What I Learned on My Summer Vacation, Part 2 (2000)
Tom Shrader uses articles from Time Magazine, George Magazine, and a local newspaper to explore three connected themes: building a personal legacy through deliberate faithfulness, the cultural drift toward self-centeredness that undermines marriage and relationships, and the exclusive claim of Jesus Christ as the only path to God. He grounds each theme in Scripture, drawing on 2 Timothy 4, Philippians 2, and Matthew 7 to show that a life of lasting meaning requires denying self rather than protecting it. He closes by warning against false prophets who omit the hard truths of the gospel and urging believers to speak truth in love within their spheres of influence.
“The answer to life, whether it's marriage or whatever, the answer is Christ. If anyone wishes to come after me, he'll have to deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: What I Learned on My Summer Vacation
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 9 min
Themes: legacy, selflessness, marriage, truth, false teachers, influence, cultural drift, exclusive salvation, married couples, struggling with self-centeredness, parent, mentor, new believer, feeling purposeless, navigating cultural pressure, midlife reflection
Scripture: 1 John 2:15, 2 Timothy 4:6-7, 2 Timothy 2:4, Matthew 6:25-33, Matthew 16:24, Philippians 2:5-8, John 14:6, 1 Timothy 2:5, Acts 4:12, Matthew 7:13-15, 1 John 4:1
Theological Themes: soteriology, exclusivity of christ, self-denial, sanctification, biblical authority, false prophets, gospel truth, christology
Full Transcript
Introduction: A Legacy Worth Leaving
This is the last part of "What I Learned on My Summer Vacation." I remind those of you I talked to this week who have been so supportive and said how much you enjoy it and how you can't wait to get back to verse-by-verse study — I am with you. I enjoy that as well, and we'll be there next week in Acts chapter 18. This is my opportunity, and I take it only really once a year, to talk about some things that I saw or experienced while I was on summer vacation and how they relate to us. Last week, the thrust of it was 1 John 2:15 — "do not love the world nor the things of the world" — and I want to look at three different issues this week: one from a local paper back home, the Quad City Times, one from Time Magazine, and one from George Magazine.
The Quad City Times is my home newspaper. One headline reads, "Iowa Ranks Low in State Park Studies," so we don't care about that. But here is one that is significant to us. How many of you would know — and the answer will be not many — Ronald Reagan's birthplace? Illinois, very good. It is Tampico, exactly right. He was born in Tampico, then Dixon was really his boyhood home, and then he went to school at Eureka College.
What the state of Illinois was trying to do at the time was capitalize on that connection. They instituted what they call the Ronald Reagan Trail, where you can begin in Tampico, go to Dixon and Eureka, and incorporate other things from Reagan's life. They were inaugurating the Ronald Reagan Trail when I was home. They had Maureen Reagan there to speak, and she gave her report about her father and how he was doing.
Then she said this — speaking of his legacy, touching on his early work at WOC Radio in Davenport and then WHO Radio — that mostly his legacy is that he made us believe again. When we lost our faith as a people, this is Maureen Reagan speaking, he told us we could do anything because we're Americans, and we had forgotten that.
When I read that, I thought: I wonder if, when Dutch was in Dixon as a lifeguard on the Rock River, he thought to himself, "I'm building a legacy." Sometimes we look at a man like Reagan, or an extraordinary mind like Einstein, or a war hero like Eisenhower, and we say those are the people with a legacy. But don't you, in your own life, have people who have left a legacy for you?
The Legacy We All Carry
Aren't there people — maybe a Sunday school teacher, a teacher at school, maybe the first person you worked for — who taught you a great deal about life? Clearly parents and friends as well. My response would be this: good or bad, we all have people in our lives who have molded us to some degree, and we are part of their legacy. My point is simply this: just as people have had an impact on you and left a legacy on you, you have a legacy. I am afraid we miss that. I am afraid we reserve the word "legacy" for heroes.
Paul certainly understood this. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, he is at the end of his life. Second Timothy is a powerful book because Paul is writing it while he is dying and he knows it. His heart, I think, is laid bare.
I love going to the hospital, and one of the things I appreciate about it is that you are talking to somebody sitting there with a gown with no back on it, and all the pretenses are gone. There is a certain level of seriousness in the hospital. Almost every time I go, someone will say, "Here is something I have been wanting to tell you, but I didn't." I love that. That is why I recommend 2 Timothy — it is such a great read for understanding the heart of the apostle.
Whenever there is a biography on someone and there are two volumes, I never buy volume one. I do not care where they went to school. I want volume two. I want to know the end of their life and how they died.
Here is what Paul says: "As for me, my life is already being poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have remained faithful." That is the New Living Translation. When we read that, here is what we say: that is how I want to die. It is not at all unusual to go to a funeral and hear someone say, "Like the apostle Paul, our brother was one who fought the good fight and finished the race and kept the faith."
Ending Well Requires Living Deliberately
Here is what I want you to see. It is important to understand that Paul did not just end up that way. There was a deliberate, planned, prepared step in his life that he took virtually every day to ensure that at the end of his life he could say, "I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith."
In your life, who are the people you admire? People who are somewhere ahead of you — perhaps in spiritual things, perhaps in business, perhaps in rearing children. Who are the people whose achievement and accomplishment you aspire to? If you are really smart, here is what you will do: you will go to them and say, "Can I have some of your time? I want you to tell me what steps you took to get there."
Here is the answer, because I believe every Christian I know wants to say at the end of their life, "I fought the good fight." Paul says this, tucked two chapters earlier. He uses the picture of a soldier as he speaks of the Christian. He says, "No soldier in active duty..."
Entangled in Everyday Life
There are things in your life that will entangle you, stop you, and impede you from being able to say at the end of your life, "I fought the good fight and I finished the race and I kept the faith." You are here at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning, and that demonstrates some level of commitment. Some of you, I got here a little before six this morning and there were four or five, six people who were here before six — and do you know why? To learn how to make coffee so that you would have coffee when you got here. That is so cool.
You are here with a level of seriousness, and I believe in the bottom of your heart your desire is to say at the end of your life, "I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith." Here is the problem: are you entangling yourselves in the affairs of everyday life to the extent that you will not be able to achieve what you desire for the kingdom of God?
That word *entangles* means to interweave. Jesus speaks to this in the Sermon on the Mount, and here is what He says: "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, or your body, or what you will put on it." He then speaks about how God provides all of these things. When we worry about these things, when we are consumed — when we are entangled in the affairs of everyday life — we miss the greater thing.
In fact, here is what He says in verse 32 of Matthew 6: "For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek." When you are entangled in the affairs of everyday life, you are a practicing atheist. That is what you are. What you are saying is, "I really don't trust you, God." When I sit and plan and calculate and move and do and do and do, to some extent I am saying, "God, I am not trusting you."
Verse 32 continues: "Your heavenly Father knows all the things you need." I have been listening a little to K-Love, 105.5 FM, a radio station that plays Christian music. They featured a song this week — *You Already Have What You Need* — and that is exactly the point. We are running around as though we are deficient in something, and God says, no, you already have it. He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this other stuff will take place."
Obedience, Not Victory
Are you entangled in the affairs of everyday life? Notice what He says: do not do that — and why? Not so you will win the battle. That is not even what He says. It is not up to you to win or lose the battle. The reason is so you may please the Father. So often we are concerned about victory. I watch a lot of Christian television, and there seems to be a real emphasis on victory — we are going to get Satan, we are going to take on Satan today, we are going to give the old devil a good whooping tonight. That kind of mentality.
Here is the problem: this devil is a pretty strong adversary. And God is not calling you to victory. He is calling you to obedience. That is what He is calling you to. It does not matter how it turns out — that is up to Him. You are a soldier, you are on active duty, you are not in the reserves, and God calls you not to entangle yourself in the affairs of everyday life so that you will please Him.
Your Legacy: The Changing Shape of American Life
The second thing I want to address this morning comes from *Time* magazine, August 28th. On the cover are the stars of the HBO show *Sex and the City*, and the cover story title is "Who Needs a Husband?" What they report is that more women are saying no to marriage and embracing the single life, and the question they ask is whether these women are happier. The story contains some fascinating facts about the way our life and our society is changing.
Here are just a couple of those facts. Forty-three million women are single — more than 40% of the adult women in this country. That is up 30% from forty years ago. In 1963, 83% of women between the ages of 25 and 55 were married. That number has dropped significantly, down to 65%. These women are also flexing their economic muscle. Nearly 60% of single women own their own home, buying them faster than single men. They represent 20% of housing purchases in America, up 10% from just fifteen years ago. Forty percent of business travelers are women.
The article also asks what the real problem is with men. Here is what women said: 61% said men are too controlling, 55% said they cannot communicate, and others cited that men are not emotionally supportive, that they fear commitment, that they lack passion, and that they are too preoccupied with work. When asked what they miss about not being married, 75% said they miss the companionship, 11% said they miss the money, 4% said they miss the sex life, and 4% said they miss the ability to have children.
Interestingly, I want to focus on that smaller percentage — the 4% who miss the sex life and the 4% who miss the ability to have children. Four million single women live with a lover, and a growing percentage of those are lesbian relationships. The article states: "Surveys show married people generally have more sex than supposedly swinging singles. It is clear that living alone does not mean abstinence. Experiences vary widely, from women who go through long periods without sexual relationships to others that have regular casual flings. 'You can easily take care of your needs,' notes a Washington D.C. single woman." Many women enjoy comfortable relationships with men —
The Redefinition of Family
The article includes stories of arrangements that involve sex but have no hint of marriage, like the 50-something Nashville woman whose male friend comes down a handful of visits each year. She says, and I quote, "He's someone I know and trust. The sex is great and we stay up till 4 a.m. talking." Four percent of those surveyed say they miss the sex, and four percent say they're worried about not having kids.
Here is something interesting. While the birth rate among teenagers has fallen 15%, among unmarried 30-somethings since 1990 it has climbed 15%. In a CNN/Time poll, 61% of single women age 18 to 49 said yes, they would consider rearing children on their own. There is a whole subset of people — single men and single women — who are now adopting children, and that is becoming the norm. Someone like Rosie O'Donnell can go and adopt one child, two children, three children, and the argument is: aren't they better off in that home than in a home without loving parents?
Presumably yes, but there are hundreds of thousands of married couples who would love to adopt children, and they are out there. The deeper issue is that what we are doing is reorganizing the family — reorganizing what God says the family is. God's design is clear: a husband and wife, a man and a woman, joined together forever in a monogamous relationship, and it is within that environment, under God's best design, that children are to be raised.
The Core Problem: Self
One woman in the article describes a man she liked but not enough to stay with. Here is what she says: "I totally adored him, but I wasn't happy. I didn't think I could make him happy and retain my spirit. That is what makes me shine." The article ends with a 33-year-old woman who says this: "I'm not going to do anything to attract a person that means changing. I've worked long and hard to be myself."
Do you see what is at the core of this? It is not a male-female thing. It is a selfish, me thing. No human relationship — marriage, friendship, employee, employer — is going to survive and thrive and be what it can be as long as you are worried about yourself. We live in a time that says protect yourself, watch out for yourself, ask how you think and how you feel and what something means to you.
I remember when my girls were young, we never had to teach them this. They learned to say "mine" very quickly. But there was a little phrase they used all the time — the minute I would respond to one of them, you would hear the little voice on the other side of the room say, "What about me? What about me?" And we grow up, and now you have 50-year-old people still saying, "What about me? What about me?"
The Answer: The Mind of Christ
The answer to life — whether in marriage or anything else — is Christ. Here is what He says: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he will have to deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." That is why the claim that 50% of Christian marriages end in divorce simply cannot be accurate — it is not even close. A Christian is someone who understands, someone who has at least made a profession that they are denying themselves, that there is something more important than just me and my needs.
Here is what Paul says in Philippians 2: "Have the attitude" — one version says "have the mind in you which is also in Christ Jesus." Think like Christ. Have an attitude like Christ. What does he mean? He gives us the illustration: "Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself" — not of His deity, but of His glory — "and He took the form of a bondservant, and He was made in the likeness of man, found in the appearance of a man, and He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross."
There is the ticket for life. Whatever you want — fulfillment, satisfaction, meaning, direction — the world says you find it by satisfying yourself. But the opposite is true.
What Achievement Cannot Provide
I was listening just this morning to an interview with Chris Evert Lloyd. Athletes and stars and movie stars so often provide us a striking picture precisely because they have achieved and live at a level that many of us say is really living. And she said that she reached a point in her life where she stopped and realized: you go to tournaments, you win tournaments, you go to movies, you come home — there has to be something more to life than this. This is not a loser, this is not a wannabe. This is a Wimbledon champion.
There is also a great scene after the Cowboys finally win a Super Bowl, where Charlie Waters looks over at Cliff Harris in the locker room and says, "Who do we play next?" In other words, they won the Super Bowl — and they go on to say that when you win the Super Bowl, you're depressed. Now, many of us would say, well, let's give it a try nonetheless. But do you see what is being said? It was all built up, and now they are there, and it is not enough.
We are not saying that winning the Super Bowl is not significant. What we are saying is that it will never fulfill you as long as you live for yourself. But the minute you live for Christ, you find fulfillment.
A Story of Transformation
The third thing — and I wish we could spend all sorts of time on each of these — comes from an issue of George magazine with Cindy Crawford on the cover. Inside is an article on George W. Bush titled "How George W. Found God." It talks about how he had been a drinker, how he stopped, and how his life went through all of that, and then —
The Exclusivity of Christ in an Inclusive World
Don Evans, his best friend, says this about his faith: "That's what defines him." The book notes that some will find this reassuring and others won't, and that non-Christians may be given pause. It points to one particular episode. One day, back during the reign of George the First — meaning when George Senior was president — W and his mother Barbara got into an argument about religion. They were debating who goes to heaven.
W pointed to the family Bible and said that only Christians got to go there. "Mom, look — all I can tell you is what the New Testament says." Barbara responded, "Well, surely God will accept others." Then she picked up the phone and told the White House operator, "Get me Billy Graham." Apparently the New Testament was not a sufficient answer — so she called the mega-evangelist.
A few minutes later the phone rang, and Billy Graham was on the line. Mother and son both held the receiver to their ears. Barbara explained the argument to Graham, and Graham spoke. The quote reads: "From a personal perspective, I would agree with what George is saying. The New Testament has been my guide. But I want to caution you both — don't play God. Who are you to be God?"
Let's stop right there and nail this down once and for all. Either this is true or it isn't. You are not playing God when you say Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him. Jesus said it Himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me."
It's a very interesting discussion, because churches gather all over this valley right now — churches that would say the Bible is the Word of God — and yet when it comes to issues like this, all of a sudden we start to waver. Can you imagine saying, "Here's what the New Testament says, but I've got to call Billy Graham"? Here's what the New Testament says, but what does John MacArthur say? It doesn't matter what John MacArthur says, or Billy Graham says, or RC Sproul says, or I say, and it doesn't matter what you think. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me."
The Hard Implications We'd Rather Avoid
We all say "amen" to that — put us down for yes. But then we start to deal with the hard issues of life and we begin to wander. I was talking to a man not long ago about missions, and I had made the statement that I believe people who never hear the gospel go to hell. He was absolutely offended by that. "That can't possibly be right," he said. "I don't believe that."
I asked him one simple question: "Do you send money to missions?" He said yes. I said, "Why would you do that? Why would you take somebody who has a chance to go to heaven, send them an evangelist, and now condemn them to hell?" If they can go to heaven on their own, why would we waste our time, our money, and our energy trying to share the faith? If they are going to go to heaven anyway, stay out of there — you're only making things worse. Isn't that true?
There was a significant controversy last week over the Vatican's new statement. I have not read the statement itself, only the reports, and in essence what the Vatican is saying is: we are the true religion, and if you are not Catholic, you are deficient. I will tell you something — I love that statement, and I'll tell you why. I am so tired of people who say there are many ways, that we are one path among others. At least the Vatican has the fortitude to say, "Yes, we believe something, and we believe it is true." I believe they are wrong, but at least they believe it.
Let me help clarify this. Are there going to be Catholics in heaven? I think the answer is yes. Just as there will be people from East Valley Bible Church in hell. But they will not be in heaven because they are Catholic, and they will not be in hell because they attended East Valley Bible Church. They will be in heaven because they knew Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and believed in Him — they may have had flawed doctrine surrounding it, but that faith saved them. And they will be in hell not because they came to this church, but because they denied the Savior. They said, "I will save myself." They said, "I don't believe Jesus is the only way."
Do you see this? That is why we have such vigor. That is why we have such passion. That is why many of you who are here with friends — your friends weep for you, and pray for you, and care for you. Why? Because if you do not come to Christ, you go to hell. That sounds exclusive. But it is throughout the New Testament.
What Scripture Says
Here is Paul writing in 1 Timothy 2:5: "There is one God, one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Jesus Christ." And here again in Acts chapter 4 — we studied this some time ago — when Peter and John are before the scribes and elders, the Jewish leaders, who are asking what this is all about, how the sick are being healed, what is happening. They answer: "There is salvation in no one else; there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
One of the great challenges we face — and perhaps it has always been there, but it is certainly a dominant challenge now — is that Christ has given us a very exclusive message in a very inclusive world. I was sitting at a red light Friday at Price and Southern, behind a car that had a bumper sticker that said, "Minds are like parachutes — they're best used when they're open."
The Exclusivity of Truth
We are told to be open-minded, to embrace all things, to take them all equally. Under our constitution we want to preserve everyone's right to free speech, and we don't want a state religion. But Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father through Me." That is either true or it isn't.
I have come across men who follow a little bit of R.C. Sproul and a little bit of Bob Shuler and a little bit of Zen and a little bit of Buddhism and some Yiddish proverbs, and they figure they have all their bases covered — whoever's the guy at the end, I'm in there somehow. You don't have to cover all your bases. There's only one.
The Narrow Gate and the Wide Gate
Now, because I know what we tend to do at East Valley Bible Church, we tend to take this message and march it out to the marketplace with a little truth detector, ready to drill anyone with false doctrine. I don't think that's the call. The call is to live this, to stand for this, and to stand against false teaching.
With that in mind, I have to close with Matthew 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter by it. The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few are those who find it."
He is describing two gates. Those two gates have two different sets of criteria, two different populations, and two different destinations. There is a narrow gate that is lightly traveled, heavy, and demanding. There is a wide gate that is easy and broad, and He says there are many on it. One leads to heaven and one leads to hell.
For years, when I read that passage, I pictured two gates with signs — one reading "This way to heaven" and one reading "This way to hell." But that is not how they are marked. They are both marked "This way to heaven." I have met very few people who say they are going to hell and are not bothered by it. Virtually everyone I meet thinks they are going to heaven.
Here is what we need to understand. There is a heaven and there is a hell. If you are not on that narrow path — the one with few people, the one that is demanding, the one that strips away everything you want to bring with you — if instead you are on that broad, easy, permissive way with few rules and few requirements, you are going to end up in eternal destruction.
Beware of False Prophets
My final point comes from the very next verse. Jesus says, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are like ravenous wolves." Scripture is filled with descriptions for these men — false brothers, false apostles, false teachers, false speakers, false witnesses, false Christs.
First John chapter 4 verse 1 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirit to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world." There is a great demand for false prophets. People want their ears tickled. They want to hear "I'm okay, you're okay, just do your best and let Jesus do the rest." They want to hear that everything is going to be all right, that they just need to do the best they can. But that is not what scripture says.
In a day and age filled with false prophets, you need to be the one who speaks the truth — and let me add quickly, in love.
Identifying a False Prophet
How do you identify a false prophet? There are two ways. The first seems obvious: by what he says. Often when you hear a false prophet, you can identify him by his words. But many times you identify a false prophet by what he does not say. He does not talk about the substitutionary death of Christ. He does not talk about being lost in sin. He does not talk about the need for repentance, about judgment, about hell, about obedience. He talks about a world in which you are basically your own king.
Think about it this way. When someone says "I can do it on my own," what they are really saying to the Savior is, "No thank you — I will be my own Messiah." Just like the old Burger King slogan, they want to do it their way. This thinking is all around us.
Truth in Everyday Life
I love verse-by-verse study and I cannot wait to get back into it. But I also love the fact that we stop at least once a year to help you see that this is all around you every day, and that there are opportunities every day to speak to it.
Back where I was traveling, people were talking about the Ronald Reagan trail everywhere — a great opportunity to ask someone, "Have you ever thought about your own legacy?" Time Magazine and conversations all around were focused on Sarah Jessica Parker — a great opportunity to engage. And then there is President Bush, whom you will be hearing from for another six weeks or so — a great opportunity to ask, "What is this thing about God? What does that mean to you?"
Men and women, every once in a while we need to be reminded of this: this Bible is true. Many of you are investing an enormous amount in East Valley Bible Church and investing an enormous amount in this being the truth. I just want you to hear it from me — it is worth it.
The Only Way
Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father, but through me." If anyone teaches you anything else, the Scripture says they are a false prophet. And the Scripture says that if you believe them, you are a fool.
Closing Prayer
Father, help us see this. Help us understand that we are building a legacy. Even now, we may not be thinking much about it, but we are. God, help us understand that whether it is marriage or work or whatever it might be, You have a plan and You have a model. You have an ideal, a blueprint. And when we deviate from that, we dilute Your work.
Help us see that the problem is selfishness, and let us be selfless like You. God, help us remember what the truth is, embrace the truth, share the truth, and do it in love. Let us never take this truth and become arrogant and obnoxious with it, but let us tell the truth in love the way that so many have done in our lives.
God, I pray for each person here — each person that You have uniquely blessed and uniquely placed in a sphere of influence where they can live for You. I pray for the men and women in this room who know that others are watching them, and for the awesome privilege that is to be used by You to share the truth. God, give us compassion and mercy and boldness. We pray it to You this morning in Jesus' name, amen.