GOD’S PROMISES FOR EVERY NEED: A DIRTY MIND
2 Timothy 3:1-17
#EveryNeed
INTRODUCTION… The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (p)
I don’t know what kind of movies you all like, but one of my favorite types of movies are westerns. I like “Sons of Katie Elder.” I like the original “True Grit” and the remake. I definitely say “I’m your huckleberry” every so often. “The Magnificent 7” (both of them) are good to watch.
Perhaps my favorite western of all time if I had to pick one is “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” with Clint Eastwood from 1966. It is so great that even in Back to the Future III we see Robert Zemekis and Bob Gale use some of the plot for their own movie. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” is a movie with great music and terrible synchronous sound that showcases the classic struggle between good and evil. That struggle all comes down to a final showdown, a gun battle in the hot desert sun. Of course, in the movie, good defeats evil and they live happily ever after.
SHOW VIDEO CLIP
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxuVau6qiiw)
“Aim for the heart Ramon” might be the most famous line from that movie. That scene is similar to the passage that we will study today. In the passage, there is the classic struggle between good and evil, however, it is not fiction like in the movies made for our entertainment; the fight is real and the struggle is continuous and the outcome is eternal… and the way I read the chapter for today… much of that battle takes place in our minds.
Today is the last in our series about “God’s Promises for Every Need.” The passage we are going to read from today is 2 Timothy chapter 3. Chapter 3 describes the good versus evil struggle that happens inside all of us in our minds.
THREAD: AIM FOR THE HEART
SITUATION: BATTLEGROUND OF THE MIND
READ 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-9
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.”
THREAD: AIM FOR THE HEART
When I read this passage, I see the Apostle Paul describing the push and pull and tension and struggle between good and evil and righteousness and unrighteousness that happens inside each person. This tension happens whether or not a person is a Christian because we all deal with the sinful nature. Every person who has ever lived deals with the sinful nature.
What does Paul describe? I think the Apostle Paul describes a dirty mind filled with all kinds of sinfulness. Paul honestly goes on what I will call a “rant” with a list of 23 different areas that plague us. All of them start in our minds.
* Being more important than others in our own minds means we are lovers of self.
* When we think about making money for a large percentage of time, we are lovers of money.
* Pride is us thinking we are better than others and judging others less than us.
* Arrogance is believing that we cannot possibly be wrong.
* Abusive words and actions start with abusive angry thoughts in our minds towards others.
* Self-entitled thoughts and disobedient thinking lead us to disobey parents.
* Selfish thoughts lead to ungratefulness.
* Lustful thoughts lead to unholiness.
* Judgmental thinking leads us to be heartless with others.
* Envy and jealous thinking leads us to be unappeasable with everything in life.
* Angry thoughts as well as false attitudes lead us to be slanderous.
* Wrong thoughts about personal freedom lead us to live without self-control.
* Angry sinful attitudes lead us to treat others in brutal ways.
* Wrong thinking about right and wrong means we do not love what is good.
* Thoughts than center on ‘getting what is mine’ can lead us to be treacherous.
* Thinking centered on hatred of self can lead us to be reckless.
* Thinking we are worth more than others lead to being swollen with conceit.
* Attitudes that we should do whatever feels good means we are lovers of pleasure.
* Caring what other people think of us leads to only having appearance of godliness.
* Honestly thinking that we can do what we want when we want leads to denying godly power.
* Men who think they are superior to others prey on women.
* When we do not accept forgiveness, we end up being burdened with sins in our minds.
* Wrong thoughts about personal freedom lead us astray by various passions.
* Thinking we know better than God means we never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
No sin is more destructive to the conscience and to our soul than the sin that takes place in the arena of the mind. Evil thoughts lay the groundwork for all other sins in our lives. Almost every sin that we could think of begins in the mind.
Our mind is the first battleground of the sinful nature. It is that way because our mind involves private thoughts, emotions, desires, memory, imagination, expectations, and attitudes.
ILLUSTRATION… https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B120807/the-danger-of-a-sinful-mind
Sow a thought, reap an act.
Sow an act, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
We certainly cannot leave this passage without talking about verses 8-9 and the two men mentioned by name… Jannes and Jambres. Who are they? When and why did they oppose Moses? Paul gives these men’s’ names and this is the only place in the Bible where their names appear… although they are in the Old Testament. Apparently, there was an oral tradition that the Pharaoh’s magicians who opposed Moses by counterfeiting God’s miracles in Exodus 7-8 were named Jannes and Jambres. They opposed Moses because they were on the side of the enslavers, the oppressors; they wanted to use their power to keep the Hebrews under the cruel burden of slavery. Paul says specifically that these men were “corrupted in mind.” They were clearly on the opposite side of God.
The end result of us indulging sinful thoughts or having a dirty mind or being unrepentant in our thinking means we also end up on the opposite side of God. Paul is warning us that our minds are a battlefield and if we give up fighting the good righteous fight for our minds that we will end up being people that we don’t want to be.
THREAD: AIM FOR THE HEART
COMPLICATION: SIN
The complication in all of this is sin. The sin of the mind is inside us and is between us and God. No one else truly knows about these things. The temptation to sin drives us away from God even in our minds. The standards of the world for our minds and thoughts are different than what God decrees. That is why there is a battleground over the dirty mind and the pure mind. Sin is the reason for the battle.
This is why:
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Romans 12:2b says, “… but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “take every thought captive to obey Christ”
1 John 3:3 says, “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure”
2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”
Over and over again in the Bible God tells us to make sure that our thought life is guarded and in line with our Heavenly Father so we are not led astray away from Him. We can look godly and righteous on the outside, but on the inside be full of hypocrisy and all kinds of thoughts that are ungodly and unrighteous… and no one would ever know. That is what Jesus describes in Matthew 23:27 when He says, “"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” (NIV).
Here is where we have to examine ourselves and truly ask if we are struggling in our thought life. Is lust and sexual sin overwhelming you? Is pride an issue? Are there ungodly attitudes that you know you have that are ingrained in you? Is your thought life trash? This is one of those issues that truly no one can answer but you because no one knows you mind, but you.
THREAD: AIM FOR THE HEART
RESOLUTION: AIM FOR THE HEART
We are not going to leave our thoughts about a dirty mind there with no hope. When I think about a dirty mind, I automatically think of lust and more sexual things, but Paul is pretty clear that our mind can be dirtied by lust and so much more. The gutter of the mind is a terrible place to live.
What does God say about this in the rest of the passage?
What are God’s Promises for us when we realize our minds are gutters and full of trash?
What are God’s Promises when our mind craves to sin before anything else?
What are God’s Promises when we look at what the Apostle Paul says in verses 1-9?
Let’s read.
READ 2 TIMOTHY 3:10-17
You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
THREAD: AIM FOR THE HEART
The Apostle Paul does not leave us with no hope when it comes to our minds being in an unholy state. I believe the Apostle Paul talks about four thoughts in this part of the chapter that help guide us when we are in need because we have a dirty mind. The first thought is the promise!
First, we should pray for the Lord to rescue us (verse 11) because God is a Rescuer. In context, Paul looks at Timothy and notes that Timothy has followed his example in teaching and conduct and aim for life and in perseverance and he has suffered. God rescued him out of those sufferings. God rescued him from hard situations in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Why did God do that? God is a Rescuer. God is faithful.
You might ask, that’s great, but what does that have to do with a dirty cluttered guttered mind? The promise is the same because God is the same. God is always the same. God can and will rescue us from sinful thoughts that hold us captive. We need to seek Him. A sinful lustful selfish arrogant judgmental error ridden mind is not out of bounds of God’s power of rescue. God promises rescue.
READ PSALM 107:28
“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.”
Second, as we think about such things, you and I have to actually want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus (verse 12). Godliness is not automatic. Godliness is not forced. It is neither automatic or forced because following Jesus Christ is not automatic or forced. Listen, I can talk all day about a mind cleaned out and not focused on garbage, but if you and I simply don’t want to do it… we can resist holiness and goodness and right living if we so choose.
Paul even lets us know in verse 12 that living a godly life is not without hardship as he says that persecution will come because of faith. Holiness makes a person stick out. Godly character is abnormal. A pure mind is unheard of. Following Jesus inside and out means that we go against the grain of the world and this creates ripples. We have to want a cleaner purified mind.
READ PSALM 145:19
“He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him; He also hears their cry and saves them.”
Third, as Paul continues to talk to Timothy, and by extension us, he wants us to know that we should continue in faithfulness even in the midst of dealing with trash (verse 14). He tells Timothy to continue in what he has learned and in what he firmly believes. There are others around him who claim to be believers, but do not act like it. Paul calls them “imposters” (verse 13). For a believer in Jesus, we do not quit because we find sin in us. For a believer, we do not give up on faith because it makes us uncomfortable or makes us stick out. For a believer, we do not quit because the pattern of life God has set for us is more than we can do.
For a believer, we lean in and press on all the more in faithfulness towards Christ because we believe that His way of life is the only life. We are thankful that God’s grace is huge. We pray that the Holy Spirit would do work in us that we can never hope to do on our own. We rely on Jesus Christ for forgiveness of the gutter trash that is our mind. And also… we don’t settle. We do not settle in our sinful nature and our lust or pride or wrong attitudes, but rather we press on ahead in faithfulness that God will complete the work in us He started.
READ PHILIPPIANS 1:6
“And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Lastly, you and I need to sink deep into Scripture to get our minds right (verses 15-17). The only way you and I know about a path out of the garbage of our mind is by way of the Scriptures. The Bible is the very thoughts and words of God breathed out by Him. Reading the Bible is profitable. Memorizing verses will teach us. Studying the teachings of Jesus will reprimand us when we are wrong. Accepting the Bible and living it out means we will be corrected on the inside in our minds and attitudes and emotions and He will sanctify us and make us holy. The Bible will teach us how to think in a godly manner.
* It is impossible to get rid of the gutter clutter of the mind without God.
* It is impossible to free ourselves from lustful thoughts without forgiveness from Christ.
* It is impossible to adjust our thinking away from dirty things apart from the Holy Spirit.
* It is impossible to have victory over selfish harsh angry wrong thoughts without the Bible.
CHALLENGE
As we close this morning, I want you to imagine an old dusty western town. The main street of the town has stores and homes and businesses on either side. The clock on the tower on the church in town is just about to strike noon.
You arrive in the street. Parents grab their children and run inside and shut the doors. Others grab their shutters and close up their windows. You pull your hat down to shade your eyes from the bright sun. It is time for a duel. You whip back your cloak to reveal your pistol. It is time to end this. It is time to settle this once and for all. The local undertaker comes out and quickly measures you for your wooden coffin.
Your adversary arrives in the street as well. A couple of looky-loos peak out from behind their curtains to see what will go down. The clock is about a minute from high noon. You can hear the seconds tick by. Tick. Tick. Tick. A slight wind dusts up sand on the main street. The local undertaker comes out and quickly measures your adversary for a wooden coffin.
Your adversary… is your mind. Your mind is full of self-importance, loves money, self-entitlement, lust, poor judgmental attitudes, anger, love of envy, and burdened with guilt. Your mind is cluttered with all things sinful.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
When the clock strikes noon… where do you aim?
THREAD: AIM FOR THE HEART
PRAYER
INVITATION
As you stand this morning and as we prepare to sing, I would like to reiterate something I said earlier. God does not force Himself on anyone. God has given us all freewill. Faith is not automatic. Faith is not forced.
You can choose God and abide in Him and choose to accept the free gift of Jesus Christ and receive eternal life which means His presence with you in this life and the eternal presence of God in the life to come.
You can also choose not to have God in your life and rejection of the free gift of Jesus Christ which means a complete absence of His presence with you in this life and eternal separation from Him in Hell in the life to come.
If this choice is something you would like to talk about and discuss and investigate, I’d love to sit down and talk with you.
