2 Timothy Chapter 2 Verse 1

• This is a crazy important encouragement to anyone in ministry…and I’m not just talking about formal ministry but anyone who has set their heart to serve the Lord. That is ministry and truthfully…therefore…all true Christians are in ministry. Ministers of the Gospel of grace and witnesses, in their lives, to the truth of Jesus Christ.
• But here’s the thing…while we are seeking to serve the Lord, well, something imperfect serving and representing Someone who is perfect, the fact of the matter is that often we are going to not do so well…and all the time, we are not going to perform perfectly…and so it is easy to get really discouraged! Especially when they tell you you’re not good enough…especially when ministry apparently is not ministering…Paul says, “Son, remember, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus!”
• Remember…His grace is enough! Enough for you when you fail, enough for them when they fail, enough for the day when the crowd is only one or two. A huge part of leadership is dealing properly with failure! Mistakes, missed queues, bad days and personal blunders! Don’t be terrified of failure, be terrified of handling it in weakness and giving in to the enemy who wants nothing more than to shut you up and shut you down in terms of serving the Lord! Work hard – Be strong in His grace!
• I love this, I just heard this…Hard work will always beat out raw talent hardly working! Press on man!!! Be strong in His grace! And the word there for strong actually implies be getting stronger….increasing in strength…hard days come and the enemy accuses you and scoffs at you and your flesh joins in…turn this record on in your heart, “Ain’t nothing gonna break-a my stride! Ain’t nothing gonna hold me down! Oh no! I gotta keep on movin’!” HA! Just like David! Timothy, encourage yourself in the Lord and increase in His grace because as a minister of Jesus Christ, oh boy, His grace is for you as well! Hey…and don’t go it alone…

2 Timothy Chapter 2 Verse 2

• This is ministry 101, man and I have observed many that miss this essential elemental basic principle of success! Raise up folks around you and tell them what you know! Remember how Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew Chapter 10 verse 27? Tell them everything! He said, “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.”

• Paul says to Timothy, you cannot hoard the ministry, you must not because you will put yourself on a pedestal in your own heart, in the eyes of the people and your capacity of ministry will be limited to you! Multiply, man! If you find five faithful, commit to those five faithful and pour into them and you will then have capacity of ministry five fold! And man here is the fact, disciples make disciples, disciple cycles…

• This is personally my heart in ministry. To walk alongside of folks and pour into them the Word and even the hidden things of God and to encourage them in their calling…whatever that calling is...I simply love to see men and women grow in the grace of God and begin to soar when they catch their wave in the calling of God! Paul tells Timothy to raise up in ministry those around him that prove themselves lovers of God and teach them to teach!
• Look for the ability to teach in them and teach them to teach! Now that doesn’t necessarily mean pulpit teaching. We have to be honest with this and with ourselves that not everyone with a calling on their life into formal ministry is called to teach from the pulpit…but everyone who is saved is called to teach! How else will someone hear and come to understand the gospel of grace unless they are taught? And so you teach in the workplace, you teach in the break room, you teach at the dinner table, you teach at the marketplace…you are to be ready in and out of season to give a defense for the hope that is within you…you are to go into the whole world and make disciples, teaching them to observe all the things that God has taught you!

2 Timothy Chapter 2 Verses 3 - 4

• I love these analogies Paul uses to instruct Timothy. The first is that of a good soldier. First, soldier implies that there is a war! And if Timothy or anyone approaches ministry with a lesser mindset then they’re wrong. We have an enemy. We have a weapon. (Sword of the Spirit) We have a cause. And we have a cost. If we do not engage, folks die and oh by the way, we ourselves are lost.
• A businessman can quit, a hobbyist can quit, but if a soldier quits…all is lost. And soldier implies order. There has to be order in the house of God just as there must be order in a family. Timothy, you must endure hardship and in the same way if you as a believer are not willing to endure hardship then you will also not accomplish very much…
• A good soldier endures, fights hard, covers their fellow fighters and obeys their commander…also, Paul says watch out concerning the affairs of this life. Deal with life, deal with business, but watch out for entanglement. Like a fish entangled in a net, this life has a way of closing in around you if you let it…Paul says serve the Lord. Recognize the fight. Fulfill your purpose and remember your enlistment!

2 Timothy Chapter 2 Verse 5

• My junior year of high-school I was wrestling in our home tournament. I don’t know why but that tournament meant more to me than any other. I still wear the shirt from that tournament to this day. In the quarter-finals I was just slaughtering this kid. And I knew he was no match for me and so I threw him around a bit. At one point I lifted him off the mat and brought him back down not so softly. He didn’t get up from that and I was disqualified from not only the match but the tournament!
• We don’t like this, our flesh hates this, but God has given us His complete and inerrant Word and if we don’t heed His Word then we do not receive His reward. There are rules…

2 Timothy Chapter 2 Verse 6

• The final analogy and possibly the hardest. Harder than war? Harder than athletics? Yes, the farmer often plows and plants alone. Unlike the soldier and the athlete there is nothing glamorous about what a farmer does. The preparation is long and hard even before the planting and the planting even carries no guarantee of crop. Also, Paul says whatever you plant, don’t you even think about giving the crop, the fruit to someone else before you are readily eating of it yourself! We do that don’t we? We give people, we treat people, we talk about people in such a way that if it was done the same way to us…boy would we reject them as a minister of God…

• Fight hard, compete hard, work hard…if you don’t then there is no place for you in the ministry because people will be harmed and people will be lost…

2 Timothy Chapter 2 Verse 7

• Look to the Lord for understanding. We entangle ourselves in so much anger and outbursts of pride because we look to our emotions or our own souls for understanding especially when the Word of God or a minister of God or a situation or circumstance confronts our flesh…but Paul says consider what I say…think about it…don’t just compartment it as preaching…chew it over and look to God for the understanding who is ever willing, waiting and wanting to show you more than you could ever know…