What am I supposed to do?

Good morning, I’m Derek Freed, and I am the Pastor of House Churches here at Renovation Church. Name Slide

I am excited to be able to share with you this morning as we continue in our series of 2 Timothy, as we start into chapter 4 this week.

Have you ever been in a moment where you’re wondering “What Am I Supposed To Do?” In some situation, or over a period of time, or in a decision, you are not quite sure, and so you find yourself asking and thinking, ‘What Am I Supposed To Do?” What Am I Supposed to Do? Slide

I can remember a time in my life where I was asking myself this question. It was when I was in college. In high school I had a plan for my life, and how I thought it was going to play out and what I was going to do for a career and all kinds of things. And that plan didn’t work out. And so now I found myself in college not knowing what the future looked like and asking, “What Am I Supposed To Do?”

Have you ever been in a place, or a moment like that?

Maybe you’re at work, or at school, and your boss, or teacher, gives you a project, but they don’t really give you any direction, and are so vague that they leave you asking the question “What Am I Supposed To Do?”

Or maybe someone you care about tells you about a hard situation they are in, and they are looking at you for your help, but you find yourself asking “What Am I Supposed To Do?”

I think we can all resonate with situations like these, we have been in these type of moments where we weren’t sure what we were supposed to do.

But I also think we experience these moments when it comes to following God. Maybe you’ve experienced that in the past, or maybe that’s you today, whether you’re sitting here trying to find out who Jesus is, or you’re here this morning, as a follower of Jesus. But you’ve had a moment where you’ve asked yourself, “What Am I Supposed to Do?”

This morning, I want us to keep this question in the front of our minds as we look at the beginning of 2 Timothy chapter 4.

So go ahead and grab your Bible, or you can grab the one at your chair.

And you’ve probably heard Pastor David talk about how Renovation Church is a Bible teaching church, which means we want to open up this book and dive into what it says.

And if you want to know more about the Bible, about what it has to say, about how you can study it well, then I highly encourage you to sign up for one of our Bible Classes this summer. Classes start in a week, and this a great opportunity for you to learn more, ask questions, and study this book.

This morning we will be looking at

2 Timothy 4:1-5

Page 814

Just find the big number 4

This morning I’m not going to bury the lead. I want to give you the answer to this question “What Am I Supposed to Do?” right now.

And we see that answer in verse 2.

2 Timothy 4:2a

“Preach the word;”

PREACH THE WORD!

Now, before you check out this morning because Paul says preach the word. This doesn’t exclusively mean preaching the way we think about it today. When we hear preach, we think about someone doing what I’m doing right now. At church on a Sunday morning, preaching a message to an audience.

But the actual Greek word here, kerysso, means to preach, proclaim, or tell.

And so a better way to think about this for all of us, as an answer to the question “What Am I Supposed to Do?” is simply Share God’s Truth with those around you.

This might not be the answer you were expecting.

You might have been expecting an answer like, “Get your act together.”

“Clean yourself up”

“Follow the rules”

“Know the right answers”

or something else that is about you.

For many of us, if we’re honest, our first reaction is to worry about ourselves first. To make sure we are good.

But Paul’s answer is to be about others.

Sharing God’s Truth isn’t primarily for yourself, it is for those who need to hear it.

But here is the sneaky part of Sharing God’s Truth. While it’s focus is for others, if you do this, if you decide to Share God’s Truth, I absolutely believe that it is going to impact you, and impact so many areas of your life.

So Paul gives us this answer, to Share God’s Truth.

And then what do we do a lot of times when someone gives us a directive, or tells us what we are supposed to do?

I worked with students, and parents, for over 20 years in student ministry, and in my experience what I have found a lot of times, is that people try and figure out the minimum to fulfill that directive.

What’s the bottom line that they can do and still be ok?

And Paul, being a smart guys, and perhaps even in anticipation of this, lets us know what the minimum is.

2 Timothy 4:2b

“be prepared in season and out of season;”

In season and out of season = all the time.

Be ready at any and all times to Share God’s Truth with others.

The minimum is all the time.

Ask yourself, in any given situation, how can I bring God’s truth into this situation?

So the full answer to the question “What Am I Supposed to Do?” is:

SHARE GOD’S TRUTH, ALL THE TIME

Now, you might be saying, Derek that’s a great sounding answer. That is what I would expect a pastor to say.

But WHY is that the answer, and HOW am I supposed to do that?

These are great questions, and I am pumped you asked them.

In this passage, I believe that Paul gives us 2 “whys” and 2 “hows”.

I want to start with the whys.

WHY?

BECAUSE OF WHAT IS TO COME

2 Timothy 4:1

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:”

This coming reality should influence how we act today.

There is a time coming when Jesus will come again. And Jesus’s Kingdom will appear in full. And when that happens, everyone who has ever lived will face judgment. That’s why he said the living and the dead. Everyone.

This is the side of God that people don’t want to talk about. It’s the side of God that is unpopular with culture. But it is the reality and truth of what is coming.

No one gets to escape this reality. No one gets a pass. No one gets to say they didn’t know. No one gets to feign ignorance. Your family, your friends, your neighbors, every single person you encounter, Even ME, YOU, all of US, everyone will be judged.

And the result of that judgment will either to be a part of Jesus’s Kingdom or not.

There isn’t a greater why than that.

Richard Baxter was an English pastor, theologian, and writer who lived in the 1600s. He was a pastor during the English Civil War, and during his ministry he saw a lot of war, and death, and he wrote about his mindset and ministry:

Richard Baxter Quote

“I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men. Oh, how I have thought of the weight of my subject, and the necessity of my hearers!

How carefully I have watched my words, lest I should miss the opportunity!

And how earnestly I have desired that the Lord would set them home upon their hearts!”

We should Share God’s Truth because every person we meet will stand before God.

But Paul also gives us a second why

BECAUSE OF WHAT IS NOW

2 Timothy 4:3-4

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

If this isn’t a description of our world today, I don’t know what is.

I can tell you that I’ve talked to plenty of people who only watch certain news channels or programs because they like the way that channel talks about the world.

I have friends whose social media is comprised of re-posts and re-shares from people who only say or talk in the ways they agree with or think sounds right to them.

Every day people are surrounding themselves with the voices that make them feel good, that agree with what they believe is true.

And this isn’t just about news and social media.

It is getting worse, in more ways, and it is only going to get worse.

Did you know that in 2025 two of the top three things that AI was used for by people was for companionship, and finding meaning and purpose.

More and more instead of personal relationships, people are using a tool that is designed to tell you what you want to hear, by generating responses that feel validating and create the illusion of empathy, to develop their understanding of the world around them.

I was thinking about how to understand what is happening here, and it brought to mind this picture.

Have you ever flown somewhere, and you didn’t really want to talk or interact with anyone on the plane? So, what might you do?

You put on some noise canceling headphones, and try to drown out the world around you. As you listen to, or watch, something that you wanted to, or that makes you happy, or feel good.

I think this is the idea Paul is getting at here. People just want to go about their lives with their noise canceling headphones on, listening to the things that make them happy, and not hear what is going on around them.

And because of this, speaking into the world today feels like swimming upstream, or swimming against a current. Have you ever tried to swim against a water current? It’s exhausting!

I did a little research into this and found that the average human swimming speed is about 1–2 mph at best (and much slower for most people).

River currents can easily exceed 3–6 mph, especially in rapids.

Once the current is stronger than your swim speed, you physically cannot make forward progress—you’ll be carried downstream no matter how hard you try.

Humans also fatigue quickly in moving water because we’re not hydrodynamically optimized.

In short: we’re not designed to overcome strong currents—we get overwhelmed by them.

But have you ever seen a video of salmon swimming upstream?

Salmon can sustain swimming speeds of 3–5 mph.

They have a specialized ability called “burst swimming” that lets them leap waterfalls and push through fast currents by reaching up to 15–20+ mph.

Their bodies are streamlined and muscular, built to minimize drag.

They also use currents strategically, resting behind rocks and timing their movements.

In short: they are literally built to move against the current.

Salmon can swim upstream because they are built for it. They are built to go against the current. Humans are not.

When it comes to cutting through the noise, and swimming upstream against the noise of this world, that people surround themselves with, you are just a voice amongst all the others. You are not designed to cut through all that noise.

But you know what is designed to cut through all that noise?

THE WORD OF GOD IS!

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

This is why it is so important that we Share God’s Truth.

Because then it’s about the Word and not about you.

If it’s about you, you are just a voice amongst all the others.

If you don’t say what they want to hear, they will just drown you out with what they want to hear.

But Sharing God’s Truth is about proclaiming how great God is!

And His Word, His truth, is able to cut through all the noise, and cuts to people’s hearts.

Why should we share God’s Truth?

Because of what is to come

Because of how the world is now

But how do you do this?

How do you Share God’s Truth?

HOW?

If we are called to Share God’s Truth, All the Time, what does look like for you and me at work, at home, in our community, with our family and friends?

HOW?

BEING BOLD

In verse 2 Paul talks about three practical ways you can Share God’s Truth to people in your life who aren’t following Jesus.

Correct

Show them where they have wrong thinking.

What this doesn’t mean is that you have the green light to be a know-it-all, know you are right, bludgeon people over the head with your knowledge of the Word, again, and again, and again, and then walk away.

No, instead tell them in love what the Word says, and humbly show them what Scripture says, with your life and how you live.

“Your life will be the only Bible some people ever read.”

— D.L. Moody

Maybe someone you know desires popularity or position or prestige, and is willing to do whatever it takes so they can have that. And Sharing God’s Truth means to with them, with love and humility, tell them how much God cares about them, and what they mean to him. That the popularity or position or prestige they should care about is from God, and he has already showed them how much He thinks them. And then show them with your life, how you care more about what God thinks than the world.

Rebuke

What Paul means here is not to tell them off, or blow up at them.

Instead, with love, get in their way and set them straight.

Don’t let someone continue down a path that you know isn’t good for them.

Get in their way and set them on a new, better path.

Encourage

Here Paul is talking about application and living it out.

Help them to know what to do. Don’t just give them a verse and then walk away. Help them to understand it, how to apply it to their life, and how to live it out.

Isn’t one of the most frustrating things in life, when someone tells you, you should do something, but then doesn’t help you know how to do that thing?

Working out analogy - I have had people in my life tell me, hey Derek you should work out. And let’s be honest, they aren’t wrong.

But then I’m like, ok, help me to know what to do. I don’t have the knowledge to work out well, teach me, show me.

The second How is by

BEING CONSISTENT

Paul says this in multiple ways in these verses. He says:

In verse 2:

And do so with patience and careful instruction

In verse 5:

Endure hardship

Discharge all the duties of your ministry

Paul is encouraging Timothy to Stay with it, don’t give up. Don’t get discouraged, but instead stay true to the end.

For many of us in this room, it may come to a point where you will want to quit. You will want to throw in the towel and give up on Sharing God’s Truth.

Don’t. Don’t quit, don’t give up, stay true to the end.

And I say that as someone who has personally gone through this. I have a friend who I dearly love that has chosen a path that I believe is leading them away from God. And I’ve tried to share God’s truth with them on multiple occasions, and it feels like it is falling on deaf ears. And it gets discouraging, and there are moments that I want to just stop. I want to quit. But I know that I can’t. I know that I need to continue Sharing God’s Truth, and trust that God is going to do something. Perhaps even something impossible that I’m not even expecting for Him to do.

Don’t give up, we need each and every one of you.

But more importantly, someone out there, needs you to not give up.

So when you find yourself asking or wondering,

“What Am I Supposed to Do?” Remember it’s about Sharing God’s Truth

Share God’s Truth because of what’s to come, everyone will one day stand before God.

Share God’s Truth because of what is, it’s the only thing that will cut through the noise of this world.

Share God’s Truth by being bold with those around you.

Share God’s Truth by being consistent, and not giving up.

PRAY