Demas

Tom Shrader explores the cautionary tale of Demas, a close ministry partner of Paul who abandoned him in his hour of greatest need because he "loved this present world." Using Demas as a warning against worldly temptation, Shrader examines how the lure of material success and comfort can draw even committed believers away from faithful service. He applies this lesson practically, emphasizing the need for contentment, eternal perspective, and the team nature of Christian ministry.

“You are not meant to be ultimately satisfied, to have a critical, crucial longing met with a person, place, or thing other than Jesus.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: CBCC July 2014

Recorded: 2014 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 1 hr 3 min

Themes: temptation, faithfulness, worldliness, contentment, ministry, partnership, perseverance, priorities, struggling with materialism, ministry burnout, feeling tempted by success, pastor, ministry partner, mature believer, church leader, facing difficult choices

Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:9-10, Colossians 4:14, Philemon 1:24, 1 John 2:15-16, James 4:4, Genesis 3:6, Matthew 13:22, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, 1 Timothy 6:17, James 1:2, 2 Timothy 2:3-6

Theological Themes: apostasy, falling away, sanctification, spiritual maturity, discipleship, following christ, stewardship, faithful service

Full Transcript

Good morning. Good to see you this morning. Glad that you're here. As Kevin mentioned, this is our last time here. Hopefully not the conference center, but our last time here this week. We are leaving. Tomorrow we're teaching at Scottsdale Bible Church, which is back home, and that's a great opportunity for us. We're there tomorrow, and then Bill's there in two weeks. So we're just following. He's just drafting off me everywhere I go now. I set up the morning, he comes in in the evening, and so it's been great.

Hopefully it's been a good week for us. When I say us, I mean not just Sandy and me, but I think Bill as well, and Kathy, and Jesse, and the team, and hopefully it's been a good week for you. I made a note to mention, and then Kevin did it, the audio archive from the conference center. I mentioned a couple times I had surgery in January, and I was laid up for about eight weeks, and was going through some television, and I can do nothing better than anybody you've ever seen, but even I got a little tired of television. I ended up googling Howie Hendricks. I ended up with a site that's part of a Dallas seminary site, but also popped up some other sites where I could go, and it got me thinking. I remember that project that Kevin mentioned was underway, and it literally hundreds of hours. I went on the Cannon Beach site, and I think if you go under conferences, and then it's audio archives are thousands of talks. I occupied hundreds of hours listening to some of the best teaching, and not in that formal atmosphere at a seminary, or even in a church, but in the casual atmosphere here, and it was great. Howie is on there, Bill is on there, and just tons of guys that have been in this pulpit setting for dozens and dozens of years, so it's a resource you should tap into and take advantage of.

Our Last Lesson from the Legends

We are in our last one of the Lessons from the Legends, and we've talked about Joseph, and Daniel, and Peter, and Paul. I feel a little bit like Jim Baker in Heritage USA. I may have oversold this session this morning. I've got a bunch of you coming in saying, "I know who it is, I know who it is," and some great guesses that actually gave me some great ideas for future talks. I got Mary's husband, Joseph, and that would have been an interesting one. That was not it. Nobody rendered the guess, nor what I expect you to.

The man that we're going to look at today is mentioned three times in the Bible, all three times in the New Testament. A little bit of a warning: just Friday, I was talking to the guys in the sound booth, and at almost ten o'clock there was no one here, and they said that's typical on Fridays, the days winding down. As we prayed this morning, we prayed for you, you're starting to think about leaving, you're packing, should I do laundry on this stuff? No, take it home dirty, do it there, save the quarters, and your mind is going there. You've had ten great sessions where you've been spoiled by Bill and me, where you've been exposed to wit, humor, and you won't get any of that today. So we picked the slowest one. I picked him for this one.

Introducing Demas

Here's the guy's name. His name is Demas, and he, as I said, appears three times in the New Testament. You see him twice as Paul's signing off in the letter of Colossians and in Philemon. You see him paired in Colossians 4:14, "Luke, the beloved physician, sends you His greetings, and also Demas." The same type of setting is in Philemon chapter 1 verse 24, "My fellow prisoner in Christ greets you as do Mark, and Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers."

We don't know much. I couldn't find anybody that had written a book on Demas, a biography on Him. I found some information, not a ton, a bit sketchy. Here's what I was able to put together: He was heavily involved at a high level in Paul's ministry. Paul identifies Him as a fellow worker. He is a traveling companion. He was with Paul during His first imprisonment, which sounds a little bit misleading, but it was more of a house arrest, where visitors could come and go, but Demas was present for that. He was the recipient of a huge personal investment on Paul's part.

One of the authors, commentators, wrote this: "Together they worked, enduring various troubles and persecution, to extend the kingdom of God. This speaks highly of Demas at that point in time, for Paul was very selective and very careful with whom He labored for the Lord. This is apparent since He rejected John, also called Mark, John Mark, for His past unfaithfulness."

Paul's Investment in Demas

My point in this quotation, and in the introduction, is for you to see that this was a guy who wasn't just a groupie of Paul's, or a guy who traveled with Him and popped in once in a while to hear Him deliver a message, or maybe got wind that there was going to be some persecution and stoning going on, so He scooted over to Lystra to see what happened. No, this was a guy who was heavily involved in Paul's ministry, so He was very committed to Paul, and it was reciprocal. Paul, very committed to Demas, and Paul was selective.

I'm going to guess that Paul had a whole bunch of guys that say, "Man, I want to be part of your team. This looks like fun. I want to do what you do." Not fully understanding all that was entailed in that, but I want to get involved in this also. And Paul became very expert at saying no, and at being realistic as He evaluated people.

And he makes reference to his encounter with Mark, John Mark, and that was on Paul's first missionary journey. He and Barnabas take off, and Barnabas says, "I want to bring along this guy named Mark," and Paul said, "Fine." So somewhere in that first missionary journey, Mark abandoned them. Do you remember the story? He abandoned them, and now it's time for the second missionary journey, and Barnabas comes to Paul and says, "All right, bags are packed, ready to go, everything's prepared. How about if we take Mark with us?" And Paul said, "No, we're not going to take Mark," and Barnabas said, "No, let's take Mark," and Paul said, "No, we're not going to do this." And there was this, what the book of Acts calls a sharp disagreement, and these guys split over this.

Barnabas heads out with Mark, Paul heads out with Silas, and for years we debated about who was right in that argument. I don't know if I'm getting old and mellowing or what, but I used to be a Paul guy. I would say, "Listen, here's what Paul said, this is tough business, we can't be taken around. I'm not going to take some guy that's in progress here, and I'm processing him, I don't have time for that." And Barnabas is saying, "Paul, listen, everybody messes up. And he learned from this. Paul, have you ever made a mistake? I mean, he'd be vulnerable there. Have you ever made a mistake?" But it wasn't compelling to Paul. Paul said, "No, we're not taking him."

Paul's Investment in Demas

So what I want you to see is it relates to Demas now. He is fully invested, and Paul would have vetted him the best he could, and at this point, Paul invites him in, and Demas, heavily invested in this relationship. I mentioned that Demas is remembered and mentioned three times in the New Testament. I want you to turn to the third mentioning. It's in 2nd Timothy. The book we really started, at least my section with this week, when we talked about all scripture inspired by God, and it's good for, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness.

So the Bible tells us—oh my gosh, this is scary, because the chances of you remembering this over a period of a week are almost zero, but let's see what happens. The Bible tells us what's right. That's so encouraging. I could die right now and be a fulfilled man, because that never happens.

The Final Mention of Demas

So that's this letter, 2nd Timothy. Last written communication that we have from the pen of the Apostle, and in 2nd Timothy chapter 4, verse 9, as Paul's saying goodbye, he writes this: "Make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me." So you've got two mentions, very favorable: my co-worker, co-laborer, my traveling companion, the man that I've heavily invested in, that's Demas, he says goodbye to you. But now at the end of Paul's life, when he, I guess we could argue, is in his most desperate need humanly, he says to Timothy, "Come quickly, come to me quickly, do it soon, Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me."

The word that's translated "deserted" there has with it the idea of abandoning somebody quickly. You get that, you would suspect that when you heard the word deserted, to bail on somebody, but the word has a deeper meaning than that. It's to abandon somebody, but not to leave them with all their needs taken care of, but to leave them in a dire situation, to leave them in dire straits, utterly forsaken, abandoned, helpless.

The Complete Picture of Abandonment

So here's the picture, hopefully painted: here's this guy, and he's chosen to follow Paul, and he's more than a groupie, he's involved, intimately involved, and Paul has screened him, vetted him, and invested in him. And now in arguably Paul's moment of deepest need, this guy is gone. He abandons him, he leaves him in the most inappropriate time, in the most difficult situations imaginable. "Make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me."

I read 23 translations and paraphrases in preparation for this, of this verse, and I got a couple of subtle differences from two paraphrases, from The Message, and then from the New Living Translation that Bill's been using this week. Eugene Peterson paraphrases the verse this way: "Get here as fast as you can, Demas, chasing fads, went off to Thessalonica and left me here." The New Living Translation: "Timothy, please come to me as soon as you can, Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this world and has gone to Thessalonica."

What Drew Demas Away

What we get, and this is what captured my imagination when I very first time I read this verse, is what would be so compelling that it would draw this man away from Paul, after he'd been heavily invested in Paul, and Paul heavily invested in him? What would draw him away, and Paul says simply the phrase, "having loved this present world," chasing fads, because of the love of the things of life. Paul's very general in his description of this, and scholars and commentators suggest a couple of possible readings for that, or meanings.

Number one, he didn't want to embarrass Demas. It seems to me it's a little late for that. Seems to me like he's already called him out, and he said to him, "Hey listen, here's this guy and he's bailing." It seems like he's already called him out, so there's some embarrassment there. Some suggest that Paul leaves this vague, so that we don't focus on one particular aspect of Demas' sin, and somehow not apply it or realize it in our own life. It's like last night when Bill was illustrating, and he was talking about sin, he was trying to find that illustration that would capture us all, or allow us to enter into that story.

The same thing here. This is what I want to do, is to have you think with me, enter in with me, into what's going on in Demas' life, and your own life, and to see. I almost want to put warning, beware, over all this verse. There's something so strong that it could pull Demas away from Paul.

I want to suggest in your life it could be equally powerful, and just as disastrous when it comes into your life. There's a similar kind of phraseology that we see in 1 John chapter 2, verse 15 and 16. Don't love the world or the things of the world. The love of the world, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father's not in him. For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, it's from the world.

Throughout scripture we see this idea dropped in again and again about the dangers of this relationship with the world. And when the world is used here, it doesn't mean planet, or people, but it's the world systems and the world idea. Here's James 4:4, you adulterous, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

That's strong, vivid language. You're messing around here, you're having an affair here with the world. You can't serve two masters. You're either for me or against me.

The Black and White Nature of Our Choice

I personally love the black and white part of this. You can't have it both ways. Why? Because these systems are in conflict with one another.

So going back to the passage in 1 John, don't love the world or the things of the world, for all that's in the world, and then He says it, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. The word lust, when we hear it, we often think in a sexual term, and that's part of it, but it means, in its broadest sense, a strong desire. It's a strong desire, in this case, for something contrary to what God would have.

And He talks about lust of the flesh, that's man's natural rebellion, and lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. The eyes are the avenue Satan uses to tempt us. The boastful pride of life is the arrogance over our circumstances, to be able to somehow impress other people.

The Pride That Destroys

It's not just to take credit for being strong in the difficult times, but this boastful pride of life is somehow saying, in the good times, I did it too. Oh, you may throw in, unless you're incredibly arrogant, you're going to throw in a complimentary sentence, well, you know, God's really blessed me. But then there's the long pause as you look around the room and say, why wouldn't He? Wasn't He going to bless you? Look at you! He's obviously going to pick out the cream of the crop, and that's why He chose to bless me.

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life. Now, if I'm working my way through this, what pops into my mind is something as old as you can get, and that's Genesis 3. That's what you see at play in Genesis 3.

Satan's Ancient Playbook

The serpent comes, and tempts, and then we get this commentary in Genesis 3:6, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took it from its fruit, and ate it, and gave it to her husband, and he ate it. You see it there? Lust of the flesh, good for food. Lust of the eyes. It was a delight to the eye, and it was desirable to make one wise. You'll be like God. Boastful pride of life. Don't you want to be like God?

So basic is this to the serpent, and to Satan's playbook, that He uses the very same thing when He takes Jesus after 40 days in the desert, out to the mountain, and says, listen, you got to be hungry after 40 days of this. Turn these rocks into bread. Lust of the flesh. Look at it, and all this will be yours. Lust of the eyes. If you're really the Son of Man, cast yourself off, and won't they come and rescue? Boastful pride of life. That's Satan's basic playbook. That's what He uses against you.

A Football Story About Flattery

I played sports in high school. Basketball, baseball, football, and golf. And my best sport was baseball, and in football, I played my freshman and sophomore year, didn't play my junior year, and had no intention of playing my senior year. I don't know if you've ever played football, but it's dumb, and it's really hard. And you get hurt.

But I literally, one morning, pick up the paper, and they're doing the preview of each of the high schools in our area, and they get to my high school. And the coach said, you know, we're set at quarterback, we're excited about our quarterback, who's coming back, his name is Bob Lease. He's a preseason All-State pick, and we were going to be very good. But He said, we're especially happy to have Tom Schrader back in a backup role.

And I showed this to my dad, and I said, this seems weird. And He said, I don't know, did you talk to Him? I said, I never talked to Him. So I called the coach, I said, I'll come down and talk to you. And so I came down, and He said, you know, hey, you know, you played a couple years, and we got a hole there, and you can fill it. And I'm stupid. I fell for the flattery. I should have said no to this thing.

So my role the whole year was as a backup quarterback, which primarily, actually, you have to have a certain level of savviness, because each week, you're running a new offense, you're running the other team's offense. And we're playing Davenport Central, that's our rival, and a little school, public school, and out of it came some great athletes that played in the NFL. Jim Jensen came out of there, and the Craig boys. Remember Roger Craig with the 49ers? Roger Craig, Curtis Craig, Theotis Craig. Well, Davenport Central had a little play that they ran, a little inside counter trap. And so all you got to do is take it, and you just fake this handoff, and as you turn, it's just a trap coming back the other way. And they used to run that against us

Satan's Predictable Playbook

Jerry Watson was one of my guys - my all-time favorite guy. He was the fastest guy we ever had, but he didn't like to get hit. That's a problem in football.

We're sitting there one night, Jerry and I, at the end of the year, last game of the year. It was cold and raining, ready to snow. We played down on the river, and the wind was blowing. I'm sitting next to Jerry in our big heavy hooded coats. Coach comes up and says to Jerry, "Get in there."

I looked over, and Jerry just lifted up and said, "I don't think so. I don't think I could." The guy looked at him and left. I said, "Buddy, I think that's a career ender right there."

So Jerry's my halfback. Here we go. I fake it and give it to Jerry, and he is gone. Then you hear the words you never want to hear: "Run it again."

That works pretty well when nobody knows, but now you've got 11 guys on the other side who've just been embarrassed and hurt. You're going to say run it again, and they know exactly what's going on. We go back to the huddle, I look at Jerry, and he's looking at me, just afraid. He doesn't want to do that. So I called a different play.

What we did was fake to Jerry. They're all over there, and I just stepped back. The little wide receiver's there, and boom - it's an easy touchdown. Now everybody's mad at everybody.

The Advantage of Knowing the Play

My point is this: if you know what the other team's going to run, it's pretty much an advantage, isn't it? The pitcher and the catcher get together and hide their signals. The coach in football is masking plays.

Satan goes, "I don't care, I'll tell you the play I'm going to run. It's going to be lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, or boastful pride of life. That's what it's going to be. I got some variations of that. We can run it out of different formations, but ultimately, it's going to be one of these things."

It goes all the way back to the beginning of time. That has been Satan's standard operating procedure from the beginning of time.

Jesus' Warning About Worldly Distractions

If Jesus were to speak to Demas, what would He say? It's the parable of the sower and the seeds. The seed falls among thorns, and the thorns come up and choke out the seed.

Jesus interpreted this: "The one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word. The worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes fruitless."

Along comes just the ordinary processes of life. Along comes the seed, the word of God, and here are those guys like Demas. We don't know the end of Demas's story. We don't know what happens from here. Something has pulled him away - the deceitfulness of wealth, the deceitfulness of riches, the lure of the world.

The Missing Ingredient: Contentment

Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6, where Paul's writing to Timothy about what I think is the secret to the Christian life and the missing ingredient in most lives. Verse 6: "Godliness is actually a means of great gain when it's accompanied by contentment."

That's the missing ingredient - that satisfaction that says, "Though I don't have everything I want, I have everything I need." The words of the old Sheryl Crow song: "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."

Instructions for the Rich

In verse 17 of 1 Timothy 6, Paul writes: "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or fix their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share."

Here's the problem with that verse: it's the word "rich." The minute you hear the word "rich," you think of anybody who has more than you. You look to your boss, the boss looks to his boss, they look to the people around them who have resources. I don't know what you do if you're Buffett or Gates - you look at each other, I guess, and probably argue over who's the richest until there's responsibility attached. Then they go, "Oh, you're rich."

Two Dangerous Temptations

Look at the warning. Paul instructs those who are rich in this present world to not do two things: to not be conceited, and to not fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches.

The minute you have richness or success in this world, you're tempted to be conceited. People come to you like you're something special. When the sales staff gathers together, they say, "Hey, why don't you tell us your secret?" "Ah, shucks, it's nothing. But here are the five things I do that are pretty much unique to me, and if you try real hard, maybe you could aspire to some of them."

The second danger is fixing hope on the uncertainty of riches. Riches are like a greased pig. The uncertainty of riches means not just that you might lose them, but...

Squeeze them, and they're gone. There were a whole bunch of us who in 2008, 2009 saw it down in Arizona, saw our houses depreciate by 30 or 40 percent. There were a bunch of you that had a retirement, a fixed income, all set together, and boom, it's gone.

The uncertainty of riches is that, but let me take it to another level. The uncertainty of riches is saying, if I have that, I'll be happy. Trust in those riches to do what only Christ can do in your life. You are not meant to be ultimately satisfied, to have a critical, crucial longing met with a person, place, or thing other than Jesus.

We have all sorts of needs. Last night, after the session, went up to the driftwood, I was determined to not eat, ended up having a little sandwich, so I skipped breakfast this morning. I'm right now really hungry. We're going to have lunch. When we have lunch, I'm going to eat. I'm going to be satisfied. Our flight's at six o'clock, so we're going to eat lunch. I won't really be hungry. We'll be down by the gate. Our plane to Phoenix is always way at this one end at the Portland airport. We'll be down there. It's great. It's kind of isolated. Well, we really won't get anything to eat. Then we get in there about 8:30, be kind of hungry again.

So I've got needs that can be met and satisfied temporarily, but then I have this crucial longing to be connected in some way with something. I'm not sure what it is. It's this longing to be loved and appreciated and understood. It's this longing for relationship, and it can only be met through an intimate relationship with the Creator God of the universe.

I have a tendency to think, if I have enough of a person, place, or thing, I'll be happy. You still have that. You still have people walk around who say they're Christians, who will say, if I won the Powerball, man, life would be good. Life would be good as you know it now, but it would just present a whole different set of problems. And I'm not silly and stupid. I understand that we need money and resources for things, but I'm not trying to overhype this, but I'm getting ready to go into that operating room in January. It didn't make any difference how much money I had. Money doesn't buy health. I didn't get it until then. So these uncertainty of riches.

Lessons from Demas

Now I want to take you through what I think are the so what's of this. Here they are, lessons from Demas, I hope.

Number one, the Christian life is a team sport. You're not made to go this alone. It's the picture of the body of Christ. Some are a wrist, some are an elbow, some are an eye, some's a lung, some's a heart, some's a brain. And some may be slightly more important to the body, but all are necessary for the body to function. If the body was just an eye, we'd see real well, but it'd be a limited field that we'd see and no range. We need desperately each other.

There are gifts that are given in the body of Christ. And if you're not in the church, in the body of Christ, using those gifts, the body suffers. I don't know anything about your church, so I don't single your church out. I'll tell you about ours.

The Need for Mentorship

We believe that you need to spend time older and younger together in a mentor-protege relationship, not necessarily chronologically older. I did a funeral for a lady who was, well, she was dead, but beyond dead, she was about 75. And her husband was about the same age. And he said, right as we're going in, I'd like to speak. And I said, you know, that may not be the wisest thing. He said, no, I made some notes. And so we got up and he said, I want to thank my mentor. And he mentions a guy who's 29 years old that's on our staff, Luke. So it doesn't have to be age-wise. Generally, it's chronologically older with younger. Mentor-protege. Paul Timothy. You need that in your life.

Now I'm going to give you the secret. The problem, the reason that most of the time it doesn't work, are the older people, not the younger people. We have fought since 1991 to get older women with younger women. And we can't get the older gals to move. They want to come together and do a Bible study that tells them they need to reach out to younger women. And they'd rather study that year after year after year after year after year than do it. They got to walk right around these younger gals saying, hey, you got a minute? Nope. I got to go to a Bible study that tells me to spend time with you. That's how we'd rather do it. And I don't know if it's like that in your church or not, but it is in ours.

There are young gals and guys who are dying for you to spend time with them. And as the culture gets more and more dysfunctional, what you're really doing is, in some cases, in the old days, it would be reparenting. But now you got kids that have never been parented at all. And they're not looking for you to find an obscure person like Demas and talk about him. They're looking for you.

The Reality of Mentoring Relationships

When Larian and I used to get together, we met every Tuesday morning at six o'clock. We had no agenda, and we would talk about life. And some days we'd be done in an hour. Other days, we literally would be sitting in that restaurant and order breakfast, and they'd clear it away, and we'd end up ordering lunch. And I'd say, gosh, you had daughters. I got daughters. What do you do with them? You got a wife. I got a wife. What do you do with her? How do you live that? How do you balance all of the business stuff? How on all of a sudden, when God's just so real in your life, and you're having this desire to follow Him, I'm tempted to ignore my work to read scripture. That doesn't seem right. What did you do?

The Christian faith is a team sport. And you need to simultaneously be a Paul, a mentor, and a Timothy, a protege.

This is my favorite example. I'm one day, I'm in the middle of something, and I can't figure it out. So I hit line one. I call Larry, and hello. I said, hey, doc, I got a real problem here. I can't figure this out. So I start to pour it out to him. And then line two rings, and he

said, go ahead and get it. I said, they can wait. Well, this is important. I got to get this figure. He said, no, go ahead and get it. I put him on hold. Line two, hey, Tom, this is Dave. I need your help. Line one, I'm a Timothy. I'm a protege. Line two, I'm a Paul. I'm a mentor.

You need one another. And I just offer this, be on the lookout for these. Don't be afraid to go up to somebody and say, hey, listen, I need somebody to pour some time into me. What is it? Can you help me? That's how I ended up with Larry. I went up to Larry. I'd been a Christian about three weeks. And he said, how are you doing? I said, I'm doing all right. And he said, you need to be discipled. I said, well, I don't know what that means. And he said, you need somebody to spend some time with you, talk to you about this. I said, well, congratulations. You won, because I don't know anybody else. I don't know one other person. I got nobody else that I think I respect enough or I think has the determination to hang in with me, because it won't be an easy road.

Don't Be Surprised by Adversity

Number two, don't be surprised by adversity. Count it all joy, James says in James 1:2, when you encounter various trials, because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance. Count it all joy when you, not if you, when you encounter various trials.

Your products that you buy, your car, they're going to break down. Your relationships are going to have these amazingly exhilarating great times, but they're going to have challenges too. You're going to have deals that don't close. You're going to have promises that are broken. You're going to have knees that don't work and hearts that pump, but they can't get it through the vein and vows that don't work and tumors that grow.

You're going to have this, don't go, oh my golly, I never surprised. Here I am. I'm following, here I am. I'm following you, Jesus. Why would you do this to me? Well, we can work this through if you want for your good so that you'll be stronger. Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Here you go. Every morning we've been here, Sandy gets up and runs down this beach and she's getting ready. I always say we are going to run a marathon. She's given up on the marathons pretty much. It's just hard and a lot of training. So she does half marathons, which by the way is still a lot.

So we're going to run a marathon in August. She's going to run, my responsibility is to get her to the start line and make sure my Kindle is charged. So that's what I do. So we're going to run, we're running in Healdsburg, California, Sonoma in the wine country, August 10th or something.

So in the training process, she said, I don't know, like Tuesday, I got to get a long run in this week. So what that means is she runs every day five or six miles, skips it up a little bit, but in the training she needs to run 10, technically tomorrow. We'll be in Phoenix tomorrow, it'll be 108. She said, I'll run them a can of beach. The problem is, I don't have this problem, the problem is to get a 10 mile run in, the beach isn't long enough. I don't know if any of you noticed that. The beach isn't long enough.

So she comes in all sweaty, not breathing hard, I don't get that. But I said, how was it? She said, it was great, got through it. This looks stupid to me. She runs and runs and runs, and she does it so she'll feel better. When she got back, I was still in bed with the covers over my head, I felt really good. I didn't need that run. I was feeling good. It's called aerobic activity.

Trials Are Spiritual Aerobics

Here's the transition. What James tells us is that trials are spiritual aerobics. Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance. Then along comes that test, like a rubber band. He grabs us, and he says, I can't take it anymore. Really? I can't take it anymore. Oh, I've learned my lesson. Okay, we back off. And we go like this, we go, I'm done. No, all He's done is loosen up the band so we can start out here next time.

Don't be surprised by this adversity or by betrayal. Ray Stedman, in commenting on this section, wrote this, I received a letter last week from a man who used to work alongside me, who loved this present world, departed. He wrote me to tell me that his life's been a disaster, devastation, personal loss, destruction of his marriage.

Now, his advice, you will have in your life a Demas or two or three or more, somebody you pour your life into, somebody you think is on the team, somebody outwardly doing ministry who brings you deep hurt and deep pain and sometimes deep confusion, because all of a sudden it becomes apparent that they love this present world and they leave. This is a great, I wish I could write like this. Demas is part of your network. Don't be surprised by this. We need one another, but we're human.

Past Performance Doesn't Guarantee Future Results

Here's the third thing. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. That's in the bad sense or the good sense. I am an infomercial junkie. I love infomercials. And I can watch them. It doesn't matter what it's for. It can be a slicer, a dicer, it can be anything.

So there's one on the other day that has the basic elements, right? It tells the story of a need and then the testimony. And the testimony is like we frankly do. Here's a before picture and an after picture. Well, I'm the universal before picture. So here I am. I'm watching this and I'm listening to this. It was something for a drink. And I'm thinking, wow, this is powerful.

And then they show the guy before and he looks like me. And then they show him afterwards and he's all cut and he lost his shirt. All of a sudden, he can't find a shirt that fits apparently. I don't know what happened. And underneath his after picture, what's it say? Results may vary. Oh, you mean I'll

Look even better than that? That's a possibility? No, no. You're not going to look like that. Or they pitch you, here's our thing and we've done this and we've guaranteed all sorts of returns for our investor. But when they're all done with the ad, along comes the announcer, "we want you to know that past performance doesn't guarantee future results." Oh, no.

So all of a sudden, you may have this guy and you may be sitting here right now going, I don't know why I wasted time to listen to this guy talk about failure and past. Just because I'm flying high. And I've been flying high for a long time. Ever since Archie and Evangeline and I used to have dinner together, I've been flying high. Well, let me tell you something, pal. That doesn't guarantee you're going to finish high.

Among the guys that are mutual friends of Bill and me is a guy by the name of Bob Craney. The last time I saw Craney, I said to him, Bob, what are you doing? And he said, here's what I'm focused on. Finishing strong. And he would be among that group that I put up there that go, I don't know how he's not going to finish strong. But past performance, good or bad.

Failure Is Not Fatal

And it gets to the fourth point, which was the Peter talk. Failure is not fatal. Remember, I mentioned John Mark to you. I mentioned there was this guy, John Mark, and boy, he says, we're going to bring along John Mark. He's going to do great. He blows out. Paul says, let's get rid of him.

In 2nd Timothy chapter 4, right where you were, after this, Demas has deserted me. In verse 11, Paul writes, "Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful for service." This is the guy that Paul said, get him out of here. I don't want him around. I don't need a guy like that. Now, in his desperate hour, not out of desperation, but because out of reality, he gives you the description. He's useful to me. This past performance, good, doesn't guarantee a strong ending, and failure is not fatal.

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

Now, I'll give you two more points here. The best defense is a good offense. I never know what the heck that means. But here's what I mean by it. Go back to chapter 2 of 2nd Timothy. Chapter 2, Paul is writing, and he says, "suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ." But this is perfect insight into what we're looking at right now. 2nd Timothy chapter 2, verse 4, "no soldier in active duty entangles themselves in the affairs of everyday life, so he may please the one who enlisted him."

If you're a teacher, if you're somebody who wants to do a series or a study, do it on that 2nd Timothy 2, 4. No soldier in active duty entangles themselves in the affairs of everyday life. What are the things in everyday life that entangle you? And the imagery of a soldier here, and focus.

So let's say that you're at Luke Air Force Base today. You get up in the morning, and you go to the closet. You don't go to the closet and go, what should I wear? Maybe a pair of snappy gray shorts like Tom has on. No, you're going to wear fatigues. You go down for breakfast. What would you like? Well, you can have this. I don't want that. You can have this. I don't want that. Lunch is at 12. This distraction of everyday life.

I eat at a restaurant that has a dish that I order most of the time called plain and simple. So I'll say, I'll have the plain and simple. That's great. How would you like your eggs? What are my choices? Well, scrambled, fried, over easy, over hard. Poached? Boiled? I'll have poached. Great. Toast? What are my choices? Sourdough, wheat, rye, marble rye, white, ten grain. I'll have ten grain. Others, meat with that. Would you like meat? Well, what are my choices? Well, ham, bacon, sausage. I'll have sausage, patties, or links. And I'll say, I ordered the plain and simple, right? Wasn't that what I had, the plain and simple? There's nothing plain and simple in life. Life will suck you in. You can spend, and I mean this, you can spend five minutes ordering breakfast. No soldier in active duty entangles themselves in the affairs of everyday life.

"If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win unless he competes according to the rules." And the idea there that Paul's making is not getting into winning or losing. It's the idea of competing and training. And then he says, "and the hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of crops." Hard-working.

The best defense is a good offense, and he gives it to you here in chapter two. Be like a soldier who's focused and dedicated. Be like an athlete who's training and has self-control. Be like a farmer who's hard-working and diligent.

How am I going to stay on track? I'm going to be proactive. I'm going to be Paul. I'm going to buffet my body. I'm going to take control of this. I'm going to be focused. Listen to Paul's like, "this one thing I do, I forget what lies behind." When I preach, I preach Christ and Christ crucified. Wait a minute. Are you telling me you only got one message? No. What he's saying is, if I talk about marriage, I talk about Christ in the middle of marriage. Whatever it is, it's about Christ and Christ crucified. How do I stand firm? How do I break the tape? Focused, trained, dedicated.

You Need an Eternal Perspective

Here's the last thing. You need an eternal perspective. We'll go back one time. Back to 1st Timothy on contentment. 1st Timothy 6:6. "Godliness is actually a means of great gain when it's accompanied by contentment. We brought nothing into the world. We can't take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering with those, we should be content." This is my favorite passage to teach. If you said you got one shot and one message, it

But here's the ticket, the key to contentment. It's verse 7. If you look at this, and I'm not a writer. Bill is a writer. But if I look at this from what I look at as a writer's perspective, 1st Timothy 6, 6, 7, and 8, it looks to me like verse 7 breaks the flow. Take out verse 7. "But godliness actually means a great gain when it's accompanied by contentment." Verse 8, "if we have food and covering with those, we should be content." That seems to flow better if you take verse 7 out.

The problem I have is God wrote it and put verse 7 in. So verse 7 must be important. Not just important, it's the key. You'll never experience contentment until you get a hold of verse 7. You came in with nothing, you're leaving with nothing.

Remember we talked about a couple nights ago? Solomon gets everything, looks at the world and says, I came in naked, I'm leaving naked. Job loses everything, is ultimately restored, but loses everything. And in the midst of it said, I came in with nothing, I'm leaving with nothing.

The Eternal Perspective

If all of a sudden you can begin to see your life as God sees it from eternal perspective. If you can get that death clock idea, hey, hurry up, I'm dying here. If you can see all that stuff, I don't have my phone, but if I had it, I can scroll through and we're home next week and we're there. We land tomorrow, teach tomorrow night, teach Sunday morning, and then we got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then we take off Friday.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday have all sorts of stuff in them. When I look at these, okay, this is really, most of this stuff really doesn't matter. And most of the stuff that you're going to do, I know this is not exactly go get him tiger kind of stuff, but most of the stuff you're going to do next week really doesn't matter ultimately.

That's my challenge. We said in a meeting the other day on IT. I've been in more meetings on IT than I care to imagine. We've redesigned this system four times. I don't know anybody that's happy with their system. And we're talking and hours, and I fight this battle all the time.

In one sense, it doesn't matter. In another sense, it's crucial right there. Can you apply that in your own life to your stuff? You got these things you got to do, and they've got to be in this eternal perspective. It demands my time, energy, effort, and in some cases money, but it doesn't require it or deserve it beyond the appropriateness in my life.

Does that make sense? I go to the IT meeting, but I'm not going to sit and argue about it. I know we're going to be back here in two years, redesigning the whole system again. And it doesn't matter. And I'm not going to make everything in me wants to go, guys, this is stupid. No, it's not. It's important. But now I got to look at the things that are truly important. I got to get God's perspective on my life.

Demas Lost His Focus

Demas lost it. He got distracted. All sorts of terminology, sports terminology, took his eye off the ball. He lost what was really important. Demas, having loved this present world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. He loved it so much, he said, hey, Paul, I hope it works out. Deserted you, left you in the most dire straits for the love of the world.

Any chance that's creeping into your life? It'll be there. And if you're one of those that are right now saying, never me, you're the one I would be most worried about. I worry about myself all the time on this.

Let me pray, and then we're going to eat. It doesn't get any better than that. Satisfy that longing till six o'clock.

Father, thank you for this. Look at this story of Demas. And I think the reason I was attracted to it when I first read that verse, Demas having loved this present world, is I can see me doing this. God, strengthen us, focus us, ground us, fill us with your Spirit that allows us to push back the temptation to be part of this world. Father, it is kind of an either or. We can't serve two masters. Grow us deep in our love for you.

Father, I pray that you would help us understand that this is a team effort. We need one another. And because things are going well, it doesn't mean they always will. And because they're going badly doesn't mean that you can't use us. Father, help us understand that adversity is part of life and use it for our good and for your glory.

Get us focused like a soldier and self-control like an athlete and working hard like a farmer until the day when we can say what Paul wrote here. How amazing is that? I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. God, we want to be able to say that. We're not going to say it at the end if we don't have that determination and focus now. God, put that in our heart. We ask it of you in Christ's name. Amen.