Treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

Holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.  Avoid such people.

I remember shortly after getting my own apartment on Staten Island, receiving a letter from one of my aunts to whom I was especially close.  She had lived in the house with me through my teenage years and we were great friends.  We had spent many hours together, so she knew me pretty well.  In the letter, Aunt Lisa talked to me about life and the unexpected turns it takes.  What she emphasized was that no matter where life takes you, the important thing is to hold on to your faith and to place your reliance on God.  She reminded me of what I had been taught and about the values that my parents had tried to instill in me.  She assured me that I was constantly in her prayers and that I was loved, no matter how far away I was.  She told me she was proud of me and of the person I had turned out to be.  “Be careful out there, don’t let anyone take advantage of you, and don’t forget what you know…”  Aunt Lisa has since died, but I think about her all the time.  The letter was a heart-warming surprise to me then and is still a treasure to me now. Her words are timeless.  They spoke universal truths that can be applied to almost anyone who has been raised around God and taught about God’s love.

In today’s scripture passage, Paul tells Timothy the same thing.

"Don’t forget what you know…"

Paul reminds Timothy that he was raised by godly women who taught him about God’s love. Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice were women of great faith who instilled in Timothy that same great faith.  Paul reminds Timothy that he has an obligation to tell others about what he has learned, what he knows about God.  Paul reminds Timothy that the temptations in the world are great and there are many false prophets who will try to mislead God’s people with subtle untruths, but Timothy is to preach the gospel, pure and true, not telling people what they want to hear, but telling them what they need to hear.

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…"

Teach them the hard sayings as well as the “warm and fuzzies”, Paul says, don’t withhold the truth for the sake of hurt feelings or unpopularity.  Persevere in your work and don’t forget what you know…

As my Aunt Lisa’s letter can be universally applied, so can Paul’s letter to Timothy.  We live in a world of searching people; people who have not found a sense of purpose and direction for their lives.  We live in a world that encourages self and instant gratification.  A world that dilutes and distorts the Word of God and even the very nature of God into what and who they need God to be to fit into their warped, selfish, and sometimes purely evil agendas.  We live in a world where truth and righteousness are not popular.  But what I came to tell you today in church, and to remind myself of is that God is not interested in what is popular.  God does not give a hoot about what the world says is okay and acceptable.

Paul reminds us today that God is interested in truth and righteousness.  And when you ask God to come into your heart and be the Lord of your life, you are saying that you, too, are interested in those things.  Saying ‘yes’ to God means saying ‘no’ to some other stuff.  And saying ‘yes’ means you sign up for the long haul.  You can receive immediate forgiveness and mercy, you can receive immediate assurance of your salvation when you sincerely repent and give your life to God.  But there is nothing instantaneous about growth and maturity in God.  It is intentionally designed that way.  Walking with God is a process.  You have to go through some things.  You have to be humbled and broken and made to realize your dependence on God.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  The psalmist says

“teach me your ways, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my Savior.”

It’s a process, church. And because it is a process, Paul tells Timothy to work with “great patience” and to “endure hardship” because in this race, it is not the starters that count, but those who finish.

Most of us, through raising our own or having some dealings with other people’s, know how children are.  Children very often start things they don’t finish.  Something gets their attention and they move from one thing to the next in the blink of an eye.  Sometimes they want to try different activities just to see if they like it.  Many of our closets are filled with barely used sports equipment, musical instruments that haven’t seen the light of day since lesson three, or special uniforms that they needed for an organization whose meetings they no longer attend.  They want to try things because their friends are doing it and so and so says it is fun.  Then the wind blows and they lose interest as they move on to the next thing. It is a sign of immaturity.  They are still growing, they are still finding out who they are and where their interests lie.  It’s a process.

But as they grow older, you hope that they will begin to understand words like commitment and responsibility.  As they grow, you instruct them in the importance of thinking through the consequences and implications of their choices. You try to teach them about following through on what they start and hopefully, prayerfully something gets through and you begin to see a more mature person emerging.  You’ve taught them some things, they know some things, and every loving parent’s prayer is that their child, when faced with a critical decision point in life will not forget what they know…

God expects no less of us.  As children of God, we are to be growing and maturing in the Spirit.  We are to grow beyond the point of “infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching.”  We are to be steadfast and unmovable.  Sometimes the lessons are hard lessons, but it is all part of the process.  The process is designed to make us persistent in prayer and constant in seeking the face of God for guidance, for hope, for sustenance, for comfort, for help, and for direction.  The process is designed to cause you to have to turn to God because what you need to accomplish is beyond your capacity as a human being.  The process is designed to break you out of self and drive you to the throne of grace.

The prophet Isaiah tells us that God

"gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Your youth shall faint and your young men, utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…"

You see, this thing has nothing to do with how old you are, or how strong you are, or when you started out in the Lord, it has to do with your power to endure!

“…they shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not get weary, they shall walk and not faint…”

It has nothing to do with what YOU can do, but it has to do with knowing from whence comes your help.  Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, and do the work to which God has called you.  When the world does its best to defeat you and send you into despair, you need to know some things.

You need to know that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

You need to know that Jesus, being in very nature God, thought equality with God was not something to be grasped, but emptied himself, took on the form of a servant, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

You need to know that God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

You need to know that God has highly exalted him and given him the name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.

You need to know that God is your rock and your salvation.

You need to know that though troubled on every side, we are not distressed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed.  For no weapon formed against you shall prosper.  And greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

You need to be fully persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus or Lord.

You need to know that this same Jesus said if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever you will in my name and it will be done unto you.

You need to know that when you run this race, you do not run alone.  For he that has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

You know the stories of the faithful recorded in the Bible and the ones you have encountered in your lives.  Faithful mothers and grandmothers have taught you and prayed for you.  Teachers and preachers have watered the seeds that they planted.  And now the Lord of the Harvest wants to reap the increase.  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Make up in your mind that you are in it for the duration.   Endure hardship like a good soldier. Realize that sometimes you may have to go through the refining fire and that people and circumstances will challenge your faith.  But don’t give up because you know that many false prophets shall rise, and iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold, but those that endure to the end, shall be saved.

Stay in the race, keep the faith and

don’t forget what you know…