2 Timothy 3

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

Can you imagine what we are saying here? You have a form of godliness but denying its power; having nothing to do with such people. So, as he progresses in training this young pastor, Paul wants him to know that things are going to get worse, not better. What piece of information is that? And I can look at my life, (I am in my 70s) and look at the kind of life I lived as a young boy in the 1950s, or as I entered the teenage years in the 1960s, and I can tell you for sure: we are living in worse days. You could leave things outside your house, and it’s rare anybody would take it. Thieves when known are punished. It was the community kind of care for one another.

Let me give you an example. I grew up in the days of the Mau Mau emergency, when the British, in trying to quell the rebellion in the Mount Kenya area, put us through a very hard time. You could only go to your garden a few hours and come back to the camp’—a village which was surrounded by a trench so that you could not jump out. The Mau Mau would not come to the village, and would not help them or join them. So, poverty was really there because of that. But you know something? Poverty did not cause people to steal.

Since then, looking at Kenya’—after independence in 1963, you’re talking about over 60 years of independence’—we are not where we should be, but we are a far much richer country, Kenya. But trusting anybody is still a very difficult thing today.

So, the main message that I think Paul wants this young man to know is that things are going to get worse, not better. That’s why I get surprised when some people say that some of the miraculous work of God in the New Testament are not needed today. Here the truth is: this is the time we need miracles more than in the New Testament era. Because, like Paul is telling Timothy, things are worse now than they were then. So, we require God’s presence and God’s help to live the Christian life, to preach the gospel, even more than those days.

Day 2

Ecclesiastes 3:1

3 There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens

So Paul says in verse 1:

“But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days.”

You know, the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says there is a season for everything. Why is that chapter written? So that you don’t act in one season like another season. There are certain requirements in every season. And I think Paul wants all of us Christians to understand seasons and operate within them, and that way we shall be victorious in our spiritual walk. Note this; be careful; don’t ignore the seasons. Whichever season happens to be, don’t ignore it. Mark it.

But then, what he is saying is a little worrying: that in the last days’—which means the days between Jesus on earth and Jesus’ return, those are what is called the last days’—there will be terrible times. In other words, wait for it; it will be challenging. And you see, these times will be challenging for everybody, both Christians and non-Christians. The difference is, it doesn’t matter how bad things become, Christ has promised to be with us. Before he left, he said, “Lo, I am with you always, to the ends of the age.”

One of the churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, he said that, “I know where you live, where Satan has his throne.” That’s a terrible place to be. But he commends the church; it has not given in because of the terrible circumstances; it still stood its ground with the help of God. And it becomes a very important message for us, even as we are being told about the bad days’—the terrible days’—to understand it’s no excuse for giving in, no excuse for stopping to worship the Lord, no excuse for not walking in righteousness.

Are you aware that there were terrible times in Sodom and Gomorrah, so bad that Jehovah decided to destroy them? Do you know something? Living in a city that was so immoral that they got tired of sleeping between sexes and started homosexuality, so that men were sleeping with men, women were sleeping with women’—that’s how immoral the city was yet ‘€¦. Do you know something? There were some two girls that were still virgins, yet grew up in that place. They were of marriageable age; they even had suitors; but the father tells you, “I have girls who are still virgins.” Can you see that?

It is the terrible times, but for you as a Christian, it will not stop you living your Christian life. It was a terrible city, but for the daughters of the Lord, they were still living as virgins.

So, you need to ask yourself: in which areas are you starting to feel like “even God should understand”? For example, maybe it’s the area of police and corruption. They can really harass you on the road, and you feel like even God should understand if I bribe. Should He? Is it that you believe that if God wants to control the police so that they don’t harass you, He can’t? So that you have to assist God by bribing? Please understand, yes, the Kenyan police may be difficult, but if you truly are with Christ, God will control every policeman; and even when He allows you to be locked up, it’s because there’s some ministry He wants you to do where they have locked you up.

So, I hope you understand then that this message, “mark this,” means take note, don’t ignore; seasons matter. And now, understand we have already started the last days, and thirdly, understand things are going to get worse and worse into the future. There are going to be terrible times.

Day 3

2Timothy 3

2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

He then, in verses two, three, four, and five, starts describing what we should look out to see. And it’s not that this shall happen just in the future. Remember, we are already in the last days; it already started happening today.

The first description: “People will be lovers of themselves.” Surely, isn’t that true? Where do you think corruption comes from? It’s because everyone wants to amass. Some of the people who are stealing our taxes are billionaires. And I’m told one billion shillings, even if you give yourself a huge expenditure bill, by the time you die, you will not have finished a billion. That’s how big a billion is. And there are people who are billionaires, but they are still stealing. Why? The real problem is being “lovers of themselves.” Selfishness. Selfishness is a disease and is getting worse and worse.

And remember, all these things listed are things that show people who don’t have the Spirit of God. In Galatians 5:22, we are given the fruit of the Spirit; here, we are given the fruit of lostness or being evil. So, when you talk about being selfish, self-centered, becoming a lover of yourself, it must be compared with the fact that you are not loving God; you love yourself. That you are not loving your parents; you love yourself. That you are not loving others; instead of being other-centered, you are self-centered. In every relationship, you think of what is in it for me. “How can I get more?” You never ask yourself, “How can I be of help to other people?” because you are thinking of yourself.

You know, you can tell people who think like that because they say, “Ah, you are so short.” What they mean is you are shorter than them. But even you they are calling you short, you are taller than others. But because they are the standard, they think of themselves; they are the standard. Everybody is measured against them. And it can become’—such a person becomes a very difficult person to live with. But when you meet them, be aware it’s a sign they are not Christians and it’s a sign that we are in the days of the end.

Number two: these people will be lovers of money.

One of the marks that you are not a Christian’—because that’s the list you are being given’—is when money drives you. You know, there are people who use money to help others, but others use others to make money. When you are a lover of money, then people are used to making money. And that can even be using your parents, where you see them as, “How can I use them so that they give me more money than they give my brother?” Everybody is to be used , because it’s money you love, not people. You think in terms of how can I get money. If a girl married you who is like that, please accept my sympathy in advance.

But you also need to check yourself. Is that your tendency? Are you driven by money? Is every decision made in terms of “how can I get more money?” The job you do, the business you do’—are you driven by money? Or are you driven by a desire to meet people’s needs who might pay you, so you are also able to meet your own needs? Or do you feel like “I will do anything and everything just so that can give me more”? You are an engineer, you want to make a road, you agree with the contractor to reduce the amount of tarmac on that one kilometer so that you can share the money and become richer. That way You are being driven by money, and it’s a sign that Christ is not the Lord of your life if you are the kind of a person being driven like that.

Day 4

Romans 1:30

slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;

The next verse says: you will be boastful.

Who is boastful? Boastful, may be there three characteristic of a boastful person.

Number one: a boastful person is like the first one’—is a lover of themselves, and they use themselves as a standard. And so, they boast that they are better than others because they are using themselves as a standard.

Number two: for somebody to be boastful, they want to intimidate everybody else. The idea of boasting is so that you realize that “I’m not your level; we are not in the same class.” That’s why you boast what you have or are able to achieve, which’—according to you’—is better than anybody else you are boasting to.

And thirdly, you not only boast in order to bring the other person down, you boast in order to stop them compete with you into the future.

All that boasting is a sign that you are not living your life for God. I’ve written a book called A Leader is a Steward, and in that book, I argue that you don’t own anything as a person. It’s all owned by God. So, anything you happen to have, it’s yours to manage for God so that you bring glory to God. I’m using the story in Matthew chapter 25 about the talents. The three people are given the owner’s property. None of them owned it because, at the end of the period, they had to return it back to the owner with the profit.

So, that’s how our life is. Everything we have’—are you clever, are you beautiful’—all those are God’s gift. So, how can you boast with something that doesn’t belong to you? You’re just a steward of it. The reason anybody boasts is because they count themselves as the owner of the thing they are boasting about. If they knew it’s a gift of God, they’ll know the God who has given him five talents is the one who decided to give the other one, two talents. And both of you do not own what you have been given. So, there’ll be no place of boasting. The concept of stewardship removes any interest in boasting. So, may the Lord help us to know that we don’t own anything; we are only a steward of those things. So, there’s nothing to boast about.

And it’s related with the next statement: proud.

How do you become proud? You become proud when, unlike a steward, you start thinking that others are lazy’—no wonder they don’t have anything; others are foolish’—no wonder they don’t have anything; others don’t practice much’—no wonder I won the Olympic gold and they didn’t. And you know something about people who are proud: they always excuse their own weaknesses with a very good excuse and good reasons. Because they measure others with a higher standard than they measure themselves.

So, if a proud person comes late, “Oh, it is because I woke up late, I went to bed late”‘—that’s a good reason. So, he’s not even sorry. If another person comes late, “Oh, these are lazy people.” So, you can see they are not using the same standards. That’s why they end up proud, talking in a proud manner, acting in a proud manner, and generally speaking, looking down on everybody else. What they forget is: you may be better than me in running, but I might be better than you in talking. I may be better than you in talking, but you are better than me in relating with others. All of us have different gifts. There is no reason for anybody to become proud. Instead, we are supposed to’—according to the Bible’—think of others better than ourselves, admire them, and seek to help them.

The next item on this list of people who are characteristic of the last days is: they are abusive.

I think rudeness should be included in the same thing. There are people who generally are just rude. You ask them, “Which is the way to Nairobi?” They tell you, “am I your assistant? Why should I tell you?” It’s a genuine question; it doesn’t cost him anything to tell you exactly where Nairobi is because he’s from Nairobi, but he is abusive. Again, what would cause somebody to become abusive to others?

Number one is back to being -selfish. If he can’t see how you can ever help him, he doesn’t see why he should help you.

Number two is their high way of thinking of themselves, like their time matters more. “You are disturbing me. Don’t you know I’m busy?” They don’t think in terms of that other person also being busy, and they also don’t think that next time that same person you are not helping or you are insulting will be the same one offering you help.

You know a lot of teachers have a real problem because when a child is in primary school, they treat you badly, not understanding that in another two or three years, they’ll go to high school. Another four years, they are out of high school; they are now in the university. Another few years, they are the doctors you as a teacher will be going to visit in your local clinic. My brother, can you see how foolish it is to be rude to anybody? Because you are creating problems for your older years by the way you’re treating these children who are going to be the people in power when you are retired.

So, this idea of being abusive comes out, like I’ve said, out of thinking of yourself highly. It comes out of looking down on others, not minding others. It comes out of not being other-centered. You know, to become a Christian, you need to be other-centered. You live your life for God and His people. You’re always thinking, “How can I make it easier and better for others?” So, you can’t abuse them. There will be no possibility of you as a Christian living a life where you abuse others.

Day 5

Luke 1:17

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous’—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’€

The next one is: these people in these latter days become disobedient to their parents.

This is very specific, but it’s not just disobedient to parents. Young people, over time, are becoming more and more unruly. They do not want anybody to tell them anything. They think the older people are foolish. And if you are their boss and they don’t respect you, they’ll become rebellious, become disobedient.

In the process, whoever is obedient gets promoted very easily. The others continue suffering; they become even more rebellious.

But it all begins from home. When you don’t learn to obey God’s command that says “honor your father and mother,” you are turning your mind not to respect authority, because parents are the first authority. And the moment you can’t respect authority, it’s very difficult to make it either in employment or entrepreneurship. Because you see, you become an entrepreneur, you’re going to have clients’—and they’re your bosses. You’re going to have suppliers’—and they’re your bosses because you have to beg them to give you supplies. When you don’t learn to respect authority, you make yourself go through very hard times. But that is a trouble’€¦. When the Spirit of God is not leading you, there are great possibilities that you are going to be the kind of a person who is of necessity going to be disobedient, rebellious, not obedient to authority.

And you know, in the book of Romans chapter 13, we are told to obey authority. Why? God is the one who has appointed authority. God hates anarchy, and lack of authority creates anarchy. And God does not want anarchy. So, the critical thing is: if you truly are going to be a person who is going to be having the Holy Spirit leading you, you honor authority.

That does not mean that you don’t have boundaries, because human dignity requires boundaries. So, you need to create boundaries, and you cannot allow people to cross your boundaries. So, that’s not what we are calling disobedient. When your uncle wants to sleep with you, and because he’s of authority, he’s telling you, “I must sleep with you; who are you to refuse? I’m your father’s brother”‘—that now shows he has gone beyond. You must create boundaries. The Bible expects you to create boundaries.

So, when we talk about disobedient, it’s when you don’t do something that the authority has good reasons to ask you to do. Whether that authority is an uncle, a parent, a boss in the office’—that’s really what we are talking about when we talk about authority. So, you need to have boundaries, but you also need to respect other people’s boundaries. And then your boss has a boundary; becoming abusive to him, becoming disobedient to him, is crossing the boundary. Because in order for the department to work well, there’s something that you must allow the boss to do. So, you must respect his boundaries. So, this issue of not being clear about authority will cost you heavily.

But maybe it comes out of not being grateful? Because the Bible is telling us these people will be ungrateful.

When you don’t think about how your parents brought you up’—when you were totally helpless from maternity’—or even for your mother, think about her position when pregnant. That’s why you find it easy to be rude and disobedient to them. You find it easy not to honor their authority.

But when you are grateful for whatever anybody has ever said or done for you, ah, it will not be easy for you to be disrespectful to authority. Like somebody has employed you; you’re very grateful that they employed you, so you will not find it easy to reject their authority. And out of gratefulness, you will be able to work with almost anybody, even difficult ones.

So, you have that spirit of entitlement’—the opposite of being grateful’—entitlement… “But it’s my job, it’s my area, it’s me.” That spirit of entitlement makes you ungrateful. And when you are ungrateful, you don’t work well with people. Can you imagine a Christian becoming like that? And yet we are called to evangelize the world. How will anybody ever listen to you? These characteristics we are reading are characteristics that will keep you off from ever influencing others for Christ.

Day 6

Hebrews 10:29

How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace

But the more important ones are: they are unholy.

All the things you have been talking about show you don’t fear God. You are unlikely to be holy. Holiness is in three areas:

Holiness in your fear of God. You do not fear God. And when you say fear God, it doesn’t mean you are afraid of Him; it means you respect Him to that point that it could be called fear. And so, when you are unholy’—when God doesn’t mean anything to you’—you have no fear of God. You’re also likely to be unholy when you don’t believe that He has a right to punish you. You’re also going to be unholy when you think that you can be equal with God. Holiness will be automatic when you live aware that there will be a day of accountability, a day of reckoning, and there will be no defense for you because He knows absolutely your heart and your life. So, Christians are not in that category; they seek holiness.

In verse three, the list goes on. These people are without love.

Now, if you are selfish, chances are you will not be loving’—because we are not talking about self-love; we are talking about loving others. So, basically because they are self-centered, they don’t show love to anybody. Now, WHEN they may want to marry a girl, they will cheat her, they love her, but basically, they love themselves. They are having lust, not love. In lust They want a woman to have sex with because love is other-centered. Love thinks of the other person; love desires the good of the other person. So, they are not loving; they are without love.

And because of that, it’s not surprising that they are unforgiving.

I discovered in the Lord’s Prayer’—the way Jesus taught us to pray’—He makes us promise or tell God, “It’s okay for you not to forgive us, God, if we ourselves are not forgiving.” Put it the way it is put in the Bible: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In other words, the way God is to forgive us is exemplified by the way we forgive others. It’s like we are pleading with God, “If I’m not forgiving, don’t forgive me also.”

Let me tell you three things about this.

Number one: we are fallen creation. People will hurt you even when they love you; even when they desire the best, they will hurt you unknowingly. And it can be very painful, but they never intended it. Forgive

Number two: people will hurt you because they themselves are hurting. Forgive.

Number three: people will hurt you because they hate you. Understand them

So, you need to understand then that if people have not ever rubbed you up the wrong way, it’s not because it will not happen; the word is “it has not happened yet.” So, when you hear people are relating well with others, when you realize people are enjoying relationships, it’s not because they don’t hurt each other’—it’s because they forgive each other.

Any good marriage is good because both spouses have a big dose of forgiveness. But then in the last days, we are being told that will be a rare commodity. People will not want to forgive; they would rather punish you; they would rather kill you rather than forgive you.

Day 7

2 Timothy 3

3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God’— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

The next one is: we are told they will be slanderers.

Slanderers’—to slander means to character assassinate someone. Everybody knows so-and-so is a good man, but you start introducing things that lower people’s view of the same person. You are slandering. And that will be a normal thing as the days go by. You need to be ready for it. So, if somebody slanders you, you should be able to take it in because you knew it could happen. And the Bible is telling us these will be signs of the season we happen to be in now.

But the next one is worse: without self-control.

Because when you rape, it’s a sign of lack of self-control. When you steal, it’s a sign of no self-control. And there are many, many things going wrong in our country because people have left self-control. We are not like a dog. If it’s on heat, it will jump out of your compound and go to look for its partners. Human beings are different; they are able to control their sex drive. So, they cannot just jump on a girl; they cannot just jump on a boy. They have self-control. God has given us the ability to control ourselves. But the more we run away from God’s control and His Spirit, the more we lose that ability to be human, to control our urges. So, we are learning people will be without self-control.

And of course, then you can tell why they will be brutal.

Brutal means that you hurt people in a way that the punishment does not equal the crime. You are brutal. You are somebody who doesn’t have measures, doesn’t control yourself when hurt like we saw earlier. And you’re not lovers of the good. You don’t want anything good for anybody. No wonder you are brutal. And that’s something you need to ask yourself: is that the way you are?

And then verse four, the list goes on. You’ll be treacherous.

If you are treacherous you are someone disloyal and who betrays trust.You are with me in a team, and you are treacherous, I become suspicious of you. Nobody trusts the other; the whole team will come crumbling down. But that’s what we are told people will be: treacherous. It means they can fatten you for slaughter. They are looking good, but they’re intending to do you in.

And then, of course, you’ll be rash.

Once you lose self-control, you’ll do things in a rash manner.

And once you have become selfish, you’ll also be conceited.

Conceited means you think of yourself more highly than you should. People even wonder what it is you are being proud about. And then in the process, and since you have no control, you become a lover of pleasure rather than lovers of God. I told you: once you are selfish, you think of yourself. It’s not surprising that pleasure drives you. “Does it feel good? I’ll do it.” “Why did you do that?” “I enjoyed it.” “But you hurt other people.” “But I enjoyed it; I don’t care about them.” But even more important is: don’t you know this is… God does not allow that. He says, “I don’t care about God.” Once you are a lover of pleasure, you don’t care what God says.

So, verse five completes that whole list by saying: you have a form of godliness.

That means some of these things we are seeing in this list may be found in church. In other words, the division is not between the people of the world and the ones who are in church. There may be people in church who will be like what is described. Remember, Jesus said the tares and the wheat will grow together. If the tares and the wheat are growing together, it means that even in church you have them’—it doesn’t matter if you are Pentecostal, you are Anglican, whatever’—even in church, there will be people who seem to pretend to be Christians but they are not.

Just to hear the verse again: “You have a form of godliness.”

And sometimes that form of godliness makes us elect you as our leader. You become our bishop. Then the stories we hear’—what you are doing with other people’s women, or what you do with the money that we fundraise for buying a church plot’—we are surprised. You have a form of godliness, but it will not benefit you because God knows the truth about you.

So, just go through the list even if in church. If you know you are like one or two of those items, please repent. Why? We may be cheated because of your form of godliness, but it doesn’t cheat God. The truth is: that form of godliness’—if you are still having the things we have just been describing’—will be of no benefit to you. Why? You are denying the power of godliness. You don’t recognize God’s provisions; you don’t recognize God in control. So, you have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. So, it’s of no use. And many people in their church, their Christianity is not useful to them, and is not honoring to God, is not of much use. You have a form of godliness, but you are denying the power thereof. The power in godliness is God in you. The power in godliness is living a life that honors God and, therefore, being assured of God’s blessings. They will not be yours when what you have is not godliness, but just a form.

So, what do you do with people like that? The Bible is concluding by saying: “Have nothing to do with such people.”

That doesn’t mean you can’t preach to them, but they cannot be your close friends.