Introduction

• John 15:12 – Jesus was the example of brotherly love.

Help them center their lives around serving God and going to Heaven.

• Luke 9:57-62 – Nothing was more important than kingdom word. The way Jesus loved people was by telling them how to love God.
• Luke 9:23-25
• Do people feel like their spiritual cup is being filled when they are around me?

Allow them to move on from sin.

• Luke 19:5-10 – Jesus said Zaccheus was also a son of Abraham. He helped Zaccheus to move on from sin. The grumblers were working against Jesus. Are we doing the same?
• Luke 15:1-7 – Jesus corrects the grumblers. They should have been rejoicing!
• If people have put sin behind them, we must let that be in the past and move on. Don’t continue to label them with sin from their past.
• Galatians 5:14-6:2
• Let us not create a culture where if we ever sin, we will always carry that label and never be equal to other Christians.

Express optimism about their future.

• Luke 22:31-34 – Jesus told Peter what would happen but was already preparing Peter for his recovery after sin.
• Philippians 1:6-11 – Paul was looking forward to the great things they would do.
• There is something powerful about optimism.
• I Corinthians 13:4-7 – Love is optimistic!
• II Corinthians 7:3-4, 16 – Paul was saying this about a church riddled with problems!
• Hebrews 10:24

II Timothy 2

II Timothy 2:11-13 – “If we …” statements

• This is a statement of personal responsibility. These are things we must do.
• If we die with Him in baptism, we also live with Him.
• II Timothy 2:12 – Compare Daniel 2:44 regarding the reign of Jesus’ kingdom.

II Timothy 2:14-15 – “accurately handling the word of truth”

• “Diligent” here is the same word as used in II Timothy 4:9. The idea is to make every effort. We must dig into the things that matter in God’s word and gain an accurate understanding. Don’t just stay at a surface level understanding.

II Timothy 2:16-18 – “avoid worldly and empty chatter”

• Stick with the word of truth and avoid dangerous heresies.

II Timothy 2:19-22 – “useful to the Master”

• Even though people may twist things, God’s truth is unchanging and He knows those who are His.
• We must be the type of people who are putting sin out of our lives so we can be useful to God. Is this how I am living my life?

II Timothy 2:23-26 – “the Lord’s bond-servant”

• Our goal is to get as many people to know Christ as possible. To that end, we need to remove anything from our lives that stands in the way of that goal, including our own egos.

II Timothy 3

II Timothy 3:1-5 – List of sins

• II Timothy 3:1 – Regarding “last days,” see Acts 2:14-21. “Last days” seems to be a reference to the era of the gospel.
• II Timothy 3:2 – “disobedient to parents”
  • God cares about this. See Deuteronomy 21; Ephesians 6:1. Children should be raised to learn to submit to authority.

II Timothy 3:6-7 – Error spreads!

• II Timothy 3:7 – They were always learning but never understanding the truth. Compare Acts 17:21.

II Timothy 3:8-9 – Jannes and Jambres

• These names are not recorded elsewhere in the Bible. Extra-biblical sources indicate these are the names of the magicians that opposed Moses in Egypt.

II Timothy 3:10-12 – Timothy’s experience with Paul.

• What Timothy experienced with Paul
  • Teaching various women (Acts 16:13)
  • Paul and Silas were beaten with rods and thrown in jail (Acts 16:22-24)
  • Praying and singing in jail (Acts 16:25)
  • Converting the jailer (Acts 16:34)
  • A mob in Thessalonica (Acts 17:5)
  • Eager students in Berea (Acts 17:11)
  • Agitators stirred up the Bereans (Acts 17:13)
  • Jews resisted and blasphemed (Acts 18:6)
  • Starting of Corinthian church (Acts 18:8)
  • Beating Sosthenes (Acts 18:17)
  • Baptizing John’s disciples into Christ (Acts 19:5)
  • Reasoning and persuading about the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8)
  • Handkerchiefs from Paul healed people (Acts 19:12)
  • Man with evil spirit beat up Jewish exorcists who used names of Jesus and Paul (Acts 19:13-17)
  • People burned magic books valued at 50,000 pieces of silver (Acts 19:19)
  • “So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing” (Acts 19:20)
• Timothy dispatched to work
  • I Corinthians 4:17
  • I Corinthians 16:10
  • Philippians 2:19
  • I Thessalonians 3:2
  • I Thessalonians 3:6
  • Hebrews 13:23

Part 2: The downward spiral of Israel’s apostasy (Judges 3:7-16:31), continued

Jephthah (Judges 10:6-12:7), continued

Victory and Jephthah’s foolish vow (Judges 11:29-40)

• Judges 11:30-31 – Some translations add a footnote on verse 31 saying it could be translated “whoever.”
  • Old Testament vows
    • When made, God expected vows to be fulfilled in a timely manner under normal circumstances (Numbers 30:2; Deuteronomy 23:21).
    • Human sacrifice was expressly forbidden while animal sacrifice could acceptably accompany a vow (Deuteronomy 18:10; Jeremiah 19:5; Leviticus 22:18-20).
    • If a rash (thoughtless) vow was made, atonement could be made with a sin offering (Leviticus 5:4-6).

Jephthah’s conflict with Ephraim (Judges 12:1-7)

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon (Judges 12:8-15)

Samson (Judges 13:1-16:31)

The birth of Samson (Judges 13:1-25)

• Judges 13:5
  • Nazirite vow: Numbers 6
    • No grape juice or strong drink
    • No cutting of the hair
    • No contact with dead bodies
  • Manoah entertains an angel. Compare Gideon’s case in (Judges 6:11-21) and Abraham (Genesis 18:5-8).

Class 9 takeaway

• Jephthah was exceedingly foolish in making his vow of a burnt offering if the Lord gave the Ammonites over in victory. He made a terrible situation worse by placing blame on his daughter instead of accepting responsibility for his grave lack of sense.
• We create messages in our lives when we fail to guard our hearts and control our speech (Luke 6:43-45). We must always be people of integrity who thoughtfully make commitments and stick with them (James 5:12). And we must always remember we will be judged by our speech (Proverbs 10:19; 21:23; Matthew 12:33-37).

Introduction

• Psalms 139:23
• Lamentations 3:40
• II Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourselves! This is a good prompt for all of us.

Your top influences

• Psalms 1:1-2
• What has influenced you the most in 2025? Who and what are you listening to?
• Did God’s word actually shape my thinking?
• Proverbs 13:20 – “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”

Temptations and repentance

• Proverbs 28:13
• II Timothy 2:22 – “flee youthful lusts”
  • How many times did I flee? See Genesis 39; Matthew 4.
• Matthew 5:27-30 – Which temptations usually got to me?
• What I sinned did I repent? Psalms 51:7

Relationships strengthened and people helped

• Romans 12:9-18
• The second greatest command is to love your neighbor as yourself.
• How have you been treating people?

Your daily habits

• Daniel 6:10
• What would my stats say about prayer?
• Acts 2:42
• Our habits should come naturally out of loving the Lord.
• What do my habits tel me about my heart?
• Proverbs 4:23
• Hebrews 12:1-3
• For the year ahead, are my eyes fixed on Jesus?
• Do I have people in my life who will help me spiritually?