Expository preaching is a wonderful thing, not least of all because it forces pastors to preach on things they would not choose…This sermon on 2 Timothy 3:1-9 focuses on dealing with those within the church who claim to be Christians but are unrepentant over sin, effectively making up their own counterfeit “Christianity” while living selfishly.

This sermon could be (and maybe should have been) titled “Rules of Dis-engagement” in relation to my previous sermon because the text takes a somewhat surprising turn toward church discipline. I don’t think I would have chosen to preach anything related to church discipline during my first couple of months in a new congregation. But that’s where the text took me, and so that’s where my sermon went! In some ways, it was nice to be able to speak on this topic without having to deal with an unrepentant member of the church at the moment. It lets me lay a basic foundation before having to work this out in real-time within the church body. And I’m thankful for that!