Overview
Rev. Michael Fort uses 2 Timothy 2:20-23 to challenge leaders to make deliberate choices about the kind of vessel they will be. A vessel becomes prepared for the master’s use by cleansing what dishonors, fleeing youthful lusts, pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace with pure-hearted believers, and refusing foolish questions that only produce strife.
Transcript
Boldness, Embarrassment, and Failure
Well, we are continuing in 2nd Timothy chapter 2, and to continue that with you, Reverend Michael Fort. Thanks, Paul. Thank you.
Nice seeing you all. Please be seated. Please be seated.
I tell you, my heart goes out to Paul Giles for being the song leader on all these songs, and the reason I say that is his boldness and his grace in being able to do that. I was sitting in the back going, I am such a coward when it comes to leading songs. I choose only safe songs that I know everybody knows.
I love boldness. I tell you, one thing I've always tried to teach people, there are two important things that will help you be successful in life, and that is if you're not afraid to be embarrassed and not be afraid to fail, you'll go really, really far in life. And when it comes to leadership, those are two great qualities that you will become familiar with, and you have to learn to be comfortable with, because I tell you, if you don't experience those two things, you ain't doing any leading.
Alright, at the top of your page, if you choose to participate in the teaching, and if you don't, well, we're going to continue without you. I want you to write sit, S-I-T, I want you to write get, G-E-T, and I want you to write do, because this is a sit, get, and do. There is an expectation there will be a quiz at the end of this teaching.
And I am not kidding you, because I'm giving you the questions now. Next thing you write down is I will choose to, T-O. I will choose to, and then I want you to write one, two, and three.
There are three things that you're going to have the opportunity to answer at the end of the teaching. Three things. So, a sit, get, and do.
There's an expectation that you will do something with this, and there's three questions that you'll have the opportunity to answer at the end. I will choose to. So, I'm picking up where Reverend Moynihan left off last night, 2 Timothy, got to tell you just a short little story on that.
So, after the first two dynamic teachings, and I just so enjoyed Reverend Ryan and Reverend Horney, as I always sit there and I go, I couldn't have handled it like they did. It was just so good. But they had only covered like seven verses, and I thought I was supposed to do 20-23, and I sit there and I went, oh my gosh, I must have not prepared the right section.
Because I'm thinking, you know, you dole out three verses here, three verses there, and you give Bob like half a book. So, I'm sitting there, I'm going, come on, Bob, keep going. One more verse.
Just one more verse. Whittle it down. When he got to 19, I was going, touchdown.
Man was I excited. People were sitting back there going, you're really moved by this teaching. I said, believe me, I am.
So, I'll be doing verses 20-23. If you like to put a title on this teaching, I did, and it's called transparent leadership. Transparent leadership.
You hear that term a lot in the world today. We want transparency. We want leaders to be clear.
We want to know what's behind the curtain. See, this isn't a concept that mankind has come up with. It's another example of mankind catching up with God's heart.
Because God's heart is always for you to see behind the curtain. First and second, Timothy, our leadership epistles, as well as some others, but have you noticed that you don't have to reach a certain degree of believerhood before you're allowed to read those sections. From the very get go, God wants everybody to know what the clear expectations are for a godly leader.
Two-fold purpose. One, that the person who chooses to be a godly leader knows exactly how to be successful. And for those being led, they have a measuring stick for the leader.
And when and where they are off those marks, you have the right to raise your hand and go, I got a question. I work in construction and one of our departments is a utility department, which means they put up the big power lines. You talk about dangerous work.
That is some dangerous work. But you are taught from your very first day on the job, if you don't understand what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to stop, raise your hand and go, stop! I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing. The reason is, if it would continue, they could die.
Thank you very much. I was not expecting that type of response. Feel free to respond at any time.
But you could die. So what happens with us as good, wonderful people is we tend to not raise our hand and yell stop when we see it being off. Why? Because that's leadership.
That is the exact reason why you should stop and raise your hand and go stop. Because you want to be led in the right way, not the wrong way. The right way and not the wrong way.
Before I actually get into Second Timothy, there are three great leadership principles that have been very effective in my life, have been very moving, and it's something that I always try to express to others who desire to be a leader. The first one is in 1 Samuel chapter 16 and it's in verse 7. You don't have to turn there, but I do encourage you to read the whole chapter. It's when the man of God Samuel was sent by God to pick the new king.
It was going to be a son of Jesse. And this is a great lesson because Samuel needed to be taught this by God because all of us can fall into this very easily. So he goes and says, Jesse, I want to see your son.
So he brings out his oldest son and he looked the part. He looked the part. From Samuel's perspective, he goes, oh dang, this guy's got leadership ability.
Look at that guy. And what God teaches him is that God is not like man who looks on the outward, but God looks at the heart. Just so important.
God looks at the heart. Samuel needed to be taught that. Why? It's very easy for any of us to get caught up on the exterior when God focuses on the interior.
See for most people leadership is really a, they think is a personality trait based leadership. That's what the world looks for, personality based leadership. God looks at it as a character based leadership.
He looks at the internal, the heart where character is developed. That's what God wants from us, all of us. And when we don't see that, we have the right to raise our hand and go stop.
I don't understand why you are doing what you are doing because I don't want to be led the wrong way. The second one is in Psalm 78 verse 72. And this happens to be about David.
And it said that he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and he led them by the skillfulness of his hands. Priority. Heart and then head.
Heart then head are skills. Skills are developed. Hearts need to be nurtured and brought along.
Skills, you know a lot of people like to stick with their natural skills. But when and where sometime without that heart your natural skills will fail you when it comes to leadership. They just won't be enough.
It's got to be heart. And then the third one that I always like is Psalm 103 verse 14. You may not look at this one as a leadership quality but I certainly do.
And it says that God remembers our frame. That we are what? Church. That's right.
Glorified pile of dust. Culture developed dust. That's why you always flinch when you see a swifter come out.
You don't know why but you know now. God remembers us so whenever we get so caught up in just how wonderful we are and how sharp we are God is just winking going man that is a pile of dust. But you know that's very humbling to remember that.
Vessels in a Great House
Remember who we are. Now let's get into 2 Timothy chapter 2. We'll start with verse 20 it says, But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some of honor and some of dishonor or less honor. If a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified and made for the master's use and prepared unto every good work.
Not going to spend a lot of time on this but what it really refers to is that you serve, you want to develop your life to be able to serve at full capacity. It's just not getting in the door. You want full capacity.
You want to be able to have a varied ability to be able to lead. Not pigeon holed. See the things those vessels of less honor could only be used for certain things and they were the less honorable things.
The other the gold and silver ones were more highly developed and could be more versatile. Though they were specified for a certain thing they could be used for anything. What we want to be able to do as God's leaders is we want to be very versatile which means it takes us to develop ourselves.
We've got to always be working to develop who we can be. Leaders know the way, they show the way, and they lead the way. That's what a leader does.
A leader's not always asking what should be going on. Once they find out what the group is like then they know the way, show the way, and lead the way. Very, very important for a leader to be able to do that.
Here in 2nd Timothy we see that God will give us clear expectations and I'm going to share with you those clear expectations. They're not hidden from anybody. They're not hidden from anybody.
Anybody can pick up this book and read it and go that's what I need to do. It's a three step process. Here are three words that you need to remember.
Flee, follow, avoid. We're going to cover these words. Flee, follow, avoid.
You can diagram this if you are wanting to do that and what you do is you do like a little circle. You put flee, then you draw a line with an arrow that points to follow, then you draw a line with an arrow that points to avoid that goes back, a line that goes back to flee. It's a process.
This can be an everyday process. It's not a one and done deal. Let's face it, the only one and done deal was the new birth.
Why did God make that a one and done deal? Because if people had a second chance they probably would blow it. So just make it really simple. Get them in and let's move on.
But everything else, it's a process. Flee, follow, avoid. So the first thing we're going to get into is flee.
Now we know in other places in the Word it tells us to flee idolatry, to flee fornication. But look at this one right here in verse 22, flee also youthful lusts. And then there's a long list of what those are.
No, no. Did you notice that? Because you're on the edge of your seat going, and what are those? Because this is what mankind does. If it's on the list, you don't have to do anything else except what's on the list.
Why do I say that? Because I'm a married man. And when my wife gives me that list of what I need to do, I go, I can knock those bad boys out and the rest of the day is whose? Mine. God doesn't have to list all the youthful lusts.
You know why? You already know what they are. Yeah, you don't need to be reminded. For us of age, you know, mid-30s, early 40s, we have lived through them.
Others who are in the younger set, you are experiencing them. But here's the key about the word youthful lusts. It means lusts that should be limited to someone inexperienced, who doesn't know better.
Youth, youth, fill in the blank. Young and inexperienced. I have no idea where some of you were brought up.
My, oh my. Young and inexperienced. Young and inexperienced.
And due to that inexperienced, they can be easily carried away in a mindset. Because lust is used all over the Bible, number one. It's a really popular Bible word.
But in the New Testament, it's used 38 times. In other words, it's something that mankind is plagued with. Placed with the word youthful, it means it's those things that you should outgrow by way of experience.
It's not like youthful lusts, sadly, are not like youthful clothes. You know, you outgrow clothes so you can't fit them anymore, so you just discard them. Youthful lusts just don't go away.
You don't outgrow them with age. I know people, really older than me, that are still as childish as someone who is inexperienced to immature. It's because they didn't flee from it.
It doesn't tell us to coexist. It doesn't even tell us to manage it. It tells us to flee.
Here's two great things about this word flee. Number one, it says take yourself to flight. In other words, no one can do it for you.
It's up to you to be able to do it. And the other word for flee is escape. That makes a huge difference in my mindset.
Flee is not a word that a lot of us use on a daily basis. Well, I'm going to flee now to lunch. No, we don't talk that way.
The word flee means to escape from it. Why do you escape from something? If you need to escape, it's because it's confining and restricting to you. Youthful lusts will restrict and confine ministries.
And I think we've all been taught that fear has ruined more men's ministries than anything else. What I will say from a practical experience, refusing to flee from youthful lusts have constricted and confined more people's ministries than anything else I know. They try to coexist with those youthful, those cravings that lead you away from the truth of God's word, from really being able to minister to people.
They will confine and restrict you. You need to escape. I love watching shows where, you know, the good guy is, he's confined.
And what's he doing the whole time? His hands are behind him. He's working those bad boys. One thing I've learned about movie villains, they can't tie good knots.
Just a little something. If you ever get captured, always remember bad guys are stupid. So, but what are they always trying to do? Escape.
And then when they do get loose, what do they do? They leave. They run. You should have the mindset whenever you recognize something that leads you away from the word of God in your mind, you should go, ah! You don't have to physically do it.
But I will tell you, it is a conversation piece, if you do. But you need in your mind to just go, ah! And you can calmly sit at the table while that's happening. But what it alerts you to do is to escape, to escape.
At my age, I still have youthful lusts. I still have youthful lusts that try to entice me. They go, hey, look, it's just one time.
Cleanse and Become Useful
Really. Nobody will notice. Guess who always notices everything? Well, I tell you, if you listen to Reverend Moynihan last night, we'll see that God pays attention to erd, erd.
What you don't want to be called is erd. We want to be able to flee from it, flee from youthful lusts, those cravings that lead you away from the word of God, that will just capture your mind and lead you astray. You got to flee them.
If you don't flee, you can't follow. Because youthful lusts will not coexist what you are supposed to follow. This word follow, dioko, Greek word, you're familiar with it, vigorously pursued, a chase after.
Remember, dioko, this word, dioko, is not to be confused with the younger and lesser known brother of Yoko Ono. His name is Dioko Ono. You don't want to confuse that.
Dioko means to overtake. You pursue to the point of overtake. Once again, going back to movies or an illustration that we've all seen on TV when it comes to following the bad guy.
You've got the FBI or you've got the police. Of course, they always speak in their sleeves. I don't know where they buy their shirts, but they're able to communicate by way of their sleeves.
Yeah, I see. Yeah, I got my eye on him. Yeah.
Table four, I got my eye on him. No, I'm not doing anything right now. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. That's not the word follow.
Because you know what they never do? Overtake them. They just follow them. What we're going to read, these four things are not something you just follow and keep in eyesight.
These are something that you overtake and it becomes part of you. I always like using the illustration. This surely dates me because when I was in elementary school, one of the games that we would play on the playground is kissing catchers.
What it was, it was voluntary. It was voluntary. I just would like to say that.
The boys would be it, and then we would chase the girls. The point of the game was that you captured the girl and you got to kiss her. Then the roles were reversed.
The girls would be it, and they would chase the boys. You catch them and you get kissed. I, the fastest boy in my class, would only get caught by who I decided to get caught by.
But when it came time for me to be it, all my attention was focused on Susie Fox. Susie Fox, in my mind, was the prettiest girl in the fourth grade. I would chase her and I would get right up to her and I would just stop.
No, not at all. Not at all. I would capture her.
Again, not forcefully. It was a game. I would catch her and she would stand there and was compliant, and I would kiss her.
I would just like to say that everybody agreed and was consensual. I would kiss Susie Fox. That is how we follow these next four things.
You've got a picture in your mind. I'm kissing that. Oh, yeah.
I'm just not keeping it in sight. I'm kissing that. Here we go.
And here they are. Righteousness, faith, charity, peace. And it says, and with them the call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Really a terrific section here. Righteousness comes up two other times in 2 Timothy. You're probably really familiar with them.
2 Timothy 3.16. It's across the page here, so I'll read it to you. It says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, and what? Righteousness. So this tells you that one thing that I want to pursue to the point of overtaking and making part of my life is that Word of God.
Rightly divided Word of God. That right straight cutting of that Word of God. That is how I have to be if I'm going to be a godly leader.
Transparency. God is trying to be very transparent here of what it takes to be a leader for God. A good godly leader.
Then, the next one is in 2 Timothy 4.8. It says, Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of what? Righteousness. Which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
One of the great aspects of being a leader for God is that you teach people that love of his appearing. It's one of the great joys that we have. First of all, we know the way, we show the way, and we lead the way.
And here's one of those great points, one of those great truths of the Word of God that we have to be willing to know, show, and lead. Next word is faith. That's that Greek word pistis.
Comes up all the dang time. It's that most common word for believing. It's used in 1 Timothy 19 times.
It's used in 2 Timothy 8 times. In other words, for leading, believing is a huge deal. It is something that you as the leader must have in your life.
And you know something about believing, it's not based on circumstances. It's just something you do. It's not based on what the circumstances might be.
Well, it's easy to believe today, or it's really hard. No, believing is believing. It's not based on circumstance.
Matter of fact, it just moves right through any type of circumstance that might get in its way. Hebrews 11, that great hall of fame of believing, lists all those great believers, pistis is used 24 times. In other words, if you really want to get a good idea of what it means to believe, Hebrews 11 would be a good book to read.
Because boy, it lists these guys and they went through, these guys and gals went through so much, so much. I love reading the Old Testament just to be thankful I didn't live then. And I tell you, if I lived in the Old Testament, I'd probably been stoned early.
You'd read my name, little Michael Fort. Took one right between the eyes. I'm just thankful for the time in which we live.
Very thankful to have a knowledge that's revealed scripture to us. And the third one that we see right here is charity, this love of God. Have we heard a lot about that since we've been here? Yes, we have.
You know why? Word says so. That's why. It's not a personal opinion poll.
Flee Youthful Lusts
We did not poll the group and find out, well, what are the four top things that they would like to see in a leader? And this is the result. This was not produced by Gallup. This is what God says is the important things for a leader.
What I love is he doesn't specify the youthful lusts because those are real clear in people's lives. You just got to be honest with yourself to recognize that's leading you away and then you escape from it. Because I tell you, you're not going to outgrow it.
You got to escape. You know why I know? Because God doesn't say wait till you outgrow it. And we all have enough examples to know you don't outgrow it.
You got to escape from it. You don't skip away from it. You escape from it.
And then when it comes to follow, he is specific. I just think it's amazing. He is specific.
Guess what these aren't? Personality traits. If it was, he'd say self-righteous. And be really self-righteous.
Oh, I can do that. Oh, sure. Look at my nose way up in the air.
No. These are all character traits that a person has to develop in the heart. That righteousness, right living.
Just got that mindset, man, I know what the word says and I'm going to live according to that word. I'm going to live right. That believing, it doesn't matter what the circumstance is.
It doesn't matter what I'm challenged with. What matters is who am I? Where's my identity? These four points are points of identification for a godly leader. They vigorously pursue to the point of overtaking it and making it part of their life, righteousness, believing.
Can you see me stripping off the clothes to get down to my uniform to where it says super across there? The cape starts waving behind and I take flight. Charity, that love of God that you just love. One thing that people must understand about a leader for God is, is that person will love them as Christ loved the church.
What a great responsibility. Is it the easiest thing in the world? No. But that's what makes it so satisfying.
Because the world always will take the easy way out. Part of that youthful lust, just take the easy way out. Hey, I tell you, you are so good at this one point, don't worry about everything else.
What I have learned in my experience, and the only thing I'm an expert on is me. I've met others who think they're an expert on me and it's amazing how it doesn't always just mesh. But I'm an expert on me and one thing that I have noticed is that these four things will get you through any trouble and will help you, it will enhance the good times in such a terrific way.
And not only for you, but for the people that you lead. Because when you make the decision that you're willing to lead, your decisions just don't affect you anymore. They affect everybody else.
But that's part of the joy of being a leader. It's positively affecting other people's lives. How does righteousness affect your life? How does believing, how does charity, that love of God? Here's the fourth one, peace.
You know, people kill for peace. People go to war for peace. I'll get peace, I'll kill you.
But guess what our peace required? Jesus Christ, making the ultimate sacrifice. Romans 5, verse 1 says, we are at peace with God. I tell you, I'm not at peace with everybody I know.
You know, I have a job and at my work at times I don't necessarily get along with everybody. But you know who I want to be at peace with? God. Two great definitions I've heard about peace is undisturbed believing is one.
And that quietness in the midst of turmoil and chaos. I love that, just having that quietness. I worked with this one guy for a year, still do.
And early on, about two years into it, we were in this meeting and in my particular job title at that time, I dealt with a lot of problems that would come up. And this guy got so irritated with me because I would always come up with a positive answer, an action to take. And he goes, why do you always have to be so damn positive? And I said, because I choose to be.
Duh! It was not a gene that came in the DNA, it was a choice that I made. See these three words, flee, follow, and avoid are choice words. They require choice.
And they require to be made by you. I cannot choose for somebody to flee and they flee. They've got to take personal flight themselves.
I can't choose for a person to follow, they have to follow on their own. And I can't decide for somebody to avoid, they've got to do it themselves. This word peace is just such a wonderful, wonderful word.
And then we go on and it says, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Matthew 5, 18 says, blessed are the pure of heart. Just means a clean heart.
Keep her clean. Keep her clean. But we're talking about our heart.
How can we do that? Well, we know that if we will follow righteousness, if we will follow believing, if we will follow charity, if we will follow peace, pretty good idea. That's going to keep the old heart clean. Because if you're doing that, guess what you've already decided to do and that is flee youthful lust.
Youthful lust will only constrain and they will only restrict. And they will confine, they will tie the hands of an able minister and keep them from being able to minister for God. For the sake of pursuing a momentary pleasure.
Just not worth it folks, in the long run. Especially when you add in a whole crown of righteousness thing. I love me a crown, no doubt about it.
Now we get into the next verse, verse 23. But, this is the word Allah which is the emphatic use of the but. Now, no offense, but I call it the big but.
This is a big but. This isn't just well but, this is but. It's very emphatic.
And we've all been in situations where you need to be very emphatic. I always think about when you're working with little kids, don't touch that. Little kid looks at you like, this? You know, this? And this fits into this verse.
Because this is human nature. Oh really? This? This? I just want to be clear. I'm supposed to avoid this.
And this is what the human mind does. My bad, I can do it. Really can't be that bad.
You know I sort of got that from Eve. In the garden. He can do everything except one thing.
Really? What was that thing? That thing? That is, just to be clear, that is the one thing. We are all a work in progress. And if you're going to lead for God, it is a continual work.
Pursue Righteousness, Faith, Love, and Peace
Every day. Every day. But it's satisfying.
It is what really brings joy to your heart. Because you can not only affect your own life, but helping others. Be able to know that greatness of God.
So you got the big but here. But foolish and unlearned questions. I love this because I read in one translation, the word foolish was moronic.
Moronic. Haven't we all been taught since childhood, never call somebody a moron. But it's funny how God gets away with certain things that we were told by our parents that we can't do.
I just, it must be very neat to be God. Who's going to tell him? Well that's not very nice God. Moronic.
Stay away from those moronic questions. I'm going to tell you why. God's very transparent on why.
See at times as parents we're not as transparent with our children when we give them instructions. We just go, don't do that. Don't.
And emphatic face. But God gives you the reason why. And it's a good reason.
Because it benefits you as the individual. So it says here, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid. Knowing that they do gender strifes.
I read in one translation the word gender means to birth. To give birth to. Personally I've been at a few births.
My wife and I have three kids. We were both there. And she was much more participatory than I was.
But one thing I notice about the birth. Once it takes place, you can't put it back in. Yeah, it's pretty important when you get into these moronic questions.
You know, once you engage in them you can't put it back. You got to deal with it. And I want to show you what the end result is from God's perspective if you start engaging in these.
This was a youthful lust of mine. Give me somebody to get in an argument with that will lead absolutely nowhere. And then I walk away going, man, I gave it to him.
And then a friend of mine who said to me, he goes, and what did it profit? I went, I have no idea. That's the thing about leadership is you want it to be of a profit. You just don't want to waste time, spin wheels.
And they're out there. The adversary will make sure there are plenty of people around you who will just waste your time with moronic, endless questions. In the Lamb's Bible he says questions that do not educate.
And I really like that. First of all, I thought that was very nice of how he phrased it. But it really paints a good picture.
It doesn't educate anybody on anything. And what we try to do is we try to educate people on the Word of God because the aim of all education is action. We want people to take action on the Word of God.
See, endless questions, these whole foolish, silly, dull questions don't lead to action. And I tell you, the book of Acts is a book of actions. The grace of ministration is an administration of actions.
It's about the empowered individual with the power of God and Christ in them taking action, living, showing, demonstrating the greatness of God. And when we take the responsibility to lead, we make sure that we know the way, that we show the way, and that we lead the way so God can be glorified, so people can understand what we understand about how good our God is, how wonderful, how magnificent, how gloriously kind our God is for us. There's not a single need in our life that is too small or anything that is too great that does not demand His full attention to us to make sure that He makes available a complete deliverance in every situation.
That's the way we don't get caught up and birth these foolish, silly, moronic questions. Here's what God says to do. He says, avoid.
And you know what this word avoid means? It just doesn't mean avert. It means to excuse yourself from it. Excuse yourself from it.
I have a lady at work and I'll just call her Crazy Kay. And I'm not the only one who calls her Crazy Kay. And the reason is because Kay can waste more time than anybody I've ever met in my life.
She can suck the air right out of a room. So what I do when I'm walking somewhere and I hear Kay's voice, guess what I do? I start strategizing. How am I getting out of this situation? And see, I keep my phone on vibrate, so whenever I get trapped by Kay, I'll go, oh, getting a call.
Got to go. I excuse myself. Do I feel bad about it? Never.
I never once have felt bad about avoiding Crazy Kay. You know why? I know what it does to me. I know what it does to my day.
Look what it says that it will do to you. It says, knowing that they do gender strifes. Strife is diametrically opposed to peace.
How important is your peace to you? Who has the right to rob your peace? Why is that person of such importance that they rob your peace with these endless, silly, moronic questions that not only don't educate, but they birth strife in your life. You excuse yourself. Excuse me.
Excuse me. I've got to go. Excuse me.
Not today. And you just move on. That's taking responsibility for your life like you should.
That is what you need to be able to do. That's what we do as leaders. God gives us here in this little section of scripture clear expectations.
Very transparent. Matter of fact, you can walk away with this section right here and have a clear vision of a to-do list for being God's leader. You've got a little checklist that you're able to do.
I want you to circle back to those three questions at the beginning. I will choose two. What do you think number one is? Flee.
What do you think number two should be? Follow. And what do you think number three should be? Avoid. You build that into your daily habits and you will be a godly leader.
You will want your life to be examined because it will come out the way God says in his word a godly leader should be. I want you to be able to picture that. I want you to see yourself in the word of God.
That that is your lifestyle that if you were being described to somebody, I'd go, one thing I can tell you about them, they flee youthful lust, they follow righteousness, believing, charity, peace and they do it with others of like-mindedness. And I tell you, you can't get them caught in silly, moronic, dull, endless questions that have no benefit to them. Why? Because God has invested much in you and I. He gave his only begotten son for you and I to have the greatest life available to live.
And it is within our ability to make the right choice. What do you think about yourself? I know what God thinks about you. We align our thinking up with the word of God and we see ourselves as God sees us and we make that right choice.
Refuse Questions That Produce Strife
God bless you.
Key Takeaways
- Leadership requires courage to risk embarrassment and failure while continuing to act.
- The vessel illustration emphasizes personal cleansing and readiness for the master’s use.
- Fleeing youthful lusts is paired with actively pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
- Spiritual growth is pursued with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart, not in isolation.
- Foolish, dull, and unprofitable questions are refused because they generate strife rather than growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a vessel unto honor?
It is a person who has cleansed away what dishonors and is therefore set apart, useful to the master, and prepared for every good work.
What should a leader pursue after fleeing youthful lusts?
The passage names righteousness, faith, love, and peace, pursued together with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Why should foolish and unlearned questions be avoided?
Because they do not produce useful understanding; they generate strife and pull attention away from choices that prepare a believer to serve.
Scripture References
2 Timothy 2:20–23; Romans 12:1–2; Psalm 78; Psalm 103; 2 Timothy 3; 2 Timothy 4; 1 Timothy 19; 2 Timothy 8; Hebrews 11; Romans 5; Matthew 5
Verification Note
Prepared from a recovered transcript with a legacy numeric filename. Verify Greek terms, proper names, quotations, verse references, punctuation, and unclear phrases against the original recording and a Bible before publication.
