Multiply Through Clarity On What Is Ahead | September 27, 2006

Ishmael LaBiosa: Now, in the context of doing a lot of good things, we want to do more good things. And soon our ministry will be over, whether it's thirty seven years or seven years or however long it is, because life is brief. And it is so important for us to think about, which we only have a few more Sundays to think about, and that is multiplication through mentorship. I mean, that is really the theme. Of 1, 2 Timothy and Titus. All three of those books have this theme of mentorship, but the Apostle Paul is not just giving kind words and nice words to Timothy, who will take the baton in one of his areas. Paul passes the baton to a lot of people ⁓ in his ministry. And what the Apostle Paul wants to do today is to really set Timothy's focus on what the future will be like. You know, all of us are kind of interested in the future, like what will the future be? If you ask Americans right now, how do you feel about the future? They're pretty split, if you haven't noticed. Some say, I'm not real optimistic about the future. I think we're going down and we're going down in a hurry. And other people, you ask them, how do you think about the future? They say, ⁓ with technological progress and with all the good things happening, we're going up, we're going up, we're going up. And I don't know how you feel. You might be pessimistic, you might be Optimistic. we can see the world around us. The question is not how we feel about the future, it's how we live into the future. And what does the Bible say about the human condition? And what does the Bible say about what history is going to be like once once it reaches its end? Actually, in some ways, the Apostle Paul is so optimistic about the future. Christ is Lord, He will return. And yet in another way he's very sober minded about the future. In just a moment, we'll read the very first verse of 2 Peter 3, verse 1, where Paul says, and know this difficult times will come. That's what he's saying. He sees both optimism of Jesus' return and realism about the human condition, about the human heart. But Paul is not telling his young mentor Timothy to retreat. He is not telling his young mentor Timothy to panic. He is not telling his young mentor Timothy to withdraw and to wait for the end as human vices grow and history almost becomes intolerable. He says that we should name the moment, we should understand human nature, we should see our vices and other vices for what they are, and that we ought to go into that moment with confidence and with soberness to live well in. Even in this moment. And so today's text, I I hate to tell you, is not a feel-good text. Next week's a little well, in two weeks a little more feel-good. next Sunday, Ishmael preaches as harvest day. ⁓ so it's not a feel-good text, but it names the moments. And I think sometimes if we can name the moment, we can understand the moment, we can see the human condition, we can live with a great deal more clarity. Neither being, which is my first big idea, being surprised by the human condition, nor swept into the vices that can so quickly come with the problems that are rooted in our heart. If you have a Bible, Second Timothy chapter three, verses one through nine, where the apostle Paul tries to provide clarity for young Timothy. Here's the first big idea to multiply. We ought to know the characteristics of the last days. So we are not surprised or swept in. We ought to know what's coming for us, so we don't shrink back and go, ⁓ I didn't see that coming, or get swept into it because we didn't see it coming. Verse 1 says this, but know this, difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphem blasphemers, disobedient to parents. Ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of religion, but denying its power. Avoid these people. I think it's important to make sure we read this text carefully, because oftentimes we just see this text as kind of a conglomeration of bad things. But there's a logic. You ought to see the logic that happens. At the root of all sin is an ugly sin. It's called pride. And we can name what that sin is by definition. It is lovers of self more than lovers of God. The self takes the place that only God could have, and that becomes the the root. But then we ought to notice. That's what it says for in the last days. By the way, the last days for the Apostle Paul are not the last day of human history. Paul actually divides history like we divide history. Our calendar divides history before Christ and the year of our Lord. That's how the calendar is divided. And Paul divides history in the same way. He actually says, since Christ has come, he's died and he's risen again, that all that is necessary for my salvation has Been purchased, and so these are the last moments. These are this is the last era of human history. The only thing needed is Christ's sure return. And so Paul doesn't see this as like a short window, but an era after Christ. Notice he says the number one sin is, which has been the case through all of human history, but it intensifies as we draw closer to the end of human history that people become lovers of. Of self. And then right there with love of self is they love money. But then there are sins of the self. You ought to keep reading it. They are lovers of self, but then he names the sins of the self. Here, you want to know the sin of a selfish self. It is boastfulness. Look at me. Pride. Look at me. Blasphemers. God get out of my way. Okay? And then there becomes, if I'm at the top, we have, if I'm the head honcho, we have authority issues. So guess who we're disobedient to? Parents, right there in the list. We're ungrateful, ungrateful to God for any of the good gifts. We're unholy. And then, by the way, when self becomes the core, it damages community. Community becomes nearly impossible. Because then guess what? We become unloving. Because well, you haven't done what I wanted you to do. How can you why don't you serve me? Why don't you think about me? Then we become irreconcilable. Well, I'm not coming your way. Well, I'm not coming your way either. It's about me. Well, it's about me too. You know? This is an awful culture. But it sounds so good, but it works out so bad. And then slanderers. Well, you haven't done what I wanted you to do. So I get to call you names. Because ⁓ I'm in charge, I'm the top of the list. And then without self-control, why isn't everybody about me? And then you actually see like people in their 30s and forties and fifties and sixties throw temper tantrums that are suitable for four year olds. Whose life's still about me. And then they become brutal. Why hasn't the world done what I want to do? I can be violent now. I can do what I want to do. World hasn't been what I want it to be. And then without love. For what is good? Who cares about good? It's just about me. And then guess what you become? Verse 4. You become traitors. You become reckless. You become conceited. And life just becomes about the next thrill. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And unfortunately, this is not just a commentary on the culture. Actually, this was a commentary. on some forms of religion in the church. Because it says that some preach this self-love gospel in the first century and in the 21st century, by the way, because they hold to a form of religion, but they deny its power. Now that is an awful commentary on the way things are, the way things were, the way things will be, but it should sober us up. Honestly, several years ago, it's been a long time ago now, probably. I didn't even check the date and I didn't even put it in my notes. But Time magazine makes person of the year every now and then. And this was the year where YouTube, well that's been a minute, you know, was the major thing. And YouTube is not the major thing anymore. And and that particular year, Time magazine. said that the person of the year was you. And they literally put a mirror on the front of Time Magazine. And I thought, ⁓ we're we're doomed. You know, I mean, ⁓ we are doomed if like and everybody could everybody could hold Time magazine and say, Time magazine is about me. I mean, how ridiculous. ⁓ nobody even knows who you are. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you are you you live in Appomattox or Buckingham County. I mean, most people here don't even know your name. You know what I'm saying? What do you mean it's about you? But the delusion that was there, because it reflected, you know why it gets, you know, why people say, I can't believe that made it to the front page of a magazine. No, it was a perfect reflection of the people who bought the magazine. Because they wanted it to be about them, so they said, let's sell the magazine. Let's make it about them because that's what they want. There what you know is actually a day when you looked up to people, you kind of realized that there were some people that were maybe in a different place than you were, but no, you're at the top. Notice in our culture, and maybe you can hear this, maybe you can today. This might be one of those where you have to listen to my message a year from now, if you don't hear today and go, ⁓ he was on to something I think. It does appear That the self in our own culture, by the way, there's appropriate self-love, love your neighbor as yourself. There's an appropriateness, but there's an inappropriateness. And the inappropriateness is when self takes the place of God. In some ways, in our culture, the self is treated as the last remaining sacred object. God's gone. So the last remaining self-sacred object is God. So the self. must be curated, defended, therapeutically soothed, never contradicted. And by the way, s you know, social media, by the way, did not create this. It just scaled it up. For many people, identity is performed and then demanded as unquestionable. Disagreement regarded regarded as violence and and parenting, marriage, ⁓ vocation, and even worship are evaluated by whether or not they honor my story. I mean, all of that is like everywhere. It's it's so obvious now we can't see it. It's like the air that we breathe. It's like the water we swim in. It's like self, self, self. I mean, it it it's it's it's it's it's deep. And the problem is this collapses all that is good about community. Because did you hear when we love ourselves? Guess who we don't love? Our neighbor. Actually, our neighbor is a problem to be gotten out of the way so myself can be loved. My neighbor is an obstacle be to r to be removed if they're not doing what I want them to do, so that I can be honored and admired, or whatever else I need. And it sounds so good, but it works out so bad. I was talking to a guy this week. He doesn't go to this church mercifully because I couldn't use the illustration. I don't think he'll tune in. ⁓ if he does, we'll keep him confidential, except the story. And ⁓ and so we were just talking about something you don't need to know about right this moment. And ⁓ and then I asked him, I said, Are you married? He goes, ⁓ no. She was a narcissist. I said, what? What was she? He said, she's a narcissist. I said, I don't know what that is. I said, Do you mean she was a narcissist? Yeah, that's what she was. And I said, Well, what is that? So then I thought, okay, ⁓ I'm gonna really I'm I'm in a mood today, you know. I'm I'm in a mood. So I so actually know the criteria of if you if you actually have narcissistic personality disorder and other things. It's only about three percent of the population. So I thought, well, you must have really got a tiger by the tail. So I started walking through the diagnostic criteria of what it what it would mean if you actually met the criterion. And he clearly had no clue what I was talking about. And I said, and so I just kind of ended the conversation because I asked him a great series of questions. I said, Well, how are you doing now? He says he says, Well, now that I get rid of the narcissists, ⁓ I I like living alone and doing kind of what I like to do. I said, well that mirror might be coming the other direction. And I thought, that's crazy. I was like, there's no reflection. It was just like, get rid of her so I can do what I want to do. I'm like, it sounds like you found each other. You know, there was an it used to be in the annals of Western civilization you had to read a lot of material. Now we don't read some of the things, you know. Dr. Small here would like us to read the classics, but we don't. But there was a there was a story written by Ovid, it's a myth. And it's the story of narcissistic. Yeah, yeah. Written at eight eight A.D. 8 A.D. That's a long time ago. That's before Jesus. Well, I mean, Jesus is actually alive, but before his earthly ministry. And ⁓ Ovid wrote of narcissists who one day saw his reflection in a in a lake and he fell in love with it. And ⁓ and he just admired himself and died alone. You know, in some ways, ⁓ let me show you how the culture, the conversation has changed. I don't think you've I don't think I fully notice it as much as I need to, and maybe you don't either. Because listen, why am I telling you all of this? This is the context in which you tell people come to the cross of Jesus and die. This is not like, ⁓ there's gonna be a few amendments around the edges. The the apostle Paul says, Timothy, you're gonna go preach a gospel into a context where the gospel could not be more different. I want you to notice this: that self-love, the self-love that Paul names is not merely self-respect. It is a fragile self. If anybody wants to know why we're so fragile, why we run to safe spaces, and why we Don't do microaggressions anymore and all that stuff. It has a lot to do with this is that the fragile self must be constantly fed, shielded, and mirrored. In a culture organ around that love, fragility becomes public policy for the soul. I'm very fragile, but I need to make you think I'm really somebody. And so the questions change. We don't ask the questions anymore is this true? We ask the question, does this honor my experience? We don't ask the question anymore, is this good? That's a good question to ask. But we ask the question, does this validate me? We don't ask the questions anymore, what do I owe? It wasn't too long ago where like, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. I think if you tell that to this generation, they don't have a clue she's talking about. What do mean? Now what do I owe? The question has changed. If you love yourself, what am I owed? What about me? Not, have I sinned? That's a good question. We ask the question: have I been seen? Like I go to a church, I'm loaded up with sin, the preacher calls up my sin, but he didn't see me. ⁓ he saw you in your sins. That's where he saw you. And he wants you to repent of it so you can come find wholeness in Jesus. Like ⁓ this becomes by the way, the 21st century did not invent self love, ⁓ but ⁓ it it it certainly has intensified it. I mean, now, I mean, just think about our world. Platforms train people to live as brands. You know, what's your brand? I don't know who who knows, who cares? ⁓ inner life is externalized and then graded by attention. Confession becomes content. Suffering becomes identity capital. Disagreement becomes a threat to existence rather than a claim to be tested. Therapy language, which can be a genuine mercy, is easily conscripted into ⁓ a chal ⁓ a challenge to the unchallenged self, my truth, my boundaries, my healing. By the way, even our markets, you know, the commerce. Listen, the commerce doesn't need you to be holy. They need you to be restless. They need to say what is at the core of you is ⁓ is that your desire is so authentic and limit is treated as harm. And the result is people who are simultaneously inflated and brittle, grand in self description, but devastated by ordinary friction. I mean, this is our culture. Paul says, this isn't anything new. We've just intensified it. And sadly, this trickles on down because parents, parents are no longer in this particular culture, they should be, but they become managers of a child's self-concept rather than stewarding their soul and say, you as me are a sinner, and some of these we can't do. Marriage no longer becomes Husband love wife is husband love his wife like Christ loved the church, and wives submit to your husband's marriage merely becomes a contract for mutual, mutual mirroring. You do what I want you to do, you do what I want you to do. If you don't do what I want you to do, then I'm out. They become narcissistic. Right? I'm telling you. ⁓ this is our world, and here's the deal. Why is this so bad? It's because people preach this as the path of And it's the path to your death. Jesus said if any man wants to live, if anyone wants to find his life, he gets to lose it. And actually the path to rusty living is not to give in to everything rusty, but to find the sinful aspects of rusty and put those to death so that the new life of Jesus can be realized in me. And I should be and you should be as suspicious. Of your heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? As we ought to give in to every one of its whims. And that sounds harsh, that sounds blunt, that sounds difficult, that sounds ⁓ countercultural, but here's the deal: it's true. And that is the path to real transformation. And the apostle Paul says, Timothy, you go get in there. Now you know what a lot of You know what I feel? I I tell you, if if if anybody wants to know, you say, we did a men's retreat, so men's retreat's supposed to be vulnerable with men, you know? ⁓ I I'd I'd have no problem telling you my vulnerability. Every now and then I just get tired of doing what I'm doing because it's tired of do you get tired of doing what you're doing because you're dealing with people. All right? I'm just gonna tell you the truth. And Pastor Ishmael knows me enough to know that some days I'm grumpy, right? Because because you give and you give and people act like they act. And some days you you have enough of that. You need to go sit in a cabin for me by myself to recharge, okay? So that's rusty. You say, Well, why do you get in the game? 'Cause if you don't get in the game, other people are gonna are gonna lead people astray. And I just want you to hear this last point. I know my time is up and I can finish. Paul says, Timothy, you gotta get in there. You know why? Because others have already gotten in there, and they're not pushing against self love, they're actually promoting it. And they're telling them that this is the path to healing, but it's actually the path to their destruction. And honestly, we have a moral responsibility. I believe I have a moral responsibility to stand up tall and say what the truth is to the degree that I can understand the truth. And I believe God's word is true, to the degree that I'm telling it right, you're getting the truth. ⁓ but Paul sees people, if we don't speak out into that moment, into this type of culture, then people are going to just be pulled along. And here's the big idea the second big idea to multiply. We oughta know how folly targets the vulnerable, dead in the past, it will in the future. Never arrives at truth, it promises salvation that never comes. But ultimately will not finally prevail. Notice verse 6. Unfortunately, this self-love, this self-focus has gotten into the church in Ephesus. It says, For some among them are those who worm their way into household and capture idle women. This is not Paul being negative against women, but evidently there were some women who had problems, just like men in other contexts. They capture idle women, burdened down with sins. led by a variety of passions, always learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, just as Janus and Jambries resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth. Men who are corrupt in mind, worthless in regard to the faith, but they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirs was also. Here's our responsibility. If God has been gracious enough to you To help you see the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that life is not about you, that you are not God, that you can find life and healing at the cross. Not everybody knows that. And if you don't, if you if you need any evidence that people haven't figured out that life is not about them, turn on the news. Listen to most any public figure talk. It's about them. It's not about them doing the common good, it's about something else. And here's the reality. Here's the reality. Sometimes bad messages sound good for a while until they're proven not to work. And and Paul gives an example. He gives the example of Moses in the book of Exodus when God tells Moses, Go to Pharaoh tell, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, Well, why should we let you go? And Moses says, Because I am sent me. Yahweh sent me. And he said, Well, I don't believe that. Moses starts producing miraculous signs to see show that the God of Israel had sent him to Pharaoh. And you know what Pharaoh did? He said, I need my guys. Now in the book of Exodus, we don't know their names, but in Second Timothy three we do. Janice and Jombres, the court musician, the court magicians in Egypt. And they produce some of the signs that Moses produces. Not from heaven, you see. But there's a point in which the court magicians can't do what Moses did, and it shows that they're not who Moses is, and that the gods of Egypt are no gods at all. There's only one true God and his name is I am. But that took a ⁓ a moment to happen. And and Paul's point here is that there's plenty of places where The idealization of the self is held up and it sounds good and it looks authentic and it feels good for a moment. Here's the problem it doesn't work. People become less godly, they become less ability to be in relationships, they become less, they become more depraved, not transformed, and that shows that even though it has an allure, it's false. And he says, Timothy. You got to go into that group of people, even though it's hard, and you gotta tell them where life is found. I can think of ⁓ no clearer mandate for us as Christians in the twenty first century than to preach a to preach the gospel that at the heart of your life is not love for self, but at the heart of your life is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And that if you do that, a love for neighbor will flow from that. That is life-giving, that is relationship building, that reconciles with you to God, and it's true. And don't fall for fakes. And Paul says, Timothy, you gotta get in and tell ⁓ that. I wonder ⁓ if you're here today and you're not a Christian, you know what the first step it is to be a Christian? To say, God, I admit I'm a sinner? God, there's nothing I can do to earn earn my salvation. And I throw myself at the merciful, gracious Jesus to save me just as I am in my sin, in my confusion. Here I am, Jesus, save me. That is the surrender of the self to God himself. If you've never done that as a if you've never done that, you're not a Christian, by the way. That's what it means to become a Christian, to turn from sin and self, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you've not done that and you say today's the day of salvation, I'll be here, Pastor Ishmael will be here, come today. Trust in Jesus. And then my first point, which I think that if this is the way Human nature is, and this is the place society is going. We should neither be surprised by it, nor swept in with it. And we ought to ask God, search me, O God, and you know my heart, you see, if there's any wicked way in me. What way today could there be more total surrender to Jesus? An offering up. What the Apostle Paul says? That That he urges us, based upon the mercies of God, to present ourselves a living sacrifice, dead to sin, alive to God. That's the image. And what about you today? Are you saying, God, here I am? Do with me what you want to do. I'll go where you want to go. I'll say what you want me to say. I'll be who you want me to be. Change me. That's the path of truth and life. I pray today, not only you, but I. walk that in a more full way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you God, we pray we would neither shrink back from the moment, nor be surprised by the moment, nor be swept in by the moments. God, we pray that we would be known as lovers not of self, but lovers of you. And God, we know that our hearts can so quickly have misdirected loves. And so, God, we pray we would center them on you. And God, if We look around and we see the effects of self centeredness. God, we pray that that would not be an occasion for attack. God, that'd be an occasion for repentance. We would say, God, here I am. May we say with the Apostle Paul that I am crucified in Christ, I no longer live, but Christ lives within me. God, I pray that that gospel would be heard, that gospel would be preached, that gospel would be lived, and God, I pray that you would liberate people from their sin and their self so that they can find fullness and health and life and salvation in you. Pray for your help in Jesus' name. Amen.

2 Peter 3:1