Enduring Sound Doctrine

Tom Shrader examines Paul's final charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-8, emphasizing the importance of preaching God's Word even when people prefer teachers who tickle their ears with myths rather than sound doctrine. He challenges believers to live purposefully with the end of life in view, following Paul's example of fighting the good fight, finishing the race, and keeping the faith to receive the crown of righteousness.

“Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a decade.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: CBCC August 2008

Recorded: 2008 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 54 min

Themes: preaching, faithfulness, perseverance, truth, doctrine, ministry, purpose, endurance, pastor, preacher, mentor, facing opposition, end of life, ministry challenges, teaching others, spiritual maturity

Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-8, 2 Timothy 3:5, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Timothy 1:2, Philippians 4, 2 Corinthians 5, Revelation 20, John, 1 Timothy 6, Ecclesiastes

Theological Themes: sound doctrine, biblical preaching, pastoral ministry, theological fidelity, eschatology, last days, spiritual warfare, crown of righteousness

Full Transcript

I don't know if you caught it, but sometimes I think musicians and singers get carried away and even show off a bit. Chris was actually showing off just a little because there was a point where he went with two hands. I thought it was incredible dexterity. Once he had them tuned, it's incredible what this man does with just these raw materials. It's inspirational to me. Two hands, sticks, and he judges Sandcastles at the same time. He is an amazing human being.

Susan's not here tonight, which gives you a good clue of what she thinks of my teaching. She had an opportunity to be with Janet tonight, and they've become friends over the years. They're down there having a great time. This is our last time with you, and some of you we'll see again somewhere along the way. We always have people from Canterbury check in when they're down in Phoenix during the winter, so feel free to say hello.

Let me give you a couple of websites. Our church is East Valley Bible Church, so the website is ebbc.org. There are links all over. There are a couple of others that are really helpful websites: prioritylivingaz.org and exploringthetruth.org. Everything that we have is online and available for free. All you have to do is write or call or email and they'll send that to you.

Looking Ahead

Next time we'll be up here is in May for the retirees conference. I'm looking forward to that, though I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to say there. Then we'll be back next summer taking an overview of the Gospel of John.

We close our flyover of what is actually a letter that Paul wrote to Timothy. Paul has this wonderful relationship with this young man. Remember he identifies him in chapter 1 verse 2 as "my beloved son," and in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 2 as "my true son, my genuine son."

The Backdrop of Last Days

We're going to look tonight at the backdrop that provides us some amazing thought processes and a look into Paul's heart. We saw today that "indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," and that we are in these last days. You and I live in a time that is definitely the last days—that time from when Jesus ascends to when He comes back again.

In these last days, men and women and students and children will be lovers of self, lovers of money, and they will love pleasure rather than God. Though they will be spiritual, they'll hold to a form of godliness, but they deny its power according to chapter 3 verse 5. The power is Jesus. It's the gospel. It's the fact that in Christ and Christ alone—the very things and words that you just sang.

What do you do in these last days? How do you impact the world around you? How do you interact? What do you bring to that discussion? The answer is what we looked at today, and that's the Scripture itself.

The Sufficiency of Scripture

The Scripture is good, as Paul tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. It's profitable for teaching, correction, training in righteousness. It's profitable for teaching—that's the doctrine that we teach. It tells us what's right. For reproof, it tells us what's not right. For correction, it tells us how to get right. For training in righteousness, it tells us how to stay right.

All of that is important for us because we begin to navigate our way through life, and we can easily lose our direction. We can get confused. We can be flying in thick clouds. We need the equivalent of that instrument panel—that's what the Word of God is for us.

Paul's Solemn Charge

Now Paul closes down these words. Again, they're written from Paul to Timothy. I understand there's some context clearly to him that we could also expand to those of us who preach this Word, but I think there are principles here we can incorporate in our lives on a regular basis.

Here's what he said: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead, by His kingdom and His appearing." Now in verses 2 through 5, he gives a solemn charge to Timothy.

In verses 2 and 5, he provides nine imperatives here—nine commands, nine things we're to do. Five of them are in verse 2, four of them in verse 5. Do you see them in verse 2? Here's what he says to us: preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. Then there are four imperatives in verse 5: be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

He says these to Timothy. They are warnings, I think, to a pastor in the last days. They're warnings to those of us who are followers of Christ in these last days—admonitions and encouragements.

Preach the Word

He says first of all, preach. What do you preach? You preach the Word. It's so important for us at a time—and one of the things that's refreshing to me is that I'm at East Valley Bible Church where I hang out and spend a lot of time. That certainly occupies the bulk of my time and energy and thought. But my ministry through the week is out in the marketplace, so I have people in my studies from a variety of churches.

The Challenge of Biblical Preaching

A lot of people are unchurched, and as I'm out talking to people from other churches, and a couple of you have even asked questions about church, I'm very uncomfortable trying to meddle into anybody's life or begin to talk about church. The Lord knows I know how difficult that can be.

But to talk about the church, one of the cries I will hear regularly is, "Our church simply doesn't preach the word anymore." I will talk to pastors who feel that their quest is to be relevant. By the way, I'm all for that.

We talk at our church—one of our core values is to be relevant. People get all excited about that and say, "Wait, isn't that compromise?" I'm saying, "Well, let me ask you this: if you don't want to be relevant, then you want to be irrelevant? That doesn't seem like a valuable core value to me." Come to the church, we're totally irrelevant? That doesn't make any sense.

We want to be relevant, but what we get afraid of is that in our quest to be relevant, we somehow distort the message. We don't do that. We preach the gospel in a way that makes sense, that's culturally relevant, but it's absolutely doctrinally sound.

One of the things I said the first night is, I think theologically speaking, I would be in that kind of conservative realm of the body of Christ. I think if you looked at me, you might not think that. I love that, by the way. I love that you look at me and go, "Gosh, yeah, I thought he'd be like a Unitarian or something, and He's got it so tight, not even He's going to get in." It's kind of cool when you see that.

What We Preach

But we preach. What do we preach? Well, not our opinions, though I'm more than willing to share them. We have to be careful here—not just our own thoughts or experiences, but we preach the Word of God. Anything that we bring alongside is maybe something that connects us with that, but what we preach is the Word of God.

When we look at our life, we begin to share with people, we can share our common experiences, but at the core of this is God's Word. Preach the Word of God. Be ready in season and out of season.

There are some possibilities there in terms of this translation. There's this idea of being ready, there's this idea of suddenness, but I think what Paul has in mind here—"in season out of season"—is this sense of urgency or preparedness. We are to stand alert, that God will provide all sorts of opportunities along the way in our lives, you and me now, to preach the Word. To preach means to proclaim or to declare.

Unexpected Opportunities

I have opportunities all the time, and they're opportunities you wouldn't really expect. I go to this one restaurant, and the other day I had a server, young man, very distinguished looking, very distinctive looking. He looked as though perhaps he had fallen into a tackle box, so he had items hanging all over him.

I do not find that in any way intimidating or uncomfortable. I find it intriguing, and I find it a source of conversation. I say to him, "Gee, doesn't that hurt?" "No." "Really?" So we'll talk for a while.

After two or three times of being with him, one day he said, "What do you do?" I said, "Well, you know, I'm like a pastor." "Like a pastor. You are or you aren't." I hate that, because that's what I would say if somebody said that to me.

I said, "Well, I pastor a church." He said, "I don't think so." I said, "Well, that's what I do." He said, "No, I don't think so." I said, "Well, why is that?" He said, "You seem normal."

What he brought was a stereotypical view to what he thought a pastor should be. We had an opportunity. He did not pray to receive Christ in any way, shape, or form, but we had an opportunity to talk about his life, my life, and our life. I came to him from a perspective of, "Here's the word." There that morning, as he's clearing off and giving me his check, we had an opportunity to proclaim the truth to him. To preach the word.

The Heart of Biblical Correction

He says again, words we looked at this morning: "In season, out of season, reprove, rebuke"—they kind of are the same idea. They're very similar in meaning. It's the idea of correcting either error or misconduct, dealing with a person's heart.

But then He adds to this, this wonderful word: "Exhort with great patience." It's not a license to come along, people, and just preach and preach and preach to them, as though you're slamming them and putting them down, but to come alongside with great patience.

Look back with me, verse 10, where Paul talked—we talked this morning. He talked about patience and perseverance. He talked about sustaining the stability in the midst of difficult people and difficult circumstances. How do you do that? Do you see what word's tucked in the middle there? Love.

What are we to do? We're to exhort with great patience. We'll have people in our life who will be difficult and stubborn. With patience and love, perseverance, we declare the truth.

When People Reject Sound Doctrine

He says, "Do this with great patience and instruction, for a time will come when people will not endure." It has the idea of holding on to in the face of adversity. They will not endure sound doctrine. That word that's translated "sound" means to be healthy. It's a term, Greek term, from which we get the English word "hygiene." They will not endure. They will not hang on to sound doctrine.

But they'll want to have their ears tickled. They'll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. They will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myth.

The Call to Faithful Ministry

But—there's a contrast now—"But you, you be sober in all things and endure hardship and do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry." He says, there's this time coming when people aren't going to want to hear this. That's certainly always been a time in the marketplace, but it's also a time now even within the body of Christ.

Again, not a license to be obnoxious. But He said, you're

The Problem of Seeking Pleasant Lies

Going to have people who won't listen to this. They're going to go and accumulate teachers. They're going to want to have their ears tickled.

I can't tell you how often, especially getting out in the marketplace, it'll happen to me. Somebody will say, "Have you got a second?" I'll say, "Sure." They'll say, "Let me ask you a question. I've got this, this, this, this. What do you think I should do?"

And I'll say, "Well, it sounds to me, and I'm a little hesitant here. I don't know you, and I don't know what's going on. But it would seem to me that what you ought to do is this." And then the person will say, "You're the fourth person that's told me that." Well, then I feel like I'm in good company. "Does it sound right?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

And I'll see him two weeks later, and I'll say, "But did you do that?" And they'll say, "You know, no, no, I didn't. You know what happened? I found a guy." And then he'll just say, "What I did is this. I went out and found a guy, and I had to go through a few of them now. Had to go through some really good guys. I got through them to find a guy who finally said to me, 'Oh, you just go ahead and do this.' I go, 'Yeah, that sounds right.'" And what he did was tell him what he wanted to hear.

There'll be this time when people are going to want to hear this stuff. But they will turn aside, they'll accumulate teachers for themselves. They will turn away from the truth, and they'll turn to myths.

Common Myths People Embrace

What are some of those myths? I made a list of them here. And obviously, it's not an all-inclusive list. But I started with this, and it probably falls in several categories. I'm going to give it a theological term. I called it justification by death. In other words, all I got to do is die and go to heaven. Or all I got to do is be good and go to heaven. It's a myth, isn't it?

USA Today had this. I have no idea how they get these things. But they asked the question, what would you pay for? If you were a rich man, what would you pay for? And they had a list of items. And here's what people said. These don't make sense to me, but I can only report what USA Today says. They said people would pay $55,000 to be president. That seems amazingly low to me. $83,000 for great beauty. $206,000 for a reunion with a lost love. $259,000 for eternal youth. $407,000 for great intellect. $487,000 for true love.

But the top of the list—this is USA Today now, this is not me—top of the list for a place in heaven, they would pay $640,000. Man, do we have a deal for you tonight. We'll get you in there for 300 grand. 50% off. Two for one. Bring a spouse. See, it's free.

The Popular but False Gospel

If you talk to most people, you just go down here, you know, you just take off tomorrow, you got the morning free, and you get out of Lazy Susan's down here, and you have a little breakfast, and you start hanging out, and you start talking to the people that are here on vacation and work here, and you say, "You know, man, you think there's life after death?" "Yeah, I don't know, maybe I sort of." "If there's things in heaven, what do you think you have to do to go there?" And most people, when they're all done with this, are going to say basically die. Be good.

And then you say, "Well, how good?" And they'll go, "You know, do your best. Be sincere." That's a big one now. "Are you sincere? Do you really believe it? He's really sincere. He may be a little screwed up in some ways, but he's really serious about this."

Well, God doesn't give a rip about the level of your sincerity.

What Makes Christianity Unique

Christianity, at its core, in its fundamentalist, very basic nugget, is about what we believe that then results in what we do. You get that? The Buddhists, the Hindu, the secular humanists, they all go down and give people turkeys at Christmas and at Thanksgiving. They collect toys for homeless kids at Christmas. They all do that stuff.

What makes us Christians is not what we do, it's what we believe. And what we believe affects how we behave. Right? If we go back to that, look back again at chapter 3, "All scriptures inspired by God, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness, that the man of God may be equipped for every good work."

We are saved by God, from God, for God. So now we understand God, who He is. We understand He's our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord, our Master, and it affects the way we behave. But we go to heaven not based on whether we fed hungry people or not. I'm for that, by the way. Not based on where we stood on some political issue. Our salvation is based on whether we have a relationship with God through Christ.

But boy, the world turns aside from that truth to myth.

More Dangerous Myths

Here you go. I've mentioned a couple of these things, and this is kind of a kindred spirit of that, that we're all God's kids. That we're all God's kids and God's all our Father. That's simply not true, isn't it? When Jesus confronts the Pharisees at one point that John records in his gospel, He says, "You are of your father, what?" The devil. What happened to that "all I thought were children of God" thing?

Here's a couple more myths that I see, and I've touched on them before, that God wants you healthy and wealthy. I find some of those difficult times in hospital for me is to go in there after one of these health and wealth guys have been there, and start to ask people questions like, "Is there sin in your life, or do you have enough faith?" We have a friend of ours, in fact it's Larry's wife, she's a great gal, godly old gal. She was in the hospital, and one of these gals came in to see her and said, "You're not really here." She said, "Then why are you here?"

One of the things that you get after listening to me for a while, is a call to embrace suffering and pain as part of life. God intended it that way. He intended the challenge, and the difficulties, and the hardship, not because He's masochistic, but because He loves you.

Here you go, here's another myth, that God helps those who helps themselves. That you go, and you work really hard, and then God's really, really, He's—

the one who's going to help you. It's really about you pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Here's another myth: that you can't love others until you love yourselves. I love that one. Oh, I'd love to love you, but I need to learn to love myself first. Really?

A Story About Selfishness

I know somewhere in this retirees conference in May, I know I'll use this story. Susan and I were invited years ago. A guy called from a Sunday school class that was 55 years of age and older, and this was probably more than 20 years ago now. He said we would like your wife to speak too. I said, I don't think she'll do that. He said, well, we'd like her to speak. So I went to Susan, I said, I want you to speak. She said, all right. And she said, let's go to the class next Sunday and see what it's like.

So we go in there, and we hang around, and we're all done. So we come back, and it's now Saturday, and I said, look, I got this thing figured out. I said, here's what we'll do. I'll get up, I'll get us started, I'll get it going. You get up, do your deal. I'll get up after you, clean up the mess, and close it. She said, all right, slick, let's do that.

So I get up, and I do my thing, and I said, you know, one of the things they asked today is that Susan would speak. So I said, Susan doesn't speak much in public, but just bear with her. And Susan, come on up. So she said, thank you. She said, I was in here last week. Tom and I were in here. I don't know if you saw us. We were going around. And ladies, I heard a bunch of you. Men, you don't even have to listen if you don't want to. Ladies, I heard a bunch of you say this: that you've raised your kids, you've done your thing, and now it's time to live for you. And she took her Bible, and she said, you're godly women, I got that. Will you find one verse in here that says, now it's time to live for me? And she sat down.

So I got up, and I said, hey, that's why we don't let her talk much in public. She's an offensive little girl, isn't she? I will tell you this: one of the most selfish groups of people that I deal with are the old people. We talk about teenagers being selfish, they're self-centered, they're young. I don't understand being old and self-centered. Oh, I got to love myself, I got to take care of myself, I got to do for me. That is anti-biblical. I got to learn to deny myself my agenda, to live selflessly.

The Call to Servanthood

Mila alluded to it. I'm not saying it's easy to do, I'm saying it's simple to understand that I'm here first and foremost as a servant of the living God. Paul said, I'm a bond slave. Those are some of the myths that I look at.

There was a book that was written years ago called Self-Love, and somebody said, have you read it? I said, I haven't read it. They said, what do you think of it? I said, well, I haven't read it, but I can tell you any book that advocates us loving ourselves can't be a very good book. Those are myths. That's the world that you live in.

The Danger of These Myths

Well, is it really that harmful? Here you go. This has happened to me on three occasions. I've sat down with a guy—it happened, I was going to say five years ago the last time. Guy comes in to study, looks awful, looks like he's been—I said, you don't look good. He said, I don't feel good. I said, you look awful. He said, I know that. I said, what's the problem? He said, I'm getting divorced.

I said, you're getting divorced? And he said, yes. I said, why is that? He said, well, God wants me to. I said, really? That's interesting. How did He communicate that to you? Here's what he said: A, God wants me happy. B, my wife makes me unhappy. C, God wants me divorced.

And I said to him, God hates divorce, right? And he said, oh yeah, I got that. And your wife has been faithful? Oh yeah, she's been faithful. And there's no biblical grounds? Oh no, there's no biblical grounds. So out of seven billion people on the planet, this whole book was written to them, but you're the exception to this one point, huh? Yeah, I guess. Because what God wants is my happiness. God wants our joy. You know all that. Grace and truth, that's how we're to communicate.

The Practical Application of Sound Doctrine

Why is all this stuff so important? Why is this doctrine so important? Because it's filled with practical applications. I have a lot of flaws, but here's something I do probably better than anybody you know. I am a world-class forgiver. You can screw me over a thousand times, it ain't going to matter. Do it again. I try to be a little wise, not to be terribly stupid, but I'm a world-class forgiver.

You know why? Well, that's your nature. No, my nature is to take your legs off. My nature is to take you down. I spent 30 years not getting mad and getting even, but when all of a sudden I understood Philippians 4 when Paul says, forgive. Well, what if they don't deserve it? Here, hang with me. Forgive, just as God in Christ forgave you. Oh yeah. I'm to be an instrument of forgiveness. There's wisdom in that.

A Personal Example of Forgiveness

I think some of the greatest moments with my kids, especially with my oldest daughter Sarah, have been those moments where I've screwed it up and had to go in. I came in one day and I just had a bad day and I'm just going on and on and on and on. I finally get mad and I said, get to your room and stay there, stay there until you're 50. I'm going to come get you when you're 50, maybe 49.

Susan said, what are you doing? And we unpacked it and it was my problem. And she said, what are you going to do about this? Well, I got to go tell her I'm sorry. She goes, that's a good idea. So I go down and I said, hey Sarah, I'm sorry. I screwed up. You know what she said? That's all right, Dad. You do it all the time.

You know what I just remembered? I have to take a pill. Thanks. I forgot about that all day. I've been carrying that around. That's all right, Dad. You do it all the time. And we had this wonderful moment and I cried a little bit and she cried a little bit.

I'm convinced that in our relationship with her, because she's a lot like me and we had our moments like this, but I'm convinced there were moments where my girls just saw me over and over again. Hey, I really screwed that up. I really screwed that up. I mean, dads all the time never let their kids understand that they've screwed up and say they're sorry. That's not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of humanity. And you can forgive. Why? Because you understood that God has forgiven you.

I have a friend who is one of our elders at our church who was a really bad man. He used to take shotguns and go into grocery stores and hold them up. So he ended up in prison. He ended up in prison a couple times, and the last time for a long, long time. He was in prison and he was curled up on his bed when all of a sudden it became clear to him that Jesus is who He said He was and God saved him. One of the things that he was was he hated black people. He was a racist. God changed his heart there because he understood how God had forgiven him. Then he would go out to the yard and he would sing and hold hands with his black brothers.

I was talking to him the other day and I said, if I went to prison, would they do anything to me? I don't know why I have these thoughts. He said, you're too old, man. Not even prisoners are interested in you. I said, all right, I guess that's all right. He said, what would get you in trouble, about the only thing I think would happen, is they would not like you hanging around with your black friends.

But he's out there one day in the yard and he's singing and he comes in and the white supremacist guys say, all right, pal, that's it. Knock it off. He said, well, I can't do that. He was telling me this story just two weeks ago. He said, I went to bed and I said, God, I don't know what to do because I can't deny my brothers. He woke up the next morning. He said, God, you need to do something. He woke up the next morning and the guy said, you hear the bus come in the middle of the night? He said, no. They hauled all those white supremacist guys out in the middle of the night. Isn't that a cool story?

The Power of Sound Doctrine to Transform Lives

That whole heart change comes from doctrine. That's why this stuff is important. I could not care less about knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But we study this word because it begins to change our life. Be sober. You see it there in verse five, be sober means free from intoxicants. It's level headed, well balanced, endure hardship. Suffer that evil that will come against you. Do the work. It's an imperative here. Do the work of an evangelist. Then, to Timothy and to you and me, he says, fulfill your ministry.

God's given you something to do. Find out what it is and then do it to its max. You are not done here. Here's what I know. I know this for absolute certain that everyone in here, God has something that He's called you to do and He's not done with you yet. Because if He was done, you would assume room temperature. When He's done with you, nothing can keep you alive. Until He's done with you, nothing can take you away. We're at all different parts of our life. Paul's call to Timothy, to us, is to do the work He's given us to do.

Paul's Perspective on Death and Departure

Now we got 17 minutes here. "For I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, the time for my departure is come." I love this aspect of Paul's life. We see it all the way through it, where he's driving us to think of the end of life and now he's there. I remember on my 35th birthday, I remember really, I have always, I've been like this since I was a little boy. I've been obsessed with death. The reality of it. I remember when I was 35, thinking, my golly, I'm halfway, I'm halfway there. My 40th birthday, I was saying, whoo, I need to get a hold of this. I'm halfway there. I turned 45 and I remember driving down the road thinking, man, I need to really get sharper. I'm halfway there. Well, I turned 58 last year and I remember thinking, wow, I'm probably 53% of the way there.

Let me unpack this word depart for you and we'll do it with the help of William Barclay. He says there's four possible meanings to this word and maybe they all come together to give us an enriched view of this. "The time for my departure has come." He said the word was used in one way to speak of the unyoking of an animal from his cart or his plow. Paul is about to take rest from his toil. The second way is the word was used to loosen bonds. Paul's been liberated or released. The third way the word was used was talking about taking a rope that were used to tie down a tent and loosening those ropes. Paul's ready to take that tent up for that last journey. The last one, the word was used to release the ropes that would hold a ship to a pier. "Time for my departure has come," Paul says. At the end of my life, journey's over. It's a time now where it is time to rest from this toil and to be free from this place.

Paul's Self-Assessment at Life's End

Look at verse 7 and I want you to see that this is not someone else's assessment of Paul's life. This is his assessment of his life. I will hear people say this, that when they die or get to the end of life, here's what they want to hear. "Well done, good and faithful servant." That's somebody else saying something. It is amazing to me and to let this thing sink in, this is not somebody else eulogizing Paul. This is Paul's assessment of his own life. He says, "I fought the good fight. I kept the faith. I finished the course." Paul said, I broke the tape. My guess would be that at the end of your life, you're going to want to be able to say something like this, I would think.

Now here's the charge that I have for you. I don't think Paul just woke up that morning and said, my golly, when I look back on it, I fought the good fight and I finished the course and I kept the faith. I think that's something that was at the forefront

of Paul's mind over and over and over again. Do you live under the shadow of your memorial service? By that I mean, do you understand there's this time coming when you're going to be laying down there? What do you want him to say, honestly? What's going to be important to you?

I did a funeral not long ago and it was for a guy that clearly was not a believer and I was doing the funeral simply because his daughter was a member of our church and she asked me to do it. I did a share time and they started talking about Bud. Bud was a fun guy. Boy, when you went camping with Bud, he always made sure there was plenty of steaks. Bud always had the best costumes on Halloween. I know now, that's what one of the guys said, I know now that Bud's up there in heaven, big lounge chair with a beer, watching football. Is that what you want him to say?

Twice a week, not that I'm a creature of habit, twice a week I check the obituaries from my funeral home back in Davenport, Iowa. My dad used to send me all of those. He's dead himself now so I have to check them myself. And I will read these and periodically I'll say to Susan, listen to this one. She enjoyed cooking and knitting and watching movies and gardening and the Cubs. And all of those are fine. I don't know about the gardening, but all those are fine generally. Is that what you want him to say?

Here's what you would love to have them say. Hey, there's Tom and he fought the good fight and he finished the course and he kept the faith. Isn't that what you like there, that well-done thing? There's no way they will be able to say that when you die if you aren't on that course right now.

Living with Purposeful Intent

This doesn't just happen by accident. Inertia will pull you away from this, not toward it. Inertia will get you busy, will get you obsessed, will get you distracted. That's where inertia is going to take you. Inertia is going to get you to the point where at your funeral they're going to say, boy did he make good chili.

Is this the way you live? Do you have this? Is this a key factor in your life? Do you think about this stuff? Do you think about this stuff almost every day? Do you start or in the middle or the end of the day somewhere? I don't care if you're a high school kid or if you're 150 and you're here. I don't care where you're in that. Do you think about what the end is going to look like?

Not really, Tom. I'm just going with the flow. That's what I do, Tom. I just go with the flow. Well, here's the problem. What if the flow isn't going where you want to go? There needs to be, and again, I owe Warwick Warner another 10 bucks. There needs to be a purposefulness to the way you live. This will not just happen.

A Lesson on Time and Dedication

I have a wonderful friend. He's an amazing fellow. He just resigned as the commissioner of the Arena Football League. He's a wonderful man. He is huge. His head is the size of that organ. He's gigantic. He's 6'8", but he's a big 6'8". He's not a small 6'8". The last time, it was a year ago right now, we had breakfast. We've had breakfast since, but a year ago right now we had breakfast. I said, man, you're big. I mean, you're getting big, aren't you? He said, what do you weigh? He said, nah, I don't know. We had breakfast in the spring. He said, hey, Schrades, I was down with a Dallas Cowboys training thing, and they could weigh you there, and I weighed 415. He's big. His son was the 21st choice in this NFL draft.

He would walk alongside me, and he put his arms around me, if you can just imagine this. And one day, I'm introducing him, and he says, come here, Schrades, come here. He said, I have a son, Sam. Well, Sam is the one who's... And Sam is 10, and he's exactly Tom's size. They wear the same clothes.

He is also a man who continually thinks, and one day he said this to me, most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a decade. I loved it. Most people overestimate what they can do today. Boy, this is it. I got to go, go, go, go, go, go, and underestimate and say, you know what, man? We got some time here. We got a decade. What are we going to do in this decade?

It seemed... I don't mean to be terribly philosophical here, but as a younger man, and this is exactly the opposite of what I thought. As a younger man, I tended to think in spaces of weeks and months and years, and now that I'm older, I think in spans of decades. I didn't think it would happen that way.

The Goal of a Life Well-Lived

I want this, man. I want, at the end, for me to be able to say, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith, and I want the people around me to say that. To say, you know what? He broke the tape. He was on fire when God saved him, and he didn't rust out, but he burnt himself up.

So many people, and I appreciate it, they're very kind. Oh, you're going to burn yourself out? I doubt it. I really doubt it. Too selfish for that. But I don't want to die with a tank that's half full.

The Coming Reward

What's the motive there? You see it in verse 8? He goes, "...in the future there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only me, but all who've longed for His appearing." There is that day coming, that day out there, where I will receive this reward from Christ Himself.

When I lay down at night, there's a picture, a wedding picture of Susan and me, and I have two other pictures on my nightstand. There's a, and it's totally selfish, there's a picture of myself with Coach Wooden, and myself with Muhammad Ali. These are my three pictures on my nightstand. Of course, the one with Susan is the most important. It's in the back, but it's the most important.

And I go to guys' offices, and there'll be a picture, I'm just in a guy's office, there's a picture of him and Ronald Reagan and getting this award. Those are cool things, those are big moments, aren't they? They are, they're just kind of cool moments. But imagine this, not a picture with Ronald Reagan or Coach Wooden or

Muhammad Ali, but an award from your Master and your Savior to you. Wow. Because there's that time of judgment. There's that white throne judgment we read about in Revelation 20, where those of you perhaps who don't know Christ will be judged and cast into the lake of fire. And then there's the Bema Seat judgment that we read about in 2 Corinthians 5, where those of us who are Christians will stand before Him and will be judged.

Not our sin, because I get that every once in a while—He's going to judge our sin. That's already done. That's Calvary. We're done with that one. He's now going to award, reward, recognize, somehow, that life that we live subsequent to coming to Him in repentance and faith. But what does that look like? Well, you can take a long version or a short version. Either way, use Randy Alcorn. Just get the heaven book, which is much like a textbook, or get that little book that he wrote, In Light of Eternity, and just begin to contemplate and think about this.

Three People You Need to Meet

Now something really tragic has happened. We have five minutes, and there are three people here that you need to meet, in verses 9, 10, and 11. "Make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me." Verse 11: "Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service."

This guy Demas is a fascinating guy. His name appears three times in the writings of Paul, twice in a very complimentary way. You know, there's so-and-so, so-and-so, and so-and-so, and our buddy Demas, and he's saying hello to you. Here, in the most negative of terms, Demas has deserted me.

What is it? Now think with me now. This guy's seen Paul. He's been with Paul. For me, this sounds like this would be a really compelling ministry. He's walking, serving with Paul. He's heard, seen, all of this stuff that's happened to Paul. He's heard the story. He knows the truth. He's heard the doctrine, and he walked away.

The Tragedy of Demas

What pulled him away? Do you see it? The love of this present world. Boy, there's a story for you. When Jesus tells the parable of the four soils, we kind of got the first two soils are really screwed up, and the fourth one's really saved. It's that third soil that kind of gets us all jacked up, isn't it? And it says it kind of crops up this plant, and then the deceitfulness of riches, the worries of the world, begins to choke it out.

That's why I camp so much in that 1 Timothy passage, verse 6, in Ecclesiastes. The love of the world, the lure of stuff, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, and all of those things. The deceitfulness of riches, one. The worries of the world, two. And they combine, and here's Demas and Paul in his most needy moment. Demas says, "I'm gone, man."

Luke: The Faithful Physician

Then there's Luke, the physician, the historian, the one who wrote the gospel that bears his name, and the book of Acts. And many scholars believe that for Luke to be with Paul at this moment, the only way he could have actually been with him in that prison is to go in as Paul's slave. So we can unpack that.

Mark: Failure Is Never Final

Or my buddy Mark. I love this. Here's what he says: "Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark, bring him with you." Why? "He is useful for service." I love this. Why? Because Mark teaches us an important truth. Here's what Mark teaches us: Failure's never fatal.

When we first meet Mark, here's what's happening. Paul and Barnabas are going on the first missionary journey. Barnabas says, "I've got this kin I'd like to bring along." He said, "Who is it?" He said, "John Mark." And Paul said, "All right, bring him along." And then he blows out, right? He blows out of this. Huge disaster. We don't have all the details, all the specifics, but he blows out.

Time for the second missionary journey. Barnabas says to Paul, "Hey, I'd like to bring somebody with me." And Paul says, "Really, who is it?" He goes, "Mark." Mark? Mark. That's who you bring? I want to make sure I got this. Kind of a common name. Is it the same Mark that was with us on that first journey? Yeah. Do you remember how he couldn't cut it? Remember what a little weakling the guy was? No, that's not in there. I'm just building into this. Do you remember how he didn't have any guts and he couldn't take it? "We're not going."

And these two giants of the faith, Barnabas and Paul, split over this person Mark. Paul's saying, "I want nothing to do with that loser." Now at the end of his life, what's he say? "Pick him up." And then that beautiful phrase, "for he is useful to me for service."

The Hope of Redemption

Here you go. And I love this because I am a flat loser. I have a friend whose father is not a Christian and he mocks us in a variety of ways. And his son at one point thought he wanted to be a missionary. And here's how he described missionaries: "Losers chasing losers." That's what a missionary was. And all my friends got offended by that. And I said, it's actually technically a pretty good definition.

Here's what Mark shows us: Failure is never fatal. Failure is never final. So you may be sitting here and you know what? You may have screwed this life up royally to this point. In a thousand different ways. You may be a parent that screwed up your relationship with your kids. You may be a spouse that's blown it with your spouse. You may have blown it in a thousand different ways.

You know what? That's not final. That's not fatal. Confess it as sin. Confess it as sin and then go and sit down. I know what it's like. God has been very good to us. And as we raised our girls, we raised them as Christians from the very beginning. My girls have heard stories and have listened to tapes about me, but they've never experienced that old time. And it may be that you've blown it.

Here's what you got to do. You got to go over. So you got a high school kid now. Pretty tough, man. Pretty tough to get the old toothpaste back in the tube now because you've screwed it up pretty good. So here's

The New Sheriff in Town

What you do. You sit down. You say, "Listen, Biff, here's the deal. I screwed up. I sinned. I made a mistake. I am so sorry. I am so sorry. But you know what? I'm going to be the dad or the mom that God called me to be. There's a new sheriff in town." And you're going to establish a new relationship.

Failures never fail. By the way, you know that success in the past is not guaranteed success in the future, is it? I mentioned to you, I love infomercials. I'm watching infomercial the other day. And this guy has gone in this thing like it's a Power 90 or something. And he was like a whale like me. And after 90 days, he's like this. Well, okay, well, then dance.

I'm watching. That's all right. Well, down in the corner is this little phrase that I don't need to see. You know what it says? Results may vary. Well, I'll guarantee you they'll vary. I'll guarantee you I'm the universal before picture. I got it.

Past Success Doesn't Guarantee Future Success

So those of you who are here and maybe you're going, "I don't relate to that failure thing," let me tell you something. Those past successes, they don't guarantee future successes either. Good start. Good place to be.

I love this book. It's one of my favorite books because Paul has this overarching sense of his death. And we are so healthy when we think about that. On his deathbed, D.L. Moody said, "Soon you will read in the newspaper I'm dead. Don't believe it for a moment. I'll be more alive than ever before." That's our future for those of us who know Christ.

Closing Prayer

Hey, thanks so much for allowing Susan and me to be with you and to have some time and some fun and to talk. And I pray the things that are of God and helpful, He applies to your heart. The things that aren't, that He just blows them away and you forget them. Even somehow they disappear from the CD would be good, but I doubt they will.

So let me pray for you as Mila and the guys come and close us. Remind you, we're going to be back here in 15 minutes. So we're going to say at 10 minutes, at 10 minutes to nine, we'll start the concert. Let's pray.

Father, thank You for Your Son Jesus who came and lived and died so that we might have eternal life. God, I pray that You would prepare our hearts for that time not long from now when we will depart from this world. Oh God, what a special time that will be. Just like D.L. Moody said. Oh, we won't be dead. Be more alive than ever before. Father, remind us that we are not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying, but we are in the land of the dying on our way to the land of the living. God, help us to serve You and be ready for that time when we fly away from this place. We pray to You here tonight in Christ's name. Amen.