use it for I don't even know if we have it anymore I don't even know where it would be even if we had it we've never used it but that's the stuff that you use that would be normally used especially in a palace because they would have goblets and plates of gold it would be a very expensive thing and all but then you have other kinds of items that you don't really need or use and other daily and sometimes just common the gold is used for special occasions but then you have other vessels that are less honorable and they're not what you'd call special occasion vessels they're less noble the things that you may have but they're not of highest quality or the use that they have is much more common I was in China we went into Beijing it was in February I believe and it was cold so cold and so one of the guys I was with said let's go and eat with some of the people here in China he said I saw one of their little breakfast places we ought to go and experience you know the culture and I said no I'm not getting up at six in the morning to go through the streets ice cold are you kidding me so we went the next day we got up at five thirty it was ice cold ice cold I still remember wrapping up as much as I could and going out into the cold and off we go through the streets and we come to you know an area where it's a little you could call it a restaurant cafe I still remember walking in it was maybe 600 square feet and we stepped in you step off the sidewalk area go through the door and you take two or three steps and you come up to the desk there and they tell you where to be seated now we were the first people there was actually one or two there before us but we were amongst the very first to come to the cafe for breakfast that morning and so I still remember walking in and next to the desk next to the desk that you would have the person who seated you was a clay pot that was about three feet tall a clay pot right next to the desk and as I was standing and I was facing the person it was right here to my right and I was looking at this clay pot wondering why do they have this vessel here what's it used for it didn't hold any flowers or anything it was just a clay pot and it wasn't very expensive looking at all and so they seated us and then they served us our breakfast as I recall I think the breakfast that we ate was like five cents we got ripped off it was not very good but anyway as we were there it wasn't more than a few minutes until I had my answer the clay pot was used for because here comes the locals who were coming in for breakfast and there's several of them coming in not at the same time but several coming in individually or with one or two friends and you know what coming out of the cold winter morning they walk up they spoke to the person behind the desk every one of them walked up to that clay pot with their nose and cleansed their sinuses in that oh yeah that was our floor show every one of them and it was just not even in a delicate fashion I mean it just bang and I'm and the Lord spoke to my heart do you want to be a vessel for honor or dishonor the question is to you do you want to be a vessel of honor or do you want to be one of dishonor it's up to you every house has gold silver it has wood and it has clay and so I would hope that every person who calls on the name of the Lord who is here with us this morning wants to be a vessel for honor because you are a vessel and you will be used for certain things it's up to you how do you want to be used how do you want to be used by the Lord I mean if you don't mind being a lesser vessel that's between you your conscience and Jesus but I I don't want to be a vessel for dishonor I don't want to be a common utensil in the house that has no noble purpose I want to be used by the Lord I want to be a vessel of gold at least of silver I certainly don't want to be something that is just there and not really used for wonderful purposes you need to make up your mind what you want to be because you can be used for great things or very little and so the question is what can be done to help the lesser become great what should they be doing and what should they desire to become and he tells us in verse 21 he says if anyone cleanses himself from the latter he will be a vessel for honor sanctifying useful for the master prepared for every good work and so if anyone cleanses himself he says now notice from the latter now when he says from the latter what is he talking about he's saying if anyone disassociates himself or herself from false teachers and had influences you can become a vessel of gold or silver he's saying you must stop being influenced by false teachers and carnal believers he's saying if anyone cleanses himself notice that that's something I personally do that's something you personally do the word cleanse means to be completely purified to be thoroughly purged if you cleanse yourself if you're purified to become gold or silver he's saying then you must cleanse yourself from bad influence separate yourself from bad teaching separate yourself from carnal believers in 2 Corinthians 6 17 therefore come out from among them and be separate as the Lord do not touch what is unclean I will receive you there are some who are influencing by their teaching and others who influence by their living and they will have an effect on your spiritual life and if you follow bad teaching and bad patterns of living you will be crippled Proverbs 13 20 says he who walks with wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed listen believers often have their guard up against false teachers but very often it's not the false teacher who undermines them it's their Christian friends we expect unbelievers to act and to think in a certain way we're cautious with them but it's very often carnal Christian friends that undermine our walks with the Lord in 1 Corinthians 15 33 Paul said it like this he is led bad company corrupts good character it's been said a carnal Christian can sometimes be more dangerous than a heretic their way of life brings dishonor to the gospel it stumbles immature believers be very careful who you allow to influence you be careful when you're watching TV and you're watching people teaching and all that you're discerning in what's being taught to you and I've said this many times I'll say it again, say it briefly but even in Bible studies like this where I'm dividing the word and giving you proper application there will be people who afterwards will say oh that was so legalistic and so harsh and so unloving well if someone's saying that look at their way of life and see where Christ is in it they are bound very often their opinions have been made up by what they watch on TV or listen on the radio but it isn't what they're doing personally in their studies spending time with Jesus or going to be more like him the scripture calls carnal believers they're simply saved but not producing fruit be careful who you allow to influence your spiritual life what are you to do flee also flee also youthful lust but pursue righteousness faith, love peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart and so he says you're to flee you see the fruit of the carnal teacher is a fleshly life so if you're going to be a vessel for honor he's saying cleanse yourself of improper influence and constantly flee youthful lusts the word lust speaks of a strong yearning it speaks of sinful desire in this context remember that Timothy was still a young man he was more than likely more mature beyond his age but he's still dealing with the characteristics that are often associated with being young you know what are the characteristics of youth well impatience self assertion a love to argue partiality a need for attention emotionality those are things that he's to flee don't be so impatient Timothy grow up don't be aggressive don't be self asserting don't get caught up with arguments to no profit don't get caught up showing partiality to people who treat you kindly don't be preaching the word with a need for attention and don't be emotionally based in a relationship with the Lord and others he may also be saying flee the temptation to remain young and be willing to mature now if I was speaking to a group of pastors I speak in a different way to pastors than I do to a congregation but if I was speaking to a group of pastors I'd be saying flee the temptation to try and be cool and relevant flee the temptation to wear real tight t-shirts and skinny jeans you look gross and don't worry about it if you lose your hair don't be running off to weave and be careful if your beard turns white and that's to the women and then don't be careful don't be concerned if your beard turns white because white is actually good when it's found in the way of righteousness don't be worried about that I would tell them people don't come to church to have a cool pastor either you're cool or you're a fool but don't be a fool to try to be cool because a whole lot of pastors out there wearing the tight t-shirts and the skinny jeans and I say oh no don't do that you look ridiculous stop it but they're doing it why because they want to be cool and hip and this and that either you're cool or you're a fool but you're not both and be also aware of the fact that you may want to be cool but it's like me wanting to be 6 foot 2 never going to be and some people are never going to be cool so just be yourself because people don't come to have some cool thing they come to know Jesus Christ they come to be trained in the ways of the Lord that's what they want they're not looking for somebody to have cappuccino with they want to know how to live for Christ and so Timothy be careful that you don't fall into the temptation of a prolonged youth grow up and allow this maturity and sober mindedness to influence your teaching so the people know when they speak to you that they're going to get God's Word from a man of God that's the key and I'm telling you and some of you know this and others are new in your faith and you may not know and God bless you I hope you never know this but there are plenty of people out there who are making more of a show of their coolness than the gospel of Jesus Christ that's a fact that's a fact and I see it a lot because it's on the airways it's on TV and you see them out there bouncing around in the platform trying to talk hip and cool it's not a church to have a cool person speak to me I go to hear God's Word so my life can be transformed so Timothy Timothy flee youthful lusts flee be a man of God be sober minded be respected if there's anything that a minister needs it's the respect of his congregation if the church respects him they will love him but if they don't respect him they will never love him so rather than running around trying to be loved by people make it your aim to be respected by your people and they will love you now that's what I tell pastors and it's true it's 100% true Timothy flee youthful lusts so run away from something but pursue something else pursue righteousness which is a life that conforms to God's commands pursue faith a life that is faithful and trustworthy pursue love love for God and for others and pursue peace which speaks of harmony and unity and do that with all those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart that word pure speaks of something presentable to God it speaks of being free from corrupt desire free from sin and guilt free from what is false it speaks of something that is blameless and innocent he says maintain godly fellowship with believers who are like-minded choose to fellowship with those who love the Lord in Hebrews 12 14 follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord he goes on in verse 23 he says avoid foolish and ignorant disputes knowing that they generate strife servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all able to teach patient in humility correcting those who are in opposition if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will avoid foolish and ignorant disputes they generate strife the word foolish is a word that can also be translated moronic the word ignorant speaks of that which is uninstructed and arguments speaks of debates so he's saying avoid moronic uninstructed debates why those things divide churches you see the fruit of a false teacher is strife and division a lack of unity and that kind of teacher produces comparison and strife in church he says in verse 24 a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle the word quarrel speaks of an angry fight it's that kind of argument that kind of anger that your veins pop out in your neck and your face turns red he said avoid those quarrels the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God red faced angry preachers do not reach people with the loving grace of God Timothy don't be fighting with people don't be arguing with your church don't be a self-assertive young man who's pugnacious and belligerent always got to be right be somebody that has humility and when you're speaking with someone who's in opposition don't fight with them reason with them you see Paul would reason with people and that's a proper thing to do in Acts chapter 18 verse 4 it says Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jew and Greek in 2 Corinthians 5 11 Paul said knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men that's different than getting a red faced and argumentative there are just too many people who have that attitude that get angry and belligerent and he says don't do that that doesn't work don't do that listen and reason I mean that's practical not only in church life but just daily life if you're a parent and your kids get to a certain age where they no longer are as compliant as they once were when they were young you'd say that's enough and they settle down or you'd say go to your room as they grow older when they're in their teens middle teens late teens and all things change and some of you understand what I mean by that things change it's not as simple anymore you just see some of the things that they do that get you upset rather than reasoning and persuading and loving and speaking the truth and love you just get angry and your face gets red and the wrath of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God you end up losing your children you're trying to bully them into seeing you as a parent and all and you're not reasoning with that at a certain age I had to learn to understand where they were coming from to know why they were saying what they were saying or feeling what they were feeling whereas before when they were young I just said now this is what we're going to do and this is how it's going to be as they grew older I grew older with them and I began to say you know they're more young adults and babies now I need to reason with them I need to give them reasons why I do this and not expect them to do it simply because I do in the ministry there are people in churches just like this who they've got a whole list of things in their mind that they disagree with and so they can come up and they can say well I don't agree with you and you said this and I get these letters and I get these Facebook comments and all of that you know in between the Facebook posts about what they ate last night and pictures of their dog with ribbons on their hair and then they write and say well how about this and about that you know you can be argumentative you can be argumentative or you can listen and even be corrected but it requires humility and that's what he's saying in verse 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will humility is the virtue that makes correction of error possible in Galatians 6 verse 1 brothers if someone is caught in a sin you who are spiritual should restore him gently but watch yourself or you also may be tempted correction whenever necessary comes with humility and he says in verse 25 if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth repentance speaks of a radical change of mind and a radical change results in a radical change of life they no longer be influenced by false teaching they can come to know the truth he says in verse 26 that they may come to their senses when he says come to their senses it's another way of saying return to soberness why because they've been taken by the enemy they've been caught and used by him to do his will in this world and can be influenced to do his will even in the church remember false teaching produces incredibly negative results but Jesus's truth will always set you free and make you healthy so Christians who are taken by false teaching can be set free by returning to the Lord and his word we need to understand that that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will so Timothy correct them with humility perhaps you can win them back to Jesus because they're being used for wrong purposes so be humble as you do it correct them in love consider yourself and make sure that you bring them to Jesus and not to you