Text: 2 Timothy 2:14-19 Exegesis
- Theme: Credibility in ministry
- Topic: How Timothy can retain his credibility in his ministry
- Truth: Credibility in ministry is retained through preaching and practicing the truth.
- Thrust: Timothy must learn to preach and practice the truth in his life and ministry, so that he can retain his credibility.
Exposition
- Theme: Credibility in ministry
- Topic: How Christians can retain their credibility in ministry
- Truth: Credibility in ministry is retained through preaching and practicing the truth.
- Thrust: Christians must learn to preach and practice the truth in their life and ministry, so that they can retain their credibility.
Exhortation
- Type: Complete (Truth and Thrust are present)
- Take Home Message: Faithfulness to the truth brings long-term credibility or Hypocrisy destroys credibility.
- Trailing question: How can we retain our credibility in ministry
- Talk (sermon):
A. Take-off (intro)
When someone is unfaithful, eventually we lose trust in him or her. Over time, and if he or she persists in being unfaithful, that person can no longer influence us. This is also true in leadership and ministry. People who fail to be faithful to the truth eventually lose their credibility. To put it in another way, hypocrisy destroys credibility. How can we retain our credibility in ministry?
B. Teaching outline (body):
- We must preach the truth at all times (vv.14-18).
- We must practice the truth at all times (v.19).
C. Touchdown (conclusion)
In other words, faithfulness to the truth brings long-term credibility. Hypocrisy, on the hand, destroys credibility. We must learn to handle the word of God correctly. We must avoid speculations. We must rid ourselves of man-centered preaching and teaching. One of the most important skills that we can develop is exegesis, i.e. understanding what the original author of the biblical text wanted to say. But we cannot stop there. We must also understand what the Divine Author (The Holy Spirit) wanted to say in and through the biblical author. This is called proper theologizing. We need both skills in order to be faithful. But we must also practice (or live) the truth. We cannot say one thing and do another. Hypocrisy destroys credibility. Our credibility ultimately rests on our faithfulness in handling the truth of the text and living that truth in our daily lives.