What Kind of Year Was 2005?
Tom Shrader walks through Paul's farewell words in 2 Timothy 4:6-8 as a framework for evaluating the past year, challenging listeners to assess whether they fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. He emphasizes that genuine spiritual growth is measured not by Bible reading plans or conference attendance but by transformed hearts, meaningful relationships with unbelievers, and a life that points others to Christ. Drawing on Psalm 90:12 and 1 Timothy 6:6-8, he calls the congregation to number their days wisely, hold material things loosely, and cultivate a longing for eternity that sharpens rather than diminishes their purpose in the present.
“For those of us who are Christians, this is as close to hell as we're ever going to be. For those of you who are not Christians, this is as close to heaven as you're ever going to be.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Year in Review
Recorded: 2006 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 48 min
Themes: year in review, spiritual growth, fighting the good fight, evangelism, eternity, contentment, faithfulness, numbering your days, feeling spiritually stagnant, reflecting on the past year, struggling with materialism, wanting to grow closer to god, busy professional, mid-life adult, new believer, parent
Scripture: Galatians 6:4, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, Psalm 90:12, Ephesians 6:11-12, 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, Jude 3-4, John 14:6, Revelation 22:12-13, Revelation 22:20
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, eschatology, longing for eternity, perseverance of the saints, finishing well, stewardship, biblical self-examination
Full Transcript
What Kind of Year Was 2005?
This week we are looking back at 2005 to help you process what kind of year it was. Before we begin, let me give you the teaching schedule. I will be here next week. The following Sunday, Paul David Tripp will be in town to teach all five services. He has written books we have used all over this campus — *Shepherding Your Child's Heart*, *Instrument in the Redeemer's Hands*, *War of Words*, *Age of Opportunity*, *Lost in the Middle*, and *The Grace of God*. He is a terrific author and a wonderful speaker, and we are looking forward to a wonderful time.
After that, we will begin a new study in the book of James. My sense is it will take fifteen or sixteen weeks, and then we will come back and finish our study in the life of Christ. I did not want next Sunday just to sit there, so we are returning to our way of doing a year review and preview. We will look at last year today and look ahead to 2006 next week.
The Questions We Typically Ask
What we are really trying to do is spark in your mind a process by which you evaluate your year. The question we place before you is this: what kind of year was 2005? To answer that question, you have to go back and ask yourself a series of smaller questions.
We made a list a long time ago of the typical questions people ask. Did I make more money than before? Did I acquire more things? Did I enhance my career? Do my friends think more highly of me? I have added to that list over time: How is your health? What about retirement? Those are questions anyone might raise. If we went down to Chandler Mall today and stopped a hundred people and asked what kind of year it was, they would have to work through that same process, and those are important questions. We acknowledge that.
As you get ready to answer the question, I want to suggest that you not just consider those things, but what we call a more profound list of questions. We are going to look at those today.
The Value of Returning to This Process
Every year as we begin this process, I remind you of what Samuel Johnson wrote years ago: we need to be reminded more than instructed. Every year I get some emails when this comes up — some asking whether we are going to go through this again, and some asking that we please do it again. A few years ago, by far the most encouraging note I ever received was from a man who said this was going to be his fourth time through it. He said the first time he ignored me, the second time he made some notes, last year he implemented everything, and now he was anxious to see how he was doing. I hope you are somewhere in that process.
My daughter Hailey called yesterday, and she started listing the points of the message, which I find particularly annoying. But I know it is familiar territory, and some of you are probably thinking you could have taken today off. I hope you repent. Because this is an important process. Even if it is very familiar, and even if you come out the other end saying everything is fine, it is still an important process.
The Importance of Self-Examination
You had a great year if you understand the importance of what we are doing right now — the importance of self-examination. Paul writes this in Galatians 6: "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself" — literally deludes, cheats himself. "Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to someone else." In the Amplified Bible, Galatians chapter six, verse four is translated this way: "But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable in itself alone without resorting to boastful comparison with his neighbor."
We as elders are getting ready to leave town for two or three days, and in that process we will go back over the basics. We will look at the core values of the church, revisit those things, examine the role of elders, and look at the role of staff. My conclusion will likely be that some things are great and should not be touched, others need to be tweaked, and others simply need to go. You do this kind of review at work as well. I was on a college football website yesterday — and I could be wearing a black armband today because college football season is over, and I counted the other day that it is 239 days until we kick off again, which is a sickness — and the coach was saying that now that the year is over, it is time to take a hard look at where the program is right now.
In your own life, this is a very difficult thing to do, and let me tell you why. It is hard to be honest with yourself. Isn't it remarkable how critically you can examine and scrutinize everyone else, but when you turn to your own life, you have a tendency to give yourself the benefit of the doubt? You cut yourself slack. You are very hard on everyone else — sharp and decisive in your judgments — but when you get to yourself, all of a sudden you are not nearly so demanding.
Welcoming Outside Input
You need to go outside of yourself to find input in this process — to ask, how am I doing, how are things going? For many of you, God has given you somebody who can provide that input. They're called a spouse.
Here's the problem with that. You have to create an environment where that spouse feels free to respond. I've learned this truth over my marriage with Susan: there was a time where the minute she'd start to respond, I'd just cut that off. I didn't want to hear it. Even now, she'll say, "Listen, I've got something I'd like to share with you. Will you not get upset?" I find that question a little bit upsetting, to be honest with you. I'm not very excited about whatever's going to come next. I know it's not going to be, "Boy, your hair looks great."
What I've discovered is that if I give her the freedom to comment without fear of reprisal — if I don't immediately start forming my counterargument in my mind, thinking, "Well, what about you? You do that. I don't sound like that. You don't understand" — if I just let her share, even if afterward I conclude it may not be an entirely accurate view, all of a sudden I see myself with a whole new set of eyes. We were talking about something the other day here on campus, sitting in a meeting, and I said, "We need a new set of eyes to look at that." What I meant was that we are so engaged in the process that we know there's stuff we're missing. We need fresh eyes. You need that in your life.
The Need for Encouragement
Now, here's a little tip. We tend to think in terms of criticism when we hear that kind of feedback. We brace for the hard news. But some of you also need people to communicate, "Hey, you're really good at this. This is a great thing that you do." You need to be encouraged.
Here's something I've learned: everybody needs a cheerleader. You don't outgrow that. You need somebody to tell you, "Hey, you really do this well." Sometimes you may be completely oblivious to it, or you may underestimate it, because it just comes so easily and naturally to you. I was talking to a guy this week, and I said, "You know what? You're always sending cards, always sending a note. You're such an encourager." He said, "That's nothing — it comes naturally." And I said, "No, no, no. It may come naturally, but it's really something. Don't stop doing that."
You need somebody to come along and say, "Hey, in this area right here, you shine." And when you respond, "Oh, it's nothing," the truth is it's something. It may feel like nothing to you because it's so easy and so smooth, but it's a big deal. You had a great year if you understand the importance of self-evaluation, and if you have grown to the point where you will welcome that input from others — especially those you know love you and truly care for you.
The Value of Time
Open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter four. That's where we're going to camp for the rest of this time. Here is the second thing: you had a great year if you understand the value of time.
2 Timothy chapter four, verse six — Paul writes this: "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come." One of my favorite books in all of Scripture is 2 Timothy, and I think that reveals something about how I think. What draws me to that book is the context of Paul's life at the moment he writes. He understands, as he says in 2 Timothy 4:6, that the end of his life is here. It is the last written communication we have from the apostle, though he may have lived another two or three months — there is speculation all around. He knew he was at the end of his life.
There is something so significant about those moments and about understanding that context. Conversation changes entirely. You have a very different conversation with somebody over breakfast at the Good Egg than you do when you are visiting that person in the hospital and they've been told, "There's a spot in your lung, and it's not looking good." It is a whole different level of conversation.
A Hospital Visit
I had one of those highlight moments of the year about a month ago. There is a husband and wife who have been coming to East Valley Bible Church for three years. They drive about an hour and fifteen minutes each way, sometimes longer. He is very, very ill — he will not recover from this sickness, and it has now prevented him from making that drive. So he receives the DVDs and watches the services on tape. His daughter called and asked if I would go up and visit them.
I have to be really honest with you: that visit was not something I was immediately eager about. I knew it had to be on a Monday. I knew it was an hour and a half each way for me. I knew it was my day off. But I also know those are some of the great moments. So I went up, and I don't know exactly how long I was there — two, three hours. I had a magnificent time. My sense is that I probably had a more meaningful conversation with him than perhaps anyone else had in his life, and the reason was the context.
If we had had that same conversation six months earlier, we would have been talking about how he was hooking his driver and couldn't putt, and what about those Cardinals. But now, all of a sudden, we were talking about: wait a minute, I'm going to die. What happens when you die? Can you know there is a heaven? Who goes there?
Numbering Our Days
These are some serious questions, and they would never arise without that understanding. Psalm 90, verse 12 — make a note of this: "Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom." I believe the Bible teaches that you have a set number of days. Some of you have this many, some have that many, and I don't think there is anything you can do to lengthen them, and I don't think there is anything you can do to shorten them. You can affect the quality of life, but I don't believe you can affect the length of it.
Even if you reject that thought, you certainly won't take the position that you have endless days on this earth. Here is what the psalmist is saying: if somehow I can get my arms around the finiteness of life and live in the shadow of that truth, I am going to live a very different life. It is going to affect the way I live.
Over the last three or four years, Hailey got married, Sarah got married, and Hailey had a baby — Brayden was born. Those events alone are benchmarks for me. Once you have kids, God gives you this reminder without you even realizing it, and if you have no children yourself, you know people who do.
I go to the weddings of kids I know, and in my mind I think, how old is Johnny — first grade, second grade? Then all of a sudden he is getting married and you are saying, what happened? I remember asking myself, when the girls got married, not where did those twenty-five years go, but what am I going to do with the next twenty-five, if I have them? I would be eighty-one. What am I going to do then? What about today?
That is the urgency with which Paul is writing — to get your arms around the finiteness of life. When I understand that, when I am prepared for this, not only am I not afraid of death, I am ready to live this life in a way that makes sense, in a way that has purpose and meaning.
Contentment and the Problem of Verse Seven
Keep your finger in 2 Timothy 4 and turn left to 1 Timothy chapter six — in my Bible it is about one page over. These verses are marked up because we return to them again and again. 1 Timothy 6:6: "But godliness is actually a means of great gain when it's accompanied by" — and here is the key word — "contentment." Verse seven: "For we brought nothing into the world, so we can't take anything out of it either." Verse eight: "If we have food and covering, with those we should be content."
Now, as we have studied this passage over the years, verse seven has always been a problem. Verse six talks about godliness and contentment leading to great gain, and verse eight says that food and covering are enough for contentment — so why is verse seven there at all? I remember teaching in California, standing on a platform with the verses up on a big screen, right in the middle of unpacking the Greek, when I suddenly said: wait a minute, it doesn't puzzle me anymore. I just saw it.
Here is why verse seven is there: if you do not get verse seven, you will never be content. We came in with nothing and we are leaving with nothing. If you think you came in as a child of privilege, or that you are entirely self-made and pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, or that you can take what you have accumulated somewhere else and it will transition with you into eternity — you will never be content, because you will always want more. You will never have enough. You will be obsessed with obtaining, obsessed with accumulating, obsessed with protecting. You do not want just one pen; it has to be three pens. Whatever these things are, they go on and on, and there is never enough.
Wisdom, Not Just Knowledge
Notice what the psalmist asks for: "Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom" — not knowledge. There is no one in this room, regardless of whether you believe what we teach, who believes they are going to live in this body forever. Nobody is raising their hand to claim that. We all know it intellectually. Knowledge is not the problem.
The problem is exactly what the psalmist identifies: teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom — wisdom about how to live, how to see things, how to understand, how to put things in their proper perspective.
The Tension Between Two Dreams
For those of us who are followers of Christ, I think we have to wrestle with a real tension between the American dream and the dream that God has for you. This is not an anti-material position. This place does not exist if you are not making money, if you are not giving. Nobody is against vacations. Nobody is against a house or a car. But while it is not anti-material, it is anti-materialism. You are not going to find real life there. You are not going to find real purpose or real meaning there.
And in our Christian life — a slight tangent here — once we begin to say that we genuinely want to grow, we start to pursue that growth seriously. I was listening the other day to a magnificent radio
Spiritual Growth and What It Really Means
I turned on the radio and there was a lady on, saying that 2006 was going to be a year of spiritual growth for her. She was really going to grow spiritually that year. Her co-host asked her what she was going to do, and she put together a list: read through the Bible in a year, memorize a bunch of verses, get involved in her church, serve at her church, join a small group, listen to Christian radio, read Christian books and publications.
I thought to myself, that isn't going to grow her. That's not growth. That might be a means to growth, but that's not growth. But that's what we do.
Twice in the last three or four weeks, two different guys asked me what would make for a successful year. They both asked, "What would be a successful year for you?" It's a very difficult question in what we do, because if you're at work it's simple — you make quota, you close deals, they give you a check, you go. But when we come to saying "I'm going to grow spiritually," we want to find things we can check off.
He gives us the Great Commission — go and make disciples — and the Great Commandment — love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. He doesn't say anything in there about reading through the Bible in a year. But we love to be able to go check, check, check, check, so we put together this artificial list. Are those things important? Sure they're important. Are those things valuable? Sure they're valuable. But they are means to an end.
The Guy With All the Pagans Around Him
I was talking to a fellow not long ago who said he really wanted to grow. Then he started launching into how all he had around him were unbelievers at work — the nastiest, foul-mouthed, awful guys — awful neighbors, just awful people everywhere. Then he said all he wanted was to do God's will for his life, and asked: "Do you have a book I can read? Do you have a tape? Have you done a series? Is there a lesson?"
We love talking about the nuances of Aquinas, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Sproul. We love breaking all these things apart. And I'm not saying don't do it — here's a whole catalog, are we into it? Yes. But here's how you know you grow: all of a sudden this knowledge translates to a changed heart. All of a sudden the unbelievers around you aren't obstacles that are in your way. They're lost, they're blind — and when you look down on them in arrogance, you wonder why they wouldn't want anything to do with you.
It's to begin to live this life. It's to understand that God has called you to a purpose and a reason. To those of you who just took communion, to those of you who say you are Christians — He saved you for a reason. A huge part of it is not just to read through the Bible in a year. Go ahead and do it, that's fine, but a big part of it is to make disciples, to proclaim the gospel, and to be salt and light.
Words and Actions Must Go Hand in Glove
It's to develop meaningful relationships with unbelievers and new believers. And it doesn't begin with a word sermon — it begins with an action sermon. They see something in you. You have to combine these two things. If all you do is preach, preach, preach, and you don't match it with your actions, you're a hypocrite. If all you do is produce this picture of love but never use the words, you're a coward. They go hand in glove. That's how we have to live.
You had a bad year — a really bad year — if you didn't have people coming up to you saying, "Tell me about Jesus. Why is your life different than mine?" Either you don't have it, or you're not living it out there at work, in the neighborhood, at school, in your family. This ought to be a common occurrence of your life.
So when you're talking about growth, I know the temptation — been there, done that. When somebody asks how you're doing spiritually, we want to tell them what we've read, tell them about a tape or a conference or a seminar. Tell me instead about how God used you in somebody else's life. That's real growth too. That's really important.
Fighting the Good Fight to the End
Here's what the Apostle Paul says. You had a great year if you understand the value of time. Look back at 2 Timothy chapter four. Here's what he says in verse seven: "I fought the good fight, I finished the course, I have kept the faith." We'll talk about each one of those, because you're going to have a great year if each one of those things is present in your life. But let me point out the obvious — you can't wait to get to the end.
I fought the good fight this last week. I really kept the course, finished the race these last two weeks. I've really kept the faith. This is something that begins now. Paul can say these things at the end of his life, and I go to a lot of funerals. At many, many funerals, people want to say these things. You want to hear these things at your funeral. You want to hear someone say, "He fought the good fight, he kept the faith." But there's no way that will be true then if it's not true now. You can't kid yourself and say, "When I understand I'm teeing off on the 18th hole of life, I'm going to get really serious about these things." It doesn't tend to happen that way.
My experience is that as people get older, they tend to be more set in whatever they already were. If they didn't love Christ then, they hate Him at the end. It is amazing. You would think that at the end of your life, in a hospital, facing death, you'd understand this is really serious. But some get embittered, and they get hard, and they get negative, and nothing will change them. And those that love Christ tend to love Him even more at death. It's a remarkable thing.
The Good Fight: A 24/7 Battle
Paul said, "I fought the good fight." Keep your finger in 2 Timothy chapter four and turn to Ephesians chapter six. In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul said, "I fought the good fight." Then in Ephesians 6:11-12, Paul writes: "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of the dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Now, you would never get this from just a casual reading, but in the Greek, the phrase "put on" is in a tense that means put on once and for all. Put on the full armor of God and then leave it on. The only reason you put on armor is that you are going to fight an enemy. If you watch old movies, you see soldiers sitting around, eating, relaxing, recuperating — and then when it is time for battle, they put on the armor, they go fight, they come back, and they take it off. The only time they wear armor is when they are going into battle.
So it is deeply significant that Paul says to put on the armor once and for all and leave it on, because you have a 24/7 enemy. "Take your stand" is a military term speaking of protecting something that is yours — your life, your truth, your heart, your mind — against the devil's schemes. The word for "schemes" carries the idea of craftiness, cleverness, and cunning. The word translated "struggle" means hand-to-hand combat. This is not a distant or abstract conflict. It is up close, and it is in the spiritual realm.
Paul said, "I fought the good fight," because he understood that he was, just like you, in a battle. You are in a war. There is an enemy. There is a Satan. He is a real person. He hates you and wants to destroy you. He will come as a subtle serpent. He will come as a roaring lion. He will come as an angel of light. He will do anything he can, because he has one desire: to murder and destroy you, and to make your life ineffective. If you are not a Christian, his goal is to keep you from ever seeing the light and truth of the gospel. If you are a follower of Christ, his goal is to neutralize you — to get you busy with other things, get you distracted, and make your life count for nothing.
Finishing the Race
Back in 2 Timothy chapter four, Paul says, "I finished the race." He finished strong. The same author writes in 1 Corinthians 9: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training." Paul is writing to the ancient city of Corinth, which held athletic competitions second only to the Olympic games in Athens. If you were going to participate in those Corinthian games, you signed a contract — a contract acknowledging that for somewhere between six and nine months you had endured a strict regimen of discipline, physical training, exercise, and proper nourishment. It was not because every athlete was equal in ability, but because this guaranteed equal preparation for all of them. It said: this is what I have done, I have prepared, this is serious business.
And here is what Paul says about those athletes: "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training, and they do it to get a crown that will not last." I am a college football fan, and even if you were a casual fan, you had to watch the game Thursday night. It was a marvelous game, one you had anticipated all year. I watched an interview taped on Friday, the day after the game, and the interviewer said, "That was a heck of a game last night." The man agreed and said, "That's history." And within a breath, the interviewer asked, "Who do you think will be number one next year?" They were still sweating from the night before, and it was already over.
The same thing happens after the Super Bowl. The same thing happens in baseball. The same thing happens in hockey. The same thing happens in your business. There is great celebration at the end of the year — salesperson of the region, of the area, of the world. And then that first Tuesday back in the office, here is what they said — and I want you to remember this, because we are all —
Keeping the Faith
Paul says, "I kept the faith." There is a definite article in there — *the* faith. What Paul is saying is that all of this truth that was passed on to him, he passed on. He did not change it. It is the same thing.
If somebody ever says to you, "Why don't you read a book of the Bible?" you can say, "All right, I'll read Jude." Jude is a great book to read because it is one chapter. In fact, when we quote Jude, we do not even quote chapter and verse — we just quote the verse. Jude writes this book and says, "I wanted to talk to you about our faith. I wanted to talk to you about all the glorious things of the Christian faith. I wanted to talk to you about Christ and how He died for us and how we can live for Him." He is alive in us, He will never leave you or forsake you, and even when difficult things come into your life, He is there to strengthen you and will use it for His honor and glory. Jude wanted to talk about all of that.
But here is the phrase Jude actually uses: he wanted to urge his readers to contend for the faith. That word *contend* is the same word translated elsewhere as struggle — hand-to-hand combat. He says, "I want to urge you to contend for the faith." That raises a question: is the faith in jeopardy? Yes.
The Enemy Within
So who is the enemy? If you read certain mail, you would think it was the ACLU, the liberal left, the Democrats, and the socialists. But that is not what Jude says. He says to contend for the faith against those who were written about long ago, who have — and notice this — *secretly slipped in among you*. The enemy you have to fight in this battle for the faith is not out there. It is in here. It is men in pulpits and people in churches.
Here is what Jude says they do: they are godless men who change the grace of God into a license for immorality, and they deny Jesus Christ, our only sovereign Lord. You will know them in a couple of ways. First, they say grace is license. They come along and say, "God forgives me, so I can just sin and it is no big deal. I can do whatever I want to do — sin and sin again, and God is going to forgive me. Boys will be boys and that is just the way it is." The other thing they do is deny Jesus Christ as our only sovereign Lord.
Flipping through television one evening, there was Larry King with a panel of psychics on his program, and they were talking about crossing over, connecting with the dead, and what people see when they die. They said some people see a white light, some people see Jesus, some people see Buddha, some people see Muhammad, and some people see friends and loved ones. Literally, that is what they were saying, and they were agreeing with one another that it really does not matter. And that is precisely the problem.
Biblical Christianity Is Different
All of these voices want to talk about spirituality and spiritual things. But it is difficult to know what that term even means in isolation. What is clear is what it means to talk about biblical Christianity — and biblical Christianity is different from everything else. What makes biblical Christianity so important is not any person or institution, but the source of it, which is God Himself.
Jesus did not say that everyone goes to heaven. He did not say that good Muslims, good Mormons, good Jews, or good religious people go to heaven. He did not say that. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." There are many people who are marvelous by any human standard — good, kind, loving, caring, and generous — who nevertheless deny Christ. And it is deeply painful to understand that people you love and care for will spend eternity in hell.
Those are often the most difficult people to talk to. Give someone who is strung out and knows they are a mess, and they understand they need help. But a person who considers himself a good man thinks he is doing fine — and then he looks around at others and concludes he is far better than they are.
The Crown That Lasts Forever
They go into strict training to get a crown that will not last. We do it to get a crown that will last forever. There are people who have a photo on the wall — taken up on a stage with the CEO and the president of their company, holding a plaque — and it is a big thing. Everyone loves it, and there is nothing wrong with that. But consider this: you are going to receive a crown not from the CEO, not from the president of your company, not from the president of the United States. You are going to receive it from the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is going to give you a crown that lasts forever. That is a significant thing.
When we see someone like Vince Young — so gifted, so talented — our tendency is to focus only on the gift and the talent. But we fail to understand that he has been working very hard for a very long time. We do that often with athletes. We miss all the injury, all the pain, all the suffering. There was a man on the golf course recently, a former athlete, whose game kept getting better as the round went on. When asked about it, he said he had had sixteen surgeries, six on his elbows. By the ninth hole, his arms are so sore that he simply starts to swing smoothly and his game improves — but he said he can hardly move in the morning. Nobody sees all of that. We miss everything that went into what we are watching.
The Crown Awaits
So God must be okay with me. No, He isn't. And then somebody gets in a pulpit and somehow convinces them that it's okay. That's what he's talking about. You had a good year. Do you see the picture there now?
If you fought the good fight, if you finished the course, if you kept the faith, look at what happens next. Look at verse 8: "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day." Now as I read that, if I stop right there, I'm thinking, well, obviously, Paul, you wrote all these books. You're a theological stud. You're something very special. You fought the good fight, you finished the race, you kept the faith — obviously you're going to get a crown.
We use the word "saint," but not in a biblical sense. We use it the way we like it — somebody super special who has been through a process, canonized, miracles, and so on. That's not how Scripture talks about it. A saint is anyone who believes in Christ.
So Paul says there is in store for him a crown of righteousness that will be awarded on that day, and we go, "Obviously, you." And he says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa — not only me, but also all who have longed for His coming." Who are those people? Those of us who know Christ as our Lord and Savior. We understand this world isn't our home. We carry a dual passport — citizen of the USA, but citizen of heaven — and we long for that.
Longing for Home
I find myself tired of this world. Tired of my sin. Tired of the sin around me. Tired of the struggle. I have a lot of fun, but I know how shallow that fun really is compared to heaven and the joy that's there. There's something sick in me, though — I sometimes realize I want to be with Him not simply to be with Him, but just to get out of here. But all of a sudden, that longing gets deeper and deeper, and it begins to change. You welcome that. There's an odd, strange sense where you look forward to it.
Every time I talk to Sue Wright, Larry Wright's wife, without exception she says the same thing. I called her the other day while I was driving somewhere, and I said, "How are you doing?" She said, "Tommy, I just want to go home. I just want to get out of this world. But God left me here for a reason, and He left you here for a reason." It's really odd, too — the more I long to be with Him, the more useful I become as a tool here.
He Is Coming Soon
"Behold, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon." These are words from the book of Revelation, red-lettered words of Jesus — the last words He said.
Some of us hear that and get hung up on the word "soon," because we define it our own way. If I tell Susan I'll be home soon, and 2,000 years later I'm not there yet, she'd say that "soon" didn't mean much. But Jesus said, "I am coming soon," and a day is as 1,000 years with the Lord. So He has been gone, what, two days now by that measure? He is coming again.
We know that — we've read this book. He came as a suffering Messiah. We celebrated Christmas, we celebrated His birth. But we have to guard ourselves against the tendency to leave Him in that manger, little baby Jesus, meek and mild. We then have to move to — for me, my favorite time of our calendar year — Good Friday and Easter, when we realize that He died and He rose again, and those are historical facts.
You have to deny solid historical facts to believe Jesus was not born, to believe He did not die. And I think you really have to look at the empirical data and deny it to believe He did not rise from the dead. And if He rose from the dead, then He is who He said He was. This is a very important matter. And here is what He said: "I am going away, but I am coming back."
Understanding Where Home Really Is
You had a wonderful year if you understood all of these truths — if you understood that there is a point at the end of life where God calls us home. If somebody asks me where my home is, I almost always say Iowa. I love Iowa, not enough to stay and live there, but I love it — Iowa football, Iowa sports. I go home about once a year and I'm planning a trip for the end of September to try to catch the Ohio State game. But really, I suppose my home is here, and then beyond that, all of that becomes irrelevant.
Every time I fly into Davenport, it's the strangest thing — I notice how green it is. I get in the car and drive over to where I went to school, or I go down to the Davenport bank building where my dad used to work. I went down last time and sat in the lobby, and I imagine somebody there thought I was sick. But I just went in and sat and looked up at the ceiling. I remembered being a little kid, my dad getting so nervous whenever we came into the bank because he didn't want us to cause trouble. You'd sit on those little seats and look up at the murals on the wall — the Quad Cities, the Indians, all of that. I just sat there the last time I was home and looked at those things, and I thought about what an incredible place it was. I remembered doing my paper route, collecting my money, paying my paper bill.
Longing for Heaven
My dad picked me up on Saturday. Once in a while, I would go next door to the State Theater, and one other time he would take me home, whatever it was. That was home. And He calls us to be very strange, to be homesick for a place that we haven't yet been — meaning heaven.
I was at a funeral this year, and as I walked in the door, they said, "We want you to say something. It's very important that you're here to this family — will you say something?" And I thought, I don't know what to say. So I listened to everybody, and then something occurred to me as they were talking about how much this man wanted to go to heaven.
There is a show on TV, the extreme makeover program, that airs on Sunday nights. Because I work Sunday nights and get home around a quarter to eight, all I ever see is the end. At the end, everybody is standing outside, and there is the bus. Everyone is standing there all excited, and then they say, "Roll away the bus," and they reveal what has been made — and it is just remarkable.
So what I said at that funeral, because it captured my imagination, was this: this man so wanted to go to heaven. Imagine when he got there, and Jesus is standing there and says, "Roll away the bus. I go to prepare a place for you. Roll away the bus. There it is, Earl." Do you long for that? Do you hunger for that?
A Serious Warning
Now, for those of you who did not take communion, I want you to understand — this is not us judging you. We are not in the judgment business. This is you judging yourself. Based on your faith, if Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, I can tell you, you are not going to see "roll away the bus." It is not going to work out. It is not a happy ending. It is eternal separation from God.
I recognize there could be a temptation to treat that lightly, but I want you to understand the magnitude of it. For those of us who are Christians, this life is as close to hell as we are ever going to be. For those of you who are not Christians, this life is as close to heaven as you are ever going to be. That is not theory — it is truth, and it is serious.
Closing Reflection and Prayer
If you live in the sight and understanding of all that is true, you just had a great year. It does not mean a perfect year — it means a good year. And next week we will look at how you can make 2006 even better. Not resolutions — simply how to make it even better.
Let's pray together. Father, thank You. Thank You for this truth. It is so familiar to me — God, I have literally taught this lesson over a hundred times, and I love it more now than I did the very first time, because it is more real to me now. God, I pray that You would take each one of us and have us add to this list of things that help us evaluate the year that we will experience. I pray that You would deepen in myself and all of us a desire to love You, to serve You, to grow — and that means not just in knowledge, but to grow in love for lost people, hurting people, and new believers.
God, thank You for loving us and saving us and bringing us to a point where we can talk about these truths. It is a serious matter — to settle where we will spend eternity, and then to help us understand how we will live here. God, help us number our days aright, that we might gain a heart of wisdom. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.