Useful to the Master

Good Morning! My name is Matt Martinez and I am the pastor here at Renovation Church Shoreview.

Quick encouragement:

If you are new to Shoreview, you may not know this, but we have not been a church for very long. Our Grand Opening was a little over a month and a half ago. I want you all to think about this for a moment. Just a few months ago, this gym sat empty on Sunday mornings. But now, we have incredible serve teams, worship, production, set up, kids ministry, all of it that goes up and runs, and then we move out of here every Sunday after church and hand it back to the school.

Five homes that were not filled with people just a month ago, are now hosting people who are being discipled in House Church. We have people who were not leading in any church ministry, now leading… and doing an amazing job. We are getting into the Word and preaching it, and we are proclaiming the gospel every week.

I cannot tell you how many stories I have heard from people about how they were looking for a church like this one, how they have not been in church in years, how they just showed up, and have stuck around..

I am so excited and encouraged by all that God has done so far. And we are just getting started.

Alright, let’s get into the message.

I recently had to replace the garbage disposal in the kitchen sink at my house. The problem is, I have no idea what I’m doing, so naturally I consulted YouTube. I clicked on the most watched, highest-rated video. It was 20 minutes long, and I thought, “Perfect. Since it’s my first time, I’ll give myself an extra ten minutes and have this project done in a half hour.”

Every one of these DIY videos is the same. The opening shot is the finished project, and then some guy steps in front of the camera: “Hi, my name is Jim” — or Steve — “and today I’m going to show you how to replace your garbage disposal.” Then YouTube Jim turns around and swaps it out in 20 minutes flat. His explanations are smooth. His movements are seamless. Nothing goes wrong. Everything fits perfectly into place.

What Steve in the video never tells you is that what took him five minutes will take you five hours, five trips to Home Depot, and another five to Menards.

The video and project, clearly done by someone who knows exactly what they’re doing, was basically useless to someone like me who doesn’t know what they are doing.

I got stuck so many times changing my garbage disposal that I finally called my friend Pete. Without even seeing the problem, he immediately knew where I had gone wrong and walked me through it step by step.

Jim and Steve are not useless people. Their skills are incredibly valuable. But the way they explained what needed to be done didn’t work for the incapable people — like me.

My friend Pete’s instruction? Useful.

Steve and Jim’s video? Not useful.

People who follow Jesus can be the same way when it comes to living out their faith and helping others do the same. Our approach can either help people move toward Jesus or push them further away. And in our passage for today, Paul teaches Timothy what God says a useful Christian is like.

Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 2:20-26. If you are using the Renovation Church Bibles under your chair, you can turn to page 814.

The book or letter of 2 Timothy has an urgent, passionate, and very direct tone to it. Paul, the writer of the letter, sounds a bit like a parent chasing after a child running toward a busy road. There is no time for a long explanation about why the road is dangerous. The parent has to get out in front of the child and stop them before they get hurt.

Timothy was like a son to Paul, and Paul was about to be put to death for his faith. So he is trying to pass along as much wisdom, encouragement, and instruction as he can while there is still time.

Timothy is doing some big work in the world in the name of God. Paul wants to make sure Timothy is actually being useful and not harmful.

People who follow Jesus in the world today, have a big job ahead of them if they are supposed to help others know and follow Jesus. We need to know what is useful too.

Let’s start reading on page 814, 2 Timothy 2. We will start reading where you see the small number 20.

2 Timothy 2:20-21

20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

People — or, as Paul calls them in these verses, “instruments” — are not all equally usable by God.

And immediately, that raises a couple important questions. (move the left side of the stage)

1. Is it even godly, loving, or Christian to say something like that?

An important clarification needs to be made here. When Paul talks about useful instruments, he is not talking about the value of a person. Just like YouTube Steve and Jim were not useless people, no person is worthless to God. And Paul is not describing some kind of “super-spiritual” level that only a few Christians can reach.

The issue here is not value — it is usefulness.

There is some debate about who these instruments represent. Since Paul says they are all part of the same “large house,” some believe he is talking about different kinds of people within the church. Others think the dishonorable instruments may refer to false teachers like Hymenaeus and Philetus mentioned earlier in the chapter.

But Paul’s main point is clear either way: some people are useful to the Master, and some are not.

And the difference is not talent, importance, or superiority. The difference is whether someone is willing to be cleansed and shaped by God.

Usefulness is not about status; it is about readiness.

2. What makes a person usable or ready for God?

Verse 21 says that instruments useful to God are holy — meaning “set apart” — and prepared for every good work. And Paul immediately explains what that looks like:

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

People who are useful to God flee sin and pursue righteousness, or godliness.

We run from some things, but we also run toward other things.

Followers of Jesus are not just people trying to avoid bad behavior or the evil desires Paul talks about. They are people actively pursuing right living and a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Both are essential. But many people get stuck prioritizing one while neglecting the other.

Let me show you what that looks like. (put of the quadrant 1 graphic) (move back to center stage)

This is a chart we made to help you better understand this passage and Paul’s thinking around fleeing sin and pursuing godliness. So let’s actually start with the lower-left-hand quadrant.

(Bottom Left) Non- Believer

This is a person with a low fleeing of sin and a low pursuit of God.

• This is someone who does not follow Jesus.
• They maybe don’t even know they should follow Jesus
• They do not flee sin or pursue godliness because they do not know they should.
• There are people in this group who do not want to follow Jesus
• They actively work against Jesus
• People in this group do not know the Master (God). We actually do see God using this group of people in the Bible, but it is not in the ways Paul is talking about here. In our teaching series coming up in the summer, we may come across this group and how God uses them. Stay tuned!

Let’s move up to the top left of our grid to people who flee from sin, but do not pursue godliness. We can read about this kind of person in verses 23-24.

23 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.

• This is the person with a high fleeing of sin, but a low pursuit of godliness. The characteristics that this person tends to embody are (move to the right side of the stage)

(Top Left) Legalistic, Quarrelsome, Judgemental

These people are not necessarily living in open sin, but their faith is largely negative — they are defined more by what they don’t do than by love for God or others: Legalistic.

They are quarrelsome because they desire to win arguments simply for the sake of winning. It becomes less about helping people and more about defeating them- or “dunking on them”.... You see so many youtube videos like this. “Christian destroys atheist!”

I knew a guy in college who was like this. He could run circles around almost anyone when it came to Bible knowledge. He knew theology, historical context, the places, the people, all the connections. He was passionate about telling people how they should live — so passionate that he made sure everyone heard about it every chance he got.

He knew more about the Bible than most people I had ever met. He could clearly explain what people should and should not do. But somehow, I rarely saw the character of Jesus in him.

Instead of gently instructing, he looked to destroy. He was quarrelsome, combative, and brought very little peace into the lives of others. For him, there seemed to be no real relationship with God or with people.

But the Bible says:

• “We love because God first loved us.”
• “We forgive because God first forgave us.”

Cleansing must extend to the way we treat other people. The faith of this group in the top left of our chart can become about rule-keeping instead of relationship.

But faith in God can never be only about avoiding bad things. It must also involve pursuing good things — righteousness, love, peace, humility, patience, and grace.

For some, we can tend toward this area of our chart, others swing to the other side.

Let’s come back to our passage to read verse 25 and 26. (move to center stage)

25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

We now come to the person with a high pursuit of godliness, but a low fleeing of sin. This person is (move the left side)

(Bottom Right) Less Useful to the Master

• How? These people may be genuinely sincere. They attend church, pray, and may even be growing in certain areas of their faith. But they can almost seem to not need God. They can get embarrassed if they seem like they do not have it all together. Their faith is performative.
• But there is still a pattern of sin in their lives they are unwilling to deal with, and over time that compromise quietly undermines their spiritual growth.
• Verses 25 and 26 say you cannot truly know God while refusing repentance.
• This group can slowly begin to compromise with the world and drift away from the truth because they do not repent or turn away from their sin.
• But Paul is clear in verse 21 of our passage: “we must flee from sin”.

Imagine going to a restaurant and grabbing the fork and knife wrapped in a napkin with the little paper sleeve around it. You tear it open, unfold the napkin, and discover hardened food stuck to the fork. You then notice another utensil set with a clean fork inside. Which fork are you going to use?

• God wants to use us to serve others, but we cannot be truly useful if we refuse to be cleansed.
• Yes, even in your sin, God loves you. But you need to understand that if you willingly continue in sin, you become less useful to the Master.

God is not simply looking for people who want to spread love and peace or make a difference in the world. He is looking for people who do that and those that have placed Him on the throne of their lives.

For useful followers of Jesus, we can find their definition in verses 20-24. (move to center stage)

20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.

• The final person we are going to look at today is the Biblical Christian. The person who has a high fleeing of sin and a high pursuit of God.

(Top Right) The Biblical Christian

These are faithful believers who take sin seriously and flee from it. They hold firmly to the truths of the Bible. They are humble enough to know they need Jesus, and they actively pursue God by bringing love, peace and kindness to the world. This is the follower of Jesus who is useful to the Master. (move to the left)

When Paul describes a useful servant of the Lord to Timothy, he gives some of the core characteristics of a godly instrument in verse 24. This is what should define us as Biblical Christians who are useful to God.

Paul places a strong emphasis on God’s Word and so a servant of the Lord must be able to teach God’s Word. This does not simply mean standing on a stage or speaking to an audience. It means your life reflects the truth of God wherever you are — in your family, at work, at school, and in your relationships. (move to the right)

Timothy must humbly correct those who oppose the truth. Gentleness and patience do not mean avoiding hard conversations or never confronting sin. But correction must come with humility, not arrogance.

And finally, Paul also says the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but gentle to all. Timothy’s role as an instrument of God was not to pick fights or constantly look for conflict. Some people only seem energized when they are in an argument, but Timothy — and every useful instrument — is called to be kind, forgiving and thankful.

Does your life reflect what this passage says?

Are you faithful, loving, peaceful, kind, and free from resentment? (move to the center). This is what a useful follower of Jesus is like.

Conclusion

Every single one of us is becoming some kind of instrument for God.

The question is not if God can use people. The question is: how useful are we willing to become?

And usefulness to God is not about being impressive.

It is not about being loud, talented, or appearing spiritual.

It is about being clean, humble, available, and surrendered.

Some of us today are stuck in compromise.

We love Jesus, but there are areas of sin we keep protecting instead of surrendering.

Others of us are trying so hard to avoid sin that we have become harsh, resentful, and quarrelsome. We know how to argue, but we have forgotten how to love.

So today, what is God asking you to flee from?

What is He asking you to pursue?

God is not looking for perfect people.

He is looking for surrendered people.

People humble enough to say:

“Lord, cleanse me.
Show me what needs to go.
Teach me to reflect You.
Make me useful to You.”

And the beautiful truth of the Gospel is this:
The cleansing begins with Jesus.

You do not clean yourself up so that God will love you.
Jesus died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, cleansed, and made new.
And once He saves us, He continues shaping us into instruments useful for His kingdom.

Faithful endurance is not simply surviving the Christian life.
It is becoming the kind of person the Master can trust to carry His name well.

From here I will shift into a gospel invitation.

• If you have raised your hand before and haven’t come forward, you should this week.
• Provide 60 second description on what the discipleship program is- give them a description of the resources we are offering
• Switch up the place that we will meet